Environment | The Guardian

Coalition announces extra $2bn for Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and won’t rule out Beetaloo basin funding

Exclusive: Campaigners fight decision that United Utilities cannot face private legal action for outflows of sewage into canalEnvironmental campaigners are fighting to stop a water company being given almost total immunity from any private legal action for discharging untreated sewage into waterways.The Good Law Project (GLP) and the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) are challenging a decision by the high court that the water company United Utilities cannot be subject to any private legal action for its discharges of raw sewage from storm outfalls into the Manchester ship canal. Continue reading...

Chemicals used in everyday products have been associated with ‘a range of serious health problems’ including cancer and birth defectsA new analysis of popular brand name products detected toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” in nearly 75% of items labeled stain- or water-resistant. The study’s authors say the companies are needlessly putting customers’ health at risk.The findings highlight how the compounds are widely used in everyday products and clothing despite mounting evidence that the entire class of PFAS chemicals is associated with a range of serious health problems, and safer alternatives exist. Continue reading...

Volkswagen-owned British brand plans for battery electric vehicle to roll off production line in 2025The luxury carmaker Bentley has announced that its first fully electric car will be developed and built at its Crewe factory.The British brand’s first battery electric vehicle is scheduled to roll off the production line in 2025. Continue reading...

Environmentalists fear a proposal to allow boundary changes to protected areas will open the door to deforestationEnvironmentalists are deeply concerned by the Kenyan government’s move to allow boundary changes to protected forests, watering down the powers of conservation authorities.The forest conservation and management (amendment) bill 2021 seeks to delete clause 34(2) from the 2016 act, which makes it mandatory for authorities to veto anyone trying to alter forest boundaries. The same clause protects forests from actions that put rare, threatened or endangered species at risk. Continue reading...

Themes of making a small change for a big impact and joining a movement are effective in nudging consumers, research findsSimple changes to messages on restaurants’ menus can double the frequency of customers choosing plant-based options instead of meat, research on the impact of food on the climate crisis has found.The production, transportation and consumption of food has become an increasing focus for climate researchers, with a recent study finding the food industry accounts for more than a third of the world’s total annual planet-heating emissions. Continue reading...

The West Virginia senator’s name is reviled on the streets of Bangladesh and other countries facing climate disaster as he blocks Biden’s effort to curb planet-heating gasesWithin the brutal machinations of US politics, Joe Manchin has been elevated to a status of supreme decision-maker, the man who could make or break Joe Biden’s presidency.Internationally, however, the Democratic senator’s new fame has been received with puzzlement and growing bitterness, as countries already ravaged by the climate crisis brace themselves for the US – history’s largest ever emitter of planet-heating gases – again failing to pass major climate legislation. Continue reading...

Report by the World Wildlife Fund also identifies new reptiles, fish and plants in the region of southeast AsiaA monkey with ghostly white circles around its eyes is among 224 new species listed in the World Wildlife Fund’s latest update on the greater Mekong region.The conservation group’s report, released on Wednesday, highlights the need to protect the rich biodiversity and habitats in the region, which includes Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. Continue reading...

Overwintering insects in the state rise to 247,000 a year after fewer than 2,000 appeared but numbers are still historically lowThe number of western monarch butterflies overwintering in California rebounded to more than 247,000 a year after fewer than 2,000 appeared, but the tally remained far below the millions that were seen in the 1980s, leaders of an annual count said on Tuesday.The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count revealed the highest number of butterflies in five years but it is still less than 5% of the 1980s population, said Emma Pelton, senior endangered species biologist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Continue reading...

Group of 10 tribes inhabiting the area since thousands of years will be responsible for protecting the land dubbed Tc’ih-Léh-DûñThe descendants of Native American tribes on the northern California coast are reclaiming part of their ancestral homeland, including ancient redwoods that have stood since their forebears walked the land.Save the Redwoods League, a non-profit conservation group, announced Tuesday that it is transferring more than 500 acres (202 hectares) on the Lost Coast to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. Continue reading...

