Environment | The Guardian

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...

UN estimates indicate net greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 were 537 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalentAustralia’s greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise in 2018, according to a government report to the United Nations.The submission shows again that Australia faces a huge task in meeting its obligations under the Paris agreement despite the government’s insistence it has laid out “to the last tonne” how it will do this. Continue reading...

Analysis of EU commission figures found diesel cars clean up going at ‘snail’s pace’More than three quarters of the 43m cars tampered with in the Dieselgate emissions test cheating scandal are still on the road four years later.It will probably take another two years to recall the remaining 33m vehicles that were tampered with, according to analysis of unpublicised European commission figures which was released last week. Continue reading...

RepuTex modelling suggests surge in state schemes and rooftop solar will reduce wholesale prices, making gas- and coal-fired power less competitiveAustralia is on track to achieve 50% renewable electricity by 2030 even without new federal energy policies, according to modelling by the energy analysts RepuTex.The analysis, to be released on Wednesday, suggests that a surge in renewable energy driven by state schemes and rooftop solar installations will reduce wholesale prices from $85 per MWh to $70 over the next three years. Continue reading...

Researchers still fearful as approximately 10,000 to 15,000 are killed every yearElephant poaching rates in Africa are declining, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.The annual poaching mortality rate fell from a high of more than 10% in 2011 to less than 4% in 2017, but the researchers warned that current levels were still unsustainable and could spell trouble for the future of the animals on the continent. Continue reading...

Compulsory purchase – or the threat of it – of property on the route of a pipeline for fracked natural gas has left a slew of grievances and lawsuits in West Virginia and VirginiaIn July 2015, Neal Laferriere and his wife, Beth, purchased a home in Summers county, West Virginia. The first time they visited the property after purchasing it, they found stakes outlining what they would later find out to be the route for a gas pipeline.About two years later, representatives for the Mountain Valley pipeline approached the Laferriere family over the land rights to their property. “The land agent was saying if we don’t come to the table they would just take it via eminent domain,” Laferriere told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Tom Frazer plans to make water quality a priority in new role created by Republican governor Ron DeSantisTo say Dr Tom Frazer faces a daunting workload as he begins his new job as Florida’s first chief science officer would be an underestimation. From the increasing risk of ever stronger Atlantic hurricanes, toxic algae blooms that have inundated the state’s beaches and inland waterways, and rising sea levels that threaten to leave Florida underwater by the end of the century, the challenges appear immense.But where many see a five-alarm climate emergency laying siege to his state, Frazer, with a measured approach honed from more than three decades’ experience of working in environmental science, sees only opportunity. Continue reading...

If you care about what you eat, you should care about what it comes inThe internet cheered in December when Trader Joe’s announced it would take meaningful steps towards making its packaging more sustainable. The supermarket chain outlined a plan that included reducing and eliminating excess waste, using materials that could realistically be recycled and avoiding harmful substances. It’s the last part that medical and environmental activists are keeping an eye on.We’re just beginning to understand some of the short- and long-term risks associated with the chemicals in packaging: obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and other health issues. Some consumer advocates say phasing out some of the riskier substances that come into contact with our food is long overdue. Continue reading...

The recent news about glyphosate and cancer only highlights a broader problem with our system: our obsession with killing the natural world is poisoning usThe recent headlines announcing billions of dollars in damages to people who have gotten cancer after using Roundup are just the tip of a very large iceberg. There are over 1,000 lawsuits against Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, waiting to be heard by the courts. Beyond concerns about that specific glyphosate-based weedkiller, we should be talking about the innumerable other potentially punishing chemicals in our food system.After all, our food and our health are deeply connected. American healthcare spending has ballooned to $3.5tn a year, and yet we are sicker than most other developed countries. Meanwhile, our food system contains thousands of chemicals that have not been proven safe and many that are banned in other countries. Continue reading...

