Environment | The Guardian

Polystyrene cups will also be banned but campaigners say action to cut plastic waste is ‘snail-paced’Single-use plastic plates and cutlery, and polystyrene cups will be banned in England under government plans, as it seeks to reduce the plastic polluting the environment.A public consultation will launch in the autumn and the ban could be in place in a couple of years. The move was welcomed by campaigners, but they said overall progress on cutting plastic waste was “snail-paced”, with the EU having banned these items and others in July. Continue reading...

Treasurer says there are ‘lots of internal conversations’ on whether Australia could make a firm net zero commitment at Cop26

As ConocoPhillips searches for gas off Bass Strait island’s west coast, fears grow for the effect on local fisheries

Activists tour financial institutions to highlight firms they believe to be culpable in climate crisisExtinction Rebellion protesters poured red paint over the entrances of City institutions as they marched through London’s financial district in a protest against the ‘“blood money” on which they say the UK economy is built.In what appeared to be the biggest mobilisation so far this week by the environmental protest group, several thousand demonstrators took a tour of the City, stopping off at the banks and law firms they saw as most culpable in the climate crisis. Continue reading...

As many as 70,000 animals that should have gone to slaughter are stranded on UK farms amid staff shortages, NPA saysBritain’s food and drink industry is calling on the government to introduce a “Covid-19 recovery visa” to recruit overseas workers to ease disruption in the food supply chain, amid warnings from UK pig producers that healthy animals may be culled because of a labour shortage.Trade associations representing all areas of the UK’s food chain – including the National Farmers’ Union, the Road Haulage Association, the Food and Drink Federation and the British Meat Processors Association – have sent a report to government, urging ministers to act to ensure continuity, quality and choice in Britain’s food supply. Continue reading...

Signs of mid-September are already here, which experts predict could create spectacular autumnal coloursThe season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is rolling in earlier than usual across parts of the south and south-east of England due to the soggy and sunny summer, according to forestry experts.Ripening blackberries, sweetening chestnuts and burgeoning forest fruits – typically seasonal hallmarks of autumn normally seen from mid-September – are all evident, said Forestry England, which manages publicly owned forests. Continue reading...

A movement of entrepreneurs in US cities is bringing healthy food to neighborhoods hurt when policies create food desertsWhen Samantha Pounder and Hannah Choi imagine the shelves of a corner store, they see fresh aloe and kale instead of the usual sugary, shrink-wrapped confections and salty snacks.It’s a vision that will soon become a reality when the pair open Muki’s Market in Washington DC, one of the newest additions to a growing movement to supply big city food deserts with healthy corner stores. Continue reading...

Public urged to report dying or dead animals as fears grow that form of myxomatosis has crossed over from rabbitsMore than 1,100 hares have been recorded as dying of a new “viral cocktail” since 2018 as fears grow that a form of myxomatosis has jumped from rabbits.People are being urged to report dying or dead hares to scientists who are seeking to discover the cause of so many unexplained deaths in the hare population, with a spike in sickness occurring each autumn. Continue reading...

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a slow loris, a pink lady mollusc and Lake Titicaca frog Continue reading...

Evacuation orders issues in two counties as more than 14,000 firefighters battle wildfires up and down CaliforniaA wind-driven wildfire continued to advance towards Lake Tahoe, clouding the alpine vacation and tourist spot in a sickly yellow layer of smoke, as more than 14,000 firefighters battled wildfires up and down California.As the weather heated up and winds shifted, the Caldor fire, the nation’s top-priority for firefighting resources, grew to more than 213 sq miles (551 sq km) south-west of the lake but containment remained at 12%, officials said. Continue reading...

New England renewable energy zone inundated with investor interest amid pushback to federal rules on fossil fuel generators

Nest located in the base of a dead alder tree about one-quarter mile from where a resident reported a live sighting on 11 AugustOfficials in Washington state said they had destroyed the first “murder hornet” nest of the season, which was located near the town of Blaine along the Canadian border.The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) said it eradicated the Asian giant hornet nest on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Group linked to Extinction Rebellion says Queen has ‘blood on her hands’ over hunting and animal agricultureAnimal rights activists linked to Extinction Rebellion have painted the fountain outside Buckingham Palace red, accusing the Queen of having “blood on her hands”.Animal Rebellion activists stained the fountain and its waters on Thursday, protesting against the use of crown lands for hunting and animal agriculture, as well as the Queen’s attempts to have her land exempted from an initiative to cut carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Exclusive: proposal part of party’s plan to give City of London a lead role in helping UK tackle climate crisisNew listings of fossil fuel companies would be immediately banned on the London Stock Exchange as part of a proposal by the Liberal Democrats that the party says could help the UK become a leader in tackling the climate emergency.Under the plan outlined to the Guardian by the Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, another immediate policy would be to stop new bonds being issued in London to finance oil, coal or gas exploration. Continue reading...

