Finning is still rampant in many countries due to diners’ appetite for the delicacy, despite attempts to shut down the tradeA rising demand for shark fin soup is wiping out more than 73 million sharks every year, fuelling a practice labelled the marine “gold rush”.Finning, when a shark’s fin is sliced off while at sea and the body dumped back into the ocean, is rampant in many regions – fins are one of the most expensive seafood items, ending up mostly in soup. The delicacy had been particularly popular in China but a nationwide conservation campaign saw consumption drop 80% since 2011. Continue reading...

New left-leaning government sets ambitious target as it plans major rise in public spendingFinland’s new left-leaning coalition government has pledged to make the country carbon neutral by 2035 as part of a policy programme that includes a major increase in public spending on welfare and infrastructure.The Social Democratic party leader, Antti Rinne, who formed the five-party alliance of centrist, leftist and Green parties after narrowly beating the nationalist Finns party in an election in April, said it was time to “invest in the future” after years of austerity. Continue reading...

Dutch capital steps its pro-cycling reputation up a gear with new regulations – and not everyone is happyConvoys of mopeds speed down Amsterdam’s bike lanes, beeping their horns and flouting their bare heads. This isn’t some strange Dutch festival, though. These were protests from some of the thousands of furious moped riders ahead of a new city regulation which came into force this week to force them out of bike lanes, on to main roads and into helmets.The cycling city of Amsterdam is stepping up a gear – with plans to ban petrol and diesel vehicles from the centre by 2030, the removal of 10,000 car-parking spaces, a hike in parking charges and a wide range of measures to take from the car and give to pedestrians, cyclists, green space and children. Continue reading...

From ‘painting on’ radiation sickness to making the explosion less ‘Die Hard’, the acclaimed drama has gone to great lengths to evoke the chaos and terror of the Soviet-era disaster

Exclusive: Midnight Oil, Cloud Control, Vance Joy and Regurgitator join FEAT., a new platform encouraging their industry to back sustainabilityIn the spring of 2017, immediately after the release of the Australian band Cloud Control’s third album, Zone, the band’s keyboard player, Heidi Lenffer, was contemplating what their upcoming tour would cost. But this time she wasn’t just thinking about the money; she was thinking about emissions. Independent bands are used to running on a shoestring budget – a carbon-conscious Lenffer wanted Cloud Control to run a more environmentally efficient operation, too.She began asking climate scientists in the field, and connected with Dr Chris Dey from Areté Sustainability. Dey crunched the numbers for Cloud Control’s two-week tour, playing 15 clubs and theatres from Byron Bay to Perth. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Medical experts say exposure to toxic fumigant EDB in fruit fly eradication program ‘likely’ to have caused illnesses• How Queensland government workers paid the price for fruit fly eradicationQueensland government biosecurity workers were exposed to a carcinogenic and gene-altering chemical for an extended period, including for six months after its use was banned amid health and safety concerns.Related: Slow poison: how Queensland government workers paid the price for fruit fly eradication Continue reading...

Nuclear could provide cheap energy but would only be competitive with gas and coal if carbon pollution is priced, nuclear association saysAustralia would need to adopt a carbon price for nuclear power to be economically viable, a peak lobby group for the sector says, as it welcomes a push by the Nationals for a fresh Senate inquiry into the idea.The Australian Nuclear Association, which advocates for nuclear science and technology, said nuclear power could provide cheap, reliable, carbon-free energy in Australia, but it would only be cost competitive with gas and coal generation if pollution was priced. Continue reading...

National academies say effects include spread of diseases and worse mental healthA report by experts from 27 national science academies has set out the widespread damage global heating is already causing to people’s health and the increasingly serious impacts expected in future.Scorching heatwaves and floods will claim more victims as extreme weather increases but there are serious indirect effects too, from spreading mosquito-borne diseases to worsening mental health. Continue reading...

Researchers spotted newborn off the west coast of British Columbia on 31 May as the last successful calving occurred in 2016A pod of endangered killer whales on Canada’s west coast has produced its first calf in three years, a promising sign for the ailing orcas.Researchers spotted the newborn calf off the west coast of British Columbia on 31 May as it swam with other members a handful of other whales. Continue reading...

Environment groups demand up to date figures to show ‘the full impact’ of the weaker lawsLand clearing in New South Wales rose by more than 50% in 2016-17, the year before the introduction of native vegetation laws that make deforestation easier.Environment groups are now demanding the government publish up to date figures on the extent of habitat clearing in the state “so the public understands the full impact” of the weakening of land clearing laws in 2017. Continue reading...

