Environment | The Guardian

Non-native predators and pests, forestry and farming mean our recovery is faltering. Here’s what we need to do

Shark and prey populations such as seals are increasing in New England waters, and sharks follow their food, experts sayA fatal shark attack in Maine may be linked to rebounding shark populations after they faced near decimation 40 years ago along the New England coast, according to experts.Related: Maine tells swimmers to stay in shallow water after fatal shark attack Continue reading...

Most polluted census tracts in 1981 remained the most polluted in 2016 despite nationwide reductions in pollution, study saysWealthy white Americans are still getting to breathe cleaner air than lower-income communities of color, despite significant nationwide reductions in pollution since the 1980s, according to a new study.Fine particle pollution – which is 2.5 micrometers or smaller – has fallen an average of about 70% since 1981. But air pollution is not equally distributed around America. Continue reading...

Human-caused sea level rise, storm surges and high tides will put trillions of dollars of assets at risk around the world by the end of the centuryThe combined impacts of human-caused sea level rise, storm surges and high tides could expose an extra 23 million people to coastal flooding within the next 30 years, even with relatively ambitious cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, a new global study has found.In a worst-case scenario where emissions continue to rise and no efforts are made to adapt to the rising sea levels, coastal assets worth US$14.2tn – about 20% of global GDP – could be at risk by the end of the century. Continue reading...

After last summer’s deadly bushfires, Guardian readers have found tentative signs of renewal in the charred landscape

The pandemic upended the practices that typically keep Quail Hill Farm running smoothly. It’s emblematic of an industry-wide struggleOn the same day the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, Quail Hill Farm’s new director faced a problem.A group of AmeriCorps volunteers had just arrived on the Long Island farm, ready to get to work learning all the key facets of organic agriculture – but unlike most years, the farm could no longer safely house them. Layton Guenther was fresh on the job, and before they could devise a solution, the volunteers were ordered back home. Continue reading...

Global voices in the crisis say a US exit from the Paris agreement is damaging, but the fact no other country is leaving shows it can survive this ‘ultimate stress test’The origins of the world’s historic agreement to tackle climate change, in Paris in 2015, have some familiar themes. Back in 2007, there was a Republican president in the White House who had long been hostile to any action on climate change.George W Bush had refused to give US backing to a new global roadmap on the climate. Continue reading...

Fast food giant praised for owning up to extent of footpad dermatitis, which can prevent birds from walkingFast food giant KFC has laid bare the realities of chicken production after admitting to poor welfare conditions among its suppliers.More than a third of the birds on its supplier farms in the UK and Ireland suffer from a painful inflammation known as footpad dermatitis that in severe cases can prevent birds from walking normally.

First official endangered list includes wildcat, red squirrel, water vole and hedgehogA quarter of Britain’s native mammals are “at imminent risk of extinction”, according to the scientists who have compiled the nation’s first official Red List of endangered species.The 11 mammals include creatures of the mountains, woodlands and rivers, such as the wildcat, red squirrel, water vole, hazel dormouse and hedgehog. Continue reading...

About 800 million children, mostly in developing countries, ‘will have had risky exposure’One in three children around the world have concentrations of lead in their blood at levels likely to cause significant long-term health damage, new research has found.About 800 million children and young people under the age of 19 are likely to have blood levels of lead at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (5μg/dl), according to the report. Continue reading...

Kangaroo Island’s glossies were flourishing until the fires. Now the tale of one family’s survival has offered fresh hope

A roadmap for an optimal electricity market suggests gas prices will need to stay low to compete with alternatives on renewable gridNew gas-fired power is not essential for a grid increasingly based on renewable energy, and gas prices will need to stay low if it is to compete with alternatives, according to the government agency responsible for the electricity system.The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) has released a roadmap detailing what an optimal national electricity market would look like to 2040 if it was designed with a focus on security, reliability and the lowest cost for consumers. Continue reading...

Our investment in the transport and energy sectors falls far short of our neighbours’, write Dr Robin Russell-Jones and Dave Faulkner – and we are supporting airlines with no requirements to improve fuel efficiency

Individual efforts are important, but we need collective action and systemic change. And we can only get that at the ballotIn a world with so many problems, it’s easy to feel helpless. And particularly right now in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, quite alone. But even as we practice social distancing, we have an opportunity to work together to solve the greatest problem that humanity faces. No, I’m not talking about coronavirus. I’m talking about climate change.Related: I’m bewildered that Trump would imperil America by abandoning the Paris agreement | Ban Ki-moon Continue reading...

