Environment | The Guardian

Fears nitrogen and phosphorus could be released in large quantities into soil at grave sites

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures from around the world, including desert-dwelling sheep and a plant that has evolved to hide from humans Continue reading...

Scientists fear fur farm animals in wild could create ‘lasting’ Covid reservoir that could then spread back to humansEscaped mink carrying the virus that causes Covid-19 could potentially infect Denmark’s wild animals, raising fears of a permanent Sars-CoV-2 reservoir from which new virus variants could be reintroduced to humans.Denmark, the world’s largest exporter of mink fur, announced in early November that it would cull the country’s farmed mink after discovering a mutated version of the virus that could have jeopardised the efficacy of future vaccines.

With nearly 400,000 crew members trapped at sea by Covid restrictions, it’s time for retailers like Amazon to help press for key worker status

Survey of 600 people finds some parents regret having offspring for same reason

Virus causing ‘high levels of mortality’ in birds, with risk to chickens and other poultryA spate of baffling swan deaths is strongly suspected to be caused by a virulent new strain of avian flu sweeping across Britain.Dying swans were found spinning in circles and discharging blood from their nostrils on Ulverston canal, Cumbria. Swan rescuers have taken in more than 25 dying birds in Worcestershire and nine swans were found dead in Stanley Park, Blackpool. Postmortem examinations have confirmed that six black swans and cygnets that died in Dawlish, Devon, had contracted the latest strain of bird flu, H5N8. Continue reading...

The Coalition plan to hand development approval powers to the states hits a further roadblock after Senate inquiryA Morrison government plan to change Australia’s environment laws to allow development approval powers to be handed to the states has hit a further roadblock, with three key crossbench senators saying in a report they will not support them.The crossbenchers’ opposition means that, together with Labor and the Greens, the Morrison government’s laws would be voted down in the Senate. But one crossbench senator told Guardian Australia he could change his mind once he had seen details in documents that the government has so far withheld. Continue reading...

Amitav Ghosh, Margaret Atwood and Emma Thompson are among 20 activists and cultural figures to speak at Writers Rebel eventWriters and activists including Emma Thompson, Margaret Atwood and Amitav Ghosh are to speak about their favourite endangered animals as part of a remembrance day for lost species.The snow leopard, pangolin and vaquita porpoise are among the endangered animals that will be championed by participants at the free online event, On the Brink, organised by Writers Rebel, which is part of Extinction Rebellion. Continue reading...

Ministers have refused to sign safeguards, potentially spelling disaster for farmers after BrexitMinisters’ pledges to preserve the UK’s food and farming standards after Brexit will not prevent the import of lower-standard products and could spell potential disaster for Britain’s farmers, a report has found.The government has repeatedly promised that a ban on chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef would remain in place after Brexit, and has made changes to the way future trade bills will be scrutinised. But ministers have refused to sign safeguards on imported food into law, despite pressure from consumers and civil society groups. Continue reading...

Public accounts committee says ignorance, incompetence and weak oversight to blameThe Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has a perpetual lack of knowledge about the state and location of waste on the 17 sites it is responsible for making safe, a powerful committee of MPs has found.This results from decades of poor record keeping and weak government oversight, the MPs said. Combined with a “sorry saga” of incompetence and failure, this has left taxpayers footing the bill for “astronomical sums”, they said. Continue reading...

Industry promotes materialism and lifts sales of climate-harming products, study saysAdvertising needs to be controlled and changed to reduce its impact on the climate, according to a report released as consumers prepare to spend billions on Black Friday.The report by the New Weather Institute thinktank and the charity We are Possible examines how advertising indirectly contributes to climate change and the ecological emergency. Continue reading...

Long-running investigation found state’s conduct on the basin was flawed, but not corruptA long-running investigation into New South Wales’ management of water in the Murray-Darling basin has not found any corrupt conduct but has concluded the state’s water policies were undermined for a decade by departmental favouring of the irrigation industry.In two related investigations known as Operation Avon and Operation Mezzo, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) examined multiple allegations, over almost a decade, concerning complaints of corruption involving the management of water, particularly in the Barwon-Darling area of the Murray-Darling Basin. Continue reading...

Regulation will help prevent deaths of 1m waterbirds by lead poisoning every yearLead shot is to be banned from all wetlands in the European Union, in a decision that is expected to pave the way for phasing out all toxic ammunition.The European parliament voted against objections lodged by far-right parties, allowing the European commission to introduce the new regulations by the end of the year. Continue reading...

Scottish environment minister said self-regulation by grouse shooting industry had failedScottish grouse moors will be controlled by a strict licensing regime after the industry failed to combat the illegal persecution of birds of prey, the Scottish government has announced.Mairi Gougeon, an environment minister, said work on drafting new legislation would start immediately, several years earlier than recommended by an expert review into the regulation of grouse moors led by Prof Alan Werritty last year. Continue reading...