Australia faces crippling drought with low rainfall and dwindling dam levels, so it’s time to come up with new solutionsWater supplies across Australia are in dire states as the drought continues to bite. This week, stage one water restrictions were announced in Sydney, to take effect from 1 June, as well as tough new fines for those who flout them.New South Wales has been in drought since mid 2017, affecting 98% of the state, but drought has affected the whole country. Queensland, parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and northern Western Australia are all in drought, while water storage is down in all states. Continue reading...

RSPB study shows rats culling favoured nesting of puffins and shearwatersFor years, they were the scourge of seabirds seeking to nest on Lundy.But since rats were expunged from the island off the coast of Devon 15 years ago, the seabird population has trebled to 21,000 birds. Continue reading...

Rapidly falling water levels in Sydney’s dams have prompted the state government to bring in water restrictions earlier than expected

Energy minister effectively demands Labor back away from stronger emissions reduction target of 45%

Green politicians to push agenda urging climate action, social justice and civil libertiesEurope’s Greens, big winners in Sunday’s European elections, will use their newfound leverage in a fractured parliament to push an agenda of urgent climate action, social justice and civil liberties, the movement’s leaders say.“This was a great outcome for us – but we now also have a great responsibility, because voters have given us their trust,” Bas Eickhout, a Dutch MEP and the Greens’ co-lead candidate for commission president, told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Veteran Liberal MP is aiming to rid beaches of plastics, micro and nano plastics, but won’t commit to a banThe Liberal MP Warren Entsch has launched a crusade against single-use plastics as part of his new role as special envoy for the Great Barrier Reef.Entsch told Guardian Australia he was inspired by the 10-year-old campaigner Molly Steer – who convinced Cairns to phase out single-use plastics – comparing her example favourably with activists who he accused of “frightening the living Jesus out of kids” to recruit school students to climate strikes. Continue reading...

A report shows that the animal’s food supply shifted, causing them to travel farther for food and moving them closer to shipping lanesThe endangered North Atlantic right whale faces increased odds because its main food supply has shifted due to ocean warming, according to new research.Related: What’s the future for Sri Lanka’s ‘lost’ population of whales? Continue reading...

Only one female of the critically endangered species remains in the countryMalaysia’s last surviving male Sumatran rhino has died, wildlife officials have said, leaving behind only one female in the country and pushing the critically endangered species closer to extinction.Once found as far away as eastern India and throughout Malaysia, the Sumatran rhino has been almost wiped out, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Continue reading...

Experts on high alert for Xylella fastidiosa, believed to be spread by froth known as cuckoo spitScientists are calling for thousands of keen-eyed volunteers to report findings of frothy spittle, often called cuckoo spit and found on plants across the UK, in a pre-emptive strike against a deadly plant disease.Xylella fastidiosa, is described by the European commission as “one of the most harmful pathogenic bacteria worldwide”. It arrived in Europe six years ago and has already struck several countries, devastating olive groves in southern Italy, and spreading to other EU countries including parts of France and Spain. Continue reading...

Some Wangan and Jagalingou people oppose an agreement to extinguish native title over the Carmichael coalmine areaThe federal court has heard allegations of “slurs” and “surreptitious” tactics in the latest instalment of a legal battle by a small group of traditional owners against mining giant Adani.Some members of the Wangan and Jagalingou are appealing a federal court decision, which last year rejected their objections to an Indigenous land use agreement. Continue reading...

Highly prized for its swim bladder – served in soups and stews – the fish could disappear altogether from Africa’s Lake Victoria thanks to the lucrative tradeA thriving trade in fish maw – made from the swim bladders of fish – could lead to the extinction of the Nile perch fish in east Africa’s Lake Victoria.Demand for fish maw has spawned such a lucrative business enterprise in the region that it is raising concerns of overfishing. Continue reading...

