Environment | The Guardian

We want to hear how you’ve been helping the animals and insects in your gardenGardens are important habitats for a range of species including small mammals, songbirds and insects. Although it might seem a small contribution, gardening in a wildlife-friendly way can make a massive difference in counteracting biodiversity loss. In the UK, for example, gardens take up more space than all nature reserves combined.We want to see photos of what you’ve been doing to help. Perhaps you’ve built a bug hotel? Or made holes in the fence so hedgehogs can get through? Or conjured up a designer bird box? Continue reading...

Oil giant accused of gaslighting after asking users: ‘What are you willing to change?’A climate poll on Twitter posted by Shell has backfired spectacularly, with the oil company accused of gaslighting the public.The survey, posted on Tuesday morning, asked: “What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?” Continue reading...

Expectation creature will settle in country comes after sheep attacks just 40 miles away in GermanyAfter more than a century, Belgium recently witnessed the return of the wolf and the lynx due to a mix of nature and nurture reasons. Now, to the trepidation of local farmers, an entirely alien species to the country is on the verge of making an entrance: the jackal.The expectation that the wolf-like canine will be seen for the first time follows the discovery of attacks on sheep in Kranenburg, a German municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia, just 40 miles from the Belgian border. Continue reading...

The initiative had been part of the government’s aim to achieve a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030The Danish government has reversed its ban on state canteens serving meat for two days every week after a backlash from employees.

A rich range of native crops and seeds is being nurtured in an effort to halt the country’s rapidly vanishing food diversityA small army of botanical heritage enthusiasts is spearheading a movement in India for the revival and preservation of the country’s rapidly vanishing food biodiversity by bringing back the rich crop varieties that thrived in the past, but are now on the verge of extinction.Babita Bhatt, a 43-year-old former software professional, is just one of these crusaders, who are eschewing established careers and fat pay packets to become farmers, activists and entrepreneurs. Continue reading...

Organisers of global climate summit tell Australian PM ‘there will be no space for general statements’Britain and France are leading a group of countries calling on the Australian government to make ambitious new commitments to combat the climate crisis by next month if Scott Morrison is to speak at a global summit on the issue.A letter sent to Morrison and other national leaders on 22 October called on countries to rebuild economies after the coronavirus “in a way that charts a greener, more resilient, sustainable path” that puts the world on track to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Continue reading...

Study finds more than 1.1m people live without indoor plumbing, with largest number of homes in New York and Los AngelesPeople of color in some of America’s wealthiest cities are significantly more likely to live in houses without indoor plumbing essential for running water, new research reveals. Continue reading...

Competition and Markets Authority says rising demand may lead to ‘greenwashing’Companies that market their products or services as eco-friendly are to be scrutinised by the UK competition watchdog to make sure they live up to the claim and do not mislead consumers.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was concerned that a rise in demand for green goods could encourage some businesses to make misleading claims about the environmental impact of what they are selling. Continue reading...

Navy joins forces with rescuers and volunteers in effort to push pilot whales back into oceanRescuers and volunteers were racing to save about 100 pilot whales stranded on Sri Lanka’s western coast in the country’s biggest mass beaching.The short-finned pilot whales began beaching at Panadura, 15 miles (25km) south of Colombo, shortly before dusk. Within an hour their numbers swelled to about 100, a local police chief, Sanjaya Irasinghe, said. Continue reading...

Cloud measured 1,000km across, travelled 66,000km and was on par with ‘strongest volcanic eruptions in the past 25 years’, scientists saySmoke cloud pushed into the stratosphere by last summer’s bushfire crisis was three times larger than anything previously recorded globally, according to research by international scientists.Researchers from Canada’s University of Saskatchewan used Nasa satellite information to measure smoke in the upper atmosphere in the aftermath of pyrocumulonimbus storms (PyroCBs), which are fire-generated thunderstorms. Continue reading...

A sense of despair and outrage among young people over global heating is being met with indifference and dismissal among some older relativesThe climate crisis lingers in the back of Gemma Gutierrez’s mind, a gnawing anxiety that blossoms fully when she reads about wildfires, flooding or other climate-related disasters. It’s a nagging concern that clouds how the 16-year-old sees her future.“I have a sense of dread,” says Gutierrez, who lives with her parents in Milwaukee. “I dread that in my lifetime the clean water I have now or the parks I’m lucky enough to be able to go to won’t be there any more. It weighs on my mind.” Continue reading...

