Environment | The Guardian

When a court in the Netherlands ruled its government’s actions unlawful, it inspired others to hold big polluters to account• Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the worldAt key moments in history, courts around the world have helped to accelerate social change – they have vindicated the demands of people fighting to end slavery, racial segregation and gender inequality. It should therefore come as no surprise that they are being called on to help resolve the biggest social and environmental crisis of our time: the climate emergency.The case against the government of the Netherlands powerfully illustrates what climate litigation can achieve. In 2015, the Hague district court issued a groundbreaking decision in response to a lawsuit filed by the Urgenda Foundation and 886 Dutch citizens, arguing that the government was failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough. The court agreed that the government’s actions were unlawful and ordered it to slash the Netherlands’ emissions by 2020. That decision was upheld by a court of appeal and ultimately by the supreme court of the Netherlands in 2019. Continue reading...

Bradley site to extract last coal two months after sister site in Northumberland ended productionThousands of years of English coalmining will near an end this week with the closure of one of the country’s last remaining coalmines in Bradley near Durham.The owner of the surface mine, the Banks Group, said Bradley will extract its last coal on Monday 17 August, two months after its sister site at Shotton in Northumberland ended its own coal production. Continue reading...

Ten-year management strategy aims to combat habitat loss and dwindling wildlife in Kenya’s oldest national parkKenya’s oldest national park, which is facing threats from habitat loss, a decline in wildlife species and government infrastructure developments, is at the centre of a fresh row over its future.Created through a colonial proclamation in December 1946, the 45-square mile Nairobi national park is the only sanctuary in the world where wild animals roam freely next to a bustling metropolis. Its ecological health is indicative of the country’s efforts to preserve Africa’s vanishing wildlife. Continue reading...

Other sectors are opening up, but travel and tourism were dealt a further blow last week. They urgently need state supportThe coronavirus pandemic has thrown the travel industry into a tailspin. In the latest blow for the sector, the government last week imposed quarantine measures on people arriving in Britain from France and several other countries.Even before that move, the outlook was bleak. Tui, Europe’s biggest holiday company, warned last week that it had lost €2bn (£1.8bn) in the nine months to the end of June. Revenues had collapsed by 98% between April and June – the period during which lockdown measures effectively grounded international flights around the world. Continue reading...

Man punches shark repeatedly until it lets woman’s leg go in attack off Shelly BeachA woman is in a stable condition in hospital as authorities hunt the juvenile great white shark that attacked her on the NSW mid north coast.The 35-year-old was rushed to Port Macquarie Base Hospital with serious leg injuries after she was mauled off the city’s Shelley Beach about 9.30am on Saturday. Continue reading...

ACT chief minister Andrew Barr calls for more funding to reduce assessment delaysAustralia’s 20-year-old national environmental laws need to be modernised to address climate change as part of the statutory review now under way, the chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Andrew Barr, has said.Speaking in Canberra on Friday, Barr also called on the Morrison government to increase funding for agencies responsible for environmental assessments for major projects, saying budget cuts had caused delays to assessments. Continue reading...

Battle is on to remove fuel oil from Japanese vessel the MV Wakashio as weather worsens

Permit lets Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Native American tribes kill 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lionsUS authorities have given wildlife managers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho permission to start killing hundreds of sea lions in the Columbia River basin in hopes of helping struggling salmon and steelhead trout.The marine mammals long ago figured out that they could feast on the migrating fish where they bottleneck at dams or where they head up tributaries to spawn. Continue reading...

Leaking oil now threatens the majestic ocean ecosystems of my home island – already at risk from the climate crisisThe news has been awash with images of an oil spill off the coast of Mauritius – a beautiful, tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean where my family is from. For me the images are gut-wrenching. The lagoon where this massive spill is happening is where many of my family lives. It’s where I used to swim and snorkel for hours and hours as a kid. It’s where I used to go fishing with my late grandfather who lived on the shore of this lagoon for decades with my grandmother.It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth I know, and it is being devastated. Already over 1,000 tonnes of oil have leaked out of the Japanese carrier MV Wakashio that ran aground on the coral reef, and thousands more could follow if the ship breaks apart. Continue reading...

