Environment | The Guardian

In a letter to the Japanese company, activists call for rapid transition to products sourced from plantations and recycled fibreMore than 40 environment groups have called on Japan’s Nippon Paper Group to remove timber logged in Victoria’s native forests from its supply chain in the aftermath of bushfires and a landmark judgment that found a government forestry agency repeatedly breached conservation regulations.It comes as a legal injunction halted VicForests’s operations in a further 14 coupes in the state’s central highlands and amid growing pressure for a statutory review of Australia’s national environment laws to reconsider the industry-wide exemption for logging. Continue reading...

Government advisers have set a course through the pandemic to net zero. Is Boris Johnson capable of following it?The colossal challenge facing human civilisation, of ending our reliance on fossil fuels in short order, has almost certainly been made harder by the pandemic. Ever since scientists discovered that the Earth was warming as a result of human activity, it has been a struggle to get people, governments and businesses to do anything about it. Even in those countries least resistant to the evidence of rapidly approaching danger, something else was usually seen as more important. In the past few months, once again, the climate emergency has been knocked off the top of world leaders’ to-do list by the more immediate threat of the virus.Recognising this, the environmental movement came up with the excellent idea of a green recovery. The annual report published on Thursday by the Committee on Climate Change, which provides official advice to the UK government, is a crucial, national component of that global effort. It sets out to tell Boris Johnson, his ministers and the British public how we can embed the lessons of Covid-19 in the next phase of carbon cuts. Continue reading...

The azure pool only appears after heavy rains, but cold, wet weather hasn’t deterred locals from taking a dipOn kunanyi/Mount Wellington, 200mm of rainfall has transformed a rocky patch of forest into a striking pool. It’s freezing cold, but the water is clear and blue.The Disappearing Tarn appears only after a heavy downpour. It’s shrouded in a layer of mystery among visitors and scientists alike: geomorphologist Kevin Kiernan speculates its arresting blue colour may be a result of fine sediments in the water as it pools over depressions in the land. At the bottom of this basin, organic matter rots and occasionally releases bubbles. Continue reading...

Australia’s central bank joins 60 others, including the Bank of England, to warn of climate risk to the economy and financial sectorMore than 60 central banks, including the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of England, have warned that global GDP could fall by 25% by 2100 if the world does not act to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.They suggested if the world acted to limit emissions to net zero by about 2070, giving a 67% chance of limiting global heating to 2C above pre-industrial levels, the impact of the climate crisis on global GDP could be about 4%. Continue reading...

Robin Hood-style shoplifting session at London supermarket ‘because poverty sucks’A new political party was launched in London on Thursday by a group of activists from Extinction Rebellion, who marked the event by shoplifting a haul of supermarket goods to highlight the instability of global food distribution.The stunt involved five members of the nascent Beyond Politics party walking out of Sainsbury’s in Camden with shopping trolleys filled with food but without paying. Continue reading...

‘Substantial increase’ in wind and solar power helped to generate 47% of Britain’s electricityRenewable energy made up almost half of Britain’s electricity generation in the first three months of the year, with a surge in wind power helping to set a new record for clean energy.The government’s official data has revealed that renewable energy made up 47% of the UK’s electricity generation in the first three months of the year, smashing the previous quarterly record of 39% set last year. Continue reading...

Staying home during the pandemic presents a unique opportunity to become better acquainted with wilderness in all its formsIn May, my partner and I had a daily ritual: he would send me a photo of the robin’s nest taking shape above the front door of his parents’ house, where he was sheltering in place. At first, it was more a pile of twigs than a structure, but slowly, it transformed into a woven bowl. Blue eggs appeared, and then chirping baby birds. A robin nested in that same spot the year before, but we were too busy to take such close stock, to notice the changes happening just outside the door.For many people, the outside world has shrunk in the last three months. City dwellers, with their notoriously cramped apartments and negligible backyard space, may feel especially cut-off from nature. But staying home during the first pandemic in over a century presents a unique opportunity to become better acquainted with wilderness in all its forms. Walk around the block, and you can behold scraggly neighborhood trees, birds roosting in apartment balconies, snails thriving in untended plots; under our sustained attention, these signs of life can begin to challenge our collective perception of what counts as nature. Continue reading...

As Covid-19 accelerates the shift towards renewable energy, Jonathan Watts hears how this change risks causing intergenerational injustice in AberdeenLike many young people in Aberdeen, Mike Scotland dreamed of a well-paid job on a rig in the North Sea, in the oil and gas field that has made his home town a boom town for most of the past 40 years.In February the 28-year-old landed the position he had wanted with Shell, and he was due to take a helicopter to the Shearwater platform in July once he had completed training. Continue reading...