Attorneys for BP, Exxon and Shell claim city of Baltimore’s case over ‘deception and failure to warn’ could kill offshore drillingUS oil firms have been accused of using scare tactics after telling a federal court on Tuesday that lawsuits alleging fossil fuel companies lied about the climate crisis could threaten America’s oil supply.At a closely watched appeals court hearing to decide whether a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore should be heard in state or federal court, an attorney for BP, Exxon, Shell and other energy firms painted the case as a threat to America’s energy independence. Continue reading...

Search and rescue operations under way as dozens reported missing in region battered by extreme weather in recent yearsAt least four people have died and dozens are missing after strong winds and heavy downpours wreaked havoc in Malawi and Mozambique as Tropical Storm Ana made landfall on Monday.Almost 16,000 people in the south of Malawi have been affected, according to the Red Cross, as search and rescue operations continue after the first cyclone of the region’s season. At least two people were killed and 66 injured in Mozambique on Monday and a further two people died on Tuesday in Malawi. Continue reading...

‘Shark bites dropped drastically in 2020 due to the pandemic – this past year was much more typical,’ says researcherShark attacks increased around the world in 2021 following three years of decline, though beach closures in 2020 caused by the coronavirus pandemic could make the numbers seem more dramatic, officials in the US said on Monday.Researchers with the International Shark Attack File recorded 73 unprovoked incidents last year compared to 52 in 2020, according to a new report administered by the Florida Museum of Natural History and the American Elasmobranch Society. Continue reading...

$9tn of annual investment required to avoid most catastrophic climate impacts, consultancy saysReaching net zero climate emissions by 2050 will require a “fundamental transformation of the global economy”, according to a report by McKinsey, one of the world’s most influential consulting firms.It estimates that $9.2tn will need to be invested every year for decades to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C and end the climate emergency. The sum is a 60% increase on current investment levels and equivalent to half of global corporate profits. Continue reading...

Cycling festival begins as campaigners push to end sponsorship deal and oil company boss says there’s ‘no alternative’ to fossil fuels

Six years ago poachers hacked off Sehawukele’s horns; now he’s back in a game reserveA 10-year-old white rhino whose horns were brutally hacked off has returned to the wild after 30 operations over six years to repair the gash in his face.His rescuers named the bull Sehawukele, meaning “God have mercy on us”. Called Seha for short, he was found by police stumbling near a fence in a reserve, so disfigured that he could barely hear or eat. Continue reading...

Shoots cause stress for migratory species such as Svalbard barnacle goose, whose numbers are down 38%The RSPB has called for an emergency shooting ban after an “unprecedented” outbreak of bird flu that has left wildfowl populations in “catastrophic decline”.Migratory geese that overwinter on the Solway Firth, which stretches between Scotland and Cumbria, are being hardest hit, with a 38% decline in the Svalbard barnacle goose breeding population from winter last year. Continue reading...

Aviva Investors says voting at AGMs will be influenced by policies on climate, human rights, biodiversity and executive payAviva Investors, an important UK asset manager, has put the directors of 1,500 companies on notice that it is willing to seek their removal if they fail to show enough urgency in tackling issues including the climate crisis and human rights.The firm said the way it votes on the re-election of company board members in the upcoming AGM season would be heavily influenced by its four key stewardship priorities for the year, which also include biodiversity and executive pay. Continue reading...

TV gardener points to shipping footprint and rainforest destruction, saying he also finds the fruit ‘insipid’The TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh has said he refuses to eat avocados for breakfast because of their “enormous carbon footprint” and much prefers Shreddies.Writing in Gardeners’ World magazine, Titchmarsh said he could not bear the idea of “forcing” down the “insipid” fruit first thing in the morning, before suggesting that he believed it should be boycotted on environmental grounds. Continue reading...

Activists say bill being presented to parliament sanctions irreversible destruction of environmentA nationwide day of action against HS2 – involving banner drops, solidarity protests and a “Twitter storm” – is planned for Monday as the bill to expand the line beyond Crewe is presented to parliament.Environmental activists say the bill will “sanction immense and irreversible destruction to the environment” and want to raise awareness of HS2’s “continuing ecocide, corruption and financial mismanagement”. Continue reading...

