Unexpected crowd of revelers discovered on Saturday when forest protection officers patrolled part of the forestMore than 5,000 people gathered at Tonto national forest, near Phoenix, Arizona, last weekend in a giant party that involved fireworks and target practice.Campers and partiers taped off areas of the main road in what was an unauthorized and illegal gathering that resulted in an emergency medical evacuation and an assortment of traffic violations, according to officials. Continue reading...

Virtual buoys and time triggered traps reduce risk to endangered North Atlantic right whale, but reactions among fishers in US and Canada are mixedRopes that spring to the water’s surface when summoned and virtual buoys could hold the key to saving one of the world’s most endangered whale species, scientists and conservation groups have said.As the North Atlantic right whale nears the brink of extinction – amid reports of whales tangled in metres of thick fishing lines and findings suggesting 85% of the population have been entangled at least once – calls have grown for the adoption of ropeless fishing, using gear that does not involve any vertical lines. Continue reading...

Former PM says NSW deputy premier and One Nation’s Mark Latham are treating the people of the Hunter Valley with ‘complete contempt’Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused John Barilaro of “gaslighting” the people of the Hunter Valley after the New South Wales deputy premier claimed air quality data had been manipulated by environmental groups.Barilaro had claimed on Tuesday that concerns about poor air quality caused by coalmining in the region were exaggerated by environmental groups who “manipulate the data to suit their argument”. Continue reading...

Ministers must consider cumulative impact of proposals ‘likely to compromise’ emissions targets

With five million birds a year illegally caught in Italy, activists in Brescia are teaming up with local police to trap the huntersAfter two hours of scouring the mountains of Brescia, Stefania Travaglia finally finds what she is looking for. Among the remote farmhouses of an alpine hamlet, a spring-net trap is partially hidden behind a grassy embankment and a few trees. Tangled in the wire mesh, an exhausted fieldfare thrush sits silent and unmoving.Travaglia sets to work quickly and quietly, hiding two motion-sensor cameras next to the trap. Clear evidence of wrongdoing is needed to catch a poacher. “You have to see everything: you have to see the trap; you have to see the person; and if there is a bird in it,” she says. Continue reading...

The first black man to lead the EPA in half a century has a job on his hands at an agency reeling from setbacks – but he’s confident he can meet the challengeMichael Regan has perhaps the most fiendishly challenging job within Joe Biden’s administration. As the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Regan not only has to grapple with the unfolding cataclysm of the climate crisis, he must do so at the helm of a traumatized, shrunken institution still reeling from the chaos of the Donald Trump era.Related: Exclusive: EPA reverses Trump stance in push to tackle environmental racism Continue reading...

Dry, sunny summers and cooler, wetter winters are moderated by the long coastline

Charity urges public to join Million Mile Beach Clean, created to mark emergence from UK lockdownThe public is being urged to clear plastic and litter from their local beaches, rivers and parks as part of a million-mile clean-up to mark the emergence from lockdown.Surfers Against Sewage, which is launching the scheme, said it wanted to reconnect people with nature and help promote physical and mental wellbeing. Continue reading...

Scientists say threats whales are facing are ‘far more complex today than whaling’, with population set to decline due to climate crisisScientists and environment groups are urging the government not to remove the humpback whale from Australia’s list of threatened species because of growing threats, including from the climate crisis.The federal government is considering delisting the humpback whale, which is categorised as vulnerable under national environmental laws, due to the recovery of populations since the end of whaling. Continue reading...

US activist and dramatist Erika Dickerson-Despenza wins Susan Smith Blackburn prize with the play cullud wattahA “bold and urgent” play about the Flint water crisis, seen through the eyes of an all-female Michigan family, has won this year’s Susan Smith Blackburn prize for female, transgender and non-binary playwrights. The award went to Erika Dickerson-Despenza for cullud wattah, part of a tetralogy about water which the playwright hopes will “raise consciousness and radicalise” audiences.“I’m a black woman who has grown up in a family of primarily black women,” said Dickerson-Despenza. “I wanted to write about women living under siege – environmental racism, classism and gender dynamics, and what this does to women and girls in the black midwest. Because I’m a grassroots organiser and activist, I think of all my work as a vehicle. My goal is to radicalise people … I will explore an issue in a creative way to raise collective consciousness.” Continue reading...

