Environment | The Guardian

Stripped of tourism money, keepers in India and Thailand are struggling to keep their elephants alive

The Wildlife Trusts and Sir David Attenborough call on public to help protect marine lifeSir David Attenborough has called for a halt to activities that damage the UK’s seas, as the Wildlife Trusts revealed the highs and lows of marine life around the British Isles during 2020.Highlights included thousands of Atlantic bluefin tuna in a rare run up the Channel from Cornwall to Kent, at some points accompanied by porpoises, minke whale and dolphins in a feeding frenzy, the trusts’ living seas marine review reported. Continue reading...

Research show flood victims in UK nine times more likely to experience long-term mental health issuesWhen Julie Blackburn was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2016 she was told to avoid her triggers, scenarios which cause upsetting flashbacks. “But when your trigger is rain, there is no getting over it,” she said. “My husband and I don’t sleep when it’s raining, we take it in turns to stand at the window watching the rain – it’s just living in constant fear.”Blackburn’s house in Old Coulsdon, Croydon, has been flooded several times, first in 2000 when heavy rain overwhelmed the Victorian sewer system and filled her home with toxic waste. Rapid development and poor infrastructure led the south London borough to be rated the fourth worst area in England and Wales for surface water flooding in 2011. Continue reading...

Ecotourism revenues plummeted around the world as some areas saw poaching and land grabs increase in 2020

More than half of users will walk or cycle instead of taking buses and trains, Co-op survey finds

‘You might get one chance in a decade,’ says Ralf Petgen, who has adapted his Mosel vineyard owing to global heatingOn a recent frosty night, Ralf Petgen made use of the light of a full moon to check every hour on the state of his riesling grapes. The weather forecast over the two previous days had given the winemaker hope that for the first time in years he would fulfil his dream of harvesting his grapes in a frozen state and turn them into Eiswein.“The temperature needs to be -7C, no warmer than that,” he said. “And we hadn’t had it as low as that while the grapes were still in a healthy state, since 2012.” Continue reading...

Researchers report affected animals off the coasts of the US, South America and AustraliaDolphins are increasingly dying slow, painful deaths from skin lesions likened to severe burns as a result of exposure to fresh water, exacerbated by the climate crisis.Researchers in the US and Australia have defined for the first time an emerging “freshwater skin disease” reported in coastal dolphin populations in the US, South America and Australia. Continue reading...

Unclear if iceberg will hit small British territory but researchers more optimistic about threat to ecosystemA giant iceberg, heading for the island of South Georgia, is continuing to fracture into smaller pieces, meaning it poses less of a threat to the island’s wildlife and ecosystem.The Antarctic iceberg, which has been moving towards the island group, has fractured into four parts. Although it is still unclear if the iceberg will collide with the small British territory, researchers are more optimistic about the risk it poses to local wildlife. Continue reading...

Illegal goldminers supported by Bolsonaro bring environmental destruction and coronavirus to Yanomami communities

International convention to stop richer countries exporting contaminated material for recycling could mean a cleaner ocean in five years

On Boxing Day more than half of country’s daily electricity came from wind turbinesMore than half of Great Britain’s daily electricity came from wind turbines for the first time on Boxing Day, as the country headed for its “greenest year on record”, due in part to the coronavirus.As Storm Bella arrived, bringing gusts of up to 100mph, wind provided 50.7% of Great Britain’s electricity according to data charting the power generation mix. Continue reading...

Crisp packets, cup lids and wet wipes among the more mundane objects commonly encountered

Promising new studies suggest the long elusive technology may be capable of producing electricity for the grid by the end of the decadeIf all goes as planned, the US will eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions from its electricity sector by 2035 – an ambitious goal set by President-elect Joe Biden, relying in large part on a sharp increase in wind and solar energy generation. That plan may soon get a boost from nuclear fusion, a powerful technology that until recently had seemed far out of reach.Researchers developing a nuclear fusion reactor that can generate more energy than it consumes have shown in a series of recent papers that their design should work, restoring optimism that this clean, limitless power source will help mitigate the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Covid has made people see how the food system is dominated by large corporations, say campaignersSeeds need to be brought back into public ownership, rather than belonging to a small group of agrochemical companies, say campaigners, after a year in which seed-swapping and saving has reached new heights of popularity.From March onwards, when the pandemic hit the UK, seed producers and seed banks across the country were overwhelmed with demand. Organisations such as the Seed Cooperative, Vital Seeds and Irish Seed Savers saw a sharp surge in orders, 600% in some cases. Continue reading...

In their latest scan of emerging global biological conservation issues, experts assess the 15 most urgent risks society needs to addressIf it did nothing else, the emergence of Covid-19 a year ago underlined for all of us the importance of anticipating and preparing for – and, as appropriate, steering the course of – things that might happen in the future.That is, in a nutshell, the goal of the 2021 horizon scan of emerging global biological conservation issues recently published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution by the Cambridge University conservation biologist William Sutherland and a team of 24 other conservation practitioners and researchers from around the world. Continue reading...

