We Indigenous people are fighting to save the Amazon, but the whole planet is in trouble because you do not respect itDear presidents of the nine Amazonian countries and to all world leaders that share responsibility for the plundering of our rainforest,My name is Nemonte Nenquimo. I am a Waorani woman, a mother, and a leader of my people. The Amazon rainforest is my home. I am writing you this letter because the fires are raging still. Because the corporations are spilling oil in our rivers. Because the miners are stealing gold (as they have been for 500 years), and leaving behind open pits and toxins. Because the land grabbers are cutting down primary forest so that the cattle can graze, plantations can be grown and the white man can eat. Because our elders are dying from coronavirus, while you are planning your next moves to cut up our lands to stimulate an economy that has never benefited us. Because, as Indigenous peoples, we are fighting to protect what we love – our way of life, our rivers, the animals, our forests, life on Earth – and it’s time that you listened to us. Continue reading...

Industry news sources report that Beijing has told several state-owned steelmakers and power plants to stop imports with immediate effectChina’s customs authorities have told several Chinese state-owned steelmakers and power plants to stop importing Australian coal, according to two industry newswire services.The move comes amid ongoing tensions in the relationship between China and Australia and reportedly affects both thermal and coking coal. Continue reading...

Farmers say UK food safety and animal welfare could be compromised as agriculture bill returns to parliamentCampaigners are staging a last-ditch attempt to enshrine food safety and animal welfare standards in UK law after Brexit, as the agriculture bill returns this week for debate and a series of votes in both houses of parliament.The government is said to be adamantly opposed to legislating for a continuation of the high standards required under EU law, with farmers asked instead to rely on ministerial assurances that standards will be upheld after Brexit. A spokesperson dismissed concerns as “unhelpful scaremongering”. Continue reading...

Research also found 73% would pay for food that would otherwise be wasted

Charity says licensing system is needed to prevent ‘unacceptable’ damage to countryside, plus stricter enforcement of existing lawsThe RSPB is demanding new regulations and better enforcement of existing laws to control the shooting of game birds in the UK. The charity made the call yesterday at its AGM after publishing a review that found self-regulation by the shooting community had failed to address the environmental impacts of the game bird industry.Illegal killing of birds of prey, the use of poisonous lead ammunition, the burning of vegetation on peatlands and the release of 57 million game birds - mainly non-native pheasants and red-legged partridges - into the countryside each year are now causing unacceptable damage, the organisation claims. Continue reading...

Navy divers remove live bomb after fisherman called in find on Lord Howe Island’s Elizabeth reefAn unexploded 45kg bomb has been towed into deep waters five months after being found off the New South Wales coast.The weapon was found in late April by a fisherman on Lord Howe Island’s Elizabeth Reef. Defence personnel said it could have posed “a significant risk to the general public”. Continue reading...

More than 12,000 pages of US government documents show military operations contaminating the Pacific with radioactive waste, nerve agents, and chemical weapons like Agent OrangeIn 1968, Leroy Foster was a master sergeant in the US Air Force, assigned to the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, a United States island territory in the Pacific. The day after he arrived on the island, he recalled being ordered to mix “diesel fuel with Agent Orange”, then spraying “it by truck all over the base to kill the jungle overgrowth”.Soon after, Foster suffered serious skin complaints and eventually fell sick with Parkinson’s and ischemic heart disease. Later, his daughter had cancer as a teenager, and his grandchild was born with 12 fingers, 12 toes, and a heart murmur. Foster died in 2018. Continue reading...

Activist’s claim of racist assault on bypass adds to litany of alleged violations of human rights sent to UN rapporteursA campaigner against the HS2 rail line whose head and back were knelt on by police after he says he was thrown to the ground during a peaceful protest believes he was singled out because he is black. He has lodged a complaint of assault amid rising calls for UK government action on the policing of environmental protests.Video footage shows William Harewood, the only person of colour in a small group of activists at a bypass in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, offering no resistance as he is held face down by Thames Valley police officers, two of whom kneel on his head and upper back while two others pin his legs down with their knees. Continue reading...

