Shooting interests in England will need licence to release non-native birds near nature reservesPheasants and partridges are to be classified alongside Japanese knotweed and grey squirrels as species that imperil native wildlife, the government has announced. People with shooting interests in England will have to apply for a licence to release the non-native birds near nature reserves.The surprise announcement came after a legal challenge by the campaign group Wild Justice, which successfully argued that European protections obliged the authorities to regulate about 60 million non-native pheasants and partridges let loose into the countryside to be shot each year. Continue reading...

Scientists find several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during expedition

Device makes it inexpensive to monitor sites previously too hazardous or difficult for volunteers to enter after darkThe secret lives of the UK’s rarest bats could be revealed thanks to a new sensor that can record ultrasonic calls in dense woodland areas that have previously been difficult to reach.For decades, acoustic monitoring has been done by bat detectors carried by experts reluctant to stray into woodland thickets during night-time walks. Now a new £60 sensor that can be left in woodlands for up to a fortnight, called AudioMoth, is giving researchers a richer insight into the lives of these elusive mammals after a successful pilot study. Continue reading...

Guardian readers look back to simpler times in lockdown when they escaped to local hidden gemsAs many UK cities become subject to strict lockdown measures, because of rising cases of coronavirus, Guardian readers tell us about their favourite urban open spaces that have helped lift spirits during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Two major fires are consuming the forests in the Rocky mountains, killing at least two people and causing an estimated $195m in damagesBy 23 October, a blustery Friday toward the end of a depressingly short autumn, the two largest wildfires in Colorado’s recent history were descending on Rocky Mountain national park, reaching toward each other with a mere 10 miles of bone-dry forest between them.The Cameron Peak fire had arrived from the north and had already scorched through wilderness for 71 days. The East Troublesome fire was approaching from the west, sending flames over the Continental Divide and forcing the evacuation of the nearby town of Estes Park. Continue reading...

Sheep grazing has dominated the Howgill Fells for over a century, but with shifting agricultural subsidies and urgent calls to address biodiversity loss, change is comingFor William Wordsworth the Howgill Fells was a romantic landscape, for rewilders they could be home to wolves, and for farmer John Pratt, these hills are home. “I was hoping this day would never come. I shan’t say it will break my heart, but it will,” says Pratt, who is selling his sheep and retiring after 55 years of uplands farming. “I’ve had a flock of sheep since I was 14, so I’m ready for a break,” he adds.The 69-year-old tenant farmer works seven days a week and takes six days of holiday a year. Since 1966 he has been renting Kilnmire Farm (with no heating in the house) on the edge of Ravenstonedale village in Cumbria with his wife, Hazel. He doesn’t drink alcohol (he’s Methodist) and doesn’t have a mobile phone because he “wouldn’t know how to use it”. He tried an olive for the first time in 2017. It’s a lifestyle none of his three children is willing to take on. Continue reading...

Former fire chiefs call for ‘no new coal or gas’ after royal commission found climate change fuelled the black summer bushfiresAustralia’s summer bushfires were fuelled by climate change and governments must respond to the royal commission into the disaster with tougher policies to reduce emissions, including “no new coal or gas”, former fire chiefs have said.Craig Lapsley, a former Victorian emergency management commissioner, said the $10bn cost of the bushfire disaster laid out in the report was “staggering”. Continue reading...

Trump has brought public health and environment rollbacks at an EPA already in trouble – and staffers worry it isn’t equipped to keep Americans safeDonald Trump’s environment agency “actually seems to have a war on the environment”, has been “utterly untenable”, and has brought about “deeply, deeply troubling times”, according to three administrators appointed under past presidents.Reflecting on Trump’s dozens of attacks on core environmental protections, a fourth put it another way: “[I’m] really god damned pissed off – and that’s being kind.” Continue reading...

Gas discovery at centre of Turkey-Greece dispute will ‘make world even less safe’The giant gas reserves at the heart of a bitter political standoff between Greece and Turkey could lead to the same carbon emissions as the whole of France and Spain combined every year, according to a report that has called for the proposed gas pipeline project to be scrapped.The gas discovery has inflamed regional tensions in the eastern Mediterranean as Greece and Turkey vie for control of new fossil fuel reserves in disputed waters and, according to Global Witness, the climate cost will outweigh its value in Europe’s carbon neutral future. Continue reading...

