Environment | The Guardian

Global heating takes a disproportionate toll on Black and Latino children – and the danger begins before they are even bornJoe Biden has vowed to uproot what he describes as the systemic racism that has caused certain communities “disproportionate harm from climate change and environmental contaminants for decades”.The need for this is increasingly clear. The roots of systemic racism run so stubbornly deep in the US, recent research has revealed, that global heating harms Black and Latino children before they are even born, as well as in the first years of their lives. Continue reading...

Council identifies site near city’s airport and hopes production will start by 2025Coventry city council intends to secure pre-emptive planning permission for a “gigafactory” beside the city’s airport to make electric car batteries, in the latest effort by UK authorities to attract investment.The government has identified investment in battery factories as a key goal to keep automotive jobs as the sector moves away from the internal combustion engine. Only one company, however, a startup called BritishVolt, has so far announced a project to build a UK battery factory. Continue reading...

Government says two properties in Gateshead will offer public a glimpse of the ‘potential home of the future’The UK’s first homes to be fitted with boilers and hobs that run on hydrogen rather than fossil fuel gas will be built in Gateshead by April.The semi-detached houses in the north-east will use 100% hydrogen for heating and cooking in appliances including boilers, hobs, cookers and fires under a new government scheme intended to offer the public a glimpse into “the potential home of the future”. Continue reading...

Experts in Cambridge are on night vigil as the moonflower is about to blossom in a UK first, an event being livestreamed for allCambridge botanists are eagerly waiting for a rare and unusual cactus called the moonflower to bloom for what is thought to be the first time in the UK, an event that begins at sunset and is over by the time the sun rises the following day.Experts at Cambridge University’s Botanic Garden (CUBG) have been on night watch for several days, even setting up a live stream so the public can get a glimpse of the flowering of the Amazonian plant Selenicereus wittii. Continue reading...

Carmaker also says it will abandon petrol vehicles entirely by middle of next decadeJaguar Land Rover, the UK-based carmaker, will make its Jaguar brand electric-only by 2025 and abandon petrol vehicles entirely in the middle of the next decade as part of a set of sweeping changes brought in by its new chief executive.The company, which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, will eliminate the internal combustion engine for its struggling Jaguar brand by 2025, as JLR aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2039. Continue reading...

Richard Murphy and Colin Hines on creating a programme of economic activity that improves social conditions and addresses the environmental crisisThere is no better example of what Larry Elliott perceptively terms “capitalism for dummies”, whereby our political systems self-destructively fail to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis, than the unspent 95% of the green homes programme (We’re on a collision course with the planet. But with public support, that can change, 10 February).To reverse this trend, and overcome the social and employment effects of the Covid pandemic, will require a new form of growth – one which only supports an increase in economic activity that improves social conditions, creates secure, adequately paid jobs and seriously addresses the environmental crisis. Continue reading...

Animals traded for pet industry, bushmeat, traditional medicine, ivory and lab use declined locally by up to 99.9%

Exclusive: Agnes Kalibata says price rises and scarcity mean people in poverty are in more danger than last year

Many health experts and advocates say breastfeeding is the best choice for babies but the threat of passing on contamination from PFAS is prompting new questionsMaryann Jacobs’ heart was pounding as she opened her letterbox one snowy morning last year in Hoosick Falls, a small town in upstate New York bordering Vermont and Massachusetts.Inside was an envelope from the New York state department of health which she knew would reveal the results from a second round of testing for several chemicals that are part of a group of about 5,000 perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS (often referred to as “forever chemicals”), in her family’s blood. Continue reading...

As the climate crisis worsens, Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans to buy nearly 2m tons of thermal coal from small producersThe men on the midnight shift smoked cigarettes and cracked jokes in the glow of their helmet lights as they prepared to go underground. They were loading safety equipment and coils of pipe onto wheelbarrows, in readiness for a second shift due to start working later that week.“We’re reactivating the industry,” said Arturo Rivera Wong, who had just taken on 40 more workers at the mine he owns in the scrublands of the border state of Coahuila. Continue reading...

Deputy premier to seek legal advice on overturning an independent decision to reject coalmine expansionNSW’s deputy premier says his department will explore all legal options to “find a way forward” for a major Illawarra coalmine expansion after the Independent Planning Commission rejected the proposal.Mining corporation South32 sought to expand the Dendrobium coalmine at Kembla Heights to extract an additional 78m tonnes of coal from two new areas, and to extend the mine’s life until 2048. Continue reading...