Study suggests it is already too warm in tropics for some species to surviveGlobal heating has made the ocean around the equator less rich in wildlife, with conditions likely already too hot for some species to survive, according to a new study.Analysis of the changing locations of almost 50,000 marine species between 1955 and 2015 found a predicted impact of global heating – species moving away from the equator – can now be observed at a global scale. Continue reading...

Concentrations are 50% above pre-industrial levels despite dip in emissions during Covid pandemicConcentrations of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have hit record highs, despite a dip in emissions during the Covid pandemic, scientists have said.The latest measurements from the long-running recording station at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, show global levels of carbon dioxide are 50% above what they were when the Industrial Revolution began in Britain. Continue reading...

Environmental Protection Agency launches crackdown on pollution that disproportionately affects people of colorMichael Regan, head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, has sought to revive the effort to confront environmental racism by ordering the agency to crack down on the pollution that disproportionately blights people of color.On Wednesday, Regan issued a directive to EPA staff to “infuse equity and environmental justice principles and priorities into all EPA practices, policies, and programs”. The memo demands the agency use the “full array of policy and legal tools at our disposal” to ensure vulnerable communities are front of mind when issuing permits for polluting facilities or cleaning up following disasters. Continue reading...

Inuit Ataqatigiit secures 37% of votes, and leader calls for halt to uranium mining project at KvanefjeldGreenland’s main opposition party, which is against an international mining project involving uranium and other metals on the Arctic island, has emerged as the biggest party after winning more than a third of votes in an early parliamentary election.The left-leaning Community of the People party (Inuit Ataqatigiit) secured 37% of the votes, entitling it to 12 seats in the Greenlandic national assembly, the 31-seat Inatsisartut. Continue reading...

Wildlife charities call for people spending time at sea to give space to marine mammalsDolphins face an increasing risk of disturbance from people taking to the sea on boats, jetskis, paddleboards and kayaks as lockdown eases, campaigners have warned.Many people were not aware of the laws against disturbing dolphins, whales and porpoises – or that they risked fines for breaking them, said Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) and the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU). Continue reading...

People who may have eaten fish asked to come forward as authorities investigate sea life deathsAuthorities in Ghana are investigating the deaths of hundreds of dolphins and fish that washed up on beaches in Ghana in recent days, as fears grow that contaminated fish have been sold to customers.Dead sea species have littered beaches in Accra and near the capital’s shoreline since Friday. Officials said close to 100 dead dolphins had washed up on Axim beach, while videos posted on social media showed scores of varying species including eels and several fish species. Continue reading...

The healthcare climate footprint is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 514 coal-fired plants but health workers are finding ways to cut wasteLois Wessel used to work as a labor and delivery nurse in community clinics in Maryland. She remembers that every time a baby was born, she would see a beautiful little creature – and then she’d see a whole big bag full of garbage, of sheets, supplies packaging and tubing.Shanda Demorest, also a nurse, used to work on the cardiac unit of a hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She said when many of her patients were at the end of their lives, caring for them took an “astronomical and perplexing” amount of resources. Continue reading...

Efforts to reverse decline include transforming an ex-golf course and rewilding a village

Figures show that 75% of SUVS were bought by people living in towns and cities

Analysis finds 77% of directors on boards of seven US banks have ties to ‘climate-conflicted’ groups, as banks continue to finance projects like the Line 3 oil pipelineUS banks are pledging to help fight the climate crisis alongside the Biden administration, but their boards are dominated by people with climate-related conflicts of interest, and they continue to invest deeply in fossil fuel projects.Three out of every four board members at seven major US banks (77%) have current or past ties to climate-conflicted companies or organizations – from oil and gas corporations to trade groups that lobby against reducing climate pollution, according to a first-of-its-kind review by climate influence analysts for DeSmog. Continue reading...

