Breakthrough that builds on plastic-eating bugs first discovered by Japan in 2016 promises to enable full recyclingA super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two.The super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tonnes of such clothing is either dumped in landfill or incinerated. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison declined as 10-point plan calls for commitments considered inconsistent with government policy

Release of CO from UKCS rigs was much greater than Norwegian and Danish regionsBritain’s oil and gas rigs are the most polluting in the North Sea oil basin, according to industry data, with enough unwanted gas burned off every year to heat a million homes.Oil rigs in the UK continental shelf (UKCS) released 13.1m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere last year, according to data from Rystad Energy, significantly more than those from the Norwegian and Danish regions of the North Sea, which produced 10.4m tonnes and 1.4m tonnes of CO respectively in the same year. Continue reading...

#EndSewagePollution wants legally binding targets for water firms in environment billA coalition of river and sea organisations is calling for targets for water companies to reduce sewage discharges to be included in the upcoming environment bill.The groups, which include surfers, canoeists and environmental activists, have joined forces in a campaign called #EndSewagePollution. They intend to deliver a petition calling for an end to sewage discharges into rivers and coastal waters to George Eustice, the environment secretary, next month. Continue reading...

Activist being sued by mining giant says it offered to drop case if he identified how ‘information they say is confidential information has been allegedly used’Lawyers for Adani have sought to identify people who obtained leaked information about its Carmichael coal project, raising concerns that journalists could be dragged into “conspiracy” legal proceedings launched by the miner against an environmental activist.The activist, Ben Pennings, from the group Galilee Blockade, is being sued by Adani for conspiracy, intimidation and breach of confidence. Continue reading...

Language and accuracy matter, as they can contribute to making the roads less safe for non-motorists and how the law is appliedThere’s a problem with how we talk about our roads. From news reports on “accidents” to who gets blamed for road danger in comment pieces, our media sources sometimes flip the sources of death and injury on their head.Language and accuracy matter, and too often reporting contributes to making the roads less safe. Continue reading...

Annual Big Butterfly Count shows big falls in peacocks and small tortoiseshellsDespite a warm and sunny British summer, fewer butterflies than ever were recorded in each count by the biggest butterfly survey in the world.Record numbers of people took part in the Big Butterfly Count in July and August, with nearly 150,000 15-minute counts of butterflies taking place in parks, gardens, woods and nature reserves across the country. Continue reading...

From Thursday customers can hand over fruits of lockdown clearouts for donation to OxfamMarks & Spencer will this week bring back its popular UK “shwopping” scheme which is aimed at keeping clothing out of landfill, six months after it was mothballed because of coronavirus.Customers can from Thursday donate their unwanted clothes, shoes, bras and accessories of any brand or condition in 287 stores with clothing sections. Continue reading...

France, Germany and UK among more than 60 countries promising to put wildlife and climate at heart of post-Covid recovery plansWorld leaders have pledged to clamp down on pollution, embrace sustainable economic systems and eliminate the dumping of plastic waste in oceans by the middle of the century as part of “meaningful action” to halt the destruction of nature on Earth.Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, Jacinda Ardern and Boris Johnson are among 64 leaders from five continents warning that humanity is in a state of planetary emergency due to the climate crisis and the rampant destruction of life-sustaining ecosystems. To restore the balance with nature, governments and the European Union have made a 10-point pledge to counteract the damage to systems that underpin human health and wellbeing. Continue reading...

21 containers violated international laws governing the shipping of hazardous materialSri Lanka has shipped back to Britain container-loads of waste that the Colombo government said were brought into the island in violation of international laws governing the shipping of hazardous material.The 21 containers – holding up to 260 tonnes of rubbish – first arrived by ship in the capital Colombo’s main port between September 2017 and March 2018, customs told AFP, adding that they departed Sri Lanka on Saturday. Continue reading...

Country will need to kick addiction to coal and build eye-watering amount of wind and solar capacityChina’s President Xi Jinping stunned climate action observers in a speech at the United Nations general assembly last week with a pledge to reach “peak carbon” before 2030, and drive down emissions to virtually zero by 2060.The pledge from the world’s biggest climate polluter is considered by environmentalists to be the most important step in tackling the climate crisis since the Paris Climate Agreement galvanised global governments to reduce carbon emissions in an attempt to cap global heating well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrialisation levels. Continue reading...