Officials close eight beaches as residents complain of cloudy, green water that emits a foul smellSpanish officials have banned the use of fertilisers near one of Europe’s largest saltwater lagoons after five tons of dead fish washed up on its shores.Alarm bells began to sound in the south-eastern region of Murcia last week as scores of small fish and shrimp began to wash up along the beaches of the Mar Menor lagoon. Continue reading...

Seagrass beds along Florida’s east coast have collapsed, wiping out an important manatee food source. With nothing to eat, scientists are racing to save this gentle marine mammal Continue reading...

Exclusive: Robin Harper says power-sharing deal ‘packed with vague promises’ as party prepares for heated ratification voteA former leader of the Scottish Greens has attacked the deal the party struck with Nicola Sturgeon’s government for failing to take tougher action on North Sea oil, marine protection and taxation.Robin Harper, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens from 2004 to 2008, said the agreement was “absolutely packed with vague promises” and was disappointing because it compromised too much on core policies. Continue reading...

Kelp can clean New York’s polluted waters, tackle climate change and is sustainable – but growers need a law change firstMotoring out of Montauk Harbor aboard a research vessel, Sean Barrett waves hello to a commercial fishing boat, yelling “What up, Jay! Any slipper snails in there?”It is a crisp, sunny day – the kind that brings tourists to Montauk, a small fishing village at the end of Long Island, New York. Although the town is better-known as a resort destination, it is the state’s largest commercial fishing port, only one of two major ports that are still in operation. Continue reading...

Fight to save fish tells story of how European food preferences clashed with tribal systems, shaping what we choose to protectPerry Chocktoot remembers the last time he ate a C’waam suckerfish. It was 1984. The fish was canned by a Klamath Tribes member and served with Tabasco. After finishing off the meat, Chocktoot was left with a tin of smoky fish oil mixed with hot sauce. “We just tipped it back and drank it,” Chocktoot recalled. “It was so good.”Just four years later, the C’waam and its cousin the Koptu were put on the endangered species list. Since then, for more than three decades, no member of the Klamath Tribes has legally harvested the species, which are endemic to a lake and series of rivers in southern Oregon known as the Klamath Basin and once formed the backbone to the tribes’ seasonal food system. Continue reading...

Australian oil giant is being accused of trying to ‘greenwash’ their operations to appeal to investors

Imprint’s Green Ideas series begins with 20 short books by writers from Rachel Carson to Greta Thunberg it believes are ‘the classics that made a movement’From Greta Thunberg to James Lovelock, publisher Penguin Classics has come up with a “new canon” of the environmental literature, which it believes has “changed the way we think and talk about the living Earth”.The move is part of a growing trend in publishing for books focused on the climate, whether from big hitters such as David Attenborough or Bill Gates, whose How to Avoid a Climate Disaster was out in February, or so-called “cli-fi”, climate fiction, from writers including Richard Powers and Jenny Offill. Penguin’s Green Ideas series capitalises on this appetite, collecting 20 short books it believes constitute “the classics that made a movement”, by “visionary thinkers around the world [who] have raised their voices to defend the planet”. Continue reading...

More than 60 NGOs call for spending rule change, saying people on frontline of climate crisis want greater access to reproductive healthcareThe UK government has been urged to open up its £11bn pot of climate funding to contraception, as research from low-income countries shows a link between poor access to reproductive health services and environmental damage.In a letter to Alok Sharma, president of the UN Cop26 climate conference, an alliance of more than 60 NGOs has called for the funding eligibility rules to be changed to allow projects concerned with removing barriers to reproductive healthcare and girls’ education to access climate funds. Continue reading...

