Environment | The Guardian

Substance has spread through sea south of Istanbul, posing threat to marine life and fishing industryTurkey’s environment minister has pledged to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara, with a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.A thick slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry. Continue reading...

People said Williston, North Dakota, would boom for decades. Instead, Michael Patrick Flanagan Smith learned, it went the way of every other legendary boomtownLife in a modern boomtown is living on the frontier but with a smartphone. “Capitalism on crack” is the way historian Clay Jenkinson referred to it – everyone taking what they can get, as fast as they can.I spent nearly a year in an oil boomtown: from summer of 2013 to winter of 2014, I worked in the Bakken oil patch out of Williston, North Dakota. At the time, politicians, geologists, and much of the national media claimed the town would be booming for decades to come. They were all wrong. Continue reading...

‘It was as if they didn’t even flinch,’ researcher says as study finds tiger sharks’ presence consistent before and during stormForecasters expect the Atlantic hurricane season that began this week to bring increasingly fierce storms to the US east coast. One notoriously fierce kind of shark, however, does not seem likely to be swimming for cover.Related: Sharks use Earth’s magnetic field as ‘GPS’ guidance system, study says Continue reading...

Heritage charity says many ‘renovated’ monuments are filled with cement, not water, so can’t quench thirst or help reduce plastic pollutionThey were a much-loved feature of London life for over a century, ever since the first of hundreds of public drinking fountains opened in 1859 at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate church in the City.At its peak, thousands of people a day were drinking from it and Charles Dickens observed that “300,000 people take advantage of the fountains on a summer’s day”, although some preferred to drink beer for fear of polluted water. But now, London’s few remaining historic fountains are under threat, with some local councils filling the fountain bowls with cement rather than water – ensuring that no one will ever be able to quench their thirst at their taps again. Continue reading...

Call for ‘solidarity’ in Covid fight as Boris Johnson calls on world leaders to help vaccinate global population by end of 2022Progress on climate change could be scuppered by developing nations if they are not given equitable access to vaccines, Boris Johnson has been warned, as rich nations come under new pressure to donate more doses.Figures compiled by the Observer show that the wealthiest nations, including the UK, have enough vaccines to inoculate their populations more than twice over. Continue reading...

Campaigners say plans for a new tailings dam threatens wilderness that should be declared a heritage areaFour days before the Morrison government was due to decide the future of a mining development in the takayna/Tarkine, 77-year-old Frits Harmsen planted a camping chair in front of trucks on an unsealed road snaking through Australia’s largest temperate rainforest.Harmsen, a former French horn player with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, was part of a small band of Bob Brown-endorsed protesters who on Friday began a 19th day attempting to block work by MMG, a majority Chinese-owned minerals company, in Tasmania’s remote north-west. Continue reading...

Ban on huge vessels passing St Mark’s Square proves to be temporary after liner docks in city for first time in 17 monthsAnti-cruise ship campaigners in Venice claim they were “deceived” by the Italian government as hundreds protested against huge vessels docking in the historic city’s port on Saturday.Residents were caught by surprise on Thursday when a cruise liner sailed into the lagoon city for the first time since the pandemic began, despite prime minister Mario Draghi’s government declaring that the ships would be banned from the historic centre. The 92,000 tonne ship MSC Orchestra collected 650 passengers before leaving for Bari, in southern Italy, on Saturday. Continue reading...

As UK prepares for environment push at G7 summit, letter asks richest to make climate charitable focusThe UK’s 100 richest families are being urged to commit £1bn over the next five years to tackle the climate emergency and halt the destruction of the natural world, as the world prepares for a big push on environmental issues at the G7 summit.Each of the 100 richest families in the UK, and the 100 biggest charitable foundations, will receive a letter on Saturday asking them to make the climate and biodiversity crises a focus of their philanthropic efforts, in order to stave off pending disasters that would imperil all their other charitable efforts. Continue reading...

Plaintiffs want court to order Mario Draghi’s government to adopt more ambitious climate policiesEnvironment campaigners in Italy are suing the government for failing to sufficiently tackle the climate crisis in what is the first legal action of its kind in the country.The 203 plaintiffs will submit their lawsuit to Rome’s civil court on Saturday. They want the court to order the government, led by the prime minister, Mario Draghi, to adopt more ambitious climate change policies as well as significantly increase its carbon emissions reduction target. Continue reading...

