Environment | The Guardian

The heritage listed and critically endangered Cumberland plain woodland was cleared for a new defence department facility

In the central highlands north-west of Melbourne, farmers are fighting plans to install 85-metre towers through their propertiesFor the past year, “PISS OFF AUSNET” has been expertly mown into the rolling green hills at Blampied in Victoria’s central highlands. The quaint, 157-year-old Swiss Mountain Hotel has panoramic views of the scene, which is surrounded by farmland.Despite the serenity of the setting, the message reveals a community of farmers and tourism stakeholders allied in a dogfight against the company behind the Western Victorian Transmission Network Project (WVTNP). Continue reading...

Energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng believed to be open to extension in response to leap in gas prices and energy security concernsNuclear power advocates believe the energy secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, is open to extending the life of the Hinkley Point B plant to help wean the UK off gas imports and prevent a faster-than-expected decline in Britain’s fleet of atomic reactors.Soaring gas prices and the war in Ukraine have already spurred the government to ask coal power plant owners to stay open longer, while ministers also revisited their staunch opposition to fracking in the light of energy supply concerns. Continue reading...

Chemical companies hid their knowledge of the damage caused by PFAS for decades. With a new class-action lawsuit, Bilott intends to hold them accountableLast month, an Ohio court certified a class action lawsuit brought by lawyer Rob Bilott that would cover 7 million people – and at some point possibly everyone living in the United States – who have been exposed to certain hazardous “forever chemicals” known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS.The chemicals have been linked to cancer, birth defects, kidney disease and a range of other human health problems. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, persisting indefinitely in the environment. Continue reading...

As final decision looms on controversial pit, industry expert says there is no domestic market for its fuelClaims that a new coalmine in Cumbria will help supply British-made steel and replace Russian imports do not “stack up”, a senior industry figure has warned, as the government prepares to make a final decision over the project.Supporters of the proposed mine, which would be the UK’s first new coalmine in 30 years, have suggested that at least a share of the coal produced would be used in domestic steel production. They also say it could lower reliance on Russian coking coal in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

Otter would likely not have survived without intervention of goldendoodle Gus, officials sayA rescue of a drowning baby otter from a near-freezing river in Minnesota was remarkable not only for the successful outcome but for the identity of the rescuer – a tiny three-legged dog waging its own battle for survival with cancer.Wildlife officials said the otter would likely not have survived without the intervention of Gus, a six-year-old goldendoodle that had one of its back legs amputated earlier this year because of tumors. Continue reading...

Hundreds of mills could be converted to generate clean electricity – but the Environment Agency has just raised application fees by up to 790%New hydropower schemes to help transform and preserve some of the country’s historic watermills face being wrecked by a huge increase in application fees, energy campaigners warn.Some watermills have already had turbines installed to generate clean electricity, but campaigners say there are hundreds more across Britain which could be converted to hydropower to help conserve the sites and power the nation. Continue reading...

In his new book, Tony Hall, who has maintained Kew’s world-renowned arboretum for more than 20 years, reveals the stories behind some of the country’s most loved and unusual treesI am not exactly sure where my fascination and love of trees came from, but I do remember from a very young age seeing fallen acorns under a huge oak tree and being told that this tree had produced all of these acorns and that each one, like the one I had picked up and was holding in my hand, could grow into an oak tree and be hundreds of years old.After spending a lifetime working with trees, they continue to amaze me with their ability to grow and adapt through decades, and in many cases centuries, of seasonal change.2. An oak tree in Chirk, Wales. After the yew, the oak is the longest living of native British trees Continue reading...

With hunger across Horn of Africa and 600,000 children out of school, ‘desperate’ parents push more girls into early marriageDrought-afflicted areas of Ethiopia are seeing “dramatic” increases in child marriage as the worst climate-induced emergency for 40 years pushes people to the brink, the head of Unicef has said.Three consecutive failed rainy seasons have brought hunger, malnutrition and mass displacement to millions of people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti. Continue reading...