Busy beaches and warm, calm seas fuel sightings of lion’s manes, compasses and moonsFrom a “mile-long” swarm in Devon to warnings to swimmers in the Outer Hebrides, it seems jellyfish are difficult to ignore this summer.High temperatures, calm and warm seas and packed beaches have resulted in large numbers of reports of jellyfish blooms around the UK coast, and combined with a glut of the plankton on which they feed, some are reaching record sizes, experts said. Continue reading...

Oxford PV says tech based on perovskite crystal can generate almost a third more electricity

Exclusive: project becomes an increasingly vexed state election issue as the mining union threatens to withdraw support for the partyLabor’s internal environment lobby has called on the Queensland government not to approve the expansion of the controversial New Acland coalmine on the Darling Downs – a project that has become an increasingly vexed election issue for the party.This week, the mining union threatened to withdraw its campaign support for Labor at the upcoming Queensland election over the ongoing uncertainty about the proposed expansion. Continue reading...

Public comments on the project reopened after oil and gas company claimed economic benefits would be greater than thought

Exclusive: leaked environment department document raises concerns about the regent honeyeater and forest and woodland ecosystemsRaising the wall of the Warragamba dam could affect half the remaining population of the critically endangered regent honeyeater and would put forest and woodland communities at risk of extinction, according to a summary of the environmental impact statement for the proposal, contained in a leaked federal environment department document.The department found the New South Wales government had failed to properly assess how its proposal to raise the wall of the dam by 17 metres to mitigate flood risk in western Sydney would affect endangered wildlife. Continue reading...

Humidity forecast to remain as thunderstorms spread across much of England and Wales

Drone was about 162ft in the sky when bald eagle attacked and tore propellor off, possibly mistaking it for a rival bird or snackIn a rare case of nature taking on a manmade machine and winning, a bald eagle attacked and destroyed a government drone that was flying above Lake Michigan on an environmental monitoring mission.Related: Trump faces surprise call from Republican congressman to pardon Edward Snowden – live Continue reading...

Growers hope to avoid a third bad year but have already been hit by lockdown and a heatwaveThe humble spud, staple of the British dinner table, has weathered storm, flood and lockdown, but farmers are on tenterhooks ahead of the crucial growing season for the key crop as the UK heatwave is followed by thunderstorms and deluges.Farmers are desperate to avoid a repeat of last year, when good growing weather over the summer was followed by heavy rains in some areas from late September that left the ground too sodden to harvest for months, spelling disaster for many potato growers. Continue reading...

Thinktank says changes to forecasts reflect accelerated shift away from fossil fuelsThe world’s largest listed oil companies have wiped almost $90bn from the value of their oil and gas assets in the last nine months as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates a global shift away from fossil fuels.In the last three financial quarters, seven of the largest oil firms have slashed their forecasts for future oil market prices, triggering a wave of downgrades to the value of their oil and gas projects totalling $87bn. Continue reading...

It is not just at sea that North America’s smallest marine mammals with a huge appetite are benefitting the ecosystem

Countryside and coastal custodians lament ‘different demographic’ of visitors leaving litter and endangering wildlife

As unemployment soars, local governments and non-profits have created conservation jobs in the Roosevelt moldDanielle Johnson spends up to six hours a day working in a wooded section of Table Rock state park in South Carolina, navigating rough terrain in the hot sun to clear brush, tamp down dirt and make way for the park’s first new trail in 80 years.This is not her usual gig. Until the pandemic hit, she was a rock-climbing and whitewater rafting instructor. There are others working alongside her who are also newly unemployed: a realtor, bartender and a sales representative for an outdoor outfitter. Continue reading...

