Environment | The Guardian

A city more reliant than most on oil and gas reserves hopes to profit from a shift to net zeroAberdeen is one of the few cities in the world where your taxi driver is almost guaranteed to know the global market price for oil.It is the second week of March in the capital of the North Sea oil and gas industry and Aberdonians have witnessed one of the sharpest oil price slumps in a generation. The Granite City is still one week away from a market collapse even deeper than the 2016 price crash. Continue reading...

Animals are getting some peace and people are reconnecting with nature, but wildlife crimes may be going unnoticedMoles are daring to clamber above ground to hunt for worms, oystercatchers are nesting on deserted beaches, and overlooked plants such as ivy-leaved toadflax are gaining new friends.The shutdown of modern life as we know it is liberating British wildlife to enjoy newly depopulated landscapes. But conservationists say the impact is not all positive, with wildlife crimes going unreported and vital work including monitoring impossible to carry out. Continue reading...

A new campaign hopes to revive ‘critically endangered’ ancient techniquesClay pipe making, wainwrighting, tanning and making spinning wheels – all are skills of the past that can offer us a sustainable future. This is the message behind a drive, launched this spring, to preserve endangered traditional crafts in Britain.With a new award of £3,000 available, together with fresh support from outdoor pursuits company Farlows, the Heritage Crafts Association is calling for a renewed effort to save old skills and pass them down to the next generation. Continue reading...

UK urgently needs to fill 90,000 positions to pick crops that will otherwise die in the fields, warns charity

Shortages in funds, medicines and masks threaten charity work around the world

Actions taken to suppress coronavirus reveal what measures are possible in an emergency, say experts

Group calls for independent review of project it says would permanently damage Kosciuszko national parkEngineers, economists, energy specialists and environmentalists are calling for a final decision on the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project to be delayed to allow an independent review, claiming it will cost far more and deliver far less than has been promised.The group of 30 said the 2,000-megawatt pumped hydro storage project in the Snowy Mountains would permanently damage the Kosciuszko national park. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including a puma on the streets of Santiago, Chile Continue reading...

Rail contractors accused of using pandemic as cover to hasten ancient woodland destruction

Experts fear efforts to protect field agents from virus could lead to surge in deforestation

Extraordinary move signals to US companies that they will not face any sanctions for polluting the air or water

‘Vertical forest’ tower will have 10,000 plants on its facade in bid to reinvigorate biodiversity

The life – and this week’s sudden death – of the legendary wolf shone a light on the often-strained bond between humans and wild animalsWhen Doug Paton burst from his trailer on a warm spring afternoon, he expected to confront yet another stray dog agitating the livestock on his sister’s farm outside Victoria, a city on Canada’s west coast. Instead, standing barefoot in the grass, he found himself face to face with a wolf.“It stopped dead in its tracks and it stared me down,” he says. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the wolf trotted away, pausing once to stare back at Paton before clearing a five-foot metal gate and vanishing. Continue reading...

Heal Rewilding will find lower-grade land and let it recover naturally, rather than plantingA new national wildlife charity called Heal Rewilding is planning to buy ecologically depleted land across Britain and give it back to nature.The charity, which launches on Monday, is crowdfunding and will seek former farms, green belt or lower-grade land where wildlife can recover. The sites will be within easy reach of large towns and cities to benefit more people. Continue reading...

Air quality in big cities is likely to improve even more in coming weeks, say scientists

Articles from conservative groups argue plastic bags are safer for coronavirus than reusable bags, misrepresenting recent studies

Independent MP calls for approvals pause as Natural Resources Commission report shows more than 37,000ha approved last yearLand-clearing approvals in New South Wales have increased nearly 13-fold since the Coalition government relaxed laws in 2016, according to a secret report to the state cabinet by its Natural Resources Commission.The report, marked “Cabinet in Confidence”, was commissioned by the government in January 2019 under an agreement between the Liberals and Nationals to review land clearing if applications exceeded 20,000ha a year. The commission handed it to the government in July, but released it only after the Independent MP Justin Field threatened legal action. Continue reading...

Charity asks people to emulate Japan’s hanami custom and share images on social media

Airlines get $60bn bailout, but Pelosi’s proposal on halving of emissions by 2050 not included

More than a third of British electricity was generated by renewables in 2019The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions fell for a seventh consecutive year in 2019 after a record year for renewable energy, according to government figures.The provisional data, published by the government on Thursday, revealed a 3.6% fall in greenhouse gas emissions compared with 2018 and almost 28% from 2010. Continue reading...

