Environment | The Guardian

Administration opening areas off New England coast up to commercial fishing, a move experts say will hurt the environmentDonald Trump is easing protections for a large marine monument off the coast of New England, opening it to commercial fishing.But ocean experts caution that the rollback to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monument will hurt the environment and won’t help fishermen who are struggling during the Covid-19 pandemic and economic downturn to find buyers for what they already catch. Continue reading...

Experts say abundance of both common and rare species cause for celebration and concernRecord-breaking sunshine has encouraged midsummer butterflies to emerge unusually early, with dozens of species appearing a month before their usual flight season.Butterflies that usually fill meadows and woods in July, including the ringlet, the marbled white, dark green fritillary and the silver-washed fritillary have been widely spotted during the sunniest spring since records began in 1929. Continue reading...

Over $500bn is going to high-carbon industries undermining goals of Cop26 climate talksThe failure of governments and central banks to set out a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis is threatening to derail vital UN climate talks aimed at staving off global catastrophe, campaigners have warned.On Friday, the UK and the UN attempted to revive the stalled Cop26 climate talks, with a coalition of businesses committing to a Race for Zero, signing up to reduce their emissions to net zero by mid-century. Close to 1,000 businesses have joined the campaign, including household names such as Rolls-Royce and the food and drink majors Nestlé and Diageo. Continue reading...

Communities and advocates decry ‘backflip’ after years of planning for statewide framework to reduce toxic airThe Berejiklian government has abandoned a long-held commitment to adopt a statewide policy on air pollution after years of planning that included a state summit on the issue.The decision to drop a standalone clean air strategy has sparked anger from communities living near major sources of pollution, such as coal-fired power stations, who say without an overarching strategy they can have no confidence their air quality will improve. Continue reading...

Military called in to fire artillery rounds at wellhead in Siberia that has been ablaze for nearly a weekA Russian oil company has asked the military to bombard a wellhead fire with anti-tank artillery rounds in a last-ditch effort to extinguish the blaze after nearly a week.Russian troops will deploy to rural Siberia and fire shells from a 100mm anti-tank gun to cut off the wellhead and allow the oil well to be sealed, Russian state news agencies reported. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including hugging sloths and a lost whale Continue reading...

Activists welcome move but say government is still dragging its feet over crackdown on waste in lakes and waterwaysThe Malawian government this week ordered the closure of factories belonging to two major plastic producers for flouting the country’s plastics ban.The companies – OG plastics and City Plastics – were found to still be manufacturing thin plastics, often used to make plastic bags, despite a ruling last year that banned its production, import and use. Continue reading...

Record traffic for TreeTalk sparks global interest as users reconnect with the species that line their streetsAn online mapping tool featuring the location and species of more than 700,000 trees in London has had a fiftyfold increase in visitors to its site since the coronavirus lockdown measures were put in place.The founders of TreeTalk, which creates a walk specific to a user’s location and identifies trees on the route, say an increase in people spending more time at home getting to know their natural surroundings has led to a surge in interest. There are now calls to bring the app to other cities in the UK and abroad. TreeTalk is currently discussing a proposal with an east coast city in the US, while cities in Australia and India have also expressed interest. Continue reading...

Greenpeace report shows cattle indirectly sold to JBS, Marfrig and Minerva came from protected Serro Ricardo Franco park

British Airways, EasyJet, Wizz Air and Ryanair have taken £1.8bn from scheme so far

As current and former central bankers, we believe the pandemic offers a unique chance to green the global economy

High court now will determine whether a new hearing on expansion graziers claim threatens Darling Downs should be orderedQueensland farmers have been given a reprieve by the nation’s highest court in their decade-long battle to stop a coalmine expansion.But the company behind the controversial stage-three expansion of the New Acland coalmine says there is nothing stopping the state government from giving approvals for the project to go ahead. Continue reading...

Changes could hurt communities of color, which are more likely to live with pollution due to decades of environmental racismThe Trump administration continued to weaken core environmental protections in the US by announcing a pair of policies to cut reviews for large infrastructure projects and downplay the health benefits of rules to curb pollution.Both changes could disproportionately hurt communities of color, which are far more likely to live with pollution because of decades of environmental racism. They come after a week of nationwide protests over police killings of black Americans. Continue reading...

