Environment | The Guardian

Government calls in retailer’s plan for site after campaigners say it will release 40,000 tonnes of CO2Marks & Spencer has sparked a public row with Michael Gove, accusing the Conservative cabinet minister of “political grandstanding” after he ordered a public inquiry into its plan to demolish and rebuild its flagship Oxford Street store in London.The retailer said it was “bewildered and disappointed” at “Michael Gove’s baseless decision”, which came after the scheme was granted permission to the displeasure of campaigners, who claimed the project would release 40,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Continue reading...

India’s monsoon season has been worse than usual, sweeping away possessions and leaving people huddling on raised groundPeople living in Assam, in north-east India, are usually stoical about the flooding that occurs to a greater or lesser extent every monsoon season. But this year they say the situation is dramatically worse. “It was like a scene from Titanic,” one man told local media of the rising waters that have flooded all but two of the state’s districts.In some places entire villages are under water, while across the state 114,000 hectares of crops have been submerged and 5,000 livestock have been washed away. For those that remain, fodder is running out. Continue reading...

Environment groups welcome long-awaited deal to curb harmful subsidies but say key measures to curb overfishing were droppedAfter 20 years of failed negotiations, the World Trade Organization has secured a deal to curb harmful subsidies that contribute to overfishing. Conservationists and campaign groups welcomed last week’s agreement as historic, despite criticism of “big holes” in the agreement.The deal was the first concluded in Geneva for all 164 member states of the WTO with “environmental sustainability” at its core, the organisation’s director general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said in her closing speech. Continue reading...

A forester, a farmer and a child psychologist have formed a pioneering group to bring even more nature back to their valley

Gas stations are environmental liabilities and hugely expensive to remediate. Electric cars are making gas stations obsoleteWhether or not we’ve all realized it, the era of gasoline-powered cars is rapidly winding to a close – and with it, gas stations and the pollution they bring to communities.People are tired of being forced to pay obscene amounts of money for fuel every time there’s an international incident. Meanwhile, the cost of battery tech is just 10% of what it was a decade ago, and is expected to continue dropping as the decade wears on. And just this month the Biden administration announced its plan for making EV charging stations accessible across the US.Nathan Taft is the digital and communications lead for Stand.earth’s Safe Cities initiative Continue reading...

Faroese firm Bakkafrost claims direct flights to US will cut carbon but critics say air transport is not the answerA salmon farming company has bought a Boeing 757 in a race to get its fresh fish on to the plates of diners in Manhattan in less than 24 hours.The Faroese firm Bakkafrost, which also owns the Scottish Salmon Company, argues it can cut its carbon footprint by flying its own jet across the Atlantic and minimise waste by getting its fish to its US customers faster. Continue reading...

Experts warn ambitious targets for nature must be agreed at UN meeting, moved from China to Canada after two-year waitThe date for a key UN nature summit has finally been confirmed after more than two years of delays and amid fears momentum to halt biodiversity loss across the globe has been lost.Ahead of the latest round of negotiations in Nairobi this week, the UN convention on biological diversity confirmed that the Cop15 biodiversity conference will now take place in Montreal, Canada, from 5 to 17 December, after it became clear China would not be able to host the event in Kunming due to the country’s zero-Covid policy. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology says winter will be wetter than average and a rare three-in-a-row La Niña is still on the cards

Twitter suspends two fake accounts pretending to be Fatima Payman; nation records at least 59 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Car company alleges mistakes of fact and law in appeal against April decision that could result in $2bn damages paid to owners

Oostvaardersplassen reserve reshaped conservation in the 1980s as nature was allowed to take its course, now it is rewilding in a more managed way

Five claimants aged 17-31 want their governments to exit the energy charter treaty, which compensates oil and gas firmsYoung victims of the climate crisis will on Tuesday launch legal action at Europe’s top human rights court against an energy treaty that protects fossil fuel investors.Five people, aged between 17 and 31, who have experienced devastating floods, forest fires and hurricanes are bringing a case to the European court of human rights, where they will argue that their governments’ membership of the little-known energy charter treaty (ECT) is a dangerous obstacle to action on the climate crisis. It is the first time that the Strasbourg court will be asked to consider the treaty, a secretive investor court system that enables fossil fuel companies to sue governments for lost profits. Continue reading...