Big Basin state park, scorched last August in the CZU Complex fire, is showing signs of rebirth in its majestic redwood treesThere are spots inside Big Basin Redwoods state park that appear to be frozen in time.Roughly 10 months after the CZU Complex fire burned 97% of California’s oldest park, some trees still smoke and smolder. An open champagne bottle sits untouched atop a scorched picnic table alongside cooking utensils that are melted and singed together. Contents from a toppled cooler, left agape, have begun to blend into the forest duff. The skeletons of burnt cars and trucks are still parked in front of once-iconic headquarters, now reduced to rubble. Continue reading...

While cannabis remains taboo topic, economic crisis means Turkey is trialling hemp for industrial useA bespectacled, well-dressed Islamist recently expelled from the Turkish Journalists’ Association for comparing campaigners against domestic violence to prostitutes is perhaps not the most likely candidate for ardent cannabis advocate.But Abdurrahman Dilipak, 72, is one of Turkey’s loudest voices in favour of legalisation as attitudes change and the country begins to experiment with reintroducing the once widespread crop. Continue reading...

The mucilage blamed on pollution and warming is killing shellfish in the Sea of Marmara and alarming residents of IstanbulA thick, brown, bubbly foam dubbed “sea snot” has covered the shores of the Sea of Marmara, alarming residents in Istanbul and threatening marine life.The naturally occurring mucilage was first documented in Turkey in 2007, when it was also seen in parts of the Aegean near Greece. Continue reading...

Departure marks one of the largest-scale abandonments of eggs ever at coastal site north of San DiegoAbout 3,000 elegant tern eggs were abandoned at a southern California nesting island after a drone crashed and scared off the birds, a newspaper reported Friday.Two drones were flown illegally over the Bolsa Chica ecological reserve in Huntington Beach in May and one of them went down in the wetlands, the Orange County Register said. Continue reading...

A conservation effort is planting a poisonous flower along the state’s central coast in hopes of lifting butterfly populationIn one of the biggest mobilizations of resources and talent ever organized to save an insect, the state of California is teaming with conservation groups, biologists and scores of citizen scientists to rescue the western monarch butterfly from the brink of extinction.To do this, they are placing their hopes on an unassuming, poisonous plant called milkweed. Continue reading...

Fishing communities fear for future as oil, plastic and toxic chemicals devastate ecosystem

The $2,9bn Line 3 pipeline has brought thousands of workers to Minnesota – and one crisis center has received more than 40 reports of harassment and abuseOn 15 May, a woman met a pipeline worker at a bar in Minnesota and agreed to go to his house, but when they arrived, there were four other people there and she felt uncomfortable.“She wanted to leave, she tried to leave,” said Amy Johnson, executive director of the Violence Intervention Project (VIP) in Thief River Falls, who spoke to the woman on the phone. “It was very scary with those other men there. She said he had her in the bedroom and she couldn’t leave.” The woman finally got out of the house. Continue reading...

Ending the destruction of nature to stop outbreaks at source is more effective and cheaper than responding to them, scientists say

Soils provide 95% of all food but are damaged by industrial, farming, mining and urban pollutionThe world’s soils, which provide 95% of humanity’s food, are “under great pressure”, according to a UN report on soil pollution.Soils are also the largest active store of carbon, after the oceans, and therefore crucial in fighting the climate crisis. But the report said industrial pollution, mining, farming and poor waste management are poisoning soils, with the “polluter pays” principle absent in many countries. Continue reading...

Animal rescue worker shocked by piles of dead galahs in Parkes cemetery says ‘I felt broken’

Tiny hedge fund Engine No 1 says a strong climate strategy simply makes good business senseThe activist hedge fund behind ExxonMobil’s boardroom coup last week has claimed another seat from the oil giant’s board, to take the number of new directors who will push for climate action from within the company to three.The result of last week’s shareholder vote has installed the hedge fund, named Engine No 1 after a San Francisco fire station, as a reluctant hero of the climate movement. Continue reading...