Processing plant on a Papua New Guinean island may bring more commercial pressure on fisheries in areas where regulation is uncertainA $200m Chinese-built fishery plant planned for a Papua New Guinean island could allow Chinese-backed commercial vessels to fish legally in the Torres Strait, and has raised concerns about unregulated fishing in the same waters, potentially threatening the Australian industry and local PNG fishers.China’s ministry of commerce this month announced a $527m kina (A$204m) deal to establish a “comprehensive multi-functional fishery industrial park” project on Daru Island, in PNG’s Western Province. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Natural Resources Commission to consider the standards needed to practice sustainable logging in burnt forestThe New South Wales government is planning a review of forestry operations in bushfire-hit coastal regions as tensions mount between the environment regulator and Forestry Corporation.The review, which is still to be formally commissioned, will probably be carried out by the state’s Natural Resources Commission (NRC), government sources have told Guardian Australia. Continue reading...

Remaining UK coal plants, including Drax, supply 6% of grid’s electricity to cover power supply drop and colder weatherBritain has fired up some of its last remaining coal power plants to help keep the lights on as the country’s wind turbines slow over a few days and the demand for electricity rises.Three of the UK’s last coal power plants, operating at Drax, West Burton, and Ratcliffe, were called on to supply 6% of electricity on Thursday morning. Continue reading...

UN warns about consequences of not conserving water and tackling climate crisis

With the world 1C warmer, modelling shows there is still a risk of corals bleaching from heat stress this summerA global weather phenomenon that would typically keep ocean temperatures lower across the Great Barrier Reef may not be enough to stop another mass coral bleaching this coming summer, according to the marine park’s chief scientist.Global heating now meant the risk of corals bleaching from heat stress was present even in a summer influenced by the La Niña climate phenomenon, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s Dr David Wachenfeld told Guardian Australia. Continue reading...

Springwatch presenter adds to warnings of threat to Welsh countryside if non-native species get outParts of the Welsh countryside could become permanently damaged if creatures used in I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! escape, conservationists have warned, amid growing calls to ban the use of live animals on the show.North Wales police said it had advised the ITV show on “set management and biosecurity” following fears cockroaches, whip scorpions, mealworms and crayfish used in bushtucker trials might have escaped, after concerns were first raised by TV presenter and naturalist Iolo Williams. Continue reading...

Personal and home care sectors use an estimated 122bn sachets a year and few are recycledEnvironmental campaigners have joined forces with politicians and business leaders in demanding urgent action to tackle the distribution of billions of plastic “personal care” sachets.In an open letter published online, a coalition called A Plastic Planet is calling for so-called “sample” sachets – which can contain products such as detergent, shower gel or perfume – to be included in wider UK and EU single-use bans. Continue reading...

When the bird who dominated Oakland’s rose garden turned violent, the question of his fate caused ‘rifts that will never heal’The turkey locked eyes with her from across the park.Like many Oaklanders, sixteen-year-old Jojo Thompson had heard plenty of stories about Gerald, the “feisty” turkey harassing visitors in the city’s rose garden. But before visiting the seven-acre public park with a friend on a recent October afternoon, she thought the tales had been exaggerated. Continue reading...

New Zealand singer says Donald Trump, Great Thunberg and California wildfires spurred her to visit before it turns ‘to slush’The singer Lorde has written an impassioned entreaty for the world to face the climate emergency head-on after visiting Antarctica.Lorde said Donald Trump, California wildfires and the advocacy of Greta Thunberg spurred her to “head south” in a bid to visit the frozen continent before it turned “to slush”. Continue reading...

Denial of permit to controversial Pebble gold and copper delights environmental and indigenous rights activistsThe Trump administration on Wednesday denied a permit for a controversial gold and copper mine near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in south-west Alaska.The army corps of engineers said in a statement that the permit application to build the Pebble Mine was denied under both the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act. Continue reading...

New infrastructure bank and emissions-trading scheme are insufficient, say campaignersA new infrastructure bank, to be based in the north of England, and an emissions-trading scheme covering large portions of industry were proclaimed by Rishi Sunak as evidence that the government is aligning its aim of rescuing the UK economy from the Covid-19 slump with its goal of cutting emissions to net zero by 2050.But for the most part, experts said the chancellor’s spending review and infrastructure strategy failed to give the kickstart to the green recovery that economists have been advising and green campaigners have urged. Continue reading...

A charge on electric cars is ‘completely incongruent’ with states’ targets of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, Dr Jake Whitehead saysVictoria’s planned road user tax for electric vehicles will significantly hold back clean car use, according to research that found it could lead to a 25% lower share of sales in 2050 than otherwise expected.The Andrews government plans to impose a 2.5c a kilometre charge on electric vehicles (EVs) and a 2c/km charge on plug-in hybrid cars from July. South Australia is also planning an EV road user charge, but is yet to announce the rate. Continue reading...