UK millionaire Dale Vince says lab-grown gems will be ‘world’s first zero-impact’ diamondsA British multi-millionaire and environmentalist has set out plans to create thousands of carats of carbon-negative, laboratory-grown diamonds every year “made entirely from the sky”.Dale Vince, the founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity, claims to have developed the world’s only diamonds to be made from carbon, water and energy sourced directly from the elements at a “sky mining facility” in Stroud. Continue reading...

Conservationists warn move comes too early for species occupying a tiny slice of its former habitatThe Trump administration has removed endangered species protections from the gray wolf, a species once persecuted to near-extinction in the US, in a move that has been condemned as premature by conservationists.The wolves have been provided federal protection for more than 45 years but this is no longer needed according to David Bernhardt, the US interior secretary, who announced the decision in Minnesota on Thursday. Continue reading...

Climate crisis exacerbates extreme weather during natural events, say expertsLa Niña climate event is under way, heralding a colder and stormier winter than usual across the northern hemisphere, but 2020 remains likely to be one of the warmest years on record.The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has declared La Niña event – a cooling of surface ocean water along the Pacific coast of the South American tropics – to help governments and humanitarian agencies plan for extreme weather events around the world. Continue reading...

Work on highway in western Victoria stopped for three weeks following supreme court action by local activistsThe Victorian government has been ordered to stop work for three weeks on a highway duplication in the state’s west that local Indigenous leaders say threatens culturally significant trees.Transport authorities on Thursday offered to halt major works on Djab Wurrung cultural sites as a legal battle over the highway duplication on sacred land escalated. Continue reading...

NSW environment minister says he does not support his federal counterpart, even though his government recommended environmental approval for quarry expansionThe New South Wales environment minister, Matt Kean, has said he is disappointed by the decision of his federal counterpart, Sussan Ley, to approve the expansion of a rock quarry in koala habitat in Port Stephens, despite the state government previously recommending environmental approval for the project.The Brandy Hill quarry expansion will clear 52 hectares of koala habitat after it was approved this week by Ley, despite a high-profile grassroots campaign. Continue reading...

Places hollowed out by deindustrialisation could be at the forefront of an environmental revolutionHere are two news stories which may not seem linked, and yet they are. The first: a letter written this week to the prime minister by the newly formed Northern Research Group. Representing 50 Conservative MPs in northern seats – including those wrested from Labour control after generations – they rightly point to how the pandemic “has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our own communities”, and express fear that the cost of the crisis “could be paid by the downgrading of the levelling-up agenda, and northern constituencies like ours will be left behind”.Related: Investors and graduates flock to UK's burgeoning windfarms Continue reading...

Bank says it will stop lending to its largest customers unless businesses have carbon transition plansA climate change commitment from ANZ to halt lending to its largest customers unless the businesses can prove carbon transition plans by next year has been cautiously welcomed by conservationists, but enraged senior Nationals MPs.ANZ’s new emissions policies, outlined in a climate change statement at its full year results presentation on Thursday morning, aim to support efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – but not net zero gas or oil by 2050 – with significant steps to be taken by the 2021 financial year to shape the bank’s operations until 2030. Continue reading...

Australia’s foreign minister says ‘it’s a matter for those countries’ after being questioned on the matter five times by Penny WongThe foreign affairs minister Marise Payne says Australia “acknowledges” decisions by Japan and South Korea to adopt net zero targets for 2050, but she has declined to welcome that development, despite Australia’s status as a signatory to the Paris agreement.This week Japan pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, as did South Korea. China last month pledged to reach carbon neutrality by no later than 2060. Continue reading...

Administration to permit logging in the world’s largest intact temperate rainforestThe Trump administration has announced it will lift protections in Alaska’s Tongass national forest, permitting logging in the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest. Continue reading...

Environmental campaigners raise concerns over sustainability of some eco-friendly itemsDisposable nappies, cotton buds , pet food and novelty Donald Trump toilet paper were among the products on sale on Amazon’s new eco-friendly section of its website, prompting concerns about the sustainability of some of the products on offer.The world’s biggest online retailer launched the new section of the website on Tuesday in the UK and Europe with more than 40,000 items on the new platform chosen for their sustainability credentials. Continue reading...