The government’s high-profile commitment to renewable energy could bring a decade of opportunities for young peopleThe Hywind offshore windfarm stands 15 miles off the coast of Peterhead, and firmly on the cusp of Britain’s most dramatic energy revolution since the discovery of North Sea oil.The world’s first floating windfarm was one of the first low-carbon energy projects developed by Norway’s state oil giant Equinor, and today is one of the best performing windfarms ever built. Continue reading...

William Perry Pendley says ‘I have the support of the president’ despite court ruling he is serving illegally as head of the Bureau of Land ManagementA controversial environment chief in the Trump administration has said he has no intention of leaving his post after a US district court judge deemed his tenure and ongoing occupation of the position illegal.William Perry Pendley, head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), said this week that the judge’s ruling “has no impact, no impact whatsoever”. Continue reading...

Reports of rare bat species in ancient woodland being cleared for high-speed rail lineLawyers have warned HS2 it might be felling trees illegally, after an ecology report found evidence of one of the UK’s rarest bat species in an area of ancient woodland being cleared for the high-speed rail line.Legal firm Leigh Day has written to HS2 Ltd urging the company to halt activity at Jones’ Hill wood, near Wendover in Buckinghamshire, as it does not have a licence to carry out work that could disturb rare barbastelle bat roosts. They say to continue doing so could be a criminal offence. Continue reading...

The president’s energy stance may not play well in a swing state threatened by pipeline projects and supportive of climate actionIn early August, Ginny Kerslake’s lush green yard in a middle-class Pennsylvania suburb turned into a muddy river, thanks to another spill at the pipeline drilling site opposite her house. A couple of days later, 10,000 gallons of drilling mud, or bentonite clay, contaminated a popular recreational lake that also provides drinking water for residents of Chester county.The spills are down to construction of the Mariner East (ME) pipelines – a beleaguered multibillion-dollar project to transport highly volatile liquids extracted by fracking gas shale fields in western Pennsylvania to an export facility in Delaware county in the east, ready to ship to Europe to manufacture plastics. Continue reading...

Count Us In urges actions such as eating local, making clothes last or buying an electric carIf a billion people around the world were to take a few small steps and make them into permanent lifestyle changes, global greenhouse gas emissions could be significantly reduced, a new campaign argues.These actions can be as simple as eating local food, forgoing meat at some meals, and wearing clothes to last instead of throwing them away after a few outings. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including a ‘most wanted’ bear and a lost elephant seal Continue reading...

£2bn scheme risks becoming ‘postcode lottery’ without government action, says expertHouseholders trying to apply for the government’s £5,000 Green Homes Grants to make energy improvements have described how it is nearly impossible to find an accredited installer to do the work.Homeowners in Cornwall have been pointed towards installers as far away as Scotland, Manchester and south Wales – who understandably, are not interested in quoting for their work. Continue reading...

Away from the headlines, there’s an important fight happening that is pitting real estate developers and utilities against efforts to make America’s new homes more climate friendlySome challenges to US climate action are obvious – like when Donald Trump boasts about leaving the international Paris agreement and rolling back pollution rules.But many more play out behind the scenes. One of those is the battle over efforts to make America’s new homes and buildings more energy-efficient. Continue reading...

Clean energy and sustainable food supplies will be the planet’s most pressing issues over the next 30 years“Experts” have had a raised profile during the Covid-19 pandemic, standing – albeit somewhat embarrassed – alongside Boris Johnson during his press conferences. In coping with health-related matters, scientific advice is crucial. We will also need optimally applied science in meeting other global challenges: developing affordable clean energy, feeding the world and preserving the environment.The UK has for centuries punched above its weight in science and invention. It’s crucial to sustain our standing in a more competitive world: if we don’t get smarter, we’ll get poorer. Enough of our brightest and best must opt for science, engineering and technology, as millions do each year in east Asia. Continue reading...