Conservationists say fine will have ‘little impact’ for Centennial Coal which caused 15 cracks, with the largest 250 metres long

Researchers estimate that carbon emissions from transporting food are about 6% of the global total, with fruit and vegetables the largest contributor

Report finds Australia’s ‘Pacific step-up’ could lack credibility if perceived to be only in response to China’s presence

Experts share their dried and tested tips for making your dryer work more efficiently and last longer

Greens bill being introduced to Victorian parliament would ban all new gas connections from 2025

Minister will release five-yearly report which she says details ‘alarming story’ of native species extinction and cultural heritage loss

Ban on manufacture and import of six popular types of items will begin in December 2022, and sales a year laterCanada laid out its final regulations on Monday spelling out how it intends to apply a ban on plastic bags, straws, takeout containers and other single-use plastics.“Only 8% of the plastic we throw away gets recycled,” said federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos in French, adding that 43,000 tonnes of single-use plastics a year find their way into the environment, most notably in waterways. Continue reading...

Giant stingray snagged by local fisher in Mekong River weighs nearly 300kgThe world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists.The stingray, captured on 13 June, measured almost four metres from snout to tail and weighed just under 300kg, according to a statement on Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project. Continue reading...

Guardian given details about next generation of marine nature reserves where all fishing is bannedFive highly protected marine areas (HPMAs) will this week be created by the government to ban all fishing and rewild the sea, the Guardian has learned.The new generation of marine nature reserves, which are governed by tougher regulations to allow decimated sea life to recover, are being set up close to the coast of Lindisfarne in Northumberland and at Allonby Bay, Cumbria, and at three offshore sites, two in the North Sea and one at Dolphin Head in the Channel. Continue reading...

Its detractors argue it is an indulgence, but rewilding is gaining momentum with projects attracting investors, creating jobs and gaining community supportWhen the Chelsea flower show bestowed its top award this year on a scruffy patch of wet woodland complete with beaver dam, pool and lodge, it was a symbolic moment. Rewilding may still excite or antagonise but here was a radically new way of managing land for nature being embraced by the mainstream – and by the British establishment.Five years ago, European rewilders were bemused by Britain’s debate over whether beavers should be allowed back on to rivers. Today, hundreds, possibly thousands, of beavers are at large – and legal – across the country. Where one English landowner, the Knepp estate in Sussex, first trod the lonely path to abandon conventional farming for free-ranging herbivores and allowing more natural processes to unfurl, scores of landowners of all sizes are now following. Continue reading...

Campaigners say nature in England faces ‘perfect storm of threats’ with eight promised bills yet to appearNature faces a “perfect storm of threats”, campaigners say, after eight wildlife bills promised by Boris Johnson since coming to power have so far failed to see the light of day.The government has been accused of reneging on commitments by failing to deliver policies on nature-friendly farming, the use of peat and pesticides, reintroducing beavers and other lost species, and protecting rare marine life.Post-Brexit farming reforms – The government has broken its promise to reform farming post-Brexit. In its national food strategy for England published earlier this month the government’s commitment to provide a third of its farming budget for landscape recovery has been abandoned.Ban on horticultural peat use – The government has consulted on the ban on the sale of peat and products containing peat in England and Wales after the failure of voluntary targets. Over 12 weeks (the usual time limit for responding) have passed and the government has yet to respond to the consultation. There was also no clear legislative vehicle in the recent Queen’s speech to enact the ban.Beaver reintroductions – Last year, the government consulted on further reintroductions of beavers in England following the successful River Otter beaver trial. The government has yet to publish its response to the consultation or announce its approach to the reintroduction of beavers in England. This was part of the secretary of state’s announcement at Delamere Forest in May 2021.Species reintroduction taskforce – Also part of that announcement was the commitment to establish an England species reintroduction taskforce to consider reintroductions of lost species such as wildcats, as well as the release of declining species such as the curlew, into areas from which they have been lost to help populations recover.National action plan on the sustainable use of pesticides – The UK government consulted on the draft national action plan in December 2020 but has yet to publish the final version of its plan to replace the 2013 version.Landscapes review – Despite responding to the landscapes review, the government has yet to legislate for the recommendations it accepted, such as amending the statutory purpose to ensure the core function of protected landscapes should be to drive nature recovery in England.Integrated pest management – The government has yet to confirm whether key components of the new agricultural system, such as integrated pest management, will be included in the new sustainable farming incentive from next year.Bycatch mitigation initiative – A policy to protect rare marine life from being unintentionally caught by fishers was approved in March but has not come to fruition, after being expected in May. Continue reading...