Firefighters call for halt after fire set in readiness for grouse shooting spread out of control

Severity of damage has increased, with areas spared in previous years experiencing moderate or severe bleachingThe government agency responsible for the Great Barrier Reef has confirmed the natural landmark has suffered a third mass coral bleaching episode in five years, describing the damage as “very widespread”.The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said the assessment was based on information from in-water and aerial observations, and built on the best available science and technology to understand current conditions. Continue reading...

Climate change scientists planning to transcribe paper records from 1820s to 1950sWeather is a perennial British obsession, with some of the country’s rainfall and temperature records going back centuries. Some of this data has been invaluable in drawing up detailed pictures of the British climate, which have been influential in computer models used to forecast climate change.But some of it is still effectively unusable because it is marooned in reams of old-fashioned paper records. Now scientists at the University of Reading are planning to rescue these obscure rain gauge records, using citizen scientists to do the work. They hope that hundreds of people currently stuck indoors with little else to do will be inspired to join up to help digitise rainfall data for use by meteorologists and climate experts. Continue reading...

Army corps of engineers ordered to conduct full environmental review, which could take yearsThe future of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline has been thrown into question after a federal court on Wednesday struck down its permits and ordered a comprehensive environmental review.Related: Our fight against the Dakota Access pipeline is far from over Continue reading...

At least 10,000 people have signed up, but more than 90,000 jobs need filling

Jet stream appears to have stopped moving south and may be moving back towards normalInternational cooperation on ozone-depleting chemicals is helping to return the southern jet stream to a normal state after decades of human-caused disruption, a study shows.Scientists say the findings prove there is the capacity to heal damaged climate systems if governments act promptly and in coordination to deal with the causes. Continue reading...

Offshore windfarms and onshore projects in US and China fuel one of strongest years on record

Auditor general predicts drought in 20 years as demand rises and climate crisis reduces supply

Facilities thought to be 75% full with Saudi Arabia due to ramp up output as demand falters amid coronavirus shutdownsThe world may soon run out of space to store its extra oil as Saudi Arabia prepares to increase its fossil fuel production even as global demand for energy continues to fall due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Oil storage levels across the world’s storage facilities have climbed to about three-quarters full on average since the January shutdown of major refineries in China’s industrial heartlands to stem the outbreak of the coronavirus. Continue reading...

Renowned scientist Terry Hughes says huge swathes of reef have been affected in a ‘severe’ situationThe Great Barrier Reef has experienced a third mass coral bleaching event in five years, according to the scientist carrying out aerial surveys over hundreds of individual reefs.With three days of a nine-day survey to go, Prof Terry Hughes told Guardian Australia: “We know this is a mass bleaching event and it’s a severe one.” Continue reading...

Creatures are intelligent and patient but have been declared an endangered species along south coastMost of us are familiar with the remains of cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, large chalky internal shells that are washed up on beaches and sold in pet shops as a source of calcium for birds.This relative of the squid and octopus thrives in the seas around Britain and is caught in large numbers for our continental neighbours who regard them as a culinary delicacy. Europeans also use their ink as a colouring agent in food, ink and paint. Continue reading...

Activist says she self isolated and warns young people to take the outbreak seriously

Numbers of endangered primate thought to have shrunk by half in the last 36 yearsTwin ring-tailed lemurs have been born at a UK zoo.The endangered primates were born to mother Fiona and father Dog at Chester zoo on 2 March and have just begun to venture outside. Continue reading...

A female peregrine has been spotted on a balcony nest, but Sally, star of Springwatch, hasn’t been seenThe rollercoaster saga of the Salisbury Cathedral peregrine falcons is continuing this spring, with one bird protecting an egg on a balcony of the great building but another missing in action.A female that has been visiting the balcony regularly in recent weeks has laid one egg and can be viewed hunkering down on the nest via a cathedral webcam. Continue reading...

Campaigners urge governments to tie any bailouts to aviation and cruise industries to requirements for climate action

Descendants of the drug lord’s pets bear similarities to extinct megafaunaWhen the drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot dead in 1993, he left behind a zoo stocked with wild animals alongside his multibillion dollar cocaine empire. The lions, giraffes and other exotic species were moved from the luxurious Hacienda Nápoles estate east of Medellín to new homes, but nearly three decades later, dozens of hippos, descendants of animals left behind, are thriving in small lakes in northern Colombia, making them the world’s largest invasive animal.Now scientists say that contrary to the conventional wisdom that large invasive herbivore mammals have strictly negative effects on their new environments, Escobar’s “cocaine” hippos show how introduced species can restore a lost world. Continue reading...

