Environment | The Guardian

The two plants selected for early shutdown currently produce about 7% of Australia’s total carbon emissions

Firm sets out plan to seal two shale gas wells in Lancashire two years after government shutdown orderThe owner of the shale fracking company Cuadrilla will permanently plug and abandon its two shale wells in Lancashire, drawing a line on Britain’s failed fracking industry.Cuadrilla set out plans to permanently seal the two shale gas wells drilled at the Preston New Road Lancashire shale exploration site a little over two years after the government brought an end to fracking in England. Continue reading...

Insulate Britain supporters donate rent from George Eustice’s office towards protesters’ court costsThe constituency office of the environment secretary, George Eustice, has been bought by supporters of Insulate Britain, who have donated his rent to a legal fund for activists.Supporters of the group, which made headlines last year by obstructing major roads and calling on the government to retrofit all British homes to make them energy efficient, formed a coalition of investors. Continue reading...

Film-maker urges UK ministers to make it mandatory for schemes to align portfolios with climate targetPension funds should face legal obligations to bring their investments in line with the net zero greenhouse gas emissions goal, the film-maker Richard Curtis has said.Curtis, a co-founder of the Make My Money Matter campaigning group, urged ministers to follow up the UK’s legal commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 by making it mandatory for pension schemes to align their portfolios with the target. Continue reading...

Andalucían decision to ‘regularise’ land near Doñana national park attacked by ecology groupsRightwing MPs in southern Spain have ignored protests from the central government, the EU, Unesco and several ecological groups by voting to grant an amnesty to illegal strawberry farmers who have been tapping water from the aquifer that feeds one of Europe’s largest protected wetlands.On Wednesday afternoon, the Andalucían regional parliament approved the proposal, which will “regularise” 1,461 hectares (3610 acres) of land near the Doñana national park, thereby allowing farmers who have sunk illegal wells and built illicit plantations on the land to legitimise their operations. Continue reading...

Thirty-six states have passed laws that criminalize protesting on ‘critical infrastructure’ including pipelines. In Minnesota, at least 66 felony theft charges against Line 3 protesters remain openLast summer Sabine Von Mering, a professor of German at Brandeis University, drove more than 1,500 miles from Boston to Minneapolis to protest the replacement of the Line 3 oil pipeline that stretches from Canada’s tar sands down to Minnesota.Along with another protester, she locked herself to a semi-truck in the middle of a roadway, according to a filed court brief, as a means of peaceful resistance. But when she was arrested, she was charged with a serious crime: felony theft, which carries up to five years in prison. Continue reading...

The oil giant revealed its four-fold increase in profits alongside pledges on investment in cleaner energyWhen BP revealed this week that bumper profits had reached an eight-year high, helped by the same soaring gas prices that have fuelled a national cost of living crisis, it had a political sweetener already prepared.The oil firm revealed the four-fold profit increase to $12.8bn alongside a promise to spend more on low-carbon energy alternatives, and invest more than £2 for every £1 it made in Britain this decade. Continue reading...

First legally binding climate act faces race against the clock before Stormont’s dissolution next monthNorthern Ireland’s first legally binding climate act faces a race against time to get passed before the devolved institutions at Stormont are dissolved in the coming weeks.The second of two climate change bills – introduced by the agriculture minister, Edwin Poots – has moved through consideration stage, with a batch of new amendments prompting more than 25 hours of assembly debate. Continue reading...

Campaigners say the sector leads to overexploitation of stocks while pushing up prices and aggravating local unemploymentThe UN’s food agency has warned that the “overexploitation” of fish in west Africa by the growing global fishmeal and fish oil industry is having a “considerably negative impact” on food security, undermining the ability of local communities to feed themselves.The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report said that in Senegal, where three more huge fishmeal factories opened between 2015 and 2019, the industry was “likely increasing the risk” of overexploitation of sardinella and bonga, two pelagic fish on which communities depend. Continue reading...

Satellite data shows rainforest cleared for cattle and maize on farms growing soya, undermining claims crop is deforestation-freeMore than 400 sq miles (1,000 sq km) of Amazon rainforest has been felled to expand farms growing soya in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso in a 10-year period, despite an agreement to protect it, according to a new investigation.

Environmental advocates tell South Korean miner to ‘pack its bags’ as company considers next steps

Human exposure to 2,4-D has substantially risen despite a multitude of health and environmental concernsOne in three people across America have detectable levels of a toxic herbicide linked to cancers, birth defects and hormonal imbalances, a major nationwide survey has found.Human exposure to the herbicide 2,4-D has substantially risen amid expanding use among farmers despite a multitude of health and environmental concerns, according to the first nationally representative study evaluating the footprint of the chemical. Continue reading...

