Politicians, academics and campaigners criticise Nationals MP Paul Toole after he says ‘stop using the excuse of a moth’ to oppose dams

Republican Greg Gianforte confirmed he shot the cat after chasing it up a tree with dogs in his latest controversial hunting incidentThe governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, shot and killed a mountain lion that was being monitored by national park staff, after hunting the animal with hounds and chasing it up a tree.The Republican governor hunted the lion on 28 December, according to details first reported by the Washington Post that were confirmed on Monday by Gianforte’s press secretary, Brooke Stroyke. Stroyke said the governor had a valid hunting license, drove the lion up the tree, and shot it. Continue reading...

UN environment assembly resolution is being hailed as biggest climate deal since 2015 Paris accordWorld leaders, environment ministers and other representatives from 173 countries have agreed to develop a legally binding treaty on plastics, in what many described a truly historic moment.The resolution, agreed at the UN environment assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, calls for a treaty covering the “full lifecycle” of plastics from production to disposal, to be negotiated over the next two years. It has been described by the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) as the most important multilateral environmental deal since the Paris climate accord in 2015. Continue reading...

Waitrose, Morrisons and M&S among firms to install refill stations in attempt to reduce plastic waste“Every shopper in the UK” will have access to refillable groceries in a large supermarket or with a delivery service under plans by some of the country’s biggest grocers.Waitrose, Ocado, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and the supply-chain company CHEP have joined a refillable grocery partnership and plan to both roll out unpackaged options in-store as well as letting people fill containers with essentials during home deliveries. Continue reading...

With Warragamba Dam spilling and water levels rising fast in Sydney’s north-west, thousands of people prepare to evacuate

Howard Cox denies any conflict of interest in his links to fair fuel group of MPs and company UltimumA lobbyist who has worked with Conservative MPs to argue that the development of as yet unproven fuel additives means it is unnecessary to phase out petrol and diesel engines is the director of a firm developing such products, it has emerged.Howard Cox, who runs the FairFuelUK campaign, is heavily involved with the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on fair fuel, which recommended last year that ministers urgently look at fuel additives, saying these reduced emissions by more than 50%. Continue reading...

There is a war on – no not that one – a war for the future of the entire planet!

Most of 358 victims worked on land, environmental and indigenous rights, with more killed in Mexico, India and among Afghan women

Mayor of northern NSW town calls for help, saying water ‘is still coming full force towards us’

Murwillumbah pharmacist determined to get to work to distribute medication asked for help on social media

Lismore dairy farmer tells of watching half his herd get swept away as others reassess future

Smoke blown from fires in drought-striken Argentina shrouds Asunción and surrounding regions in dangerous hazeA massive, fast-moving cloud of ash hundreds of metres tall and several kilometres wide has swept over southern Paraguay, as storms blew debris from wildfires raging in neighbouring Argentina following two years of severe drought.The colossal bank of smog enveloped Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, late on Monday, shrouding the city and its suburbs in a thick, grey haze with the aroma of burnt vegetation. Continue reading...

Campaigners aghast as emergency exemption on use of thiamethoxam granted due to risk to sugar beet cropAn insecticide banned due to its harm to bees will be used on sugar beet in Britain this year after ministers authorised an emergency exemption. The government overruled its own scientific advisers and the decision was called “scandalous” by campaigners.The neonicotinoid, called thiamethoxam, was banned in 2018 across Europe after a series of studies found it damaged bees. But British Sugar applied for an emergency exemption and on Tuesday the conditions for the exemption were met. Continue reading...

Readers respond to the latest stark warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the window to secure a liveable future is closingThe devastation and human misery described in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (IPCC issues ‘bleakest warning yet’ on impacts of climate breakdown. 28 February) stands as an indictment of failing political leaders and their complicity with a fossil fuel industry that is literally destroying our only home.Scientists warn that we must act quickly to transition away from coal, oil and natural gas to clean energy. The longer we delay the transition, the more catastrophic the impact. Our elected leaders have no excuse; we must pressure them to act. Affordable clean energy is increasingly available. There are policy solutions. In near unanimity, economists say that the best way to speed the transition is to make the polluting industry pay a fee on its carbon pollution. Continue reading...

