Environment | The Guardian

Our public space is increasingly out of reach for all but the fit, the brave, and those in motor vehiclesAlmost 90% of cyclists experience a “close pass” – an overtake within 1.5m – at least weekly, and 70% say conditions on Britain’s roads haven’t improved in the last five years, according to a new damning survey from British Cycling.Of 15,000 respondents, 66% said they were concerned about their safety while cycling on Britain’s roads, and almost 40% said they experienced a close pass daily. Continue reading...

Activist and politician Marina Silva warns Brazil’s rainforest protections being destroyed but vows ‘we can’t let that happen’Jair Bolsonaro is transforming Brazil into an “exterminator of the future”, the activist and politician Marina Silva has warned, as she and seven other former environment ministers denounced the far-right president’s assault on rainforest protections.The eight former ministers – who served governments across the political spectrum over nearly 30 years – warned on Wednesday that Bolsonaro’s government was systematically trying to destroy Brazil’s environmental protection policies. Continue reading...

Health food chain to replace all branded and own-label wipes with eco-friendly alternativesHolland & Barrett is to become the first UK high street retailer to stop selling wet wipes, in a drive to reduce the environmental damage wreaked as a result of them blocking sewers and waterways.The health food chain is removing all 34 branded and own-label products in its wet wipe range from its 800 UK and Ireland stores and – from July – replacing them with eco-friendly alternatives such as double-sided cotton cloths, unbleached cotton muslin cloths, cotton pads and exfoliating gloves. Its shops in other countries will follow suit by the end of September. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former environment minister calls for creation of ‘war’ cabinet committee to plot transition to zero carbonThe former environment minister Peter Garrett has urged an incoming Labor government to convene a climate emergency summit to plot a transition to zero carbon, and create a super department aligned to Treasury, like the Department of Post War Reconstruction after the second world war, to implement the transition.In a speech overnight at the Carbon Market Institute summit gala dinner in Melbourne, Garrett – a former environment minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments – said Bill Shorten should create a standalone “war” cabinet committee, charged with the responsibility of overseeing the new initiatives and ensuring Australia meets its emission-reduction goals. Continue reading...

My intellectual and rational understanding of it has shifted to much more of an emotional and personal one

Global sales of plastic and glass drinks bottles, cans and cartons are rising, report findsPeople around the world are using almost 2tn plastic and glass drinks bottles, cans and cartons each year, according to research.The findings, from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), reveal that global sales of drinks containers are set to reach 1.9tn in 2019 – up from 1.6tn in 2015. Continue reading...

The EPA had moved to ban chlorpyrifos under Obama, but the Trump administration reversed that effortCalifornia is banning a widely used pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children, a major victory for public health advocates who have long fought to outlaw the toxic chemical in the agricultural industry.The state ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide used on almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, walnuts and other crops, follows years of research finding the chemical causes serious health effects in children, including impaired brain and neurological development. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had moved to ban the chemical under Barack Obama, but the Trump administration reversed that effort, rejecting the scientific conclusions of its own government experts. Continue reading...

The marine behemoths, which can weigh more than 10,000 pounds, are returning in numbers not seen in decadesGiant basking sharks have reappeared off the coast of southern California in numbers not seen in decades.“The sight just takes your breath away – it’s magic,” said Lotti Keenan, who saw nearly a dozen basking sharks while on a whale-watching cruise in April. Three of them circled the boat. “We knew this was such a rare thing. And people on the boat were screaming with excitement – it was like you were at a soccer game.” Continue reading...

Refundable charge to be added to glass and plastic bottles and drinks cans sold in any shopConsumers in Scotland will have to pay a 20p deposit on every bottle or drinks can they buy from shops under an ambitious new scheme unveiled by the Scottish government.The deposit return scheme, the first national scheme in the UK, will cover glass and plastic bottles, as well as aluminium and steel drinks cans, sold from any shop in Scotland. Continue reading...

Landmark follows government pledge to phase out coal-fired electricity by 2025

Report finds popular parks such as Yosemite and Joshua Tree have pollution at levels that threaten visitors and wildlifeSign up for the This Land is your Land newsletter to get monthly updates on the threat to America’s public lands.Millions of tourists will head out into America’s national parks this summer in search of fresh mountain air. But according to a new report they should instead expect dangerous levels of pollution; roughly 96% of the nation’s parks are struggling with significant air quality issues. Continue reading...

