Environment | The Guardian

This southern European native, first spotted breeding in 2007, is still rare due to a lack of suitable sitesIf you see a violet carpenter bee, xylocopa violacea, in Britain, it seems too exotic for our shores, and too big. It is up to 3cm long, the size of our largest bumble bee, and it looks even larger when flying with an impressive buzz.In late August, the adults emerge from a dead tree trunk or other old wood where they have spent the larval stage. After mating in late April or May, female bees bore holes in rotten wood and lay eggs in separate chambers, each one sealed in with a store of pollen so the emerging larvae can have a good start in life. Continue reading...

Lime launches service in Milton Keynes with other schemes set for Northampton and CambridgeThe UK’s journey to legally embrace e-scooters has taken another zip forward with the start of a full-scale ride-sharing service in Milton Keynes, and further schemes announced for Northampton, Norwich and Cambridge.More cities around the country are expected to follow suit with year-long trials, as potential operators unveiled new technology in the race to tap into Britain’s new micromobility market. Continue reading...

Stephanie Blais had called her father due to problems with water supply at remote Saskatchewan cabinThe father of a Canadian woman who was killed by black bear has said that he was on the phone with her at the time of the attack.Stephanie Blais, 44, was with her husband, Curtis, and two young children at the family’s remote cabin in the province of Saskatchewan. But problems with the water supply prompted her to call her father on a satellite phone. Continue reading...

Alan Finkel’s support for an expanded role for gas-fired power is not consistent with a safe climate, 25 scientists sayAustralia’s chief scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, has rejected a letter from leading scientists who warned his advocacy for increased use of gas-fired electricity was at odds with the Paris climate agreement.The 25 scientists, several of them globally recognised in their fields, applauded Finkel’s support for renewable energy but said his backing an expanded role for gas as a transition fuel was not consistent with a safe climate. Continue reading...

Trent Zimmerman, Dave Sharma and Jason Falinski say feasibility study into Queensland plant should proceed but it doesn’t stack up economicallyLiberals who have been outspoken in their opposition to taxpayer funding of new coal projects predict a new power plant in north Queensland being championed by the Nationals will never proceed because there are cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternatives for energy generation.Ahead of a vote on a disallowance motion during the current parliamentary sitting fortnight, Trent Zimmerman told Guardian Australia his view was the government should not be investing in coal-fired power stations. Continue reading...

Project includes inscriptions dating back hundreds of years spotted by members of the public

Campaigner says decision at odds with Paris agreement to achieve net zero by 2050An environmental campaigner is mounting a legal challenge to the government’s decision to exclude waste incinerators from its post-Brexit carbon emissions trading scheme designed to bring the UK to net zero emissions by 2050.Georgia Elliott-Smith, a sustainability consultant who is fighting the expansion of the Edmonton incinerator, is seeking a judicial review of the omission of what legal papers say are “staggering” levels of CO2 emissions from waste incinerators. Continue reading...

After hitching a ride with humans, the species has colonised entire areas and may be making the soil too fertile, say scientistsThey are a gardener’s best friend, good for the soil and a treat for birds. But the humble earthworm may not always be good news, according to a study that suggests invasive earthworms could be making Arctic soils too fertile.The earthworm is not typically thought of as an invasive species. “Most parts of Europe have earthworms so we never really saw them as a problem,” says lead researcher Dr Gesche Blume-Werry, an ecologist from the University of Greifswald in Germany. But Blume-Werry and her colleagues realised that “more and more spots in the Arctic have worms because humans brought them there”. Continue reading...

Slaughterhouse figures from a three-year period highlight poor conditions in Britain’s poultry sector, say campaignersMore than 61 million chickens were rejected because of diseases and defects at slaughterhouses in England and Wales over a three-year period, according to figures analysed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian.Broilers, chickens raised for meat, were the worst affected with almost 59 million defects recorded. More than 39 million broilers arrived and were rejected at slaughter due to disease – approximately 35,000 every day. Continue reading...