Japanese government claims water from nuclear plant released through 1km tunnel will be safe as all radioactive elements will have been removedOperators of Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have unveiled plans to construct an undersea tunnel to release more than a million tonnes of treated water from the site into the ocean.Plans for the 1km tunnel were announced on Wednesday after the Japanese government decided in April to release the accumulated water in two years’ time. Continue reading...

26 August 1970: Government agency questions whether ‘greenhouse’ effect from the burning of fossil fuels will raise the Earth’s temperatureToo much fuss is being made about the fashionable word “pollution,” says the government agency which has been keeping an eye on it since 1863. The Chief Alkali Inspector, Mr FE Ireland, who published his annual report yesterday, says: “We must beware the obvious danger that emotions could be roused to the point of overriding common sense. This is not a problem to be tackled in a spirit of panic and those prophets of doom who predict the more bizarre kind of human catastrophe and paint rather self-righteous pictures of scientists as irresponsible villains exploiting humanity to the point of disaster could well be doing their (and our) cause a great disservice.”Related: Sixty years of climate change warnings: the signs that were missed (and ignored) Continue reading...

In a ‘landmark’ Australian first, the court found the state environmental regulator had not fulfilled its duty to protect the state’s environment

Female activists claim police officers trampled them as they rushed to secure cordonExtinction Rebellion protesters have blocked Oxford Circus in London, the site of one of the group’s most famous occupations, as women took the lead on the third day of its latest campaign of disobedience.Just before 2pm, protesters swarmed into the middle of the intersection between Regent Street and Oxford Street, London’s busiest shopping district, and erected a pink structure and sound system. Continue reading...

Angus Taylor insists the federal government ‘has a clear priority to deliver reliable, secure and affordable power’

The nuclear power industry has successfully rebranded an appallingly toxic energy industry by never mentioning the terrible legacy of nuclear waste, writes Ann Denise LanesRe your report (Nuclear storage plans for north of England stir up local opposition, 23 August), it is no surprise that ongoing discussions to choose locations for the dumping of nuclear waste are cloaked in secrecy.Over the last decade, the nuclear power industry has successfully rebranded an appallingly toxic energy industry as “zero carbon” and even “clean” (Zero-carbon electricity outstrips fossil fuels in Britain across 2019, 1 January 2020) by never mentioning the terrible legacy of nuclear waste. Nuclear energy is neither clean nor zero-carbon when you consider its complete fuel cycle, from uranium mining overseas to the energy-intensive production of fuel rods to the management of highly toxic radioactive waste products such as plutonium. Continue reading...

Airport revives proposal for routine use as it seeks to enlarge capacity to a potential 75.5m passengers a yearGatwick airport is to press ahead with plans to convert its emergency runway for routine use, in a sign that the aviation industry expects demand to rebound in full soon after the coronavirus pandemic.London’s second biggest airport will launch a public consultation next month on a scheme to enlarge capacity to a potential 75.5 million passengers a year – despite still only serving about a quarter of its pre-Covid traffic in August. Continue reading...

Statement calling for significant cut in antimicrobial drug usage is ‘real missed opportunity’, say criticsAnimal health experts and UN leaders have called for a significant reduction in antimicrobial drug usage in food animals, which is already causing a “silent pandemic”.But critics say the statement is “a real missed opportunity”, pointing to its failure to set reduction targets or even call for a ban on the use of antibiotics for animal growth promotion. Continue reading...

Hot, arid and dry conditions that fuel extreme wildfires have grown more frequent from Pacific coast to Great PlainsThe hot, dry and windy weather conditions fueling the huge wildfires that have besieged the western US this summer have increased in frequency over the past 50 years, a new study has found.Since 1973, global heating has desiccated the west, driving increases in “fire weather” days from the Pacific coast to the Great Plains, according to research by the non-profit Climate Central. It found that the number of fire weather days increased steeply in parts of Texas and in California’s interior, and that southern Nevada, south-east California and swathes of New Mexico had the highest number of average annual fire weather days – with nearly a quarter of the year in some regions being characterized as having elevated risk. Continue reading...

