Environment | The Guardian

Covid lockdowns in host country frustrate scientists as no date in sight for key UN conservation conference after two years of delays

Move could provide income for homeless and clean up Barcelona’s streets and beaches, says governmentIn a move that could provide some income for homeless people and clean up the streets, the Catalan government is looking at paying €4 to anyone who hands in a pack’s-worth of cigarette ends at a recycling point.The cost of the proposal would be covered by a 20-cent levy on each cigarette, its proponents say, which would nearly double the price of a pack of Marlboro Red from about €5 (£4.25), compared with about £13 in the UK. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including an injured bird, hungry jackals and a rescued dolphin Continue reading...

Jenny Jones says bill, named after girl who died of asthma, treats pollution as matter of social justiceA new clean air law is starting out in parliament after the Green party peer Jenny Jones won first place in the House of Lords ballot for private members’ bills.Named Ella’s law, as a tribute to nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah who died from asthma induced by air pollution, the bill would establish a right to clean air and set up a commission to oversee government actions and progress. It would also join policies on indoor and outdoor air pollution with actions to combat our climate emergency, and include annual reviews of the latest science. Continue reading...

Failures in government’s investment strategy mean taxpayer has contributed £10.7bn in just two yearsThe cost of decommissioning the UK’s seven ageing nuclear power stations has nearly doubled to £23.5bn and is likely to rise further, the public accounts committee has said.The soaring costs of safely decommissioning the advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs), including Dungeness B, Hunterston B and Hinkley B, are being loaded on to the taxpayer, their report said. Continue reading...

Despite the growth of renewable energy, Australia’s per capita coal emissions of 4.04 tonnes a year is nearly four times the global average

Proposed EPA to collect data on the plight of the country’s wildlife as Labor commits to global biodiversity targets

Peter Muchlinski, Robert Cooper and Andy Bradley respond to the Guardian’s exposé of big oil’s fossil fuel projects that are a colossal threat to the climate and human lifeYour exposé on the dangers of fossil fuel “carbon bombs” (Revealed: the ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown, 11 May) gives us much to worry about. I would like to offer a small ray of hope. Last year, The Hague’s district court held that Royal Dutch Shell was obliged to reduce the group’s CO emissions by a net 45% by the end of 2030 relative to 2019. Shell was found to have a legal duty of care to do so, based on the relevant facts of the case, the best available science on climate change and how to manage it, and “the widespread international consensus that human rights offer protection against the impacts of dangerous climate change and that companies must respect human rights”.This linkage between climate change and human rights is a major step towards acknowledging that fossil-fuel-based industries are a significant threat to human rights. It offers a basis for mass legal challenges against the purveyors of carbon bombs. Sadly, the UK and other governments don’t see it this way and continue to subsidise such projects. In this, they may well be complicit in mass violations of human rights. Uncontrolled fossil fuel investment should be seen as a direct threat to the human right to life, and the law should impose severe financial penalties on firms and governments that continue to invest in carbon bomb projects. Continue reading...

Demonstrators rejecting algal bloom explanation for wash-ups on England’s north-east coast call for investigation to be reopenedAbout 25 fishing boats have sailed into the mouth of the River Tees while setting off flares and fireworks in a protest over mass marine deaths that are ruining livelihoods as well as being a “huge ecological disaster”.More than 200 well-wishers, many representing conservation and environmental campaigns, cheered from the shore, chanted “Stop the sludge” and sang protest songs. Continue reading...

Fewer laying birds are being placed on farms as producers respond to poor retail profit marginsConsumers could be hit with higher egg prices as UK farmers reduce their flock numbers, in response to escalating costs and insufficient profit margins.The numbers of chicks being placed by egg producers in April was down 15% year on year, according to the latest government figures. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pollutants can upset body’s metabolic thermostat with some even causing obesity to be passed on to childrenChemical pollution in the environment is supersizing the global obesity epidemic, according to a major scientific review.The idea that the toxins called “obesogens” can affect how the body controls weight is not yet part of mainstream medicine. But the dozens of scientists behind the review argue that the evidence is now so strong that it should be. “This is critical because the current clinical management of obese patients is woefully inadequate,” they said. Continue reading...

International experts who analyzed more than 1,200 scientific studies warn chemicals are being consumed with unknown long-term impacts

While alarm over wildfires, droughts, flooding and societal unrest is on the rise, not many of us talk about climate angst

Aquatic mammals can recognise friends and family members without seeing or hearing themDolphins are able to recognise one another by the taste of their urine, a study has found.Researchers at the University of St Andrews have discovered that the mammals can recognise friends and family members without seeing or hearing them. Continue reading...