Conservation groups call for independent environment regulator after scathing review of national lawsThe government has failed in its duty to protect the environment in its delivery of Australia’s national conservation laws, a scathing review by the national auditor general has found.The Australian National Audit Office found the federal environment department has been ineffective in managing risks to the environment, that its management of assessments and approvals is not effective, and that it is not managing conflicts of interest in the work it undertakes. Continue reading...

The region has made progress in getting people on to bikes, but where’s the ambition?When the mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, stood on an unlit section of towpath opposite what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse recently and hailed a “big summer for cycling and walking”, it was perhaps worryingly symbolic. That Friday, hours after Street invited us to “come cycle Birmingham’s canals”, at least two women were pushed into Birmingham waterways by a group of young men.The West Midlands is proud of its industrial heritage, but unlit, isolated towpaths are no replacement for a cycle network that safely takes people places they want to be. Continue reading...

Amateur beekeepers and scientists do ‘the whole CSI thing’ to stem the feared onslaughtIt took Moufida and John Holubeshen just a day of tracing alleged sightings and studying map coordinates before the two amateur detectives found their target.“We did the whole CSI thing,” says Moufida. “Plotting points and drawing lines, searching for where the middle of the circle – the nest – would be.” Continue reading...

Bayer’s US settlement over Monsanto’s weedkiller has given hope to litigants in AustraliaAustralia’s agriculture minister insists the common weedkiller Roundup is safe after its manufacturer agreed to pay almost $16bn to settle cancer lawsuits in the US.The pesticides giant Bayer agreed overnight to pay up to US$10.9bn (A$15.8bn) to settle about 95,000 cases claiming Roundup caused cancer. Continue reading...

Australian Energy Council’s support for Paris agreement will increase pressure on federal government to back pledgeAustralia’s major electricity and gas companies, including the owners of all coal-fired power plants in the national grid, have called on the Morrison government to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in line with the Paris agreement.In a statement on Thursday, the Australian Energy Council said it supported the 2015 Paris deal, and recognised it meant developed countries needed to reach net zero emissions by mid-century. Continue reading...

Conservationists hail decision as a win for environment and threatened wildlifeThe New South Wales government has dropped a plan that could have opened up new areas of the state’s protected old-growth forests to logging.Conservationists have called the decision a win for the state’s environment and threatened wildlife after years of habitat loss and the devastating 2019-20 bushfires. Continue reading...

Report says Boris Johnson’s lack of climate leadership risks missing target and embarrassing UK at Cop26

The government adviser publishes its progress report today. Here are the areas it says require urgent attention

WWF Australia says after new analysis that federal department is failing to enforce environmental lawsMore than a million hectares of threatened species’ habitat was cleared for agriculture in New South Wales and Queensland without referral to the federal environment department for assessment, according to new analysis by WWF Australia.Data for land-clearing in both states suggests the department is failing to ensure developers and farming operations are following environmental laws, according to the analysis. Continue reading...

Small bird can forage more efficiently when Antarctic sea ice is sparse, research findsAdélie penguin populations could boom in coming years, according to research revealing the small birds find it easier to forage when sea ice is sparse around continental Antarctica.While, overall, sea ice extent has increased in the Antarctic over recent decades, in the past few years it has fallen dramatically – a matter of deep concern in the scientific community. Continue reading...

The job losses will be equivalent to the entire local coal industry if the renewable energy target is not replacedUp to 11,000 renewable energy workers are expected to lose their jobs over the next two years under current government policies, according to a university analysis.If correct, the loss of jobs would be equivalent to the abolition of the domestic-focused coal industry, which employs a little more than 10,000 people in mining thermal coal for local use and running Australia’s coal-fired power plants. Continue reading...

If the government plots a green recovery from coronavirus, the benefits are endless. If it doesn’t, we’re screwed

The exemption allows companies to bypass an EPA law meant to address widespread contamination from perflourinated chemicalsFederal regulators are crafting an exemption for polluters releasing harmful perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) into the environment in a way that environmental advocates say circumvents a new law meant to address widespread contamination.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule Monday adding 172 PFAS chemicals to a list of those that are required to report when they release them into the air or water, or on land. Continue reading...

Native Americans in New Mexico have held protests to demand that effigies glorifying conquistadors be removedAs a national debate swirls around statues of Confederate officials, a new battle is brewing in the western US over the fate of monuments glorifying the brutal Spanish conquest of the Americas.They include effigies of Diego De Vargas, who ordered the execution of 70 Pueblo Indians and the enslavement of hundreds of women and children, and conquistador Juan De Oñate, who is known for ordering the massacre of 800 Acoma people and for the right feet of 24 captive Acoma warriors to be amputated. Continue reading...