In what should be a vintage year because of ideal growing conditions, farmers are forced to abandon fruit where it falls

About 200 of 360 carcasses have been towed out of the harbour, but hope remains that more survivors will be found

From clean hydrogen, energy storage and low-carbon materials to carbon capture and storage, and soil carbonThe Coalition government this week released its much-anticipated Low Emissions Technology Statement that targeted five different technologies for rapid development: clean hydrogen, energy storage, low-carbon materials (steel and aluminium), carbon capture and storage and soil carbon. The plan was immediately criticised by many experts for shunning proven renewable energy generation, but others were cautiously optimistic. Here we take a closer look at some of the key technologies mentioned and whether they can deliver. Continue reading...

William Perry Pendley not confirmed by Senate to role as acting Bureau of Land Management director, as required by constitutionA federal judge has ruled that a controversial Trump official who has overseen a vast weakening of public lands protections cannot continue in his position since he has not been approved by the Senate.Related: Donald Trump set to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to supreme court – live Continue reading...

For years, the nation has tried to bring Lolita, also known as Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, back to her family from the Miami SeaquariumSign up for monthly updates on America’s public lands. Continue reading...

Triple-digit temperatures could spark new fires just a few weeks after a record heatwaveCalifornia is bracing for another dangerously warm weekend, with dry winds, parched vegetation, and triple-digit temperatures threatening to ignite new fires and complicating containment efforts in an embattled state.With only a few weeks’ reprieve after a record heatwave in early September, firefighters have made progress in containing the dozens of blazes tearing across the region. But fatigued crews – many of whom have spent weeks fighting on the frontline – are preparing for a potentially rough week ahead. Continue reading...

Readers respond to George Monbiot’s warning that electric vehicles are not the solution to the UK’s pollution and transport problemsGeorge Monbiot’s article (Electric cars won’t solve our pollution problems – Britain needs a total transport rethink, 23 September) is spot on. As a retired architect and urban designer, I was particularly taken by the last section where Monbiot states: “Fundamentally this is not a vehicle problem but an urban design problem.”His account of the “15-minute city” being carried out by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is the way all big cities should go. By re-localising and bringing together all the workers and residents in each neighbourhood, with their own commons at the centre and weekly assembly meetings practising participatory democracy, big steps can be taken towards implementing the kind of circular economics, with zero waste, that the world so urgently needs. Continue reading...

Once watering holes for mammoth and elk, Herefordshire’s neglected ancient ponds are being restoredEcologist Will Watson is hunting for Britain’s largest blood-sucking leech in a 14,000-year-old pond in Herefordshire. The elusive medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis), grows up to 20cm long and has only officially been recorded three times in the county in the past two decades. In the ice age pond in Moccas Park national nature reserve it was last found in 2000.Watson shakes his net in the water. Most creatures shy away from such disturbance but this leech – the only one in Britain that sucks human blood – is attracted to the vibrations as they suggest the movements of large mammals trampling around the edge of the pond, which could signal a potential meal. Continue reading...

Greta Thunberg leads protests as Covid rules restrict numbers compared with last yearSchool pupils, youth activists and communities around the world have turned out for a day of climate strikes, intended to underscore the urgency of the climate crisis even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.Social distancing and other Covid-19 control measures dampened the protests, but thousands of activists posted on social media and took to the streets to protest against the lack of climate action from world leaders. Strikes were scheduled in at least 3,500 locations around the globe. Continue reading...

Investigators say discovery of satellite tag wrapped in lead sheeting is a breakthrough after spate of bird disappearancesThe satellite tag from a golden eagle which vanished in suspicious circumstances on a Scottish grouse moor four years ago has been found in a river, wrapped in lead sheeting.The tag was recovered earlier this year from the River Braan in Perthshire in what wildlife crime investigators believe is a breakthrough in their attempts to detect and combat bird of prey persecution. Continue reading...

Motoring on minor roads doubled between 2009 and 2019, regional figures reveal

Activists praise decision to reject energy ministry’s proposal to dam the world-famous waterfallConservationists in Uganda have hailed a bipartisan decision to reject the government’s plan to construct a hydro-power dam at the country’s biggest tourist attraction.Lawmakers unanimously adopted a report by the 28 member parliamentary committee on environment on Thursday, rejecting the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development proposal to build a 360MW at Uhuru Falls on Murchison Falls national park. Continue reading...

Public Trust highlights the 640m acres owned by the country’s citizenry, lands that some in the Republican party want to sell offTowards the middle of the new film Public Trust, about the continued push by zealous conservatives to privatize ownership of the United States’ federally-managed public lands, the stakes are laid bare: “If you don’t get engaged, you lose,” says Land Tawney, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “When you get complacent, things are done to you.”Tawney is speaking of the 640m acres that are owned by the country’s citizenry. Few things in politics are as quintessentially American as the country’s vast system of public lands. No other nation on earth has this much property that belongs to its people and is intended to be management by the government for the benefit and uplift of all. Yet selling off those lands is still listed as a goal in the Republican party platform, and the Trump administration seems singularly focused on rolling back protections to usher in more drilling and mining. Continue reading...