A story of missed opportunities and industrial decline is told with rare insight and vivacityThis November the eyes of the world will turn to Glasgow. “Cop26 meeting is last chance, says Alok Sharma as he backs UK’s plan for new oil and gas fields,” the Observer reported in an interview with the Tory minister in charge. The contradiction in this sentence is all the proof you need of the central themes of Crude Britannia: that Britain’s economic prosperity is inextricably linked to oil, and that breaking this link appears a more distant prospect than human extinction.Journeying through landscapes of rigs and refineries, from the Thames estuary to north-east Scotland, campaigner James Marriott and former Guardian energy editor Terry Macalister interweave history and psychogeography. This is refreshing if not seamless: as the narrative style shifts from reportage to the rhythms of speech and prayer you would find in a David Peace novel, it is easy to mistake stylised prose for casual errors and incomplete sentences – of which, unfortunately, there are several. Continue reading...

Community connections made in peak of pandemic have helped boost local swapping and sharing of goodsThey started as a way of doing the right thing by vulnerable neighbours during the pandemic: WhatsApp groups asking if anybody along the street needs help, for example with shopping.A year and a half later, these community groups continue to thrive and have evolved into a means of swapping and sharing goods – offering everything from spare dog food to a free car. Continue reading...

Staff and volunteers in south of England will get more Mediterranean hours because of climate changeThe National Trust is giving its workers siestas in summer due to increasingly hot weather because of climate change.Staff and volunteers in the south of England will be given more Mediterranean working hours, with a long lunch break and the day starting earlier and finishing later. This will allow them to avoid the hottest part of the day, as people already do in countries such as Italy and Spain. Continue reading...

They are blamed for damage to crops but numbers are falling due to predators and diseaseThe European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is perhaps the most often seen mammal in the British countryside. It is also a favourite food for foxes, badgers, weasels, stoats and various birds of prey, especially buzzards, whose numbers often fluctuate depending on rabbit populations.Yet the rabbit is classed as an invasive species. It was first imported by the Romans from its native habitat in the Iberian peninsula in about AD43. It did not thrive and was reintroduced again by the Normans before becoming established in England. It was so valued as a winter food source that the landed gentry had to have special permission to create a carefully guarded warren and the peasants were kept well away. Continue reading...

The government is launching a consultation on more reintroductions to the wild after a successful trial in DevonBeavers will be released into the wild under government proposals to support a “cautious” return of the semi-aquatic mammals to English rivers.The native animals will also be given legal protection in England, making it an offence to deliberately capture, kill, disturb or injure them, or damage their breeding sites or resting places, as part of efforts to support their recovery. Continue reading...

Stanford University research estimates that smoky California air may have resulted in as many as 7,000 preterm birthsAs California wildfires continue to rage and the Lake Tahoe area faces some of the highest air pollution levels in the world, a new study has found that breathing wildfire smoke during pregnancy increases the risk of premature birth.The study from Stanford University, published in Environmental Research this month, estimates that the effects of wildfire smoke may have resulted in as many as 7,000 extra preterm births in California between 2007 and 2012. Continue reading...

Activists earlier blocked Whitehall in protest against HMRC and Barclays over funding of fossil fuel industriesEnvironmentalist protesters have blocked another main junction in London’s West End, calling for “crisis talks” over global warming on the second day of Extinction Rebellion’s latest campaign of protest.Protesters swooped on Cambridge Circus, in the heart of the capital’s theatre district, just after 3pm. Police managed to encircle gear brought in by activists, holding the middle of road as protesters danced around them to music from a mobile sound system. Continue reading...

Almost half the funding from the fracking program awarded to Empire Energy, which shares connections with the Liberal party, inquiry finds

Some experts fear climate crisis is leading creatures back to area where they were hunted almost to extinctionBlue whales, the world’s largest mammals, are returning to Spain’s Atlantic coast after an absence of more than 40 years.The first one was spotted off the coast of Galicia in north-west Spain in 2017 by Bruno Díaz, a marine biologist who is head of the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute in O Grove, Galicia. Continue reading...

Eight new vessels able to run on methanol fuel could help save more than 1m tonnes of carbon emissions a yearThe world’s biggest shipping company is investing $1.4bn (£1bn) to speed up its switch to carbon neutral operations, ordering eight container vessels that can be fuelled by green methanol as well as traditional bunker fuel .The Danish shipping business Maersk said the investment in new vessels would help to ship goods from companies including H&M Group and Unilever, while saving more than 1m tonnes of carbon emissions a year by replacing older fossil fuel-driven ships. Continue reading...