St Augustine, Florida, was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers. Flooding has been a threat for centuries and is worsening with rising tidesThe holiday season in St Augustine, Florida, is approaching, and residents are looking ahead to the annual Nights of Lights festival – a months-long tradition that sees millions of white lights strung along every corner of the city’s historic downtown.But an old enemy is rearing its head: the sea. Increasingly, residents have to wear rain boots just to get to their cars and plan their commutes to avoid roads that are flooded with salty sea water. Continue reading...

The detached reef, taller than the Empire State Building, was discovered at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef off Cape York in QueenslandAustralian scientists have discovered a detached reef more than 500 metres high – taller than the Empire State Building – at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef.The “blade-like” vertical reef about 130km off Cape York, Australia’s north-eastern tip, was found during a 3D seabed mapping exercise conducted from a ship owned by the Californian non-profit Schmidt Ocean Institute. Continue reading...

As a new report spells out how financial institutions contribute to biodiversity loss, the clamour is growing for a new approach

South Korea relies on coal for about 40% of its electricity generation, with renewables making up less than 6%South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, has declared that the country will go carbon neutral by 2050, bringing it into line with other major economies.In a policy speech in the national assembly on Wednesday, Moon said South Korea, one of the world’s most fossil fuel-reliant economies, would “actively respond” to the climate emergency “with the international community and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050”. Continue reading...

Billion-dollar export trade puts lives of animals and crew at greater risk of ‘total loss’ through faulty design and inexperienceShips carrying live animals are at least twice as likely to suffer a “total loss” from sinking or grounding as standard cargo vessels, the Guardian has found.In the past year alone there have been two disasters involving animals in transit. Last November, at least 14,000 sheep drowned after the Queen Hind capsized en route to Saudi Arabia from Romania. And last month, Gulf Livestock 1, a carrier transporting almost 6,000 cattle, sank off the Japanese coast en route to China from New Zealand. Forty crew members remain missing and are presumed dead. Continue reading...

Exclusive: investigator’s affidavit shows he surveilled and followed anti-Adani activist Ben Pennings’ wife and daughterA private investigator working for Adani took covert photographs of an environmental activist walking his nine-year-old daughter to primary school, court documents have revealed.The affidavit of the investigator – who was instructed by lawyers representing Adani in its civil case against activist Ben Pennings – also revealed he surveilled Pennings’ wife, trawled her Facebook page and followed her to work. Continue reading...

Intervention by ‘economically rational Liberal’ comes as Anthony Albanese hedges on 2030 emissions targets

UK record of conversation stresses ‘ambitious targets to cut emissions and reach net zero’, but account released by Australian PM’s office does not mention the targetScott Morrison has declared the British government understands that Australia’s mid century emissions reduction targets will not be set by London or by Europe, because Boris Johnson embarked on his own act of “sovereignty” by withdrawing the UK from the European Union.The Australian PM’s comments followed the release of official readouts – with different emphases – after a conversation about climate change between the two leaders on Tuesday night. Continue reading...

Joint study conducted finds that fish fed a diet including plastic were more likely to be eaten themselvesMicroplastics can alter the behaviour of fish, with those that ingest the pollutants likely to be bolder, more active and swim in risky areas where they die en masse, according to a new study.The survival risk posed by microplastics is also exacerbated by degrading coral reefs, as dying corals make particularly younger fish more desperate to find nutrition and shelter, and to venture into waters where they are more likely to be taken by predators themselves. Continue reading...

Lack of policies regulating impact on natural world means finance industry effectively bankrolling biodiversity loss, analysis finds

Climate of the Nation report finds 80% think heating effects are now being felt and only 12% back government’s ‘gas-led recovery’Battling a global pandemic and the first recession in 30 years has not prompted Australians to worry less about the impacts of climate change, and a substantial majority of voters believe we are already experiencing the effects of warming, according to an authoritative snapshot of community attitudes.The latest Climate of the Nation report, an annual national survey of almost 2,000 voters that has been running for 13 years, will be launched on Wednesday by the New South Wales environment and energy minister, Matt Kean. Continue reading...