Sun and wind generated 60% of all electricity on Monday, data showsGreat Britain’s electricity system recorded its greenest ever day over the Easter bank holiday as sunshine and windy weather led to a surge in renewable energy.The power plants generating electricity in England, Scotland and Wales produced only 39g of carbon dioxide for every kilowatt-hour of electricity on Monday, according to National Grid’s electricity system operator, the lowest carbon intensity recorded since National Grid records began in 1935. Continue reading...

State agency says engineers found no evidence of another breach as workers battle to avert catastrophic floodReports of a second breach at a wastewater reservoir in central Florida are “unsubstantiated”, a state agency said, as workers nonetheless battled to prevent hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated water causing a catastrophic flood.On Monday, officials warned there could be a second leak in the pool at the abandoned Piney Point phosphate plant, south of Tampa, which has been gushing wastewater from a breached wall for a week, at a rate of 2m to 3m gallons a day. Continue reading...

Estimate of marine assets balloons as offshore wind soars alongside seaside’s importance for recreation, carbon capture and wildlifeThe economic value of the UK’s coastal waters has been put at more than £200bn amid growing recognition of the sea’s importance for renewable energy and as a barrier against global heating.In an official estimate for the value of marine natural assets, the Office for National Statistics said offshore wind production had soared in value by 37 times in the past decade. Continue reading...

Two main parties are divided over a giant project that would dig for uranium and other mineralsGreenland went into legislative elections on Tuesday, after a campaign focused on a disputed mining project in the autonomous Danish territory as the Arctic island confronts first-hand the effects of global heating.Greenland’s two main parties are divided on whether to authorise a controversial giant rare earth and uranium mining project, which is currently the subject of public hearings. Continue reading...

Yorkshire Water says it is committed to improving River Wharfe as swimming season approaches

It’s been just four years since the state’s last drought emergency and battles are beginning over how scarce supplies are rationedCalifornia is at the edge of another protracted drought, just a few years after one of the worst dry spells in state history left poor and rural communities without well water, triggered major water restrictions in cities, forced farmers to idle their fields, killed millions of trees, and fueled devastating megafires.On Thursday, the unofficial end of California’s wet season, officials announced that the accumulation of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Cascades was about 40% below average levels. The state doesn’t have enough snow and rain banked to replenish its groundwater supplies, feed its rivers and streams or fill depleted reservoirs. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Experts in court challenge to £27bn programme say official emissions calculations dramatically underestimate figuresCarbon emissions from England’s planned £27bn roadbuilding programme will be about 100 times greater than the government has stated, according to expert witnesses in a court challenge.Environmental campaigners are seeking a judicial review of the second roads investment strategy (RIS2), which was described by ministers when launched as “the largest ever investment in English strategic roads”, paying for 4,000 miles of road and including such schemes as the Lower Thames Crossing and the Stonehenge tunnel. Continue reading...

Former PM claims NSW Coalition government was influenced by News Corp when it reversed his appointment to new Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy boardMalcolm Turnbull claims the New South Wales Coalition government was influenced by a “concerted and ferocious” rightwing media campaign led by News Corp after it reversed his appointment to lead a new climate change body.The state’s energy and environment minister, Matt Kean, issued a statement on Tuesday morning saying the former prime minister had been dropped as the chair of the Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy board. Continue reading...

Recently, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assessed the African elephant as two separate species – the forest elephant and savannah elephant. The move has increased these animals’ ‘red list’ categorisation to endangered for savannah elephants and critically endangered for forest elephants. In an Age of Extinction extra for Science Weekly, Patrick Greenfield asks why it has taken so long for these two species to be officially recognised as such, and what the reclassification could mean for their conservation Continue reading...