Legal settlement recognising risk that climate change poses to economy and society has ‘far-reaching’ implicationsA $57bn Australian superannuation fund has settled a court case with a 25-year-old member who accused it of failing to act in his best interests by not properly considering the risks the climate crisis poses to investments.The settlement between the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust and Mark McVeigh, reached as a trial was due to start on Monday, requires the fund to ensure its actions are consistent with “net zero carbon footprint” by 2050. Continue reading...

As temperatures rise, farmers are being forced to adapt, experimenting with new breeds and cooling methods

What started 15 years ago as a modest promotion to draw attention to native birds, many of which are endangered, has become a phenomenonNormally on a post test-match Monday in New Zealand, the talk is all about the national rugby team’s latest performance. But this week, while the All Blacks’ destruction of the Wallabies was on everyones’ lips, there was another topic of conversation: birds.Voting began on Monday in the hotly contested and brutal election of New Zealand’s Bird Of The Year. Continue reading...

Under container deposit scheme, Victorians will receive 10c for every empty can, small bottle and carton they drop off at a collection pointThe Victorian government has called for public comment on a proposed container deposit scheme, due to be rolled out in 2023, finally ending its status as the only state or territory in Australia without one.Under the proposal put forward by the state government, Victorians will receive 10c for every empty can, small bottle and carton they drop off at a collection point. Continue reading...

If policies promoting net zero emissions by 2050 are adopted 250,000 jobs would be created and $680bn added to the economyAustralia’s economy will be 6% smaller, there will be 880,000 fewer jobs and $3.4tn in economic opportunities will be lost if the climate crisis goes unchecked for the next 50 years, a report says.On the other hand, the analysis by consultancy Deloitte Access Economics found policies consistent with a target of net zero emissions by 2050 and keeping global warming to 1.5C could expand the economy by 2.6%, or $680bn to the economy, and create 250,000 jobs. Continue reading...

Energy minister says Moscow will also focus on clean-burning hydrogen and carbon captureRussia has no plans to rein in its production of fossil fuels in the coming decades despite the global efforts to shift towards low-carbon energy, according to its energy minister.Alexander Novak told the Guardian that Russia did “not see that we will achieve a peak in [gas] production anytime soon” because the world’s appetite for gas would continue to grow in the decades ahead despite its growing number of climate targets. Continue reading...

Germany’s RWE says outdated regulation is slowing investment in onshore electricity gridBritain’s bid to build enough offshore windfarms to power every home in the country by 2030 risks being derailed by outdated regulation which is slowing investment in the electricity grid, according to one of the industry’s biggest players.Germany’s RWE has warned that work to connect the growing number of windfarms off the UK coast to the onshore electricity grid will not keep pace with the government’s goals unless decades-old regulation allows for faster investments. Continue reading...

With demand and share prices dropping, Europe’s fossil fuel producers recognise that peak oil is probably now behind themA year ago, only the most ardent climate optimists believed that the world’s appetite for oil might reach its peak in the next decade. Today, a growing number of voices within the fossil fuel industry believe this milestone may have already been passed. While the global gaze has been on Covid-19 as it ripped through the world’s largest economies and most vulnerable people, the virus has quietly dealt a mortal blow to oil demand too.Energy economists claim with increasing certainty that the world may never require as much oil as it did last year. Even as economies slowly emerge from the financial fallout of the pandemic, the shift towards cleaner energy has gained pace. A sharp plunge in fossil fuel use will be followed in quick succession by a renewable energy revolution, which will occur at unprecedented pace. The tipping point for oil demand may have come and gone, and major oil companies are taking note. Continue reading...

Maricopa county is home to America’s hottest city, where deaths from the heat are weighing on voters’ mindsEven now, Ivan Moore can’t think why his father didn’t didn’t tell anyone that the air conditioning in their house was busted. “I honestly don’t know what was going through his mind,” he said. Continue reading...

