Environment | The Guardian

Pollutants from farming, heating and vehicles beyond levels needed to ensure breathable airGovernments across Europe are failing to protect their citizens from toxic air pollution, with most Europeans still breathing filthy air in their cities, according to data.Pollutants from farming, domestic heating and vehicles are beyond the levels needed to ensure breathable air within World Health Organization guidelines, despite EU legislation, government pledges and years of campaigning. Continue reading...

Group stages debt and tax strikes to expose ‘political economy’s complicity’ in ecological crisisExtinction Rebellion is launching a campaign of financial civil disobedience aimed at exposing the “political economy’s complicity” in the unfolding ecological crisis.The group – which has staged some of the UK’s biggest civil disobedience protests over the past two years – is turning its attention to what it says will be a sustained campaign of debt and tax strikes. It is also asking people to “redirect” loans from banks that finance fossil fuel projects to frontline organisations fighting for climate justice. Continue reading...

Drop in emissions this year is a ‘tiny blip’ in buildup of greenhouse gases, UN agency saysClimate-heating gases have reached record levels in the atmosphere despite the global lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has said.There is estimated to have been a cut in emissions of between 4.2% and 7.5% in 2020 due to the shutdown of travel and other activities. But the WMO said this was a “tiny blip” in the continuous buildup of greenhouse gases in the air caused by human activities, and less than the natural variation seen year to year. Continue reading...

The Biden transition team is facing pressure not to hire people with fossil fuel ties, like Obama’s energy secretary Ernest MonizIt was a deceptively low-key occasion on Capitol Hill: an older man in a dark suit, talking into a TV camera about an energy report.According to his firm’s 362-page analysis, the fastest path to California’s climate goals included continuing to rely on fossil fuels. The analysis was funded by gas companies and groups related to them, but he wasn’t a lobbyist or industry consultant. Quite the opposite, he was the Obama administration’s well-respected energy secretary, Ernest Moniz. Continue reading...

Former senior official warns of going back to the community unrest of the 70s and 80s over conservation issuesChanges to environment law planned by the Morrison government would spark a return to the “environmental confusion” of the 1970s and 1980s, when there was sustained community unrest over conservation issues, according to a former senior bureaucrat responsible for the legislation.Gerard Early, now a director with Birdlife Australia, told a Senate inquiry that history suggested a plan to change environment laws to hand greater responsibility for development assessments to the states would just increase risk and uncertainty over proposals, not reduce them as intended. Continue reading...

The species, mainly caught as bycatch but also prized by sports fishermen, is facing an alarming decline in numbersConservationists accused the EU and the US at negotiations of Atlantic fishing nations this week of blocking urgently needed plans to protect the world’s fastest shark species.The strength and speed of the shortfin mako, which can swim up to 43mph, makes it a target for sports fishermen, particularly in the US, while its highly prized meat and fins have led to the shark being overfished globally – and dangerously so in the north Atlantic. Continue reading...

We just wanted the money to pay to have the circuit board repairedI am having the most absurd argument with E.ON after the power firm’s smart meter installation wrecked our five-year-old gas boiler and it then refused to pay for the repairs.It started when we moved our gas and electricity supply to E.ON in April. Our new tariff required us to get a smart meter for each and so in August E.ON’s contractor, Morrison Utility Services, arrived to install them. But when it turned the electricity supply back on after installation, our previously working boiler would not restart. Continue reading...

Audrey Zibelman says market has reached ‘inflection point’ and decision must be made on whether to have single, national market or five state marketsAustralian governments need to make a decision about whether they want a national electricity market, or five state markets, rather than “whinge” at one another about not making a decision, according to the system operator, Audrey Zibelman.Zibelman, the chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, told an energy summit on Monday the energy market had reached “an inflection point”. Continue reading...

Chris “pineapple” Hooper is a notorious barefoot anti-Adani activist who is now the mayor of an Adani stronghold! lol take that fossil fuelists!

Australian PM says government’s technology roadmap meets the commitment of Paris agreement signatories on long-term emissionsScott Morrison has told participants at the virtual G20 summit that safeguarding the planet is an “ongoing, long-term and collective responsibility” and nations “must pursue economic models that support growth and sustainability”.With the G20 communique released after the weekend talks noting signatories to the Paris agreement had agreed to communicate their long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies by 2020, Morrison set up the government’s technology roadmap as fulfilling that criterion. Continue reading...

