Environment | The Guardian

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...

NAB to step in to help Port of Newcastle refinance under agreement reported to bind it to reducing carbon emissionsANZ has decided to stop lending money to Australia’s biggest coal port, the Port of Newcastle, after adopting new policies last year that prohibit it entering new finance deals for customers with significant exposure to the fossil fuel.The bank, which had been part of a syndicate of lenders, decided not to participate in the refinancing of hundreds of millions of dollars owed by the port, Guardian Australia has confirmed. Continue reading...

Oil projects over the next decade would destroy hopes of meeting Paris climate goals, thinktank warns

Boris Johnson told exploding wartime ordinance to clear way for windfarms can harm marine lifeJoanna Lumley has urged Boris Johnson to stop the “needless” detonation of wartime bombs at sea because it can cause deafness and even death in vulnerable whales and dolphins.In a letter to the prime minister and his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who is a conservationist and animal welfare campaigner, the actor describes underwater explosions used to clear ordinance ahead of windfarm construction in the UK as “truly shocking in scale”, with a “devastating impact” on marine mammals. Continue reading...

British Airways to invest in new US plant producing sustainable aviation fuelBritish Airways says it will operate transatlantic flights partially powered by sustainable fuels as early as next year.BA will invest in a new US plant to be built in Georgia by LanzaJet producing commercial-scale volumes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), made from ethanol derived from agricultural and other waste. Continue reading...

António Guterres says Covid pandemic must not halt preparatory work for key summit in Glasgow

BP among the winners in auction of offshore seabed rights for next decadeThe Queen and the Treasury could receive an offshore windfarm windfall of up to £9bn over the next decade, after an auction of seabed plots attracted runaway bids from energy companies including the oil company BP.The crown estate’s first auction of its seabed licences in a decade will earn the Queen’s property manager £879m a year, for up to 10 years, and clear the way for six new offshore windfarms and enough clean electricity generation for more than 7m homes. Continue reading...

Fifteen teams will get $1m to develop ideas, with a $50m prize awaiting the winnerThe Tesla co-founder Elon Musk has offered a $100m (£73m) fund for inventions that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or oceans.Musk, who has built up an estimated $203bn fortune, said he wanted scientists to make a “truly meaningful impact” and achieve “carbon negativity, not neutrality”. Continue reading...

Researchers use drones to map 30,000 sq metres of Heron Island at high resolution so sea cucumbers can be counted“In the wee hours of the morning … we weren’t too excited to be spooning poo,” reef ecologist Dr Vincent Raulot says.But that’s exactly what he and a team of researchers did to calculate out how much poop was excreted by an estimated 3 million sea cucumbers on the 20 sq km Heron Island coral reef in Queensland. Continue reading...

Rice’s whales already considered endangered by the US with a population estimated at fewer than 100Genetic analysis and a close examination of the skulls from a group of baleen whales in the north-eastern Gulf of Mexico have revealed that they are a new species.“I was surprised that there could be an unrecognized species of whale out there, especially in our backyard,” says Lynsey Wilcox, a geneticist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who helped uncover the new species. “I never imagined I would be describing a new species in my career, so it is a very exciting discovery.” Continue reading...

Swedish environmental groups warn test flight could be first step towards the adoption of a potentially “dangerous, unpredictable, and unmanageable” technologyA proposed scientific balloon flight in northern Sweden has attracted opposition from environmental groups over fears it could lead to the use of solar geoengineering to cool the Earth and combat the climate crisis by mimicking the effect of a large volcanic eruption.In June, a team of Harvard scientists is planning to launch a high-altitude balloon from Kiruna in Lapland to test whether it can carry equipment for a future small-scale experiment on radiation-reflecting particles in the Earth’s atmosphere. Continue reading...

Engineers explore using gentle slopes rather than steep dams or mountains to store electricityHundreds of hills across the UK could be transformed into renewable energy “batteries” through a pioneering hydropower system embedded underground.A team of engineers have developed a system that adapts one of the oldest forms of energy storage, hydropower, to store and release electricity from gentle slopes rather than requiring steep dam walls and mountains. Continue reading...

The debate over the planned Cumbrian coalmine creates a false dichotomy between prosperity and climate protection, writes Tim Crosland, while John Dark calls for investment in alternative fuel productionGaby Hinsliff’s piece (Plans for a Cumbrian coalmine illustrate the Tory dilemma: green policies or jobs?, 4 February), propagates an illusion advanced principally by vested fossil fuel interests: that we have to choose between green policies or jobs. In reality, no such dilemma exists.The International Energy Agency and Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise have published reports which conclude that renewable energy infrastructure projects deliver far more jobs than economic stimulus for business as usual. Continue reading...

