Environment | The Guardian

Condition of mammal is deteriorating, says rescue service coordinator, with ‘refloat’ unlikely

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webNew Zealand will end the export of livestock by sea over the next two years, officials have announced. It comes after a ship bound for China last year capsized, killing nearly 6,000 cows and 41 of 43 crew members. Continue reading...

Disc drives, circuit boards, fluorescent lamps and batteries for electric vehicles could be among affected productsRare elements such as indium, yttrium, neodymium, cobalt and lithium are vital for the production of low-carbon technology, but many are being thrown away because of the lack of a requirement to recycle them, industry experts have warned.Concern is growing over the future supply of such elements, as the switch to green technology – including electric vehicles, solar panels and low-carbon heating – will require far greater volumes of rare earths and other critical raw materials. Continue reading...

In letter to ministers, groups say aviation strategy needed after sector included in binding climate targetsThe UK government must suspend all airport expansion plans until it sets out how they fit with its legally binding climate targets and the advice of its own experts, campaigners have warned.In a letter to ministers, groups opposing planned expansions at eight airports around the country say the government’s recent decision to include aviation in its binding climate targets mean the expansion plans must be halted. Continue reading...

VicForests won appeal even though federal court upheld finding its activities threatened greater glider and Leadbeater’s possumA Victorian government forestry agency has won an appeal against a landmark court judgment that found it had repeatedly breached conservation regulations during its logging of the state’s central highlands.The full bench of the federal court on Monday overturned a judgment that last year found VicForests had breached a code of practice related to a regional forestry agreement between the federal and state governments, and had therefore lost its right to be exempt from national environment laws. Continue reading...

People eating termites and clay as UN says acute malnutrition has almost doubled this year in southMadagascar’s worst drought in 40 years has left more than a million people facing a year of desperate food shortages.The south of the island will produce less than half its usual harvest in the coming months because of low rains, prolonging a hunger crisis already affecting half the Grand Sud area’s population, the UN estimates. Continue reading...

BloombergNEF forecasts result of falling cost of making batteries as well as dedicated production linesElectric cars and vans will be cheaper to produce than conventional, fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2027, and tighter emissions regulations could put them in pole position to dominate all new car sales by the middle of the next decade, research has found.By 2026, larger vehicles such as electric sedans and SUVs will be as cheap to produce as petrol and diesel models, according to forecasts from BloombergNEF, with small cars reaching the threshold the following year. Continue reading...

FOI documents show Walker Corporation assured an international environment group it would do no harm to the protected site while lobbying the Coalition with plans to build on itA property developer has been accused of misleading an international environment body about the true nature of its plans for an apartment and retail complex at the Ramsar-listed Moreton Bay wetlands in Queensland, after new documents shed more light on its lobbying efforts.The Guardian has obtained notes under freedom of information from a September 2017 meeting in Switzerland between Walker Corporation and the secretary general of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, Martha Rojas-Urrego. Continue reading...

Australian Conservation Foundation calls for reform to tackle Australia’s declining environment funding ahead of this year’s budget

The industry bemoans benefits, but workers don’t want jobs where pay is low and risks high, say Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, and author Mark BittmanAmong the things Americans say they’re looking forward to most when pandemic-related restrictions ends is “having dinner in a restaurant with friends”. But if the restaurant industry doesn’t support higher wages, there will be fewer restaurants for customers to return to.There is an unprecedented shortage of job applicants for restaurant jobs. In a new survey this week by One Fair Wage of more than 2,800 workers, more than half (53%) reported that they are thinking about leaving restaurants. More than three-quarters of workers surveyed (76%) said they are leaving restaurants because of low wages and tips – by far the most important reason for leaving – and a slightly higher percentage (78%) said that the factor that would make them stay in restaurants is a “full, stable, livable wage”. Continue reading...

Republicans and Democrats are introducing bills to push against Biden’s new restrictions on oil and gas companiesJust south of Oil City, where Louisiana representative Danny McCormick is from, is the predominantly Black city of Shreveport. Residents there breathe some of the most toxic air in the country. Oil refineries owned by UOP and Calumet contribute to the town’s toxic emissions, according to the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory.But McCormick, a Republican, introduced a bill at the Louisiana capitol last week that would protect oil companies and not residents in his district who have to breathe in that air. The bill would establish Louisiana as a “fossil fuel sanctuary state” and ban local and state employees from enforcing federal laws and regulations that negatively impact petrochemical companies. Continue reading...