If overlooked open spaces were used, dependence on overseas imports could be reduced, research findsBritain could grow up to eight times its current production of fruit and vegetables if all available urban and under-used green space were turned to cultivation, new research has shown.Only about 1% of urban green space is made up of allotments, but if gardens were used, along with parks, playing fields, watersides and other overlooked open spaces, the area would add up to enough to grow nearly 40% of the UK’s fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, most of which comes from overseas, according to the study. Continue reading...

One-horned species was nearly extinct before poaching was curbed. Now the climate crisis could pose a greater threatGanesh Pant worries about the future. While he delights in the stunning conservation accomplishment that has seen the numbers of greater one-horned rhinos in Nepal jump from 100 in 1965 to 752 in 2021, he wants to be sure that success will continue.Before the 1950s, as many as 1,000 rhinos roamed the grasslands and forests of Nepal. But by 1965, rampant hunting, poaching and changes in land use had brought the species close to extinction in the country. Then, the national park was established in 1973 and thanks to concerted conservation efforts, the rhino population began to bounce back. Continue reading...

Charles county authorities say neighbors did not know about venomous and non-venomous reptiles including a 14ft pythonPolice officers called to a Maryland residence by a concerned neighbour found a 49-year-old man dead – and surrounded by more than 125 venomous and non-venomous snakes, held in tanks on racks.The discovery by Charles county sheriff’s deputies and emergency responders at the house in Pomfret became even more bizarre when they established that none of the reptiles, including a 4.3m (14ft) Burmese python, had escaped or were slithering free. Continue reading...

Exclusive: climate tilt by USS will immediately reduce emissions associated with its holdings by 30%The UK’s biggest private pension fund will shift £5bn of its investment in equities to an index avoiding the worst polluters, in a move that will immediately reduce the carbon emissions associated with the shareholdings by 30%.The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which manages the pensions of British academics, will introduce a climate “tilt” to the money, shifting it to companies that are making efforts to cut emissions. Continue reading...

The pork industry claimed new animal welfare rules would bring chaos to the supply chain. Proponents say they need to get with the programIn the months leading up to the arrival of a strict new animal welfare law in California, headlines warned of a “Great California bacon crisis”. The law sets minimum living-space requirements for breeding pigs, which restaurants said could make bacon more expensive and harder to get.But so far, the pork apocalypse has yet to arrive. Continue reading...

Four years after a new post-Brexit payments system was promised by ministers, confusion leaves bid to improve biodiversity in limboFarmers are putting off planting trees because of the uncertainty surrounding the government’s plans for subsidies based on protecting nature, delaying the UK’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and stem the drastic decline in farmland wildlife.New farm payments are expected from 2024, under the post-Brexit subsidy regime the government has promised, but farmers fear if they plant trees now they will not get the credit for it when the new schemes start. Meanwhile, they face potentially losing their existing subsidies if they switch to more tree-planting now. Continue reading...

The multiyear deal with the fossil fuel company had been the target of a campaign against ‘sportswashing’

Leicester politicians hope levy on local firms will help cut pollution in cityCouncils across the UK are using radical strategies to cut the number of polluting vehicles on their streets in response to the climate emergency.Leicester city council hopes a new charge on workplace parking will improve air quality, fund public transport and incentivise walking and cycling. Continue reading...

Rewilding teams are facing a huge task to encourage the return of wildlife after decades of damage by the forestry industryChopping down trees is not how most people would expect a river restoration project to begin, but Janne Raassina – who is expertly using a chainsaw to take down four or five earmarked trunks around the Särkkäjoki River in remotest eastern Finland – explains that the rotting wood will be hugely useful to the ecosystem.“This is a huge buffet for insects, and it’s something that has been missing in our nature for 100 years,” he says. “We are creating the food chain from scratch.” Continue reading...

Project does not meet EU’s requirement for environmental impact assessment, NGOs sayThe British petrochemicals company Ineos is facing a legal challenge over plans to build a giant plastics plant in Antwerp.The legal NGO ClientEarth, acting with 13 other NGOs, on Friday launched an appeal against Antwerp’s decision to grant Ineos a permit to build a chemicals installation to make ethylene from fracked US shale gas, the Guardian has learned. Continue reading...

