Environment | The Guardian

Americans face existential challenges. The president has done nothing to help and much to make things worse

Plans to cut back expert staff, put treasures in storage and develop ‘more active, fun and useful experiences’ draw furyIt is an exquisite example of Italianate architecture, filled with classical paintings, sculptures and antiquities. Many of its 55 rooms have hand-painted ceilings; in one, an intricately carved dado depicts mermen battling with sea monsters.Kingston Lacy, a stately home built in Dorset in the 17th century and later remodelled as a Venetian palace, was acquired by the National Trust in 1982 and has 50 staff caring for its treasures. A tour of the house kicks off a six-part documentary on trust properties, National Trust Unlocked, presented by the architect George Clarke, starting on Channel 4 on Sunday. Continue reading...

Yorkshire Wildlife Park says Victor was euthanised after kidney failure diagnosis

Experts say they are concerned as two potential hurricanes head north – and coronavirus is complicating mattersTwo potential hurricanes are heading towards the northern Caribbean and mainland United States – with a third building in the Atlantic – in apparent confirmation of meteorologists’ predictions that the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season will become one of the worst on record.Related: US faces threat of two Caribbean storms hitting simultaneously as hurricanes Continue reading...

Cheshire-based facility will be world’s first to use bacteria-based recycling processesThe UK is to get its first commercial refinery for extracting precious metals from electronic waste, which will also be the world’s first to use bacteria rather than cyanide-based processes.A New Zealand startup, Mint Innovation, plans to open the facility within 12 months in Cheshire, in the north of England, after delays caused by the Covid-19 crisis. Continue reading...

Hartington site in Derbyshire will be allowed to eke out last of its coal over rest of year owing to pandemicFew in the small town of Staveley, near Chesterfield, could have predicted that an overlooked industrial site on its outskirts would play host to the end of thousands of years of coal mining in England.The Hartington site stands unassumingly within the green hills of Derbyshire where it produces a small handful of coal, in industry terms, alongside gravel and construction grit. It is also, by chance, England’s last open-cast coal mine in a history that dates back to Roman times. Continue reading...

The parties will vote in the Senate against controversial grant to Shine Energy, but are likely to be outnumberedLabor and the Greens will both vote in the Senate to disallow a $3.3m grant to Shine Energy to conduct a feasibility study into a new coal-fired power station in north Queensland.The grant to study the proposed Collinsville plant was promised by the Coalition before the 2019 election. It became controversial after Guardian Australia revealed it was awarded on an ad hoc basis, rather than via a competitive process, despite the project having been rejected by a separate electricity underwriting program. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos including rescued pangolins and hyacinth macaws Continue reading...

Exclusive: Cramped work and home conditions may be behind infections in factories, says expert

MV Wakashio has split in two and leaked 1,000 tonnes of oil into the water since it ran agroundSalvage crews were preparing to sink a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground off Mauritius, despite opposition from environmental campaigners.The MV Wakashio broke into two on Saturday, almost three weeks after hitting a reef and spilling 1,000 tonnes of oil into idyllic waters full of marine life. Continue reading...

Climate activists linked to Extinction Rebellion projected protest messages onto hull of the World vessel in Falmouth, Cornwall

In the last decade, amid drought and searing heat, California has entered the ‘era of megafires’ and has become the ‘examplar for climate change extreme events today’There’s an idea that when the climate crisis begins, we will know it. Movies present it as a moment when the world’s weather suddenly turns apocalyptic: winds howl, sea levels surge, capital cities are decimated. Climate messaging can bolster this notion, implying that we have a certain number of years to save the day before reaching a cataclysmic point of no return.Living in expectation of a definitive global break can blind us to the fact that gradually, insidiously, the climate crisis has already arrived. Continue reading...

