Environment | The Guardian

To avoid the grimmest outlook posed by warming oceans, we need to extract heat-trapping gases from the atmosphereThe climate emergency is bigger than many experts, elected officials, and activists realize. Humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions have overheated the Earth’s atmosphere, unleashing punishing heat waves, hurricanes, and other extreme weather – that much is widely understood.The larger problem is that the overheated atmosphere has in turn overheated the oceans, assuring a catastrophic amount of future sea level rise. Continue reading...

Without the app, mapping reefs usually involves high amounts of data and low-quality photos, which leads to slow analysisLess than 1% of the ocean floor consists of coral reefs. But more than one-quarter of marine animals live in them. With rising temperatures bleaching corals across oceans, Nasa scientists turn to an unlikely tool: a smartphone app.A team of Nasa scientists in Silicon Valley has developed NeMO-Net, a game to classify corals, into a tool for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Continue reading...

Environmental groups and neighbours condemn plan to release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water in two years’ time

Latest figures show increase of 2% in 2018-19 driven by energy sector and rise in methanol productionAn increase in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions is a step in the wrong direction towards the country’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, say experts, who have called on the government to bring in more radical action.The latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory, released by the minister for the environment on Tuesday, shows that both gross and net emissions increased by 2% in the 12 months to the end of 2019. The increase was predominantly driven by the energy sector and an increase in methanol production in the manufacturing industries. Continue reading...

The New York teenager has been included among a group of advisers to the president – a remarkable journey from protesting in front of the White HouseIf a week is a long time in politics, the past year has been an eternity for Jerome Foster. In the opening stanza of 2020, the 18-year-old was holding forlorn weekly protests outside the White House calling for action on the climate crisis. Now, he has been ushered into the seat of American power to help craft climate policy.In a sign of the growing political clout of the youth climate movement that has blossomed around the world in recent years, Foster has been included among a group of advisers to Joe Biden who will inform the US president on issues related to environmental justice, where low-income communities and people of color face the greatest fallout from climate change and pollution. Continue reading...

Plant more bean-like crops in Europe and consider ‘healthy diet transition’ to beat climate crisis, say scientistsAdding the likes of peas, lentils, beans, and chickpeas to your diet, and farming more of them, could result in more nutritious and effective food production with large environmental benefits, scientists have found.Researchers calculated a “nutritional density” unit for different types of crops. They found that swapping cereals for leguminous plants in European crop rotations provided more nutrient-rich produce for both animal and human consumption. Thanks to the way that legumes grow, it also reduced synthetic fertiliser use and pollution. Continue reading...

New report lays out dire situation facing the most imperiled rivers but environmental activists say situation is salvableDams, mining, factory farms and global heating are among the gravest threats facing America’s endangered rivers, according to a new report.The Snake River in the Pacific north-west is ranked the most endangered US river of 2021, where salmon runs are on the brink of extinction because of four federal dams obstructing the free flow of water, according to American Rivers’ annual report. Continue reading...

Japan has announced it will dump 1m tonnes of contaminated water into the ocean, sparking controversy

Rising levels of microplastic pollution raise questions about the impact on human health, experts sayMicroplastic pollution is now “spiralling around the globe”, according to a study of airborne plastic particles.The researchers said human pollution has led to a global plastic cycle, akin to natural processes such as the carbon cycle, with plastic moving through the atmosphere, oceans and land. The result is the “plastification” of the planet, said one scientist. Continue reading...

Ahead of Earth Day, the Guardian is partnering with newsrooms around the world in a joint initiative calling on journalists to treat the climate crisis like the emergency it isWhen the world shut down last year, there was one big beneficiary: the planet. With travel ground to a halt, emissions fell 10% in 2020. But we haven’t kept up the momentum – as economies reopen, carbon emissions are expected surpass pre-pandemic levels in the coming months, unless countries take urgent action.Related: Native communities confront painful choice: move away, or succumb to rising waters? Continue reading...

Throughout Indian Country, where cultures are tied to land and water, plans to relocate are under way as the climate crisis worsens

MPs vote to suspend internal flights if the trip can be completed by train within two and a half hours insteadFrench MPs have voted to suspend domestic airline flights on routes that can be travelled by direct train in less than two and a half hours, as part of a series of climate and environmental measures.After a heated debate in the Assemblée Nationale at the weekend, the ban, a watered-down version of a key recommendation from President Emmanuel Macron’s citizens’ climate convention was adopted. Continue reading...