Conservationists lobby World Heritage Committee to demand Australia reduce emissions or risk reef being placed on ‘in danger’ listMembers of the United Nations World Heritage Committee are being lobbied to pressure Australia to commit to more ambitious climate action as part of its plan to slow the decline of the Great Barrier Reef ahead of a key July meeting.Conservationists have lobbied representatives of 13 of the 21 countries that make up the committee, saying the threat of placing the reef on an “in danger” list should be used to lever more domestic action on greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading...

More than 600 residents have complained of ‘rotten egg’ stench from the Eastern Creek Bingo Industries plant which EPA says is under investigationA pervasive stench, likened to the smell of rotten eggs, is gripping suburbs across western Sydney, as local politicians call for the closure of a local recycling plant.More than 600 complaints have been made to the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) from residents in Minchinbury, Mount Druitt, St Clair, Erskine Park, Horsley Park and Eastern Creek about the smell. Continue reading...

Company places order for 15 Boom Overture jets capable of travelling twice as fast as modern airliners

Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet shows the toll the demise of the Earth’s natural places is having on the people who study themOne of Australia’s leading coral reef scientists is seen breaking down in tears at the decline of the Great Barrier Reef during a new Sir David Attenborough documentary to be released globally on Friday evening.Prof Terry Hughes is recounting three coral bleaching monitoring missions in 2016, 2017 and 2020 when he says: “It’s a job I hoped I would never have to do because it’s actually very confronting …” before tears cut him short. Continue reading...

State environment minister Meaghan Scanlon wants the commonwealth to introduce strong national standards before she takes on approval powersQueensland says it will resist a Morrison government push for states to take on greater responsibility for environmental decision-making unless it backs stronger national standards to protect wildlife.The federal Coalition is attempting to change national environment laws to allow it to sign bilateral deals with the states and territories to give them “single touch” environment approval powers for significant developments. Continue reading...

A right whale born today is expected to reach a total length about a meter shorter than one born 40 years ago, study findsWhales in the North Atlantic are shrinking in size, researchers have found, with entanglements in fishing gear blamed for the steady decline in the length of the animals over recent generations.On average, a right whale born today is expected to reach a total length about a meter shorter than one born 40 years ago, according to the new study. This is an average decline in length of about 7% during this period. Continue reading...

Navy tugboats and helicopters monitor wreckage as green film surrounds chemical-laden vesselSri Lankan officials have begun preparing for a potentially devastating oil spill after a cargo ship carrying toxic chemicals caught fire off the coast and sank.The MV X-Press Pearl had been carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide and other dangerous substances when a blaze broke out on 20 May while it was docked nine miles (14km) from the port in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. Continue reading...

Four-metre vessels will carry out tasks such as collecting rubbish and transporting passengersAmsterdam is to trial self-driving electric boats to carry out tasks such as collecting rubbish and transporting passengers.The Dutch capital’s 60 miles of canals have been used for transport since long before cars and trucks powered by polluting internal combustion engines began clogging its narrow roads. Now a project called the Roboat aims to develop new ways of navigating the world’s waterways without a human hand at the wheel. Continue reading...

Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a $3.4bn deal to restore the freshwater preserve and Biden has earmarked funds to helpFor years environmental groups warned the Florida Everglades, a vast 1.5m-acre (607,000-hectare) subtropical preserve, may be doomed to extinction. Agricultural pollution, saltwater intrusion and rampant real estate development had turned the waterways toxic and the state’s environmental landmark was left to slowly choke to death. Perhaps until now.A sweeping Everglades restoration effort decades in the making is finally seeing renewed optimism thanks to a cast of unlikely champions: Florida state Republicans. In April, Ron DeSantis, the governor, signed an agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers to build a massive $3.4bn reservoir west of Palm Beach, which would help restore the flow of freshwater to the Everglades. Other state-funded projects to revitalize the region’s delicate ecosystem are already months ahead of schedule, DeSantis said. Continue reading...

The ‘decade on ecosystem restoration’ launches with a call for ‘imagination’ and action on never-before-seen scaleThe world must rewild and restore an area the size of China to meet commitments on nature and the climate, says the UN, and the revival of ecosystems must be met with all the ambition of the space race.Existing conservation efforts are insufficient to prevent widespread biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, the global body has warned at the launch of the decade on ecosystem restoration, an urgent call for the large-scale revival of nature in farmlands, forests and other ecosystems. Continue reading...