Renault board reportedly plans to go public with partnership after a meeting on Monday morningFiat Chrysler and Renault are expected to announce on Monday that they are in talks on a potential tie-up, in a move that could address some of the main weaknesses of both carmakers at a time of transformation for the sector.The Renault board is planning to go public about the possible partnership after a meeting in the morning to discuss the deal, according to reports. Continue reading...

Commercial sales dip but environmental concerns make home yoghurt kits a growth areaSue Reed, who lives in Northumberland and runs a business knitting with recycled wool, has been making her own yoghurt for years. “We’ve been trying to live sustainably and frugally for a long time. We grow our own veg, try not to use supermarkets and were eating seasonally before it all became zeitgeisty,” she says. “You could say we’re hippies in the hills, but it really is so much cheaper and tastier to make your own yoghurt.”Reed is not alone. Store chains John Lewis and Lakeland both report a rise in sales of yoghurt-making products, and online retailer EasiYo says demand is up by 26% in the past year. Continue reading...

Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion demonstrators, many dressed as endangered animals, rally in BrisbaneAround 250 environmental activists have laid down among the dinosaurs at the Queensland Museum on Sunday, in the first large Extinction Rebellion event in Brisbane.Protesters, many dressed as endangered animals, laid on the floor of the museum’s Lost Creatures exhibit amid fossils and dinosaur reconstructions, including the state’s famous Muttaburrasaurus. Continue reading...

Australian science agency says there are a ‘negligible number of human deaths’ from snake bites in AustraliaThe popular suggestion that Australia is home to the world’s deadliest snakes is largely a myth, with the risk of bites and death far greater across Asia, Africa and South America, the nation’s science agency has said.Herpetologist Ruchira Somaweera from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said the myth was born a few decades ago and came out of a study of the relatively high toxicity levels found in Australian species, such as brown snakes. Continue reading...

For locals, the phenomenal success of this driving route means blocked roads, a racetrack mentality and mess, rather than the promised benefits to businessAt Bettyhill General Merchants, a convenience store and post office in a remote village on Scotland’s far north coast, perched above the spectacular dunes of Torrisdale Bay, owner Susan Malone is anticipating the summer tourist season with ambivalence.“There’s a sense among locals that the situation is going to get worse this summer. We’ve already had a much busier April and May than expected: I don’t think anybody realised how popular this [driving route] would become.” Continue reading...

Plantations are an excellent way to combat climate breakdown, writes Andrew Weatherall, of the National School of Forestry. And Rachel Kerr says heather moorland is rarer than rainforest and the underlying peat is more effective at carbon storage than treesThe Forestry Commission was established 100 years ago to create a “strategic reserve of timber” after Lloyd George stated “Britain had more nearly lost the war for want of timber than of anything else”. The UK is 50% self-sufficient in food, but only 20% self-sufficient in wood, so we still want timber more than anything else.Any call to redirect subsidies to restore woodlands is welcome (Use farm subsidies to rewild quarter of UK, urges report, 21 May). The Rewilding Britain report states: “Commercial conifer plantations should not be eligible, except where they are removed and replaced with native woodland.” This approach is understandable if the aim is to increase habitat for wildlife. However, plantations are an excellent way to combat climate breakdown, because the growing trees sequester carbon and the forests store it, just like in more natural woodlands, but harvested wood products also provide a carbon substitution effect when used instead of concrete or steel. Continue reading...

Albatross lovebirds, white storks in England and a walrus mother and baby Continue reading...

Organisers say more than 1.4 million young people are set to protest about the climate crisisHundreds of thousands of children and young people are walking out of lessons around the world on Friday as the school strike movement continues to snowball.Climate strikes were planned in more than 1,400 cities in more than 110 countries. Organisers say the number of young people taking part is set to top the 1.4 million people who participated in the global day of strikes in March. Continue reading...