As relentless rain wreaks havoc in the farm belt, many struggle to copeEven with half of the houses on her street underwater, Dina Barker looked at the numbers and calculated that it was worth holding out.The rate at which water was pouring out of the rain-swollen Keystone dam less than 10 miles up the Arkansas River had been enough to submerge most of Barker’s neighbourhood in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, last week. But her house sits on a small rise just feet from the pop-up lake that rose in hours as the surging river broke the town’s flood walls. Continue reading...

Call for support for schemes moving people’s money from fossil fuels into renewablesPension schemes should be supported for moving people’s money out of fossil fuels and into renewables because the financial risks from the climate crisis are “too important to ignore”, a government minister will say on Monday.The pensions minister, Guy Opperman, is due to tell a conference that pension and investment managers must “do the right thing” and take their environmental and social responsibilities seriously to help combat the climate emergency. Continue reading...

A total of 272 whales were spotted last year, compared with five in 2011, thanks to legislation mopping up pollution, experts sayFor most New Yorkers, wildlife spotting is confined to squirrels, the odd raccoon and anguished encounters with rats. But in the waters surrounding the city a very different animal experience is quietly booming: sightings of whales.A total of 272 whales were spotted in New York City waters last year, according to the citizen science group Gotham Whale. That is an extraordinary leap from 2011, when just five of the huge cetaceans were witnessed frolicking near the most populated urban area in the US. Continue reading...

Greens warn the new emissions reduction minister could be in contempt of parliamentLabor and the Greens have demanded the government immediately release national greenhouse emissions data, and have warned the new emissions reduction minister could be in contempt of parliament for missing the deadline to publish the figures.Angus Taylor’s first act in his new role was to miss a Senate-set deadline on Friday for the publication of Australia’s emissions data for the December 2018 quarter. Continue reading...

Unfortunately, much scientific knowledge produced for climate policymaking is conservative and reticentThe second Morrison ministry contains no one with nominal responsibility for “climate” in any sense, despite the fact that it is the greatest threat facing the country. Angus Taylor, who spent much of his pre-parliamentary career fighting windfarms, claiming repeatedly that there is “too much wind and solar” in the system, is now minister for energy and emissions reduction. No mention of climate here, despite the fact that climate is what it is all about, or should be.Sussan Ley has been made the environment minister, but more intriguing, David Littleproud is minister for water resources, drought, rural finance, natural disaster and emergency management. Let’s take another look at this: water (or lack thereof) … drought … disaster … emergency management. Continue reading...

Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle tells US she would be more open to its interests in UN roleEurope’s candidate to run the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which guides policymakers around the world, has promised the US she will “not defend the EU position” in resisting the global spread of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).In a bid for US support, Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle told senior US officials at a meeting in Washington on 15 May that under her leadership the FAO would be more open to American interests and accepting of GMOs and gene editing, according to a US official record of the meeting seen by the Guardian. Continue reading...

Battery equipment that can make 600 cones an hour being trialled as concerns over diesel pollution riseThe Mr Whippys of Britain have not had the best start to the year. Ice-cream vans have been facing mounting criticism after campaign groups and parents complained they were delivering their vanilla cones and 99s with a topping of diesel fumes.This weekend, however, they are savouring a double helping of good news: not only have temperatures been soaring, helping to boost custom up and down the country, but an all-new, non-polluting electric ice-cream van may be about to hit the roads. Continue reading...

New road that requires demolition of homes and cultural spaces stirs fury in country where Greens recently surged in pollsThe cement mixer, decorated with disco ball glass, shimmered in the late afternoon sunlight, rotating gently as ravers danced at the foot of a Berlin bridge. Almost a thousand people showed up last weekend for what looked like an impromptu dance party but was actually a protest designed to draw attention to a €560m German government plan to plough a motorway through three Berlin city neighbourhoods.Despite the fact that German voters last week elevated the Green party to second place in the European parliamentary elections, the country’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrat politicians are moving ahead with plans to erect a six-lane highway that would require the demolition of several popular cultural spaces, nightlife venues and apartment blocks, plus part of a park. Continue reading...

