Environment | The Guardian

Scientists seek to reassure public as campaigners fear battle to reduce single-use plastic waste is losing ground

Exclusive: government must ‘seize the day’ to create jobs and tackle wildlife and climate crisesThe chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must “seize the day” and create a national nature service to restore wildlife and habitats in England, say a coalition of the country’s biggest green groups. It said the move would create thousands of jobs, a more resilient country and tackle the wildlife and climate crises.The coalition has drawn up a list of 330 projects that are ready to go, including flower meadows, “tiny forests” in cities and hillside schemes to cut flooding. It said a service to fund the projects and train workers would create 10,000 jobs and be part of a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Sir Mark Rylance, Neil Tennant, Brian Eno and head of Tate sign letter to governmentThe chiefs of scores of the UK’s foremost arts and culture organisations have joined the call for a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis, even as their own sector faces the biggest threat to its existence in modern times.Sir Mark Rylance, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, Brian Eno and the leaders of the Tate and National Youth Theatre are among those signing a letter asking the government to adopt green and carbon-cutting targets alongside its economic rescue plans. Close to 400 arts leaders and prominent individuals have now signed the letter, which will be presented to the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, this week. Continue reading...

With his regular haunts closed because of Covid-19, Mumbai photographer and naturalist Rizwan Mithawala turned his lens on his windowbox, capturing the life cycle of visiting red pierrots Continue reading...

Committee urges that companies must meet green standards to qualify for Covid-19 corporate bailoutsMinisters are bracing themselves for a powerful new rebuke from the government’s own advisers over the nation’s inadequate response to the climate crisis. In its annual progress report, to be published on Thursday, the Committee on Climate Change will lambast continuing failures by the government to tackle the issues of overheating homes, flash floods, loss of biodiversity and the other threats posed as our planet continues to overheat dangerously.Last year, the committee complained that no areas of the UK’s response to the climate crisis were being tackled properly. “The whole thing is run by the government like a Dad’s Army,” said the committee’s chairman, Lord Deben. Continue reading...

The fall in fuel use during the pandemic has caused Shell and BP to fundamentally reappraise their future profitabilityCoronavirus has dealt the fossil-fuel industry the biggest single blow in its history, and it is clear that 2020’s plummeting demand for oil and gas is no mere flesh wound. The global Covid-19 crisis may have already triggered a terminal decline for big oil.BP’s decision last week to reset its oil price forecasts for the next three decades was the latest tremor in a seismic shift for the industry. Its forecasts of a $75-a-barrel oil price over the next 30 years were scrapped in favour of an average price of $55. The watershed decision wiped more than $17bn from the value of its business at a stroke and could mean many of its untapped oil reserves will remain in the ground. Continue reading...

Sighting of critically endangered native rodent ‘a very happy moment’ for conservationistsThe critically endangered smoky mouse has been discovered alive and well in the Kosciuszko national park after it was feared the native species had been wiped from the area during the summer bushfire crisis.Motion-sensor cameras set up over the last five weeks have recorded images of the mouse at seven burnt-out sites in southern New South Wales. Continue reading...

Phosphate-rich runoff from free-range chickens is causing the spread of algal blooms that devastate the river’s ecosystemThe beauty of the River Wye has been acclaimed for centuries. “If you have never navigated the Wye, you have seen nothing,” wrote the travel writer William Gilpin 250 years ago. And its reputation still makes it a magnet for visitors who regularly vote it one of the country’s most beautiful rivers.But conservationists have warned that the Wye, which meanders south from the craggy peaks of mid-Wales to the lush pastures of the Severn estuary, is today under serious threat – and from an unusual source. They say the pollution from increasing numbers of free-range poultry farms near its banks is now seriously damaging the river. Continue reading...

Protest walk organised by Extinction Rebellion began in Birmingham and will stop off at protest sites on way to LondonEighty anti-HS2 protesters have started a 125-mile “rebel trail” along the route of the controversial HS2 high-speed rail link to highlight the damage they say it will do to wildlife and woodland.The aim of the protest walk, organised by Extinction Rebellion, is to try to persuade the government to halt the high-speed link. The walkers will travel through countryside, villages and local communities along phase one of the HS2 route to show solidarity with those opposed to the rail link and say the peaceful demonstration will raise awareness about the environmental damage they say HS2 will cause. Continue reading...

Agents on US-Mexico border seize thousands of plants illegally pulled out of the ground by criminalsSpecial agents in America have busted a smuggling ring on the US-Mexico border, but their haul is not drugs or the immigrants that President Donald Trump rails against with his “big beautiful wall”.These smugglers were trafficking something all together less high profile – so-called “living rock cactus” that grows uniquely on the arid plains of Big Bend national park in Texas. Continue reading...