Sales of medicinal plants such as echinacea have risen by almost 3,000% at some outlets

Samuel Gilbert visited four distinct wilderness areas near the new border wall, which is fragmenting protected habitats and threatening endangered speciesIn the 1980s, when Kevin Dahl first began visiting the Organ Pipe Cactus national monument in southern Arizona, the border was unmarked, save for a simple fence used to keep cattle from a ranch in the US from crossing into Mexico. In those days, park rangers would call in their lunch orders at a diner located just across the border.Since then, a 30ft steel bollard wall has replaced the old barbed wire fence at Organ Pipe. The towering steel barrier cuts through the Unesco reserve like a rust-colored suture. Continue reading...

Described as ‘gorgeous’ by the man who found it, the great fox-spider has not been seen since 1993One of Britain’s largest spiders has been discovered on a Ministry of Defence training ground in Surrey having not been seen in the country for 27 years.The great fox-spider is a night-time hunter, known for its speed and agility, as well as its eight black eyes which give it wraparound vision. The critically endangered spider was assumed extinct in Britain after last being spotted in 1993 on Hankley Common in Surrey. The two-inch-wide (5cm) arachnid had previously also been spotted at two sites in Morden Heath in Dorset. These are the only three areas in Britain, all in the comparatively warmer south, where it has been recorded. Continue reading...

Chris Looney helped dismantle the first nest of Asian giant hornets in the US. Now he’s preparing for the next stepThe eradication of the first nest of Asian giant hornets on US soil somewhat resembled a science fiction depiction of an alien landing site. A crew of government specialists in white, astronaut-like protective suits descended upon the hornet nexus to vanquish it with a futuristic-looking vacuum cleaner, to the relief of onlookers.The nest of the fearsome invasive insects, notoriously known as “murder hornets”, was found in a tree crevice near Blaine, in Washington state, via a tracking device attached to a previously captured worker hornet. The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) confirmed the nest had been successfully removed, with dozens of live captives taken back for inspection. Continue reading...

Campaigners urge more walking and cycling schemes despite opposition from ‘vocal minority’Many Britons will have to get used to driving less if the country is to avoid gridlock on the roads once coronavirus restrictions ease, and councils must provide better routes for cycling and walking, transport experts say.Government statistics show motor traffic is almost back at pre-lockdown levels, and only 59% of employees have returned to their workplaces. One study predicts that with health concerns reducing the use of public transport, up to 2.7 million more people could end up using cars for commuting trips alone. Continue reading...

The state has added 207,000 hectares to its national parks estate since announcing the target last yearThe New South Wales government will double its goal to expand the state’s national parks after reaching its 200,000 hectare target nearly a year early.The state’s environment minister, Matt Kean, gazetted 202,669 hectares of additional national park land on Friday, including 153,682 hectares for the new Narriearra Caryapundy Swamp national park in the state’s far north-west. Continue reading...

US population may also be third-largest producer of marine plastic pollutionThe US and UK produce more plastic waste per person than any other major countries, according to new research.The analysis also shows the US produces the most plastic waste in total and that its citizens may rank as high as third in the world in contributing to plastic pollution in the oceans. Previous work had suggested Asian countries dominated marine plastic pollution and placed the US in 20th place, but this did not account for US waste exports or illegal dumping within the country. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including an ant tug of war and red macaws’ return Continue reading...

Announcement follows record quarterly loss of $680m, its third quarterly deficit in a rowExxonMobil has warned it may write down the value of its US shale assets by up to $30bn (£23.2bn) following a steep drop in global energy prices that has led to the oil giant’s third consecutive quarterly loss.The US oil and gas producer told investors it plans to reassess its North America gas business over the coming months, which could lead to impairment charges as high as $25bn to $30bn if it changes its long-term strategy. Continue reading...

Shooting interests in England will need licence to release non-native birds near nature reservesPheasants and partridges are to be classified alongside Japanese knotweed and grey squirrels as species that imperil native wildlife, the government has announced. People with shooting interests in England will have to apply for a licence to release the non-native birds near nature reserves.The surprise announcement came after a legal challenge by the campaign group Wild Justice, which successfully argued that European protections obliged the authorities to regulate about 60 million non-native pheasants and partridges let loose into the countryside to be shot each year. Continue reading...