As exports boom, the industry is backing plans to restrict rest periods for those doing hazardous work in low temperaturesThe health of hundreds of thousands of meat plant workers in Brazil is at risk from an industry-backed plan to reduce breaks given to employees, say workers’ rights groups in the country.In the midst of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 350,000 Brazilians, President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, parliament and the meat industry have been pushing for a move to review the laws and regulations protecting workers at slaughter plants. Continue reading...

State plays down threat to humans but warns of ‘more active and more visible’ gators as warmer weather heats up reptilian passionsWith toilet-invading iguanas, deadly hybrid super-serpents and toxic giant toads, no corner of Florida is ever completely safe from the threat of a marauding reptile.Related: Toilet-invading iguanas among invasive species now banned in Florida Continue reading...

Only a third of business flyers expect to return to same level of air travel as before coronavirus pandemic

Biologists and chefs are urging people to chow down on the purple sea urchins that are destroying California’s vital kelp forests. Could I catch and cook my own?“Babe! I sprayed mouth everywhere!”I never thought I’d find myself screaming these words on a tranquil Sunday morning in my tiny San Francisco kitchen. Then again, I never thought I’d find myself staring at a sink full of spiky, purple aliens with a knife murderously clutched in one hand, the ethereal voice of Phoebe Bridgers softly crooning in the background. Continue reading...

A leak at an abandoned fertilizer plant is just the latest development at a site that has polluted the area since it was builtIt’s been a week since a significant leak at a long-abandoned fertilizer plant in the Tampa Bay area threatened the surrounding groundwater, soil, and local water supplies.Last weekend, officials ordered more than 300 families living near the 676-acre Piney Point plant site in Manatee county to evacuate. The sheriff even emptied out his jail’s first floor of inmates in case a “20-foot wall of water” came rolling their way. Continue reading...

Diclofenac was approved in Spain and Italy despite being banned in Asia after it had wiped out millions of birdsA recently approved veterinary drug has been confirmed as the cause of death of a vulture in Spain. Conservationists say the incident could be the tip of an iceberg, and warn that the drug could wipe out many of Europe’s vultures as well as harming related species, including golden eagles.The anti-inflammatory agent diclofenac has already been banned in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh after it was found to kill vultures that ate the carcasses of cattle treated with the drug. Tens of millions of vultures are believed to have died in this way with some species declining by a staggering 99.9% in parts of south Asia. Continue reading...

Deaths discovered over a course of nine days are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’ for the species, says expertFour dead gray whales have washed up on beaches in the San Francisco Bay area in the past nine days, in the latest spate of whale deaths in the region.Related: Ropeless fishing tech could help save rare whale, say scientists Continue reading...

Amateur nature recorders are providing vital data on beetles, soldierflies and a host of lesser-known insectsAshleigh Whiffin’s day job as assistant curator of entomology is to look after National Museums Scotland’s vast collection of preserved insects. But her passion for the creatures doesn’t end when she goes home; in her spare time she spends hours recording and verifying sightings of a specific group of large carrion beetles in the family silphidae.“Silphidae are absolutely brilliant,” Whiffin says from her Edinburgh office. “They’re decomposers, so they are really vital for recycling and also have forensic applications. Some of the members in the family are called burying beetles and they actually prepare a carcass, make a nest out of the corpse and then feed on the rotting flesh and regurgitate it for their kids. They’re quite a charming – but also grisly – insect.” Continue reading...

Australia Pacific LNG wants environmental approval to drill across nearly half a million hectares of central and south-west QueenslandAustralia’s largest east coast gas producer has sought federal environmental approval to drill up to 7,700 new gas wells in Queensland, prompting concern from environmentalists due to the project’s sheer size and its proximity to two national parks.Australia Pacific LNG – a joint venture between Origin, ConocoPhillips and Sinopec – has lodged a referral under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to expand its “Gas Supply Security Project” and drill across an additional 476,492ha of central and south-west Queensland. Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures, including a bald eagle livestream, polar bear research and seized tortoises

Swedish activist says uneven Covid vaccine rollout means countries would not participate on even termsThe Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg has said she will not attend the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November, saying the uneven distribution of Covid-19 vaccines would mean countries could not participate on even terms.The 18-year-old activist said that by November richer countries would be vaccinating young healthy people “very often at the expense of people in at-risk groups in other parts of the world”. Continue reading...