Scotland’s whisky-makers reveal they had to halt production in 2018 heatwave because they ran out of waterScotland’s nature conservation agency last week painted an apocalyptic vision of a country devastated by the climate crisis, from polluted rivers to eroded peatlands and forests devoid of birds. Now comes a warning about another part of Scottish culture which could, it is feared, also be hit by global heating: whisky.Scottish distilleries have revealed that during last year’s blistering heatwave, they had to halt production because they ran out of water. In a summer marked by high temperatures and little rainfall, water levels in springs and rivers fell so low that in the Scottish Highlands some whisky makers missed up to a month’s production. Continue reading...

Helping the critically endangered mammal is vital because it’s the last survivor on its branch of the evolutionary treeSolenodons are some of Earth’s strangest creatures. Venomous, nocturnal and insectivorous, they secrete toxins through their front teeth – an unusual habit for a mammal. More to the point, the planet’s two remaining species – the Cuban and the Hispaniolan solenodon, both highly endangered – have endured, virtually unchanged, for the past 76 million years. Other related species have become extinct.And that makes solenodons very important, according to Professor Sam Turvey, of the Zoological Society of London. “They are the last fruits on an entire branch of the tree of evolution,” said Turvey, who was last month awarded one of the most prestigious awards in zoology, the Linnean medal, for his work on evolution and human impacts on wildlife. “There are no close counterparts to solenodons left on Earth, yet they have been on the planet since the time of the dinosaurs.” Continue reading...

Severe weather has spawned multiple tornadoes, flooding and even snow across America’s Midwest and Northeast Continue reading...

UK petrol station loyalty shifts as Nectar card is criticised for encouraging fossil fuel useA major UK consumer loyalty programme has been criticised by environmental campaigners for making Esso – whose parent company ExxonMobil has been under fire for its track record on climate change – its new fuel partner.Petrol company BP has axed its 16-year partnership with the Nectar loyalty card, which means that from Saturday the 20 million holders of the card – owned by Sainsbury’s – will no longer be able to earn points with BP and will instead pick up Nectar points at Esso-branded sites when filling up their tank. Continue reading...

About 70 creatures found washed up on coast of North America but federal agency believes it is a small fraction of total fatalitiesUS government scientists have launched an investigation what has caused the deaths of an unusually high number of gray whales found washed up on the west coast of North America.About 70 whales have been found dead so far this year on the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, the most since 2000. About five more have been discovered on British Columbia beaches. Continue reading...

Young people to hold day of action on Saturday highlighting lawsuit as youth-driven climate movement growsStudents in Austin, Texas, want you to veg out. Kids in Westport, Connecticut will screen a film. And in rural North Carolina, activists will draw on a toxic spill to commemorate the environmental justice movement.All of these rallies will be part of an international campaign on Saturday to spotlight environmental issues. Their message: I Am Juliana. Continue reading...

Terraforming holds the key to colonising Mars, writes Jan Miller. And we already have a sizeable nuclear fusion reactor, writes David E HankeI don’t agree with Philip Ball’s thesis (Life on Mars? Sorry, Brian Cox, that’s still a fantasy, 27 May) – ever since I studied planetary geology in the 1970s I have been excited by the idea of terraforming – if you read Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy you will find it eminently plausible. It’s not about leaving this planet because we have trashed it and starting to do the same on another planet, but about us having overcrowded it so badly that we have to move a large chunk of the population to a new planet where we can revive a dormant landscape into a new paradise. It is all about vision and political will – if we could get all the fanatical warlords on Earth just looking up at the potential of space – we can do it. That is how we will get the drive and the money to start the colonisation of Mars, just like the exodus to the New World in the 17th century.Yes there will be thousands of people who want to take the one-way trip, and yes there will be various religious fanatics and self-serving people among them; but the survival difficulties on Mars will be such that they will be forced to cooperate. And this time we will not be subjugating an indigenous population or an existing biosphere; we will be creating our own new one. CO to warm Mars will be generated by introducing plants and a new greenhouse effect from our activities. Just imagine!

While comforting to children, practice may help circulate rabbit virus RVHD2Burying dead pet rabbits in the garden is a sad, but consoling childhood ritual that many adults recall with fondness. No longer: rabbit owners are being warned that garden burials may be helping to spread a deadly virus across the UK’s rabbit and hare populations.The first cases of rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD2), which causes death by internal bleeding, were reported in the UK in 2013. It is believed to have spread among wild rabbits, and cases in wild hares have also appeared recently. Continue reading...

Britain has set a new record for going without coal-powered energy, but how long will it last and when will we ditch the dirty fuel entirely?Britain is setting new records for going without coal-powered energy. In the latest milestone, it has gone for two weeks without using coal to generate electricity – the longest such period since 1882. Continue reading...