Ours to Save identified 308 species and subspecies but only 10% considered ‘globally secure’ or ‘apparently secure’There are few animals more iconically Canadian than the moose and the beaver, and few plants more closely associated with the country than the maple leaf.But while those species have long considered part of the nation’s ecological identity they are also found elsewhere. Continue reading...

Ruling says EPA ignored clear evidence that the new herbicide would cause widespread damage to cropsThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law in approving agricultural weedkilling products sold by Bayer and two other chemical giants, ignoring clear evidence that the new herbicides would cause widespread damage to crops, a federal court ruled on Wednesday.The decision by the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit invalidates the registrations for dicamba-based herbicides made by Monsanto, which is owned by Bayer AG, BASF and Corteva Agrisciences that are designed to be sprayed on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. The court order effectively makes it illegal for farmers to continue to use the dicamba herbicides this summer as they tend to millions of acres of crops. Continue reading...

Scientists find coronavirus crisis has had little impact on overall concentration trendCarbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen strongly to a new peak this year, despite the impact of the global effects of the coronavirus crisis.The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 417.2 parts per million in May, 2.4ppm higher than the peak of 414.8ppm in 2019, according to readings from the Mauna Loa observatory in the US. Continue reading...

Transport and Environment says airline industry bailout should have green conditions attachedInternational flights taking off from the UK must be taken into account in the government’s calculations on reaching net zero emissions as part of a “green” recovery for the airline industry, a transport thinktank has urged.The government has given loan bailouts to airlines totalling £1.5bn since the coronavirus outbreak, with no environmental conditions attached. Continue reading...

Investigation uncovers ties between financial institutions and three Brazilian firms connected to environmental destructionBritish-based banks and finance houses have provided more than $2bn (£1.5bn) in financial backing in recent years to Brazilian beef companies which have been linked to Amazon deforestation, according to new research.Thousands of hectares of Amazon are being felled every year to graze cattle and provide meat for world markets. Continue reading...

Nev Power answers Senate inquiry questions about a ‘perceived conflict’ given his corporate interestsThe former Fortescue Metals chief running Scott Morrison’s Covid-19 coordination commission, Nev Power, has distanced himself from a controversial leaked report recommending Australian taxpayers underwrite a massive expansion of the domestic gas industry.Appearing on Thursday before a Senate committee, Power said the report, revealed by Guardian Australia late last month, should not be considered the view of the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission. He intimated the report was a draft from the manufacturing taskforce that had been superseded by later advice. Continue reading...

Analysis by Yale and Columbia universities shows US lagging far behind other industrialized countries in a range of categoriesThe US is far behind other industrialized nations on environmental performance and now ranks 24th in the world, according to a new analysis by Yale and Columbia universities.Related: US lets corporations delay paying environmental fines amid pandemic Continue reading...

Media urged to make public aware of dangers associated with increasingly hot summersThe public is being lulled into a false sense of security about the UK’s increasingly extreme weather patterns by news and weather reports that present long, hot, dry spells as good news, according to scientists and campaigners.Experts say unusually dry and sunny conditions like those experienced in the UK over the past two months are too often framed as something to celebrate, with newspaper and TV reports featuring pictures of people sunbathing, playing in fountains or eating ice creams. Continue reading...

People with asthma and other lung conditions report decrease in symptoms, finds survey

Value of reserves could fall by two-thirds as Covid-19 hastens peak in demand, study shows

President lambasts power plant owner ‘for not reporting earlier’ incident bigger than Kerch spillVladimir Putin has ordered a state of emergency after 20,000 tonnes of diesel fuel spilled into a river inside the Arctic Circle.The spill occurred when a fuel reservoir at a power plant near the city of Norilsk collapsed on Friday. Continue reading...

Prince of Wales unveils a five-point plan to stimulate sustainable economic growth

The judgment against the agency could lead to forestry operations being assessed under national environmental laws for the first time in 20 yearsA landmark court judgment that a government forestry agency repeatedly breached conservation regulations has sparked calls for a review of an industry-wide exemption for logging under national environment laws.Last week the federal court found VicForests, a body owned by Victorian taxpayers, breached a code of practice in a regional forestry agreement (RFA) between the federal and state governments covering the state’s central highlands. Continue reading...