Measures include replacing 10% of Arnhem’s asphalt with grass to better cope with heat

Research has found feral cattle, horses, buffaloes and donkeys are destroying the habitats of smaller mammal speciesA sharp fall in native mammal numbers in the Northern Territory over the past 30 years is significantly due to feral cattle, horses, buffaloes and donkeys destroying their habitat, government-backed research has found.Related: Australia after the bushfires Continue reading...

Thousands apply yearly to travel Montana’s Smith River. Now anglers, ranchers and conservationists fear for its futureAnnick Smith was one of the lucky ones. This year, the 84-year-old writer and documentary film-maker took her first trip down the Smith River in western Montana.A lazy 59-mile float through deep limestone canyons, green meadows and pine forests that support the best brown trout fishery in the state, the Smith River is so popular it requires a lottery, the only one of its kind in Montana, to keep its fans from loving it to death. Continue reading...

Levels are still below those recorded before lockdown, says government advisory body

National Employment Savings Trust to shun firms involved in coal, tar sands or arctic drillingThe UK’s biggest pension fund, the government-backed National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) scheme with nine million members, is to begin divesting from fossil fuels in what climate campaigners have hailed as a landmark move for the industry.The fund will ban investments in any companies involved in coal mining, oil from tar sands and arctic drilling. But the move puts Nest – a public corporation of the Department for Work and Pensions – potentially at odds with the current pensions minister, Guy Opperman, who earlier this month condemned divestment as “counter productive”. Continue reading...

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Global Witness campaigners warn of risk of further killings during Covid-19 lockdownsA record number of people were killed last year for defending their land and environment, according to research that highlights the routine murder of activists who oppose extractive industries driving the climate crisis and the destruction of nature.More than four defenders were killed every week in 2019, according to an annual death toll compiled by the independent watchdog Global Witness, amid growing evidence of opportunistic killings during the Covid-19 lockdown in which activists were left as “sitting ducks” in their own homes. Continue reading...

Henry Dimbleby’s national food strategy starts with review of ‘slow-motion disaster’ diet, poverty, and post-Brexit lawsIt is a year since Michael Gove asked the businessman Henry Dimbleby to produce a national food strategy. In that time the coronavirus pandemic has brutally exposed the cracks in the British food system so the launch of part one of his review this Wednesday comes in a new and urgent context.After only a few weeks of lockdown three million people in Britain were in households where someone was forced to skip meals and go hungry. Continue reading...

Henry Dimbleby review exploring safe and affordable food aims at wake-up callHenry Dimbleby’s national food strategy argues that the Covid-19 crisis has brought into painful focus the flaws in the UK’s food system, especially its effect on the nation’s physical and mental health. As the UK regenerates its economy it also has an opportunity to rebuild its food system.The strategy review has two main focus points: addressing the “worst cracks” in the British food system that have appeared because of the pandemic; and finding ways of maintaining what it calls the UK’s high food standards after the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December and the country seeks new trade deals around the world. Continue reading...

The tribe purchased the 1,200 acre ranch near Big Sur as part of a $4.5m deal and will use it for educational and cultural purposesTwo-hundred and fifty years after they were stripped of their ancestral homeland, the Esselen tribe of northern California is landless no more.This week, the Esselen tribe finalized the purchase of a 1,200-acre ranch near Big Sur, along California’s north central coast, as part of a $4.5m acquisition that involved the state and an Oregon-based environmental group. Continue reading...

The government talks a good game when it comes to radical policymaking. But its failure to invest in a zero-carbon future tells a different storySenior figures in this government like to view themselves as insurgents against a hidebound Whitehall establishment. This is partly because Boris Johnson won the last election after pledging to “get Brexit done”, breaking the post-referendum stalemate in parliament. But it is also settled wisdom in Downing Street, and in the Treasury, that a more general shake-up is required of Britain’s body politic if it is to become more lithe and nimble, and get ahead of the game.More evidence of this desire to disrupt came on Tuesday in the form of a speech by Stephen Barclay, the chief secretary to the Treasury. Addressing a centre-right thinktank, Mr Barclay heralded a new era of state spending in which the ethos of Silicon Valley would inform departmental decision-making. In the spirit of west coast venture capitalists, government ministers and their civil servants would back schemes that took risks and which would therefore sometimes fail. The interminable delays and inveterate caution that have blighted government projects and investment would become a thing of the past. Inculcating this new Whitehall worldview is seen as fundamental to speedily delivering the “infrastructure revolution” promised by Mr Johnson at the end of last month. Continue reading...