Poor seed harvests have led to empty shelves at supermarkets in France and global shortagesClimate change and rising costs are causing supermarkets in France to run out of dijon mustard, raising questions over whether the shortage could spread to other countries.French mustard producers said seed production in 2021 was down 50% after poor harvests, which they said had been brought on by the changing climate in France’s Burgundy region and Canada, the second largest mustard seed producer in the world. Continue reading...

Only 1,500 huemul remain in the world, but a parks corridor is being created to save the deer that features on Chile’s coat of armsIt is twilight in Las Horquetas valley in Patagonia’s northern Aysén region. Several cars have pulled over beneath sandy cliffs on a wide paved road. Just metres away, three deer graze unperturbed in the glow of the car lights.The Patagonian huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus), or South Andean deer, is the most endangered hoofed animal in South America. It has deep inset eyes, furry antlers and is no bigger than a toddler. Fewer than 1,500 survive today – two-thirds are found in Chile and the remainder in Argentina, where the huemul’s principal habitat is lenga forest and scrubland. They exist in severely fragmented groups of 101 known sub-populations, with 60% of these comprising only 10-20 individuals, making them susceptible to freak weather events. They also suffer from poor genetic diversity. Continue reading...

Regulator says outgoing boss Stuart Smith had no role in selecting winners and was invited to acknowledge his work over eight years

About 50 schemes are thought to be in pipeline between now and 2025 despite climate pledgesSeveral major UK fossil fuel projects have been approved since Cop26 concluded, an analysis has found, while about 50 schemes are thought to be in the pipeline between now and 2025.Three separate schemes have received some form of approval from government bodies during the six-month period since Boris Johnson’s administration hosted the UN climate summit in Glasgow. Continue reading...

Environmental organisations partner to create 15,000-acre protected wetland from Glastonbury to Bridgwater BayAt this time of year the booming call of the bitterns resonates across the Avalon Marshes in Somerset while hawks skim over the reed beds and great white egrets nest in the shallows. The pools and ditches are alive with rare reptiles, mammals, insects and spiders.Plans to improve the habitat for flora and fauna that live in one of the UK’s most extraordinary landscapes by creating a “super nature reserve” stretching from these marshes around Glastonbury to the edge of Bridgwater Bay were announced on Thursday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: this year’s show promotes the trend of digging up lawns and planting wildlife-friendly flowersBees and other pollinators will be the stars of this year’s Chelsea flower show, with many gardens demonstrating how to attract and protect them.Scientists have also developed a planter specifically designed with flowers that appeal to bees. Its designers say that if 50,000 gardeners planted just one container each, it would provide enough flower power to fuel 1m bumblebee miles every day, equivalent to an estimated 2m foraging trips. Bumblebees must fly from and to the nest multiple times each day to supply their colony with nectar and pollen. Continue reading...

Carbon capture and storage isn’t working close to a scale that would significantly lower emissions – despite billions in taxpayers’ cash thrown at it

If national emissions data is incorrect then Australia less likely to be on track to meet Coalition’s target of a 26-28% cut by 2030

Scientists compare findings of tree study to mass coral bleaching in Great Barrier Reef

European Commission says extra €210bn needed over next five years to pay for phasing out of Russian fossil fuelsThe EU plans a “massive” increase in solar and wind power, and a short-term boost for coal, to end its reliance on Russian oil and gas as fast as possible.In a plan outlined on Wednesday, the European Commission said the EU needed to find an extra €210bn (£178bn) over the next five years to pay for phasing out Russian fossil fuels and speeding up the switch to green energy. Continue reading...

Fields in Trust charity finds about one in 24 people in Britain live 10 minutes walk from nearest parkNearly 2.8 million people in the UK live more than 10 minutes walk from a public park, garden or playing field, according to research.Fields in Trust, which protects and campaigns for public green spaces, found just four out of the 11 regions in Great Britain met its “six-acre standard” for green space provision. Continue reading...

Latest analysis adds to evidence that the impacts of human-caused global heating are already damaging many lives around the worldRecord-breaking heatwaves in north-west India and Pakistan have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to scientists. The analysis means scorching weather once expected every three centuries is now likely to happen every three years.The region is currently suffering intense heat, with the Indian capital New Delhi setting a new record on Sunday above 49C and the peak temperature in Pakistan reaching 51C. Millions of people are suffering from crop losses, and water and power outages. Continue reading...

Gump was the last lizard of her kind when she died in 2014, and her demise should be ‘a scar on our conscience’The last Christmas Island forest skink was named Gump. She lived in a spacious cage filled with rocks, soil, logs and a ready supply of fresh invertebrate food in the island’s national park. She wasn’t particularly active, but then again it’s impossible to know what goes on in the mind of a skink. Her namesake was Forrest Gump – they were both solitary individuals who, despite being mild and unassuming, experienced momentous events while remaining quite unaware of the exceptional courses their lives had taken.The Christmas island forest skink (or whiptail skink) used to thrive on its island home, an Australian territory off the coast of Indonesia. In 1979, researchers documented that they were its most abundant skink. These lizards were, visually, fairly nondescript. Not too small, but by no means large, they averaged about 20cm (8in) in length, with a slim body covered in brown-yellow scales. They were practically the default image that comes to mind when you think “lizard”. Continue reading...