Taps are now shut off two days a week, and worse is to come unless action is taken on climate crisisTaiwan’s Sun Moon Lake is so low that parts of it have dried and turned to grass. Jetties that normally float are sprawled awkwardly on dry land, and tour boats are crowded at the tail ends of pontoons still in the water.Usually one of the island’s most famous tourist destinations, the lake has recently become a star of a different kind. Following the worst drought in 56 years, it is now famous for all the wrong reasons. These days, Instagram influencers photograph themselves posing in a dust-coloured, dinghy half-buried in a cracked and cratered lakebed. Continue reading...

In a little-known region that calls to mind Tolkien’s Middle-earth, photojournalist Augusto Gomes marvels at one of the oldest, harshest, most biodiverse – and most threatened – ecosystems on the planetWhen I was a child, my family would drive three hours from our home in Belo Horizonte to visit my grandfather’s ranch near the town of Santana dos Montes. On the way, we would cross the Espinhaço mountain range, which runs north to south in the central-eastern portion of Brazil.Espinhaço means “spine” in Portuguese, and the name could not be more apt. The range spans 1,200km (750 miles), its bony peaks reach as high as 2km, and the thriving, humid Atlantic Forest drops away to the east, foggy and dense with evergreens, ferns, mosses and bromeliads, the air bursting with the strange songs of birds you never see. On the west side of the mountains, the arid, savannah-like Cerrado stretches flat and exposed, with golden grasslands and small, twisted trees. Continue reading...

There are more than 70 ‘food forests’ in the US as part of a growing movement to tackle food insecurity and promote urban agricultureAmerica’s biggest “food forest” is just a short drive from the world’s busiest airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, but there is a relative calm as you wander through the gravel paths that weave through its fertile 7.1 acres (2.8 hectares).When the Guardian visits the Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill there are around a dozen volunteers working on a warm morning. Among them are a mother and son clearing weeds from a secluded area soon to become a yoga and meditation space. “I wanted to help,” Rina Saborio said. “I thought it was a really cool opportunity for the community.” Continue reading...

Energy giant objects to use of its logo on posters and online advertising that use phrases like ‘generating pollution for generations’Energy giant AGL has launched legal action against Greenpeace Australia Pacific over a campaign that targets the company as Australia’s biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitter.It comes after the environment group launched a report and campaign with posters and online advertising that feature AGL’s logo and phrases such as “generating pollution for generations” and “Still Australia’s biggest climate polluter”. Continue reading...

Comparethemarket.com analysis shows electric car drivers were charged an average of £566The average cost of insuring an electric car in the UK is £45 less than the cost of covering a petrol or diesel car, according to research from the website Comparethemarket.com.Analysis of annual premiums in the first three months of the year showed electric car drivers were charged an average of £566, while petrol and diesel drivers paid £611. Continue reading...

Mark Dreyfus says corruption watchdog needed to investigate government buying $30m in offsets related to new airportLabor has strengthened its call for a national integrity commission, saying it is needed to investigate the Morrison government’s purchase of more than $30m in environmental offsets related to the development of the western Sydney airport.The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, made the call after the New South Wales transport department referred its purchases of $50.6m in offsets from the same western Sydney properties to the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation. Continue reading...

State lawmakers agree on $400m measure to expand ‘wildlife corridors’ in effort to help panthers and other endangered speciesIn a political culture where bipartisan legislation is a rare species, lawmakers in one state have come together to agree major new conservation efforts that will help that other endangered animal – the Florida panther.The big cat, whose habitat has a history of being swallowed up and its numbers hunted by humans, is expected to benefit from a $400m cash boost. Continue reading...

Republican governor says measure sends message that Wyoming is ‘prepared to bring litigation to protect her interests’Wyoming is faced by a transition to renewable energy that’s gathering pace across America, but it has now come up with a novel and controversial plan to protect its mining industry – sue other states that refuse to take its coal.A new state law has created a $1.2m fund to be used by Wyoming’s governor to take legal action against other states that opt to power themselves with clean energy such as solar and wind, in order to meet targets to tackle the climate crisis, rather than burn Wyoming’s coal. Continue reading...