Pot worth £700m raises holdings in renewable energy after cross-party campaignParliament’s pension fund has made record investments in renewable energy and cut its exposure to fossil fuel companies to bring MPs’ pensions in line with the government’s climate action targets.A report from the £700m pension fund showed that almost a third is now being invested in low carbon and environmentally sustainable funds following calls from hundreds of MPs to align the fund with the government’s legally binding climate commitments. Continue reading...

Major infrastructure projects highlight varying approaches to the coronavirus outbreak

Queensland snake catcher says 80kg albino Burmese python found in Oxenford is the largest he has come across in 27 yearsAs a seasoned snake catcher, Tony Harrison is used to the people the claiming there is a five-metre snake on their doorstep. But for the first time on Monday, the caller wasn’t exaggerating.“This was the largest snake I have come across in 27 years,” Harrison said. “The poor old lady who opened the front door to see it there got the fright of her life” Continue reading...

Plant part-owned by Trevor St Baker was registered with emissions reduction fund but review said it should not qualifyA push by power baron Trevor St Baker to access a Morrison government climate policy initiative to pay for an upgrade at a 42-year-old coal power plant has been rejected after a review found it should not qualify.As reported by Guardian Australia, the Vales Point coal plant in New South Wales was registered with the $2.55bn emissions reduction fund, the “direct action” policy introduced by Tony Abbott and extended by Scott Morrison, in August 2018. Continue reading...

Finding will come as boost to governments seeking to move to net zero carbon emissions

Possible slaughterhouse shutdowns and staffing issues put pressure on ‘vulnerable’ supply chains, as campaigners call for restriction of live exports

Anglo-Dutch oil giant to cut operating costs by $4bn and capital spend by up to $20bn

Once branded ‘rogue animals’, the elusive creatures were on the brink of extinction, but hope is rising for their survivalIt is a blistering day in the Senegalese coastal town of Joal and a group of biologists are standing in a motorised dugout canoe, scanning the cyan waters for floating manatee dung.Suddenly, a bobbing brown mass appears in the distance. Continue reading...

Abundant food thanks to mix of sunshine and rain helps species confound fears of declinesThe record temperatures of summer 2019 helped make it the best season for butterflies in 22 years, with more than half of Britain’s species increasing in number.Last summer delivered a winning combination of warmth, sunshine and rain which ensured that caterpillars fed up on lush plants before emerging as adult butterflies. Continue reading...

Slowdown in large-scale clean energy projects started before coronavirus crisis due to lack of state supportEurope’s energy storage boom stalled last year due to a slowdown in large-scale schemes designed to store clean electricity from major renewable energy projects, according to the European Association for Storage of Energy (Ease).A new study by consultants Delta-EE for Ease found that the European market grew by a total of 1 gigawatt-hours in 2019, a significant slowdown compared with 2018, when the energy storage market exceeded expectations to grow by 1.47GWh. Continue reading...

Planes will this week cover areas in the southern half of the reef that escaped earlier bleaching but may have undergone high levels of heat stressThe full impact of coral bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef will become clearer this week as aerial surveys of hundreds of reefs are completed in the bottom two thirds of the world’s biggest reef system.An aerial survey carried out last week over almost 500 individual reefs between the Torres Strait and Cairns revealed some severe bleaching of corals closer to shore, but almost none on outer reefs. Continue reading...

Indigenous species do not grow fast enough, so imports will have to be planted in their millions to offset emissions, expert warnsLast century the Forestry Commission sparked anger with a mass planting of conifer trees designed to provide a national reserve of timber because the shortages of the first world war had highlighted a national need.Now a leading expert is calling for similar action again, arguing that if the UK is serious about offsetting its carbon dioxide emissions it must plant tens of millions of trees from imported species on open land. Continue reading...

On World Water Day, UN warns that more than half the global population lacking access to safely managed sanitationDecades of chronic underfunding of water infrastructure is putting many countries at worse risk in the coronavirus crisis, with more than half the global population lacking access to safely managed sanitation, experts said as the UN marked World Water Day on Sunday.Good hygiene – soap and water – are the first line of defence against coronavirus and a vast range of other diseases, yet three quarters of households in developing countries do not have access to somewhere to wash with soap and water, according to Tim Wainwright, chief executive of the charity WaterAid. A third of healthcare facilities in developing countries also lack access to clean water on site. Continue reading...

The host of RuPaul’s Drag Race revealed recently that he leases the mineral rights of the 60,000 acres he owns in Wyoming to oil companiesRuPaul, of the beloved RuPaul’s Drag Race television show, said in a recent interview that he leases the mineral and water rights of his land in Wyoming to oil companies.In an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross on her show “Fresh Air” (the irony), Gross asked RuPaul about the 60 acres of land he owns in Wyoming. Continue reading...