The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including wild horses, hungry cats and Wally the walrus Continue reading...

Experts question credibility of environmental claims made by UK restaurant chainThe environmental credentials of Leon’s “carbon-neutral” burgers have been questioned after it emerged the fast-food chain was using controversial carbon offsets to make the claim.In January, Leon announced it would become the first restaurant chain in the UK to serve carbon-neutral burgers and fries at more than 60 locations by reducing and offsetting the emissions they produce. Continue reading...

Chris Jackson believes companies promoted ‘unsustainable’ fossil gas projects to access billions in taxpayer subsidiesOil companies have used false claims over the cost of producing fossil fuel hydrogen to win over the Treasury and access billions in taxpayer subsidies, according to the outgoing hydrogen lobby boss.Chris Jackson quit as the chair of a leading hydrogen industry association this week ahead of a government strategy paper featuring support for “blue hydrogen”, which is derived from fossil gas and produces carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Report launched with youth activists including Greta Thunberg paints ‘unimaginably dire’ pictureAlmost half the world’s 2.2 billion children are already at “extremely high risk” from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution, according to a report from Unicef. The UN agency’s head called the situation “unimaginably dire”.Nearly every child around the world was at risk from at least one of these impacts today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution, the report said. But 1 billion children live in 33 countries facing three or four impacts simultaneously. The countries include India, Nigeria and the Philippines, and much of sub-Saharan Africa. Continue reading...

Named Muga dhambi by traditional owners, it was uncovered on a marine citizen science course

Owner receives word that officials will not try to enforce warrant before 5pm on FridayGeronimo, the condemned alpaca, has been granted another 24-hour reprieve, with its owner claiming the UK government hopes she will carry out its “dirty work” and put her beloved animal down herself.“They don’t want blood on their hands,” said Helen Macdonald, a veterinary nurse. “They’re trying to wear me down and get me to euthanise a perfectly healthy animal. I’m not going to do that. Simple as that.” Continue reading...

Protests starting next week aim to highlight the billions poured into fossil fuels by financial sectorThe City of London will be the target of a new round of Extinction Rebellion protests aimed at highlighting the role of high finance in the climate crisis, starting next week and carrying on for at least a fortnight.Thousands of protesters are expected to take part in a series of actions in the City, details of which are under wraps. These will target businesses headquartered in the Square Mile financial district, and will include site occupations. There are no plans to disrupt public transport, as has occurred during some previous actions. Continue reading...

Ithaca has turned to private investors to help it decarbonize thousands of residential and commercial buildingsWhen Fred Schoeps bought a 150-year-old building in downtown Ithaca, New York, a decade ago, he was one of only a handful of building owners dedicated to ending their reliance on fossil fuels and reducing their carbon footprint.His three-year renovation of the building, comprising three apartments above a skate store, included installing energy-efficient windows and insulation, plus fully electric appliances, heating and cooling systems. Continue reading...

Effective action against climate breakdown is near impossible while governments are vulnerable to lawsuitsThe human tragedy is that there is no connection between what we know and what we do. Almost everyone is now at least vaguely aware that we face the greatest catastrophe our species has ever confronted. Yet scarcely anyone alters their behaviour in response: above all, their driving, flying and consumption of meat and dairy.During the most serious of all crises, the UK elected the least serious of all governments. Both the Westminster government and local authorities continue to build roads and expand airports. An analysis by conservation charity WWF suggests that, while the last UK budget allocated £145m for environmental measures, it dedicated £40bn to policies that will increase emissions. Continue reading...

A parcel of land owned by the international airport is home to the largest population of the San Francisco garter snakeAcross from the San Francisco international airport, and past the bustling highway that hugs it, lies what appears to be an empty lot. But the 180-acre, airport-owned parcel of land, which sits beyond the tarmac, tucked against residential homes, isn’t quite empty. It’s home to roughly 1,300 snakes.With brightly painted bands of blue, orange-red and black that line their slender bodies, the garter snakes, which can grow up to 3ft long, are considered among the most beautiful in the world. They are also among the most threatened. Continue reading...