Moscow’s long-feared halt to supplies has met stoicism, trepidation – and a renewed determination to go it alone

Mountain frog lives in Queensland’s Gondwana rainforests which were extensively burned in black summer bushfires

Protesters charged with causing criminal damage of more than £5,000, Surrey Police saidFour climate activists have been charged after protests at two motorway service stations in Surrey.Nathan McGovern, 22, Amber Alexander, 18, Louis Hawkins, 22, and Rosa Sharkey, 22, have been charged with causing criminal damage of more than £5,000, Surrey police said. Continue reading...

Staff raise concerns after incoming chief executive Andrew McConville emphasises agricultural outcomes in introductory letter

Attorney general has launched an inquiry into fossil fuel companies’ role in causing global environmental crisisCalifornia’s attorney general has subpoenaed ExxonMobil as part of what he called a first-of-its-kind broader investigation into the petroleum industry for its alleged role in causing a global plastic pollution crisis, allegations that the company called meritless.Attorney general Rob Bonta said on Thursday that the industry for decades has encouraged the development and use of petroleum-based plastic products while seeking to minimize public understanding that their widespread use harms the environment and public health. Continue reading...

LA-based based Climate Emergency Fund donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to activistsJust Stop Oil’s disruptive protests, blamed for petrol shortages across parts of England, have been funded by US philanthropists who say they want to incite a global “spring uprising” over climate change.The environmental activists, whose oil terminal blockades have enraged ministers and rightwing commentators, have received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Los Angeles-based Climate Emergency Fund (CEF). Continue reading...

Insect’s forest populations have halved over past half-century despite increased woodland habitatMoths have declined faster in British woods over the last half-century than on farmland or in cities, despite woodlands having increased and moths being shielded from chemical and light pollution by the trees.Forest populations of moths halved between 1968 and 2016 compared with average national losses of a third, according to a study. Continue reading...

Campaigners say move by Cornish garden is latest example of epidemic of plastic being laid across UKThe Eden Project in Cornwall has installed plastic grass in a children’s play area to stop them getting muddy.The garden is one of a number of organisations and public bodies laying artificial turf in what environmental campaigners say is an epidemic of plastic being laid across the UK. There was a surge in interest across the UK in buying artificial grass during lockdown, according to data on Google Trends. Continue reading...

Residents are voicing fury over expansions set to displace thousands while Biden’s administration last year launched an investigation into a Houston projectTexas, with its wide-laned roads and supersized highways, seems like an unlikely place for a rebellion against the supremacy of American car culture.But last week a band of residents from across Texas descended upon the state’s department of transportation (DoT) to voice fury over new highway expansions that are set to displace thousands of people and raze hundreds of businesses, schools and churches. Meanwhile, the state is actively crushing local plans to encourage more cycling and walking as an alternative to driving. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a giant panda, jumping fish and an osprey egg Continue reading...

No Mow May scheme promotes letting wild plants thrive to provide nectar for insectsThe number of people not mowing their lawns is increasing after a successful campaign to keep gardens wild, a leading nature charity says.Gardeners are this year being urged once again by Plantlife to keep their lawnmower in the shed during No Mow May, in order to let wild plants thrive and provide nectar for insects. Continue reading...

A 69-year-old woman is recovering in hospital after the animal repeatedly stomped on her at Arundel Hills Country Club, Queensland ambulance says

Pacific Elders Voice group says military tension ‘created by China and the US and its allies’ are secondary to rising seas and catastrophic cyclonesGrowing military tensions in the Pacific between China, the US and Australia do not address the most significant security threat to the region – climate change – former leaders of Pacific nations have warned.In a statement on Friday, the Pacific Elders Voice group, which includes former leaders of the Marshall Islands, Palau, Kiribati and Tuvalu, as well as Dame Meg Taylor, the former secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat, said that “the primary security threat to the Pacific is climate change”, rather than geo-strategic tensions. Continue reading...

The ‘gas-guzzling fleet guarantees decades of pollution with every postcard and package,’ says an attorneyCalifornia and 15 other states that want the US Postal Service to buy more electric delivery vehicles are suing to halt purchases of thousands of gas-powered trucks as the agency modernizes its mail delivery fleet.Three separate lawsuits, filed by 16 states and environmental groups Thursday in New York and California, ask judges to order a more thorough environmental review before the Postal Service moves forward with the next-generation delivery vehicle program. Continue reading...