Millions of gallons of toxic water have been pumped into ecologically sensitive Tampa Bay in an effort to avert a collapseWorkers battling to prevent the collapse of a central Florida reservoir containing hundreds of millions of gallons of contaminated water identified a potential second leak on Monday. But officials expressed hope that a dreaded “20ft wall of water”, resulting from a total failure of the reservoir walls, could yet be averted.Related: Florida faces 'imminent' pollution catastrophe from phosphate mine pond Continue reading...

National parks in sea could bring greater protections for habitats, says Blue Marine Foundation

Gates has been buying land like it’s going out of style. He now owns more farmland than my entire Native American nationBill Gates has never been a farmer. So why did the Land Report dub him “Farmer Bill” this year? The third richest man on the planet doesn’t have a green thumb. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get for far less praise for it. That kind of hard work isn’t what made him rich. Gates’ achievement, according to the report, is that he’s largest private owner of farmland in the US. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland – which is traditional Yakima territory – for $171m helped him get that title.In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where I’m an enrolled member. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation! Continue reading...

In Phoenix, two cities are emerging: one is water-rich, the other water-poor

The rare palm that bears this botanical icon grows wild on just two islands in Seychelles. Now locals are helping to save it in a new planting scheme“The coco de mer is a much-loved cultural and botanical icon of the Seychelles,” says Katy Beaver, a plant expert on the islands who has been studying the rare palm for many years. The coco de mer, also known as the sea coconut or double coconut, is endemic to the islands and produces the largest and heaviest seeds in the world, a fascinating case of island gigantism. The suggestive shape of the seed has also earned it plenty of attention. Shrouded in folklore and legends, the palm is found growing naturally on only two of Seychelles’ 115 islands – Praslin, the second largest island in the country after Mahé, and nearby Curieuse. With only about 8,000 mature trees in existence today, the plant is named as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. Continue reading...

Group aims to highlight financial sector’s role in climate crisis through escalation in tactics this weekExtinction Rebellion is planning to step up its campaign against the banking system with a series of direct action protests and debt strikes in the coming weeks aimed at highlighting the financial sector’s role in the escalating climate crisis.Last week the group targeted Barclays Bank’s headquarters in London and the Bank of England as well as high street branches across the UK as part of its Money Rebellion protest. Continue reading...

Thousands of vermin that plague farms are culled in annual Great Easter Bunny Hunt centred on Alexandra, Central OtagoNew Zealand hunters have celebrated a return to tradition this Easter: shooting thousands of rabbits, an introduced species that threatens the country’s biodiversity as well as agriculture.The Great Easter Bunny Hunt – where hundreds of hunters gather in Alexandra, Central Otago, to make a dent in the regional rabbit population – was held this weekend for the first time since 2017. Continue reading...

Navajo Nation members received ‘a pittance’ for access to their land. Then came the spills and firesIt’s not clear why the water line broke on a Sunday in February 2019, but by the time someone noticed and stopped the leak, more than 1,400 barrels of fracking slurry mixed with crude oil had drained off the wellsite owned by Enduring Resources and into a snow-filled wash. From there, that slurry – nearly 59,000 gallons – flowed more than a mile downstream toward Chaco Culture national historical park before leaching into the stream bed over the next few days and disappearing from view.The rolling, high-desert landscape where this happened is Navajo Nation off-reservation trust land, in rural Sandoval county, New Mexico. Neighbors are few and far between, and they didn’t notice the spill. The extra truck traffic of the cleanup work blended in with the oil and gas drilling operations along the dirt roads in that part of the county. Continue reading...

Darwin residents trapped after their vehicle broke down while trying to cross a swollen riverTwo Darwin residents were forced to spend nine hours on the roof of their car surrounded by crocodile-infested flood waters after their vehicle became stranded.Rescuers spent all of Saturday night attempting to rescue the pair after their LandCruiser became trapped when it tried to cross the Dingo Station river crossing west of the Northern Territory’s capital. Continue reading...