Spotted lanternflies are eating crops of apples, grapes and hops, and destroying native trees such as maple, walnut and willowThe official public guidance is simple and to the point: “Kill it! Squash it, smash it … just get rid of it!”Such is the threat posed by a summer invasion of troublesome spotted lanternfly insects in the north-east that Pennsylvania’s department of agriculture has resorted to the unorthodox language in its advice on dealing with the pest. Continue reading...

The San Onofre nuclear power plant shut down years ago – but residents and experts worry what will happen with the waste left behindMore than 2 million visitors flock each year to California’s San Onofre state beach, a dreamy slice of coastline just north of San Diego. The beach is popular with surfers, lies across one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the Unites States and has a 10,000-year-old sacred Native American site nearby. It even landed a shout-out in the Beach Boys’ 1963 classic Surfin’ USA.But for all the good vibes and stellar sunsets, beneath the surface hides a potential threat: 3.6m lb of nuclear waste from a group of nuclear reactors shut down nearly a decade ago. Decades of political gridlock have left it indefinitely stranded, susceptible to threats including corrosion, earthquakes and sea level rise. Continue reading...

Climate scientists say while it’s difficult to give a precise attribution, the fingerprints of the climate crisis are undoubtedly present to some degreeAs the US west bakes in a prolonged drought, parts of the eastern half of the country have faced the opposite problem as extreme rainfall and fierce winds took their toll on communities as far apart as Tennessee and Rhode Island.Climate scientists have said that while it’s difficult to give a precise attribution as yet to the floods in Tennessee and the impact of Hurricane Henri in New England, the fingerprints of the human-caused climate crisis are undoubtedly present to some degree. Continue reading...

Woodland Trust and National Trust trial sustainable alternatives to plastic protection for millions of saplingsPlanting trees without plastic tree guards should be standard practice, a UK study has found, as leading conservation charities and landowners seek sustainable alternatives to reduce plastic waste.The Woodland Trust has announced it is aiming to stop using plastic tree guards by the end of the year. It is trialling plastic-free options at its Avoncliff site in Wiltshire, including cardboard and British wool. The charity plans to plant 10 million trees each year until 2025. Continue reading...

Exclusive: plan is to harness ‘waste heat’ and cut carbon emissions for households connected to district networksThousands of homes could soon be warmed by the heat from giant electricity grid transformers for the first time as part of new plans to harness “waste heat” and cut carbon emissions from home heating.Trials are due to begin on how to capture the heat generated by transmission network transformers, owned by National Grid, to provide home heating for households connected to district heating networks operated by SSE. Continue reading...

Surging blaze has destroyed more than 500 structures amid extremely dry conditions as western Nevada blanketed by smokeThe raging Caldor fire in northern California has burned more than 100,000 acres and destroyed more than 500 structures after surging over the weekend.Fueled by warm winds and drought-stricken vegetation, the fire, burning south-west of Lake Tahoe, surged through more than 30,000 acres in two days and by Monday morning had consumed about 106,500 acres. Continue reading...

Succession of thunderstorms deposited record-breaking 17in of rain in some parts of stateTennesseans were surveying the mangled wreckage of towns and communities across the middle of the state on Monday, after a record-breaking deluge caused flash flooding that swept away houses, shattered lives and left at least 22 people dead and many more missing.Related: A midwestern town moved uphill to survive climate crisis. Can others do the same? Continue reading...

Chase in Seychelles is first known example of hunting in wild by creature thought to be herbivoreA Seychelles giant tortoise, a species previously thought to be a strict herbivore, has been filmed chasing and eating a baby bird in a “horrifying and amazing” attack, with researchers stating it was the first documented example of deliberate hunting in the wild by the species.The video, taken on Fregate Island in July 2020, shows a female giant tortoise slowly stalking a lesser noddy tern chick, snapping at it unsuccessfully before delivering a lethal bow by clamping its jaws directly around its head. Continue reading...

Protesters gather in Covent Garden while activists stage diversionary march up Charing Cross RoadExtinction Rebellion protesters have blocked one of Covent Garden’s busiest junctions on the first day of the group’s latest wave of protests targeting London.At about midday on Monday, activists from the group chained themselves together to block the roundabout at Long Acre as a van pulled up with a pink table structure. It was quickly assembled and hundreds of other activists streamed to the roundabout. Continue reading...