Exclusive: US chains Walmart, Costco and Kroger selling Brazilian beef produced by JBS linked to destruction of Brazilian rainforestThree of the biggest US grocery chains sell Brazilian beef produced by a controversial meat company linked to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, an investigation has revealed.Food giants Walmart, Costco and Kroger – which together totalled net sales worth more than half a trillion dollars last year – are selling Brazilian beef products imported from JBS, the world’s largest meat company, which has been linked to deforestation. Continue reading...

Department of Environment and Science says damage to boat indicates crocodile’s involvement ‘highly likely’A four-metre crocodile believed to be behind a fatal attack on a missing fisherman in north Queensland has been captured and killed, after human remains were found.Related: King croc of Port Douglas dies after crab pot encounter Continue reading...

Weather forecasts have the potential to be an important conservation tool, say meteorologists

New book by Microsoft billionaire plays down impact of flying and driving and calls for focus on steel, meat and cementThe world is not lacking rich men with big ideas, Bill Gates has acknowledged. But having pumped $100m into Covid research, the Microsoft billionaire has turned to the climate emergency and the urgent need to slash carbon emissions to zero, undeterred by being a self-confessed “imperfect messenger” for the cause.With a personal fortune of around $120bn, the world’s former richest man reveals in his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, that he has poured more than $1bn into innovative approaches to achieving carbon neutrality, investing in zero-carbon technologies and affordable and reliable clean energy. Continue reading...

Ryan Koenigs accused of supplying fish eggs taken for research to caviar producers, accepting jars of the delicacy in returnA state biologist known as Wisconsin’s “sturgeon general” is facing jail for his alleged role in a lucrative racket that prosecutors say saw valuable fish eggs marked for fertility research funneled instead for caviar production.Related: Why is caviar still on the menu? Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures, from the swans that cancelled their flight to the Arctic due to Storm Darcy to the bears liberated from captivity to walk free in the wild Continue reading...

Auction paused after runaway bids for leases in England and Wales hand windfalls to Queen and TreasuryThe Queen’s property manager in Scotland has delayed the auction of Scottish seabed plots for windfarms after runaway bids for leases in England and Wales handed the Queen and the Treasury a multibillion-pound windfall.Crown Estate Scotland paused its auction in order to carry out a review of the process after the “unprecedented” bidding in an auction for England and Wales lease options last week reached record highs. Continue reading...

Ogale and Bille villagers say Shell oil operations have caused severe pollution including to their drinking waterTwo Nigerian communities can bring their legal claims for a cleanup and for compensation against the oil company Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary in an English court, supreme court judges have said.In what lawyers said was a “watershed moment” for the accountability of multinational companies, on Friday the court overturned a decision by the court of appeal, and ruled that the cases against Shell could proceed. Continue reading...

A Bogotà nightclub has used the sounds of animals and birds in the Colombian capital to make a new kind of dance trackStuck inside and unable to hit the dancefloor, many of the regulars at the electronic dance nights at Bogotá’s popular nightclub Kaputt found themselves missing the clubbing community when they were forced into lockdown by Covid-19. But then came a rallying cry from DJs Jorge Pizarro and Felipe Rodríguez: start recording the “sounds from your window”.Now the results of that callout are reaching a global audience, with a set of albums blending the sounds of animals and birds in the Colombian capital with techno beats available for streaming. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Environment Agency has failed to prosecute or fine any of 243 documented violations since 2018Campaigners have called legislation designed to reduce water pollution caused by agriculture in England “useless” as data reveals there have been no prosecutions or fines issued despite regular documented breaches of the rules.The Environment Agency has documented 243 violations of the “farming rules for water” since they came into effect in April 2018, according to data the Guardian has obtained using freedom of information legislation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: just 12% of spending on economic rescue packages is going towards low-carbon projects, research findsEfforts by governments around the world to forge a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic are so far failing even to reach the levels of green spending seen in the stimulus that followed the 2008 financial crisis, new analysis has shown.Only about 12% of the spending on economic rescue packages around the world is going towards low-carbon projects, such as renewable energy and clean technology, according to a report by Vivid Economics, published on Friday. Continue reading...

Government is told it must find better ways to measure effects of environmental taxesAn environmental tax imposed to cut the amount of landfill appears to have incentivised illegal waste disposal such as fly-tipping, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has discovered.The National Audit Office also said the government was collecting too little information about the effect of environmental taxes, which it said needed to be monitored to help the government reach its climate goals. Continue reading...