Covid-19 led to 9.3% reduction in humanity’s ecological footprint compared with same period last yearThe rate at which humanity is consuming the Earth’s resources declined sharply this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to researchers.Consequently, Earth Overshoot Day, the point at which human consumption exceeds the amount nature can regenerate in a year, has moved back by over three weeks from 29 July in 2019 to 22 August this year. Continue reading...

Facilities experience jump in online traffic as people take to internet to view marine life

The Trump administration plans to allow oil and gas exploration in the Arctic sanctuary protected since the 1950s as the last fully intact ecosystem in the USBiologist George Schaller has traversed the Amazon rainforest, studied lions in the Serengeti and searched for rare antelope in Tibet, but for him nothing quite compares to a vast and little-known wilderness found in the north-eastern reaches of Alaska.Schaller first encountered the region in the 1950s, taking a canoe down the Colville River, a waterway that drains into the Arctic Ocean, and trudging across the bumpy tundra to excitedly document the astonishing trove of wildlife found in the last fully intact ecosystem left in the United States. Continue reading...

While resorts are deserted, 838 baby turtles have scuttled across a quiet Koh Samui and into the sea since February, making it a record yearWhen Kosum Kao-Uthai’s family noticed mysterious imprints in the sand outside the hotel resort they own in Koh Samui, she knew exactly which animal had paid a visit. She remembered spotting the same marks, left by a nesting sea turtle, when, as a teenager, she helped her father farm coconuts on the island.Kosum hadn’t seen another for five decades. Yet, this year, as the coronavirus pandemic emptied Thailand of tourists, nests belonging to endangered hawksbill and green turtles cropped up across the island. Since February, 838 baby turtles have scuttled their way across the island’s sandy beaches and into the sea, with two nests yet to hatch. Continue reading...

State-sanctioned felling is ‘based on a monumental lie’, former Greens leader saysThe former Greens leader Bob Brown has launched a legal challenge to native forest logging in Tasmania, claiming it is inconsistent with federal environment law.The case by the Bob Brown Foundation, lodged in the federal court on Thursday, challenges what has been seen as an effective exemption from environment laws granted to state-sanctioned logging under regional forest agreements between Canberra and the states. Continue reading...

Suncorp’s decision to pull out of industry by 2025 puts it at odds with government push for gas-led recoveryMajor Australian insurer Suncorp will end any financing or insuring of the oil and gas industry by 2025, adding to the group’s existing ban on support for new thermal coal projects.The insurer revealed on Friday it had already stopped insuring, underwriting or directly investing in new oil and gas projects and would phase out underwriting and financing existing oil and gas businesses by 2025. Continue reading...

The party has mysteriously toned down language on the climate crisis undermining enthusiasm for Biden’s green policiesUS climate activists had high hopes for the Democratic national convention, following substantial praise for a recently strengthened plan from nominee Joe Biden and his choice of Kamala Harris as a running mate.But a mysterious decision to dial back the party platform’s language on the climate crisis has deflated morale. A statement opposing the fossil fuel subsidies that are prevalent in US law was removed. Continue reading...

Once a year every resident of the state armed with a net has the right to a haul of the fish as they swim upriver to spawnHundreds of fishermen stood chest deep in the brisk Alaskan river. Each held a five-foot net attached to a long metal pole. The only sounds were the quacks of seabirds and occasionally a new angler plodding into the water and asking, “have you caught anything yet?”Down the beach, someone shouted, “They’re running!” As she and others began dragging their poles through the current they felt the familiar thumping of a sockeye salmon bouncing around in their nets. Continue reading...

Legend warns monarchy and building will crumble if resident birds flee fortress

Campaigners who say the striking desert plant is endangered hope the state will act but officials complain of ‘red tape’Efforts to win endangered species protections for the imperiled Joshua tree in California are encountering entrenched opposition from local officials, who say the added protections may prevent real estate development and economic growth.On Thursday, the California fish and game commission (FGC) will vote on a petition that, if approved, will grant the yucca plants temporary protected status for a year while the agency conducts a study. Continue reading...