Country has one month to deliver outstanding 289m cubic metres and ensure water for 14 major cities and growersMexican farmers in the drought-stricken state of Chihuahua are pitted against riot squads from the national guard in an increasingly violent standoff over their government’s decision to ship scarce water supplies to the United States.The confrontation has already led to bloodshed: earlier this month, a woman was shot dead and her husband was wounded after guardsmen opened fire on farmers wielding sticks and stones. Continue reading...

The species is among 28 animals being assessed for potential upgrade of their threat status, federal government says

Plea to remember ‘birds do not know borders’ amid spat between Taiwan’s largest bird conservation group and UK-based BirdLife InternationalBirdwatchers around the world may have to decide whether they are hawks or doves when it comes to the thorny issue of Taiwan independence.Long-running geopolitical tensions spilled into the conservation world this month after UK-based NGO BirdLife International severed ties with a Taiwanese group, after it refused to sign a declaration it would not advocate for independence – something the apolitical group maintains it never does anyway. Continue reading...

Plan to open Alaska’s Tongass national forest to logging faces backlash from environmental advocates, tribal nations and fishermenThe Trump administration has announced it will move forward with a plan to roll back regulations protecting millions of acres in America’s largest national forest from logging, sparking an outcry from environmental advocacy organizations, Alaskan tribal nations, and fishermen.More than half of the Tongass national forest – a 16.7m-acre old-growth temperate rainforest in south-east Alaska – has been protected for the last two decades by the so-called “Roadless Area Conservation Rule”, which prohibits development in designated wild areas. The US Forest Service is expected to release a final environmental impact statement on Friday which would allow for the Tongass to be exempt from the rule, moving one step closer to ending the protections entirely.

The 2.5m-year-old tree would be first plant species protected by law in state as current habitat increasingly becomes less viableThe western Joshua tree will be considered for protection under the California Endangered Species Act, possibly becoming the first plant species to be given protection of law in the state because of a primarily climate crisis-related threat.The California Fish and Game Commission voted Tuesday to accept a petition that provides the gnarly-limbed yucca plants protected status for a year while the state conducts a study. The Joshua tree – which is not a tree but is actually a succulent called Yucca brevifolia – has graced the landscape of the Mojave desert for 2.5m years. Continue reading...

The potentially dangerous chemicals are ubiquitous and used in numerous consumer products. Here’s what to knowPFAS compounds are ubiquitous, used in a range of products, from food-delivery boxes to non-stick cookware to stain-resistant clothing.But one of the most troubling routes to PFAS exposure is drinking water that has been contaminated by discharges from factories and other facilities. Continue reading...

The federal government has still not set limits for PFAS compounds, and some allege that could be because it is a polluter of them itself

Exclusive: African state says it has agreements with oil companies in Lake Chad areaChad has asked to suspend an application for world heritage site status for Lake Chad to explore oil and mining opportunities in the region, it can be revealed.In a letter leaked to the Guardian, Chad’s tourism and culture minister wrote to Unesco, the body which awards the world heritage designation, asking to “postpone the process of registering Lake Chad on the world heritage list”. Continue reading...

Mitch McConnell has long resisted climate action even as the farm and coal sectors suffer, but a growing movement could bring change

Shadow climate spokesman fronted Sky News to clarify earlier statement that gas would not underpin Australia’s future prosperityThe shadow climate minister, Mark Butler, has walked back an observation that gas won’t underpin Australia’s prosperity in the 21st century after the remarks triggered a fresh round of consternation within Labor – including pushback from union leaders.In prepared remarks sent to a carbon farming forum on Wednesday, Butler said Australia had found itself with plentiful coal and gas in the 20th century, “making us one of the most prosperous societies in human history on the back of these fossil fuels”. Continue reading...

Water minister Melinda Pavey had blamed local councils, but the auditor general points the finger at the state governmentA damning new report has laid blame for many western New South Wales regional towns almost running out of water during the drought squarely at the feet of the state government, saying it “has not effectively supported or overseen town water infrastructure planning since at least 2014”.When Dubbo, Tamworth, Walgett and other western NSW towns had to ration town water – and some even had to truck in drinking water – last summer, there was much finger pointing over who was to blame. Continue reading...

The president vowed to help the industry, but it continues shrinking despite his cuts to regulationsArt Sullivan is considered something of a political heretic by other coalminers in south-western Pennsylvania, where a wave of support for Donald Trump based upon his flamboyant promises of a resurgence in coal helped propel the Republican to the US presidency.Related: Trump weakens Obama-era rules on toxic wastewater from coal plants Continue reading...

