Renewable energy up 9% on 2018 but nuclear outages are limiting progress, report warnsEnergy produced by the UK’s renewable sector outpaced fossil fuel plants on a record 137 days in 2019 to help the country’s energy system record its greenest year.The report by the Carbon Brief website found that renewable energy – from wind, solar, hydro and biomass projects – grew by 9% last year and was the UK’s largest electricity source in March, August, September and December. Continue reading...

The amount of liquid milk consumed per capita in the US has tumbled more than 40% since 1975The US dairy industry, the largest in the world, is under severe pressure as the consumption habits of Americans shift.Borden Dairy filed for bankruptcy protection, the second major US dairy to do so in as many months. Borden produces nearly 500m gallons of milk each year for groceries, schools and others. It employs 3,300 people and runs 12 plants across the US. Continue reading...

Regulations would limit projects that require environmental review and no longer require agencies to weigh climate impactsThe Trump administration is set to unveil new regulations which would limit the types of projects like highways and pipelines that require environmental review and no longer require federal agencies to weigh their climate impacts, sources familiar with the plan said.The proposed overhaul will update how federal agencies implement the bedrock National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa), a law meant to ensure the government protects the environment when reviewing or making decisions about major projects, from building roads and bridges, cutting forests, expanding broadband to approving interstate pipelines such as the Keystone XL. Continue reading...

Shift to gas saved more than 300m tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide levels droppedThe human toll from coal-fired pollution in America has been laid bare by a study that has found more than 26,000 lives were saved in the US in just a decade due to the shift from coal to gas for electricity generation.Related: The Guardian view on the bushfires: Australia needs a government with the right priorities | Editorial Continue reading...

Phasing out synthetic pesticides and fertilisers and aggressive emission reductions among series of solutions outlined by scientistsThe world must eradicate pesticide use, prioritise nature-based farming methods and urgently reduce water, light and noise pollution to save plummeting insect populations, according to a new “roadmap to insect recovery” compiled by experts.The call to action by more than 70 scientists from across the planet advocates immediate action on human stress factors to insects which include habitat loss and fragmentation, the climate crisis, pollution, over-harvesting and invasive species. Continue reading...

Communities vanished in 15th century after walrus hunted to near extinction, study findsThe mysterious disappearance of Greenland’s medieval Norse society in the 15th century came after walruses were hunted almost to extinction, researchers have said.Norse communities thrived for more than 400 years in the Arctic, hunting walruses for their tusks, a valuable medieval commodity. Continue reading...

More than 10,000 readers contribute to climate initiatives with just under a week to goWith just under a week to go, more than £750,000 has been donated to the Guardian and Observer climate emergency charity appeal, which supports projects planting and protecting trees, woodlands and forests.More than 10,000 readers have contributed to the appeal, which promotes environmental and social justice through natural climate solutions, from safeguarding rainforests in the Amazon to rewilding the Scottish Highlands and planting trees in Britain’s towns, cities and countryside. Continue reading...

Farmers blame ‘ecological emergency’ on inadequate treatment of sewageA gastroenteritis epidemic sweeping France has hit oyster farmers in Brittany after the virus was found in shellfish.Health authorities have banned the fishing and selling of oysters in the bay around Mont-Saint-Michel and other shellfish farming areas on France’s north-western coast until further notice. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison says the final cost of the Australia fires is likely to rival the $5.6bn for cyclone Yasi and the Brisbane floodsThe prime minister, Scott Morrison, has announced at least $2bn for bushfire recovery, as the government steps away from its pledge to deliver a budget surplus amid the ongoing crisis.Warning that the fires would keep burning over the coming months, Morrison said further government funds may yet be forthcoming as the economic toll from the horror fire season continued to rise. Continue reading...

Mike Kelly says civil defence corps needed to tackle bushfires and failure to act would be ‘most serious dereliction of duty in our history’The federal Labor MP Mike Kelly has called for a war-like national mobilisation effort to deal with the existential threat of climate change, warning that a failure to act would be the “most serious dereliction of duty in our history”.The member for the New South Wales electorate of Eden-Monaro, which includes huge areas of the NSW south coast and the Snowy Mountains where destructive bushfires continue to burn, has called for the federal government to establish a civil defence corps (CDC) that would operate as a national disaster response reserve, and said compulsory national service might be necessary. Continue reading...