A conservation group commissioned ex-ABC journalist Jonathan Holmes to investigate if political pressure was a factorHolmes: Relevance doesn’t mean telling people what they want to hearThe ABC’s 7.30 and AM programs did not cover climate change adequately and related reports on drought, bushfire, fossil fuel extraction, and energy policy ignored climate change as a causative factor, a confidential report for the Australian Conservation Foundation has found.The ACF commissioned the former Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes to study the programs’ output for 15 months, between 1 October 2017 and 31 December 2018, to find out if criticism of the ABC’s coverage was valid and if he could detect a deliberate avoidance of the issues due to political pressure. Continue reading...

Analysis shows Australia’s industrial greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase by 77% between 2005 and 2030Australia’s skyrocketing industrial greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase by 77% between 2005 and 2030, the period over which the Coalition has promised to cut national carbon pollution.RepuTex, an energy and climate change analyst firm, examined government data and found total emissions from the 200 largest industrial emitters – including mines, oil and gas production, manufacturers and waste facilities – was forecast to keep rising for at least another decade. Continue reading...

Barrett and five other conservative justices will wield considerable influence on climate change policyThe supreme court is shifting right, at a pivotal moment when it could have the last word on how much the US contributes to battling the climate crisis.Amy Coney Barrett’s addition to the court could leave an indelible mark on how fiercely the US, and perhaps the rest of the world, can fight rising temperatures, even as scientists warn society has just years to take serious action. Continue reading...

Poor quality of used vehicles exported from the US, Europe and Japan are hindering efforts to mitigate climate breakdown, says UNMillions of used motor vehicles exported from the US, Europe and Japan to developing countries are of poor quality and are contributing significantly to air pollution, according a new UN report.About 80% of the 14m used light-duty vehicles – saloon cars, SUVs and minibuses – exported between 2015 and 2018 went to low and middle-income countries. About 40% went to Africa, found the report, published by the UN Environment Programme (Unep). Continue reading...

Climate change is eroding beaches all over the Caribbean – even though the region contributes a tiny fraction of the emissions heating the planetSunbathing mothers keep an anxious eye out for children enjoying horseback rides, as groups of young men engage in energetic games of beach football and cricket. Further along, a boombox blasts as the smell of fresh fish wafts across the shoreline.For years, this was the scene at the Hellshire Beach in Portmore, St Catherine, on a public holiday or weekend when Jamaicans and visitors alike would flock to one of the island’s most popular beaches. Today, however, parents no longer bring their children. The horses, along with most of the beachline, have long disappeared and the few visitors who come to Aunt Merl’s or Prendy’s on the Beach – two of the few remaining seafood restaurants left standing – are confined to the benches inside. Continue reading...

Conservationists accuse Sussan Ley of choosing ‘rocks over koalas’ after she approved 52 hectares of habitat destruction to expand Brandy Hill quarryMore than 50 hectares of koala habitat in the New South Wales town of Port Stephens is set to be cleared after the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, approved the expansion of a quarry.The minister, whose decision comes as the government considers the koala for an official endangered listing, said on Tuesday the department’s assessment found the development would “not rob the area of critical koala habitat”. Continue reading...

Legal observers among those arrested as Indigenous Australians express outrage after Djab Wurrung directions tree felledThe Victorian government has cut down a tree that was culturally significant to Australia’s Indigenous Djab Wurrung women to make way for a highway in the state’s west.The yellow box, known as a directions tree, was felled on Monday. The government has defended its actions, saying the tree was not one of those listed as requiring protection in an agreement with the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation, and was not the sacred directions tree that is now subject to a federal court action. Continue reading...

17m tonnes of carbon dioxide to be stored beneath the North Sea every yearAfter decades spent extracting fossil fuels from the UK’s North Sea, a consortium of oil companies is preparing to pump Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions back beneath the seabed to help meet the government’s climate ambitions.BP has set out plans to lead an alliance of energy companies in siphoning off the carbon dioxide from factory flues under new plans in which almost half the UK’s industrial emissions will be stored beneath the North Sea from 2026. Continue reading...

