Environment | The Guardian

Retired Lt Gen Russel Honoré commands what he’s named the ‘Green Army’ against toxic pollution in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’Retired Lt Gen Russel Honoré knows a stupid plan when he sees one.

Crown Estate holds rights to seabeds around British Isles for wind and wave powerThe Queen’s property managers will this week set out terms for the world’s biggest offshore wind auction in a decade.Industry experts expect the complex bidding process to raise record sums, which could increase energy bills and hand a windfall to the crown – potentially generating hundreds of millions for the Queen. Continue reading...

Wood smoke smothers Coyhaique, Chile, in June and July. Yet despite the WHO ranking its air worst in the Americas, residents are reluctant to alter their habitsPhotographs by Claudio Frías“I was born and raised beside a roaring fire,” says Yasna Seguel proudly, as wet snowflakes tap against the kitchen window behind her and orange flames warm an outstretched palm. A tobacco-yellow stain soaks into the table cloth as she sets her mate gourd down to select a fresh log for the fire.Every evening through the bitterly cold winter months of June and July, the southern city of Coyhaique, the most populous in the region of Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, is smothered by a thick, fragrant blanket of damp wood smoke that clings to the hillsides. Continue reading...

US has offered close to 378m acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office through April 2019Donald Trump’s leases of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling could lead to the production of more climate-warming pollution than the entire European Union contributes in a year, according to a new report.The Wilderness Society estimates heat-trapping emissions from extracting and burning those fossil fuels could range between 854m and 4.7bn metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, depending on how much development companies pursue. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ‘Sneaky’ rezoning exercise now under way to address timber shortfallThe New South Wales government is considering reclassifying old-growth forest to open up some protected reserves in the state’s north-east to the timber industry.The Natural Resources Commission of NSW has been asked to remap and rezone old-growth forest in state forest informal reserves that were previously off limits to logging. Environment groups are concerned the move is an attempt to unpick forest protections that have been in place for decades. Continue reading...

If global trends continue for another fortnight, it will beat previous two-year-old recordRecord temperatures across much of the world over the past two weeks could make July the hottest month ever measured on Earth, according to climate scientists.The past fortnight has seen freak heat in the Canadian Arctic, crippling droughts in Chennai and Harare and forest fires that forced thousands of holidaymakers to abandon campsites in southern France and prompted the air force in Indonesia to fly cloud-busting missions in the hope of inducing rain. Continue reading...

Animal climbed over three electric fences and four-metre high barrier to escapeItalian forest rangers are on the hunt for a bear that has been described as an “escape genius” after managing to climb over three electric fences and a four-metre high barrier at a wildlife enclosure in the northern province of Trentino before disappearing into the woods.Code-named M49, the 149kg (23 stone) brown bear fled the Casteller centre within hours of being captured with a tube trap overnight on Sunday in Val Rendena. Continue reading...

Queensland department of environment to allege that document contained false and misleading information about land disturbancesThe Queensland government has started prosecution proceedings in relation to information in Adani’s annual return for its Carmichael mine.The Queensland government’s department of environment and science has commenced legal proceedings against Adani Mining under the Environmental Protection Act over claims it provided false or misleading information in its 2017/2018 annual return. Continue reading...

Politicians have chosen process over lives and the result has been rampant cancer in the region

Millions displaced in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, with Assam and Bihar among the worst-hit regionsMore than 100 people have been killed and millions more affected by devastating floods and landslides across parts of south Asia.Heavy monsoon rains over the past week have left many dead in Nepal and Bangladesh, and submerged vast areas of north-east India. Continue reading...

Implementation of ban ‘inadequate’ and has resulted in more waste, says Lord TeversonThe ban on the wasteful discards of healthy and edible fish at sea has failed, according to a Lords report. Despite its enormous popularity with the British public, the measure has been poorly implemented in the UK and the result is more fish being needlessly wasted.The implementation of the discards ban has been “inadequate” according to Lord Teverson, speaking to the Guardian after a report on the issue that he co-wrote. A committee of the House of Lords criticised the government in a report for failing to put the ban into proper effect. Continue reading...

Radical change needed to make UK food and farming system sustainable within 10 yearsThe true cost of cheap, unhealthy food is a spiralling public health crisis and environmental destruction, according to a high-level commission. It said the UK’s food and farming system must be radically transformed and become sustainable within 10 years.The commission’s report, which was welcomed by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, concluded that farmers must be enabled to shift from intensive farming to more organic and wildlife friendly production, raising livestock on grass and growing more nuts and pulses. It also said a National Nature Service should be created to give opportunities for young people to work in the countryside and, for example, tackle the climate crisis by planting trees or restoring peatlands. Continue reading...

