Environmental groups say Australian government is violating legal obligations to protect reef from global heating and UN committee should hold it to accountEnvironmental law groups in the US and Australia are pushing Unesco to place the world heritage status of the Great Barrier Reef on an “in danger” list, arguing the Morrison government has violated legal obligations by not doing all it could to protect the natural wonder.Earthjustice, based in San Francisco, and Environmental Justice Australia say the federal government is failing to live up to an obligation under the World Heritage Convention that member countries do all they can, including dedicating “the utmost” of their resources, to protect and conserve protected sites. Continue reading...

Investigation opened into ‘destruction of a protected species’ after male shot in PyrénéesFrench police are hunting the killer of a brown bear in the Pyrénées after the government said it would bring legal action against the culprit.Élisabeth Borne, the ecology minister, described the shooting of the animal, a protected species, as “illegal and deeply regrettable”. The bear was a four or five-year-old male weighing 150kg to 200kg, according to local officials in the Ariège region. Continue reading...

With slaughterhouse capacity in crisis due to Covid-19, one farmer believes he has developed a more humane way of ‘depopulating’ animals

Expansion of drilling in New Mexico would threaten sacred artefacts and bring public health risks to area still reeling from Covid-19A few winters ago, Sam Sage started getting strange phone calls.Families living in rural areas south-west of Counselor, New Mexico, were telling him they saw sickly bull snakes and near-death rattlers above ground during the snowy, winter months of the south. Sage, the administrator at the Counselor Chapter House, a Navajo local government center, was incredulous. Continue reading...

Fire has reportedly spread to homes near well that has been leaking ‘uncontrollably’ for two weeksA massive fire has broken out at an oil field in north-eastern India, after gas that had been leaking for two weeks ignited, sending plumes of smoke and flames into the sky, and reportedly setting fire to nearby homes.Five deaths in the area are being investigated for potential links to the gas well, which has been leaking “uncontrollably” for two weeks, according to Oil India, the state-owned company managing the oil field. Continue reading...

Since 2014, entomologists have sampled millions of insects around the city, identifying 800 species, including 47 new to science. The most striking of Los Angeles’ miniature inhabitants are showcased in an online exhibition of photographs taken using a special digital microscope

Falcon, built for agility and rapid response, can pursue insects in flightSometimes, a bird doesn’t just appear in your field of view, but forces itself instantly into your consciousness. So, as soon as I noticed a movement in the skies outside my office window, I instantly knew that it was something special. And it was: a hobby, scything through the warm spring air like a swift on steroids.The hobby is to a kestrel what a Ferrari is to a Ford: the same basic blueprint, but honed into a high-speed version, built for agility and rapid response. Hobbies don’t pursue earthbound mice and voles, but aerial insects such as dragonflies, which are pretty fast flyers themselves. Indeed, the name of this slender falcon comes from a medieval French verb meaning “to dart about”. Continue reading...

The pandemic is an opportunity to tackle the climate emergency by creating productive green jobs for those made redundant by the crisisBritain needs a green job-filled recovery from the coronavirus crisis. Unlike Germany and South Korea, it is far from clear that we will get one. While Berlin and Seoul are retooling their fossil fuel-reliant economies to be greener and cleaner, the UK has yet to announce a policy that deals with the environmental emergency and the spectre of mass unemployment.Unless a vaccine for coronavirus is found soon, Britain faces a surge in joblessness at the end of October, when all forms of wage support stop. The size of this spike in unemployment will determine how long it is before we may return to normal. Currently, 12 million people are covered by the job retention scheme for furloughed workers and its equivalent for the self-employed. There are few takers for the idea that there will be a sharp bounce-back to business as usual. Continue reading...

England, Scotland and Wales on brink of two-month milestone, longest period since 1880s, says National GridGreat Britain will on Wednesday be able to celebrate not having generated any coal-powered electricity for two months – the longest period since the 1880s.Great Britain, which introduced coal-powered electricity to the world in the 1880s, has run its electricity network without burning coal since midnight on 9 April, according to National Grid. Continue reading...