Conservationists and traditional owners want to ensure there is enough money to rehabilitate area when Glencore mining endsTraditional owners and conservationists have launched legal action against the Northern Territory government over its decision to cut $120m from a bond held as insurance against any future environmental damage from the contentious McArthur River lead and zinc mine.Lawyers for Jack Green and Josephine Davey Green, residents of the remote community of Borroloola, will argue the territory government’s November 2019 decision was unlawful. Continue reading...

Video is unusual in that it captures species that don’t interact often in high numbers as manatee numbers are downAlmost 200 threatened Florida manatees have been filmed together basking in shallow waters off the state’s west coast, the remarkable drone footage also showing a pod of playful dolphins swimming through the group.Related: Officials hail 'encouraging' number of north Atlantic right whale births Continue reading...

It’s the third crocodile attack in the state this month, after two swimmers in Cairns and Weipa survived encountersA second crocodile has been killed and will be examined for human remains after a 69-year-old fisher went missing in north Queensland.The reptile, measuring about 3 metres, was caught and euthanised by Department of Environment and Science officers near Hinchinbrook Island on Sunday night. Continue reading...

BLM, Extinction Rebellion and animal rights protests all targeted as forces expand use of drones

Judiciary | Queen’s leases | Travel plans | Ancient showroom | StonehengeDonald Trump’s acquittal in the US Senate (Report, 14 February) surely provides the best possible evidence for never allowing politicians to get involved in judicial decision-making. Their priorities lie in other directions.

Chris Packham, Mark Avery and Ruth Tingay have faced threats and insults for taking the fight for wildlife to court, but they are not going awayWild Justice is seen by many as the disruptive new kid on the block. The environmental group has ruffled the feathers of countryside goliaths – the shooting and farming industries – and yet its main ally is the greatest establishment of them all: the law.“Wild Justice gets called lots of names,” says one of its founders, Dr Mark Avery, who was the RSPB’s conservation director for nearly 13 years. “We’re told we’re extremists, we’re zealots, and we’re activists, but what we’re doing is extremely middle class. We’re just using the law and saying ‘you’re not allowed to do that’.” Continue reading...

A metal recycling plant is due to open on the polluted Southeast Side months after the same firm shut a metal scrapyard in a white, affluent part of townTrinity Colón grew up believing everyone had asthma. Continue reading...

Crocodile was killed after being located in the vicinity of the missing man’s damaged boatHuman remains have been found in a crocodile after a 69-year-old fisherman went missing in central Queensland.A specialist examined the 4.2-metre crocodile in Cairns overnight, locating human remains inside. Continue reading...

A federal judge rejects Apache tribal members’ request to halt the transfer of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper mining companyEfforts to prevent a sacred Native American site from being destroyed by a copper mine received a setback yesterday, when a federal judge rejected Apache tribal members’ request to halt the site’s transfer to a a multi-national mining company.While US district judge Steven Logan acknowledged that the mine would “close off a portal to the Creator forever and will completely devastate the Western Apaches’ lifeblood”, he said the activist group Apache Stronghold lacked legal standing in the case since it represented tribal individuals rather than a tribal government. Continue reading...

Community forest projects have seen a surge in volunteers keen to reduce CO2 emissions by creating new woodlandsThe UK may be in the grip of a winter lockdown but in one village on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales the local climate-change group has been busy.Plans are afoot to plant hundreds of trees on land surrounding Newton-le-Willows, in lower Wensleydale, in an effort to tackle the climate crisis. According to scientists, planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Three-and-a-half-year protest at Harvil Road camp west of London ends with removal of seven activistsActivists at the first and longest-running protest camp against the controversial HS2 high-speed rail development were evicted in the early hours of Saturday morning.The camp, at Harvil Road in the Colne Valley, Hillingdon, 25 miles west of the Euston tunnel protest against HS2, which has now entered its 17th day, was set up three and a half years ago. It has been the subject of several high court actions as HS2 sought and obtained injunctions to evict environmental activists from various parts of the site. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Although scientists recommended otherwise, Trump officials favored political allies over endangered wildlife, internal emails showFederal scientists and regulators repeatedly complained they were sidelined by Donald Trump’s administration when they warned of risks to wildlife posed by a California water management plan, according to newly unveiled documents.The plan, finalized in late 2019, favored the former president’s political allies – farmers upset with environmental protections that kept them from receiving more irrigation water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of California’s water network. Continue reading...

In an exclusive extract from his new book, the Microsoft founder explains why we need to cut carbon emissions to zero – even if he is an ‘imperfect messenger’There are two numbers you need to know about climate change. The first is 51bn. The other is zero.Fifty-one billion is how many tons of greenhouse gases the world typically adds to the atmosphere every year. Zero is what we need to aim for. To stop the warming and avoid the worst effects of climate change, humans need to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The climate is like a bathtub that’s slowly filling up with water. Even if we slow the flow of water to a trickle, the tub will eventually overflow. Setting a goal to reduce our emissions won’t do it. The only sensible goal is zero. Continue reading...