NSW government’s approval compromises ‘environmental integrity of the operation’, say campaignersLocals and advocates have been left “devastated” and concerned about the environmental impacts of the New South Wales government’s decision to allow Whitehaven Coal to bury used tyres onsite at the Maules Creek coalmine.The government approved Whitehaven’s modification application on 14 January to allow off-the-road (OTR) tyres that can no longer be used at the mine to be buried within the mine’s waste rock emplacement areas, “subject to appropriate environmental controls”. Continue reading...

City council expected to vote to ban new oil and gas wells, and phase out existing ones, which residents have blamed for chronic health issuesThe University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles has a lot in common with urban areas across the US: a dense population with lots of businesses and housing. A cluster of car dealerships. A row of restaurants. Schools and a community center.But nestled in the predominantly Latino community is something rarely found in urban areas outside California: an oil field. Continue reading...

Officials from Exxon, Shell, Chevron and BP have been summoned to appear before the House oversight committee in FebruaryA US congressional committee has invited board members at four large oil companies to testify in February about the industry’s role in the climate crisis and spreading “disinformation”, turning up the heat on big oil after lawmakers grilled their CEOs last year.The hearing of officials from Exxon, Shell, Chevron and BP, scheduled for 8 February, is the next phase of the House oversight committee’s investigation into the role of fossil fuel companies in blocking action on climate change and misrepresenting the industry’s efforts to address it. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including beluga whales, a ‘snow fairy’ and two egrets hitching a lift Continue reading...

Morrison government hails engineering milestone but researchers raise concerns and say it could increase emissions

The deal to build an electric car battery plant near Blyth will bring up to 3,000 jobs to the area by 2028The UK government will invest £100m in Britishvolt as the car battery manufacturing startup seeks to build Britain’s first large-scale “gigafactory” in the north-east of England.The government’s Automotive Transformation Fund will invest alongside asset management company Abrdn and its majority-owned property investment arm, Tritax, to fund a sale and leaseback deal for the huge building that will house the electric car battery factory, near Blyth in Northumberland. Continue reading...

Government considers scrapping scheme that pays for energy efficiency measures for poorer householdsMore than 30,000 jobs would be put at risk if the government were to scrap the energy bill levy that pays for home insulation improvements for poor households, the industry has warned.Ministers are mooting an end to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), a £1bn levy on energy bills that pays for energy efficiency measures for people on low incomes. The energy price cap is expected to rise by about £700 to £2,000 for the average household bill in April, after a surge in gas prices. Continue reading...

£140 might have been knocked off typical bill if rollout of projects had happened sooner, says industryBritain’s wind and solar farms could help to reduce households’ energy bills by paying back almost £800m to consumers by the end of the winter after gas and electricity market prices rocketed above their set subsidy levels.Households earned a £157m windfall from renewable energy generators for the first time in the final quarter of last year following record high market prices, according to official figures. Continue reading...

Some rightwingers claim renewables have increased costs, but Energy UK blames over-reliance on gasEnergy companies want the government to implement policies to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the industry’s leader has said, despite claims from some on the political right that high energy prices should spark a rethink.Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of Energy UK, which represents the industry, said: “The government should press on with net zero policies. That’s something they still need to do. We are missing the carbon budgets.” Continue reading...

A fifth of those polled said they could reduce food waste if they knew more recipesAlmost £1.2bn worth of fruit, veg and bread is binned in the UK every year, with one in five consumers stating the reason they waste so much is they “don’t know what to cook”.Close to 76m items – an average of nearly three a household – are thrown away every week, according to data based on research by the Censuswide, which asked consumers how much food they threw away. The scale of the waste is staggering, with 914m potatoes, 733m tomatoes and 728m carrots ending up in dustbins each year. Continue reading...

Tim Westley takes up chef friend’s challenge to transform laughing gas litterThe little steel bulbs that litter parks, roadsides and city centres – the discarded canisters from Britain’s second favourite drug, laughing gas – cause misery to many communities. But now one blacksmith has found an innovative use for them: turning them into handmade kitchen knives.The prevalence of the canisters has prompted some councils to impose local bans, while the home secretary is keen to outlaw them nationally. But Tim Westley’s handmade kitchen knives are gaining a cult following among environmentally conscious foodies after being endorsed by chefs committed to low waste. Continue reading...