The miner has not revealed which parts of the Pilliga forest will be cleared and what it means for groundwater and threatened speciesOpponents of Santos’s $3.6bn Narrabri gas project say it should not have been approved given the company has not explained which parts of the Pilliga forest will be cleared or finished investigating what it would mean for local groundwater.The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, announced on Tuesday the government had approved the controversial development, which would involve up to 850 gas wells being drilled in grazing land and forest in northern New South Wales. Continue reading...

Tesco, Lidl, Asda, McDonald’s and Nando’s all source chicken fed on soya from Cerrado tropical biome region

Squirrel seen swaying in video after woman put old pears from her fridge in her garden for wildlife to eatA squirrel in Minnesota has enjoyed an early and especially festive start to the holiday season by being videoed apparently drunkenly feasting on pears that had fermented and become alcoholic.The inebriated squirrel was caught swaying on camera by Katy Morlok of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, who had put out an old pear from her fridge in her garden for local wildlife to eat. She saw one of the squirrels – whom she dubbed Lil Red – snatch the pear and take it up a tree. Continue reading...

Experts says technology alone will not get close to solving aviation’s emissions problemsBoris Johnson’s “jet zero” goal of a commercial transatlantic flight producing no carbon emissions by 2025 is a “gimmick”, according to experts, who say technology alone cannot solve the impact of global aviation on the climate crisis.Such a flight would not be impossible, the experts said, but could only be a one-off and would encourage the view that other measures such as taxing jet fuel and frequent fliers were not needed to tackle aviation’s carbon problem. Continue reading...

But independent review criticises wildlife fund’s inconsistent approach to human rightsA long-awaited report into allegations that conservation rangers supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) committed violent abuses in several countries, including murder, has cleared the organisation’s staff of complicity but criticised it for serious shortcomings in oversight.But even as the report was released, campaigners for tribal rights – including Survival International, which has long been a critic of WWF – suggested the report had failed to investigate some of the most serious issues and that it had been released two days before the US Thanksgiving holiday in an attempt to bury the news. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former finance minister’s pitch pushes ‘zero net emissions as soon as possible’, which contradicts record while in Australian governmentAustralia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann is continuing to talk up the importance of a “collective green recovery” on the campaign trail to be the next secretary general of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.In a “vision statement” for the position obtained by Guardian Australia, Cormann says undertaking “effective global action on climate change is a must and we must get to zero net emissions as soon as possible”. Continue reading...

Marathon parliamentary sitting wraps up, passing legislation experts say will help turn NSW into a renewable energy superpowerNew South Wales upper house MPs have finally passed renewable electricity legislation after a marathon parliamentary sitting in which almost 250 One Nation-proposed amendments were rejected.The government upper house leader Damien Tudehope on Tuesday suspended the Legislative Council’s midnight adjournment to work through the 249 amendments to the electricity infrastructure investment bill. Continue reading...

Hiring of investor to advise on environmental regulation for banks looked into by watchdogThe EU did not properly consider conflicts of interest when it hired the US investment manager BlackRock to advise on environmental regulation for banks, an influential watchdog has said.The European ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, said the European commission, the EU’s executive arm, should strengthen its conflict of interest rules in light of the findings, in a judgment published on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Labor presses Coalition to explain what it knows about delays as pricing agency says Beijing appears to be ‘singling out’ Australian importsMore than 60 ships carrying Australian coal have been stranded at sea – some for months – while waiting to enter Chinese ports, according to analysts, with the Morrison government being urged to clarify the long delays.Dozens of vessels are being kept waiting, according to the global commodity and energy price reporting agency Argus, which has been tracking the situation. Continue reading...

How a chance encounter with a ‘weird plant’ in the Drakensberg mountains led to a startling discoveryTowards the end of 2017, PhD candidate Ruth Cozien and her husband Dr Timo van der Niet were attending a citizen science workshop high up in South Africa’s Drakensberg mountains when they stumbled across “this weird plant with green flowers hidden beneath its leaves, a really strong scent and enough nectar to drown an insect”, Cozien recalls.While many people might have admired the plant and walked away the couple, both members of the Pollination Ecology Research Group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, were intrigued. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sussan Ley uses national environment laws to refuse proposal to clear land at Kingvale StationSussan Ley has rejected an application for almost 2,000 hectares of land-clearing on Kingvale Station in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.The long-awaited decision was quietly published on Tuesday night at the same time as the federal government announced it had approved Santos’s Narrabri gas project in New South Wales. Continue reading...