Forecast models are already hinting at area of significant heat taking hold across Iberia next weekThankfully, the heatwave is coming to an end this week across western Europe, with temperatures returning nearer to normal. But this may only be a temporary reprieve, as forecast models are already hinting at an area of significant heat taking hold across Iberia by the start of next week.The extent of the recent heatwave across parts of central and western Europe has been widely reported. Temperature records have been broken and, in France and parts of Spain, it is the earliest point in summer during which a heatwave of this magnitude has been recorded. A temperature of 39.2C (102.6F) observed in Cottbus, Germany, also came within 0.4°C of the June record. Large fires, resulting from parched vegetation, are ravaging parts of Spain. The observed heat is very much in line with the predictions of scientists in that heatwaves in Europe will occur earlier and with greater ferocity due to climate change. Continue reading...

They came into force in England last week to help the UK hit environmental goals by 2050, but this means short-term pain for long-term gainNew building regulations aimed at improving energy efficiency are set to increase the price of new homes, as well as those of extensions and loft conversions on existing ones.The rules, which came into effect on Wednesday in England, are part of government plans to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. They set new standards for ventilation, energy efficiency and heating, and state that new residential buildings must have charging points for electric vehicles. Continue reading...

Phoenix is the US’s deadliest city for heat fatalities while its urban sprawl makes it a concrete heat islandIt was mid afternoon when first responders found David Spell slumped and unresponsive under a bus shelter. The temperature outside was nearing 110F (43C) – the hottest day of the year so far in Phoenix, and 50-year-old Spell was disorientated, dizzy and dehydrated.Spell had felt hot and weary during his shift at a car auction after driving an old Buick without air conditioning, but couldn’t take a break. After finishing work he bought three cans of spiked blue razz, an 8% alcopop, and sat on the bus shelter bench to drink under the partial shade. He remembers eating some canned mackerel and opening the third alcopop, and then nothing until being roused by the EMTs. He had passed out with heat exhaustion. Continue reading...

Advice that allowed farmers to spread manures in a way that risked polluting waters has been changed by DefraGuidance that would have allowed farmers to spread manures and slurry on land in a way that would overload it with nutrients and risk pollution of rivers, lakes and coastal waters has been changed by Defra, after a challenge over its lawfulness.Manures, which include sewage sludge, abattoir waste and slurries, are a leading source of water pollution. Their application is strictly controlled under what are known as the Farming Rules for Water. But Defra’s guidance had directed the Environment Agency not to enforce a breach of the rules if a farmer produced its own manures or used imported manures that could lead to nutrient overload. Continue reading...

From Somerset to Derby, councils are rewilding rivers, parks and golf courses, despite claims by some that it is only for wealthy landownersOne in five county councils have embraced rewilding on public land in Great Britain, with a growing number setting aside former golf courses, post-industrial scrubland and recovering waterways for nature.From Rhondda Cynon Taf to Brighton, 43 councils in England, Wales and Scotland have launched rewilding schemes or are planning to do so in rural and urban areas, a joint investigation by the Guardian and the wildlife magazine Inkcap Journal found. Continue reading...