Numbers of the country’s carrion-loving birds dropped by over 97% in the 1990s. Now, a successful breeding scheme is giving them a boostIn February, the doors of an aviary in West Bengal’s Buxa tiger reserve were flung open. Eight critically endangered captive-bred white-rumped vultures cautiously emerged and within minutes were mingling with wild vultures, devouring the meat of carcasses left out by a team of researchers from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).The birds were raised in a nearby breeding centre by BNHS, led by assistant director Sachin Ranade, as part of efforts to save India’s Gyps vultures. Gradually, some of the released vultures perched on trees with their wild cousins, while others returned to the wire-mesh aviary where they had spent the previous few months getting acclimatised to their surroundings. Continue reading...

Vote. Divest. Plant trees. Recycle. Remove fossil fuel subsidies. Go renewable. We don’t need to accept the inevitable demise of life on the planetImagine if scientists had just informed the world that there was a huge meteor heading our way that would likely wipe out life as we knew it. Or if the sun started doing really dangerous and frightening things that were likely to fry us. What would we do? Party like there was really no tomorrow? Or just crawl under the doona to wait out the inevitable?The silver lining to the climate change catastrophe is that it’s not caused by a meteor, or the sun. It’s us. And because we’ve caused it, and we know how, we can fix it – or at least slow it down a lot. Continue reading...

CFC chemicals once used in refrigerators would have driven 2.5C of extra warming by 2100 if they had not been outlawed, researchers claimThe ozone-wrecking chemicals once commonly used in refrigerators would have driven 2.5C of extra global heating by the end of the century if they had not been banned, research has found.Modelling by climate scientists found that the 1987 Montreal protocol curbing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) gave humans a fighting chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C as set out by the Paris agreement. Continue reading...

Josh Frydenberg urged to use foreign investment review powers to reject JBS’s bid for Huon Aquaculture

Two people hospitalized with serious injuries as houses reduced to ash and post office and school destroyedFew homes were left standing in Grizzly Flats, California, the small northern California forest town leveled by the Caldor fire on Tuesday.Streets in the town of about 1,200 people were littered with downed power lines and poles. Houses were reduced to smoldering ash and twisted metal with only chimneys rising above the ruins. A post office and elementary school were also destroyed. Two people were in the hospital with serious injuries. Continue reading...

Chris Bowen will make a clear statement that the Coalition’s 2030 emissions target is insufficientThe shadow climate change minister, Chris Bowen, is to send his clearest signal that federal Labor is planning a more ambitious medium-term emissions reduction target than the Coalition, as well as committing to net zero emissions by 2050.Thursday’s public signalling is significant because the veteran rightwinger Joel Fitzgibbon has argued since Bill Shorten’s election loss in 2019 that Labor needs to adopt the same 2030 target as the Coalition on the rationale that voters have rejected the party’s more ambitious climate policies at every election since 2013. Continue reading...

Country’s vice-president’s remarks after investigation highlighted concerns about ExxonMobil dealGuyana will seek much better terms for any future oil deals than their contract with ExxonMobil, the country’s vice-president said on Tuesday.The tiny South American country has become one of the most desired oil exploration spots after an ExxonMobil-led group, which also includes the US-based exploration firm Hess Corp and the Chinese oil company CNOOC, discovered about 9bn barrels of recoverable oil and gas off the coast. Continue reading...

Hundreds of dead fish have appeared along shores of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoonsProsecutors in the southern Spanish region of Murcia have launched an investigation after hundreds of dead fish began washing up along the shores of one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons.Residents in the area sounded the alarm this week, posting footage on social media that showed scores of small fish and shrimp littering the beaches of the coastal lagoon known as Mar Menor in south-east Spain. Continue reading...

Cop15 negotiations to set this decade’s targets on nature to be split into two, with face-to-face meetings delayed until 2022A key United Nations biodiversity summit has been delayed for a third time due to the pandemic, the Chinese environment ministry has announced, as environmentalists pledged the delay would “not mean taking our foot off the pedal”.In a statement, the Chinese ministry of ecology and environment confirmed that Cop15, the biggest biodiversity summit in a decade, would be delayed, and that negotiations for this decade’s targets will be split into two phases so that governments can meet face-to-face in Kunming, China, in the first half of 2022. Continue reading...