‘Extreme, huge, and existential’ threat posed by climate change must be a central consideration when distributing aidThe British government’s aid spending is failing to recognise the “scale and urgency” of the climate change challenge facing the world, MPs warn.Climate change must be placed at the centre of aid strategy and funding, if it is to address the seriousness of threats facing developing countries, the committee said. It urged a minimum spend of £1.76bn annually and a halt to funding fossil fuel projects in developing countries, unless they can demonstrate they support transition to zero emissions by 2050. Continue reading...

Scientists have warned that governments have about 11 years to enact large-scale climate legislation to stop global warmingOf the nearly two dozen Democrats running for president, only two campaigns have so far laid out deadlines for transforming American life to slash the pollution that is warming the planet’s climate.The world’s scientists warn that governments have about 11 years to put in place strategies to cut emissions from power plants, cars, buildings, factories and land use. Once the next US president takes office, they will have nine years. Continue reading...

Direct action has spooked the government, shackled the shale gas companies and raised public awareness. Are protesters winning the fight against the frackers?

Jacinda Ardern says law will address climate change but faces opposition from farmers over plans to reduce methane emissionsA landmark bill which would set a target of zero carbon emissions for New Zealand by 2050 has been tabled in the New Zealand parliament.Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday that the bill, which would introduce targets for carbon and biogenic methane emissions and would establish an independent climate change commission, was aimed at addressing the “long-term challenge of climate change” – the biggest single challenge facing the world. Continue reading...

Lowy poll showing two-thirds of people say global warming is serious problem comes as shock UN report finds 1 million species at risk of extinctionNew polling from a respected foreign policy thinktank underscores the point that 2019 is the climate change election, with a majority of Australians saying global warming is a critical threat.The poll undertaken for Lowy says 64% of adults rank climate change number one on a list of 12 threats to Australia’s national interests, up six points from last year’s survey and a jump of 18 points since 2014. Continue reading...

Following the publication of the UN’s shocking report, we ask three experts to review and rank commitments from the Coalition, Labor and the GreensThe United Nations’ global assessment of environmental health is grim: biodiversity declining at an unprecedented rate, one million species at risk of extinction, human populations in jeopardy if the trajectory is not reversed.With the election less than two weeks away, Guardian Australia asked the Coalition, Labor and the Greens to explain how they planned to respond to the crisis. Three of the country’s leading scientists assessed what the parties had to say. Continue reading...

With Jared Harris starring, this miniseries about the 1986 meltdown should be gripping – but instead strands viewers in a bewildering cloud of unanswered questions

Mathew Talbot of Coldstream Guards died on deployment in Malawi, MoD confirmsA British soldier has died while on anti-poaching work in Malawi, the Ministry of Defence said.Mathew Talbot, 22, of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, was understood to have been killed by an elephant while on wildlife patrol in Liwonde national park, on 5 May. There are more than 30 British troops based in Malawi to combat illegal killing of wildlife and the MoD said this was Talbot’s first deployment. Continue reading...

Scientists say the greatest loss of threatened species habitat has been in the agriculture minister’s electorateMost clearing of Australian habitat relied on by threatened species is concentrated in just 12 federal electorates, nine of which are held by the Coalition, an analysis has found.University of Queensland scientists found more than 90% of the threatened species habitat lost since the turn of the century has been in six electorates in Queensland, two each in NSW and Western Australia and one in Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Most of the land-clearing in Queensland has been to create pasture. Continue reading...

Speech to Arctic Council delegates prompted frustration and surprise among experts and government officials

Richard Middleton, Robin Russell-Jones, Judith Wright, Tom Fyans, Richard Aldwinckle, John Nissen, and Mayer Hillman respond to the latest dire warnings from scientists and policymakers on biodiversity and climate changeEduardo Brondizio’s observation – “We have been displacing our impact around the planet from frontier to frontier. But we are running out of frontiers” – is crucial (Humanity facing ‘urgent threat’ from loss of Earth’s natural life, 7 May). This frontier-based structure of thought, in which there is always a beyond, an outside, a domain of otherness, underpins the dichotomies of class and hence of economics (capital and labour); of race, religion and migration; of gender and sexuality; as well as that of ecology. In every sphere, the uncivilised, untamed, more “natural” partner is positioned for exploitation and subordination. This is the basic structure underlying capitalism, but probably goes back much further to the beginnings of agriculture, when the land was first “tamed”.Its time is up. We have reached the final frontier and there is no longer any outside. The very concept of “nature” is misleading, since it positions human beings over and against something different called the natural world, and which therefore can be conceptualised as providing us with “services”. The concept should be junked.