Stockholm institute calls for ‘bold science-based decision-making’ to tackle climate, social and economic crisesThe world is at “boiling point” and humanity needs to redefine its relationship with nature if it is to address a web of crises, from rising prices to extreme heat and floods, according to a report released ahead of a landmark UN conference.The research from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the Council on Energy Environment and Water says the solutions to the interlinked planetary and inequality crisis exist, but calls for “bold science-based decision-making” to “completely rethink our way of living,”.Replacing GDP as the single metric to measure progress and instead focus on indicators that take “inclusive wealth” and the caring economy into account.Establishing a regular UN forum on sustainable lifestyles.A global campaign on nature-based education for children.Transforming people’s everyday relationship with nature by integrating it in cities; protecting animal welfare and shifting to more plant-based diets. It also says policymakers should draw on indigenous local knowledge. Continue reading...

Uncovering the oil and gas mega-projects. Also: anger in Buffalo

Scientists hail breakthrough that could maximise catches while reducing damage caused by fishingAn unusual technique for catching scallops that was stumbled upon accidentally by scientists could potentially reduce some of the damage caused to our seabeds by fishing.The marine scientist Dr Rob Enever and his team at Fishtek Marine, a fisheries consultancy based in Devon, designed small underwater “potlights” to help protect fish stocks by replacing the need to use fish to bait crab and lobster pots. Continue reading...

A Guardian investigation has revealed 195 oil and gas projects known as ‘carbon bombs’ that could trigger catastrophic climate breakdown if allowed to continue. Damian Carrington reports

Toxic air, water and soil are ‘existential threat to human and planetary health’, says global reviewPollution is killing 9 million people a year, a review has found, making it responsible for one in six of all deaths.Toxic air and contaminated water and soil “is an existential threat to human health and planetary health, and jeopardises the sustainability of modern societies”, the review concluded. Continue reading...

Owners of community land bought shares to join annual meeting of Fresnillo, a Mexican FTSE 100 companyMexican farmers have travelled to London to demand that a FTSE 100 company compensates them for illegal mining on their land and explain violence against anti-mining activists.Penmont mining, a subsidiary of Fresnillo, was ordered by an agrarian court in Mexico in 2013 to pay members of El Bajío community, co-owners of common land in Sonora, north-west Mexico, for the gold extracted and to restore the land to its original state. Continue reading...

Group previously accused of being part of ‘astroturfing’ campaign says ‘community deserves clarity’ on position of Labor candidate in Queensland seat of Groom

First female prime minister in 30 years faces calls to act fast after ‘five lost years’ on tackling global heatingThe new French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, has immediately come under pressure from environmentalists on the left who warned “hopes were low” that she would drastically cut France’s carbon emissions or move fast enough to address global heating, despite Emmanuel Macron’s election promise to make France a world-leader on the climate emergency.Borne’s first comments after taking office were to promise to “act faster and stronger” to deal with climate challenges, after the newly re-elected centrist president, Macron, promised his prime minister special oversight powers to plan France’s transition to become “the first major nation to abandon gas, oil and coal.” Continue reading...

Report tells of 20-hour shifts for £3.50 an hour, racism and sexual abuse under cover of transit visa loopholeA third of migrant workers on UK fishing vessels who responded to a research survey work 20-hour shifts, and 35% reported regular physical violence, according to a new study that concludes there is rampant exploitation and abuse on British ships.“Leaving is not possible because I’m not allowed off the vessel to ask for help,” one migrant worker told researchers at the University of Nottingham Rights Lab, which focuses on modern slavery. They found fishers reported working excessive hours, with few breaks, on an average salary of £3.51 an hour. Continue reading...

Increasing supply is ‘absolutely part of the solution’ to decarbonising the economy, Appea chair tells conference

Pascal Lamy to lead commission exploring how methods to tackle global heating could be governedCountries must urgently agree a way of controlling and regulating attempts to geoengineer the climate, and consider whether to set a moratorium on such efforts, as the danger of global heating exceeding the 1.5C threshold increases, the former head of the World Trade Organisation has warned.Pascal Lamy, a former director general of the WTO and a former EU trade commissioner, now president of the Paris Peace Forum, said governments were increasingly likely to explore the possibilities of geoengineering, as efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions have so far been inadequate. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Nearly half existing facilities will need to close prematurely to limit heating to 1.5C, scientists sayNearly half of existing fossil fuel production sites need to be shut down early if global heating is to be limited to 1.5C, the internationally agreed goal for avoiding climate catastrophe, according to a new scientific study.The assessment goes beyond the call by the International Energy Agency in 2021 to stop all new fossil fuel development to avoid the worst impacts of global heating, a statement seen as radical at the time. Continue reading...