Indonesian soldiers spray disinfectant to battle disease as death toll passes 60, with thousands more living in emergency sheltersMudslides and power blackouts have hampered the search for people missing in massive floods in Indonesia’s capital, where more than 60 people have died and some of the tens of thousands of evacuees are living in damp, cramped emergency shelters.More than 1,000 soldiers and health workers sprayed disinfectant in hard-hit areas on Sunday to fend off the spread of disease. Monsoon rains and rising rivers submerged a dozen districts in the greater Jakarta area after extreme New Year’s Eve rains, causing landslides in hilly areas on the outskirts of the capital that buried scores of people. Continue reading...

Kremlin website recognises global heating as a problem but lists ‘positive’ economic effectsRussia has published a plan to adapt its economy and population to climate change, aiming to mitigate damage but also “use the advantages” of warmer temperatures.The document, published on the government’s website on Saturday, outlines a plan of action and acknowledges changes to the climate are having a “prominent and increasing effect” on socioeconomic development, people’s lives, health and industry. Continue reading...

Coalition of community, fishing and marine protection groups says fish stocks need to recoverMarine conservation campaigners have called for trawlers to be banned from fishing within three miles of Scotland’s shoreline to help depleted fish stocks and seabeds to recover.The Our Seas coalition, which includes angling bodies, ecotourism firms, scallop divers, coastal communities and salmon conservation boards, believe a ban on inshore fishing would also help prevent illegal scallop dredging and trawling inside existing protected areas. Continue reading...

Japan aims to power region, scene of 2011 meltdown, with 100% renewable energy by 2040Fukushima is planning to transform itself into a renewable energy hub, almost nine years after it became the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident for a quarter of a century.The prefecture in north-east Japan will forever be associated with the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011, but in an ambitious project the local government has vowed to power the region with 100% renewable energy by 2040, compared with 40% today. Continue reading...

Berkeley’s new law targeting throwaway food packaging requires customers to go reusable or pay a feeThe next time Charles Bunch goes on a coffee break without his reusable coffee mug, he knows he’s going to pay for it.On 1 January, the city of Berkeley, California, where Bunch works, rolled out the nation’s most comprehensive law to fight throw-away food packaging. The groundbreaking new rules require restaurants and cafes to charge 25 cents for each disposable cup, make all to-go containers compostable and, starting in July, use reusable foodware, such as porcelain dishes, for customers who are dining in. Continue reading...

As millions cut out animal products, farming conference hears that fruit and vegetables have been drained of nutrientsAdvocates of red meat will begin a fightback against the growth of veganism this week at the UK’s biggest farming conference, with claims that eating lamb and beef is vital because some plants and fish are being drained of their nutrition.In a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, Alice Stanton will tell ministers, farmers and environmentalists that key nutrients in some fruits, vegetables and grains have dropped by up to 50% over 50 years. Continue reading...

Research for Oxfam shows inequality between footprints of people in UK and in countries including Rwanda, Ethiopia and MalawiThe average British person will have emitted more carbon dioxide in the first two weeks of this year than a citizen of any one of seven African nations does in an entire year.This is the key finding of an Oxfam project, published on Sunday, which discovered that someone in the UK will take just five days to emit the same carbon as someone in Rwanda does in a year. Continue reading...

Prime minister says communications breakdown left NSW fire authorities unaware army reservists called upThe prime minister, Scott Morrison, has promised an aid package for areas ravaged by Australia’s continuing bushfire crisis and says he will consider a royal commission into the deadly blazes, which have burned vast areas on the east coast.Speaking during a press conference the prime minister also said there had been a breakdown in communications with New South Wales authorities that left the Rural Fire Service and their Australian Defence Force liaison unaware army reservists had been called up to help with the fire effort. Continue reading...

Kangaroo Valley, Milton and St Georges Basin all faced fire after a ‘catastrophic’ day as 20 new fires sparked between Nowra and Batemans Bay“Right here we are the meat in the sandwich, so thanks for coming down.”And so began Mark Coombes’s briefing for a new shift of firefighters in Nowra. Continue reading...

Shane Fitzsimmons was ‘disappointed and frustrated’ to learn of prime minister’s reservists deployment plan from media reportsThe New South Wales RFS commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons, said neither he nor defence force personnel working from the state control centre were informed by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, of a plan to deploy 3,000 army reservists to assist in the bushfire crisis.Fitzsimmons was “disappointed and frustrated” to learn of the plan through media reports on Saturday when fire crews were battling the most challenging conditions to date in terms of the number of concurrent fires in NSW. Continue reading...