Lazer Sandford says subterranean tactics are likely to feature in new wave of climate emergency protestsAn environmental activist who spent 12 days in a tunnel network underneath Euston Square Gardens in central London says the protest is likely to be the first of a new wave against the climate emergency using subterranean tactics.Speaking exclusively to the Guardian in his first interview since leaving the tunnel network on 6 February, Lachlan Sandford, 20, known as Lazer, said the protest to raise awareness about the environmental destruction that activists believe the high-speed rail link HS2 will cause would not be a one-off. Continue reading...

Exclusive: US chains Walmart, Costco and Kroger selling Brazilian beef produced by JBS linked to destruction of Brazilian rainforestThree of the biggest US grocery chains sell Brazilian beef produced by a controversial meat company linked to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, an investigation has revealed.Food giants Walmart, Costco and Kroger – which together totalled net sales worth more than half a trillion dollars last year – are selling Brazilian beef products imported from JBS, the world’s largest meat company, which has been linked to deforestation. Continue reading...

Department of Environment and Science says damage to boat indicates crocodile’s involvement ‘highly likely’A four-metre crocodile believed to be behind a fatal attack on a missing fisherman in north Queensland has been captured and killed, after human remains were found.Related: King croc of Port Douglas dies after crab pot encounter Continue reading...

Weather forecasts have the potential to be an important conservation tool, say meteorologists

New book by Microsoft billionaire plays down impact of flying and driving and calls for focus on steel, meat and cementThe world is not lacking rich men with big ideas, Bill Gates has acknowledged. But having pumped $100m into Covid research, the Microsoft billionaire has turned to the climate emergency and the urgent need to slash carbon emissions to zero, undeterred by being a self-confessed “imperfect messenger” for the cause.With a personal fortune of around $120bn, the world’s former richest man reveals in his new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: the Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, that he has poured more than $1bn into innovative approaches to achieving carbon neutrality, investing in zero-carbon technologies and affordable and reliable clean energy. Continue reading...

Ryan Koenigs accused of supplying fish eggs taken for research to caviar producers, accepting jars of the delicacy in returnA state biologist known as Wisconsin’s “sturgeon general” is facing jail for his alleged role in a lucrative racket that prosecutors say saw valuable fish eggs marked for fertility research funneled instead for caviar production.Related: Why is caviar still on the menu? Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures, from the swans that cancelled their flight to the Arctic due to Storm Darcy to the bears liberated from captivity to walk free in the wild Continue reading...

Auction paused after runaway bids for leases in England and Wales hand windfalls to Queen and TreasuryThe Queen’s property manager in Scotland has delayed the auction of Scottish seabed plots for windfarms after runaway bids for leases in England and Wales handed the Queen and the Treasury a multibillion-pound windfall.Crown Estate Scotland paused its auction in order to carry out a review of the process after the “unprecedented” bidding in an auction for England and Wales lease options last week reached record highs. Continue reading...

Ogale and Bille villagers say Shell oil operations have caused severe pollution including to their drinking waterTwo Nigerian communities can bring their legal claims for a cleanup and for compensation against the oil company Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary in an English court, supreme court judges have said.In what lawyers said was a “watershed moment” for the accountability of multinational companies, on Friday the court overturned a decision by the court of appeal, and ruled that the cases against Shell could proceed. Continue reading...

A Bogotà nightclub has used the sounds of animals and birds in the Colombian capital to make a new kind of dance trackStuck inside and unable to hit the dancefloor, many of the regulars at the electronic dance nights at Bogotá’s popular nightclub Kaputt found themselves missing the clubbing community when they were forced into lockdown by Covid-19. But then came a rallying cry from DJs Jorge Pizarro and Felipe Rodríguez: start recording the “sounds from your window”.Now the results of that callout are reaching a global audience, with a set of albums blending the sounds of animals and birds in the Colombian capital with techno beats available for streaming. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Environment Agency has failed to prosecute or fine any of 243 documented violations since 2018Campaigners have called legislation designed to reduce water pollution caused by agriculture in England “useless” as data reveals there have been no prosecutions or fines issued despite regular documented breaches of the rules.The Environment Agency has documented 243 violations of the “farming rules for water” since they came into effect in April 2018, according to data the Guardian has obtained using freedom of information legislation. Continue reading...