Third director nomination secured by Engine No 1 amid growing pressure over fossil fuelsExxonMobil expects to lose a third board seat to an activist hedge fund, Engine No 1, adding to the pressure on one of the world’s largest oil companies to introduce a more effective climate transition plan.The Texas-based producer announced late on Wednesday that lawyers counting shareholder votes had found a third director nomination was secured by Engine No 1, which argued Exxon had not done enough to prepare for the global shift from fossil fuels. Continue reading...

US and UK are only G7 nations proposing to increase climate finance despite failure to meet $100bn-a-year aid pledgeRich countries are falling behind on their pledges to help the poor world tackle the climate crisis, new research has shown, on the eve of a meeting of the finance ministers of the G7 industrialised economies.The UK and the US are the only two G7 countries to have set out proposals to increase climate finance in recent months, according to a report by Care Denmark, a member of the international NGO network. Climate finance is used by poor countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, for instance through investment in clean energy generation, and to adapt to the impacts of extreme weather such as floods and droughts. Continue reading...

Judicial review to consider claim by campaigners that conservation agency is in breach of habitat rulesWildlife campaigners are suing Scotland’s nature conservation agency for allowing farmers to kill wild beavers, arguing that it is in breach of its duties to protect vulnerable species.Trees for Life, a charity that campaigns for rewilding, has accused NatureScot of failing to protect beavers and insists the animals should be humanely trapped and relocated to other parts of the country rather than shot. Continue reading...

Draft report by National Park Service scientists finds 2020 Castle fire decimated California’s population of ancient treesA huge fire in California last year may have destroyed up to a tenth of the world’s mature giant sequoia population, according to a draft report produced by scientists working for the National Park Service.From August to December 2020, the Castle fire tore through Sequoia national park, burning through thousands of the ancient redwoods, the world’s largest tree. By the time the blaze was contained, it had consumed 175,000 acres of parkland. NPS scientists now estimate that between 7,500 and 10,000 mature giant sequoias went up in flames. Continue reading...

There’s a scene more dull than watching paint dry ... and yet somehow, this BBC documentary on a new nuclear reactor is a staggering, bravura-filled featThis programme was so boring. How boring? Let’s put it this way. It dealt with a 130-metre-long boring machine that is boring three boreholes under the Bristol Channel’s Jurassic bedrock. It’s a machine even more boring than the one boring through the Chilterns to make the rail journey to or from Birmingham less boring. As if that were possible. The machine is so boring it doesn’t have a name, though if there were a public vote it would be called Borey McBoreface.First, we saw the boring machine arriving by barge then loaded on to trucks and driven under police escort through Somerset lanes. This sequence was so devoid of incident it resembled that four-hour BBC film of a sleigh ride across the tundra in real time. At least the tundra film had huskies. Director Mat Stimpson only had an answer to the question “Where did all the interchangeable male engineers in hi-vis gilets and hard hats go?” Actually that’s not fair: there was a female engineer, whom we saw checking that the ambient temperature didn’t rise too fast to make concrete set too quickly. Which wasn’t boring at all. Continue reading...

Commitments to a greener and healthier environment would have been a reasonable price to askWhen the government reacted to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 with unprecedented rescue funds, ministers were urged to attach strings before the money disappeared out the door.The strings would have forced employers to adopt policies they had resisted for years, most obviously cutting carbon emissions and promoting a healthier environment. Continue reading...

Administration is pledging to route 40% of the benefits of climate and environment spending to disadvantaged communities, but getting it right will be difficultIndigenous farmers in the Isleta Pueblo, south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, have long relied on crops of corn and green chiles fed by the Rio Grande river, but amid a water crisis in the western US they are facing warnings to skip planting crops entirely –which could be devastating for the community’s 2,500 residents.But a new national program could help those farmers and other disadvantaged communities. Introduced earlier this year by Joe Biden, the “Justice40” plan would steer 40% of the benefits of federal environmental investments to people most in need. Continue reading...

Falling oxygen levels harming already struggling wildlife and drinking water supplies, say scientistsThe climate crisis is causing a widespread fall in oxygen levels in lakes across the world, suffocating wildlife and threatening drinking water supplies.Falling levels of oxygen in oceans had already been identified, but new research shows that the decline in lakes has been between three and nine times faster in the past 40 years. Scientists found oxygen levels had fallen by 19% in deep waters and 5% at the surface. Continue reading...