Covid has battered the industry, and the race for renewables is speeding up. We are at a tipping pointThe final months of 2020 were a tough end to a tough year, according to BP’s chief executive. But Bernard Looney’s verdict on the worst financial year in the industry’s history is a devastating understatement. It was a period marked by thousands of job cuts, battered dividend policies and record multibillion-dollar losses.BP revealed a full-year loss of $18bn, its first since the Deepwater Horizon disaster more than a decade ago, while US oil giant ExxonMobil reported an annual loss of $22.4bn – its first ever. Shell capped a year in which it slashed its dividend for the first time since the second world war with a debit of almost $20bn. Continue reading...

Deputy PM says he’s focusing on now, not 2050, as Coalition’s climate skirmishes go onThe Coalition is facing an increasingly testy party room as it struggles to land on a climate policy, with the Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, declaring he is “not worried about what might happen in 30 years’ time”.The deputy prime minister said excluding agriculture from Australia’s attempts to reach net zero emissions by 2050 may be one option. Continue reading...

Lazer Sandford came out voluntarily while other protesters against the rail scheme continue to resist eviction

The iconic coastal road has a history of landslides, and experts say ‘it would not be surprising’ to see them happening more frequentlyCalifornia’s Highway 1 has been ruptured by a landslide that is expected to keep 23 miles of the iconic road snaking through the state’s rugged coastal cliffs closed for months.A severe winter rain storm last week caused a 150ft fissure along the picturesque thoroughfare tucked against Big Sur, with concrete, trees and mud falling into the sea below. Continue reading...

Results of England mapping will be used to lobby against ‘bleaching’ of night skyPeople are being urged to take part in a nationwide star count to see if lockdown has had an impact on light pollution.By counting stars within the constellation of Orion, “citizen scientists” will help map the best and worst places in England to enjoy a star-filled night sky, organisers said. Continue reading...

Party calls for flagship renewables scheme to be extended amid significant delays and problems

Protesters ‘in the muck together’ since 27 January say they are in good spirits as they resist evictionPacks of cards and plentiful supplies of chocolate are essential parts of the tunnel survival kit, according to the environmental activists living underneath Euston to protest about HS2 – the high-speed rail link that is due to come into the London station.Since the early hours of 27 January, nine activists from the campaign group HS2 Rebellion have been occupying a network of tunnels they and others dug out. Continue reading...

Papers reveal federal environment department officials warned against preemptively handing approval powers to statesFederal officials warned against transferring environmental approval powers to state governments before a major review of conservation laws was complete, saying it could undermine hopes of substantial reform.Despite the warning, the Morrison and Western Australian governments pushed ahead with plans to give the states greater authority in approving developments before the formal review by former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel was finished. Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures, from starfish at Dogger Bank to a sky full of migrating birds in Kashmir to the last moments in the life of a zebra brought down by cheetahs Continue reading...

An auction of offshore plots for future windfarms is being held by the Crown EstateThe Queen’s ownership of the British coastline is as old as the monarchy itself. But her right to collect royalties from wind and wave power is much more recent: it was granted by Tony Blair’s Labour government in a 2004 act of parliament.The Crown Estate, which manages the royal property portfolio, is holding the first auction of seabed plots for windfarm turbines in a decade. It emerged this week that bidding has reached record highs as energy firms look to diversify away from oil. Continue reading...

Offshore seabed auction lands £4bn over 10 years for Treasury and Crown Estate prompting calls for green sovereign wealth fundThe Queen and the Treasury are in line for a multibillion-pound bonanza from renewable energy, after a major auction of seabed plots for windfarms off the coasts of England and Wales attracted runaway bids.The crown estate, which manages the monarch’s property portfolio, holds exclusive rights to lease the seabed around the British Isles. With its first auction of windfarm licences in a decade understood to have reached record highs, the Queen’s income is expected to leap by at least £100m a year, while the takings will generate over £300m a year for the Treasury. Continue reading...

Male nano-chameleon, named Brookesia nana, has body only 13.5mm longScientists say they have discovered a sunflower-seed-sized subspecies of chameleon that may well be the smallest reptile on Earth.Two of the miniature lizards, one male and one female, were discovered by a German-Madagascan expedition team in northern Madagascar. Continue reading...

‘Bizarre’ decision to go ahead with Cumbrian mine criticised as UK prepares to host climate summitPressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis. Continue reading...