Labor and the Greens accuse the Morrison government of failing to deliver on its recycling and waste commitmentsA $100m scheme to fund the manufacturing of products from recycled plastics and paper has not used any of its funding, nor supported any initiatives, since it was unveiled by the Morrison government ahead of the 2019 election.Labor has accused the government of failing to deliver on its recycling and waste commitments after Senate estimates last week heard leaders in charge of the Recycling Investment Fund (Rif) “haven’t entered into any transactions at this point”. Continue reading...

The Morrison government is urged to prepare for a shift in the global economy as major trading partners move to cut emissionsA pledge by Japan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 underscores the risk facing Australia if it fails to prepare for the inevitable shift in the global economy and falling demand for fossil fuels, analysts say.The new Japanese prime minister, Yoshihide Suga announced the target in his first policy speech to national parliament since taking office last month. He said responding to the climate crisis was no longer a constraint on growth, and proactive measures to change the country’s industrial structure would expand the economy. Continue reading...

Humanity is said to have just 10 years left to start seriously tackling the climate crisis before passing the 'point of no return' with multiple-degree temperature increases, rising sea levels and increasingly disastrous wildfires, hurricanes, floods and droughts predicted.Scientists say the US is far off the path of what is necessary for the nation and the world to avoid catastrophic global heating, particularly as in the past four years Donald Trump has shredded environmental protections for American lands, animals and people.

Mexican photographer Alejandro Prieto has captured the diverse wildlife threatened by Donald Trump’s barrier, winning a number of awards, including the Fritz Pölking prize, with his project Border Wall Continue reading...

Paper suggests climate crisis reducing insects in lowlands and central jungle, as fruit-eaters not affectedBird species are in decline even in the remote parts of the Amazon, far from human interference, a study shows.Scientists have found a sharp decline in nine insect-eating bird species in the lowlands of the central jungle in the space of a few decades. No equivalent decline was found among fruit-eating birds. This, they said, indicated that the climate crisis and its effect on insect populations may be to blame. Continue reading...

Yoshihide Suga says dealing with climate change is no longer a constraint on growth as he sets out a bolder approach to the emergencyJapan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has said the country will become carbon neutral by 2050, heralding a bolder approach to tackling the climate emergency by the world’s third-biggest economy.“Responding to climate change is no longer a constraint on economic growth,” Suga said on Monday in his first policy address to parliament since taking office. Continue reading...

The two US presidential contenders offer starkly different approaches as the world tries to avoid catastrophic global heatingAmong the myriad reasons world leaders will closely watch the outcome of a fraught US presidential election, the climate crisis looms perhaps largest of all.The international effort to constrain dangerous global heating will hinge, in large part, on which of the dichotomous approaches of Donald Trump or Joe Biden prevails. Continue reading...

Industry urges people not to throw out dead batteries with household rubbish or recycling“Zombie batteries” are causing hundreds of fires a year at waste and recycling sites, industry experts have warned. They are urging people to ensure dead batteries are not thrown away in household rubbish or recycling.Batteries discarded with general waste are likely to be crushed or punctured during collection and processing, according to the Environmental Services Association (Esa). Some types, particularly lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries, can ignite or explode when damaged and set fire to other materials. In some cases, this leads to incidents requiring dozens of firefighters and the evacuation of residents, potentially putting lives at risk. Continue reading...

After four years of Trump, protected places such as national monuments and wildlife refuges have opened to oil drilling, new maps show – with more on the way Continue reading...

David Nowell thinks Extinction Rebellion should focus on insulating homes, running public transport cooperatives and campaigning for major economic reforms, while Iain Climie says late Arctic ice formation should surprise nobodyThe delayed freeze in the Laptev Sea is consistent with the entire Arctic Ocean, which is set for the slowest recovery in the extent of sea ice this autumn, if the current daily trend continues (Alarm as Arctic sea ice not yet freezing at latest date on record, 22 October). This follows on from this summer having the second lowest minimum since 1979, with the early decades significantly above the annual trends during the last few years.Other feedback mechanisms are now starting to take hold of global heating, as current atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are well beyond the normal Quaternary levels over the last 800,000 years – usually 170 to 280 parts per million, between ice age maximums and interglacial stages, compared with a still accelerating anthropogenic 410 ppm, coupled with the impact from a significant rise in methane and other warming gases. Continue reading...