An estimated 600 gallons of oil have spilled from the Richmond refinery into the San Francisco BayEmergency crews in Richmond, California, are rushing to clean up an estimated 600 gallons of oil that spilled from a Chevron refinery into the San Francisco Bay. Details on the spill are still scant, but the emergency has reinvigorated calls from residents and environmentalists for the city to change its relationship with the refinery. Continue reading...

Analysis: campaigners argue that, as with Heathrow, climate obligations should make £27bn scheme unviable

Exclusive: transport secretary dismissed guidance calling for review of environmental impact

Productivity Commission says Australian governments have allocated funding to several projects failing cost-benefit analysesThe Productivity Commission has slammed decisions by the federal and state governments to fund major dam projects without business cases, saying that several fail cost-benefit analyses and amount to subsidies for the private sector.In a new draft report on national water policy, the commission has singled out Rookwood weir on the Fitzroy river in Queensland and the Dungowan dam on the Peel near Tamworth to demonstrate its concerns about the way decisions are made about infrastructure. Continue reading...

Two-thirds of those killed worked to protect environmental, land and indigenous peoples’ rights, while those providing Covid relief also faced reprisalsAt least 331 human rights defenders promoting social, environmental, racial and gender justice in 25 countries were murdered in 2020, with scores more beaten, detained and criminalised because of their work, analysis has found.Latin America, the most dangerous continent in the world in which to protect environmental, land and human rights, accounted for more than three-quarters of all the murders of human rights defenders in 2020. In Colombia, where activists are routinely targeted by armed groups despite a 2016 peace deal, 177 such deaths were recorded, more than half of the global total. The Philippines was the second deadliest country with 25 murders, followed by Honduras, Mexico, Afghanistan, Brazil and Guatemala. Continue reading...

Precipitation fills reservoirs, limits fire danger and feeds important crops. But the state has seen only 30% to 70% of what it would expectThere’s a race on in California, and each day matters: the precipitation during winter that fuels the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and fills groundwater supplies has been slow to start, and faltering at best.Northern California remains stuck in one of the worst two-year rainfall deficits seen since the 1849 Gold Rush, increasing the risk of water restrictions and potentially setting up dangerous wildfire conditions next summer. The current precipitation is only 30% to 70% of what the state would expect to have seen during a normal year – with no more big rainfall events on the horizon for February. Continue reading...

The Morrison government put the $8.7m upgrade project on its energy underwriting program shortlist before the last electionA controversial Morrison government plan to grant up to $8.7m for an upgrade at a coal plant part-owned by power boss Trevor St Baker has been dropped after the company abandoned its bid for the public funding.The government allocated the grant for a turbine upgrade at the Vales Point generator, in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley, in the October budget, but told the station’s owner, Delta Electricity, it would need to submit a formal application for the money. Continue reading...

Energy firm seeks to grow operation by 20% but offset expansion via carbon capture and ‘nature-based solutions’Shell has set new carbon emissions goals to become a net zero carbon energy company by 2050, but will continue to grow its gas business by more than 20% in the next few years.The Anglo-Dutch oil company’s new climate strategy will include a modest fall in oil production, by selling oilfields or through the natural decline of their reserves, and an increase in gas production and gas exports to the global market. Continue reading...

Gail Mabo and Joanne Margaret Keune accuse the foundation of repudiating a contract to manage a traditional owners forumThe Great Barrier Reef Foundation is being sued by the daughter of Indigenous land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo after it allegedly cancelled a contract for a $1m traditional owners forum.In documents filed in the Townsville district court, the foundation is accused of repudiating a contract with Gail Mabo and Joanne Margaret Keune in September, two months after they allegedly reached a deal that would have seen the pair paid $1m over two years to plan and run the three-day forum. Continue reading...

In rural Alabama where Martin Luther King marched for civil rights, Flowers has waged a long fight for environmental justice

The health effects caused by decades of systemic racism are staggering. The Guardian is launching a year-long series to investigate

Black residents in Centreville, Illinois, say officials ignored their pleas for help for years. Now they’re quarantined in toxic conditions

Document given to Senate crossbenchers outlines plan to transfer environmental decision-making powers to states and territoriesThe Morrison government is preparing to reject a recommendation it introduce strong national environmental standards to improve protection of Australian wildlife, opting to instead mimic the failing existing laws.A document, seen by Guardian Australia, sets out the proposed standards the government will introduce to underpin its plan to transfer environmental decision-making powers to state and territory governments. Continue reading...