The Western Australian government rules against the oil and gas company over emissions at the Gorgon LNG projectOil and gas company Chevron could be required to pay for offsets worth more than $100m for carbon dioxide emissions released at a delayed carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in northern Western Australia, an analysis suggests.The state government last week ruled against Chevron over an emissions condition that applies to the company’s large Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) development on Barrow Island in the Pilbara. Continue reading...

Hundreds of thousands back farmers’ demands for law to protect food standardsMore than 250,000 people have signed a petition calling for a ban on cheaply produced low-quality food imports in post-Brexit trade deals.The National Farmers Union (NFU) is lobbying the government to ensure that imports from countries such as the US of food produced to lower standards than expected of UK farmers should not be allowed. Continue reading...

Too often, by default, black people are perceived as threats to white people’s physical safety. We need fundamental, consequential and absolute change

Risk is greater in rural areas, according to study of nearly 3 million births over 10 yearsLiving near active oil and gas wells during pregnancy increases the risk of low-birthweight babies, especially in rural areas, according to the largest study of its kind.Researchers analysed the records of nearly 3 million births in California to women living within 6.2 miles (10km) of at least one oil or gas well between 2006 and 2015. It is the first such study to look at birth outcomes in rural and urban areas, and to women living near active and inactive oil and gas sites. Continue reading...

‘We are seeing the end of coal,’ says analyst as energy source with biggest impact on climate crisis falls for sixth year in a rowSolar, wind and other renewable sources have toppled coal in energy generation in the United States for the first time in over 130 years, with the coronavirus pandemic accelerating a decline in coal that has profound implications for the climate crisis.Not since wood was the main source of American energy in the 19th century has a renewable resource been used more heavily than coal, but 2019 saw a historic reversal, according to US government figures. Continue reading...

Growth often doesn’t benefit the people who need it – a green economy could create 1 million jobsThe UK lockdown might be easing, but the path ahead for the economy will be long and difficult. Unemployment this quarter is likely to rise twice as fast as it did following the global financial crisis. Almost half of businesses that have taken up one of the government’s bounce-back loans do not expect to be able to pay it back.It’s tempting in a crisis to want to do whatever it takes to get economic activity – measured by GDP – back to where it was before. But an overwhelming and singular focus on increasing GDP would be a mistake. GDP figures do not tell us who is benefitting from growth. GDP does not tell us whether environmental resources – and nature – are being dangerously depleted, and does not reflect the value of caring, much of which is performed by women. Continue reading...

Cleaner skies were a silver lining of pandemic but data indicates air quality receding as lockdowns eased

Campaign to End Wildlife Trade has launched a campaign calling on Boris Johnson to support a global trade ban for wildlife at the G20 meeting of world leaders in November, to protect wildlife and help prevent future zoonotic pandemics.

Exclusive: lobby wants £1.5bn scheme to jump-start sector despite clean fuel pledgesThe UK automotive industry has been in confidential talks with the government over a possible £1.5bn scrappage scheme or “market stimulus package” that it insists should encourage the purchase of diesel and petrol cars on an equal footing with cleaner vehicles.The plans under consideration by industry and government would take £2,500 off the price of a car and put a further 600,000 new vehicles on the road. Continue reading...

Online shopping, home improvements and international workers going home are blamed for the wasteCouncils around Australia have seen a huge increase in volumes of household rubbish and dumping of waste triggered by a combination of more online shopping, home improvements, international workers returning to their home countries and a clearing out of unwanted possessions during the coronavirus lockdown.Streets across the country have been littered with items discarded by households either unable or willing to dispose of them any other way. Continue reading...

Researchers have found the rock has a self-sealing mechanism that keeps fluids locked awayWe need to find somewhere safe to dispose of high-level nuclear waste; a place where we can be confident it will be isolated and contained for hundreds of thousands of years. And if we want to keep a lid on global warming then we may well need to find a similar place to store carbon dioxide too. But where? Continue reading...

Agriculture department spent $95,000 on campaign for the Australian forestry industry promoting wood as ‘the ultimate renewable’A government promotion for the forestry industry that encourages Australians to “look up at the trees, think about wood” should be taken down after a recent federal court ruling on native forest logging, the Greens say.The department of agriculture paid a production company $94,875 last year to produce a series of videos aimed at promoting Australia’s logging industry as environmentally sustainable. Continue reading...