The transformation of a Swedish shipyard into a leafy haven inspired the UK capital’s ‘urban greening factor’ plan

The announcement by CEP Energy is the latest in a flurry of major energy storage projects for Australia’s national electricity gridDevelopers plan to build what they say will be the world’s biggest large-scale battery in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, the latest in a flurry of major energy storage projects announced for the national electricity grid.CEP Energy said its $2.4bn battery at Kurri Kurri, north-west of Newcastle, would have a power capacity of up to 1,200 megawatts – about eight times greater than the battery at Hornsdale in South Australia, which was the biggest when it began operating in 2017. Continue reading...

Moratorium had been extended twice by both the Country Liberal party and Labor governmentsSeabed mining will be permanently banned in the Northern Territory after an almost decade-long moratorium on the destructive practice runs out next month, the territory government has announced.Conservationists, traditional owner representatives and the territory’s mining lobby all welcomed the decision, announced on Friday morning. Continue reading...

Paper does not include policies to make it more affordable to buy EVs or a phase-out date for the sale of new fossil fuel carsThe Morrison government has ruled out subsidies to encourage people to buy electric or hybrid vehicles, and assumes they will be adopted at a pace that would lead to greenhouse gas emissions from transport increasing over the next decade.A “future fuels strategy” discussion paper released on Friday is largely consistent with a leaked draft in December. It does not include policies to make it more affordable to buy electric vehicles (EVs) or a phase-out date for the sale of new fossil fuel cars, as some other countries have announced. Continue reading...

Mining company South32 had applied to extend the life and output of its Dendrobium coalmineThe New South Wales Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has rejected the expansion of a coalmine near Wollongong because the project could cause irreversible damage to the Sydney and Illawarra drinking water catchments.Mining company South32 had applied to extend the life of its Dendrobium coalmine until 2048 for the production of coal to be used for making steel overseas and in Australia. Continue reading...

Local divisions over Woodhouse Colliery scheme echo rows playing out at national levelPlans for the UK’s first deep coalmine in more than 30 years have led to local divisions in Cumbria, even as it becomes an international issue over the country’s climate change commitments.James Hansen, one of the world’s foremost voices on the climate, this week took the unusual step of sending Boris Johnson a strongly worded letter warning that if the mine was allowed to proceed it would lead to “ignominy and humiliation” for the UK. Continue reading...

Celebrity interventions inflame sentiments in India as police investigate pro-farmers toolkitCounter-protesters in Delhi have burned effigies of the Swedish environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg after she tweeted support for India’s protesting farmers in posts that have prompted an investigation by Indian police.Crowds gathered in Delhi to protest against several international celebrities including Thunberg and the pop singer Rihanna, who inflamed sentiments in India and angered the government after tweeting about the continuing farmer protests this week. Photos of Thunberg and Rihanna were set alight and banners were held aloft warning that “international interference” in Indian affairs would not be tolerated. Continue reading...

Major assessment concludes that ocean soundscape is being drowned out by human activityA natural ocean soundscape is fundamental to healthy marine life but is being drowned out by an increasingly loud cacophony of noise from human activities, according to the first comprehensive assessment of the issue.The damage caused by noise is as harmful as overfishing, pollution and the climate crisis, the scientists said, but is being dangerously overlooked. The good news, they said, is that noise can be stopped instantly and does not have lingering effects, as the other problems do. Continue reading...

Brumadinho disaster, on 25 January 2019, is considered one of worst environmental tragedies in Brazilian historyThe Brazilian mining giant Vale has agreed to pay $7bn compensation for a deadly dam collapse that killed 272 people.Related: Brazil dam collapse: bodies pulled from toxic mud as hope fades for survivors Continue reading...

Research showing severe flood threat caused by global heating may set legal precedent in climate litigationHuman-caused global heating is directly responsible for the threat of a devastating flood in Peru that is the subject of a lawsuit against the German energy company RWE, according to groundbreaking new research.The study establishes links from human-made greenhouse gas emissions to the substantial risk of a dangerous outburst flood from Lake Palcacocha, high in the Peruvian Andes. The resulting flood would trigger a deadly landslide inundating the city of Huaraz, and threatening about 120,000 people in its path. Continue reading...

Thanks to an inter-party agreement, the clean energy hub in the North Sea is set to be the largest construction project in Danish historyDenmark’s government has agreed to take a majority stake in a £25bn artificial “energy island”, which is to be built 50 miles (80km) offshore, in the middle of the North Sea.The island to the west of the Jutland peninsula will initially have an area of 120,000 sq metres – the size of 18 football pitches – and in its first phase will be able to provide 3m households with green energy. Continue reading...