Under 3,000 pairs survive, which each require 7 ha to prosper, with ex-industrial sites ideal for breedingThe willow tit, one of Britain’s smallest and most endangered birds, requires a surprisingly large area of wild land to thrive, according to research.Less than 3,000 pairs of the bird survive, mainly on brownfield sites in former coal mining areas, making it the fastest declining resident species, with numbers plummeting by 94% since 1970. Continue reading...

UK programme will offer 118 young people from ethnic minority backgrounds environment rolesA group of leading environmental organisations are taking part in an employment initiative to make the green movement more diverse.Friends of the Earth, Client Earth, the RSPB and others will take part in a programme that aims to open up the environmental sector to young people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Continue reading...

Cross-party committee says deprived groups contribute least but suffer most from dirty airThe government must set tough new air pollution targets to reduce the stark health inequalities suffered by disadvantaged communities, a cross-party committee of MPs has said.Dirty air causes up to 64,000 early deaths a year in the UK, according to their report, and disproportionately harms those living in deprived areas and those from minority ethnic communities. The fact that these groups contribute the least to air pollution “increases the moral case for action”, said the MPs. Continue reading...

Court rejects claim that contractor is not handling removal of demonstrators safelyA high court judge has ruled against a call to halt the eviction of protesters from a tunnel beside Euston Square on grounds of safety.Seven people are currently occupying the tunnel, in order to raise awareness both of the climate emergency, and the damage they say is being done by HS2. Continue reading...

The Michigan congresswoman represents the state’s most polluted zip code is and is sponsoring a bill to tackle the water crisisRashida Tlaib’s workplace is a hostile environment. Continue reading...

If the Morrison government does not impose emissions reduction policies, exporters may need to buy carbon permits in the EU

95% of £1.5bn set aside to improve houses unspent due to slowness in making grants and paying installersThe government’s flagship programme for a green recovery is in turmoil after it was revealed that hundreds of millions of pounds are being withdrawn from its green homes grant programme.Ninety-five per cent of the £1.5bn pot provided for householders in England to make their homes less carbon intensive remains unspent due to long delays in giving out grants to householders and making payments to installers. Continue reading...

Federal and state governments are being urged to respond to the effects of the climate crisis and to Indigenous rights to waterStates and the federal government should forge a new compact on water policy that explicitly recognises climate change, and which sets “triggers” for rapid policy responses, the Productivity Commission has said.Releasing its draft report on national water reform, the commission has called for a substantial overhaul of the 17-year-old National Water Initiative, a bedrock document that commits the states and federal government to working together on water policy as well as outlining a work program for the future. Continue reading...

Meeting Paris goals would bring health benefits aside from tackling global heating, research saysThousands of lives lost to air pollution, inactivity and unhealthy diets could be saved each year if the UK takes the action needed to tackle climate change, researchers have said.Across the world, millions of lives could be saved if countries raise ambitions on cutting emissions to limit global heating to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels, as they have committed to in the global Paris climate accord. Continue reading...

Riders in major cities, especially New York, encounter particle quantities well above safe levelsPeople traveling on subway systems in major US cities are being exposed to unsafe amounts of air pollution, with commuters in New York and New Jersey subjected to the highest levels of pollution, research has found.Tiny airborne particles, probably thrown up by train brakes or the friction between train wheels and rails, are rife in the 71 underground stations sampled by researchers during morning and evening rush hours in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington DC, the cities that contain the bulk of subway systems in the US. Continue reading...

Locals are mourning ‘the big guy’ of Port Douglas after the 4.5-metre croc’s entangled carcass was found in the Queensland town’s inletAn ageing crocodile affectionately known as “the big guy” of Port Douglas has met a tragic end after becoming tangled in crab pots.The hefty reptile, believed to be about 80 years old, was found dead in the Queensland tourist town’s Dickson Inlet on Friday morning. Continue reading...

The fossil fuel giants need to find new ways to reduce emissions, generate growth and maintain their share priceThe world’s biggest oil companies are no stranger to UK waters, but by the end of the decade they will be running more offshore wind turbines than oil rigs.BP has already made a splash with a record-breaking bid to build two giant windfarms in the Irish Sea. The company beat established renewable energy players by offering to pay the Crown Estate £900m a year to develop the sites, more than 15 times the price paid for similar deals in the past. Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire: Returning to where I used to live, I did not know which garden marked where I last saw a skylark’s ascent, or which factory blocked the flightpath of partridgesBack in the 1980s, we moved into a new estate tacked on to the north end of town. For the resettling Londoners who occupied most of the houses, it must have been a strange country. Tiny dragons roamed by day and pinpricks of lunar light lit the embankment beyond our gardens on summer nights.Within a few years, the lizards were gone (did other cats beside our neighbour’s catch them too?) and the glow-worms glowed no more, their memory outshone all year round by an industrial park and the floodlights of an all-weather sports pitch. Continue reading...