Legal and human rights experts condemn decision to find six activists guilty of crimes against mining companySix Honduran environmentalists have been found guilty of crimes against a mining company, in a case widely condemned by legal and human rights experts.The activists, from the small community of Guapinol, have been held in pre-trial detention for two and a half years after opposing an iron oxide mine which has polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people. Continue reading...

Climate groups dismiss energy giant’s amended schedule for Loy Yang A and Bayswater as a ‘token effort’ that is ‘next to meaningless’

EnergyAustralia is building a regular fossil fuel power station and buying carbon offsets based on its emissions

Body representing MPs and peers insists vast majority support climate plans despite vocal backbenchersThe “vast majority” of Conservative MPs support the government’s net zero climate plans despite increasingly vocal opposition from a small number of backbenchers, according to a Tory environment group.On Tuesday the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) of 19 Conservatives was accused of attempting to derail the government’s green agenda, linking it to the cost-of-living crisis and calling for cuts to green taxes and an increase in fossil fuel production. Continue reading...

My friend and colleague Allan Hamilton, who has died of pneumonia aged 85, was a distinguished microbiologist at the University of Aberdeen. His work transformed the understanding of microbial corrosion in offshore oil installations and helped to solve it.He was born in Glasgow to Vernon Hamilton, an accountant with Glasgow Corporation Tramways, and Jean (nee Hood), who worked at Pettigrew’s store in the city. He attended Hutchesons’ grammar school and studied biochemistry at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1958. He completed a PhD in 1961 and went to work for Unilever in Bedfordshire, investigating the safety of food and hygiene products. Continue reading...

Jennifer Morgan is first person to hold role and vows to put climate crisis at top of diplomatic agendaGermany has named the former Greenpeace chief Jennifer Morgan as its special climate envoy, as part of a promise to put the climate crisis “at the top” of the diplomatic agenda.The US-born Morgan, 55, who has been co-leader of Greenpeace International since 2016, will be the first person to hold the role in Germany. Continue reading...

Renewable energy provided 31.4% of electricity within the national market covering the eastern states and South Australia in 2021

Mother Annie O’Brien felt responsible so placed late-night call to snake handler who retrieved foam dart as long as green tree frog

Green energy activist Nguy Thi Khanh, recipient of the Goldman prize, is latest activist to be detained on tax-related chargesNguy Thi Khanh, Vietnam’s first recipient of the prestigious Goldman environmental prize, has been arrested on tax evasion charges.The founder of the Green Innovation and Development Centre was detained last month, but her detention was confirmed by state media on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Sri Lankan beaches buried in pellets only ‘tip of the iceberg’ of environmental harm after analysis of nurdles from burning shipContainer ship accidents at sea should be considered the “oil spills of our time”, warned environmental organisations that found a toxic mix of metals, carcinogenic and other harmful chemicals on plastic washed up on Sri Lanka’s beaches after a cargo ship fire.When the X-Press Pearl sank off nine nautical miles off Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, in May 2021, the most “significant harm” from the country’s worst maritime disaster initially came from the spillage of 1,680 tonnes of plastic pellets, or “nurdles”, into the Indian Ocean. They were found in dead dolphins, fish and on beaches – in some places 2 metres deep. A UN report called it the “single largest plastic spill” in history. Continue reading...

Local pressure group applies for bathing water status for stretch of Thames through OxfordThe Thames could get its first designated bathing site for wild swimming, the government has announced. This would be the second river designated for swimming in England.Members of the public have been invited to give their views on the possible designation of Wolvercote Mill Stream at Port Meadow, Oxford, and another bathing site on the Isle of Wight coast. Continue reading...

Analysis: The government’s stance on coalmines, oilfields, transport and green investment is causing increasing worry

Coal Action Network threatens legal action against decision to permit expansion of Aberpergwm site

Critics say this move will upend the Biden administration’s goal to get to net zero emissions by 2050 as a means to tackle climate crisisThe US postal service (USPS) is facing the mounting fury of the Biden administration, Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups over its plan to spend billions of dollars on a new fleet of gasoline-powered mail delivery trucks that critics say will upend a White House goal to slash planet-heating gases.The USPS has outlined plans to spend $11.3bn on as many as 165,000 new delivery trucks over the next decade to refresh what is one of the largest civilian vehicle fleets in the world. The familiar boxy white trucks with red and blue stripes will be replaced by a new design that has been likened in appearance to a duck. Continue reading...

Lake ecology during the colder months has been poorly studied until recently, but data from the Lake District shows winter plays a vital role in freshwater ecosystemsIt is a cold January morning and mist hangs over Windermere like a thick wool blanket. The lake looks to be asleep. The researchers that have gathered on its shores to sample the water peer into the distance and decide that visibility is too poor to take the boat out today.Unpredictable weather is one reason lake ecology during the winter has been poorly studied until recently. Dr Stephen Thackeray, a lake ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and project leader of the Cumbrian Lakes Monitoring Platform, says there also used to be a preconception that not much was happening during the colder months. Continue reading...