Exclusive: just 12% of spending on economic rescue packages is going towards low-carbon projects, research findsEfforts by governments around the world to forge a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic are so far failing even to reach the levels of green spending seen in the stimulus that followed the 2008 financial crisis, new analysis has shown.Only about 12% of the spending on economic rescue packages around the world is going towards low-carbon projects, such as renewable energy and clean technology, according to a report by Vivid Economics, published on Friday. Continue reading...

Government is told it must find better ways to measure effects of environmental taxesAn environmental tax imposed to cut the amount of landfill appears to have incentivised illegal waste disposal such as fly-tipping, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has discovered.The National Audit Office also said the government was collecting too little information about the effect of environmental taxes, which it said needed to be monitored to help the government reach its climate goals. Continue reading...

An estimated 600 gallons of oil have spilled from the Richmond refinery into the San Francisco BayEmergency crews in Richmond, California, are rushing to clean up an estimated 600 gallons of oil that spilled from a Chevron refinery into the San Francisco Bay. Details on the spill are still scant, but the emergency has reinvigorated calls from residents and environmentalists for the city to change its relationship with the refinery. Continue reading...

Analysis: campaigners argue that, as with Heathrow, climate obligations should make £27bn scheme unviable

Exclusive: transport secretary dismissed guidance calling for review of environmental impact

Productivity Commission says Australian governments have allocated funding to several projects failing cost-benefit analysesThe Productivity Commission has slammed decisions by the federal and state governments to fund major dam projects without business cases, saying that several fail cost-benefit analyses and amount to subsidies for the private sector.In a new draft report on national water policy, the commission has singled out Rookwood weir on the Fitzroy river in Queensland and the Dungowan dam on the Peel near Tamworth to demonstrate its concerns about the way decisions are made about infrastructure. Continue reading...

Two-thirds of those killed worked to protect environmental, land and indigenous peoples’ rights, while those providing Covid relief also faced reprisalsAt least 331 human rights defenders promoting social, environmental, racial and gender justice in 25 countries were murdered in 2020, with scores more beaten, detained and criminalised because of their work, analysis has found.Latin America, the most dangerous continent in the world in which to protect environmental, land and human rights, accounted for more than three-quarters of all the murders of human rights defenders in 2020. In Colombia, where activists are routinely targeted by armed groups despite a 2016 peace deal, 177 such deaths were recorded, more than half of the global total. The Philippines was the second deadliest country with 25 murders, followed by Honduras, Mexico, Afghanistan, Brazil and Guatemala. Continue reading...

Precipitation fills reservoirs, limits fire danger and feeds important crops. But the state has seen only 30% to 70% of what it would expectThere’s a race on in California, and each day matters: the precipitation during winter that fuels the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and fills groundwater supplies has been slow to start, and faltering at best.Northern California remains stuck in one of the worst two-year rainfall deficits seen since the 1849 Gold Rush, increasing the risk of water restrictions and potentially setting up dangerous wildfire conditions next summer. The current precipitation is only 30% to 70% of what the state would expect to have seen during a normal year – with no more big rainfall events on the horizon for February. Continue reading...

The Morrison government put the $8.7m upgrade project on its energy underwriting program shortlist before the last electionA controversial Morrison government plan to grant up to $8.7m for an upgrade at a coal plant part-owned by power boss Trevor St Baker has been dropped after the company abandoned its bid for the public funding.The government allocated the grant for a turbine upgrade at the Vales Point generator, in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley, in the October budget, but told the station’s owner, Delta Electricity, it would need to submit a formal application for the money. Continue reading...

Energy firm seeks to grow operation by 20% but offset expansion via carbon capture and ‘nature-based solutions’Shell has set new carbon emissions goals to become a net zero carbon energy company by 2050, but will continue to grow its gas business by more than 20% in the next few years.The Anglo-Dutch oil company’s new climate strategy will include a modest fall in oil production, by selling oilfields or through the natural decline of their reserves, and an increase in gas production and gas exports to the global market. Continue reading...

Gail Mabo and Joanne Margaret Keune accuse the foundation of repudiating a contract to manage a traditional owners forumThe Great Barrier Reef Foundation is being sued by the daughter of Indigenous land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo after it allegedly cancelled a contract for a $1m traditional owners forum.In documents filed in the Townsville district court, the foundation is accused of repudiating a contract with Gail Mabo and Joanne Margaret Keune in September, two months after they allegedly reached a deal that would have seen the pair paid $1m over two years to plan and run the three-day forum. Continue reading...

In rural Alabama where Martin Luther King marched for civil rights, Flowers has waged a long fight for environmental justice

The health effects caused by decades of systemic racism are staggering. The Guardian is launching a year-long series to investigate

Black residents in Centreville, Illinois, say officials ignored their pleas for help for years. Now they’re quarantined in toxic conditions