Business leaders call for an aggressive push into lower emission vehicles after ExxonMobil confirms closureThe closure of one of Australia’s few remaining oil refineries is piling pressure on the Morrison government to confront the country’s “severe fuel insecurity” that could be eased with a more aggressive push to lower emissions vehicles, according to a leading business group.ExxonMobil confirmed on Wednesday its Altona refinery in Victoria, operating since 1949, would close and be converted to a fuel import terminal. Continue reading...

Soil Association announces largest year-on-year increase in sales of natural products in 15 yearsOrganic food consumption has soared in the past year across the UK, as people have eaten in more and sought higher quality food, driving the biggest year-on-year increase in sales in 15 years.The organic market, including food, clothing, cosmetics and other products, increased to £2.79bn, a rise of 12.6% on 2019, according to the Soil Association in its annual organic market report, released on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Standoff exposes tensions between large Inuit organizations with power to approve permits and residents of small communitiesA group of Inuit hunters have braved nearly a week of freezing temperatures to blockade a remote iron mine in northern Canada, in protest over an expansion plan they say will harm local wildlife.The blockade, which has prompted solidarity rallies in other Nunavut communities, has also exposed growing tensions between large Inuit organizations with the power to approve development permits – and residents of the small communities where the impact of such projects is felt. Continue reading...

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Pollution from power plants, vehicles and other sources accounted for one in five of all deaths that year, more detailed analysis reveals

Indigenous leaders, environmental groups and stars including Cher and Robert Downey Jr urge White House in letterA coalition of prominent celebrities, indigenous leaders and environmental groups have written to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris urging them to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) which is operating without a legal permit.Actors, musicians and athletes including Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Cher, Cyndi Lauper, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Aaron Rodgers, Jane Fonda, Joaquin Phoenix and Orlando Bloom are calling on the White House to close down the oil pipeline which poses serious environmental risks to tribal lands, water and wildlife, as well as indigenous cultural and religious practices. Continue reading...

Planning proposal for project near Whitehaven has faced widespread opposition from environmentalists

Sources say resources minister Keith Pitt is trying to ‘strengthen’ the inquiry that stalled after backbench Liberals pushed backThe federal resources minister, Keith Pitt, has broadened the terms of reference for a controversial inquiry into the climate policies of banks and insurers, writing to the joint standing committee on trade and investment growth asking that it now investigate finance for all export industries.Amid public tensions between Nationals and Liberals about Scott Morrison’s positive but non-committal signalling on a net zero emissions target by 2050, sources have told Guardian Australia Pitt is attempting to “strengthen” and reboot an inquiry that stalled at the end of last year. Continue reading...

Growing opposition to the lifting of mining protections in Alberta has forced the Canadian province to backtrackTo the east of the Bluebird Valley ranch, the grasslands of the Canadian prairies extend beyond the horizon. To the west, the fields rise, and then sharply erupt into the Rocky Mountains.Cattle graze the 3,600 hectares (9,000 acres) of the Bluebird, an hour south-west of Calgary, and on hot summer days rancher Jolayne Gardner’s children jump into the chilly waters of a creek that threads the rolling hills. Continue reading...

A 1930s initiative that tackled environmental woes and unemployment could inspire the new administration’s plans to confront the climate crisisNearly a century ago, the US faced unemployment at 25% and environmental woes such as flooding along major rivers and extensive deforestation. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided to tackle these emergencies simultaneously by creating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as part of his New Deal.Related: Trump's assault on the environment is over. Now we must reverse the damage | Jonathan B Jarvis, Gary Machlis Continue reading...

Highbury Corner tunnel built by same crew behind HS2 protest tunnel at Euston, say environmentalists

Shift is caused by the heating of the oceans and other wildlife is suffering more attacksThe climate crisis is pushing great white sharks into new waters where they are causing populations of endangered wildlife to plunge, research has shown.Heating of the oceans, which reached a record level in 2020, has led young great white sharks to move 600km (373 miles) northwards off the coast of California since 2014, into waters that were previously too cold. Over that time there was a dramatic rise in sea otters killed by white sharks, with the number in Monterey Bay dropping by 86%. Continue reading...