The past week has been marked by the refusal of public officials, including PM Scott Morrison, to recognise the scale of the crisisThe sky over Cobargo in New South Wales was still tainted yellow on Thursday afternoon when Australia’s prime minister arrived. For the past month, the country had been ablaze, and the village 240 miles south of Sydney and home to 776 people, had been hit hard.Standing in the crowd, Zoey Salucci McDermott, 20, eyed Scott Morrison coolly. She and her young daughter had lost her home in the fires, so when he extended his hand in greeting, she did not reciprocate. “I’ll only shake your hand if you give more funding to the RFS [Rural Fire Service],” McDermott said, holding back tears. “So many people here have lost their homes. We need more help.” The prime minister turned away. Continue reading...

Illegal dumping has surged by 50% since 2012 but powers to issue big fines are going unusedFly-tipping has increased by 50% in the last six years, prompting councils to call for much bigger penalties for offenders.More than a million incidents of illegal rubbish dumping were recorded in the financial year 2018-19, which cost councils £58m to clean up. Most incidents involved household waste being jettisoned from cars or vans by the side of a road. Continue reading...

The town, now only accessible by air and sea, has become a symbol of the unprecedented nature of Australia’s bushfire crisisAs they set out on a small landing craft, Nick Ritar could hardly see the mammoth, 180-metre-long HMAS Choules. The smoke was too thick.Days after Ritar, his partner, Kirsten Bradley, and their son, Ashar, hunkered down in a home as fires raged on the Victorian coastal town of Mallacoota, the Tasmanian family were among those rescued by the Australian navy. Continue reading...

Torrential rain has devastated the greater Jakarta region with dozens dead and tens of thousands evacuated from their homesThe death toll from floods caused by torrential rains in the Indonesian capital rose to at least 53 as rescuers found more bodies, disaster officials said on Saturday.The worst monsoon rains in more than a decade deluged Jakarta this week and rising rivers submerged at least 182 neighbourhoods while landslides on the city’s outskirts buried at least a dozen people. Continue reading...

The ABC has received overwhelming praise for its ‘vital’ emergency reporting, despite ongoing scorn from Murdoch-owned mediaSince Boxing Day, as bushfires raged across Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, the ABC has handled more than 100 emergency broadcasts in a single week, receiving widespread praise for the practical, life-saving information and the professionalism on display.The number of ABC emergency broadcasts for the first half of the 2019-20 financial year is already close to double that of the entire previous year. Continue reading...

Millions of animals have been killed in the bushfires, but the impact on flora and fauna is more grim even than individual deathsClose to the Western River on Kangaroo Island, ecologist Pat Hodgens had set up cameras to snap the island’s rare dunnart – a tiny mouse-like marsupial that exists nowhere else on the planet.Now, after two fires ripped through the site a few days ago, those cameras – and likely many of the Kangaroo Island dunnarts – are just charred hulks. Continue reading...

Actor Amanda Henderson answered ‘Sharon’ to Thunberg-related question on Celebrity Mastermind – and the teen activist loved itGreta Thunberg has been mocked and called many names since becoming the world’s most famous climate activist.Related: Greta Thunberg: 'I wouldn't have wasted my time' speaking to Trump Continue reading...

Herald Sun relegates bushfires to page 4 while Courier Mail brings good news via ‘Onion Oracle’The Australian, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship newspaper, has defended itself against criticism it downplayed unprecedented bushfires by failing to put a picture of the disaster on the front page of an edition, even as newspapers across the world featured the harrowing scenes.Many of the world’s leading mastheads featured pictures of the devastation of the Australian bushfires on page one on Thursday. But the Australian’s first edition ran an upbeat picture story about the New Year’s Day picnic races at Hanging Rock. Continue reading...

The pick of the best flora and fauna photos from around the world, from baby beavers to a coyote on camera Continue reading...

Man sacked by League Against Cruel Sports told he is entitled to equality protectionsAn employment tribunal has ruled that ethical veganism is a philosophical belief that is protected by law against discrimination.The ruling came in a case brought by Jordi Casamitjana, who claims he was unfairly sacked by the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), an animal welfare charity, after he raised concerns with colleagues that its pension fund invested in companies involved in animal testing. Continue reading...

Illustrated covers intended to highlight environmental impact of shootsVogue Italia will not feature any photoshoots in its January 2020 issue in a bid to make a statement about sustainability. The move is intended to highlight the environmental impact of photoshoots in print magazines.In his editor’s letter, Emanuele Farneti listed some of the resources it took to fill the September 2019 issue, the biggest of the year, with original photographs: “One hundred and fifty people involved. About 20 flights and a dozen or so train journeys. Forty cars on standby. Sixty international deliveries. Lights switched on for at least ten hours nonstop, partly powered by gasoline-fuelled generators. Food waste from the catering services. Plastic to wrap the garments. Electricity to recharge phones, cameras … ” Continue reading...