Public invited to choose online from list including haunted oak and sycamore full of shoesA haunted oak, a sycamore laced with the shoes of celebrating students and a Hackney plane tree threatened with destruction are among the contenders for England’s tree of the year.The Woodland Trust’s annual competition to celebrate individual trees and our relationship with them also includes contests in Wales and Scotland, where nominees include a photogenic fern-leaved beech in Port Talbot that has starred in Doctor Who, Songs of Praise and Sex Education, Britain’s oldest Indian bean tree and a hawthorn planted by Mary, Queen of Scots. Continue reading...

Critics say government’s proposals for prohibitions and fines are seriously flawedThe government has announced plans to introduce a new law to clamp down on illegal deforestation and protect rainforests by cleaning up the UK’s supply chains.The proposals, published on Tuesday, suggest the introduction of legislation to prohibit larger businesses operating in the UK from using products grown on land that was deforested illegally. Continue reading...

Report finds climate change ‘clearly played a role’ in conditions that led up to Australia’s 2019-2020 fires, which were so extreme, traditional firefighting methods often failedLast summer’s bushfire disaster was so unusual that traditional firefighting methods, such as hazard reduction burning, failed in some instances, an inquiry into the crisis heard.The final report of the New South Wales bushfire inquiry, published on Tuesday, said the 2019-20 bushfire season brought fires in forested regions on a scale not seen in recorded history in Australia. Continue reading...

Swedish environmental activist says she’s heading back to the classroom after travelling the world, spreading her conservation messageSwedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg said has returned to school after a year off campaigning to curb climate change.“My gap year from school is over, and it feels so great to finally be back in school again!” the 17-year-old tweeted, attaching a smiling photo of herself with a schoolbag on her back and her hands resting on a bicycle. Continue reading...

Research also found lower levels of difficult behaviour in rich and poor neighbourhoodsGrowing up in a greener urban environment boosts children’s intelligence and lowers levels of difficult behaviour, a study has found.The analysis of more than 600 children aged 10-15 showed a 3% increase in the greenness of their neighbourhood raised their IQ score by an average of 2.6 points. The effect was seen in both richer and poorer areas. Continue reading...

Industrial runoff and lax standards have tainted water across the US. Senators and doctors are calling me, asking what to doWhen I was a little girl, my father would sing songs to me all the time about water. Sometimes, we would be playing down at the creeks and he would make up little tunes: “See that lovely water, trickling down the stream, don’t take it for granted, someday it might not be seen.”My dad worked for many years as an engineer for Texaco and later for the Department of Transportation. Before he died, he told me that in my lifetime water would become a commodity more valuable than oil or gold, because there would be so little of it. Sadly, I believe he was right. Continue reading...

It is thought sonar may scare animals into surfacing too quickly, causing narcosisAn unusual series of strandings and sightings of 29 rare beaked whales has taken place around the shores of northern Europe. Experts have suggested the strandings may be linked to a military sonar exercise.The events, whose rarity indicates that they might be linked by a single cause, began two weeks ago with the sighting of two northern bottlenose whales in the North Sea. They are the same species of beaked whale as the Thames whale of 2006. Continue reading...

Storebrand says corporate lobbying to undermine climate solutions is ‘unacceptable’A Nordic hedge fund worth more than $90bn (£68.6bn) has dumped its stocks in some of the world’s biggest oil companies and miners responsible for lobbying against climate action.Storebrand, a Norwegian asset manager, divested from miner Rio Tinto as well as US oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron as part of a new climate policy targeting companies that use their political clout to block green policies. Continue reading...

A three-part plan aims to expose the industry’s efforts to conceal the scale of the climate crisis, reform laws and sway supportSenate Democrats are set to release a 200-page plan arguing that significant US climate action will require stripping the fossil fuel industry of its influence over the government and the public’s understanding of the crisis.Related: Democrats to unveil bold new climate plan to phase out emissions by 2050 Continue reading...