Irish scientists publish images of spider feeding on pipistrelle bats in ShropshireProtected pipistrelle bats have been captured and fed on by a noble false widow spider, the first time the behaviour has been seen.The arachnids are thought to have been accidentally introduced to the UK from the Canary Islands about 100 years ago and have been spreading ever since. Continue reading...

Hospital evacuated as flood waters from the Richmond River catchment are expected to reach Ballina on Tuesday night

Elderly woman found dead inside Lismore home and man found in flood waters west of Brisbane; 80,000 claims for disaster support lodged; RBA holds cash rate at record low; at least 39 Covid-related deaths across the nation. This blog is now closed

Report warns government’s conservation watchdog unable to fulfil duty of protecting environment as pay has plunged in real termsPeople working for the government’s conservation watchdog are so underpaid that it is threatening the UK’s ability to reach net-zero pledges, a trade union report warns.Salaries of those working for the government agency Natural England have fallen by 20% in real terms over the last decade, with starting pay thousands of pounds lower than private and charity-sector equivalents, according to the Prospect union’s Natural England 2022 report. Continue reading...

Experts and advocates are also exploring new ranking systems to add urgency to the growing disaster of rapidly warming landscapesClimate scientists from around the world issued dire warnings on Monday, in the latest IPCC report on the dangers posed in the unfolding climate crisis. Among them is extreme heat, a crisis that on average already claims more American lives than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.Though the impact is already being felt, heatwaves are largely silent killers. Often, the toll is tallied far into the aftermath of an event and is vastly undercounted. Unlike fires and floods that produce immediate and visible destruction, heat’s harmful effects can seem more subtle – even if they are in fact more deadly. Continue reading...

Authorities estimate 15,000 properties damaged by floods with possible severe thunderstorm forecast for south-east Queensland on Thursday

Cockatoo populations reduced after 2019-20 bushfires with decline expected to continue as climate crisis causes increased heatwaves

Aidan Ricketts, who also evacuated his own household of six, says the flood is ‘beyond all records or memories’

More intense bushfires due to climate change will slow recovery of ozone layer, scientist says

Transport secretary’s pledge comes with multiple oil tankers either docked or on their way to UK ports

It is past time to take on the ‘arsonists’ of the fossil fuel industry which refuse to manage their own declineWhat are the chances of humanity avoiding a full-scale disaster, given that history suggests civilisational collapse has been mostly the norm rather than the exception? The answer, according to the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, is that the odds of annihilation are lower than previously imagined. Scientists are clear that not enough is being done to head off a climate disaster. The IPCC suggests about 40% of the human race is living in the danger zone, and that many ecosystems are being irretrievably degraded. The UN secretary general, António Guterres, was forthright in describing the abdication of leadership by world powers as “criminal”. The world’s biggest polluters, he said, “are guilty of arson on our only home”.No amount of global heating is safe. If the world’s average temperatures rise by 1.5C – the goal of the Paris climate agreement – the IPCC report warns that up to 14% of species on land face a very high risk of extinction. At 3C, not an outlandish rise, almost a third of life on terra firma could be gone. This report is a final warning. The next time the world’s scientists pronounce will be at the end of the decade – when it will be too late to stop the rot. That is why it remains essential to stick to the UN targets of cutting global greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieving global net zero emissions by 2050. And why it is hugely disappointing that current commitments will see emissions increase by 14%. This risks a world in social chaos. Continue reading...

Engineers and miners work short stints in the wretched Siberian cold to extract gas – Putin’s trump card against Europe. Photojournalist Justin Jin was granted unprecedented access during several visits over the last decade, and offers a rare close-up look2022 – The Russian Arctic region, an area of 7,000 sq km atop the planet stretching from Finland to Alaska on which Moscow bureaucrats bestowed the name Zone of Absolute Discomfort, is wretched to live in, but just hospitable enough to allow for the extraction of resources trapped beneath it.Gas extractors burn off excess condensate in the Russian Arctic tundra. The practice, called ‘flaring’, is harmful to the environment. Continue reading...

Carbon emissions from felling of tropical forest doubled in just two decades and are accelerating, research saysCarbon emissions from tropical deforestation this century are far higher than previously thought, doubling in just two decades and continuing to accelerate, according to a study.The world’s forests form an enormous carbon store, holding an estimated 861 gigatons of carbon – equivalent to nearly a century’s worth of annual fossil fuel emissions at the current rate. When trees are cut down, they release the carbon they store into the atmosphere. Since 2000, the world has lost about 10% of its tree cover, becoming a major driver of global heating. Continue reading...