Interior department order follows a temporary moratorium on oil and gas lease activities imposed by president on first day in officeThe Biden administration has reversed plans approved by Donald Trump to allow companies to drill for oil and gas in Alaska’s Arctic national wildlife refuge, a remote region that is home to polar bears, caribou – and 11bn barrels of oil.The decision to suspend the oil drilling licences follows the temporary moratorium on oil and gas lease activities imposed by Joe Biden on his first day in the White House, and serves as a high-profile show of his climate credentials after approving hundreds of requests to drill on federal lands in recent weeks. Continue reading...

Government suspends fishing along 50-mile coastline after explosion and fireA cargo ship carrying tonnes of chemicals has sunk off Sri Lanka’s west coast, and tonnes of plastic pellets have fouled the country’s rich fishing waters in one of its worst marine disasters.The government on Wednesday suspended fishing along a 50-mile stretch of the island’s coastline, affecting 5,600 fishing boats, and hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to clean affected beaches. Continue reading...

Tulip-shaped ‘eco-art’ turbines address common complaints about noise, danger to wildlife and uglinessTulips and flowers could help harness the power of the wind, after a green energy company came up with its own spin on wind power in an “eco-art” design.Flower Turbines, based in the US and the Netherlands, has installations across Rotterdam, Amsterdam, parts of Germany, Israel and Colombia. The company aims to democratise green energy for everyone and make small windfarms a leading player in the green energy industry. Continue reading...

Vessels primarily from China switch off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in possible illegal fishingGiant distant-water fishing fleets, primarily from China, are switching off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in a possibly illegal hunt for squid and other lucrative species on the very edge of Argentina’s extensive fishing grounds, according to a new study by Oceana, an international NGO dedicated to ocean conservation.Related: Cat and mouse on the high seas: on the trail of China's vast squid fleet Continue reading...

The London election proves that measures to make streets safer are a vote-winner, says a former Labour leader of Ealing council

Parties that back schemes to improve air quality and boost active travel outperformed critics in mayoral election

Behind the scenes at the construction of Hinkley Point C. Plus, The Great British Sewing Bee reaches the quarter-finals. Here’s what to watch this eveningWith an estimated construction cost of between £21.5bn and £22.5bn, the nuclear power plant in question – Hinkley Point C – was one of eight announced by the government in 2010, but the only one on which work has since commenced, meaning it will become the first nuclear power station to have been built in the UK in more than 20 years. This series goes behind the scenes of the project, as workers struggle to keep to their deadlines while digging the reactor’s foundations. Ammar Kalia Continue reading...

Albanese will use speech to Minerals Council of Australia to reassure mining companies as well as warn that the Coalition are risking jobs by opposing renewablesAnthony Albanese will accuse the Morrison government of putting Australian jobs and exports at risk by its opposition to renewable energy and its bellicose rhetoric on China.The Labor leader will use a speech to the Minerals Council of Australia to reassure mining companies that the opposition supports the continuing export of fossil fuels. Continue reading...

New data comes amid warning that world’s growing awareness of coal exports’ impact risks further damaging Australia’s reputation on climateEmissions from coal mined in Australia but exported and burnt overseas were almost double the nation’s domestic greenhouse gas footprint in 2020, according to new data.Australia and Indonesia were the biggest exporters of coal for making steel and burning in power stations, together accounting for 59% of the world’s seaborne coal market. Continue reading...

Climate crisis makes mammoth task of recording all of Australia’s species over the next 25 years critical, academy saysAustralia needs to embark on an urgent mission to formally document more than half a million undiscovered plants and animals before they are lost to science and the planet.The Australian Academy of Science says some $824m will be needed over the next 25 years to complete a mammoth task becoming more urgent as the climate crisis puts more species at risk of extinction. Continue reading...

Projects to be developed across 12 states by Lightsource BP will be capable of powering 1.7m homesBP has bought a pipeline of US solar farms, capable of powering more than 1.7m homes, for more than $220m (£155m) as part of its plan to distance itself from the fossil fuel industry.The oil company has agreed to snap up a string of development projects, totalling 9GW, from the independent US solar developer 7X Energy in a “significant step” towards its goal of securing 20GW by 2025. Continue reading...