More than any other legislation in US history it will transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into sustainable energyThe latest International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is clear and foreboding. If the United States, China and the rest of the world do not act extremely aggressively to cut carbon emissions, the planet will face enormous and irreversible damage. The world that we will be leaving our children and future generations will be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable.But we didn’t really need the IPCC to tell us that. Just take a look at what’s happening right now: A huge fire in Siberia is casting smoke for 3,000 miles. Greece: burning. California: burning. Oregon: burning. Historic flooding in Germany and Belgium. Italy just experienced the hottest European day ever. July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded. Drought and extreme weather disturbances are cutting food production, increasing hunger and raising food prices worldwide. Rising sea levels threaten Miami, New York, Charleston and countless coastal cities around the world in the not-so-distant future. Continue reading...

Mayors such as Newham’s Rokhsana Fiaz say they do not have the investment or powers they need

School districts are increasingly transitioning to cheaper and greener options. But old building habits and funding constraints can pose a challengeAmerican schools are the second-largest public infrastructure investment. But what most people don’t know is that they are also among the biggest energy consumers in the public sector. K-12 schools consume about 8% of all the energy used in commercial buildings. In turn, they emit as much carbon dioxide as 18 coal-powered power plants. This not only burdens the environment, but children themselves – students suffer from heatstroke, affected hormone and sleep cycles, as well as respiratory issues. Continue reading...

Environmentalists call for fisheries to move away from carbon-spewing engines and climate-harming practices such as bottom trawlingHalf the UK’s fishing fleet is at least 30 years old and uses fuel oil that is particularly polluting, according to a report that examines the outsized impact of British ships on the climate crisis.UK fisheries are estimated to have emitted 914.4 kilotons of CO over a one-year period, equivalent to the annual energy use of more than 110,000 homes, the report by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), WWF and RSPB says. Continue reading...

Researchers say climate change is driving the melting, which has seen Kebnekaise lose more than 20 metres in height since the mid-1990sSweden’s only remaining mountaintop glacier, which until 2019 was also its highest peak, lost another two metres in height in the past year due to rising air temperatures driven by climate change, Stockholm University says.In 2019, the south peak of the Kebnekaise massif was demoted to second in the rankings of Swedish mountains after a third of its glacier melted. Kebnekaise’s north peak, where there is no glacier, is now the highest in the Nordic country. Continue reading...

Paths have eroded and wildlife at risk as crowds jostle for space amid social distancing

Large blazes are also burning in Portugal and Spain, the latest in a devastating European fire season made worse by the climate crisisHundreds of French firefighters battled to contain a raging wildfire near the Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez on Tuesday, with thousands of residents and holidaymakers forced to evacuate.Roughly 900 firefighters were using high-pressure hoses, aircraft and helicopters in an attempt to control the flames, which began racing through the scrubland and trees of the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening. Continue reading...

Swiss-based mining outfit faces bribery investigations in the US and UK over its operations in DRCBuying an electric vehicle may seem like the ethical choice but a campaign group has warned that Glencore’s investment in the sector could muddy the waters.The concerns revolve around multiple corruption investigations into Glencore’s mining operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to the world’s largest reserves of cobalt, a crucial metal in electric battery manufacture. Continue reading...

Anglo-Australian company plans to simplify structure and shift main stock exchange listing to SydneyThe FTSE 100 is to lose one of its biggest companies after the Anglo-Australian miner BHP announced it would abandon a dual listing in London in favour of shifting its main listing to Sydney.The move to simplify a complex dual-listing structure will automatically trigger BHP’s removal from the FTSE 100 under UK stock market rules, although the company will continue to have a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange. Continue reading...

A movement in California seeks a moratorium on new pumps – and a transformation of the US transportation systemEmily Bit remembers a time when she didn’t feel the constant threat of climate change. Her family lives in American Canyon, in southern Napa county, California, a state now being hit by record high temperatures and devastating wildfires. “It didn’t used to be this bad,” she said.These days her family has to evacuate their home every summer. Two of her friends lost their homes in Paradise, the town consumed by the 2018 Camp fire disaster, the deadliest in California history. Last year, a wildfire burned the nature reserve behind her local school until it was “entirely black. It was like something from a dystopian novel”. Continue reading...