The damage rising temperatures bring is been seen around the country, with experts fearing worse is to comeClimate change is not an abstract future threat to the United States, but a real danger that is already harming Americans’ lives, with “substantial damages” to follow if rising temperatures are not controlled.This was the verdict of a major US government report two years ago. The Trump administration’s attitude to climate change was perhaps illustrated in the timing of the report’s release, which was in the news dead zone a day after Thanksgiving. Continue reading...

In a nationwide blitz, gas companies and their allies fight climate efforts that they consider an existential threat to their businessWhen progressive Seattle decided last year to wipe out its climate pollution within the decade, the city council vote in favor was unsurprisingly unanimous, and the easiest first step on that path was clear.About one-third of the city’s climate footprint comes from buildings, in large part from burning “natural” gas for heating and cooking. Gas is a fossil fuel that releases carbon dioxide and far more potent methane into the atmosphere and heats the planet. It is plentiful and cheap, and it’s also a huge and increasing part of America’s climate challenge. Continue reading...

Officials seek to reassure public after world’s largest hydro-electric dam nears capacity amid heavy floodsExtreme floods have hit China’s Three Gorges dam, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history, prompting officials to assure the public it would not be breached.Inflows to the world’s largest hydro-electric dam reached 75m litres of water a second, according to state media. By Thursday morning, 11 outlets of the dam had been opened to discharge 49.2m litres of water a second, the largest release since its construction. Continue reading...

Erebus project in Celtic Sea adds to Queen’s multi-million windfall through expected auction of offshore leasesThe Queen’s property managers have given the green light to the first floating offshore windfarm to be built off the coast of Wales, as the UK’s wind industry prepares to power into the Celtic Sea.The Crown Estate granted two new leases for windfarms in Welsh waters on Wednesday, including the seabed rights for a demonstration project that involves installing floating wind turbines 27 miles from the shore. Continue reading...

Greta Thunberg has warned that we have wasted valuable time in the fight against global heating. We need Green New Deals

Families have been forced to give up prime spots to make way for council’s £2.4m environmental hubOn the promenade at Durley Chine in Bournemouth there’s a gaping hole where Stuart Smith’s family beach hut used to stand.After 13 years on the waiting list, and almost a decade of enjoying summers on the beach from the comfort of their 7ft by 5ft (2.13 metres to 1.5 metres) bottle green cabin, the family have finally been forced to give up their spot to make way for a £2.4m environmental innovation hub the council are building on the site. Continue reading...

The Pantanal wetland – home to the hyacinth macaw – is suffering its worst blazes in decades, most probably started by humansThe world’s biggest refuge for endangered hyacinth macaws has been devastated by a historic fire in the Brazilian Pantanal.The Pantanal, a vast tropical wetland straddling Brazil’s border with Bolivia and Paraguay, is currently suffering its worst fires in more than two decades, with nearly 12% of its vegetation reportedly already lost. Continue reading...

Campaigners ask authors of two reviews of TfL finances to look again at schemePlans to build a four-lane road tunnel under the Thames in London should be dropped as part of an overhaul of transport spending in the capital, campaigners say.Opponents of the proposed £1.2bn Silvertown tunnel scheme have written to the authors of two separate reviews of Transport for London finances, asking them to look again at the project. Continue reading...

Death Valley’s forbidding landscape registered a preliminary high temperature of 129.9F on 16 August. Don’t look awayHow hot was it at the Furnace Creek visitor center at Death Valley national park on 16 August 2020? It was so hot that the huge electronic temperature display (which serves as a ubiquitous selfie backdrop) went on the fritz. Parts of the blocky digital display malfunctioned, resulting in numbers even higher than the actual mind-melting high on what turned out to be a landmark day.An automated weather station at the visitor center recorded a preliminary high of 129.9F (54.4C) at 3.41pm PDT on Sunday. Even for heat-favored landscapes such as Death Valley, it is remarkable for temperatures to inch into such territory so late in the summer, when the sun is considerably lower in the sky than at the summer solstice in late June. According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, the previous global record high for August is 127.9F (53.3C), recorded in Mitribah, Kuwait, in 2011. Continue reading...