Chinese investment in Argentina’s hog industry would boost exports, but environmentalists fear risk of pandemicA government-sponsored plan to turbocharge Argentina’s hog industry with Chinese capital is generating unprecedented resistance among its supposed beneficiaries – the Argentinian general public.Nearly 400,000 people have signed petitions opposing the move. “We never had such a huge response before,” said environmental lawyer Enrique Viale, one of the group who banded together last month to challenge the government’s initiative. His petition currently has 200,000 signatures; another on change.org has almost 120,000 additional signatures, and three separate petitions on the same platform have clocked up another 55,000 between them. Continue reading...

Activist investor group welcomes miner’s change of mind, saying Minerals Council should follow suitMining giant BHP has reversed its position on Australia’s use of carryover credits to meet global greenhouse gas emissions targets, saying in a review of the company’s memberships of industry groups that it does not support their use.The major miner published a new set of standards on Friday morning, covering its memberships of industry associations and lobby groups and how they advocate on climate change policy. Continue reading...

Economists say falling cost of clean energy and growing climate risks strengthen case for cutting CO2 emissionsWithdrawing from the Paris agreement does not make economic sense for the US, a group of economists has argued, as the cost of clean energy has fallen since the agreement was signed in 2015, while the risks of climate catastrophe have increased.Economists from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at the London School of Economics examined the economic case for the US withdrawal, which President Donald Trump signalled in June 2017, and which will take effect on 4 November, the day after this year’s presidential election. Continue reading...

The government must rise to the challenge thrown up by the pandemic to support young adults and school-leaversRecessions are never normally a good time for leaving education and entering the jobs market for the first time. Unsurprisingly, it’s harder to find a job with a shorter CV while businesses are barely hiring. With the coronavirus pandemic causing the deepest recession in living memory, that task has become nigh on Herculean, writes Richard Partington.Enter the government to make matters worse. After the downgrading of A-level grades in England this year, the hard times for school leavers are multiplied even further. Continue reading...

Biggest threat is non-native fish, but study was conducted before summer bushfires impacted Australia’s rivers

Experts say government must not risk pitting the economy against public healthThe lifting of coronavirus restrictions by the government could risk pitting the economy against public health, triggering a higher death toll and double-dip recession, two of the country’s top economists have warned.In a warning to ministers, Nicholas Stern, the leading climate economist and former Treasury mandarin, and Sir Tim Besley, a former rate-setter at the Bank of England, said an abrupt and premature easing of lockdown would be counterproductive in the fight to save jobs and reboot Britain’s economy from the coronavirus recession. Continue reading...

Concerns over rise in extreme weather as tributes paid to three victims of train derailmentThe climate crisis is presenting increasing challenges for rail safety, senior transport figures have warned, as family and friends paid tribute to three people who died in a derailment in Aberdeenshire following thunderstorms and torrential rain.The train’s driver, Brett McCullough, and conductor, Donald Dinnie, died along with a passenger, Christopher Stuchbury, when the 6.38am Aberdeen to Glasgow service came off the tracks and slid down an embankment near Carmont, just west of Stonehaven, on Wednesday. A further six people were injured, two of whom remain in hospital, both in a stable condition. Continue reading...

Temperature and CO2 changes reduce the numbers of some species and promote the growth of algae, University of Adelaide study findsHeating of the world’s oceans could radically reorganise marine food webs across the globe causing the numbers of some species to collapse while promoting the growth of algae, new research has warned.Healthy marine food webs that look like a pyramid, with smaller numbers of larger predatory species at the top and more abundant smaller organisms at the bottom, could become “bottom heavy”. Continue reading...

Methane is a greenhouse gas that heats the planet far faster than CO and addressing it is critical to slowing global heatingThe Trump administration is revoking rules that require oil and gas drillers to detect and fix leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas that heats the planet far faster than carbon dioxide.Methane has a much more potent short-term warming effect than CO and addressing it is critical to slowing global heating as the world is already on track to become more than 3C hotter than before industrialization. Continue reading...