Minefields left over from the Iran-Iraq war are one of the last bastions against illegal logging and poachingIn the spring, the Pirmagrun mountain, one of the world’s last refuges for the endangered Persian leopard, towers over the surrounding countryside in Iraqi Kurdistan, its rocky snow-capped peaks fading into an ancient oak forest that starts out sparsely before running into narrow, densely-wooded valleys.As recently as the 1980s, the forest covered the slopes of the mountain – also known as Birah Magrun – as well as the surrounding area, and the leopard was commonly seen by hunters. But intensive illegal logging means the forest now ends abruptly halfway down the mountainside, where it runs into a barren land studded by tree stumps and grazed by herds of goats. Continue reading...

Study says heatwaves, fires and floods, and rising sea levels pose major threat over coming years

While the $3.5bn project will quadruple the amount of electricity sent across Bass Strait, a final investment decision still remains three years awayIn a connected world, with scientists warning rapid emissions cuts are needed to address the climate crisis, the Marinus Link reads as an elegant solution.A proposed 1,500 megawatt undersea electricity cable between Burnie, in north-west Tasmania, and Gippsland in Victoria, it would quadruple the amount of electricity that can be sent in either direction across Bass Strait. Continue reading...

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including bears in the UK and a chops-licking fox in Russia’s far east Continue reading...

There was an average decrease of 31% in nitrogen dioxide levels on London’s roads

EPA claims federal government, states and public water systems have already taken steps to reduce perchlorate levelsUS environmental regulators have decided they will not put restrictions on perchlorate – a rocket fuel ingredient known to harm fetal brain development – in drinking water.The Environmental Protection Agency argued that the federal government, states and public water systems have already taken proactive steps to reduce perchlorate levels. Continue reading...

GreenLaw study finds public interest litigants are not abusing court processes to disrupt developmentsClaims that major developments are being regularly held up because of legal challenges to environmental approvals have been dismissed in new research.The research by GreenLaw, a research and policy group run by law students at the Australian National University, conducted an empirical review of public interest litigation in the federal court on environmental matters over the past decade. Continue reading...

Coronavirus has emphasised health, social, economic and environmental inequalities facing BAME peopleTackling systemic racism is fundamental to achieving environmental and climate justice, according to leading activists, as Covid-19 disparities and the global uprising against police brutality lay bare the ramifications of racial inequalities in every sphere of life.Related: One reason why people of color are dying at higher rates in the US? The air they breathe | Mustafa Santiago Ali Continue reading...

Stoves that produce pollutants known to make people sick can be donated to tribes and Appalachian communitiesWood heaters that US regulators have deemed too dirty to sell can now be donated to tribal nations and Appalachian communities, under a program organized by a trade group and the Environmental Protection Agency.Public health experts warn the donations could force more pollution on already vulnerable populations amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Wood-burning devices emit pollutants known to make people sick, including fine particle pollution and chemicals like benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Continue reading...

International Energy Agency chief warns of need to prevent post-lockdown surge in emissionsThe world has only six months in which to change the course of the climate crisis and prevent a post-lockdown rebound in greenhouse gas emissions that would overwhelm efforts to stave off climate catastrophe, one of the world’s foremost energy experts has warned.“This year is the last time we have, if we are not to see a carbon rebound,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. Continue reading...

Locals say the Sepik river region must be protected from ‘exploitation and destruction from outsiders’Chiefs from 28 haus tambarans – “spirit houses” – representing 78,000 people along Papua New Guinea’s remote Sepik river have formally declared they want a proposal for the country’s largest ever mine halted.PanAust, an Australian-registered miner ultimately owned by the Chinese state-owned Guangdong Rising Assets Management, has proposed building a gold, silver and copper mine on the Frieda river, a tributary to the Sepik. Continue reading...

Stricter wildlife protections will also clamp down on use of acoustic deterrent devicesSalmon farmers in Scotland will be banned from shooting seals and face tougher controls on using acoustic devices to scare them off under stricter wildlife protection laws.Scottish ministers are introducing the measures due to fears the US could ban Scottish salmon imports because killing and harming seals will breach US regulations protecting the welfare of marine mammals in the wild. Continue reading...

Armed militia members were out in force at demonstration when a protester was shot as he tried to bring down conquistador statue

Unusually high temperatures in region linked to wildfires, oil spill and moth swarmsA prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths.On a global scale, the Siberian heat is helping push the world towards its hottest year on record in 2020, despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading...

