Environment | The Guardian

Legislation will propose low-interest loans program for providers, allowing them to recoup money without using fines and shutoffsLegislation to cancel utility debts for millions of low-income households and bail out struggling utility companies is to be introduced in the US Senate on Thursday.Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator from Oregon, will propose a $30bn low-interest loans program for electric, water and sewage and broadband providers as part of the Maintaining Access to Essential Services During the Covid Emergency Act of 2021. Continue reading...

When Dr Nanette Pierson moved to Hilton Head in 2009, she noticed hungry children at an apartment complex. Why are people lining up to eat in such a prosperous place?It’s a Tuesday morning in late April. I drive under a green canopy of live oaks on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Hilton Head is the picture of prosperity, awash in artificial green golf courses, pollen and Disney resorts – but I’m searching for a food pantry.A small private plane flies overhead. More than 70% of Hilton Head’s current homeowners live in gated communities, which are often named after cotton plantations that enslaved thousands of people. Early developer Charles Fraser built the island’s iconic red-and-white striped lighthouse; the structure hosts weddings and overlooks not just the harbor, but the final hole of a golf course. Continue reading...

The harmful chemical has a unique quality: it can build up in our river systems over time

Arizona’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit framing the climate crisis as a nativist issue as the evident impacts of global heating make denial less viableJoe Biden has sought to spur an expansion in renewable energy and electric vehicles since entering the White House but his climate agenda has also stirred something wholly unintended – a surge in blame foisted upon migrants for environmental degradation.An unusual lawsuit filed last month by Mark Brnovich, Arizona’s attorney general, is indicative of a growing nativist framing of the climate crisis, according to academics. In the lawsuit, Brnovich, a Republican, demands the reinstatement of Donald Trump’s immigration policies to help remedy the “pollution and stress on natural resources” caused by migrants who move to the US. Continue reading...

Follow This leads investor rebellions demanding reduced carbon emissions to tackle global heatingThe climate activist shareholder group that has led investor rebellions at Shell and BP will next week target the US oil major Chevron, with demands to set carbon emissions reduction targets.The vote will be the final stage in a flurry of shareholder rebellions coordinated by Follow This, a Dutch organisation that has rallied investor support for calls for the world’s biggest publicly owned oil companies to cut back production. Continue reading...

Refugee organisation says 30m new displacements last year were due to floods, storms or wildfiresIntense storms and flooding triggered three times more displacements than violent conflicts did last year, as the number of people internally displaced worldwide hit the highest level on record.There were at least 55 million internally displaced people (IDPs) by the end of last year, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). Continue reading...

The 4,320 square kilometre slab of ice dubbed A-76 broke off Ronne shelf and is floating in Weddell seaA giant slab of ice almost four times the size of New York City has sheared off from the frozen edge of Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg afloat in the world, according to the European Space Agency.Related: Global heating pace risks ‘unstoppable’ sea level rise as Antarctic ice sheet melts Continue reading...

The locals are divided as energy companies eye the gas resources buried kilometres below the sensitive Queensland floodplain region

Some disappeared from Dania Chimpanzee Farm in 1948 into mangrove swamp where descendants live todayA colony of monkeys has lived for about 70 years in urban south Florida, near jets taking off from a nearby airport and fuel storage tanks.No one was quite sure where they came from. Until now. Continue reading...

Cabinet said to be split over impact on British farmers with warnings about environmental implicationsLiz Truss has defended plans for a post-Brexit trade deal with Australia amid reports of a cabinet split over the impact on British farmers of granting tariff-free access to the UK market.The trade secretary said a deal with Australia would benefit farmers across the UK by opening up a key market while also paving the way for growth in exports across Asia. She promised that the government would protect British farmers from overseas importers using “unfair practices” to undercut them in the domestic market. Continue reading...

Residents urged to help keep persecuted raptors safe after two males disappear from Geltsdale nature reserve, CumbriaPeople in Cumbria are being urged to watch over a pair of hen harriers who have begun nesting on a nature reserve as police investigate the disappearance of two other of the endangered raptors.Two male hen harriers vanished from RSPB Geltsdale last week in what the police described as “suspicious circumstances”, just when both were providing nesting females with food. As a result both nests failed. Continue reading...