Loggers say blockades threaten their livelihoods as activists build fortifications and vow to remainHundreds of activists are digging in at logging road blockades across a swath of southern Vancouver Island, vowing to stay as long as it takes to pressure the provincial government to immediately halt cutting of what they say is the last 3% of giant old growth trees left in the province.The situation echoes the 1993 “war in the woods” in nearby Clayoquot Sound, which saw nearly 1,000 people arrested at similar logging blockades in the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Continue reading...

The case has been described as a ‘watershed’ moment that will test Fiji’s environmental lawsA years-long David and Goliath fight which has seen two Australian surfers take on a Chinese-linked company over their alleged damage of an idyllic Fijian island, has come to its conclusion after a Fijian court handed down a guilty verdict against the developers on Friday.The case has been described by Pacific legal experts as a “watershed” moment that tested Fiji’s environmental laws, as well as the willingness of the country – which presents itself as a global climate leader – to “walk the walk” on environmental issues. Continue reading...

National party minister lobbied John Barilaro over environmental legislation that affected her extended family’s land holdings in the Monaro regionThe New South Wales Nationals minister Bronwyn Taylor demanded intervention from the deputy premier, John Barilaro, over environmental laws affecting her family’s land holdings, describing efforts by the Office of Environment and Heritage to protect native grasslands in the Monaro area as “ludicrous” and “a joke”.An email chain from 2017 reveals the war between the OEH, Local Land Services (part of the primary industries department) and senior Nationals over maps designed to identify endangered ecological communities in need of protection under land-clearing laws introduced the same year. Continue reading...

Research warns that large proportions of endemic marine and mountain species face extinctionUnique island species including lemurs and the Galapagos giant tortoise could be at high risk of extinction if the planet warms by more than 3C above pre-industrial levels, new research warns.Analysis of 270 biodiversity hotspots suggests almost half of endemic marine species and 84% of endemic mountain species will face extinction if the planet warms by more than 3C, which if current trends continue could happen in 2100. Continue reading...

The plan will include more than $350m in funds to improve forest management efforts and to thin out vegetationCalifornia leaders have announced a $536m plan to address the growing threat of wildfires across the state, as a drought threatens to bring on yet another destructive, deadly fire season. Continue reading...

RSPB’s 2021 Big Garden Birdwatch finds sparrow still most common species, while starlings, greenfinch and chaffinch struggleThe house sparrow remains the most frequently spotted garden bird, but 16 of the top 20 species have declined in number since last year, according to the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.More than a million people took part in this year’s national bird survey on the last weekend in January – double the figure for the previous year. Continue reading...

The interior secretary toured the Bears Ears national monument in Utah as she weighs Indigenous-led calls for it to be increased in sizeThe interior secretary, Deb Haaland, paid a historic visit on Thursday to Bears Ears national monument, the Utah site sacred to Native Americans that was downsized by President Donald Trump.Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo and the first Indigenous cabinet member, and her trip came amid calls for the monument to be recreated in its original form, or even expanded, by Joe Biden. Continue reading...

Duke tells IMF and World Bank event that investment in reforestation and cleaner oceans must be stepped upBanks can help to turn the tide in the battle against climate breakdown by investing more in nature, the Duke of Cambridge has said.Prince William told a joint International Monetary Fund and World Bank event on the climate emergency that there needed to be a marked stepping-up of investment in projects such as reforestation and cleaner oceans. Continue reading...

Culprit has struck up to 30 times in 10 days under cover of darkness along stretch of River ThamesPolice are hunting a mystery tree feller who has cut down dozens of trees along a particularly picturesque stretch of the River Thames in Surrey, to the consternation of local residents.In what has been called the “chainsaw massacre”, the culprit has struck up to 30 times over 10 days and is believed to be operating under cover of darkness. Continue reading...

Agribusiness plans to use 40,000 megalitres a year to irrigate farming operations which could affect groundwater dependent ecosystemsThe Northern Territory government has granted the largest groundwater extraction licence in the territory’s history to an agribusiness that plans to use 40,000 megalitres a year to irrigate farming operations.The territory’s water controller approved the water licence on Thursday, saying it was satisfied the licence was sustainable if the proponent, Fortune Agribusiness, met several conditions related to water monitoring and environmental compliance. Continue reading...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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