Judge dismisses appeal against decision to allow drivers to use two off-road tracksDrivers of 4x4 vehicles can continue to use off-road tracks in the Lake District after a judge dismissed a legal challenge from campaigners who argued the vehicles polluted the national park and endangered cyclists and ramblers.A coalition of ramblers, cyclists and horse riders had appealed to the high court against a decision by the Lake District national park authority (LDNPA) to allow 4x4s and motorbikes to use two old farm and quarry tracks, known as green lanes, in the Langdale and Coniston valleys. Continue reading...

So called ‘bagnums’ and wine boxes prove popular as Britons minimise trips to the supermarket

Workers who pick our fruits and vegetables are out in the field through wildfire, pandemic, drought or storm, putting their health in jeopardyThe strawberries that Juan Reyes hand-picked had turned gray from the ash falling from the sky, yet nobody provided him and his fellow farmworkers with any protective face coverings until the next day.As hundreds of fires burn across California, blanketing swaths of the state in smoke so thick that it muted the sun, low-wage farmworkers continued to toil in the fields, working through grueling conditions, now made even worse by the air quality. Continue reading...

Impacts of climate change on pregnant women must be considered as threat of bushfires increases

Energy giant denies accusation and says its submission to public hearing was made in good faithEnergy giant Santos’ claim that its proposed coal seam gas development at Narrabri would lower gas prices misrepresents the evidence presented by government authorities, a thinktank analysis has found.A last-minute submission by Santos to the state independent planning commission said gas from the $3.6bn development in north-west New South Wales would be cheaper than had been estimated, lead to a reduction in gas prices in the state and greater economic and employment benefits than previously believed. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Israel aims to increase renewables from 5% to 30% by 2030, but domestic production held back by lack of landIsrael is considering buying solar power from its neighbour and former enemy, Jordan, in a potentially historic deal that could help the country meet ambitious new renewable energy targets.In a letter seen by the Guardian, energy minister Yuval Steinitz told environmental activists the ministry supported a pilot initiative in which Jordan would transfer 25 megawatts to Israel’s national grid, enough to power several thousands of households. Continue reading...

Thirty years ago we were warned. Now is our last chance to listenThirty years ago this week, the population of Earth was given official notification that it faced a threat of unprecedented magnitude. Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, spewed into the atmosphere from factories and vehicles burning fossil fuels, were pinpointed, definitively, as triggers of future climate change. Melting icecaps, rising sea levels and increasing numbers of extreme weather events would be the norm for the 21st century unless action were taken, warned the authors of the first assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).The scientists had been charged by the IPCC, which had been set up two years earlier, with establishing whether climate change was a real prospect and, if it was, to look at the main drivers of that threat. They concluded, in a report released in August 1990, that the menace was real and that coal, gas and oil would be the principal causes of global heating. Unless controls were imposed on their consumption, temperature rises of 0.3C a decade would be occurring in the 21st century, bringing havoc in their wake. Continue reading...

‘Stunned’ scientists say there is little doubt global heating is to blame for the lossA total of 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994. That is stunning conclusion of UK scientists who have analysed satellite surveys of the planet’s poles, mountains and glaciers to measure how much ice coverage lost because of global heating triggered by rising greenhouse gas emissions.The scientists – based at Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London – describe the level of ice loss as “staggering” and warn that their analysis indicates that sea level rises, triggered by melting glaciers and ice sheets, could reach a metre by the end of the century. Continue reading...

Americans face existential challenges. The president has done nothing to help and much to make things worse

Plans to cut back expert staff, put treasures in storage and develop ‘more active, fun and useful experiences’ draw furyIt is an exquisite example of Italianate architecture, filled with classical paintings, sculptures and antiquities. Many of its 55 rooms have hand-painted ceilings; in one, an intricately carved dado depicts mermen battling with sea monsters.Kingston Lacy, a stately home built in Dorset in the 17th century and later remodelled as a Venetian palace, was acquired by the National Trust in 1982 and has 50 staff caring for its treasures. A tour of the house kicks off a six-part documentary on trust properties, National Trust Unlocked, presented by the architect George Clarke, starting on Channel 4 on Sunday. Continue reading...