Which? singles out big brands for lack of environmentally conscious packagingCrisps, chocolate and cheese are among the worst foods for packaging recyclability, with big brands such as Pringles, KitKat and Babybel singled out for failing to do more to help the environment, a new investigation has claimed.The consumer group Which? analysed 89 of the UK’s best-selling branded groceries and found only a third (34%) had packaging that was fully recyclable in household collections. About four in 10 (41%) of items had no relevant labelling, leaving even environmentally conscious consumers in the dark about disposal. Continue reading...

International Energy Agency says without CCUS projects energy goals will be impossible to reach

Experts look to technologies that inject factories’ carbon dioxide deep underground

Study finds some species are less able to control their body heat and are more vulnerableCatching nearly 4,000 wild butterflies with handheld nets and taking the temperature of each tiny insect must rank among the more arduous of scientific endeavours.However, researchers have discovered significant differences in the ability of British butterflies to maintain a suitable temperature, raising fears that global heating will threaten the populations of some species. Continue reading...

Beijing now has a more ambitious long-term climate goal than Australia – and there are fears that could have a dire impact on our economy

At least 380 whales are dead in one of the largest mass strandings on record globally and the biggest in Australia’s historyWhale rescuers at one of the world’s largest stranding events on Tasmania’s west coast have now released 70 of the 470 marine mammals into the ocean, with only 20 of those remaining now well enough to be rescued.Vets at the scene in Macquarie Harbour have recommended four of the long-finned pilot whales be euthanised. The task was being carried out on Thursday morning. Continue reading...

Gavin Newsom says ‘we can’t continue down this path’ as state grapples with historic fires and record temperaturesCalifornia’s governor signed an executive order on Wednesday that would ban the sale of gas-only cars within 15 years, in a bid to combat the effects of climate change crisis.The move comes as the state battles historic wildfires, following a summer of record-high temperatures. “We can’t continue down this path,” Gavin Newsom said. Continue reading...

UK to host online event marking fifth anniversary of Paris climate agreement this DecemberThe world cannot allow the climate emergency to be overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, the UK prime minister Boris Johnson will warn, but must “build back better” after the crisis by cutting greenhouse gas emissions as a matter of urgency.Johnson will announce that the UK will host an online event to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement this December, with a call to all countries to strengthen their commitments on cutting carbon. Continue reading...

Campaigners welcome turnaround after pressure from investors but say 2025 deadline too long to resolve problemsBrazilian meat giant JBS said on Wednesday that it will monitor its entire supply chain by 2025, including problematic “indirect supplier” Amazon farms it currently has no control over, some of which have been linked to illegal deforestation.“As a company we are assuming our responsibility to be a transformation agent for society, to be a catalyst. To build together with everyone a better world, a more sustainable Amazon and a better Brazil,” said JBS global CEO Gilberto Tomazoni in a virtual launch of the JBS Green Platform. Continue reading...

Study says potential for natural regrowth to absorb carbon has been substantially underestimatedThe costly and difficult work of replanting forests that have been cut down may not be the only way to restore the Earth’s carbon-absorbing capacities, research has found, as allowing trees to grow back naturally without intervention could offer a cheaper alternative.Keeping forests standing is still a better way to reduce the impact of the climate crisis, but in large areas of the world, forest and scrubland has already been cleared or degraded in some way, through deforestation, failed agriculture or some other exploitation. Often, the loggers, prospectors and ranchers quickly move on, leaving devastation in their wake. Continue reading...

NFU urges dog owners to let them off leads if approached by cattle after teacher diesA schoolteacher from North Yorkshire has become at least the second member of the public to be trampled to death by cows in the UK this year, as the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) urged walkers to let their dogs off their leads if they are charged by cattle.Dave Clark, the deputy headteacher at Richmond school, was killed in a field in Richmond on Monday evening while walking his dogs. Continue reading...

Research says melting will continue even if temperature rises are limited to 2CMelting of the Antarctic ice sheet will cause sea level rises of about two and a half metres around the world, even if the goals of the Paris agreement are met, research has shown.The melting is likely to take place over a long period, beyond the end of this century, but is almost certain to be irreversible, because of the way in which the ice cap is likely to melt, the new model reveals. Continue reading...

Yachts less than 15 metres told to avoid area near coast of Galicia after series of incidentsSmall yachts have been ordered to steer clear of a stretch of water off the north-west coast of Spain after at least three boats were damaged by a gang of boisterous orcas.On Tuesday, Spain’s transport ministry said yachts of less than 15 metres in length would be banned from sailing close to the coast between Cape Prioriño Grande and Estaca de Bares point in Galicia for a week. Continue reading...