Papillon, whose recapture angered environmental groups, is caged at wildlife centreItalian prosecutors have launched an investigation into the alleged mistreatment of the country’s most famous bear, nicknamed Papillon, who is currently detained in a wildlife centre in north-eastern Italy after being recaptured for the third time.The 149kg young brown bear is accused of having slaughtered dozens of cows and sheep in the mountains of the Trentino region, and until his capture last month was Europe’s most wanted wild animal. Continue reading...

Increasing numbers of people are discovering the pleasures of the turning of the seasons

In focusing on targets, activists from rich countries risk putting metrics above the lives of vulnerable peopleThe dissonance is enough to make me uninstall Twitter from my phone. Maybe it’s compassion fatigue, maybe it’s 2020. But if I’m honest with myself, it’s a world-sized rift in how we perceive the climate emergency on the different timelines I doom-scroll. On one feed, everyone – American or not – is forced to tune in to each candidate’s climate policy because the US’s electoral fate is inextricably linked to the future of the planet. On another feed from back home in India, 40 new coalmines in the last great sal forests are being served up to any bidder who’ll take them, while civil rights activists from a different era of environmental organising languish in jail, their health deteriorating.We’re at an inflection point in climate politics, where some governments are readying 30- and 40-year carbon-neutral plans and others are looking to coast into the next decade with pledges that are already five years old. Meanwhile people who have always suffered are contending with the fallout of inaction in the here and now. We need to align these two timelines and to broaden our definition of climate justice, if we are to achieve any measure of justice for the most vulnerable. But in order to do this, we must accept that climate politics are not so black and white any more. Continue reading...

By reporting on issues across the world affecting the climate crisis the media can influence change

Council is latest to push for bathing status for a stretch of river in order to protect it

Vessels spent 200,000 hours in 2019 bottom trawling or dredging the seabed in protected areas set up to safeguard vital ecosystemsMore than 97% of British marine protected areas, created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled, according to data shared with the Guardian.Nearly a quarter of the UK’s territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species, including harbour porpoises and dolphins. This network of parks is a symbol of the government’s “world leading” target to protect 30% of ocean biodiversity by 2030. Continue reading...

US artists, hunters and conservationists concerned stamps promote the idea that conservation always involves hunting

Airline is retiring its two remaining jumbo jets early owing to impact of coronavirusThe last two Boeing 747s operated by British Airways have made their final flights from Heathrow airport, after coronavirus meant the national carrier could no longer afford to fly its jumbo jets.The distinctive four-engine planes, the backbone of BA’s long-haul fleet for almost 50 years, were beloved by pilots, enthusiasts and many passengers – but their noise and fuel consumption will mean few airline accountants, let alone environmentalists, will be sorry to see them go. Continue reading...

Project aims to find meaning in age of greenwashing in collaboration with artists such as Jeff KoonsStella McCartney has launched a sustainability manifesto in collaboration with artists including Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha and Cindy Sherman.Peter Blake, Olafur Eliasson, Alex Israel, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Joana Vasconcelos, Chantal Joffe and Rashid Johnson also took part in the project, which takes the form of an A-Z and seeks, in part, to drill down on the meaning of certain terms – from A for accountable to Z for zero waste – in an age of mass greenwashing. Continue reading...

Cartel of oil-exporting nations expects demand to continue rising until late 2030sThe world’s most powerful oil-producing nations have denied that oil demand may have already reached its peak and have claimed the world will continue to consume more fossil fuels for almost 20 years.A report from the Opec oil cartel, which represents the interests of countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran, has predicted that the global appetite for oil will continue to rise before reaching a plateau in the late 2030s. Continue reading...