Oxburgh Hall project will replant native trees in Grade II-listed parkland with Edwardian survey mapThe National Trust is reconstructing a 19th-century landscape in Norfolk using an Edwardian survey map and aerial photographs taken by the Royal Air Force after the second world war.The £190,000 project at Oxburgh Hall, which will take a decade to complete, will replant native trees in the Grade II-listed landscape, making it one of the largest wood pastures the charity has ever created. Continue reading...

The 7ft-long female lake sturgeon was released by a Fish and Wildlife Service team after being weighed and measuredThe US Fish and Wildlife Service received quite a big surprise last week, when they caught a giant fish, estimated to be more than 100 years old, in the Detroit River.The 240lb lake sturgeon was caught by a three-person crew on 22 April, just south of Detroit near Grosse Ile. The agency described the huge fish, which measured almost 7ft long, as “a real life river monster”. Continue reading...

More than 15 rare birds, whose population is at about 160 in the state, showed up at Cinda Mickol’s home – and they’ve made a messGiant California condors are rare – but not at Cinda Mickols’ home.More than 15 condors, an endangered bird whose population hovers at around 160 in the state and under 500 in the US, have recently taken a liking to Mickol’s house in Tehachapi – and they’ve made quite a mess. Continue reading...

After Guardian investigation, department launched internal inquiry. Now it has referred matter to watchdogThe NSW transport department has referred its purchases of tens of millions of dollars in environmental offsets in western Sydney to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation.The referral to the state’s corruption watchdog follows a Guardian Australia investigation that revealed that a company known as Meridolum No 1 made more than $40m selling offsets for infrastructure projects that Eco Logical Australia, which employed two of Meridolum’s directors, provided offset advice on. Continue reading...

Energy minister Angus Taylor will confirm the new funding, including up to $32m to support the Golden Beach project in GippslandThe Morrison government will allocate another $58.6m to “gas-fired recovery” measures in Tuesday’s budget and is continuing to hold out the prospect of building a new power plant in the Hunter Valley despite experts questioning the need for it.The energy minister, Angus Taylor, will confirm on Friday new funding to support gas infrastructure projects, including a short-term loan of up to $32m to support early works for the Golden Beach gas production and storage project in Gippsland in Victoria. Continue reading...

Fossil fuels, cattle and rotting waste produce greenhouse gas responsible for 30% of global heatingSlashing methane emissions is vital to tackling the climate crisis and rapidly curbing the extreme weather already hitting people across the world today, according to a new UN report.In 2020 there was a record rise in the amount of the powerful greenhouse gas emitted by the fossil fuel industry, cattle and rotting waste. Cutting it is the strongest action available to slow global heating in the near term, Inger Andersen, the UN’s environment chief, said. Continue reading...

Sighting of two of UK’s resident orcas is ‘proof of the value of our coastal seas’, says expertTwo killer whales have been spotted off the Cornish coast.Experts believe this is the first sighting of the UK’s only resident population of killer whales travelling this far south. Continue reading...

Electrification of cars and home boilers best choice to fight the climate crisis, say scientistsUsing hydrogen-based fuels for cars and home heating risks locking in a dependency on fossil fuels and failing to tackle the climate crisis, according to a new analysis.Fuels produced from hydrogen can be used as straight replacements for oil and gas and can be low-carbon, if renewable electricity is used to produce these “e-fuels”. However, the research found that using the electricity directly to power cars and warm houses was far more efficient. Continue reading...

Toby Willison has taken leading role at water firm due in court for sentencing after sewage dumpingA former chief of the environment watchdog has defended his move to take up a senior position at a water company that is under investigation by the regulator.Toby Willison has taken a leading role at Southern Water, which this summer is due in court for sentencing after admitting dumping poisonous, noxious substances including raw sewage. The case followed a criminal investigation by Willison’s former employer, the Environment Agency. Continue reading...

Government proposes net zero deadline of 2045 instead of 2050, but critics demand actions not numbersGermany’s government is to revise its emission reduction targets after the country’s constitutional court declared the current climate protection measures insufficient, aiming to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2045 rather than 2050.The finance minister, Olaf Scholz, and the environment minister, Svenja Schulze, laid out a legislative proposal on Wednesday to cut emissions by 65% from 1990 levels by 2030. An 88% reduction of carbon emissions is to be reached by 2040. Continue reading...