Using ‘tipping points’ can unlock the changes needed on energy, food and plastics, analysis showsTipping points could be identified and triggered to deliver fast action to tackle the climate crisis, according to an analysis led by an academic at Exeter University.Early subsidies and mass production rapidly crushed costs to leave solar and wind energy as the cheapest power in much of the world and electric cars are now accelerating towards mass adoption, while Greta Thunberg’s solo protest sparked an influential global campaign. Continue reading...

Environment Protection Authority examining fish kill events at Haslams Creek, which flows into Homebush Bay, and at RydalmereThe deaths of thousands of fish in the Parramatta River triggered by low oxygen levels in the water is being investigated by the New South Wales environmental regulator.The Environment Protection Authority said it was examining two fish kill events, one last week at Haslams Creek, which flows into Homebush Bay, and the other at Rydalmere on Sunday. Continue reading...

Amid fears about the cost of living crisis, those opposed to government’s climate agenda appear to have sensed an opportunity

More than half members of Net Zero Scrutiny Group were also in group that promoted Brexit vote, as fears grow for UK’s green agenda

Chevron is accused of polluting the Amazon for 26 years. The only people who’ve paid the price are a human rights lawyer and those whose land was poisonedMost people have probably heard of Chernobyl, or the BP oil spill. You may also know about my legal battle over contaminated water in California, dramatized in the movie Erin Brockovich. Yet far fewer people have heard about what transpired in the Ecuadorian Amazon – though it’s considered by some activists, journalists, and members of US Congress to be one of the world’s worst environmental disasters.What if I told you that a multinational oil company allegedly polluted the Amazon for almost three decades? And that the oil company has spent even more years refusing to accept liability? Or that a US attorney who agreed to represent thousands of Ecuadorian villagers in a lawsuit against that oil company has lost his law license, income, spent hundreds of days under house arrest in New York, and in 2021 was sentenced to six months in prison?Erin Brockovich is an environmental advocate and author of the book Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It. She is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Exclusive: Conservationists claim lack of urgency after water and gas found bubbling ‘uncontrolled’ from former exploration bores

Dozens of people drag 5.2-metre animal to shore and cut tyre from its neck after it was snared by bird-sellerA wild crocodile in Indonesia that was trapped in a tyre for more than five years has been rescued, freed from its rubber ring and released back into the wild.Conservation workers have been trying to lure the stricken saltwater crocodile from a river since 2016, after residents of Palu city on Sulawesi island spotted the animal with a motorbike tyre wrapped around its neck. Continue reading...

Cutting gas supply to Europe would damage Russia’s reputation and cause EU to shift away, says head of IEAVladimir Putin’s threats over Ukraine could backfire to damage the Russian economy, the head of the International Energy Agency has warned, as any escalation of the current tension would cause a “seismic” upheaval of the EU energy market that would have “more consequences for Russia” than for Europe.Fatih Birol, the executive director of the global energy watchdog, said that if Russia reduced gas supplies further it would prompt European countries to seek urgently to shift away from Russian gas, which would hurt Putin economically. Continue reading...

We are not who we were very long ago. A lot of new ideas have emerged from Buddhism and other traditions emphasizing compassion, equality, nonviolence and critical perspectives on materialism and capitalismWhen news of Thich Nhat Hanh’s death spread around the world, I saw far more people than I’d have expected say how he affected them, through a talk, a book, a retreat, an idea, an example. It was a reminder of the huge impact Buddhism has had in the west as a set of ideas that has flowed far beyond the limits of who belongs to a Buddhist group or has a formal practice. You could think of Buddhism in this context as one tributary of a broad new river of ideas flowing through the west, from which many have drunk without knowing quite where the waters came from.A Vietnamese monk who founded meditation centers on four continents and published dozens of books, Thich Nhat Hanh was one of the great teachers who came from Asia in the 20th century, along with Zen monks from Japan and Tibetan rinpoches. He stood out because he came to the west as an explicitly political figure, arguing against the war in Vietnam (though the Dalai Lama’s opposition to the Chinese occupation of Tibet is certainly political too). His death seemed to me not an ending but a reminder that something far grander than this great teacher began sometime in the last century and continues to spread.Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses Continue reading...

The American Legislative Exchange Council has drafted legislation modelled on efforts to block divestment from IsraelThe influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel.Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by Alec, called the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, to shield big oil from share selloffs and other measures intended to protest the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis. A dozen other states have publicly supported the intent of the legislation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Lib Dems analysis shows scrapped zero carbon standard would have saved owners £200 a yearThe UK government’s decision to allow homes to be built to low standards of energy efficiency cost owners of newly built homes about £234m last year, analysis shows.The zero carbon homes standard was supposed to come into force in 2016, but the measure, which was introduced under Labour, was scrapped by the Conservative government in 2015. Continue reading...