UK’s first large-scale battery producer welcomes partnership with major cobalt minerMining giant Glencore has agreed to buy a stake in Britishvolt, the startup with plans to invest £4bn building the UK’s first large-scale battery factory to help accelerate the rollout of electric vehicles.Glencore said it had made an undisclosed investment in the company as part of a long-term strategic partnership with Britishvolt to supply cobalt to its pioneering battery “gigafactory” in Northumberland. Continue reading...

The fate of a planned line from Uganda to Tanzania will be the first test of whether anyone was listening to António Guterres’ call to end fossil fuelsIf there is one world leader trying to look out for the planet as a whole, not just their own nation, it’s the UN secretary general. Last week, António Guterres was resolute in the wake of the damning report from the IPCC on the perilious climate crisis. It should, he said, sound “a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet”.He called for an end to “all new fossil fuel exploration and production”, and told countries to shift fossil fuel subsidies into renewable energy. Continue reading...

Global miner declares a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices but slashes value of NSW coalmine to become a $200m liabilityGlobal miner BHP is planning a major overhaul, simplifying its company structure and dumping its oil and gas assets into Woodside Petroleum, creating one of the biggest energy producers in the world.BHP on Tuesday declared a bumper profit due to high iron ore prices, as it announced it will bring together its Australian and UK arms into one company and leave the London Stock Exchange, which could have ramifications for investors. Continue reading...

Experts warn of potential for disaster as Exxon pursues 9bn barrels in sensitive marine ecosystemExxonMobil’s huge new Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster, the Guardian and Floodlight have found.Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 6m acres off the coast of Guyana that includes 17 additional prospects in the exploration and preparatory phases. Continue reading...

Shopper Helaina Alati, who happens to be a former snake catcher, was luckily on hand to return the three-metre python to nearby bushlandA three-metre-long python has surprised shoppers in a Sydney supermarket by slithering along a shelf in the spice section with a Woolworths spokesperson saying it was a “slippery and rare customer”.“Only in Australia!” Hilary Leigh wrote in a Facebook post when sharing a video of the large snake at the Glenorie supermarket in Sydney’s north-west. Continue reading...

Squadron Energy says the move is part of efforts to ensure its projects support the transition to a low carbon economyAndrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy is abandoning its plans for gas exploration in Western Australia’s Canning Basin because the project does not align with the company’s climate policy.The company has confirmed it is exiting from its permit 499 in the Kimberley, which it acquired last year in partnership with Goshawk Energy. Continue reading...

John Donaldson is seeking $15,000 in damages for injuries he says he suffered in the encounter while visiting Lake TahoeA California man has filed a lawsuit after he was injured trying to flee from a bear that surprised him in a dumpster while he was visiting Lake Tahoe.John Donaldson is seeking $15,000 in damages from a condominium association and waste management company for injuries he said he suffered in the encounter at a condo complex in the Incline Village area, which has long had problems with bears breaking into homes, cars and garbage cans in search of food. Continue reading...

By 2050, nearly 60% of outdoor workers could experience at least one week when extreme heat makes it too dangerous to work if little to no action is takenIn the next few decades, Americans who work outdoors could increasingly find that it is simply too hot to do their jobs without risking their health.Related: The cost of cooling: how air conditioning is heating up the world Continue reading...

Protected area delivered a tenfold return on investment, with benefits for fishing, biodiversity and tourismA marine protection area established off the coast of Mallorca is proving beneficial not just for the environment but for business, too, according to a study that appears to confirm the long-term benefits of MPAs for both habitats and economies.According to the study, carried out by the non-profit Marilles Foundation, the protected area has generated €10 in benefits for each euro of the €473,137 (£402,000) invested in the scheme. Continue reading...

Government sets out plan for low-carbon economy that could also create thousands of jobsAbout 3 million households in the UK could begin using low-carbon hydrogen to heat their homes and cook rather than fossil fuel gas under government proposals to attract at least £4bn of investment to the hydrogen economy by 2030.The government has published its long-awaited plans for a UK-wide hydrogen economy, which it says could be worth £900m and create more than 9,000 high-quality jobs by the end of the decade, rising to £13bn and 100,000 new jobs by 2050. Continue reading...