Scientists find several living specimens of Voeltzkow’s chameleon during expedition

Device makes it inexpensive to monitor sites previously too hazardous or difficult for volunteers to enter after darkThe secret lives of the UK’s rarest bats could be revealed thanks to a new sensor that can record ultrasonic calls in dense woodland areas that have previously been difficult to reach.For decades, acoustic monitoring has been done by bat detectors carried by experts reluctant to stray into woodland thickets during night-time walks. Now a new £60 sensor that can be left in woodlands for up to a fortnight, called AudioMoth, is giving researchers a richer insight into the lives of these elusive mammals after a successful pilot study. Continue reading...

Guardian readers look back to simpler times in lockdown when they escaped to local hidden gemsAs many UK cities become subject to strict lockdown measures, because of rising cases of coronavirus, Guardian readers tell us about their favourite urban open spaces that have helped lift spirits during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Two major fires are consuming the forests in the Rocky mountains, killing at least two people and causing an estimated $195m in damagesBy 23 October, a blustery Friday toward the end of a depressingly short autumn, the two largest wildfires in Colorado’s recent history were descending on Rocky Mountain national park, reaching toward each other with a mere 10 miles of bone-dry forest between them.The Cameron Peak fire had arrived from the north and had already scorched through wilderness for 71 days. The East Troublesome fire was approaching from the west, sending flames over the Continental Divide and forcing the evacuation of the nearby town of Estes Park. Continue reading...

Sheep grazing has dominated the Howgill Fells for over a century, but with shifting agricultural subsidies and urgent calls to address biodiversity loss, change is comingFor William Wordsworth the Howgill Fells was a romantic landscape, for rewilders they could be home to wolves, and for farmer John Pratt, these hills are home. “I was hoping this day would never come. I shan’t say it will break my heart, but it will,” says Pratt, who is selling his sheep and retiring after 55 years of uplands farming. “I’ve had a flock of sheep since I was 14, so I’m ready for a break,” he adds.The 69-year-old tenant farmer works seven days a week and takes six days of holiday a year. Since 1966 he has been renting Kilnmire Farm (with no heating in the house) on the edge of Ravenstonedale village in Cumbria with his wife, Hazel. He doesn’t drink alcohol (he’s Methodist) and doesn’t have a mobile phone because he “wouldn’t know how to use it”. He tried an olive for the first time in 2017. It’s a lifestyle none of his three children is willing to take on. Continue reading...

Former fire chiefs call for ‘no new coal or gas’ after royal commission found climate change fuelled the black summer bushfiresAustralia’s summer bushfires were fuelled by climate change and governments must respond to the royal commission into the disaster with tougher policies to reduce emissions, including “no new coal or gas”, former fire chiefs have said.Craig Lapsley, a former Victorian emergency management commissioner, said the $10bn cost of the bushfire disaster laid out in the report was “staggering”. Continue reading...

Trump has brought public health and environment rollbacks at an EPA already in trouble – and staffers worry it isn’t equipped to keep Americans safeDonald Trump’s environment agency “actually seems to have a war on the environment”, has been “utterly untenable”, and has brought about “deeply, deeply troubling times”, according to three administrators appointed under past presidents.Reflecting on Trump’s dozens of attacks on core environmental protections, a fourth put it another way: “[I’m] really god damned pissed off – and that’s being kind.” Continue reading...

Gas discovery at centre of Turkey-Greece dispute will ‘make world even less safe’The giant gas reserves at the heart of a bitter political standoff between Greece and Turkey could lead to the same carbon emissions as the whole of France and Spain combined every year, according to a report that has called for the proposed gas pipeline project to be scrapped.The gas discovery has inflamed regional tensions in the eastern Mediterranean as Greece and Turkey vie for control of new fossil fuel reserves in disputed waters and, according to Global Witness, the climate cost will outweigh its value in Europe’s carbon neutral future. Continue reading...

UK millionaire Dale Vince says lab-grown gems will be ‘world’s first zero-impact’ diamondsA British multi-millionaire and environmentalist has set out plans to create thousands of carats of carbon-negative, laboratory-grown diamonds every year “made entirely from the sky”.Dale Vince, the founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity, claims to have developed the world’s only diamonds to be made from carbon, water and energy sourced directly from the elements at a “sky mining facility” in Stroud. Continue reading...