Yorkshire Wildlife Park says Victor was euthanised after kidney failure diagnosis

Experts say they are concerned as two potential hurricanes head north – and coronavirus is complicating mattersTwo potential hurricanes are heading towards the northern Caribbean and mainland United States – with a third building in the Atlantic – in apparent confirmation of meteorologists’ predictions that the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season will become one of the worst on record.Related: US faces threat of two Caribbean storms hitting simultaneously as hurricanes Continue reading...

Cheshire-based facility will be world’s first to use bacteria-based recycling processesThe UK is to get its first commercial refinery for extracting precious metals from electronic waste, which will also be the world’s first to use bacteria rather than cyanide-based processes.A New Zealand startup, Mint Innovation, plans to open the facility within 12 months in Cheshire, in the north of England, after delays caused by the Covid-19 crisis. Continue reading...

Hartington site in Derbyshire will be allowed to eke out last of its coal over rest of year owing to pandemicFew in the small town of Staveley, near Chesterfield, could have predicted that an overlooked industrial site on its outskirts would play host to the end of thousands of years of coal mining in England.The Hartington site stands unassumingly within the green hills of Derbyshire where it produces a small handful of coal, in industry terms, alongside gravel and construction grit. It is also, by chance, England’s last open-cast coal mine in a history that dates back to Roman times. Continue reading...

The parties will vote in the Senate against controversial grant to Shine Energy, but are likely to be outnumberedLabor and the Greens will both vote in the Senate to disallow a $3.3m grant to Shine Energy to conduct a feasibility study into a new coal-fired power station in north Queensland.The grant to study the proposed Collinsville plant was promised by the Coalition before the 2019 election. It became controversial after Guardian Australia revealed it was awarded on an ad hoc basis, rather than via a competitive process, despite the project having been rejected by a separate electricity underwriting program. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos including rescued pangolins and hyacinth macaws Continue reading...

Exclusive: Cramped work and home conditions may be behind infections in factories, says expert

MV Wakashio has split in two and leaked 1,000 tonnes of oil into the water since it ran agroundSalvage crews were preparing to sink a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground off Mauritius, despite opposition from environmental campaigners.The MV Wakashio broke into two on Saturday, almost three weeks after hitting a reef and spilling 1,000 tonnes of oil into idyllic waters full of marine life. Continue reading...

Climate activists linked to Extinction Rebellion projected protest messages onto hull of the World vessel in Falmouth, Cornwall

In the last decade, amid drought and searing heat, California has entered the ‘era of megafires’ and has become the ‘examplar for climate change extreme events today’There’s an idea that when the climate crisis begins, we will know it. Movies present it as a moment when the world’s weather suddenly turns apocalyptic: winds howl, sea levels surge, capital cities are decimated. Climate messaging can bolster this notion, implying that we have a certain number of years to save the day before reaching a cataclysmic point of no return.Living in expectation of a definitive global break can blind us to the fact that gradually, insidiously, the climate crisis has already arrived. Continue reading...

Covid-19 led to 9.3% reduction in humanity’s ecological footprint compared with same period last yearThe rate at which humanity is consuming the Earth’s resources declined sharply this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to researchers.Consequently, Earth Overshoot Day, the point at which human consumption exceeds the amount nature can regenerate in a year, has moved back by over three weeks from 29 July in 2019 to 22 August this year. Continue reading...

Facilities experience jump in online traffic as people take to internet to view marine life

The Trump administration plans to allow oil and gas exploration in the Arctic sanctuary protected since the 1950s as the last fully intact ecosystem in the USBiologist George Schaller has traversed the Amazon rainforest, studied lions in the Serengeti and searched for rare antelope in Tibet, but for him nothing quite compares to a vast and little-known wilderness found in the north-eastern reaches of Alaska.Schaller first encountered the region in the 1950s, taking a canoe down the Colville River, a waterway that drains into the Arctic Ocean, and trudging across the bumpy tundra to excitedly document the astonishing trove of wildlife found in the last fully intact ecosystem left in the United States. Continue reading...