Governments urged to act to avoid disaster from recession caused by coronavirus

Campaigners hope the move will help end global trade in the scaly anteater, identified as a possible host for Covid-19

‘399’, at 24 one of the oldest grizzlies living outside a zoo, becomes symbol of bears’ recovery in Yellowstone ecosystemA few weeks ago, a nature photographer who lives near Yellowstone national park sent a four-word text message to Dr Jane Goodall, the British primatologist.“Miraculously, she still lives!” Continue reading...

Conservationists welcome ruling to protect koalas and greater gliders but point to approved coalmine that required destruction of habitatThe environment minister, Sussan Ley, has rejected a $100m wind farm proposal in central Queensland on the grounds it would clear old-growth forest important to vulnerable and threatened species, including the koala and greater glider.Ley ruled the Lotus Creek wind farm, nearly 200km north-west of Rockhampton, was “clearly unacceptable” under national environment laws, in part because the site was home to species that were badly affected in other parts of the country during last summer’s catastrophic bushfires. Continue reading...

A glut of discarded single-use masks and gloves is washing up on shorelines and littering the seabed

Siân Berry and Jonathan Bartley herald ‘pivotal moment’ as they say UK is in crisis

Research shows how supply chains around world have been disrupted by pandemic

Residents of towns in Castilla y Léon region told to stay away from banks of Pisuerga River

Terrible conditions witnessed onboard livestock ship travelling from Colombia to Egypt suspected of being a cover for traffickingWhen the Neameh sailed out of Colombia on 4 May, it should have been a routine shipment: just over 4,000 cattle, on their way to Egypt, an important hub for the global trade in live animal exports.But accusations of cocaine smuggling and a police raid of the ship lengthened the journey. Continue reading...

Countries to use high-resolution images to monitor health of marine resourcesCommonwealth countries are to gain free access to satellite technology that will help them monitor and protect their endangered coral reefs from threats such as climate breakdown, overfishing and pollution.Commonwealth countries hold nearly half of the world’s remaining tropical coral reefs, with 47 out of the 54 member countries having a coastline. Nearly half of them are islands or groups of islands, which face particular threats from the climate crisis, and for whom coral reefs are often vital protections against storms as well as fish nurseries and tourist attractions. Continue reading...

Artifacts dealer claims treasure he buried a decade ago has been found, Santa Fe newspaper reportsFamed art and antiquities collector Forrest Fenn, who said he hid $1m in treasure in the Rocky Mountain wilderness a decade ago, said Sunday that the chest of goods has been found.Fenn, 89, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that a treasure hunter located the chest a few days ago. The man who found it does not want his name mentioned. Continue reading...

Opinion poll puts Socialist at 44% of intentions to vote, well ahead of her closest rival

Failure to consider dirty air as a factor in higher death toll among ethnic minorities wholly irresponsible, say critics

Government spending on clean energy would deliver 100,000 new jobs, EY assessment findsStimulus programs backing clean energy as a path out of recession would create nearly three times as many jobs for every dollar spent on fossil fuel developments, according to a financial consultancy analysis.The assessment by professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY) says a government focus on renewable energy and climate-friendly projects to drive the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic could create more than 100,000 direct jobs across the country while cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading...

The updated assessment also shows the fire ground includes more than 3.5m hectares of the state’s best koala habitatMore than a third of New South Wales rainforest was among 5.4m hectares hit by last season’s catastrophic bushfires, according to new state government data.The report, an updated assessment of the effect of the fires on wildlife and landscapes, said 293 threatened animal species and 680 threatened plant species have habitat in the state’s fire ground. The affected area includes more than 3.5m hectares of the state’s best koala habitat. Continue reading...