Massospora cicadina, laced with the same chemical as psychedelic mushrooms, infects a small number of cicadas

Greenpeace investigation revealed British recycling left to burn on beaches and roadsidesTurkey is banning the import of most plastic waste after an investigation revealed British recycling was left to burn or be dumped on beaches and roadsides.Greenpeace visited 10 sites in the southern city of Adana in March. Investigators found waste including British supermarket packaging in waterways, on beaches and in illegal waste mountains. Continue reading...

Activists celebrate early morning operation that also targeted the home of minister Ricardo SallesFederal police have raided the ministry supposedly tasked with protecting the Brazilian environment and the environment minister’s home as part of an investigation into the illegal export of Amazon timber.The early morning operation – for which the most prominent targets were the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, and his environmental chief, Eduardo Bim – was celebrated by activists who accuse Jair Bolsonaro’s rightwing government of systematically dismantling environmental protections. Continue reading...

UN report warns that quantity not matched by quality, with many conserved areas poorly protected, as Germany backs new landscapes fund for developing countriesAn area greater than the land mass of Russia has been added to the world’s network of national parks and conservation areas since 2010, amid growing pressure to protect nature.As of today, about 17% of land and inland water ecosystems and 8% of marine areas are within formal protected areas, with the total coverage increasing by 42% since the beginning of the last decade, according to the Protected Planet report by the UN Environment Programme (Unep) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Continue reading...

Drier summers mean the ground in vulnerable areas will be more prone to shrink and crack, scientists sayThe climate crisis is very likely to put millions of homes at increased risk of subsidence, according to new data from the British Geological Survey (BGS). The hotter and drier summers being driven by global heating mean the ground under houses will shrink and crack, scientists said.The key areas affected are London, Essex, Kent, and a swathe of land from Oxford up to the Wash. This is because the clay formations underlying these areas are most vulnerable to losing moisture. Continue reading...

Cargill, Bunge and Cofco sourced beans from companies allegedly supplied by a farmer fined for destroying swathes of rainforestThree of the world’s biggest food businesses have been accused of buying soya from a farmer linked to illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.Cargill, Bunge and Cofco sourced soya beans from the Chinese-owned Fiagril and the multinational Aliança Agrícola do Cerrado, both of which have allegedly been supplied by a farmer fined and sanctioned multiple times after destroying swathes of rainforest, according to a new investigation. Continue reading...

Supermarkets and multinational manufacturers have unveiled a plastics pact across Australia, New Zealand and Pacific IslandsAustralia will miss its 2025 targets to cut plastic pollution from packaging unless it shifts from voluntary programs to enforcement, an alliance of conservation groups and the Greens have said.On Tuesday major supermarkets and multinational food and consumer goods manufacturers launched a new voluntary program across Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands with a goal that plastic “never becomes waste or pollution”. Continue reading...

International Energy Agency report says countries like Australia need a no-emissions electricity grid within 14 years to reach net zero by 2050Australian politicians and companies are being urged to abandon plans for new coal power, gas and oil investments after a major report by the world’s leading energy agency found fossil fuel expansion must end now if the planet is to address the climate crisis.The International Energy Agency (IEA) found a “narrow and extremely challenging” pathway to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 – a target set by more than 100 countries, and which the Morrison government says it would “preferably” like to achieve – would require advanced economies such as Australia to have a zero-emissions electricity grid by 2035. Continue reading...

Shareholder resolution calling for carbon emissions reduction targets receives 30% of votesShell has faced a significant shareholder rebellion on a vote calling for the oil company to set firm targets to wind down fossil fuel production.A shareholder resolution calling for the Anglo-Dutch company to set binding carbon emissions reduction targets received 30% of votes at the oil company’s annual meeting on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Nearby residents in the US Virgin Islands, have endured water contamination and noxious fumes that closed three schoolsThe Environmental Protection Agency has ordered an oil refinery in the US Virgin Islands to pause all operations, citing “at least four incidents” in which the facility significantly affected St Croix residents. The Limetree Bay refinery, which caused a massive oil spill in the 1980s, first reopened in February under an order from the Trump administration, after eight years idle.“These repeated incidents at the refinery have been and remain totally unacceptable,” said the EPA head, Michael Reagan, noting that residents in St Croix are “already overburdened” by pollution and other environmental harms. Continue reading...

Boat tourists reportedly saw the rocky structure collapse into the Pacific OceanDarwin’s Arch, a rock formation south-east of Darwin Island in the Galápagos archipelago, has collapsed due to natural erosion, Ecuador’s environment ministry said.