Changes under consultation follow raft of cycling and walking announcementsAmid the storm of Covid-19, a raft of cycling and walking announcements has landed as part of the government’s attempt to promote a healthier population, save the NHS from collapse and fend off the worst outcomes from coronavirus.The plans, which were in the pipeline before the pandemic, are good news for anyone who wants cleaner, safer roads, and residential streets that do not moonlight as rat runs for short-cutting drivers. Continue reading...

We’ve turned a blind eye to a public health time bomb in already vulnerable communities“I Can’t Breathe” is echoing across the planet. Filled with anguish and pain, these haunting words are spotlighting the systemic racism that has infected unjust policing practices, putting black and brown communities in its crosshairs. As police take lives with chokeholds and asphyxiate others with knees on their necks, we are reminded that racism is literally killing our people and planet.Related: Is this the best of times, the worst of times, or both? Continue reading...

Exclusive: new research shows how black and brown neighbourhoods will be hit hardest by global heatingDangerous heatwaves are exacerbating systemic racial inequalities, with soaring temperatures expected to further disadvantage communities of colour if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, new research shows.Extreme heat is among the deadliest weather hazards humanity faces due to the climate crisis, which contributes to thousands of deaths in the US every year. Continue reading...

Top investment house delists world biggest meat producer over lack of commitment to sustainability issuesThe investment arm of northern Europe’s largest financial services group has dropped JBS, the world’s biggest meat processer, from its portfolio. The Brazilian company is now excluded from assets sold by Nordea Asset Management, which controls a €230bn (£210bn) fund, according to Eric Pedersen, its head of responsible investments.The decision was taken about a month ago, over the meat giant’s links to farms involved in Amazon deforestation, its response to the Covid-19 outbreak, past corruption scandals, and frustrations over engagement with the company on such issues. “The exclusion of JBS is quite dramatic for us because it is from all of our funds, not just the ones labelled ESG,” Pedersen said. Continue reading...

CSIRO scientists determined the type of shark involved after examining the life jacket worn by 10-year-old boy when he was grabbed from a fishing boatThe shark that grabbed a 10-year-old boy from a fishing boat off north-west Tasmania was likely a great white measuring about 3.5 metres, scientists have said.Lucas Arnott is recovering after the attack about 5km off the coast of Stanley on 17 July. Continue reading...

The fleet, found just outside a protected zone, raises the prospect of damage to the marine ecosystemEcuador has sounded the alarm after its navy discovered a huge fishing fleet of mostly Chinese-flagged vessels some 200 miles from the Galápagos Islands, the archipelago which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.About 260 ships are currently in international waters just outside a 188-mile wide exclusive economic zone around the island, but their presence has already raised the prospect of serious damage to the delicate marine ecosystem, said a former environment minister, Yolanda Kakabadse. Continue reading...

Owners hope the friendly shortfin eel, which delighted children in Whangārei for 35 years, made it out to sea during delugeA shortfin eel named Eel McPherson, who was beloved by a New Zealand city for 35 years, has bid bon voyage to its backyard pool and disappeared during a once-in-500-years flood.The eel was kept by a Whangārei man, George Campbell, for decades – first at a fish museum that he ran during the 1990s and later at his home – said Campbell’s granddaughter, Alyce Charlesworth. Continue reading...

Further beach erosion feared as Narrabeen and Wamberal north of Sydney hit by large wind-driven waves, and residents evacuated from 20 homes in Sussex Inlet

Decline in species such as salmon harms entire ecosystems and livelihoods, say researchersPopulations of migratory river fish around the world have plunged by a “catastrophic” 76% since 1970, an analysis has found.The fall was even greater in Europe at 93%, and for some groups of fish, with sturgeon and eel populations both down by more than 90%. Continue reading...

Report raises concerns around seawalls’ cost and effectiveness as low pressure system to batter NSW coastline with high tides and huge waves

Investigation portrays fossil fuel industry as common enemy in struggle for racial and environmental justice in AmericaBig corporations accused of driving environmental and health inequalities in black and brown communities through toxic and climate-changing pollution are also funding powerful police groups in major US cities, according to a new investigation.Related: Trump is using federal agents as his 'goon squad', says Ice's ex-acting head Continue reading...