City state follows Qantas in offering jaunts with no destination with ships half full and masks mandatory

Government taskforce to study sickness devastating kiwi orchards across countryThe leaves wither and face down as if to escape the sun; the roots darken and rot. Then the leaves fall: within 10 days, all of them are gone, leaving the fruit under the sun. Within one or two years, the plant dries up and dies. There is no cure.In Italy, kiwi trees are dying en masse, and no one knows why. Last month, the Italian government announced a taskforce to study a mysterious sickness that is devastating kiwi orchards in the country, leaving scientists baffled. “Damages to production are causing serious suffering to farms,” the agriculture minister, Teresa Bellanova, said, calling the situation an “emergency” and saying the country needs “help from all the experts”. Continue reading...

Five £1m prizes will be awarded each year for next 10 years to support environmental solutionsThe Duke of Cambridge has announced that £50m will be awarded over 10 years through his Earthshot prize, billed as “the most prestigious global environment prize in history”, which aims to find solutions to repair the planet by 2030.Officially launching the prize, Prince William said he felt it was “my job and my responsibility” as the planet reached “tipping point” , and the next decade was “crucial”. Continue reading...

The challenges of re-engineering the global economy by 2050 were already immense, even before the advent of Covid-19In terms of energy, we are living in an “after-Paris” world. For, in the half-decade since the Paris climate agreement, its impact has only continued to grow. The idea of an energy transition to what is called “net zero carbon” by 2050, which is at the heart of the agreement, is becoming embedded in the strategies of investors and companies and in the policies of governments. There are widespread calls for large green stimuli while interest rates are low. If elected, Joe Biden’s wide-ranging climate plan would put the US on the same path as Britain and European governments.Yet no one at that Paris conference in 2015 could have imagined that a pandemic would sweep the world in 2020 and impose an economic dark age on people across the globe. What does that mean for mapping the path towards the energy transition? Continue reading...

EPA says it has started five prosecutions against agency in land and environment courtThe Forestry Corporation of New South Wales could face more than $1m in fines for the alleged illegal logging of trees in protected areas, including koala habitat, in the state’s north.The NSW Environment Protection Authority said on Thursday it had started five prosecutions against the state-owned forestry agency in the land and environment court for alleged breaches of its licence in a forest near Coffs Harbour. Continue reading...

Poll shows majority of people do not realise the flesh of a carved pumpkin is edibleMore than half of the 24m pumpkins carved for Halloween in Britain this year will not be eaten, according to new research.The findings suggest that one in seven people who celebrate Halloween do not regard the gourds as food while only 42% realise the fleshy innards of a carving pumpkin are edible. Continue reading...

Energy experts say record rise in new gas boilers installed shows UK going in wrong direction

The ads included calling climate change a hoax and were paid for by conservative US groupsAdverts on Facebook denying the reality of the climate crisis or the need for action were viewed by at least 8 million people in the US in the first half of 2020, a thinktank has found.The 51 climate disinformation ads identified included ones stating that climate change is a hoax and that fossil fuels are not an existential threat. The ads were paid for by conservative groups whose sources of funding are opaque, according to a report by InfluenceMap. Continue reading...

747, one of more than 2,200 brown bears roaming Alaska’s Katmai national park and preserve, won after a week of online votingIn Alaska’s annual battle of furry heavyweights, a salmon-chomping bruin nicknamed 747 – like the jumbo jet - has emerged as the people’s choice as the most fabulously fat.The bear, one of more than 2,200 brown bears roaming Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, was victorious late on Tuesday after a week of frenzied online voting (by humans) in what has become an international sensation: Fat Bear Week. Continue reading...

Study calls for more rights for indigenous reserves as rising gold price attracts more minersA new report has exposed the scale and impact of mining on indigenous reserves in Amazon countries as gold prices soared during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 20% of indigenous lands are overlapped by mining concessions and illegal mining, it found, covering 450,000 sq km (174,000 sq miles) – and 31% of Amazon indigenous reserves are affected.The report, released on Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, said indigenous people should be given more legal rights to manage and use their lands, and called for better environmental safeguards. As pressure mounts over the issue, a leading Brazilian thinktank has called for regulations tracing gold sold by financial institutions. Continue reading...