Wool parish councillors say proposed building would threaten lives of house martin and swift coloniesThe shiny exterior of a new police headquarters in Dorset could pose a “lethal threat” to the local bird population.Concerns have been raised by Wool parish council over the potential for bird deaths as a result of the reflective surface of the proposed building in Winfrith, the Dorset Echo reported. Continue reading...

Roberts suggests states could claim harm from laws not yet enacted

America’s first national park inspired a global movement of ‘fortress conservation’, but we know today indigenous peoples are essential stewards of nature• Read more: Yellowstone at 150: busier yet wilder than ever, says park’s ‘winterkeeper’On 1 March 1872, the US president, Ulysses S Grant, enacted a federal protection for the Yellowstone landscape, creating America’s first national park and one of the first in the world. The decision affected thousands of people from at least 27 distinct Native American tribes. More than 10,000 years of history were erased from the narrative at the stroke of a pen.Yet Yellowstone inspired a global national parks movement. Early parks were established to preserve “wilderness”, mostly by colonists grabbing land. The removal (or worse) of local people was not always an objective, but was too often a result. Despite many successes, protected area designations worldwide have notched up a catalogue of legacy issues. Continue reading...

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says climate effects expected to be more severe than initially predicted

Report says human actions are causing dangerous disruption, and window to secure a liveable future is closing

Eight dead and hundreds rescued from rooftops as rainfall exceeds annual averages in just a few daysThe flood broke through the levee before daybreak. By the time many residents of Lismore in northern New South Wales woke up on Monday, the water had begun to lap at their doorsteps.Those unable to flee climbed on to upper levels of their homes, then out on to their rooftops. Hundreds were rescued by boats and kayaks and jetskis; many others are still unaccounted for. Continue reading...

From the return of wildlife to the pressures of tourism and the climate crisis, Steven Fuller has seen it all in his nearly 50 years watching over America’s oldest national park• Read more: Native Americans are at the heart of Yellowstone. After 150 years, they are finally being heardAs “winterkeeper” at Yellowstone national park, Steven Fuller lives in a rustic cedar-shingled cottage, built in 1910, set on a hill a short walk from the majestic Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.On balmier days, with the windows open, he can hear the roar of the 308ft Lower Falls tumbling into the chasm. In autumn, he is treated to the sound of bugling bull elk in rut or, in the middle of night, the howls of wolves. Continue reading...

Analysis by the Marine Conservation Society shows dredging at England’s Dogger Bank site has increased despite government pledge to ban the practiceThe government is under pressure to safeguard Britain’s marine conservation areas after analysis showed the Dogger Bank protected site has seen a threefold increase in destructive bottom trawling since Brexit.A year ago, conservationists welcomed government proposals to ban trawling and dredging fishing practices, which involve dragging weighted nets over the seabed, in 14,030 sq km (5,400 sq miles) of English waters, an area equivalent to the size of Northern Ireland. The area includes Dogger Bank and three other marine protected areas (MPAs). Continue reading...

Minister who led Cop26 climate talks issues stark warning on eve of landmark report from IPCCThe impacts of the climate crisis are proving much worse than predicted, and governments must act more urgently to adapt to them or face global disaster, the UK president of the UN climate talks has warned on the eve of a landmark new scientific assessment of the climate.Alok Sharma, who led the Cop26 climate summit last year, said: “The changes in the climate we are seeing today are affecting us much sooner and are greater than we originally thought. The impacts on our daily lives will be increasingly severe and stark. We will be doing ourselves and our populations a huge disservice if we fail to prepare now, based on the very clear science before us.” Continue reading...

Speaking at the festival, the author took aim at the event’s ‘embarrassing’ financial arrangements that come ‘straight out of the big tobacco playbook’Tim Winton has used his closing address at Perth festival’s Writers Weekend to voice his opposition to the ongoing reliance of Western Australian arts organisations on sponsorship from the fossil fuel industry.Taking aim specifically at Woodside Energy – which is a sponsor of one of the festival’s key events, the Saturday 5 March performance of John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer prize-winning work Become Ocean – Winton, one of Australia’s most highly recognised writers, said that the “arts-washing” fossil fuel companies continued to engage in on a major scale was “straight out of the big tobacco playbook.”Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...