Administration opening areas off New England coast up to commercial fishing, a move experts say will hurt the environmentDonald Trump is easing protections for a large marine monument off the coast of New England, opening it to commercial fishing.But ocean experts caution that the rollback to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monument will hurt the environment and won’t help fishermen who are struggling during the Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturn to find buyers for what they already catch. Continue reading...

Experts say abundance of both common and rare species cause for celebration and concernRecord-breaking sunshine has encouraged midsummer butterflies to emerge unusually early, with dozens of species appearing a month before their usual flight season.Butterflies that usually fill meadows and woods in July, including the ringlet, the marbled white, dark green fritillary and the silver-washed fritillary have been widely spotted during the sunniest spring since records began in 1929. Continue reading...

Over $500bn is going to high-carbon industries undermining goals of Cop26 climate talksThe failure of governments and central banks to set out a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis is threatening to derail vital UN climate talks aimed at staving off global catastrophe, campaigners have warned.On Friday, the UK and the UN attempted to revive the stalled Cop26 climate talks, with a coalition of businesses committing to a Race for Zero, signing up to reduce their emissions to net zero by mid-century. Close to 1,000 businesses have joined the campaign, including household names such as Rolls-Royce and the food and drink majors Nestlé and Diageo. Continue reading...

Communities and advocates decry ‘backflip’ after years of planning for statewide framework to reduce toxic airThe Berejiklian government has abandoned a long-held commitment to adopt a statewide policy on air pollution after years of planning that included a state summit on the issue.The decision to drop a standalone clean air strategy has sparked anger from communities living near major sources of pollution, such as coal-fired power stations, who say without an overarching strategy they can have no confidence their air quality will improve. Continue reading...

Military called in to fire artillery rounds at wellhead in Siberia that has been ablaze for nearly a weekA Russian oil company has asked the military to bombard a wellhead fire with anti-tank artillery rounds in a last-ditch effort to extinguish the blaze after nearly a week.Russian troops will deploy to rural Siberia and fire shells from a 100mm anti-tank gun to cut off the wellhead and allow the oil well to be sealed, Russian state news agencies reported. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including hugging sloths and a lost whale Continue reading...

Activists welcome move but say government is still dragging its feet over crackdown on waste in lakes and waterwaysThe Malawian government this week ordered the closure of factories belonging to two major plastic producers for flouting the country’s plastics ban.The companies – OG plastics and City Plastics – were found to still be manufacturing thin plastics, often used to make plastic bags, despite a ruling last year that banned its production, import and use. Continue reading...

Record traffic for TreeTalk sparks global interest as users reconnect with the species that line their streetsAn online mapping tool featuring the location and species of more than 700,000 trees in London has had a fiftyfold increase in visitors to its site since the coronavirus lockdown measures were put in place.The founders of TreeTalk, which creates a walk specific to a user’s location and identifies trees on the route, say an increase in people spending more time at home getting to know their natural surroundings has led to a surge in interest. There are now calls to bring the app to other cities in the UK and abroad. TreeTalk is currently discussing a proposal with an east coast city in the US, while cities in Australia and India have also expressed interest. Continue reading...

Greenpeace report shows cattle indirectly sold to JBS, Marfrig and Minerva came from protected Serro Ricardo Franco park

British Airways, EasyJet, Wizz Air and Ryanair have taken £1.8bn from scheme so far

As current and former central bankers, we believe the pandemic offers a unique chance to green the global economy

High court now will determine whether a new hearing on expansion graziers claim threatens Darling Downs should be orderedQueensland farmers have been given a reprieve by the nation’s highest court in their decade-long battle to stop a coalmine expansion.But the company behind the controversial stage-three expansion of the New Acland coalmine says there is nothing stopping the state government from giving approvals for the project to go ahead. Continue reading...

Changes could hurt communities of color, which are more likely to live with pollution due to decades of environmental racismThe Trump administration continued to weaken core environmental protections in the US by announcing a pair of policies to cut reviews for large infrastructure projects and downplay the health benefits of rules to curb pollution.Both changes could disproportionately hurt communities of color, which are far more likely to live with pollution because of decades of environmental racism. They come after a week of nationwide protests over police killings of black Americans. Continue reading...