New research warns pressures of rising heat and loss of oxygen reminiscent of ‘great dying’ that occurred about 250m years agoGlobal heating is causing such a drastic change to the world’s oceans that it risks a mass extinction event of marine species that rivals anything that’s happened in the Earth’s history over tens of millions of years, new research has warned.Accelerating climate change is causing a “profound” impact upon ocean ecosystems that is “driving extinction risk higher and marine biological richness lower than has been seen in Earth’s history for the past tens of millions of years”, according to the study. Continue reading...

The jolt in costs is being blamed mostly on more expensive fossil fuels and falling reliability of coal-fired power plants

Landscape ‘primed for flooding’ with dams at capacity after back-to-back La Niña events

Environmental activists say action is ‘significant escalation’ in campaign against fuel distribution in EnglandEnvironmental activists have sabotaged petrol pumps at two motorway service stations, in what they described as a “significant escalation” in their campaign against fossil fuel distribution in England.About 35 supporters of the Just Stop Oil campaign staged blockades at the Cobham services in Surrey and the Clacket Lane services in Kent, both on the M25, smashing the display glass on petrol pumps with hammers and defacing them with spray paint. Continue reading...

Laborers worked for a month disposing of birds killed in a gruesomely inhumane manner. Then they found they too were disposableLabourers at the one of the world’s largest egg factories arrived at the plant in Rembrandt, Iowa, early one morning in March to discover they were about to work themselves out of a job.As they gathered at the huge barns housing stacks of caged hens, the workers were told to forget about their usual routine of collecting eggs and feeding the birds. Overnight, the factory had begun slaughtering more than 5 million chickens using a gruesome killing method after detecting a single case of avian influenza. Even supervisors were assigned to the arduous task of dragging dead hens out of packed cages as Rembrandt Enterprises raced to contain the spread of the virus, amid the largest bird flu outbreak in the US in seven years. Continue reading...

Fast food chain under pressure to join the Fair Food Program as several cases of what has been called modern day slavery on farms show the need for corporations to end these abusesOver the past several years, farm workers have held protests and hunger strikes on college campuses, outside of corporate headquarters, at annual shareholders meetings, and in cities around the US, and called for a public boycott to demand the fast food corporate chain Wendy’s join the Fair Food Program.The Fair Food Program was launched in 2011 by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida out of the group’s Campaign for Fair Food, to ensure workers are involved in enforcing, monitoring, and designing programs to protect workers in their workplaces through the food supply chain, relying on partnerships between workers, growers, and retail buyers to raise wages and adhere to workplace standards. Continue reading...

Tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover in 2021, including forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss, finds World Resources InstitutePristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a Cop26 deal to halt and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade.From the Brazilian Amazon to the Congo basin, the tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover last year, including 3.75m ha of primary forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss. Continue reading...

Liberal MP tells North Sydney candidates debate that moderates won commitment despite opposition from Nationals

Scott Morrison is criticising the Coalition’s own climate policy – it’s just one that has barely been used

Country receives about €62bn from exports of oil, gas and coal in two months, with Germany the biggest importer

Scott Morrison says Labor wants to use government safeguard mechanism as a ‘sneaky carbon tax’ but it is already making big business pay for offsets

Adam Bandt to unveil minor party’s climate policy including making Australia a ‘renewable energy superpower’ and net zero by 2035

Federal judge says farmers had been blindsided by a government order to shut downCanada’s effort to phase out open-pen salmon farms has hit a roadblock after a federal judge said farmers had been blindsided by a government order to shut down.Federal court judge Elizabeth Heneghan ruled earlier this month that former fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan had failed to grant farm operators the right to procedural fairness when she announced plans to phase out the farms, and criticized the minister’s lack of clarity surrounding the controversial decision that companies said would cost them millions in losses. Continue reading...