Global survey finds 74% also want climate crises and protecting nature prioritised over jobs and profitThree-quarters of people in the world’s wealthiest nations believe humanity is pushing the planet towards a dangerous tipping point and support a shift of priorities away from economic profit, according to a global survey.The Ipsos Mori survey for the Global Commons Alliance (GCA) also found a majority (58%) were very concerned or extremely concerned about the state of the planet. Continue reading...

Officials issue first-ever declaration of tier 1 shortage at Lake Mead as it falls to lowest level since its creationOfficials have declared a dire water shortage at Lake Mead, the US’s largest reservoir, triggering major water cuts in Arizona and other western states. The US Bureau of Reclamation’s first-ever declaration of a “tier 1” shortage represents an acknowledgment that after a 20-year drought, the reservoir that impounds the Colorado River at the has receded to its lowest levels since it was created in the 1930s.Already, the lake is at about 35% capacity – the white “bathtub ring” that lines its perimeter indicates where the water level once was. The lake’s level is projected to fall even lower by the end of the year, prompting cutbacks in January 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Monday. Continue reading...

With service industries and foreign tourism decimated, the potential fall in ore prices and demand shows just how much the country relies on mining exportsIt seems not all that long ago all the talk was about how gloriously the economy was going and how the Covid recession was in the past. But now the two states encompassing 55% of the nation’s economy are in lockdown and the second half of this year looks to be tough for the economy – especially as our iron ore exports might be about to take a hit.One of weird things about the pandemic is that our major exports of iron ore and coal have seen an absolute prices boom: Continue reading...

Firm says merging its hydrocarbon business with Australian producer Woodside Petroleum is one optionThe mining multinational BHP has begun talks to exit the oil and gas industry by merging its hydrocarbon business with Australia’s top independent gas producer, Woodside Petroleum.BHP said a merger with Woodside was one of the options being evaluated as part of a strategic review of its oil and gas business, and its place in the company’s long-term portfolio. Continue reading...

Reintroducing the big cats could control deer numbers and enrich ecosystems but farmers and the public need reassurance, say expertsThe maverick rewilder Derek Gow is wearing an extremely small pair of coral pink shorts as he introduces his three new Eurasian lynxes. He looks like Tiger King’s Joe Exotic on the wrong side of the Atlantic.The shy new arrivals are joining a menagerie of animals at his rewilding project in Devon. They are in a large pen with a four-metre-high fence but Gow, like a growing number of conservationists, wants to see lynxes prowling freely in the countryside. Continue reading...

Solar energy use will become more common as power use becomes smarter and more automatedDealing with the climate crisis involves the overhauling of many facets of life, but few of these changes will feel as tangible and personal as the transformation required within the home.The 128m households that dot America gobble up energy for heating, cooling and lighting, generating around 20% of all the planet-heating emissions produced in the US. Americans typically live in larger, more energy hungry dwellings than people in other countries, using more than double the energy of the average Briton and 10 times that of the average Chinese person. Continue reading...

Victorian fire agency’s research finds state faces increase in number of extreme fire danger days

Campaigners say Chichester harbour at risk of environmental ruin from dumping of raw sewageDischarges of raw sewage by Southern Water into a protected natural harbour risk causing an environmental catastrophe, say campaigners.Chichester harbour in West Sussex is one of the most highly protected marine environments in the country. But the latest analysis from Natural England shows that 80% of its protected habitats are in an unfavourable or declining condition. Continue reading...

Lord Deben says he is ‘pressing very hard’ to get details of strategy published as Cop26 approachesBoris Johnson’s delay in publishing the net zero emissions strategy has left a space for climate sceptics to “complain, attack and undermine” on cost grounds, and other countries could do with seeing more “proper leadership” from the UK before Cop26, the government’s independent climate adviser has said.Lord Deben, the Conservative peer and chair of the climate change committee, said critics of the net zero policy had been vocal in the public debate because “it hasn’t been put into context by the government”. Continue reading...