If banks destroy our homeland, they’ll have the Gwich’in Nation, and the millions of Americans who stand with us, to answer toLast fall, I traveled more than 4,000 miles from my home in Alaska to meet with major banks and urge them to help protect the Arctic national wildlife refuge from destructive oil drilling and exploration. In all the years I’ve worked to defend this place, we’ve been focused on trying to make our voices heard by leaders in the White House or in Congress, and I never thought I’d be sitting in a conference room on the 43rd floor of Goldman Sachs’ global headquarters in downtown New York, talking about the Arctic refuge.But times have changed. Since the day Republicans in Congress added a rider to the 2017 tax bill opening up the Arctic refuge’s coastal plain for drilling, we’ve known that we would have to move beyond our usual tactics, get creative and fight on every possible front to ensure that this place, which is sacred to my people and critical to our way of life, remains protected. Continue reading...

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Warning fresh milk supply could be curbed as East Gippsland in Victoria and NSW south coast brace for fires

Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation foreign editor says listeners were angry at the airing of ‘extremist views’The Israeli public broadcaster has come under fire from angry listeners after broadcasting an interview with Tony Abbott in which he said the world was “in the grip of a climate cult”.During the interview, recorded on 15 December while his home state of New South Wales was fighting terrifying bushfires, Abbott denied that carbon dioxide was driving global warming. The interview was broadcast on New Year’s Eve in a special show reviewing key international issues of the decade. Continue reading...

Millions of Americans make free online returns each year, contributing to greenhouse-gas emissions – and many items end up in landfillsMillions of Americans will head to the post office this month, unwanted holiday gifts in hand. But while it may be convenient to return that ugly sweater from your mom, that ease comes at a huge cost to the environment.Related: Iran crisis: Trump says Suleimani 'should have been taken out years ago' – live updates Continue reading...

Potential female mate spotted in habitat of wild male in east of countryA lone wolf in Belgium has a love interest, after a potential female mate was spotted in his habitat in the east of the country, authorities have said.The Flemish Agency for Nature and Forests (ANB) revealed this week the first images of a she-wolf it has christened Noëlla, who was spotted in the north-eastern province of Limbourg, bordering the Netherlands. Continue reading...

National park’s boss accused of using the issue of diversity to turn region into a ‘theme park’The head of the Lake District national park authority (LDNPA) has been accused of using the issue of diversity to push through commercial development schemes that would put the area’s Unesco world heritage status at risk.Richard Leafe, the longstanding chief executive of the LDNPA in Cumbria, said the park was too white and middle-class and called for change to make it more inclusive. Continue reading...

Experts predict green will be the colour of the decade, but industry’s eco awareness is still laggingThere’s nothing new about fashion using nature as its muse – see Miranda Priestley’s withering put-down in The Devil Wears Prada: “Florals for Spring? Groundbreaking.” This year, however, it’s not flowers but foliage that will have a major fashion moment.At the spring/summer 2020 collections several major brands have taken leaves and plants as their inspiration. Continue reading...

Cononish goldmine expected to produce enough ingots to kickstart cottage industryA small goldmine in the Highlands plans to start producing gold in commercial quantities for the first time after repeated delays.The mine at Cononish near Tyndrum, a village on the edge of Loch Lomond national park, is expected to produce enough gold to make nearly 440 ingots and kickstart a cottage industry in Scottish gold jewellery-making this spring. Continue reading...

Further steps have been taken to clean up beaches and seas in 2019 – but much more needs to be doneThe beach at Muncar on the island of Java was revolting. The 400-yard wide, mile-long stretch of sand was feet deep in foul-smelling sauce sachets, shopping bags, nappies, bottles and bags, plastic clothes and detergent bottles. Bulldozers had cleared away and buried some of the huge mat of plastic and sand two years ago, but every tide since then had washed up more rubbish from the ocean, and every day tonnes more plastic was washed down the rivers from upstream towns and villages. Now it was fouling the fishing boats’ propellers.“We fear for the future,” one elderly woman said. She remembered Muncar only a decade ago as one of the most picturesque towns in Indonesia and a tourist hotspot. “If it carries on like this we will be buried in plastic. We have no choice but to throw plastic into the rivers. Now we are angry. Something must be done,” she said. Continue reading...