Virtual summit an awkward swan song for Trump who skipped some sessions to play golfG20 leaders meeting remotely pledged on Sunday to “spare no effort” to ensure the fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide, but offered no specific new funding to meet that goal.The virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia was an awkward swan song for Donald Trump, who skipped some sessions on Saturday to play golf, paid little attention to other leaders’ speeches and claimed the Paris climate agreement was designed not to save the planet but to the kill the US economy. Continue reading...

Users will be taught how to operate and park the vehicle and share the road safelyThe AA is to give road safety lessons to e-scooter riders, as operators launch what is billed as the first theory test for the latest form of transport on Britain’s streets.Under the scheme, e-scooter riders will be taught how to operate and park the vehicles and share the road safely with cars, pedestrians and vulnerable users. Continue reading...

Scientists and conservationists say mammal should be officially listed as nationally threatened speciesThe amount of platypus habitat in Australia has shrunk by 22% in 30 years and the animal should now be listed as a nationally threatened species, according to new research.Scientists from the University of New South Wales, along with three of Australia’s largest environmental organisations – the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF-Australia and Humane Society International Australia – have jointly nominated the platypus for an official listing as vulnerable under national environmental laws. Continue reading...

Owner of Manchester and Stansted airports offers five years’ free landing fees as part of net-zero pledgeManchester Airports Group has offered a prize of five years’ free landing fees to the first airline to operate a zero-emissions commercial flight, as it pledged to become a net-zero carbon airport by 2038.Britain’s biggest airport group, which owns Manchester and Stansted airports, has upped the ante on the wider industry’s commitment to achieve net-zero by 2050, and a similar one-year incentive offered by Heathrow. Continue reading...

Three commoners explain why keeping 1,000-year-old farming practices alive is worth more than moneyPhotographs by Peter FludeA five-inch stack of old Telegraph newspapers is perched on the front seat of the bashed-up Subaru, while in the back is a long stick for fending off cows. At the wheel is Ann Sevier, a 13th generation commoner whose family has lived in the New Forest since 1650.“Hello everybody!” she yells to the livestock as she pulls up in the car. We are in Latchmore valley near Fordingbridge, where more than a hundred cows and horses have gathered in the cool breeze that tumbles off the surrounding hills, providing respite from biting insects (behaviour known locally as “shading”). It resembles a congregation of animals you might see around a waterhole, except the horses have letters branded on their backs. Continue reading...

Parents and grandparents are the most likely to try to minimise their environmental footprintYoung people are often dubbed “Generation Green” – millennials and teenagers championing climate action and environmental values, often with a well-aimed dig at older generations who have failed to prevent a climate catastrophe.Yet it is their baby boomer parents and grandparents who are most likely to act in support of green issues, according to a national survey. Continue reading...

Stage hands, technicians and joiners sign up to retrofitting scheme to tackle climate crisis

New road user charges sends a very strange signal and will set back efforts to reduce emissions from the transport sector

Aboriginal title holders are alarmed that Fortune Agribusiness is seeking to use more than 40,000 megalitres of water each year for irrigationA private agribusiness is seeking to use more than 40,000 megalitres of water each year in arid central Australia to irrigate what it says will be one of the country’s biggest fruit and vegetable operations.If granted, it would be the single largest private water licence allocation in the Northern Territory, which does not currently have a water pricing regime and does not charge developers for water. Continue reading...

Administration finishing off regulatory moves to lock in drilling, loosen wildlife protections and roll back pollution standardsDonald Trump is using the dying embers of his US presidency to hastily push through a procession of environmental protection rollbacks that critics claim will cement his legacy as an unusually destructive force against the natural world.Related: Trump officials rush plans to drill in Arctic refuge before Biden inauguration Continue reading...