Coronavirus slump and sunniest spring on record send green energy soaringThe UK’s electricity system recorded its “greenest” ever month in May after running without coal-fired electricity for a full calendar month.The National Grid, the energy system operator, said the country’s sunniest spring on record helped generate enough solar power to reduce the carbon intensity of the grid to its lowest level ever recorded. Continue reading...

Durham-based firm says decision has been made because coal has ‘limited future’ in UKOne of Britain’s last remaining coalmine operators will put an end to all mining operations from next month because it is clear that coal has “a limited future” in the UK.Durham-based Hargreaves Services, one of the largest remaining operators of surface mines in the UK, told investors on Tuesday that it plans to wind down its UK mining operations in line with its long-term strategic plans. Continue reading...

The deaths in Mago National Park are unprecedented, say officialsPoachers have killed at least six elephants in a single day in Ethiopia, wildlife officials said on Tuesday, the largest such slaughter in memory in the east African nation.The elephants died last week, when they ventured out of the Mago National Park in the far south of Ethiopia to drink water, Ganabul Bulmi, the park’s chief warden, told reporters. Continue reading...

About 2,500 people evacuated, amid fears that leaking oil and gas has killed river dolphins and birdsAn oil well in the Indian state of Assam is still leaking gas “uncontrollably” after a blowout a week ago that it is feared has killed endangered river dolphins and birds and forced 2,500 people to evacuate their homes.For days authorities have failed to plug the leak from the well in the village of Baghjan after the incident on 27 May. The blowout – an uncontrolled release of oil and gas due to the failure of pressure control systems – sent a fountain of crude oil into the air, “unleashing a hell”, according to local accounts. Continue reading...

Data suggests that carmakers are making progress towards meeting emissions reductions targets

Companies could save billions, says report, as well as curbing carbon emissionsBuilding new solar power projects would generate cheaper electricity than running most of the world’s existing coal power plants, according to a global renewable energy report.New figures have revealed that more than half of the world’s coal plants could be undercut by the falling cost of new large-scale solar projects, which are now more than 80% cheaper to build than in 2010. Continue reading...

How the trappings of fame are causing problems for the placid mammal that has become a star of internet memes and InstagramNobody seems to know quite how the sloth became the rock star of the animal kingdom. From high in the Latin American rainforest, the absurd mammal is the focus of a frenzied obsession that shows no sign of abating. Sloths are on bank notes, adverts, T-shirts, internet memes and Instagram fan pages.“People are obsessed,” says Costa Rica’s president, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, when asked why people have fallen in love with the creature. “The sloth is quite a unique animal. It’s also very related to the forest. I believe it’s the elegance of the movement.” Continue reading...

Report also warns Australia will experience more extreme fire seasons due to climate crisisThe amount of pristine tropical rainforest lost across the globe increased last year, as the equivalent of a football pitch disappeared every six seconds, a satellite-based analysis has found.Nearly 12m hectares of tree cover was lost across the tropics, including nearly 4m hectares of dense, old rainforest that held significant stores of carbon and had been home to a vast array of wildlife, according to data from the University of Maryland. Continue reading...

Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon defends his call for ALP to adopt the Coalition’s target of 26-28% emissions reduction by 2030The Nationals senator Matt Canavan has been grilled over his criticism of action against climate change during an episode of Q+A where he was also asked to clarify his family’s links to the coal industry.In an episode that also featured opposition agriculture and resources spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon defending his call for Labor to adopt the government’s target of reducing emissions by 26-28% by 2030, and independent MP Zali Steggall attacking Fitzgibbon for his views on gas extraction, Canavan was pushed by host Hamish Macdonald about his “interests” in the coal industry. Continue reading...

Analysis shows 500 species on brink of extinction – as many as were lost over previous centuryThe sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating, according to an analysis by scientists who warn it may be a tipping point for the collapse of civilisation.More than 500 species of land animals were found to be on the brink of extinction and likely to be lost within 20 years. In comparison, the same number were lost over the whole of the last century. Without the human destruction of nature, even this rate of loss would have taken thousands of years, the scientists said. Continue reading...