Ours to Save identified 308 species and subspecies but only 10% considered ‘globally secure’ or ‘apparently secure’There are few animals more iconically Canadian than the moose and the beaver, and few plants more closely associated with the country than the maple leaf.But while those species have long considered part of the nation’s ecological identity they are also found elsewhere. Continue reading...

Ruling says EPA ignored clear evidence that the new herbicide would cause widespread damage to cropsThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law in approving agricultural weedkilling products sold by Bayer and two other chemical giants, ignoring clear evidence that the new herbicides would cause widespread damage to crops, a federal court ruled on Wednesday.The decision by the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit invalidates the registrations for dicamba-based herbicides made by Monsanto, which is owned by Bayer AG, BASF and Corteva Agrisciences that are designed to be sprayed on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. The court order effectively makes it illegal for farmers to continue to use the dicamba herbicides this summer as they tend to millions of acres of crops. Continue reading...

Scientists find coronavirus crisis has had little impact on overall concentration trendCarbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen strongly to a new peak this year, despite the impact of the global effects of the coronavirus crisis.The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 417.2 parts per million in May, 2.4ppm higher than the peak of 414.8ppm in 2019, according to readings from the Mauna Loa observatory in the US. Continue reading...

Transport and Environment says airline industry bailout should have green conditions attachedInternational flights taking off from the UK must be taken into account in the government’s calculations on reaching net zero emissions as part of a “green” recovery for the airline industry, a transport thinktank has urged.The government has given loan bailouts to airlines totalling £1.5bn since the coronavirus outbreak, with no environmental conditions attached. Continue reading...

Investigation uncovers ties between financial institutions and three Brazilian firms connected to environmental destructionBritish-based banks and finance houses have provided more than $2bn (£1.5bn) in financial backing in recent years to Brazilian beef companies which have been linked to Amazon deforestation, according to new research.Thousands of hectares of Amazon are being felled every year to graze cattle and provide meat for world markets. Continue reading...

Nev Power answers Senate inquiry questions about a ‘perceived conflict’ given his corporate interestsThe former Fortescue Metals chief running Scott Morrison’s Covid-19 coordination commission, Nev Power, has distanced himself from a controversial leaked report recommending Australian taxpayers underwrite a massive expansion of the domestic gas industry.Appearing on Thursday before a Senate committee, Power said the report, revealed by Guardian Australia late last month, should not be considered the view of the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission. He intimated the report was a draft from the manufacturing taskforce that had been superseded by later advice. Continue reading...

Analysis by Yale and Columbia universities shows US lagging far behind other industrialized countries in a range of categoriesThe US is far behind other industrialized nations on environmental performance and now ranks 24th in the world, according to a new analysis by Yale and Columbia universities.Related: US lets corporations delay paying environmental fines amid pandemic Continue reading...

Media urged to make public aware of dangers associated with increasingly hot summersThe public is being lulled into a false sense of security about the UK’s increasingly extreme weather patterns by news and weather reports that present long, hot, dry spells as good news, according to scientists and campaigners.Experts say unusually dry and sunny conditions like those experienced in the UK over the past two months are too often framed as something to celebrate, with newspaper and TV reports featuring pictures of people sunbathing, playing in fountains or eating ice creams. Continue reading...

People with asthma and other lung conditions report decrease in symptoms, finds survey

Value of reserves could fall by two-thirds as Covid-19 hastens peak in demand, study shows

President lambasts power plant owner ‘for not reporting earlier’ incident bigger than Kerch spillVladimir Putin has ordered a state of emergency after 20,000 tonnes of diesel fuel spilled into a river inside the Arctic Circle.The spill occurred when a fuel reservoir at a power plant near the city of Norilsk collapsed on Friday. Continue reading...