The state’s upper house is set to hold an inquiry to ensure the rules are fair and deliver for downstream communities and the environmentAttempts by the New South Wales government to legitimise flood plain water harvesting by big irrigators through a licensing scheme have again been stymied amid fears it will lock in unsustainable water practices in the Murray-Darling basin.Labor and a majority of the crossbench joined forces in the NSW upper house on Thursday to disallow the framework legislation for the scheme. Continue reading...

Charred tree – which may be thousands of years old – looks like chimney spouting smoke in national forestScientists have discovered a giant sequoia still smoldering in California’s Sequoia national forest, months after wildfires tore through the region last August.The tree was found, charred but still standing, by researchers in the lower part of the national forest this week. While turning down a sharp switchback on the trail, a member of Sequoia’s fire ecology and research team spotted a plume of smoke in the ravine below. Using a long camera lens, the team tracked the smoke to a single giant sequoia, standing in the burn area from last year’s Castle fire. The enormous tree, which has probably stood for hundreds if not thousands of years, looked like a chimney spouting smoke in the middle of the blackened forest. Continue reading...

It rains nearly 40% of the time in the Swedish city – so why not try to make the most of it?When they wake up on a Saturday morning to find rain coursing down the windows of their Gothenburg apartment, four-year-old Enja Bäckström and her six-year-old brother Charlie often still want to go out to play.That’s because their local playground has been designed to be particularly fun when it’s wet. There are dips in the ground to make the puddles deeper and more satisfyingly splashy, and water gushes down channels from lilypad-shaped rain shelters into a sandpit where children can make pools, rivers and dams. “The kids love to go on their bicycles through the puddles, and my son likes to dig the sands, so some parts of the playground are really nice when it rains,” says their mother, Jessica Bäckström. Continue reading...

Keith Pitt says loan of up to $280m for a Kaban green energy hub near Cairns would be ‘inconsistent with the objectives and policies of the commonwealth’The Morrison government has vetoed public funding of a windfarm and battery project in northern Queensland, with a cabinet minister declaring it was inconsistent with its goals and policies.The Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (Naif), a government agency, in January approved up to $280m funding for the Kaban green energy hub 80km south-west of Cairns. The proponents, Neoen Australia, estimated the development could reduce electricity prices for Queensland consumers by $461m over the life of the project. Continue reading...

Environmental groups say Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein shot bear, named Arthur, in a protected areaEnvironmental groups have accused a prince from Liechtenstein’s royal family of shooting and killing the largest bear in Romania, in contravention of a ban on the trophy hunting of large carnivores.The Romanian NGO Agent Green and the Austrian NGO VGT alleged in a statement that the bear, who was called Arthur, was shot in March in a protected area of the Carpathian Mountains by Prince Emanuel von und zu Liechtenstein. Continue reading...

Campaigners warn offset system is flawed and can produce credits with no climate benefitAirlines should focus on reducing emissions from flights instead of using carbon offsets for climate commitments, experts and environmental campaigners have warned.British Airways and easyJet are among several leading carriers that use carbon offsets to back up claims of “carbon-neutral flying” and net zero pledges by buying credits on behalf of passengers or offering customers that opportunity to buy them when booking tickets. Continue reading...

World faces ‘abrupt jump’ in pace of ice loss around 2060 unless emissions reduced to meet Paris agreement goals, study warnsThe current pace of global heating risks unleashing “rapid and unstoppable” sea level rise from the melting of Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, a new research paper has warned.Unless planet-heating emissions are swiftly reduced to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, the world faces a situation where there is an “abrupt jump” in the pace of Antarctic ice loss around 2060, the study states, fueling sea level rise and placing coastal cities in greater peril. Continue reading...

Within days to a couple weeks at most the cicadas of Brood X will emerge in mass numbers from Indiana to Georgia to New YorkSifting through a shovel load of dirt in a suburban backyard, Michael Raupp and Paula Shrewsbury find their quarry: a cicada nymph.And then another. And another. And four more. Continue reading...

Southern Water’s proposal to convert saltwater from Solent into tap water labelled ‘bizarre’ and ‘expensive’Plans to build an energy-hungry desalination plant in the New Forest national park to provide drinking water for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight have been condemned by campaigners including the broadcaster Chris Packham.Southern Water’s proposal for a £600m plant at Fawley to convert saltwater from the Solent into tap water during droughts has been formally opposed by the New Forest national park authority. A separate petition against the plan has attracted several thousand signatures. Continue reading...