Dick and Jillian Jardine said it was ‘the right thing’ to hand beautiful plot in Remarkables to national trust for conservationA New Zealand farming family has gifted 900 hectares of pristine land by the edge of Lake Wakatipu to the crown, saying it is “the right thing to do”.The stretch of land at the foot of the Remarkables range will become open to everyone in 2022, after being handed over to the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust for “the benefit and enjoyment of all New Zealanders”. Continue reading...

It has fallen to the states to lead with more realistic targets, strategies and attempted policy responsesA colleague commented to me recently: “Where would we be without the states leading and driving the response to Covid-19?”It made me think. To cut through all the spin, point-scoring and blame-shifting. Sure, there was the national cabinet and Scott Morrison’s attempt to forge a national, collaborative response, but so much of the heavy lifting was actually done by the states. Continue reading...

Ninety-seven whales died and dozens more had to be euthanised by rescue workersA mass stranding on the far-flung Chatham Islands in the Pacific Ocean has resulted in the deaths of more than 120 whales.Ninety-seven pilot whales and three dolphins have died in the stranding, with 28 pilot whales and three dolphins having to be euthanised, said staff from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DoC). Continue reading...

One Nation MP moves hundreds of amendments in attempt to stop electricity infrastructure roadmap being passed this yearThe New South Wales parliament has been forced to sit around the clock in a bid to pass a landmark energy bill which the One Nation MP Mark Latham is seeking to block by moving hundreds of mostly procedural amendments.The Coalition’s electricity infrastructure roadmap promises to cut power prices in NSW and decrease the state’s reliance on coal-fired power generation by creating a $32bn private investment boom in renewables. Continue reading...

Rogue creatures from bushtucker trials including ‘ultimate survivor’ cockroaches could threaten Welsh countrysidePolice are investigating I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! over concerns non-native wildlife could have escaped into the Welsh countryside during bushtucker trials, the Guardian can reveal.Rural crime officers from north Wales police are looking into complaints that non-native creatures such as cockroaches, maggots, spiders and worms could threaten wildlife in the 100-hectare (250-acre) estate surrounding Gwrych Castle in north Wales, where the show is being held this year. Continue reading...

Hong Kong-based insurance company holds stake of at least $3bn in coal projectsTottenham Hotspur may be top of the Premier League for a change, but the climate credentials of its shirt sponsor AIA are among the lowest of any club in the country, according to a new report by fossil fuel divestment activists.The logo of AIA has been emblazoned across the chests of Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris and teammates since 2013. But campaigners say it risks becoming a source of shame for the club, because the Hong Kong-based insurance company holds a stake of at least $3bn in coal projects. Continue reading...

Administration seeks to transfer ownership of Arizona area to mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal siteSince January, San Carlos Apache tribal member Wendsler Nosie Sr has been sleeping in a teepee at a campground in south-eastern Arizona’s Oak Flat, a sprawling high desert oasis filled with groves of ancient oaks and towering rock spires.It is a protest in defense of “holy ground” where the Apache have prayed and performed ceremonies for centuries. Continue reading...

The approval is the final major regulatory hurdle for the project, but environmentalists and critics have vowed to keep fighting itThe controversial $3.6bn Narrabri gas project that would drill up to 850 wells in grazing land and forest in northern New South Wales has been given environmental approval by the Morrison government.The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said on Tuesday she was satisfied the biodiversity of the Pilliga forest would be safeguarded by conditions set for the project, proposed by Santos. Continue reading...

The company involved says it does not expect the fish to damage the environment, but others disagreeAn outbreak of 50,000 Tasmanian farmed salmon could potentially “pollute” the marine environment, according to local environmentalists.The fish rushed to freedom after a fire melted part of their enclosure on Monday morning, and while the company involved said it did not expect the fugitive fish to damage the environment, others disagree. Continue reading...

Former PM says Scott Morrison needs to pivot his stance on foreign policy and climate change or risk Australia being seen as a ‘Trump-lite refuge’Malcolm Turnbull says Scott Morrison was “dazzled and duchessed” and went “full-in” with Donald Trump on foreign affairs and climate change, but now needs to change direction to avoid Australia being seen as a “Trump-lite refuge in the southern hemisphere”.In his latest commentary on the government he once led, Turnbull told a conference on Tuesday he was confident Morrison would set a target of Australia having net zero emissions in 2050, despite the government’s continued resistance. Continue reading...

Energy companies will compete for contracts in auction at end of 2021The government plans to double the amount of renewable energy it will subsidise next year after agreeing to include onshore wind and solar power projects for the first time since 2015.Energy companies will compete for subsidy contracts in a competitive auction to be held at the end of 2021, which could support up to 12GW of renewable energy, or enough clean electricity to charge up to 20m electric vehicles a year. Continue reading...

Global survey finds spending expected to double in five years in response to climate fears