Council in Victorian town to vote whether to re-home birds popular on social media, following reports of ‘intimidating’ behaviourA plan to relocate a flock of domestic geese in the Victorian tourist town of Daylesford has drawn concern from some local tourism operators, who say the geese are a popular Instagram drawcard.The Hepburn shire council will vote on Tuesday night on whether to relocate the 30-odd domestic geese, which have been living on Lake Daylesford in increasing numbers for several years. Continue reading...

Committee urges action over flame retardants found in breast milk and umbilical cordsBritons are being exposed to a “cocktail of chemicals” from the womb onwards, with potentially life-threatening consequences, MPs have warned.Ministers were accused of “sitting on their hands” while “unnecessary and potentially toxic” chemicals continued to enter people’s homes. Continue reading...

Meeting of carmakers also told of plan for new houses to have EV charging pointThe government has handed Jaguar Land Rover a £500m loan guarantee to help accelerate its progress in the global electric vehicle race.Theresa May said the loan would help Britain’s biggest carmaker sell the next generation of electric cars around the world. She told a meeting of industry leaders at Downing Street on Monday that the funding pot would include £500m from UK Export Finance alongside another £125m from commercial lenders. Continue reading...

Divers stayed close to giant animal for an hour before it swam awayA giant barrel jellyfish has been spotted off the coast of Cornwall by divers.“I’ve never seen one that big,” said Lizzie Daly, a biologist who saw the creature near Falmouth. “We had seen a few smaller jellyfish at a beautiful reef nearby, and then out of the murk came this huge, beautiful jelly fish. You just take a double look and ask yourself if it’s actually a metre and a half long.” Continue reading...

Former Greens leader says Robbins Island proposal could harm critically endangered birds and affect landscape’s natural beautyBob Brown, one of Australia’s most prominent environmental activists, says he opposes a major windfarm development because its towers will affect Tasmania’s natural beauty and could kill endangered wildlife without any economic benefit for the state.The former Greens leader said the $1.6bn Robbins Island development could harm migratory and critically endangered birds, and transmission lines to link the plant to a new power cable across Bass Strait would require a path to be cut through the Tarkine wilderness. Continue reading...

They’re cheaper than cabs, less effort than a bike and more convenient than buses. But as the number of e-scooter accidents rises, a backlash is growingMost of the people riding electric scooters around Copenhagen glide like swans, bodies motionless and serene with heads tilted into the sunshine.I am the ugly duckling, wobbling and jerking while I struggle to figure out exactly how this two-wheeled contraption works. Where do I put my feet? How hard do I thumb the accelerator? And how on earth am I meant to indicate left and press the brake with my left hand at the same time? Continue reading...

Ministers are expected to announce plans to bolster nuclear industry this weekThe government will set out plans to resuscitate the UK’s struggling nuclear ambitions with a new scheme which would leave taxpayers liable for rising costs or delays.The funding model, expected this week, could help bankroll the multibillion pound plans for a follow-on to EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, which ministers aim to build at the Sizewell site in Suffolk. Continue reading...

Prospectors in Russia dig up remains of extinct animals for trade worth an estimated £40m a yearActivists and officials in northern Russia have warned of a “gold rush” for mammoth ivory as prospectors dig up tusks and other woolly mammoth remains that can net a small fortune on the rapacious Chinese market.Melting permafrost from global heating has made it easier for locals to retrieve the remains of woolly mammoths, which have been extinct for thousands of years, and sell them on to China, where the ivory is fashioned into jewellery, trinkets, knives, and other decorations. Continue reading...

Labour in power would change law to reveal imported emissions and ‘carbon leakage’The UK will stop hiding its “true impact” on the climate by revealing its consumption of carbon emissions from across the world, Jeremy Corbyn was due to pledge on Sunday.In an attempt to place his party at the forefront of the battle against the climate crisis, the Labour leader was due to say, is “even greater than we think” and demands an end to “passing the buck to poorer countries”. Continue reading...

Ambitious export plan could generate billions and make Australia the centre of low-cost energy in a future zero-carbon worldThe desert outside Tennant Creek, deep in the Northern Territory, is not the most obvious place to build and transmit Singapore’s future electricity supply. Though few in the southern states are yet to take notice, a group of Australian developers are betting that will change.If they are right, it could have far-reaching consequences for Australia’s energy industry and what the country sells to the world. Continue reading...

Other events included mass bike ride through A10, Olympic park traffic blocks as well as talks and panels in London FieldsExtinction Rebellion has staged a blockade in Dalston, east London, disrupting traffic at its busiest central junction. Car horns, sirens and swearing competed with drumming protesters, singing and hula dancing. On Saturday the group kicked off a weekend of activity ahead of its summer uprising this week, which aims to disrupt five major UK cities and shock people into action against the climate crisis.About 50 protesters lined the road with banners reading “thank you for your patience” and “sorry for the disruption” in the hope of placating the public for the seven-minute intervals during which they blocked traffic. Some drivers were bored, others were furious. Continue reading...