Students around the world are walking out of lessons to demand politicians take urgent action on climate change

New timeframe for controversial Carmichael mine is ‘good news’, Queensland premier saysThe Queensland government has placed a three-week deadline on the final environmental approvals for the controversial Adani Carmichael coalmine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.The assessment and management plan for the endangered black-throated finch is due next week, on 31 May, and a decision on the groundwater management plan is due on 13 June. Continue reading...

Midway Atoll to be bombarded with rodenticide after scientists and volunteers discovered seabirds with open woundsMidway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean was the scene of a crucial naval battle in the second world war. It is now set for a very different sort of conflict – a bombing campaign to rid the area of mice.The US government is moving ahead with a plan to strafe Midway with poison aimed at eradicating mice that are on a deadly rampage through one of the world’s most important sites for seabirds. Continue reading...

Hunt is on in Melbourne for grassland earless dragon – not seen since 1969 – after one species was reclassified as fourA newly reclassified species of lizard that is native to areas now paved by Melbourne’s suburbs could become the first reptile on mainland Australia to be declared extinct.A taxonomic survey of the grassland earless dragon, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal this week, discovered that the species classified as Tympanocryptis pinguicolla was in fact four species – one of which has not been seen since 1969. Continue reading...

Eighteen-count DoJ indictment alleges Assange, who was arrested last month in London, ‘risked serious harm’ to America

Parents across Europe take action as air pollution found to restrict children’s lung growthAlmost every week our newspapers report new studies on the damage that air pollution does to our health and especially to children. For example, last November, researchers revealed reduced lung growth in children who lived in the most polluted parts of east London.In March 2018, a group of Belgian parents took action. Instead of going for coffee on a Friday morning, they closed the road outside their children’s school. They named their movement Filter-Café-Filtre. Over the next two weeks, another 42 schools joined in. Now parents and teachers in 21 cities meet each Friday morning. With hazard tape from DIY shops, banners and musical instruments, they close about 76 schools. Children play in the street and the parents drink coffee together to demand traffic-free zones, better walking and cycling routes and public transport so children do not have to be driven to school. Continue reading...

In some central and western areas on Murray-Darling no ground water can be accessed by bores, as dams run close to dryTowns in western and central New South Wales, including Dubbo, Nyngan, Cobar, Walgett and Tamworth, are facing a crisis in their water supplies within a few months unless it rains, prompting emergency planning by water authorities.And on properties throughout the Murray-Darling basin, irrigators are bracing for their water entitlements to be reduced to around 10% of their usual allocations, which will severely constrain agricultural production. Continue reading...

Vast quantities of carbon would be saved if the UK moved away from primary productionRecycling steel could provide a much-needed lifeline for the UK’s troubled steel industry, a new study has found, and have the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.Two-thirds of the steel currently used is made from primary production, and most of the remainder comes from off-cuts of the steel-making process, rather than recycled goods. The UK does not currently use all the scrap steel produced in the country, but global stocks of recyclable steel are expected to rise sharply in the coming decades. Continue reading...

Global general strike on 20 September could be historic turning point, say activists

Maryland congressman wants to capture carbon dioxide pollution heating the planet and transport it in pipelines criss-crossing USThe first three Democratic presidential candidates to declare their plans to tackle the climate crisis are focussing on setting deadlines to neutralize US pollution. But one Democrat is proposing something vastly different. Environmental advocates are likely to find it unacceptable, but some experts say it might be necessary.Maryland congressman and long shot 2020 candidate John Delaney wants to scale up technology to capture the carbon dioxide pollution heating the planet, and transport it in pipelines crisscrossing the country. Continue reading...

We asked children around the world to tell us why they will be taking part in Friday’s climate strikes. Here’s what they said

Country with Africa’s largest elephant population says its growth is affecting farmersConservationists have reacted with outrage and concern to a decision by Botswana to lift its ban on elephant hunting.The southern African country said the move was justified by an increase in population and its impact on farmers’ livelihoods. Continue reading...