At least nine people have died since Christmas Day, with the RFS urging people to evacuate the New South Wales south coast before dangerous conditions on the weekend

Poll for waste authority finds 83% of Britons have at least six items unworn for a yearClothes swapping or “swishing” is set to become mainstream this year, a poll predicts, as consumers try to reduce their waste amid growing awareness of the environmental impact of fashion.The research suggests 83% of Britons have at least six items of clothing in their wardrobe that they have not worn in the last year. Some admit to owning 200 items that they don’t wear. Continue reading...

Britain’s milder weather is attracting exotic guests. While we may celebrate their arrival now it should also alert us to what’s aheadMediterranean egrets balancing on the backs of cows, multicoloured moths the size of a human hand, and impossibly exotic bee-eaters hawking for insects under English skies. All are here as a direct consequence of the climate crisis, which has allowed continental European species to extend their ranges northwards, and then make the leap across the Channel to gain a foothold in southern Britain.Whenever I take a walk along the disused railway line across the Avalon marshes, near my Somerset home, I can’t help noticing these new arrivals. Tall and elegant, great white egrets first arrived here from France just a few years ago; now I encounter them every time I visit. Down the road, at the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Catcott Lows, flocks of cattle egrets – the same species we see in wildlife films from Africa – gather to feed, perched appropriately on the backs of cattle. Elsewhere on the marshes, secretive night herons and little bitterns have also bred in recent years. Continue reading...

Venerated indigenous leader speaks out on the threat posed by destruction of the rainforestAt close to 90 years old, Brazil’s most venerated indigenous leader, Raoni Metuktire, has returned to the spotlight to challenge the man he calls the worst president of his lifetime, Jair Bolsonaro.In an interview with the Guardian, the Kayapó chief said he wanted to speak out about the far-right administration’s plans to allow mining in indigenous territory and he warned that Brazil’s Amazon policies threatened global efforts to protect nature and address the climate emergency. Continue reading...

Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire: There was something monumental about these terracotta-coloured funnels, these magical vessels of rain-river-cloudAnd there they were, gone. We stood on the boathouse steps in Dale End park below the Albert Edward bridge, staring over the river into trees above which the four cooling towers of the power station loomed. Except that, now, they didn’t. We had come to see their absence, to look into the space where they had been, as had others. A small group of folks gathered at the riverside; I’m not sure what we expected to see. There was nothing to witness; the crowds that assembled to watch what television news showed as synchronised explosions wobbling the great towers like sloppy clay on a potter’s wheel had long gone. Dust had settled; lumps of Buildwas power station concrete were already on eBay; rain fell into the void.Perhaps we had seen them as landmarks, heard stories about construction workers falling to their deaths; stories about coal-fired pollution causing acid rain in faraway forests. Perhaps we had come to ponder dismantling symbols of an engineering genius that began here in Coalbrookdale in the 18th-century birthplace of the Industrial Revolution to become the leviathan of 21st-century climate chaos and ecological crisis. Buildwas power station was the last big working industrial structure in the Ironbridge Gorge, once fed by local coal and local people who spent their entire working lives here until it closed a few years ago. Continue reading...

Snow-capped peaks and glaciers discoloured as former PM says ash could accelerate glacial meltingSnow and glaciers in New Zealand have turned brown after being exposed to smoke, dust and ash from the Australian bushfire crisis.On Wednesday many parts of the South Island woke up to an orange haze and red sun, after smoke from the Victorian and New South Wales blazes drifted east on Tuesday night, smothering many parts of the island for most of the day. Continue reading...

President says the party’s young membership understands the risk if no climate change action is takenThe New South Wales division of the Young Liberals’ push for a change in the government’s climate policy was spurred on by a membership which understands the risk it faces if no action is taken, its president has said.The NSW branch passed a motion at the Young Liberal council in early December calling for a “practical, market-based means” for Australia to cut emissions by 30% of Kyoto levels by 2030, and provide energy market certainty. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology data shows average temperature record across the country beat previous high of 2013The year 2019 was the hottest on record for Australia with the temperature reaching 1.52C above the long-term average, data from the Bureau of Meteorology confirms.The year that delivered crippling drought, heatwaves, temperature records and devastating bushfires was 0.19C hotter than 2013, the previous record holder. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Concerns about groundwater security at Cherrabah overridden by Campbell Newman’s governmentQueensland government experts raised repeated warnings about the long-term sustainability of groundwater extraction at a southern Queensland property which has since been approved to operate as a commercial water mine.The approval for the 96m litre a year bottled water extraction operation at Cherrabah – in a severely drought-hit area where locals are on water rations and communities at imminent risk of running dry – has raised significant questions about the oversight and regulation of critical water resources in Queensland. Continue reading...