While resorts are deserted, 838 baby turtles have scuttled across a quiet Koh Samui and into the sea since February, making it a record yearWhen Kosum Kao-Uthai’s family noticed mysterious imprints in the sand outside the hotel resort they own in Koh Samui, she knew exactly which animal had paid a visit. She remembered spotting the same marks, left by a nesting sea turtle, when, as a teenager, she helped her father farm coconuts on the island.Kosum hadn’t seen another for five decades. Yet, this year, as the coronavirus pandemic emptied Thailand of tourists, nests belonging to endangered hawksbill and green turtles cropped up across the island. Since February, 838 baby turtles have scuttled their way across the island’s sandy beaches and into the sea, with two nests yet to hatch. Continue reading...

State-sanctioned felling is ‘based on a monumental lie’, former Greens leader saysThe former Greens leader Bob Brown has launched a legal challenge to native forest logging in Tasmania, claiming it is inconsistent with federal environment law.The case by the Bob Brown Foundation, lodged in the federal court on Thursday, challenges what has been seen as an effective exemption from environment laws granted to state-sanctioned logging under regional forest agreements between Canberra and the states. Continue reading...

Suncorp’s decision to pull out of industry by 2025 puts it at odds with government push for gas-led recoveryMajor Australian insurer Suncorp will end any financing or insuring of the oil and gas industry by 2025, adding to the group’s existing ban on support for new thermal coal projects.The insurer revealed on Friday it had already stopped insuring, underwriting or directly investing in new oil and gas projects and would phase out underwriting and financing existing oil and gas businesses by 2025. Continue reading...

The party has mysteriously toned down language on the climate crisis undermining enthusiasm for Biden’s green policiesUS climate activists had high hopes for the Democratic national convention, following substantial praise for a recently strengthened plan from nominee Joe Biden and his choice of Kamala Harris as a running mate.But a mysterious decision to dial back the party platform’s language on the climate crisis has deflated morale. A statement opposing the fossil fuel subsidies that are prevalent in US law was removed. Continue reading...

Once a year every resident of the state armed with a net has the right to a haul of the fish as they swim upriver to spawnHundreds of fishermen stood chest deep in the brisk Alaskan river. Each held a five-foot net attached to a long metal pole. The only sounds were the quacks of seabirds and occasionally a new angler plodding into the water and asking, “have you caught anything yet?”Down the beach, someone shouted, “They’re running!” As she and others began dragging their poles through the current they felt the familiar thumping of a sockeye salmon bouncing around in their nets. Continue reading...

Legend warns monarchy and building will crumble if resident birds flee fortress

Campaigners who say the striking desert plant is endangered hope the state will act but officials complain of ‘red tape’Efforts to win endangered species protections for the imperiled Joshua tree in California are encountering entrenched opposition from local officials, who say the added protections may prevent real estate development and economic growth.On Thursday, the California fish and game commission (FGC) will vote on a petition that, if approved, will grant the yucca plants temporary protected status for a year while the agency conducts a study. Continue reading...

The damage rising temperatures bring is been seen around the country, with experts fearing worse is to comeClimate change is not an abstract future threat to the United States, but a real danger that is already harming Americans’ lives, with “substantial damages” to follow if rising temperatures are not controlled.This was the verdict of a major US government report two years ago. The Trump administration’s attitude to climate change was perhaps illustrated in the timing of the report’s release, which was in the news dead zone a day after Thanksgiving. Continue reading...

In a nationwide blitz, gas companies and their allies fight climate efforts that they consider an existential threat to their businessWhen progressive Seattle decided last year to wipe out its climate pollution within the decade, the city council vote in favor was unsurprisingly unanimous, and the easiest first step on that path was clear.About one-third of the city’s climate footprint comes from buildings, in large part from burning “natural” gas for heating and cooking. Gas is a fossil fuel that releases carbon dioxide and far more potent methane into the atmosphere and heats the planet. It is plentiful and cheap, and it’s also a huge and increasing part of America’s climate challenge. Continue reading...