Republican officials and their industry benefactors are sowing doubt about the wildlife extinction crisis that threatens as many as one million speciesMaybe you’ve read King Lear and remember this famous line: “‘Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.” The words were written more than 400 years ago as a comment on the deadly consequences of greed, delusion and political folly, but they could serve just as well as a Republican party slogan today. They’re a fitting description of the Republican party’s delusional campaign to deny the environmental crises that threaten our planet and our civilization.For decades now, Republican politicians and their patrons in the fossil fuel industry have used thinktanks, front groups and public relations operatives to promote faulty science and perpetuate the myth that the climate crisis is a hoax. This campaign of climate deception, which is elegantly documented in books like Merchants of Doubt, has exacted a huge toll on the planet and its people – it has sabotaged domestic and international efforts to combat greenhouse gas pollution and exacerbated a crisis that is acidifying oceans, melting polar ice caps, supercharging storms and making the Earth less hospitable to human and animal life. We have a name for the purveyors of this deceitful campaign: we call them “climate deniers”. Continue reading...

100kg fish lands in brothers’ five-metre vessel north of Coffs Harbour, slicing man’s arm openA large marlin weighing up to 100kg jumped into a small boat off the New South Wales coast, seriously injuring two brothers, with one of them suffering a fracture when his arm was sliced open.The marlin breached and landed in the brothers’ boat off Wooli, north of Coffs Harbour, at midday on Thursday. Continue reading...

In Colorado Springs, businesses are suing the military for perfluorinated compounds, which some are calling ‘Agent Orange 2.0’Over the last 80 years, much of the land surrounding Venetucci Farm was sold to the US army to establish the base now known as Fort Carson, and today it is hemmed in by highways. Still, with its 200 acres of fields, farmhouse and big red barn, it is a beloved institution in Colorado Springs. As the only community urban farm left in the sprawling city, it is a valuable resource, educating thousands of children about agriculture, sustainability and healthy eating and known above all for its annual pumpkin giveaways. Continue reading...

Shadow environment minister says ALP can’t keep pushing a market mechanism to reduce emissions nor could it ‘give up’ on tackling crisisThe shadow environment minister, Tony Burke, has declared Labor can no longer pursue a climate policy based on a market mechanism to reduce emissions.But he insists there can be no retreat from what the science says needs to happen to avoid dangerous warming. Continue reading...

After 25 years and a half-billion dollars, only half of the project’s water delivered to Pine Ridge Reservation comes from the Missouri River – unlike supplies for white ranchersUp until late last year, Ella Coleman, a diminutive, soft-spoken Oglala Sioux grandmother who lives in one of the hundreds of mobile homes on the semi-arid plains of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, lacked running water.Sometimes, she received water deliveries by truck. Other times, she drove to a community spigot, where she filled buckets and hauled them in her minivan. At home, she ladled water from the buckets for cooking and bathing. Continue reading...

MacMines Austasia abandon plans, raising questions about basin’s viability as a source of Queensland employmentThe backer of a massive coal proposal in the Galilee Basin, adjacent to Adani’s Carmichael mine site, has quietly abandoned its plans amid growing doubts about the long-term profitability of Australian thermal coal exports.The ABC reported this morning that the proponents of the $7bn China Stone mine had withdrawn their application for a mining lease in March. Continue reading...

Levels of ozone-depleting gas spiked when air from industrialised areas of China arrived, say researchersIndustries in north-eastern China have released large quantities of an ozone-depleting gas into the atmosphere in violation of an international treaty, scientists have said.Since 2013, annual emissions of the banned chemical Chlorofluorocarbon-11 (CFC-11) from that region have increased by about 7,000 tonnes, according to a report in peer-reviewed journal Nature. Continue reading...

Two nations have been at odds over 69 containers of waste sent to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his government to hire a private shipping company to send 69 containers of garbage back to Canada and leave them within its territorial waters if it refuses to accept the rubbish.“The Philippines as an independent sovereign nation must not be treated as trash by other foreign nation,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a media briefing. Continue reading...