The Energy Security Board recommends paying generators to keep extra capacity in the national grid to reduce the risk of blackouts

Award-winning founder of green development centre was arrested on tax evasion charges in FebruaryThe US government has said it is “deeply concerned” by the sentencing of the Vietnamese environmental advocate and activist Nguy Thi Khanh and called on Vietnam to release her.Khanh, Vietnam’s first recipient of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize, was reported in February to have been arrested on tax evasion charges. The founder of the Green Innovation and Development Centre was detained in January. Continue reading...

Business leaders and decarbonisation experts say a high level of collaboration and coordination is needed for transition

Exclusive: state budget funds to go towards boosting number of charging points in apartment blocks and on streets

Visitors will be allowed on southern loop under system designed to manage crowds after flooding destroyed bridges and roadsAfter catastrophic flooding destroyed bridges and roads and drove out thousands of tourists, Yellowstone national park will partially reopen at 8am Wednesday.The National Park Service announced this weekend that visitors will once again be allowed on Yellowstone’s southern loop under a temporary license plate system designed to manage the crowds. Continue reading...

Police say group was planning ‘extreme forms’ of protest, activists say police actions were ‘insane overreach’

As state suffered record flooding – and Yellowstone national park closed – his office initially declined to say where he wasMontana’s governor, Greg Gianforte, was vacationing in Italy during that state’s historic flooding, which caused Yellowstone national park to close, his office confirmed on Friday.As the state suffered record flooding and rockslides, Gianforte’s office had initially declined to say where he was or when he might return, citing “security concerns”, even as a statewide disaster was declared. Continue reading...

Jefferson da Silva Lima turned himself in to Amazon police as autopsy finds journalist and indigenous expert were shotBrazil’s federal police said Saturday that a third suspect in the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira has been arrested. The pair, whose remains were found after they went missing almost two weeks ago, were shot to death, according to an autopsy.Phillips was shot in the chest and Pereira was shot in the head and the abdomen, police said in a statement. It said the autopsy indicated the use of a “firearm with typical hunting ammunition.” Continue reading...

British journalist whose body was found in Brazilian Amazon believed book he was working on was ‘urgent’, says Sian PhillipsThe sister of British journalist Dom Phillips has said her brother knew the risks of travelling to perilous regions of the Brazilian Amazon but continued to report from the area because he was committed to telling the story of Indigenous people and the fight for development models that might save the rainforest.Sian Phillips said her brother, whose body was found along with Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira this week, believed his work on a book called How to Save the Amazon was “urgent”. Continue reading...

Strong tides make conditions in the Scottish islands ideal, but can the UK grasp the opportunity to become a leader in the sector?On a small passenger boat about 10 miles north of Kirkwall, Orkney, at the point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea, an immense yellow structure heaves into view. This is the world’s most powerful tidal stream energy generator, Orbital Marine Power’s O2. Its shadow quickly dwarfs the tiny vessel.Today, the generator’s turbines are raised above sea level for maintenance. It is difficult to comprehend the O2’s scale until a worker appears, a tiny stick figure against the hulking turbine. Continue reading...

From Chicago to Alabama, people are staying inside, floating in pools – and worrying about the deepening climate emergencyAs searing temperatures and humidity settled in over states reaching from parts of the Gulf coast to the Carolinas, more than 100 million Americans have been warned to stay indoors where possible.A combination of heat advisories, excessive heart warnings and excessive heat watches were issued by the US National Weather Service prediction center. Continue reading...

Appeals says EPA did not adequately consider whether glyphosate causes cancer and threatens endangered speciesThe US Environmental Protection Agency has been ordered to take a fresh look at whether glyphosate, the active ingredient in Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller, poses unreasonable risks to humans and the environment.In a 3-0 decision on Friday, the ninth US circuit court of appeals agreed with several environmental, farmworker and food-safety advocacy groups that the EPA did not adequately consider whether glyphosate causes cancer and threatens endangered species. Continue reading...