Mounted City of London police receive a surprise order: to help trample in wildflower seeds at the Barbican

National Trust review has warned that the climate emergency is clearly leading to more erratic conditionsIt was a year of extremes as far as the weather was concerned: pounding rain, violent summer storms, some mild winter months and periods of searing sunshine.An annual audit of how this year’s weather has affected flora and fauna in the UK has concluded that it was, to say the least, a challenging 12 months. Continue reading...

The president-elect plans to reduce incentives for fracking, but has stopped short of a banThe result of the US election has cast a long shadow across the US shale heartlands. Joe Biden wants to make the climate crisis his top priority, sparking real hope for global efforts to avert an environmental catastrophe and real concern for shale operators.The president-elect’s climate plans include a return to the Paris climate agreement, $2tn (£1.5tn) of spending on clean energy, and an ambition to create a carbon-neutral US energy system by 2035 through “aggressive emission reductions”. Continue reading...

The 60-year-old congresswoman will be the first Native American cabinet secretary next month when she takes over at interiorDebra Haaland is making American history. Continue reading...

The crisis poses a deadly threat to some sectors and creates opportunities for others. We examine how they will fare in 2021Coronavirus has changed lives and industries across the UK, accelerating fundamental shifts in behaviour and consumption that were already on their way. Debates about home working, preserving local high streets and the ethics of air travel were bubbling away before coronavirus rampaged across the world, but the consequences of the worst pandemic in more than a century have either settled those arguments or boosted the momentum behind certain lifestyle changes. Here we look at how those debates have been changed – or resolved – by Covid-19. Continue reading...

Necropsy reveals 80% of the thousands of songbirds that died suddenly showed typical signs of emaciation

Authorities want to shield Europe’s only wild monkeys from threat of Covid-19

Researchers surprised by reappearance of species without aid of reintroduction schemeNative oysters have unexpectedly returned to the shores of Belfast Lough after more than 100 years, researchers have discovered – though scientists are still unsure how they got there.Ostrea edulis, the European flat oyster, is listed as threatened and/or declining by the Ospar conservation scheme and is the focus of numerous biodiversity projects around Europe. But now it has impressed scientists by establishing itself in Belfast Lough without the aid of a reintroduction programme. Continue reading...

Memories of Brazil’s dictatorship as plan threatens biodiverse home of three indigenous communitiesBrazilian activists have voiced alarm over their government’s plans to bulldoze a 94-mile highway through a biodiverse corner of the Amazon along the border with Peru that is home to at least three indigenous communities.The planned road is an extension of the BR-364, a 2,700-mile highway that links São Paulo with the Amazon state of Acre, and would connect the town of Cruzeiro do Sul with the Peruvian border town of Pucallpa. Continue reading...

Excitement as DNA barcoding technique leads to unmasking of new species tempered with fear that some are already at risk of extinction

Bright yellow stickers warn drivers burning of gasoline has ‘major consequences on human health and the environment’Cambridge, Massachusetts, has become the first US city to mandate the placing of stickers on fuel pumps to warn drivers of the resulting dangers posed by the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Forecast comes as emergency services prepare to evacuate 1,000 people from flooded holiday parkStorm Bella is due to hit parts of the UK on Boxing Day after dozens of homes and businesses were flooded following heavy rain.An amber national severe weather warning has been issued in parts of south Wales and across southern England, as the Met Office said conditions across the UK would turn increasingly unsettled through to 27 December, with strengthening winds and heavy rain moving in from the north.

Rescuers unable to shepherd whales back out to sea due to rough conditions and their sizeA pod of 10 sperm whales have died on the east Yorkshire coast in what is thought to be the biggest mass stranding of the cetacean in England since records began in 1913.A rescue operation was launched after the group of juvenile mammals was spotted in shallow water between Tunstall and Withernsea at around 8.30am on Christmas Eve. Continue reading...

Reptiles often become immobile in chilly weather and can plummet from trees though they are still aliveWith unexpectedly cold weather forecast and pandemic-related curfews in some places, Florida is about to have a Christmas unlike any other – and it may involve falling iguanas.Related: 'I took a trip to the North Pole': Anthony Fauci tells children he vaccinated Santa Continue reading...

From digging ponds to planting pollinators, Guardian readers have been bringing out the best in nature

Canadian government’s speed restrictions are not enough to prevent deaths of endangered animals, researchers sayFor North Atlantic right whales, collisions with large cargo vessels are one of the deadliest threats to an endangered population. But new research from Canada has found even under the government’s current maritime speed restrictions, strikes are likely to be fatal.In a new paper published in Marine Mammal Science, biologists found that collisions between large vessels and whales at a speed of just 10 knots had an 80% chance of producing a fatality. Continue reading...