Buffalo suspect allegedly calls himself ‘eco-fascist’ and blames migration for harm to the environment in document posted onlineThe suspected perpetrator of the deadly shooting in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday may have been the latest mass killer to be motivated by a growing fixation of rightwingers – environmental degradation and the impact of overpopulation.The attack, that left 10 people shot dead and three wounded, has been described as a “hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism” by the FBI. Continue reading...

Promises of jobs and investment are doing little to convince a remote Lincolnshire community to agree to hosting the country’s nuclear wasteOn the unspoilt Lincolnshire coast, where dog walkers enjoy the five miles of golden sandy beach and families take holidays in the caravan parks beyond the dunes, the efforts of British politicians to persuade the public nuclear energy is green, safe and clean do not seem to be gaining traction.A skull glowers down from the sand dunes on to Mablethorpe Beach, a portent of death and destruction, and a throwback to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament protests of the 1980s. Continue reading...

Reasons behind drop include people being more conscious of energy use during cost of living crisis, says CPRELight pollution has decreased as a result of fears over soaring energy costs, a survey by the countryside charity CPRE has suggested.Stargazers have been enjoying the best view of the night sky since 2011, as light pollution sharply dropped during the pandemic lockdowns and the levels continue to fall despite restrictions having been lifted. Continue reading...

Non-native bugs will be first attempt at using biocontrol on floating pennywort, after years of researchSouth American weevils have been released into Britain’s waterways by the government in order to tackle the invasive species floating pennywort.The industrious bugs are being heralded as a hope to cut back the weed, which grows rapidly and blankets rivers and canals, drowning out the light and choking the life within. Continue reading...

Mount Isa Mines responsible for 91% of emissions in the outback city despite having an ‘industry-leading air quality management framework’

Ministers instead urged to focus on reducing flights and halting airport expansion to cut carbon emissionsThe UK government’s “jet zero” plan to eliminate carbon emissions from aviation relies on unproven or nonexistent technology and “sustainable” fuel, and is likely to result in ministers missing their legally binding emissions targets, according to a report.The study from Element Energy, which has worked for the government and the climate change committee in the past, says instead of focusing on such unreliable future developments, ministers should work to reduce the overall number of flights and halt airport expansion over the next few years. Continue reading...

Friends of the Earth says there will be no market for Whitehaven coal as Europe’s steelmakers move to ‘green steel’A new coalmine proposed for Cumbria is likely to be redundant before it even opens because the steelmakers that are its target market are moving so rapidly away from fossil fuels, analysis from green campaigners claims.Steelmakers across Europe are moving to “green steel”, which uses renewable energy and modern techniques to avoid the need for coking coal of the type that the proposed mine in Whitehaven would produce. Continue reading...

Five days before Australian election, Anote Tong urges leaders to understand climate crisis means ‘survival is on the line’ for Pacific islands

EU concern over ‘cruel’ practice of taking blood from mares to create hormone products that increase reproduction in farmed animalsIceland is under pressure to ban the production of a hormone extracted from pregnant horses, a practice that has been described as “cruel” and “animal abuse”.

Conservationists and Inuit community relieved at decision on Canadian iron mine that threatened ‘extirpation’ of cetaceanThe expansion of an iron ore mine in the Arctic that would have increased shipping and led to the “complete extirpation of narwhal” from the region has been blocked.After four years of consultations and deliberations, the Nunavut Impact Review Board rejected a request from Baffinland Iron Mines Corp asking to significantly increase mining on the northern tip of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. The area is home to one of the world’s richest iron ore deposits, and the densest narwhal population in the world. Continue reading...

Maya Bay was once a sorry victim of overtourism. Now the beach’s wild residents – and a restricted number of human visitors – are returning“I just feel like everyone tries to do something different but you all wind up doing the same damn thing.” When these words were uttered by Richard in Alex Garland’s novel The Beach – and in the film adaptation by a young Leonardo DiCaprio 22 years ago – no one realised just how prophetic they were.The novel’s protagonist was talking about the trap backpackers like him fall into when travelling around Thailand: all visiting the same sites, from Bangkok’s Khao San Road and the 46-metre reclining gold buddha at Wat Pho temple to full-moon parties on Ko Samui. He decides to do “something different”, and so begins a journey to find a secret island idyll. Little did the filmmakers realise they were about to add that location to the tourist bucket list and see its popularity explode. Continue reading...