Photovoltaic panels pay off for those who get feed-in tariffs but home installations have dried up without incentivesThis year’s electricity output from the solar panels on the house roof is already well past the previous record since their installation 10 years ago. Part of the reason is the exceptionally sunny spring, plus the lack of pollution following lockdowns. Particularly significant in Bedfordshire is the curtailment of air traffic that in certain weather conditions used to leave contrails crisscrossing an otherwise clear blue sky.A decade ago photovoltaic solar panels were expensive and generous government feed-in tariffs were needed to encourage the industry. Those who took the plunge should have got their money back by now and, if my local estate agent is to be believed, added several thousand pounds to the value of their property. Solar panels give a home an income, often more than £1,000 a year. Continue reading...

Objection to virtual meetings threatens next year’s conference in China, say environmental campaignersBrazil has been accused of obstructing global efforts to protect nature following a row over the use of virtual meeting technology to overcome Covid-19 restrictions.The dispute threatens a key United Nations conference in Kunming, China, next year, which aims to set new targets to protect the Earth’s natural life support systems. Continue reading...

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures from around the world, including baby bears and a stowaway owl Continue reading...

Pork giant Smithfield has settled with North Carolina residents who sued over stench, flies and truck traffic from Kinlaw FarmsA US judge has issued a blistering condemnation of industrial farming practices. The judgment comes as one US meat giant finally settles after a six-year legal battle with plaintiffs who sued the company over the stench, flies, buzzards and truck traffic coming from its industrial swine farms in North Carolina.J Harvie Wilkinson III, one of the judges in a case that pitted locals against the Smithfield subsidiary formerly known as Murphy-Brown, decried the “outrageous conditions” at Kinlaw Farms, the operation at the center of the lawsuit – “conditions that there is no reason to suppose were unique to that facility”. Continue reading...

Climate experts say UK should aim to cut emissions by more than 70% as crucial summit loomsBoris Johnson is facing a fresh test of his green commitments as the UK prepares to submit its national plan on future carbon emissions, before crucial UN climate negotiations.Pressure is growing on the prime minister to come up with an ambitious national target – known as a nationally determined contribution (NDC) – on cutting emissions substantially by 2030, because the UK will host the postponed Cop26 summit next year. Continue reading...

Ancient lungwort translocated from fallen oak to nearby trees in trust’s largest-ever moveJust as an art gallery would protect its collection of fine and rare paintings, the National Trust is attempting to save one of England’s rarest lichens.The lungwort, a survivor of the ancient wildwood that grew in Britain after the last ice age, has been painstakingly transferred from a fallen oak to nearby trees. Continue reading...

Research finds young people in England feel growing distress about the future of the planetMore than half of child and adolescent psychiatrists in England are seeing patients distressed about the state of the environment, a survey has revealed.The findings showed that the climate crisis is taking a toll on the mental health of young people. The levels of eco-anxiety observed were notably higher among the young than the general population, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which has just launched its first resources to help children and their parents cope with fears about environmental breakdown. Continue reading...

Premier will revert to old land-clearing laws until Coalition can draft new policyGladys Berejiklian has sacked a parliamentary secretary for voting against her government’s controversial land clearing bill and said she will revert to old koala protection laws until a new policy can be drafted.The New South Wales premier made the comment on Thursday night after the Liberal MP Catherine Cusack crossed the floor to send the local land services amendment (miscellaneous) bill to a committee to debate proposed amendments, delaying its passage until next year. Continue reading...

Business secretary urged to lead by example before UN climate talks in GlasgowLabour has accused the government of being reckless with Britain’s international climate credibility by continuing to consider financial support for overseas fossil fuel projects before UN climate talks in Glasgow next year.The shadow climate minister, Matthew Pennycook, called on the government to end all financing for new foreign fossil fuel projects immediately or risk undermining its own commitment to tackling the global climate crisis. Continue reading...

Climate groups plan to camp in Washington DC in protest of Biden’s hires of key staff with connections to the oil and gas industryProgressive climate activists plan to occupy the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC today in protest of Joe Biden’s early hires of key staff with connections to the oil and gas industry. Continue reading...

Farmers must still destroy animals before midnight, despite health ministry saying variant has not been found since SeptemberThe Covid-19 mink variant that led to a cull of all mink in Denmark and the resignation of the country’s agriculture minister on Wednesday, is “very likely extinct”, said Denmark’s health ministry.The cull was sparked by research from one of Denmark’s public health bodies, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which showed that a mink variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus called C5 was harder for antibodies to neutralise and posed a potential threat to vaccine efficacy. Continue reading...