Tests by Consumer Reports find toxic metal in Starkey Spring Water, which was previously recalled for exceeding federal limits, and is sold on Amazon

Kenya has lost 70% of its wildlife in 30 years, but conservancy schemes could halt the decline – and benefit local communitiesParsaloi Kupai’s home, situated on the edge of Ol Kinyei conservancy near the Maasai Mara game reserve, is no different from any other Maasai homestead – oval-shaped huts with an almost flat roof and walls plastered with a mixture of water, mud and cow dung. At the centre of the homestead is a cattle boma, an enclosure where his livestock spends the night, safe from the many predators that roam the area.Kupai, 47, and his two wives chose to live here after they surrendered 69 hectares (170 acres) of land to the 7,500-hectare conservancy. He is among 240 landowners who gave up their highly valued grazing land for the project. Continue reading...

Call for volunteers as households brace to discard 67m items of clothing and 22m pairs of shoes

Exclusive: environment groups accuse Queensland authorities of being a ‘toothless tiger’, saying ‘paltry’ fines ‘an insult to communities and farmers’Environmental groups say “paltry” fines handed to a coalmine in Queensland’s Darling Downs show that state authorities are unwilling to take action over even the most serious and repeated environmental breaches by miners.Documents obtained under Queensland freedom of information laws by Guardian Australia show the New Acland coalmine in Queensland’s Darling Downs was caught violating noise limits 34 separate times in 10 weeks and was fined $9,461 by state authorities. Continue reading...

‘Restoring nature needs to be given top priority,’ says Craig Bennett, Wildlife Trusts CEORestoring the natural environment could absorb as much as a third of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, making the government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050 much easier to meet, according to green campaigners.Returning degraded peatland and bog to its natural state, cultivating marine meadows of seagrass, restoring salt marshes and wetlands, and taking some grasslands out of cultivation, as well as planting more trees, all contribute to creating carbon sinks, which absorb CO from the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Campaigners say some of the wood is going to companies supplying Ikea, though it and logging firm deny wrongdoing

Labor leader sets out policy pivot in challenge to PM to display genuine bipartisanshipAnthony Albanese has dumped Labor’s former backing of Malcolm Turnbull’s national energy guarantee and opened the door for taxpayer support for carbon capture and storage technologies, in a major overture to Scott Morrison to reach bipartisan agreement on energy policy.The Labor leader will use a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday to set out his guiding principles for an agreement to end more than a decade of political warfare on climate and energy policy. Continue reading...

Letter signed by 29 organisations, including the Church of England, states financial institutions have a duty to tackle climate changeInvestors managing trillions of dollars in assets have warned Brazil that escalating deforestation and the “dismantling” of policies to protect the environment and indigenous communities are “creating widespread uncertainty about the conditions for investing”.Amazon destruction rose to its highest level in more than a decade last year, Brazil’s first under the leadership of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right nationalist who has vowed to develop the region and slash environmental protections. Continue reading...

Vehicles could become cheaper as specialist firm leases batteries to bus operatorsOne of Britain’s biggest battery companies has secured a loan to help increase the UK’s electric bus fleet by taking ownership of the batteries inside scores of UK buses.Zenobe Energy has secured a £20m loan from NatWest to finance enough batteries to power about 100 electric buses owned by private transport firms and councils around the UK. Continue reading...

Investigations under way into the reasons behind deaths of 13 men and two women

NSW audit office blasts water conservation efforts and finds Sydney Water was two years too late in responding to recent droughtThe New South Wales government has failed to investigate or implement water conservation measures for greater Sydney, leaving the city’s water supply vulnerable to the effects of population growth, drought and climate change, the state’s auditor has found.The report by the NSW audit office also found Sydney Water was two years too late in increasing funding for water conservation in response to the recent drought. Continue reading...

Guardian US commissioned an analysis of the cost and affordability of water and sewage services in 12 diverse American citiesGuardian US commissioned the economist Roger Colton, an authority on the affordability of utilities, to analyse the cost and affordability of water and sewage services in 12 diverse American cities. The objective was to investigate the extent of water poverty in the US over the past decade, and consider what the future may hold. Continue reading...

Exclusive: analysis of US cities shows emergency on affordability of running water amid Covid-19 pandemic

Guardian US and Consumer Reports are working in partnership to test 120 water systems across the US from small towns to big cities – and we need your helpAccess to safe, clean running water is vital for the health of any community – a fundamental resource that has become even more important after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.While running tap water is often the safest option for residents – and relying instead on bottled water can bring its own problems and potential risks – confidence in US water has been hit in recent years. Continue reading...

The Guardian – in partnership with Consumer Reports and others – is launching a one-year series of investigations highlighting the US water crisisAlmost exactly 10 years ago, on 28 July 2010, the United Nations declared water a human right under international law. And not just any water, but clean water – and sufficient water for “drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation, personal and household hygiene”.Imagine a country where, 10 years years on, over two million people are denied access to running water and basic indoor plumbing. Continue reading...