Estimated 120,000 hectares stripped bare by rodents and now browning in heatwaveLarge swathes of Germany’s farmland are being decimated by plagues of field mice leading to significant crop loss, according to the country’s national farming association.In some parts of the country, a quarter of the arable land is affected, leading to calls for compensation as well as a relaxation on rules governing the use of pesticides. Continue reading...

ONS finds single-unit increase in pollution exposure over long term may increase death rate by up to 6%

Emails reveal experts at San Bernardino national wildlife refuge repeatedly sounded the alarm over grave threat to rare speciesStark warnings by federal scientists and wildlife experts about the grave threat posed by Donald Trump’s border wall to rare and endangered species were repeatedly ignored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to documents seen by the Guardian.A cache of emails obtained using the Freedom of Information Act (Foia) by environmental groups reveal multiple efforts over several months by experts at the San Bernardino national wildlife refuge in south-eastern Arizona, to save rare desert springs and crystalline streams which provide the only US habitat for the endangered endemic Río Yaqui fish. Continue reading...

The investment by British billionaire industrialist, who is also investing in renewables for his Whyalla steelworks, will save 250 jobsA company headed by British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta has bought a hydro-powered smelter in northern Tasmania, saving some 250 jobs at the facility, and furthering Gupta’s aim of becoming a carbon-neutral steelmaker by 2030.The future of the Tasmanian Electro Metallurgical Company manganese alloy smelter had been up in the air for the best part of a year. Continue reading...

Pair fledge first chick in Dundreggan for 40 years in eyrie built by conservationistA nest of arm-sized sticks built on a precipitous crag by an octogenarian conservationist dangling from a rope has enticed a pair of golden eagles back to the Highlands of Scotland.The eyrie handmade by Roy Dennis, a renowned conservationist who has masterminded the revival of endangered species across Britain, helped the eagles successfully fledge the first chick on Trees for Life’s Dundreggan estate in 40 years. Continue reading...

Painstaking conservation effort to accommodate insect’s complex lifecycle pays offThe biggest reintroduction to date of the large blue has led to the rare butterfly flying on a Cotswold hillside where it has not been seen for 150 years.About 750 butterflies emerged on to Rodborough Common in Gloucestershire this summer after 1,100 larvae were released last autumn following five years of innovative grassland management to create optimum habitat. Continue reading...

Centrists draw up report aimed at bringing the UK in line with official climate adviceA group of moderate Conservative MPs has joined green groups in calling for the government’s ban on new fossil fuel vehicles to be brought forward by five years to 2030 as part of a plan to ignite a green economic recovery.The recently reformed caucus of centrist Conservatives has called on ministers to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles as part of a comprehensive green policy report aimed at bringing the UK in line with the official advice of the government’s climate tsars. Continue reading...

Heatwave brings wind turbines to standstill and causes gas plants to struggle

Government under fire after major companies again given green light to lift carbon emissions without penaltyIndustry and environment groups have questioned the point of the Coalition government’s “safeguard mechanism” – which promised to keep a lid on industrial greenhouse gas emissions – after major companies were allowed to again increase pollution without penalty.BHP, Anglo American and Tomago Aluminium were among companies given the green light to increase emissions by a combined 1.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year in an announcement by the Clean Energy Regulator in late July. Continue reading...

The national Covid-19 commission was created to help steer the government through economic and social recovery from the pandemic. However, an interim report recommending large-scale investment in gas has raised alarm among energy and climate experts. Christopher Knaus explores what we know about the commission and concerns that key information is being withheld from the publicYou can also read Christopher’s reporting on warnings that Australia’s Covid commission risks ‘subversion’ of democracy, and how the Australian PM’s department has refused to release Covid-19 commission documents. Plus Katharine Murphy has written about the commission downplaying ‘green recovery’ and confirming a gas push in recent senate hearings. Continue reading...