Googly-eyed device to be tested in gillnet fisheries after study finds it deters long-tailed ducksScarecrows may be outstanding in their field, but now scientists have created an unusual floating version that could help reduce the number of vulnerable seabirds caught by fishing nets.The device, known as a looming-eyes buoy (LEB), and developed in collaboration with engineers from Fishtek Marine, was trialled in Küdema Bay, Saaremaa island, Estonia, on long-tailed ducks. It uses bright eyespots and looming movements to act as a natural deterrent, preventing seabirds from diving into gillnets – vertical nets used in small-scale fisheries in many countries. Continue reading...

Foundation was controversially awarded $443m grant by Turnbull government in 2018 on the basis it would be able to leverage money from private sector

In Richmond Park, decaying logs and mangled old branches are no longer cleared away but valued as habitats for birds and insects

Mammoth moth which can have 25cm wingspan found by builders working on Queensland primary schoolA giant moth with a wingspan measuring up to 25cm has been found at a Queensland school next to a rainforest.Builders found the giant wood moth, the heaviest moth in the world, while constructing new classrooms at Mount Cotton state school. Continue reading...

Group pledges to shift towards model where items for sale can be reused, recycled or rejiggedThe UK’s biggest furniture retailer, Ikea, will launch a scheme to buy back unwanted furniture from customers to resell as part of the Swedish group’s efforts to reduce its impact on the environment.The group has pledged to shift towards a circular model of consumption where items it sells can be reused, recycled or rejigged rather than dumped. Continue reading...

Campaigners say many investments still high carbon and call on firms to sign green pensions charter

Campaigners and Labour youth groups urge London mayor to shelve plan for £2bn Silvertown tunnelYoung people concerned about the climate crisis and air pollution are urging the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, to abandon his plans for a new four-lane road tunnel under the Thames or risk losing their support.Climate justice campaigners, anti-pollution activists and key youth groups inside the Labour party say Khan, who is standing for re-election on Thursday, is ignoring climate scientists, economists and health experts by pressing ahead with the £2bn Silvertown tunnel scheme in east London. Continue reading...

Country’s inland coastline along the Black Sea enjoys milder weather and its resorts are popular destinationsLike other countries in south-east Europe, Romania has a temperate continental climate, with very warm summers and cold, snowy winters.In the capital, Bucharest, summer temperatures regularly reach the mid-30s, while in winter they drop well below zero. Springs are short – the shift between winter and summer taking place rapidly between mid-April and mid-May. Continue reading...

A new film rejects the popular narrative and recasts the former president, 96, as hugely prescient thinker, particularly on climate changeWhen I reach Jimmy Carter’s grandson by Zoom, he answers wearing a Raphael Warnock campaign T-shirt. Jason Carter is a lawyer and politician himself, mid-40s, animated and well-read, with blue eyes reminiscent of his grandfather’s. He’s just got off the phone with his 93-year-old grandmother, Rosalynn. It’s a special day; Joe Biden is on his way to the Carter house in Plains, Georgia.“My grandfather has met nearly everyone in the world he might want to,” Jason Carter says. “Right now, he’s meeting with the president of the United States. But the person he’d say he learned the most from was Rachel Clark, an illiterate sharecropper who lived on his family’s farm. Continue reading...

Wind turbines generated 48.5% of electricity grid in England, Scotland and Wales on MondayGreat Britain’s windfarms set a new clean energy record on Monday after the blowy bank holiday weather helped onshore and offshore wind turbines make up almost half of the electricity system.The blustery bank holiday produced a new wind power record as turbines generated just over 17.6GW of electricity for the first time in the middle of Monday afternoon, enough to run more than 3.5m kettles. Continue reading...

Chain becomes first big retailer to completely switch to lab-grown stones, amid ethical concernsPandora has become the first big jeweller to turn its back on mined diamonds, with the switch to lab-grown stones billed as making diamond jewellery more affordable.On Tuesday the mass-market brand, best known for its charm bracelets, launched Pandora Brilliance, which it described as its “first lab-created diamond collection”. The range, which includes earrings, necklaces and rings, features lab-grown stones made in the UK, with prices starting at £250. Continue reading...

Guardian investigation finds carbon credits generated by forest protection schemes are based on flawed system