Experts have warned the taxpayer-funded plant is more expensive than alternatives and makes little commercial senseThe Morrison government has confirmed it will spend up to $600m to build a new gas-fired power plant in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley despite experts warning the fossil fuel investment makes little commercial sense.The government announced on Tuesday night it was dedicating unallocated funding in last week’s budget to the publicly owned Snowy Hydro Ltd plan to build a 660 megawatt gas plant at Kurri Kurri. Continue reading...

Exclusive: consultations for asthma and other respiratory infections go up with increased dirty air, finds studyA “huge” increase in the number of visits to doctors by children with asthma problems occurs after a week of raised air pollution, according to a study. The number of inhaler prescriptions also increases significantly.Dirty air is already known to increase hospital treatment for severe asthma attacks and other respiratory problems. But the new research is the first using clinical data to show increased illness among the much bigger number of people who seek treatment from their GP. Continue reading...

The Greens will try to have the changes thrown out, saying they could be a breach of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency ActThe energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, has moved to expand the mandate of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) to allow it to fund carbon capture and storage projects and “clean” hydrogen that can be produced from fossil fuels.In regulations, published Tuesday, the government added its technology roadmap to the list of initiatives Arena could finance. Continue reading...

An oasis of green space has become a lightning rod in ongoing debates about gentrification, open spaces and racial equityFor decades, the clubhouse of the Park Hill golf course in north-east Denver, Colorado, hosted weddings and graduation parties for residents of nearby neighborhoods. “It’s been a very valuable resource to this community, when you need event space and can’t afford swankier venues,” said Shanta Harrison, who lives eight blocks away.The 155-acre golf course stands out as an island of green space in the middle of the only remaining neighborhoods in Denver where over 40% of residents identify as African American. And according to state law, it’s supposed to stay that way forever: since 1997, the property has been under a conservation easement - a deed restriction stating that it can never be developed. Continue reading...

Environmentalist actor, with other conservation groups, aims to rewild the entire archipelago and other Pacific islands in Latin AmericaLeonardo DiCaprio has announced a $43m (£30.4m) pledge to enact sweeping conservation operations across the Galápagos Islands, with his social media accounts taken over by a wildlife veterinarian and island restoration specialist.The initiative, in partnership with Re:wild, an organisation founded this year by a group of renowned conservation scientists and DiCaprio, the Galápagos National Park Directorate, Island Conservation, and local communities, aims to rewild the entire Galápagos Islands, as well as all of Latin America’s Pacific archipelagos. Continue reading...

Many swifts flying back to Britain will find their summer nests lost to building renovations. But bird bricks are offering them an alternative homeEagerly anticipated by many, it is a thrilling moment when you first hear the distinctive screech or catch sight of the long, tapered wings of the first swifts arriving for the summer. For thousands of years they have looped to the British Isles from Africa to raise the next generation, taking advantage of the long daylight hours in the north and the opportunity to scour the skies for insects from dawn to dusk.Since they left Britain’s shores in August last year, these remarkable birds will have flown some 14,000 miles without stopping; feeding, sleeping, drinking and preening themselves on the wing. The birds returning now are likely to be at least four years old – the breeders. They head straight back to their nesting holes under eaves or gaps in stone and brickwork that they claimed and defended last summer. Within a few days their mate will arrive and, having spent nine months living independently, they will start to preen each other’s feathers within the nesting hole, crooning softly and bonding once again. Continue reading...

Agriculture minister says Australia will be the first to reward farmers for reducing emissions and improving biodiversity on their landThe agriculture minister, David Littleproud, has declared Australian business is “hungry” to pay farmers to protect biodiversity under a “world-first” scheme designed to reward environmental improvements alongside emissions reduction.Last week’s federal budget included funding for a multi-stage agriculture biodiversity stewardship package that aims to make it attractive for farmers to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lift biodiversity protection on their land. Continue reading...