Panel recommends many household chemicals and pesticides be exempt from scrutiny and agricultural chemicals’ approvals be fast-trackedEnvironment and health groups have fiercely criticised proposals to relax the regulation of chemicals and pesticides in Australia, saying they are “totally at odds” with public health and safety expectations.A “first principles” review by a panel of experts has recommended to the agriculture minister, David Littleproud, that many household chemicals and pesticides should be exempt from scrutiny by authorities, and that approvals for agricultural chemicals should be fast-tracked if they have been licensed by similar authorities overseas. Continue reading...

Herring off western coast will ‘teeter on edge of complete collapse’ if commercial fishing continues at current level, says reportFirst Nations and conservationists are warning that Pacific herring populations are “collapsing” off Canada’s western coast, and are appealing for a moratorium on commercial fishing until the critical species can rebuild.Emmie Page, a marine campaigner with the organization Pacific Wild, said in the past, five large commercial herring fisheries opened each year on the coast. Continue reading...

Unusually warm weather accelerated bloom cycle of mall’s 3,800 cherry treesSpring has sprung in America’s capital, bringing with it a resplendent bloom of white and pink cherry blossoms that is one of the city’s grandest annual traditions.But this year, as Washington DC’s residents embrace a relative return to normal after a tumultuous year marked by the coronavirus and civil unrest, the earlier-than-anticipated bloom may point to yet another looming crisis: climate change. Continue reading...

Experts say extreme weather including droughts will become more common as planet heats

The Earth Optimism 2021 summit is showcasing practical conservation solutions. We look at the ways technology is making a differenceCollaboration is key to developing new ideas, and scaling those solutions up is essential for making good progress in any field. This week, Earth Optimism 2021, a global summit hosted online until 4 April by Cambridge Conservation Initiative, has been showcasing conservation innovations to help wildlife and nature.The Cambridge conference is part of the Earth Optimism Alliance, a movement founded in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution in the US, with hubs in Nairobi, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro, which brings people together from around the world to talk about what’s working to protect the future of our planet. Continue reading...

Instead of Atlantic salmon and trout, study says the industry should focus on cultivating species with less complex needsThose who care about the welfare of fish and seafood should opt for clams, mussels or seaweed, according to a new report, which says popular fish, including farmed Atlantic salmon and trout, have more complex welfare needs and are more likely to experience pain and suffering.There is no scientific evidence of the behavioural and environmental needs of nearly 80% of aquatic species, an analysis of more than 400 species farmed around the world found. Continue reading...

Law establishes a clear definition of a community overburdened by pollution and gives most vulnerable residents a bigger voiceActivists are heralding the new Massachusetts climate law as a crucial next step in the state’s fight for environmental justice, saying it marks a key change in the state’s approach to identifying which residents are the most burdened.The expansive climate legislation, which was signed by Governor Charlie Baker last week, sets new goals on emissions and clean energy but its emphasis on environmental justice, supporters say, could prove to be transformative. Continue reading...

Daniel Zarrilli is leaving New York’s top climate post after eight years and says more needs to be done to tackle fossil fuelsFollowing an eight-year tenure as New York City’s climate tsar, a tumultuous period when the city faced Superstorm Sandy and charged headlong into a legal battle with fossil fuel companies, Daniel Zarrilli is departing his position.A long-term city employee and ally of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Zarrilli said it was the “right time to move on and hand over the reins” by resigning as New York City’s top climate adviser and moving on to an unspecified role that will also work on the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Half a dozen ideas for easier living – plus all the week’s reasons to be hopefulHere in London we’re back to living by the rule of six. And what a joy it is, just to see real faces chugging ale and chatting nonsense in all their three-dimensional glory.It makes me wonder if there are other rules of six out there that we should live by. Six days of work, one day of rest? Or better still, the other way round? No meetings with more than six people in them? No eating after 6pm – or drinking before then? Continue reading...