Donations from individuals and charities to green causes more than double since 2016Philanthropic donations to environmental causes have more than doubled in value in the UK as the climate crisis and unprecedented biodiversity loss attract increasing attention from individuals and charities.The amounts of money given to support efforts to tackle climate change and nature loss range from £5,000 to millions of pounds, and the focus of the funding is as broad. Continue reading...

Some 53 vessels have been waiting offshore for more than four weeks while coal ships from other countries have delivered their loadsMore than 50 Australian coal ships are still stranded off China’s coast, held up by a Chinese government import ban, despite the country facing coal shortages and one of its worst power blackouts in years.China has rejected suggestions that its October ban on Australian coal has contributed to the coal shortage but the ban has been linked to higher domestic prices. Analysts have said that under the current circumstances any incoming coal would help. Continue reading...

Activists say $900bn stimulus package will help the Biden administration ‘build back better’ at home and abroadJoe Biden’s pledge to make the climate emergency a top priority of his administration from day one has received a major boost from the $900bn Covid-19 relief bill that cleared Congress this week and now awaits Donald Trump’s signature.Related: America braced for final month of madness as Trump show nears its end Continue reading...

Traditional owners acknowledge mining company’s efforts in rebuilding relationship but say more needs to be done

State’s planning minister says commonwealth proposal has ‘significant economic potential’ but energy analysts say focus should stay on renewablesThe NSW government has granted critical infrastructure status to a proposed new gas-fired power station in the Hunter Valley in a move energy analysts say is “pandering” to the federal government.The state’s planning minister, Rob Stokes, said he made the declaration because the commonwealth proposal to build the power station on the site of a former aluminium smelter in Kurri Kurri had “significant economic potential”. Continue reading...

Tongass national forest, which plays a key role in fighting climate crisis, poised for logging after US ruling

British startup in joint venture with Tokyo Gas, which buys 9.7% stake for $200mThe one-time owner of a London coffee shop now has a paper fortune worth an estimated $155m (£115m) after a deal with a Japanese utility firm valued Octopus Energy, the sustainable energy business he founded little more than five years ago, at $2 billion.Greg Jackson, a serial entrepreneur, owns a 7.4% stake in Octopus, the UK’s fastest growing energy supplier. Octopus only attained ‘unicorn status’ – a term used to describe young start-up companies worth $1bn – earlier this year. A new investment agreed on Wednesday has doubled that value in the last eight months as it begins its global expansion. Continue reading...

Maxwell mine in Hunter region is fourth fossil fuel project to get the green light in five monthsEnvironmentalists say they have lost faith in the ability of New South Wales authorities to assess controversial mining projects after the Independent Planning Commission approved another coalmine – the fourth fossil fuel project in the state to get the green light in five months.The Maxwell underground coalmine, being developed by a subsidiary of Malabar Resources, is the latest to receive development consent after the commission determined on Tuesday that the “risks of adverse impacts on the environment are low”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Surveys indicate 2021 political contest likely to be focused on post-pandemic economic recovery

Lancet report finds that toxic air caused rise in lung cancer, stroke and other diseasesPollution accounted for nearly 1.7m premature deaths in India in 2019, or 18% of all deaths, according to a study that lays bare the human cost of the country’s toxic urban air.A report published by the Lancet says pollution in India has led to an increase in diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, neonatal disorders and respiratory diseases, resulting in millions more deaths. Continue reading...

There is no way to mine fossil fuels without driving the planet past 1.5C of warming and putting Indigenous communities at risk

Analysis also found the lowest impact meat was still far more damaging than the worst plant foodsThe cost of the climate damage caused by organic meat production is just as high as that of conventionally farmed meat, according to research.The analysis estimated the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from different foods and calculated how much their prices would need to rise to cover the harm they cause by fuelling the climate emergency. Continue reading...

Scientists warn of threat of nuclear contamination from work on giant E40 waterway linking Baltic to the Black Sea

Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham urge Trump to submit Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate agreement to Senate to undercut future attempts to revive themTwo prominent Trump loyalists in the US Senate, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, are reportedly pressing the president to submit the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement to the chamber for ratification, in a last-minute attempt to scupper Democratic plans to take America back into the accords.Related: Senior Republican says party’s final election challenge will ‘go down like a shot dog’ Continue reading...

Health impact is unknown but scientists say particles may cause long-term damage to foetusesMicroplastic particles have been revealed in the placentas of unborn babies for the first time, which the researchers said was “a matter of great concern”.The health impact of microplastics in the body is as yet unknown. But the scientists said they could carry chemicals that could cause long-term damage or upset the foetus’s developing immune system. The particles are likely to have been consumed or breathed in by the mothers. Continue reading...

Whichever state you are in, there could be harmful PFAS chemicals in water near you

The Guardian’s biodiversity editor looks back on a year that put the state of the planet on the agenda in ways no one could have foreseen

Artists and campaigners work to ensure the life and death of the lone sea wolf known as Takaya was not wasted