After single sighting in 20 years of surveys, new expedition and analysis bring 58When the Antarctic blue whale – the largest and loudest animal on the planet – was all but wiped out by whaling 50 years ago, the waters around South Georgia fell silent.Twenty years of dedicated whale surveys from ships off the sub-Antarctic island between 1998 and 2018 resulted in only a single blue whale sighting. But a whale expedition this year and analysis by an international research team resulted in 58 blue whale sightings and numerous acoustic detections, raising hopes that the critically endangered mammal is finally recovering five decades after whaling was banned. Continue reading...

Lord Goldsmith says Britain, the second biggest per capita producer of plastic waste, could play leading role in tackling crisisBritain has thrown its weight behind a new global agreement to tackle the plastic pollution crisis, which Lord Goldsmith said would go “far beyond” existing international agreements.This week, the Guardian revealed there is growing support for such a treaty internationally, but that neither the UK nor the US, the world’s biggest per capita producers of plastic waste, had yet pledged their support. Continue reading...

Expecting the free market to fix global warming is like trying to pound nails with a sawThe massive wildfires that have been rampaging across the American west this year are not purely natural disasters. They are partly products of the unnatural disaster of climate change – “unnatural”, in that the ultimate responsibility for global warming belongs not to physics but to our economic system. Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank, calls climate change the “greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen”. Sadly, climate change is only one – albeit a whopper – of the countless market failures that degrade our lives.Related: Hurricane Iota: at least six killed and 60,000 evacuated in Nicaragua Continue reading...

Climate advocates urge Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond to leverage his new position to help bring attention to their plightAs Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond takes a senior role in the incoming Biden administration, climate advocates and leaders in the fight against toxic air pollution in his district have warned of his history of poor engagement with vulnerable communities and his ties to the oil and gas industry.But they also have urged him to leverage his new position to help direct attention to their plight. Continue reading...

In his new book, marine biologist and photographer Richard Smith reveals the tiny, magical world of pygmy seahorses, one of the most elusive fish on the planetAfter spending hundreds of hours observing pygmy seahorses for my doctorate, I knew exactly when Tom, a Denise’s pygmy seahorse in Sulawesi, Indonesia, would give birth. He swam with great resolve (1) from where he slept each night with his partner, Josephine, against the current, to the edge of the gorgonian seafan (a type of coral) that the two inhabited.He never faltered. At the edge of the coral, the current was at its strongest, offering the greatest chance of sweeping his offspring out to the relative safety of the open ocean. Continue reading...

Saw-whet owl was found tired and hungry in the branches of the huge Norway spruce at famous New York landmarkIt wasn’t quite a partridge in a pear tree, but a worker helping set up Rockefeller Center’s Christmas tree found a holiday surprise – a tiny owl among the massive branches.

Carvey Maigue, from the Philippines, used a substance made from crop wasteA novel material made from rotting fruit and vegetables that absorbs stray UV light from the sun and converts it into renewable energy has landed its designer the first sustainability gong in this year’s James Dyson awards.From a record 1,800 entries – despite the challenges of Covid-19 – the award was given to 27-year-old Carvey Ehren Maigue, a student at Mapúa University in the Philippines, for his Aureus system which uses the natural scientific principles behind the northern lights. Continue reading...

Huge road, energy and mining projects driving into heart of world’s remaining forestsInfrastructure megaprojects risk pushing the world’s remaining forests past a “dangerous tipping point” and making climate targets unachievable, a report says.Tens of thousands of miles of roads and railways are planned alongside mines and dams, opening up the forests of South America, south-east Asia and central Africa to destruction, according to the report by a coalition of 25 research and conservation organisations called the New York Declaration on Forests Assessment Partners. Today, almost half of all large mines – more than 1,500 – are in forests. Continue reading...