WWF report says reduction must be made in the next 10 years to tackle climate crisis and nature lossBritish farmers must reduce their production of meat and dairy by a third in the next 10 years if scientific advice on limiting greenhouse gas emissions is to be met, the conservation charity WWF has said.Even greater cuts may be needed to the UK’s pig herds and poultry flocks, because of the imported feed they eat, and people will need to eat much less meat than they do today, the charity warned. But the result would be lower greenhouse gas emissions, a countryside with more wildlife and flourishing nature, and better health, according to the report. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Cambridge Water admits a supply contained four times the regulatory limit and customers never toldWater from a supply containing high levels of toxic chemicals has been pumped into the homes of more than 1,000 people, the Guardian can reveal.Cambridge Water has admitted it removed a supply containing four times the regulatory limit of perfluorooctane sulphonate (PFOS), which was being blended with other supplies to provide water to the homes of customers in south Cambridgeshire, in June last year. But the 1,080 customers living in Stapleford and Great Shelford were never informed that they had been exposed. The company has not revealed how long the water had been tainted. Continue reading...

In its annual climate statement, BoM says contrasting weather conditions in the country’s 19th warmest year on record included long heatwaves and widespread flooding

Opponents say proposed amnesty for illegal tapping in Doñana national park threatens disaster for one of Europe’s green lungsJuan Romero shakes his head as looks out across the lake at the wading spoonbills, the pipe-cleaner silhouettes of the flamingos and the glossy ibis that flash against the Andalucían sky.“This is an illusion,” says the ecologist, a retired teacher. The birds are real enough, of course, and so too are the tufty-eared Iberian lynxes that will be sniffing out a breakfast of rabbit in the quieter, wilder reaches of the huge Doñana national park in southern Spain. Continue reading...

Despite controversy over Queensland coal mine, the tycoon’s investments in green energy at home have helped his wealth rise to $88.5bnThe Indian coal mining tycoon Gautam Adani has become Asia’s richest person thanks to a push into green energy that has boosted his fortune to $88.5bn.Adani has overtaken fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani to enter the top 10 of the world’s richest people, according to figures from Forbes and Bloomberg, after seeing his personal fortune rise by $12bn in the past year. Continue reading...

Defra report blamed algal blooms but independent research points to chemical released from sedimentsAn independent study has linked the deaths of thousands of crabs and lobsters and a mystery dog illness to dredging for the government’s flagship freeport on Teesside – a key to the Conservative’s post-Brexit, “levelling-up” agenda.The report has led local fishers to reject a government theory that an “algal bloom” is responsible for the huge piles of dead crustaceans that began washing up on beaches along England’s north-east coast in October. Continue reading...

Australia’s energy market can be bewildering, but a new consumer guide aims to reveal the reality behind ads featuring wind farms

Judge rebukes Marine Management Organisation for prosecution over direct action to stop bottom trawlingThe government agency charged with protecting the marine environment has dropped its case against Greenpeace over a protest intended to obstruct destructive fishing practices in UK coastal conservation areas.The judge in the case rebuked the Marine Management Organisation over the case, saying that the licensing regime, under which the case was brought, “could be better used as a source of protection against those who actively seek to harm the marine environment”. Continue reading...

Last two full-time fishing vessels left in harbour cannot afford to pay for work to protect Port IsaacA Cornish fishing village familiar to fans of gentle comedy drama is facing a crisis because part of its sea defences are crumbling and there are no longer enough working boats to fund the repairs.Householders in Port Isaac, the setting for the long-running ITV show Doc Martin, are worried that if one of the breakwaters that protect the picturesque village are not repaired, homes could be inundated when Atlantic storms sweep in. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Activists challenge updated shooting licences, which allow wild birds in England to be shot to protect game birdsThe government is facing a legal challenge over its newly updated shooting licences for England, which classify game birds as livestock and so allow wild birds to be shot to protect them.Campaigners have said the licences give an unfair advantage to gamekeepers, as they allow the birds to be defined as livestock when shooters want to kill other birds to protect them, but are otherwise considered wild birds so the estate owners are not liable for any damage the game birds cause. Continue reading...

Conservationists welcome interim injunction to stop farm development they say threatens migration of 10 million fruit batsConservationists in Zambia have hailed a high court injunction preventing deforestation and commercial agriculture on the edge of Kasanka national park, which they say threatens the world’s biggest mammal migration.Every October, about 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats descend on the swamps of Kasanka from across Africa and beyond. They feast on fruit in and around the park, one of Zambia’s smallest but under the highest level of protection, dispersing seeds across the continent on their epic journey. Continue reading...