Aurora Energy drops application to drill at Altcar Moss in LancashireA British fracking company has vowed to challenge the effective ban on shale gas projects after withdrawing its application for two wells in Lancashire.Aurora Energy Resources blamed the government’s “de facto ban on shale gas activity” for its decision to drop an application to frack at Altcar Moss in west Lancashire. Continue reading...

Photographs by employee appear to show company trucks being used to transport cattle from allegedly prohibited cattle farm

European countries are spending big to revive their economies, but they will have no legitimacy with young people if they ignore the climateThe future of Europe depends on climate action. This is the resounding message that young Europeans have delivered to their leaders over the past two years. To be sure, the wave of young climate activists across the continent, from Fridays for Future to Extinction Rebellion, is part of a global response to the climate crisis. But for the EU in particular, it is also a warning from a new generation of Europeans to their leaders: our European identity hinges on your climate policies.For our parents’ generation, the European Union defined itself as a protector of peace, a fortress against fascism and a society of (relative) social security. For our generation – we are in our mid-20s – this narrative does not resonate. We came of age in a Europe of crises: a financial collapse, a panic over migration, a surge of populism. These formative moments gave the lie to the notion of a united European identity. To many of us, the EU appeared less a project of democracy, diversity or solidarity than one of bureaucracy, xenophobia and fracture. What is more, Europe’s responses to these crises were hardly material for a new common narrative. Just the opposite: the responses were the crises. Continue reading...

The US will officially exit the Paris accord one day after the 2020 US election and architects of that deal say the stakes could not be higherIt was a balmy June day in 2017 when Donald Trump took to the lectern in the White House Rose Garden to announce the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, the only comprehensive global pact to tackle the spiraling crisis.Todd Stern, who was the US’s chief negotiator when the deal was sealed in Paris in 2015, forced himself to watch the speech. Continue reading...

The Paris agreement threw a lifeline to millions of people of color facing a premature death. Trump is tearing that awayIt’s official – in 100 days the United States will formally withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. The impact of Donald Trump’s decision, taken three years ago, is already being felt by environmental justice communities.Racism is the driving force behind why certain people and places face disproportionate environmental exposure to toxic substances, adverse climate change effects, Covid-19 infections and deaths. This raises the question: was withdrawing from the Paris agreement also a racist decision? How will this morally incomprehensible policy change affect Black, Latinx, Indigenous and other communities of color? Continue reading...

Donald Trump is taking the US out of the global pact on 4 November – so how will this affect the rest of the world?The world will be watching the US presidential election on Tuesday 3 November, but just 24 hours later is another hugely consequential news event when the US will formally leave the Paris climate agreement.The Trump administration set the withdrawal in motion with a letter to the UN, and, in a coincidence of timing, the US will exit the day after the election, joining Iran and Turkey as the only major countries not to participate in the agreement. Continue reading...

After decades of negotiations, all 197 nations in the world decided to voluntarily cut the heat-trapping pollution that is causing the climate crisis by signing the Paris climate agreement. Only a handful of countries have not ratified the deal.But on 4 November, in a coincidence of timing just 24 hours after its presidential election, the US will formally exit the agreement, joining Iran and Turkey as the only major countries not to participate in the pact, which is seen by many as the minimum effort the world needs to make on cutting emissions.The Guardian's environment reporters Emily Holden and Oliver Milman look at why Donald Trump wants to leave the agreement, whether the deal can be successful without the US and what is at stake for the planet without America's cooperation

Become a guest editor of the Guardian US during climate week 2020This September, the Guardian is teaming up with Covering Climate Now and some of the world’s leading news organizations to highlight the issue of climate change in the 2020 elections with a first-time voter takeover. The aim is to amplify the voices of a generation of Americans whose lives will be profoundly shaped by the climate crisis – and highlight what’s at stake in the election for young voters. Continue reading...

Poor quality data means the problem isn’t taken seriously enough warn its authorsMillions of wild animals are trafficked within and out of Brazil every year, a new report has found, with its authors warning that a lack of good quality data means the country’s illegal wildlife trade is not taken seriously enough, with grave consequences for biodiversity.“The information is very dispersed,” said the lead author, Sandra Charity, a biodiversity consultant who wrote the 140-page study with Juliana Ferreira from Freeland Brasil, a non-profit group combating the trade. Produced by wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, it called for a national strategy to combat the lucrative business. Continue reading...