Eight people have now died, with at least two more missing as major flooding hits Brisbane, Lismore, Murwillumbah and Gympie

Seventh person dies, with two more missing, and major flood warnings issued for Brisbane, Ipswich, Lismore and Grafton

On eve of alarming IPCC report, organisation warns governments to treat crisis on a par with war and peaceGovernments must start treating the climate crisis as a national security concern on a par with war as climate breakdown threatens countries’ stability and safety, the global chief of the Red Cross has warned.Jagan Chapagain, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: “People should be seeing the climate as a national security issue, as it is having an impact on national security. We need to see that the climate crisis is not only having an environmental impact, but a very significant security impact.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Some Canon Institute for Global Studies posts call the climate crisis ‘fake news’ and compare Greta Thunberg to a communistA thinktank linked to Japanese technology giant Canon is coming under pressure to remove multiple articles from a research director that describe the climate crisis as “fake news” and compares campaigner Greta Thunberg to a communist.One Australia-based international fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS), Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite, told the Guardian the claims about climate science from research director Dr Taishi Sugiyama were “not defensible”.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...

Education centre on 2,000-acre East Ayrshire estate will aim to bring new talent into rural sectorPrince Charles has been given the green light to build a new school for farming in Scotland that will aim to draw in people who have no connection to agriculture to learn traditional skills including one of his private passions: hedgelaying.Planners have granted approval for an education centre at Home Farm at Dumfries House, the East Ayshire Palladian mansion operated by the Prince’s Foundation, one of Charles’ charities, after he stepped in to help save it in 2007. Continue reading...

Retailer is also Britain’s biggest seller of wet wipes, with customers purchasing 75m packs a yearTesco is to become the first of the main UK retailers to stop selling baby wipes containing plastic, which cause environmental damage as they block sewers and waterways after being flushed by consumers.The supermarket said it was stopping sales of branded baby wipes containing plastic from 14 March, about two years after it ceased using plastic in its own-brand products. Continue reading...

Local authorities faced with huge bills to repair roads, bridges and other infrastructureCouncils will have to cut key services to pay for the “soul-destroying” damage caused by three unprecedented storms across the UK, local leaders have said.Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin brought hurricane-force winds and heavy rain to large parts of the UK in the past week, leaving more than 1m homes without power and hundreds under water. Continue reading...

More than 1,400 households estimated to have been affected, as localised rain storms make it difficult to predict who is next

Six people have died across state, while Gympie records highest flood level in more than 100 years

Only £320m of £4bn needed to build flagship vehicles for ‘green transport revolution’ has been committed by chancellor Rishi SunakOne of Boris Johnson flagship “green” pledges – to provide 4,000 new zero-emission, British-built buses by the end of 2024 – has been cast into serious doubt by UK manufacturers who say they have yet to receive any orders for new vehicles.MPs and campaigners are pressuring ministers for information on when money will be committed to allow the manufacture of the zero-emission buses, which the prime minister promised would form part of a green transport revolution in his first term in Downing Street. He made the pledge in February 2020, just before the Covid pandemic, when he was keen to promote his environmental credentials and show how green policies could benefit people’s lives whileboosting British businesses. Continue reading...

Petroleum lobby calls for looser regulation and drilling on public lands to ‘ensure energy security’

Without fossil fuel, and Europe’s dependence on it, Putin wouldn’t have so much power. We need clean energy now, but big oil has other plansNever ones to let a good crisis go to waste, the fossil fuel industry and their allies have taken to the airwaves over the last few days to try and use the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an excuse for greater oil and gas development.It’s the classic shock doctrine that we’ve come to expect from big oil, and unless our politicians are wise enough to see through it, it’s a strategy that will continue to undermine our ability to take action on climate change over the decade to come.Jamie Henn is the founder and director of Fossil Free Media Continue reading...

Poorer residents have a mental and physical health disadvantage that leads to worse outcomes throughout their livesHomes in the poorest areas of England have less than a third of the private garden space enjoyed by those in the richest, giving those residents a mental and physical health disadvantage that leads to worse outcomes from the cradle to the grave.According to a Guardian analysis, in the richest 10% of areas in England, properties had 379m sq on average, compared with 114m sq in the poorest 10%. The analysis, based on data from the Office for National Statistics, also found that areas with the highest proportion of addresses without any garden space at all were often in more deprived areas. Continue reading...