More living walls are being created in cities to tackle pollution, but keeping them alive can be a major challengeWhen Andrea Carnevali’s son started at St Mary’s Catholic primary school in Chiswick he was alarmed to find that pupils were sometimes kept indoors at break times, despite a large playground.The reason was the nearby six-lane A4 road, which has up to 100,000 vehicles thundering past the school each day. As evidence mounted about the impact of poor air quality on children’s health, the headteacher restricted time outside. Continue reading...

Aruanas aims to make the environment an ‘everyday topic’ at a time when politics is dominated by the interests of agribusinessDeep in the Brazilian Amazon, an environmental activist meets with a journalist who warns that a mining company is responsible for a looming environmental disaster. “People are already getting sick,” he warns, before promising to bring her documentary proof the next day.But in the jungle, someone is watching. Driving to their next meeting, the activist hears a phone ringing in the back of her car. She opens the trunk – and finds the journalist’s dead body. Continue reading...

Campaigners say PVC used in footwear is made from fossil fuels and is difficult to recycleThe footwear equivalent of Crayola crayons and lunchboxes, the jelly shoe is back for the summer. But with most of the shoe made from PVC, it might seem an odd trend for our plastic-anxious times.Online searches for jelly sandals have significantly increased since April on global fashion search platform Lyst. The 82% month-on-month increase comes after the sandals dominated the season’s catwalks. At Alexa Chung they came elevated with jewels, while at Simone Rocha jelly sliders were decorated with feathers. There are plenty of high street versions available from Asos to Next and New Look, where prices start at around £6. Continue reading...

EPA said studies it considered, most of which were sponsored by industry, found sulfoxaflor isn’t dangerous for the pollinatorsThe Trump administration is approving the pesticide sulfoxaflor – thought by some experts to harm bees – for use on a wide variety of crops.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the studies it considered, most of which were sponsored by industry, found the chemical is not dangerous for the pollinators responsible for $15bn in US crops each year. Continue reading...

This week: Hungary’s insect of 2019, and bluehead wrasse courtship and sex change Continue reading...

More than 30 activists have been charged with a range of public order offencesMore than 30 Extinction Rebellion protesters have appeared in court in London charged with a range of public order offences.The charges relate to demonstrations led by the movement in April – when thousands of people blocked landmarks across the capital over 10 days to highlight climate breakdown. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Study shows associated damage to critical pumping muscles, even in childrenThe hearts of young city dwellers contain billions of toxic air pollution particles, research has revealed.Even in the study’s youngest subject, who was three, damage could be seen in the cells of the organ’s critical pumping muscles that contained the tiny particles. The study suggests these iron-rich particles, produced by vehicles and industry, could be the underlying cause of the long-established statistical link between dirty air and heart disease. Continue reading...

Mini replicas were previously discovered by environmental groups on beaches and in waterwaysColes is relaunching its Little Shop promotion with 30 new mini replicas, despite ongoing criticism from environmental groups about plastic waste.The promotion helped deliver the company record growth when it ran in 2018. Continue reading...

Fund donates £500,000 to grassroots Extinction Rebellion and other groups, with promise of more to comeA group of wealthy US philanthropists and investors have donated almost half a million pounds to support the grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion and school strike groups – with the promise of tens of millions more in the months ahead.Trevor Neilson, an investor and philanthropist who has worked with some of the world’s richest families, has teamed up with Rory Kennedy – daughter of Robert Kennedy – and Aileen Getty, whose family wealth comes from the oil industry, to launch the Climate Emergency Fund. Continue reading...

The native birds were bleeding from their mouths, according to rescuers at One Tree Hill near AdelaideNearly 60 native birds have died after they fell out of the sky in front of horrified onlookers and a nearby primary school in a suspected case of mass poisoning in South Australia.Bird rescuers said it was like “something out of a horror movie” as dozens of birds fell, bleeding from their eyes and beaks at One Tree Hill near Adelaide. Continue reading...

Species’ expansion threatens South Australia’s habitat and biodiversity, report saysAnimals including koalas and kangaroos could be culled in parts of South Australia, where high population numbers are damaging the landscape.A report from a parliamentary inquiry has recommended the state’s environment minister make an immediate decision to declare koalas, western grey kangaroos, long-nosed fur seals and little corellas overabundant in some areas. Continue reading...

Steep fines and social credit penalties face people violating complex waste sorting rules – but some say the answer is all about pigsFor the last two weeks, Shanghai residents have grappled with a singular question: “What kind of trash are you?”The question is aimed at the city’s daily 22,000 tonnes of household waste that, according to new rules implemented on 1 July, must be sorted into one of four colour-coded bins: dry, wet, recyclable and hazardous. Continue reading...