Government acquired just 10% of the land needed for one of the protected areas and none of the land required for the secondThe Victorian government has failed to protect critically endangered grasslands as promised under a deal with the federal government for the urban expansion of Melbourne, the state’s auditor has found.The Victorian auditor general’s report, published on Wednesday, investigated whether the state government delivered two reserves that were promised by 2020 as offsets for the development of new suburbs to support the city’s population growth. Continue reading...

Amid the coronavirus, calls have grown to ban the diverse US markets that stock and slaughter live animals. But is that wise?John Harry was in the mood for chicken curry, so he walked two blocks from home to pick out a couple of birds.His destination was a squat warehouse surrounded by auto body shops, a scrapyard, and a school bus depot in the working-class neighborhood of Richmond Hill in Queens, New York. Inside was riotously loud, with the cries of chickens, duck, quail, guinea fowl and the tender pigeons known as squab, jostling for space and pecking seed in tall metal cages. In another room was a pen with lambs and goats butting heads and chewing alfalfa. Continue reading...

Dry conditions following low spring rainfall have contributed to a rise in firesThe National Trust is urging people not to take a barbecue or light a campfire when they visit the coast and countryside following a spate of wildfires that have damaged flora and fauna.Despite recent rainfall, a record-breaking spring of sunshine has left many landscapes dry and created the perfect conditions for fires to ignite and quickly spread. Continue reading...

With no plans to raise clean energy investment, demand will soon reach pre-crisis levelThe world’s oil demand could climb at its fastest rate in the history of the market next year, and may reach pre-crisis levels within years, unless new green policies are adopted, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).The global energy watchdog has forecast that the world’s daily oil demand may climb by 5.7m barrels next year, the fastest annual climb on record, to an average of 97m barrels of oil a day in 2021. Continue reading...

The Guardian sports photographer Tom Jenkins follows up his popular take on tulips during the enforced break from action photography. Here he talks about how photographing a pair of long-tailed tits nesting in his front garden helped him through a difficult spring“Bum barrels twit on bush and tree

Letter cites growing evidence of link between dirty air and Covid-19 infections and deaths

Heat now causes more deaths than hurricanes, tornadoes or floods in most years, creating a new public health threat. An investigation reveals why the CDC’s prevention efforts have falteredThis story is co-published with Columbia Journalism Investigations, the Center for Public Integrity and Covering Climate Now. Read the full investigation here.Charlie Rhodes lived alone on a tree-sparse street with sunburned lawns just outside Phoenix, Arizona. At 61, the army veteran’s main connection to the world was Facebook; often, he posted several times a day. But as a heatwave blanketed the region in June 2016 – leading to temperatures among the highest ever recorded – his posts stopped. Three weeks later, a pile of unopened mail outside his door prompted a call to police. Continue reading...

We created a world-first atlas to help secure the country’s wine future. It shows that all 71 grape-growing regions must adapt to hotter conditionsMany Australians enjoy a glass of homegrown wine, and $2.78bn worth is exported each year. But hotter, drier conditions under climate change means there are big changes ahead for our wine producers.As climate scientists and science communicators, we’ve been working closely with the wine industry to understand the changing conditions for producing quality wine in Australia. Continue reading...

Giant tortoise, whose reproductive efforts almost single-handedly saved his species, has been moved to an uninhabited islandDiego, the giant Galápagos tortoise whose tireless efforts are credited with almost single-handedly saving his once-threatened species, has been put out to pasture on his native island after decades of breeding in captivity, Ecuador’s environment minister said.Diego was shipped out from the Galápagos national park’s breeding program on Santa Cruz to the remote and uninhabited Española. Continue reading...

Nine acres in Exmoor includes buildings, rivers and moorland linked to 19th-century taleIt is a place of wooded valleys, tumbling rivers and rugged moorland that was immortalised in the 19th-century novel Lorna Doone, a twisty tale of romance, murder and outlaws by RD Blackmore.The National Trust announced on Tuesday it had bought nine acres of land in Doone country, including farmhouses and cottages, and is hoping to encourage more visitors to explore this tucked-away area of Exmoor. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison’s announcement in wake of bushfires is ‘distressing’ and puts threatened species at risk, ecologists sayScientists have expressed dismay and frustration at Scott Morrison’s latest push to deregulate the environmental approval process for major developments, noting it comes just months after an unprecedented bushfire crisis and during a review of national conservation laws.In a speech on Monday, the prime minister said he wanted to slash approval times for major projects by moving to a streamlined “single touch” system for state and federal environmental assessments. Continue reading...