England, Scotland and Wales went for two weeks without coal at 3.12pm on Friday

A frog, an albino panda and a ‘seabed garden’ Continue reading...

Exclusive: Companies bidding for public sector contracts must ‘put people and planet before profit’Companies bidding for public sector contracts will be forced to take radical steps to tackle the climate crisis under new regulations being proposed by the Labour party, addressing energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste.If elected, the party would force suppliers to “put people and planet before profit”, with the threat of losing contracts if they do not, in a stark redrawing of priorities for contract bidders. Continue reading...

Region’s likely new president Isabel Díaz Ayuso believes congestion is part of city’s cultural identityMadrid may be about to become the first European city to scrap a major urban low-emissions zone after regional polls left a rightwing politician who views 3am traffic jams as part of the city’s cultural identity on the cusp of power.Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who is expected to become the new Popular party (PP) president of the Madrid region, believes night-time congestion makes the city special and has pledged to reverse a project known as Madrid Central, which has dramatically cut urban pollution. Continue reading...

Conservationists say protection helps stop marine-damaging activitiesAn area nearly twice the size of England will become a “blue belt” of protected waters after the government created 41 new marine conservation zones.The short-snouted seahorse, the ocean quahog, ross worm reefs and blue mussel beds are among the species and habitats that will benefit from the new protections, although dredging and other damaging activities can only be halted in zones that lie within inshore waters, up to 12 nautical miles from the coast. Continue reading...

Environment department says process has been rigorous but critics warn approved plan puts bird at risk of extinctionThe Queensland government has signed off on Adani’s black-throated finch management plan, one of two state approvals the company needs to begin preparatory construction for its Adani coalmine.Queensland’s coordinator general published the decision on Friday morning. Continue reading...

Five-day marathon to state capitol leaves Reserve, where chemical factory presents greatest risk of cancer to surrounding communityDemonstrators in Louisiana stepped off on a five-day march on Thursday, demanding environmental justice for a region besieged by toxic pollution from chemical plants.The protest began just a few hundred feet from a factory in Reserve, Louisiana, that presents the greatest risk of cancer to the surrounding community of any in the nation, according to government data. Continue reading...

Some 13,000 sq km removed from conservation areas since 1997, researchers sayAustralian governments have slashed the legal protection of nature reserves in favour of business growth, a global study reveals.The country is one of 73 dropping the ball on land protection, according to the study, which was published in the journal Science on Friday. Continue reading...

Work related to groundwater research will need to be signed off as opponents say new government papers show mine is ‘not ready to go’Adani will not be allowed to dig any coal from its Carmichael mine until it gets further federal government approval – despite the Coalition’s pre-election green light for parts of the project.With Adani’s controversial project looming as a central issue in the federal election campaign, the Coalition made political capital in Queensland out of the decision in April by former environment minister Melissa Price to approve Adani’s groundwater management plans. Continue reading...

Exclusive: report reveals investment in the sector has halved in recent yearsThe number of jobs in renewable energy in the UK has plunged by nearly a third in recent years, and the amount of new green generating capacity by a similar amount, causing havoc among companies in the sector, a new report has found.Prospect, the union which covers much of the sector, has found a 30% drop in renewable energy jobs between 2014 and 2017, as government cuts to incentives and support schemes started to bite. It also found investment in renewables in the UK more than halved between 2015 and 2017. Continue reading...

The weather is wild, the tariffs are rising, and as frustration ripples through the Iowa corn fields, rural America is ready to confront its 2020 candidatesAaron Heley Lehman listened to the rain tap his window pane in the machine shed for two weeks, wondering when he would ever finish planting corn on his central Iowa farm, and watched the markets tank as Donald Trump blustered on in his trade war with China.Related: Robert Mueller breaks silence to insist he did not exonerate Trump Continue reading...

Louisiana wetlands are eroding faster than almost anywhere in the world – and endangering the wildlife that call them homeBiologists crouched in the mud squint past their headlamps at the secretive marsh bird.They have tramped through tall cordgrass for two hours, trying to stir the creature up by shaking cans of bolts and metal pellets. A few hundred feet away, the stretch of Louisiana marshland gives way to the Gulf of Mexico. Closer to their faces, mosquitoes swarm. Continue reading...