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A vibrant, buzzy stock market for tech companies is very useful if you’re planning a green revolutionRight on cue, here comes a £4bn stock market listing of a young and exciting UK electric vehicle company – a mini Tesla, if you wish. It’s just the thing for ministers to crow about, you might think: evidence that the UK possesses a few fast-growing tech innovators capable of injecting oomph into the government’s loose 10-point sketch for a green revolution.There’s just one drawback. Arrival, with its head office in London and operations in Oxfordshire, will not be arriving on the London Stock Exchange. It is listing in New York on Nasdaq, via injection into one of those special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that are all the rage on Wall Street this year. Continue reading...

The prime minister has correctly identified the challenge, but his record invites doubt that he can turn his rhetoric into realityBoris Johnson’s comfort zone is the future. He is weak at managing the day-to-day business of a government and bad at making hard choices quickly. For that reason, he is poorly suited to the role of prime minister during a pandemic, but better at the job of selling a “green industrial revolution” for the recovery phase.The launch on Wednesday of a 10-point plan for net zero carbon emissions allowed Mr Johnson to indulge his predilection for hyperbole. He wants Britain to be the “world’s number one centre for green technology and finance” and “the Saudi Arabia of wind”. Those are fine aspirations. Regular readers of Mr Johnson’s rhetoric know to check the small print. Continue reading...

Firm will also hire hundreds of new staff as it prepares for switch away from petrol carsHalfords is training 1,500 extra technicians to work on electric vehicles, bikes and scooters as it prepares for the switch away from petrol cars.The cycles-to-vehicle servicing group said it expected to hire hundreds of new staff and to retrain existing employees so that it would have 100 more electric car technicians next year, bringing the total to 470, and 1,400 extra electric bike and scooter technicians in addition to the 400 now in place. Continue reading...

Firm says investment in low-carbon infrastructure will help UK emerge from Covid impactSSE has set out plans to triple its renewable energy generation by 2030 as it prepares to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm off the north-east coast of England.The energy firm told investors that it was days away from a final investment decision on the 3.2GW Dogger Bank offshore windfarm, which could generate enough clean electricity to power 4.5m homes by 2026. Continue reading...

A huge amount of effort and planning will be required to fulfil Boris Johnson’s 10 pledges to tackle the climate emergency

How Boris Johnson’s proposals will affect drivers and people replacing boilersBoris Johnson’s green industrial revolution proposals have been praised by some environmental groups but critics are warning that electric vehicles are too pricey, there’s little charging infrastructure and households will receive £10,000 bills to replace gas boilers with heat pumps. As Britain transitions to a cleaner low-carbon future, what do the plans really mean for your car and home?What are the new rules for vehicles? Continue reading...

Some say proposed public funding is too little while others say key is galvanising private capitalThe government’s 10-point plan for putting the UK on track to reach net zero carbon emissions has been welcomed by experts as a good start, but many fear that the £12bn of public investment proposed will be too little to achieve the sweeping changes to the UK’s economy that will be needed.Sir David King, a former government chief scientist and chair of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University, said: “[This] is nowhere near enough either to manage the commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 or to provide a safe future. As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on our economy, there needs to be an understanding that this is the opportunity to grow our economy in a direction that is fit for purpose in this century.” Continue reading...

Joe Biden warns on climate emergency as powerful storm inflicts catastrophic damageAt least six people have been killed and more than 60,000 evacuated after Hurricane Iota struck Nicaragua, prompting Joe Biden to say the surge in the number of powerful storms meant fighting the climate crisis was vital.Reports in the Nicaraguan press said at least three children were among the victims as the hurricane hammered the Central American country on Tuesday after making landfall the previous night. Continue reading...

While overall US coral reefs are in fair condition, along the coast of Florida as little as 2% of original coral cover remainsThe United States’ coral reefs are in fair condition, according to a recent reef condition status report, but vulnerable to decline. Scientists estimate that along the coast of Florida, where degradation is most severe, perhaps as little as 2% of original coral cover remains.The report, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science last week, assesses reefs along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, from the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to Guam, Hawaii and American Samoa. It is the first of its kind to do so using standardized monitoring data on a national scale. Analyzing records from 2012 to 2018, researchers identify ocean warming and acidification, coral disease and fishing as ongoing threats to coral reefs, indicating a “dire outlook” for these ecosystems. Continue reading...