Jonathan Watts continues his road trip in Hartlepool, where some see an opportunity to emerge from the past into a greener future

Report found production will decline faster than bloc is curbing reliance on fossil fuelsEurope could face a shortage of oil within the next decade, making the move to increase the use of low carbon energy even more urgent, according to a new report.The study has warned that oil production may fall faster than the EU’s reliance on fossil fuels, raising the risk of a looming oil supply crisis and severe market price shock. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Discovery of prehistoric structure is another reason to give up ‘disastrous white elephant’ scheme

Blue warehou, eastern gemfish and scalloped hammerhead categorised as ‘conservation dependent’ and commercially fishedEndangered fish species are being routinely sold to Australian and international consumers thanks to a little-known feature of environmental laws that allows for the species to be commercially fished.Under Australian environmental laws, marine species that are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered are classified as “no take” species, meaning they cannot be sold or exported. Continue reading...

Sector faces calls for action after report reveals scale of infections among workers

Push is inadvertently causing long-term environmental damage to the traditional hunting grounds on Inuit public landsIn a subarctic fjard estuary just a few miles from frozen tundra, Inuit hunter Karl Michelin says he owes his life to the thousands of barking ringed seals that congregate year-round in local waters.The seals’ jet-black, heavily fatted meat is a staple for Michelin, his wife, and their toddler. With food insecurity rampant among the region’s Inuit, neighbors are similarly dependent on seals and other wild-caught food. The town’s isolation makes regular employment opportunities scarce, and food prohibitively expensive to import. Continue reading...

Climate groups’ reaction to mining body’s climate change plan ranges from qualified acceptance to ‘greenwashing’Australia’s peak mining body representing the coal industry has released a plan to tackle climate change across the industry, endorsing a goal of reaching net-zero emissions “as fast as possible” but without setting a target date.The Minerals Council of Australia’s chief executive, Tania Constable, claimed it was “possible and plausible for the coal industry to achieve near zero or net-zero emissions” by using carbon offsets and carbon capture and storage technologies. Continue reading...

Scientists seek to reassure public as campaigners fear battle to reduce single-use plastic waste is losing ground

Exclusive: government must ‘seize the day’ to create jobs and tackle wildlife and climate crisesThe chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must “seize the day” and create a national nature service to restore wildlife and habitats in England, say a coalition of the country’s biggest green groups. It said the move would create thousands of jobs, a more resilient country and tackle the wildlife and climate crises.The coalition has drawn up a list of 330 projects that are ready to go, including flower meadows, “tiny forests” in cities and hillside schemes to cut flooding. It said a service to fund the projects and train workers would create 10,000 jobs and be part of a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sir Mark Rylance, Neil Tennant, Brian Eno and head of Tate sign letter to governmentThe chiefs of scores of the UK’s foremost arts and culture organisations have joined the call for a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis, even as their own sector faces the biggest threat to its existence in modern times.Sir Mark Rylance, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, Brian Eno and the leaders of the Tate and National Youth Theatre are among those signing a letter asking the government to adopt green and carbon-cutting targets alongside its economic rescue plans. Close to 400 arts leaders and prominent individuals have now signed the letter, which will be presented to the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, this week. Continue reading...

With his regular haunts closed because of Covid-19, Mumbai photographer and naturalist Rizwan Mithawala turned his lens on his windowbox, capturing the life cycle of visiting red pierrots Continue reading...

Committee urges that companies must meet green standards to qualify for Covid-19 corporate bailoutsMinisters are bracing themselves for a powerful new rebuke from the government’s own advisers over the nation’s inadequate response to the climate crisis. In its annual progress report, to be published on Thursday, the Committee on Climate Change will lambast continuing failures by the government to tackle the issues of overheating homes, flash floods, loss of biodiversity and the other threats posed as our planet continues to overheat dangerously.Last year, the committee complained that no areas of the UK’s response to the climate crisis were being tackled properly. “The whole thing is run by the government like a Dad’s Army,” said the committee’s chairman, Lord Deben. Continue reading...

The fall in fuel use during the pandemic has caused Shell and BP to fundamentally reappraise their future profitabilityCoronavirus has dealt the fossil-fuel industry the biggest single blow in its history, and it is clear that 2020’s plummeting demand for oil and gas is no mere flesh wound. The global Covid-19 crisis may have already triggered a terminal decline for big oil.BP’s decision last week to reset its oil price forecasts for the next three decades was the latest tremor in a seismic shift for the industry. Its forecasts of a $75-a-barrel oil price over the next 30 years were scrapped in favour of an average price of $55. The watershed decision wiped more than $17bn from the value of its business at a stroke and could mean many of its untapped oil reserves will remain in the ground. Continue reading...