An unlikely alliance of ranchers and conservationists is working to find the best way to preserve biodiversity on grassland in OregonPhotographs by Leon WerdingerIn the north-east corner of Oregon there is a traffic jam of weathered pickups and horse trailers on the Zumwalt Road. Redwing blackbirds trill over the bellowing of hundreds of cattle clustered by corrals, the sign of a spring branding in progress. Half a dozen cowgirls and cowboys on horseback circle the herd, lassoing calves for brands, vaccinations and, for the steers, castration. The smell of singed hair hangs in the warm air.Standing in the centre of the scrum is Dan Probert, owner of Lightning Creek Ranch. Probert, 56, smiles as he watches the roping teams deftly manoeuvre his animals. Continue reading...

Two years on from her first school strike, activist attacks ‘ignorance and unawareness’

Rise in sea temperatures caused by climate emergency is transforming marine environment and affecting local speciesThe waters off Kyonan were once home to dense forests of seaweed – the ideal habitat for the prized abalone and sardines that support the town’s economy.Today, the seaweed beds are threadbare; in some places they have vanished altogether, to be replaced by coral that belongs in the tropics, not in this corner of Tokyo Bay. Marine life that depended on macro algae for survival is making way for fish usually found in waters much further south. Continue reading...

Report finds while 28 electric models are now on sale, including eight below $65,000, market share is still only 0.6% of new car salesSales of electric vehicles in Australia tripled in 2019 despite a lack of government support, according to the industry’s peak body.The country’s network of electric vehicle charging stations was also growing, the Electric Vehicle Council’s annual report found, including a rise in the number of faster charging stations that let drivers recharge a car in about 15 minutes. Continue reading...

Voiceover by ex-Buddist monk, Mindful Escapes hopes to boost viewers’ mental health during pandemicThe BBC’s new natural history programme will ignore the animal kingdom’s violent side and instead highlight nature’s calming elements, as part of an effort to boost mental health during the coronavirus crisis.Rather than focusing on the dramatic footage of life-or-death battles that has defined shows such as Planet Earth, the new series will feature footage of more tranquil animal behaviour – such as whales circling each other and elephants swimming for minutes on end. Continue reading...

The prime minister has an ambitious post-pandemic plan that would go against the wishes of powerful industries – and several provincial leadersWith a projected C$343bn (US$260bn) Covid-shaped deficit, a collapsing oil and gas sector, and a province on the verge of bankruptcy over a botched energy project, Canada is at a crossroads.Does it pursue an ambitious “green” post-pandemic economic recovery plan that goes against the wishes of a number of influential and powerful industries – not to mention several provincial leaders – or does the tenuous Justin Trudeau-led minority government freeze in the headlights? Continue reading...

UK National Oceanography Centre, which studied waters between Britain and Falklands, says action needed urgentlyMore than 10 times as much plastic has been found in the Atlantic ocean than previously estimated to be there, showing the the world’s plastic problem is likely to be much greater than realised.New measurements of the top 200m of the Atlantic found between 12 and 21 million tonnes of microscopic particles of three of the most common types of plastic, in about 5% of the ocean. That would indicate a concentration in the Atlantic of about 200 million tonnes of these common plastics. Continue reading...

Island nation declared stare of ‘environmental emergency’ after MV Wakashio ran agroundMauritius has arrested the captain of a Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground off its coast, causing an oil spill in one of the world’s most pristine maritime environments.“We have arrested the captain of the vessel and another member of the crew. After having been heard by the court, they have been denied bail and are still in detention,” Inspector Siva Coothen told Reuters. Continue reading...