Largest analysis to date on the state of the world’s reptiles warns of threat to ecosystems as more than 1,800 species fight to surviveMore than a fifth of all reptile species are threatened with extinction, which could have a “devastating” impact on the planet, a new study warns.The largest ever analysis of the state of the world’s reptiles, published in Nature, found that 21% of reptile species are facing extinction. From lizards to snakes, such a loss could have disastrous impacts on ecosystems around the world, the study says. Continue reading...

Rising damage, caused mostly by food production, puts ability to feed planet’s growing population at riskHuman damage to the planet’s land is accelerating, with up to 40% now classed as degraded, while half of the world’s people are suffering the impacts, UN data has shown.The world’s ability to feed a growing population is being put at risk by the rising damage, most of which is caused by food production. Women in the developing world are particularly badly affected as they often lack legal titles to land and can be thrown off it if conditions are tough. Continue reading...

Business Council of Australia says safeguard mechanism ‘is already in place alongside a suite of other measures to reduce emissions’

Study finds tidal currents could introduce pollution from coalmine into seagrass meadows and dugong sanctuary in marine park

Proposals to prepare the country for more floods, massive storms and wildfires include building away from high-risk areas and protecting cultural sitesThe New Zealand government has released new plans to try to prepare the country for the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis: sea level rise, floods, massive storms and wildfires.The proposals, released for consultation on Wednesday, outline sweeping reforms to institutions, councils and laws to try to stop people building in hazardous areas, preserve cultural treasures, improve disaster responses, protect the financial system from the shocks of future disasters, and reform key industries including tourism, fisheries and farming. Continue reading...

The resolution will limit watering to just one day a week, affecting millions in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino countiesSouthern California officials declared a water shortage emergency Tuesday, and adopted new unprecedented restrictions on outdoor watering that will affect millions of people living in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties.Metropolitan water district of southern California’s resolution will limit outdoor watering to just one day per week for district residents supplied by a stressed system of canals, pipelines, reservoirs and hydroelectric power plants called the State Water Project, which supplies water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. Continue reading...

Scientists believe the reptiles have shifted from marine prey towards land-based food sources in the Territory, helping to boost numbers

Farming union NFU wants two-year delay but Green Alliance says move would keep emissions high beyond 2035There will be a “substantial gap” in UK agriculture’s efforts to reach net zero if post-Brexit environment-friendly subsidies are delayed by another two years, according to new analysis.The National Farmer’s Union (NFU) is urging the government to delay Environmental Land Management schemes (Elms) until 2025 and keep the EU’s Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in the interim period, which pays farmers for the amount of land they own, regardless of its impact on the environment. Continue reading...

Retired GP Diana Warner, accused of obstructing M25, joined by two others in the act of ‘civil resistance’Three members of Insulate Britain have disrupted a magistrates court trial, gluing their hands to court furniture and paying tribute to the environmental activist who died after setting himself on fire outside the US supreme court.Dr Diana Warner, a retired GP from Bristol, had been due to face trial at Stratford magistrates court on a charge of causing a public nuisance by obstructing junction 14 of the M25 on 27 September last year. Continue reading...

Death toll likely to rise, say witnesses to indiscriminate attacks on Kreinik and El Geneina by Sudan’s notorious Rapid Support ForcesAt least 200 people are now known to have died in West Darfur in the latest attack on civilians and local forces blamed on Janjaweed militia.Darfur, the semi-arid western region of Sudan where a vicious civil war erupted in 2003, has seen a new outbreak of fighting over the past few months as rival groups clash over water and grazing land, shortages of which are being exacerbated by the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Can a $100m cleanup operation save Mead, Nebraska, from putrid pesticide-laced waste that has polluted water, with health implications yet unknown?

Labor earlier jumped on climate crisis split between Liberals and Nationals after Colin Boyce said emissions target had ‘wiggle room’

Calls for international standard on extraction and better monitoring of most-exploited resource after waterHumans extract 50bn tonnes of sand and gravel every year, according to UN research, enough to build a wall 27 metres high by 27 metres wide around the planet.Sand is the most-exploited resource after water. But unlike water, it is not recognised as a key strategic resource by governments and industry, something, the UN says, that must change and fast.

The 190,000 residents who previously accessed a $1,400 rebate to install solar panels will now be able to access up to $1,000 for solar hot water