Oil company says it may be forced to leave some of its fossil fuel discoveries in the ground

Lise Kingo says social equality issues must be part of sustainable development agendaThe coronavirus pandemic is “just a fire drill” for what is likely to follow from the climate crisis, and the protests over racial injustice around the world show the need to tie together social equality, environmental sustainability and health, the UN’s sustainable business chief has said.“The overall problem is that we are not sustainable in the ways we are living and producing on the planet today,” said Lise Kingo, the executive director of the UN Global Compact, under which businesses sign up to principles of environmental protection and social justice. “The only way forward is to create a world that leaves no one behind.” Continue reading...

Already threatened with extinction, Wild Pacific salmon about to spawn in British Columbia are facing an uphill battle in the aftermath of a landslideWhen Gord Sterritt walked to the dusty edge of a cliff in western Canada last summer, he saw a disaster unfolding in the frothy waters below. In December 2018, a natural landslide had caused large chunks of rock to fall from the steep canyon walls that hem in the northern sections of British Columbia’s Fraser River.The crashing boulders – 75,000 cubic metres of rock – created an impassable barrier. But because of the remote location, the damage wasn’t discovered until the following June: just as millions of wild Pacific salmon were beginning to spawn up the river. Continue reading...

Agreement between parties to form government needs to be ratified by members

Court backs judgement that watchdog failed to establish the company’s claim on product was false or misleadingAustralia’s consumer watchdog has lost its appeal over a ruling that Kimberly-Clark had not misled customers when it said its wipes were flushable.In its 2019 federal court lawsuit, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission contended the wipes – moist towelettes – were not suitable to be flushed because they caused harm to sewerage. Continue reading...

The owner of the UK’s high-voltage network may cut returns to shareholders, but don’t bank on itSpare the briefest of thoughts for Britain’s capital-owning classes. FTSE 100 companies are forecast to pay out £9.5bn less in dividends to shareholders for the 2019 trading year, according to investing platform AJ Bell, as the coronavirus crisis ravages their income. That’s 11% less money going to shareholders’ pockets compared with the previous year.Some 48 FTSE 100 firms have announced some kind of reduction to, or suspension of, payments to shareholders, compared with 47 that have kept or increased them since the start of the year, AJ Bell says. Worse is expected, with National Grid’s delayed annual results statement on Thursday the latest date circled in red pen on the calendars of nervous investors. Continue reading...

Unlovely and unloved, vultures play a vital role as nature’s clean-up squad but are now one of the most threatened groups of birds on the planetIt’s hard to love vultures. Their bare-headed appearance, scavenging habits and reputation as the refuse disposal workers of the bird world rarely endear them to a public who prefer more conventionally attractive creatures. But amid growing fears that the birds are facing extinction, conservationists are calling for more to be done to save these unloved birds of prey.If this seems like old news, that’s because for some species it is. In the early 1990s, observers in India began to notice that vultures, which usually gathered in huge flocks around animal carcasses, were declining at an unprecedented rate. Continue reading...

Miyawaki forests are denser and said to be more biodiverse than other kinds of woodsTiny, dense forests are springing up around Europe as part of a movement aimed at restoring biodiversity and fighting the climate crisis.Often sited in schoolyards or alongside roads, the forests can be as small as a tennis court. They are based on the work of the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, who has planted more than 1,000 such forests in Japan, Malaysia and elsewhere. Continue reading...

London council accuses activists in Colne Valley of practising yoga and howling at the moon as part of latest injunction attemptHS2 protesters have been accused of practising early morning yoga, swimming naked in a lake and “howling at the moon” as a council seeks a high court injunction to stop direct action against the project.HS2 Rebellion activists say the legal action by Hillingdon council in west London is the latest in a raft of injunctions aiming to quash the campaign against the £78bn high-speed railway. HS2 is seeking the extension of a separate injunction to enable the eviction of campaigners from the path of bulldozers in west London. Continue reading...

Modelling suggests climate is considerably more sensitive to carbon emissions than thoughtWorst-case global heating scenarios may need to be revised upwards in light of a better understanding of the role of clouds, scientists have said.Recent modelling data suggests the climate is considerably more sensitive to carbon emissions than previously believed, and experts said the projections had the potential to be “incredibly alarming”, though they stressed further research would be needed to validate the new numbers. Continue reading...

Focus should shift to renewables to avoid risk of being stranded with fossil fuel infrastructure, AMWU national secretary says

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including storks on the Nile and a vermilion flycatcher Continue reading...

Nant Helen opencast site near Neath to be closed on environmental groundsA coalmining site in south Wales is facing closure after the Welsh government used new powers to force it to halt on environmental grounds.More than 150 jobs at the Nant Helen opencast site near Neath are under threat after the Labour-led administration stepped in, arguing that keeping the coal in the ground was in the best interests of the people of Wales. Continue reading...