Highly contagious virus can live for months in processed meat and would have ‘devastating implications’ if passed to live pigsAfrican swine fever has been picked up in meat seized by port authorities in Northern Ireland, the first time the ASF virus has been detected in the UK.Officials confiscated more than 300kg of illegal meat and dairy products from airport passengers’ luggage in June. Samples tested by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in Belfast confirmed traces of the virus, which is highly contagious and can survive for several months in processed meat. Continue reading...

Drilling at Preston New Road is last-ditch effort to convince regulators to relax safety rulesThe first company to drill for shale gas in the UK plans to restart fracking at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire in a last-ditch effort to convince policymakers to relax safety rules.Cuadrilla will drill a second well near Blackpool after it was forced to abandon the first, which caused multiple earth tremors. Continue reading...

The Netherlands’ national airline urges people to ‘fly responsibly’ and to invest in its carbon-offsetting schemeDutch airline KLM has launched a campaign asking people to fly less. The video and open letter from CEO Pieter Elbers asks: “Do you always have to meet face-to-face?” and “Could you take the train instead?”The campaign aims to encourage travellers and the aviation industry to consider the environmental impact of flying. It describes the “shared responsibility” of travellers and airlines to “fly more responsibly”, and says those in the industry need to “create a sustainable future for aviation”. Continue reading...

Labor says deputy premier John Barilaro’s plan is outrageous while the Greens label it ‘criminal’New South Wales Labor has demanded Gladys Berejiklian rule out Liberal party support for a Nationals bill that would open up the Murray Valley national park to logging.The premier refused to comment on Thursday after the deputy premier, John Barilaro, vowed to de-gazette the park in the state’s Riverina region or reduce its size. Continue reading...

Groups say expanding access to contraception can improve lives and help save wildlifeA UN-backed campaign has been launched to help tackle the destruction of wildlife by boosting people’s access to contraception.Growing human populations often underlie the destruction of nature, and barriers to family planning are the “most important ignored environmental challenge”, say the campaigners. Continue reading...

Owners failed to assess environmental and community concerns, court rules, while US ambassador wades into debate in support of coal power

Restricted scheme would have far less benefit to UK economy, government data suggestsA comprehensive deposit return scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles, cans and glass could boost the economy by £2bn, government assessments show, as ministers weigh up which type of system to adopt.Government data highlighted by the Campaign to Protect Rural England indicates that a more restricted DRS involving only bottles of 750ml and under would benefit the economy by just £250m. Continue reading...

Survey finds holiday clothing is biggest extravagance, with consumers set to spend £700mBritons will spend £2.7bn this summer on more than 50m summer outfits that will be worn only once, a poll reveals.By far the biggest extravagance is new clothing for holidays, where consumers splash out more than £700m on 11m items bought for the trip which will never be worn again, according to research carried out by Censuswide for the charity Barnardo’s. Continue reading...

Coral bleaching, crown-of-thorns starfish and cyclones cause 10% to 30% decline over past five yearsHard coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef remains near record lows in its northern stretch and is in decline in the comparatively healthy south, government scientists have found.A report card by the government’s Australian Institute of Marine Science says hard coral cover in the northern region above Cooktown is at 14% – a slight increase on last year but close to the lowest since monitoring began in 1985. Continue reading...

Ankara hits back at Greek and EU officials and vows to press ahead with offshore operationsTurkey has hit back at Greek and EU officials, denying claims it is acting illegally by drilling for gas in waters off Cyprus.The country’s foreign ministry criticised EU condemnation of its efforts to tap the region for potentially lucrative energy resources, saying the bloc could not be considered an impartial mediator for the divided island. Continue reading...

By 2050, National Grid predicts, 35m electric cars will supply energy when neededA fleet of 35m electric vehicles could help the UK reach its net-zero carbon target by forming large battery hubs to store renewable energy, according to the country’s energy system operator.National Grid predicts that by 2050 millions of electric cars will use wind and solar power to charge up within minutes to act as battery packs for when the grid needs more energy. Continue reading...

John Barilaro wants to remove protection by either de-gazetting the entire park or reducing its sizeThe NSW deputy premier has vowed to introduce legislation to open up a national park in the state’s Riverina region to logging.John Barilaro wants to remove protection of the 42,000 hectare Murray Valley national park by either de-gazetting the entire park or reducing its size. Continue reading...

Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggestsAustralia could quickly solve the problem of Indonesia and other countries rejecting its waste if governments invested in recycling manufacturing as promised and required the use of recycled material in public projects, industry and environmental groups say.Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish. Continue reading...