Developers want to build a vast hydroelectric power facility that would flood sacred lands, threaten waterways and put habitats at riskShortly before Lucille Daniel’s father died, he told her: “Take care of the land. Take care of the livestock.”This land, a patch of remote desert not far from the Grand Canyon on the western Navajo Nation, has been in the Daniel family for six generations. Lucille, 85, was born and grew up here. Continue reading...

The pandemic has exacerbated severe energy and economic inequalities on Native lands in America – so people are turning to renewable energyWithin hours of posting a video to Facebook and Twitter in which she offered to donate iPads to K-12 Native students, Amanda Cheromiah was inundated with increasingly desperate requests.Related: Bid to save Alaskan wild salmon receives surprise boost from Trump Jr Continue reading...

Labor’s climate and energy spokesman says taxpayer underwriting of new gas infrastructure would be ‘longest white elephant in Australian history’Labor’s climate and energy spokesman Mark Butler has blasted his frontbench colleague Joel Fitzgibbon for endorsing the taxpayer underwriting of new gas infrastructure, championed by one of Scott Morrison’s most influential business advisers, before seeing the specifics.Fitzgibbon, the shadow resources minister, declared on Wednesday that Nev Power, the chair of Scott Morrison’s Covid advisory commission, was on the right path lobbying the government to support a gas-led recovery from the economic shock created by the pandemic. Continue reading...

Bank argues JBS has ‘no action plan’ to tackle link between indirect suppliers and Amazon destruction following Guardian investigationAnalysts at global banking giant HSBC have sounded the alarm over the potential risks of investing in JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, after a string of investigations raising concerns about Amazon deforestation issues in its beef supply chain.The meat giant “has no vision, action plan, timeline, technology or solution” for monitoring whether the cattle it buys originate from farms involved in rainforest destruction, according to analysis by the bank, which has substantial investments in the troubled meat packing firm. Continue reading...

Indigenous people in headwaters region say financing harms communities and ecosystemsIndigenous people living at the headwaters of the Amazon have called on European banks to stop financing oil development in the region, as it poses a threat to them and damages a fragile ecosystem, after a new report found $10bn in previously undisclosed funding for oil in the region.The headwaters of the Amazon in Ecuador and Peru are home to more than 500,000 indigenous people, including some who choose to live in voluntary isolation. The area, covering about 30m hectares (74m acres), hosts a diverse rainforest ecosystem, but it is threatened by the expansion of oil drilling. Continue reading...

A pioneering method from Africa that protects farms from forest herds is now paying off in India, with more profit and less conflictWatchtowers in trees, tripwire alarms, radio collars, chilli smoke and beehive fences: scientists and conservationists across Asia and Africa are coming up with safe and humane ways to keep elephants at bay and reduce conflict with humans.In early June, the agonising death of a pregnant wild elephant that ate an explosives-filled pineapple in India led to a global outcry, highlighting how far some farmers in India will go to protect their land from wild animals, which are increasingly encroaching on settlements. India is home to an estimated 27,000 elephants, more than half the global Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population. Continue reading...

Expanded mine in north-west NSW predicted to generate extra 100 million tonnes of greenhouse gases once coal is burnedNew South Wales authorities have approved a Whitehaven Coal plan to develop an expanded new coalmine in the state’s north-west.The decision allows 168m tonnes to be extracted from the proposed Vickery coalmine, near Boggabri, over 30 years. Between 60% and 70% of it is expected to be metallurgical coal used in steel-making and the remainder thermal coal for electricity generation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Walker Corporation says de-listing area of wetlands, which are a critical migratory bird habitat, was of ‘urgent national interest’Walker Corporation lobbied former federal environment minister Josh Frydenberg to remove an area from internationally listed wetlands for its Toondah Harbour apartment and retail development, government documents show.Documents obtained from the environment department by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws show the company used a meeting with Frydenberg in August 2016 to stress the government had the power to remove part of the Moreton Bay Ramsar wetland as a matter of “urgent national interest”. Continue reading...