Governments must close gap between net zero rhetoric and reality, says International Energy Agency head

Funding for restoration of peatlands and tripling of tree planting in England also announcedSales of peat compost to gardeners will be banned from 2024, the government has said. Ministers will also give £50m to support the restoration of 35,000 hectares of peatland by 2025, about 1% of the UK’s total.The UK’s peatlands store three times as much carbon as its forests. But the vast majority are in a degraded state, and are emitting CO which drives the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Audit underlines role renewables are playing in making coal-fired power unprofitable, expert saysPressure on the national electricity grid at the peak of last summer’s heat fell to its lowest level in five years due to the rising influence of household solar panels, a new analysis has found.Summer is usually the time of greatest strain on the electricity system due to the widespread use of energy hungry air-conditioners, but the demand on the hottest day dipped this year as more electricity came from decentralised rooftop solar systems, which sit outside the grid. Continue reading...

Plastic Waste Makers index identifies those driving climate crisis with virgin polymer productionTwenty companies are responsible for producing more than half of all the single-use plastic waste in the world, fuelling the climate crisis and creating an environmental catastrophe, new research reveals.Among the global businesses responsible for 55% of the world’s plastic packaging waste are both state-owned and multinational corporations, including oil and gas giants and chemical companies, according to a comprehensive new analysis. Continue reading...

Thinktank says new strategy needed in face of Covid, Brexit, net zero, automation and demographic changeBritain risks mirroring Italy’s economic woes unless it develops a strategy for tackling the five seismic changes that will shape a decisive decade for the country, a report has warned.A joint project by the Resolution Foundation thinktank and the London School of Economics said the UK was neither used to nor prepared for the challenges posed by the aftermath of Covid-19, Brexit, the net zero transition, automation and a changing population. Continue reading...

Protest over proposed petrochemical complex in Louisiana is part of 400-mile march led by youth climate group Sunrise MovementOn Monday, groups of climate activists protested against a proposed petrochemical complex an hour away from New Orleans, Louisiana, calling on the Biden administration to revoke the plastics company’s federal permit to start construction.The demonstration is part of a 400-mile march led by the youth climate group Sunrise Movement, which began last week and traces the path of environmental disasters in the Gulf coast from New Orleans to Houston. Roughly 20 participants are on the trek as part of the group’s “Generation on Fire” campaign. Continue reading...

University of NSW study suggests six times as many individual birds as humans but that many species are very rareThere are about 50 billion individual birds in the world, according to new research that uses citizen science observations to try to estimate population numbers for almost 10,000 species.The paper, led by scientists at the University of New South Wales, suggests there are about six times as many birds on the planet as humans – but that many individual species are very rare. Continue reading...

Study’s authors believe animal can benefit people as well as ‘cultural and natural heritage’ of Arizona and New MexicoJaguars could be reintroduced in the south-western US, where hunting and habitat loss led to the big cats’ extinction, a new study says.Scientists and other environmentalists make the case for bringing back the third-largest big cat, after tigers and lions, in Arizona and New Mexico in a paper published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice. Continue reading...

Our emotional register – how ‘doomy’ or ‘hopeful’ we are – will inevitably shape the policies we put forwardAs the climate emergency creeps closer to the top of the political agenda, where it belongs, an argument is raging over communication. Exactly what to say about the environmental crisis, and how, is an important question for all sorts of people and organisations, including governments. It is particularly pressing for journalists, authors and broadcasters. For us, communication is not an adjunct to other activities such as policymaking or campaigning. It is our main job.People need to know what is happening to glaciers, forests and endangered species, and what is being done about this. But information requires interpretation. And while editorial judgments influence the way that all subjects are covered, storytelling about the climate emergency is particularly fraught. Continue reading...

Consortium plans to produce green hydrogen with wind and solar energy as a potential replacement for Hunter Valley’s coal industryAustralia’s first “hydrogen valley” would be created in New South Wales and run entirely on renewable energy under a $2bn proposal supported by local and global energy companies.Led by renewables advisory business Energy Estate, the consortium says it plans to produce green hydrogen with wind and solar energy and use it as a feedstock for mining, transport and industrial users in the upper Hunter Valley, spruiking it as a potential replacement for the region’s coal industry. Continue reading...

Controversial deal with China would be ‘disastrous’ for fishing and protected rainforest, say opponentsA $55m (£39m) deal struck by the government of Sierra Leone with China to build an industrial fishing harbour on 100 hectares (250 acres) of beach and protected rainforest has been criticised as “a catastrophic human and ecological disaster” by conservationists, landowners and rights groups.The gold and black sands of Black Johnson beach fringe the African nation’s Western Area Peninsula national park, home to endangered species including the duiker antelope and pangolins. The waters are rich in sardines, barracuda and grouper, caught by local fishermen who produce 70% of the fish for the domestic market. Continue reading...