Move follows pressure from investors but company stops short of full exit from coalminingBHP has announced it plans to sell off its thermal coalmines within two years as part of moves by the global mining giant to ready itself for a low-carbon future.The move stops short of a complete exit from coalmining because BHP will retain its stake in a venture that produces the higher coking coal used to make steel. BPH said coking, or metallurgical, coal will be in higher demand in coming years as steelmakers clean up their processes. Continue reading...

Magpies can recognise people and tend to swoop those they see as a threat, but with everyone in masks, they may struggle to distinguish individuals

Geographical features cause weather differences on shared mountainous island of HispaniolaHaiti and its larger neighbour the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola, which is in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, to the east of Jamaica and Cuba.Like other Caribbean countries, it has a pleasantly warm climate, especially on the coast. There are variations inland, depending on the altitude: the Chaîne de la Selle mountains rise to almost 2,700 metres (8,800ft) above sea level. Continue reading...

William Perry Pendley, who was nominated to lead the Bureau of Land Management, has claimed climate change doesn’t existIn a rare acknowledgement of defeat, Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of a highly controversial figure for a top environment post.William Perry Pendley is a conservative attorney and longtime opponent of public lands and wildlife protections who had been put forward to lead the Bureau of Land Management. It oversees 240m acres of public land and is charged with managing fossil fuel and mineral development while protecting conserved lands and endangered species. Continue reading...

Unless we contain carbon, our food supply will be under threat. By 2050, US corn yields could decline by 30%I know a stiff wind. They call this place Storm Lake, after all. But until recently most Iowans had never heard of a “derecho”. They have now. Last Monday, a derecho tore 770 miles from Nebraska to Indiana and left a path of destruction up to 50 miles wide over 10m acres of prime cropland. It blew 113 miles per hour at the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River.Related: Two dead and hundreds of thousands without power after wind storm batters US midwest Continue reading...

NFU predicts yields could be down by a third as extreme weather hits crops

Hundreds of workers fell ill after cleaning up America’s largest industrial disaster without proper gear. At least 50 have died. Twelve years later, they’re still waiting for helpThis story was produced through a partnership between Southerly and the Guardian, with support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.Doug Bledsoe opened his mouth to order sweet tea at the Ruby Tuesday in Powell, Tennessee, when he had his first seizure. Continue reading...

Supermarket says move follows evidence that reusable plastic bags are being thrown away after one useMorrisons is planning to ditch all its plastic “bags for life” following evidence that they are being used once and thrown away. The food retailer is running a trial in eight stores from Monday, which will see sturdy paper bags offered at checkouts instead.If the trial is popular, introducing paper bags only across all its 494 stores would save 90m plastic bags being used annually, the equivalent of 3,510 tonnes of plastic per year, the company said. Continue reading...

Grounded carrier has split in half and poor conditions make removal of ship’s remaining oil riskyInternational experts and thousands of local volunteers were making frantic efforts on Sunday to protect Mauritius’s pristine beaches and rich marine wildlife after hundreds of tonnes of oil was dumped into the sea by a Japanese carrier in what some scientists called the country’s worst ecological disaster.Related: Grounded carrier off Mauritius breaks apart risking ecological disaster Continue reading...

When a court in the Netherlands ruled its government’s actions unlawful, it inspired others to hold big polluters to account• Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the worldAt key moments in history, courts around the world have helped to accelerate social change – they have vindicated the demands of people fighting to end slavery, racial segregation and gender inequality. It should therefore come as no surprise that they are being called on to help resolve the biggest social and environmental crisis of our time: the climate emergency.The case against the government of the Netherlands powerfully illustrates what climate litigation can achieve. In 2015, the Hague district court issued a groundbreaking decision in response to a lawsuit filed by the Urgenda Foundation and 886 Dutch citizens, arguing that the government was failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough. The court agreed that the government’s actions were unlawful and ordered it to slash the Netherlands’ emissions by 2020. That decision was upheld by a court of appeal and ultimately by the supreme court of the Netherlands in 2019. Continue reading...