Queensland Resources Council has denounced plans to raise royalties, launching new offensive

From hand warmers to heated socks, there are devices for every extremity. But experts flag some safety concerns

Dom Phillips, whose death in the Amazon has shocked many, was a frequent contributor to the Guardian. Here are some of his outstanding pieces of journalismOver some of the most tumultuous years in Brazil, Dom Phillips bore witness to the politics of his adopted home and to the fate of the Amazon rainforest. Travelling into the forest is a slow and laborious process, yet Phillips returned again and again.Phillips wrote regularly for the Guardian and other publications. Here, we have collected some of his most outstanding pieces of journalism.For more than a decade after the reserve was set up in 1998, its 16 uncontacted Indigenous tribes were among the best protected in Brazil. Yet today it is invaded on multiple fronts, leaving its isolated groups – who hunt with bows and arrows or blow-pipes, and avoid contact with modern society – at risk. Contact with outsiders can be deadly for these groups, who lack immunity to diseases like flu.“The vulnerability of these peoples is growing,” Beto Marubo, a Javari Indigenous leader, told the United Nations permanent forum on indigenous issues in New York in April. “There is no effective protection.” Continue reading...

António Guterres compares climate inaction to tobacco firms dismissing links between smoking and cancerFossil fuel companies and the banks that finance them “have humanity by the throat”, the UN secretary general has said, in a “blistering” attack on the industry and its backers, who are pulling in record profits amid energy prices sent soaring by the Ukraine war.António Guterres compared fossil fuel companies to the tobacco companies that continued to push their addictive products while concealing or attacking health advice that showed clear links between smoking and cancer, the first time he has drawn such a parallel. Continue reading...

Maui is a hub for GMO research but Indigenous farmers are trying to bring back the abundant and thriving landscapes of their ancestorsRain clouds cover the peaks of the west Maui mountains, one of the wettest places on the planet, which for centuries sustained biodiverse forests providing abundant food and medicines for Hawaiians who took only what they needed.Those days of abundance and food sovereignty are long gone. Continue reading...

Adviser says European nations are sourcing fossil fuels abroad but failing to help developing countriesEuropean governments have been accused of seeking to exploit the fossil fuel reserves of the developing world, while failing to help them tackle the climate crisis.Campaigners made the charge as the latest round of UN climate negotiations ended in stalemate on Thursday night in Bonn, Germany. Continue reading...

Australian Energy Market Operator says situation has improved ‘markedly’ since Wednesday when entire market was suspended

Industry superannuation fund defends approach, saying engaging with companies changes their behaviour, as members urge it to ‘stop investing in climate catastrophe’

Pinna nobilis is vital to the Mediterranean ecosystem, but since 2016 numbers have plummeted by 99.9% – and saving it from extinction is no easy taskIn the shallow waters and seagrass meadow of Spain’s Ebro delta, there are almost no solid surfaces for creatures to latch on to. That’s where the fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) comes in. Sponges, sea anemones, algae and lifeforms not found on any other surface in the area live on its shell, while octopus, oysters and some fish live inside it.The bivalve, also known as the noble pen shell, is unique to the Mediterranean and is the second largest in the world, with some specimens reaching a metre in length over a 15-year lifespan. It plays a crucial role in water filtration as well as providing a home for an array of underwater creatures. Continue reading...

As the climate movement hits another impasse, activists Luisa Neubauer and Kumi Naidoo explain why we need to mobilise many more people from all walks of lifeIf a historian were charting the climate movement, she’d probably set its high-water mark so far as September of 2019, when something like 7 million people, most of them young, took to the streets of thousands of cities around the world. To read the accounts that flooded in from around the world is poignant and in some cases heartbreaking (Dom Phillips was providing the updates for the Guardian from Brazil, where Indigenous groups were rallying; this week a suspect admitted to killing Phillips while he was reporting in the Amazon).I was watching from the wings of a stage setup on New York’s Battery, where Greta Thunberg – whose school strike had helped spur this massive wave of climate action – summed up the situation for a quarter million people flooding the streets of lower Manhattan: “If you belong to that small group of people who feel threatened by us, we have some very bad news for you, because this is only the beginning. Change is coming whether they like it or not.” Continue reading...