Republican attacks, amplified by Fox News, have been met with a planned response from climate envoy John KerryThe Democrat in the White House may be different, but the attacks are very familiar. Joe Biden’s early blitz to confront the climate crisis has provoked a hostile Republican backlash eerily similar to the opposition that stymied Barack Obama 12 years ago. Once again, efforts to reduce planet-heating emissions are being assailed as radical, job killing and elitist.Republican lawmakers in Congress have denounced Biden’s flurry of executive orders on climate and have even introduced legislation to bypass the president and approve the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline. Republican-led states are also joining the fray with Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, who is vowing to use the courts to block Biden’s move to halt oil and gas drilling on public lands. “Texas is going to protect the oil and gas industry from any type of hostile attack launched from Washington DC,” Abbott said. Continue reading...

Patricia Espinosa says fulfilling $100bn-a-year promise must be top priority to support developing worldRich countries must step up with fresh financial commitments to help the developing world tackle the climate crisis, the UN’s climate chief has said.Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, said fulfilling pledges of financial assistance made a decade ago must be the top priority before vital climate talks – Cop26 – later this year. Continue reading...

Proposals to accelerate electric car rollout also call for grants towards buying secondhand electric vehiclesOil companies should be required to install rapid chargers for electric cars in all their petrol stations above a certain size by 2023 in order to speed up the rollout of vehicles with zero tailpipe emissions, according to thinktank Bright Blue.Bright Blue’s report also calls for a reversal in cuts to government grants for battery electric vehicles (BEVs), a new grant to help low income households buy secondhand BEVs, and for the lower lifetime costs of BEVs compared with those of petrol and diesel cars to be made clear at the point of sale. Continue reading...

The Australian prime minister says the new US president did not press him to adopt a more ambitious emissions commitmentIn the Trump era, journalists didn’t have to speculate about what a US president said to an Australian prime minister during a private phone call. Famously, the entire transcript of a fraught conversation between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 was leaked.But in more sedate times, leaders provide their own readouts. Continue reading...

Woman sentenced in New Zealand for biosecurity violations after hiding plant material inside stockingsA woman has been sentenced in New Zealand after being caught trying to smuggle nearly 1,000 cacti and succulents strapped to her body.Wenqing Li, known as Wendy, pleaded guilty at the Manukau district court to charges under two separate violations of biosecurity laws, attempting to bring in plants from China. Continue reading...

Keith Pitt argues coal sector not in decline as David Littleproud says Australians ‘sick of platitudes’ and should avoid ‘self-loathing’ over climate recordSenior National party ministers have poured cold water on the growing push for Australia to adopt a concrete commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, cautioning against “platitudes” and arguing the coal sector is not in decline.While Scott Morrison has attempted to perform a rhetorical pivot – expressing a preference for achieving net zero by 2050 or even sooner – the prime minister is yet to make a firm commitment to the goal that has been adopted by many of Australia’s trading partners. Continue reading...

Mining firm reports $650m January intake from rough stones, marking strongest sales in three yearsDe Beers has revealed its strongest diamond sales in three years following a Christmas surge in jewellery purchases, with sales 10% above the group’s 20-year average.The world’s biggest diamond miner made $650m from its rough stones last month, well above sales of $551m in early 2020, amounting to the highest sales since January 2018. Continue reading...

Engineers at RMIT say the road-making material could help tackle the vast amount of waste generated from Covid protective equipmentDisposable face masks used to prevent the spread of Covid-19 could be recycled to make roads, a new study suggests.Researchers at RMIT said they had developed a road-making material by combining shredded single-use masks and processed building rubble. Continue reading...

State found guilty of ‘non-respect of its engagements’ aimed at fighting global warmingA Paris court has convicted the French state of failing to address the climate crisis and not keeping its promises to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.In what has been hailed as a historic ruling, the court found the state guilty of “non-respect of its engagements” aimed at combating global warming. Continue reading...

Vicious circle of cheap but damaging food is biggest destroyer of nature, says UN-backed reportThe global food system is the biggest driver of destruction of the natural world, and a shift to predominantly plant-based diets is crucial in halting the damage, according to a report.Agriculture is the main threat to 86% of the 28,000 species known to be at risk of extinction, the report by the Chatham House thinktank said. Without change, the loss of biodiversity will continue to accelerate and threaten the world’s ability to sustain humanity, it said. Continue reading...