Investigation reveals that ‘plastic waste coming from the UK to Turkey is an environmental threat, not an economic opportunity’Turkey has become the latest destination for British plastic waste, which ends up dumped, burned or left to pollute the ocean, a Greenpeace investigation has found.More than half of the plastic the British government says is being recycled are sent overseas, often to countries without the necessary infrastructure to do so. The UK exported 688,000 tonnes of discarded plastic packaging in 2020, a daily average of 1.8m kilos. Just 486,000 tonnes were recycled in the UK. Continue reading...

Project turns trophy hunters’ hit list into a conservation tool – and reveals the animals we most want to see caught on cameraFor trophy hunters, the big five are the toughest, most dangerous animals to kill, but a photography project has turned the meaning of shooting on its head, creating a new list of the five most fantastic creatures to capture on camera.More than 50,000 people from around the world voted for animals they most liked seeing pictures of as part of the New Big 5 wildlife photography list. The crowning creatures are elephant, lion, polar bear, gorilla and tiger, all of which are keystone species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as either critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. Continue reading...

US climate envoy says people will not have to give up quality of life to achieve some of net zero goalsThe US climate envoy, John Kerry, has said 50% of the carbon reductions needed to get to net zero will come from technologies that have not yet been invented, and said people “don’t have to give up a quality of life” in order to cut emissions.He said Americans would “not necessarily” have to eat less meat, because of research being done into the way cattle are herded and fed in order to reduce methane emissions. Continue reading...

The national park is instituting a permitting system for overnight rock climbers. Many see it as inevitable as the sport gets more popularFor years, rock climbers Graham Ottley and Keith Bouma-Gregson dreamed of scaling the 2,800ft (853 meters) pillar of granite known as the Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite national park.In early May the pair finally got their chance, making a climb that required spending two windy nights camped on tiny ledges with harnesses holding them to the rocks. But Ottley and Bouma-Gregson realize that soon it may not be as easy to enjoy Yosemite’s anything-goes climbing culture. Continue reading...

London Zoo’s latest exhibition shows how scientists hope to halt the devastation caused by overheated oceansThis weekend, conservationists will put the final touches to a giant artificial reef they are assembling at London zoo. Samples of the planet’s most spectacular corals – vivid green branching coral, yellow scroll, blue ridge and many more species – will be added to the giant tank along with fish that thrive in their presence: blue tang, clownfish and many others.The scene will then be set for Monday’s opening of the zoo’s new gallery, Tiny Giants, which is dedicated to the minuscule invertebrate creatures that sustain life across the planet. The coral reef tank and its seven-metre wide window will form the core of the exhibition. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Mining company says it ‘self-reported’ wildlife spotter should have been present when land was cleared but says no environmental harm was doneAdani has admitted breaching its environmental conditions for the Carmichael coalmine again – clearing an area surrounded by potential koala habitat without a promised wildlife safeguard.Guardian Australia has confirmed the federal environment department is investigating an “allegation of non-compliance” related to land-clearing at a quarry being used primarily to provide material for the construction of Adani’s rail line. Continue reading...

Covid physical-distancing rules also reel in more women to apply for rod licence applications

With nuclear fading away, Britain must learn how to carefully manage renewable energyThe nuclear industry is fond of telling us the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow, as if people living in Britain did not already know that. But the point atomic enthusiasts are making is that wind and solar electricity generation is not reliable, while nuclear will keep the lights on.But things are a bit more complicated than that. This is partly because large-scale batteries, pump storage in reservoirs and other ways of topping up electricity supplies mean that baseload power provided by nuclear reactors is no longer needed. Another reason is that nuclear output is falling while renewables get ever stronger. Continue reading...

Scuba team launches six-month effort that has already turned up fishing rods, tires and cansScuba divers removed about 200lb of garbage from California’s Lake Tahoe on Friday, as part of a six-month effort to rid the popular lake of fishing rods, tires, aluminum cans, beer bottles and other trash accumulating underwater.The team plans to look for trash along the entire 72 miles (115 km) of shoreline in an endeavor that could be the largest trash cleanup in the lake’s history, said Colin West, a diver and film-maker who founded Clean Up the Lake, the non-profit spearheading the project. Continue reading...