Conservationists warn move comes too early for species occupying a tiny slice of its former habitatThe Trump administration has removed endangered species protections from the gray wolf, a species once persecuted to near-extinction in the US, in a move that has been condemned as premature by conservationists.The wolves have been provided federal protection for more than 45 years but this is no longer needed according to David Bernhardt, the US interior secretary, who announced the decision in Minnesota on Thursday. Continue reading...

Climate crisis exacerbates extreme weather during natural events, say expertsLa Niña climate event is under way, heralding a colder and stormier winter than usual across the northern hemisphere, but 2020 remains likely to be one of the warmest years on record.The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has declared La Niña event – a cooling of surface ocean water along the Pacific coast of the South American tropics – to help governments and humanitarian agencies plan for extreme weather events around the world. Continue reading...

Work on highway in western Victoria stopped for three weeks following supreme court action by local activistsThe Victorian government has been ordered to stop work for three weeks on a highway duplication in the state’s west that local Indigenous leaders say threatens culturally significant trees.Transport authorities on Thursday offered to halt major works on Djab Wurrung cultural sites as a legal battle over the highway duplication on sacred land escalated. Continue reading...

NSW environment minister says he does not support his federal counterpart, even though his government recommended environmental approval for quarry expansionThe New South Wales environment minister, Matt Kean, has said he is disappointed by the decision of his federal counterpart, Sussan Ley, to approve the expansion of a rock quarry in koala habitat in Port Stephens, despite the state government previously recommending environmental approval for the project.The Brandy Hill quarry expansion will clear 52 hectares of koala habitat after it was approved this week by Ley, despite a high-profile grassroots campaign. Continue reading...

Places hollowed out by deindustrialisation could be at the forefront of an environmental revolutionHere are two news stories which may not seem linked, and yet they are. The first: a letter written this week to the prime minister by the newly formed Northern Research Group. Representing 50 Conservative MPs in northern seats – including those wrested from Labour control after generations – they rightly point to how the pandemic “has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our own communities”, and express fear that the cost of the crisis “could be paid by the downgrading of the levelling-up agenda, and northern constituencies like ours will be left behind”.Related: Investors and graduates flock to UK's burgeoning windfarms Continue reading...

Bank says it will stop lending to its largest customers unless businesses have carbon transition plansA climate change commitment from ANZ to halt lending to its largest customers unless the businesses can prove carbon transition plans by next year has been cautiously welcomed by conservationists, but enraged senior Nationals MPs.ANZ’s new emissions policies, outlined in a climate change statement at its full year results presentation on Thursday morning, aim to support efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – but not net zero gas or oil by 2050 – with significant steps to be taken by the 2021 financial year to shape the bank’s operations until 2030. Continue reading...

Australia’s foreign minister says ‘it’s a matter for those countries’ after being questioned on the matter five times by Penny WongThe foreign affairs minister Marise Payne says Australia “acknowledges” decisions by Japan and South Korea to adopt net zero targets for 2050, but she has declined to welcome that development, despite Australia’s status as a signatory to the Paris agreement.This week Japan pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, as did South Korea. China last month pledged to reach carbon neutrality by no later than 2060. Continue reading...

Administration to permit logging in the world’s largest intact temperate rainforestThe Trump administration has announced it will lift protections in Alaska’s Tongass national forest, permitting logging in the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest. Continue reading...

Environmental campaigners raise concerns over sustainability of some eco-friendly itemsDisposable nappies, cotton buds , pet food and novelty Donald Trump toilet paper were among the products on sale on Amazon’s new eco-friendly section of its website, prompting concerns about the sustainability of some of the products on offer.The world’s biggest online retailer launched the new section of the website on Tuesday in the UK and Europe with more than 40,000 items on the new platform chosen for their sustainability credentials. Continue reading...

St Augustine, Florida, was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers. Flooding has been a threat for centuries and is worsening with rising tidesThe holiday season in St Augustine, Florida, is approaching, and residents are looking ahead to the annual Nights of Lights festival – a months-long tradition that sees millions of white lights strung along every corner of the city’s historic downtown.But an old enemy is rearing its head: the sea. Increasingly, residents have to wear rain boots just to get to their cars and plan their commutes to avoid roads that are flooded with salty sea water. Continue reading...