Across most forest types and ages, thinning had little impact on the severity of Black Saturday fires in Victoria, ANU study suggestsRemoving trees to thin out forests is unlikely to cut the risk of severe bushfires despite the claims of forest industry groups, according to the authors of a new study.Analysis of forests that burned in Victoria’s Black Saturday fires in 2009 found in most cases areas that had been thinned did not see less severe burning and, depending on the type of trees, such intervention sometimes made fires more intense. Continue reading...

Covid-19, climate crisis and war combine to reverse decades of progress on raising living standards

We do not know how many species live on Earth. Barcoding could change that – and open the way for incredible discoveries

While some say CO2 capture is part of the problem, big projects are being invested in as a part solution to the climate crisis

In the past, although windfarms were located just off the coast of Scotland, manufacturing work was outsourced to IndonesiaYesterday’s speech to the virtual Conservative party conference was classic Boris: amusing metaphors, whimsical slogans and grand rhetoric. The prime minister has pledged to usher in a “green industrial revolution” that will help us “bounce back greener” from Covid-19.One of the most significant announcements was the scaling up of the offshore wind sector. The government intends to quadruple offshore wind capacity by 2030, with a promise to power all our kettles, lights and electric cars from clean, “guilt-free” electricity. Continue reading...

Wild-caught sea bass in French and Spanish waters threatens dolphin populations, warns Marine Conversation SocietyConsumers are being urged to steer clear of wild-caught sea bass fished from French and Spanish waters, but to eat farmed king and queen scallops to alleviate pressure on threatened fish stocks.Sea bass caught in the southern Bay of Biscay and Atlantic Iberian waters have been rated red in the Marine Conservation Society’s updated 2020 Good Fish Guide – joining its “fish to avoid” list – because of serious risk to local dolphin and porpoise populations. Continue reading...

Proposal to ‘empower’ landowners to clear without environmental approval labelled ‘anti-science’The New South Wales government will allow rural landholders to clear up to 25m of land from their property’s fence line without an environmental approval, a move it says will “empower” property owners to reduce bushfire risk.But the proposal, which was not one of the 76 recommendations from the NSW bushfire inquiry, has been labelled “anti-science” and prompted alarm it will lead to broad-scale clearing of endangered forest and habitat for grazing and other purposes unrelated to hazard reduction. Continue reading...

Charging for plastic bags has led to some customers concealing goods in their reusable bags, supermarket chains sayJapan’s consumers have embraced a campaign to address their addiction to plastic bags, but new measures to combat marine pollution have created an unforeseen problem: a rise in shoplifting.All of Japan’s stores were required to introduce a fee for plastic shopping bags in July with the aim of encouraging shoppers to use their own, reusable bags rather than pay for carrier bags. Continue reading...

Mining giant and energy compny say they object to advertising targeting individual parties and had asked for campaign to be haltedAustralia’s largest miner, BHP, and the largest energy company, Origin Energy, have suspended their membership of the Queensland Resources Council over state election advertisements urging people to “vote the Greens last”.Several other major resource companies are understood to have raised concerns about advertisements, which the mining industry peak body says were approved by its board. Continue reading...

The document, which cost about $200,000, fails to mention either the realities of climate crisis or the downsides of the energy industryThe Trump administration’s energy department is rolling out a lengthy report touting oil and gas as “providing energy security and supporting our quality of life”, without acknowledging that fossil fuels are the main cause of the climate crisis.Released a month before the election, the report is strikingly at odds with the realities of climate change that the American public has been coping with over the past few months, from huge wildfires to destructive derecho storms and a series of intense hurricanes. Continue reading...

Continue reading...

Aurora Energy Research calculates investment would have to quadruple capacity

August complex fire expanded beyond 1m acres, elevating it from a mere ‘megafire’ to a new classification: ‘gigafire’California’s extraordinary year of wildfires has spawned another new milestone – the first “gigafire”, a blaze spanning 1m acres, in modern history.Related: California fires set bleak record as 4m acres destroyed Continue reading...