Without efforts to rebuild soil health, we could lose our ability to grow enough nutritious food to feed the planet’s populationThe world grows 95% of its food in the uppermost layer of soil, making topsoil one of the most important components of our food system. But thanks to conventional farming practices, nearly half of the most productive soil has disappeared in the world in the last 150 years, threatening crop yields and contributing to nutrient pollution, dead zones and erosion. In the US alone, soil on cropland is eroding 10 times faster than it can be replenished.If we continue to degrade the soil at the rate we are now, the world could run out of topsoil in about 60 years, according to Maria-Helena Semedo of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Without topsoil, the earth’s ability to filter water, absorb carbon, and feed people plunges. Not only that, but the food we do grow will probably be lower in vital nutrients. Continue reading...

We don’t talk enough about the street food scandal – leftovers chucked away without a second thoughtEvery day for the past month complete strangers have bought me lunch. And breakfast. And dinner. And they don’t even know it.I have been living high on the hog, and it hasn’t cost me a penny – because I have been dining out on the half-eaten fast food and takeaways thoughtfully abandoned by my fellow Britons on pavements and park benches and tube platforms all over the city. Sometimes they even leave them in bins. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former minister Ed Davey aims to broaden party’s appeal with climate focusThe former Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Ed Davey launched his bid for the party leadership on Thursday, pledging to fight a no-deal Brexit by working with remainers in parliament to make revoking article 50 the legal default if no agreement on leaving the EU is reached by October.Davey, the former secretary of state for energy and climate change, said he would make stopping Brexit the cornerstone of his leadership, but also said the party must broaden its appeal and that he would do so by focusing on the environment. Continue reading...

Press release from department said increasing export capacity is ‘critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world’America is the land of freedom, as any politician will be happy to tell you. What you don’t hear quite so often is that the stuff under the land is also apparently made of freedom as well. That is, at least according to a news release this week from the Department of Energy (DoE).Mark W Menezes, the US undersecretary of energy, bestowed a peculiar honorific on our continent’s natural resources, dubbing it “freedom gas” in a release touting the DoE’s approval of increased exports of natural gas produced by a Freeport LNG terminal off the coast of Texas. Continue reading...

Researchers believe 3,150 to 8,500 birds starved in Bering Sea due to loss of prey speciesThe death of thousands of tufted puffins in the Bering Sea may have been partly caused by the climate breakdown, according to a study.Between 3,150 and 8,500 seabirds died over a four-month period from October 2016, with hundreds of severely emaciated carcasses washed up on the beaches of the Pribilofs Islands in the southern Bering Sea, 300 miles (480km) west of the Alaskan mainland. Continue reading...

The metals are used to produce a number of goods, including mobile phones and camerasWhat are rare-earth metals?

Voracious fish are bleeding into ocean ‘like a cut artery’, says top marine biologistCyprus has held its first organised cull of lionfish after numbers of the invasive species have proliferated in recent years, threatening the Mediterranean ecosystem and posing a venomous danger to humans.“They’re actually very placid,” said Prof Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine biologist, after spearing 16 of the exotic specimens in the space of 40 minutes in the inaugural “lionfish removal derby” off the island’s southern coast. He added: “The problem is they are not part of the natural ecosystem and we are seeing them in plague proportions.” Continue reading...

Environment minister says recycling sent from Australia included plastic bottles that were ‘full of maggots’The Malaysian government will send back up to 100 tonnes of Australian plastic waste because it was too contaminated to recycle, but will not yet name the companies responsible.On Tuesday, Malaysia’s environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, announced that 3,000 tonnes of waste, sent from around the world, would be returned because it was either rotting, contaminated, or had been falsely labelled and smuggled in. Continue reading...

US foods are increasingly full of nano-scale additives, even as researchers raise alarm bells about their safetyFrance is clamping down on a common food additive that has been shown to be carcinogenic in animal studies. The ban of titanium dioxide, announced by the French government last month, follows a review that could not rule out human cancer risks.The ban is just the latest chapter in a long-running debate on the safety of widespread food additives known as nanoparticles, which are largely unregulated in the US. This suite of ingredients, engineered to almost atomic scale, might have unintended effects on cells and organs, particularly the digestive tract. There are also indications that nanoparticles might get into the bloodstream and accumulate elsewhere in the body. They have been linked to inflammation, liver and kidney damage and even heart and brain damage. Continue reading...

Hot summer favoured some rare bees but the spring freeze led to a poor year for 24 speciesLast year’s weather extremes, from snowstorms to drought, led to a tough year for many of the UK’s bumblebees, conservationists have said.But several rare species which emerge late and love hot conditions had a very good year, a report from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust reveals. Continue reading...