Scientists say find shows importance of mapping deep ocean where coral can escape effects of global heatingA huge coral reef has been discovered off the coast of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean’s “twilight zone”, offering hope that more pristine ecosystems are waiting to be discovered at unexplored depths.Stretching along the ocean floor for nearly 2 miles, the reef, covered in rose-shaped corals, is one of the largest such discoveries at depths of more than 30 metres, where sunlight levels are much lower. Continue reading...

If carbon emissions stay at current levels, just 0.02% of the desert tree would survive. Volunteers are now banding together to plant seedlingsThe trees are not exactly imposing. Slim and spiny, with limbs that grip small poms of sharp leaves, they look like something a child might dream up. Or maybe Salvador Dalí. Even the name, Joshua tree, sounds kind of awkward.On a wet and chilly December morning, I stood at a makeshift encampment in the Mojave national preserve in San Bernardino county, California, listening as a group of strangers fretted over the trees’ precarious future. Within the preserve is Cima Dome, a broad-sloping mound that, until recently, contained the densest Joshua tree forest in the world.The August 2020 Dome Fire in the Mojave national preserve burned more than 1m Joshua trees to varying degrees. Continue reading...

More than a thousand crows roost in Sunnyvale every night, ruffling locals’ feathers with caws and droppingsEach night, more than a thousand crows descend on Sunnyvale, California. In recent years a growing contingency of corvids have been roosting in the Silicon Valley town’s downtown district, filling the night air with a chorus of caws and painting the roads, Pollock-esque, with droppings.The spectacle has failed to charm residents and local business owners. Vice-Mayor Alysa Cisneros said constituents had been complaining about the crows since she began campaigning for office in 2019. “In terms of the kinds of complaints I get on a consistent basis, crows are a top concern, right after speeding drivers,” she said. Continue reading...

Delayed legislation includes ban on trophy hunting imports and stricter sentences for puppy thievesSome of the government’s most prized new animal welfare policies are being put on pause in what supporters see as a sneaky attempt to ditch the “woke” measures altogether.Senior sources in the Conservative party have confirmed to the Guardian that a series of policies including a ban on trophy hunting imports, stricter sentences for puppy thieves and a ban on live exports of livestock have been put on pause after a campaign led by Mark Spencer, the chief whip. Continue reading...

Retired salesman John Stimpson was so moved by the cries of birds unable to find nests, he decided to act. Now he has made enough boxes to house half the UK’s swiftsRetired salesman John Stimpson is 80 today. He will be celebrating with a cake at Slimming World this evening, followed by dinner with his family on Friday. Stimpson has one achievement in particular to mark: he has just completed his goal of building 30,000 swift boxes, which could house half of the UK’s breeding population of 60,000 pairs.Stimpson has been making these peculiarly shaped boxes for 13 years using three saws and three drills in his garage attached to his bungalow near Ely in Cambridgeshire. What started as a retirement hobby morphed into a full-time job after orders increased, and he sometimes works 13-hour days to get them all done. He sells them for £20, which is enough to cover his costs. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Officers say cuts and operational decisions have made England’s regulator ‘toothless’Staff at England’s Environment Agency say it has been cut back to such an extent that they cannot do their jobs and the regulator is no longer a deterrent to polluters.Three officers at the EA have described to the Guardian and Ends Report how they are increasingly unable to hold polluters to account or improve the environment as a result of the body’s policies. Continue reading...

There’s still much to learn about these ‘strange alien creatures’, but climate change likely to create ideal breeding conditions, expert says

Endangered coho salmon spotted returning to spawning grounds after well-timed precipitationThe heavy rains that soaked California late last year were welcomed by farmers, urban planners – and endangered coho salmon.“We’ve seen fish in places that they haven’t been for almost 25 years,” said Preston Brown, the director of watershed conservation for the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (Spawn). Continue reading...

Northumbrian Water admitted two breaches of law after manhole collapse led to sewer blockageA water company has been fined £240,000 after a damaged manhole led to two unauthorised sewage discharges into a stream.Untreated sewage leaked into Coundon Burn in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on 13 March 2017. A member of the public rang Northumbrian Water after seeing effluent in the stream, and the firm – which had a turnover of £834.6m that year – sent workers to free a sewer blockage. Continue reading...