Cutting passenger duty incompatible with new pledge to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2045The Scottish government has dropped controversial plans to cut its taxes on aviation after Nicola Sturgeon declared last week the world faces a climate emergency.Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish environment secretary, said cutting air passenger duty would be incompatible with its new pledge to cut Scotland’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2045. Continue reading...

Analysts blame Brexit uncertainty as April data shows 10% fewer private sales than last yearNew car sales fell more than 4% in the UK last month, the second-lowest April since 2012, with analysts blaming consumer reluctance to make significant purchases while Brexit uncertainty persists.Just over 160,000 new cars were sold, with 10.3% fewer registrations by private motorists than a year ago. Diesel sales continued to decline, and now account for just 29% of the market for new cars, compared to 50% in the year before the VW emissions scandal of 2015. Continue reading...

Labour group Momentum joins activists to target branches in Germany, US and CanadaA UK-based campaign to pressure Barclays to stop its multibillion pound funding of fossil fuel corporations is spreading to countries around the world.In the civil disobedience protests, organised by the grassroots Labour group Momentum and activists from People and Planet, campaigners disrupted business at 40 Barclays branches across the UK in March. Continue reading...

Ex-archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams welcomes plans for fully costed proposalsThe former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has welcomed an “urgent change” by Cambridge University, after it agreed to provide fully costed plans setting out how it could divest multibillion-pound endowments from fossil fuel corporations.The university’s management accepted a motion, known as a grace, which urged Cambridge to “set out fully the advantages and disadvantages, including the social and political ones”, of divestment from global coal, oil and gas companies. Continue reading...

From native species to Indigenous land management and water efficiency: Australia’s role in the extinction crisisA devastating new UN report shows the planet is in serious danger from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems. Here we look at 10 of the key points from the report – and their relevance for Australia. Continue reading...

Two contenders for PM have very different messages about how to address environmental emergencyAs political leaders travel across Australia to deliver their election talking points in farms, factories and sports fields, they are criss-crossing a country in the grip of a rolling climate emergency.In the year leading up to the election on 18 May, huge swathes of eastern Australia have endured their worst droughts in a century. There have been apocalyptic scenes along the Murray Darling river system in which up to 1 million fish have died. In Queensland, floods have wiped out half a million cattle and bushfires have burned close to pristine rainforests. In the usually cool southern state of Tasmania more bushfires have raged across 190,000 hectares of land and devastated old-growth forests. Continue reading...

Prime minister praises Liberal MP and expresses caution about ripping up the basin planScott Morrison has swung to the defence of Liberal MP Sussan Ley, who is under pressure in the regional seat of Farrer despite holding it with a 20% margin, but says unravelling the Murray-Darling Basin plan would carry “significant consequences”.Morrison campaigned in Farrer on Tuesday, despite its nominal safe-seat status, and was egged by a protestor in Albury. At his press conference on the hustings in the neighbouring seat of Indi – a seat the government is hopeful of taking back from an independent after the retirement of Cathy McGowan – the Liberal leader was at pains to praise Ley as “one of the most articulate and passionate spokespeople for rural and regional life in this country”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Company pursues approvals based on original plans for 60m-tonne megamineAdani has refused to commit to the size of its “scaled-down” Carmichael coal project and is still pursuing final approvals based on plans for a 60m-tonne megamine in central Queensland.The Queensland government has confirmed that while Adani announced last year it intended to build a much smaller mine, the Indian company has filed no formal plans on that basis. Continue reading...

Department store says milestone has been achieved nine months ahead of targetSelfridges has become the first major UK retailer to make its own-brand foods completely free of palm oil, nine months ahead of its original target and as part of its long-term sustainable strategy.The upmarket department store is poised to announce that the nearly 300 products in its Selfridges Selection range on sale in its food halls – including chocolates and biscuits – are free of palm oil, along with its own-label cakes and mince pies for Christmas this year. Continue reading...

Just six of the 76 giant vessels worldwide are banned from operating in country’s watersAustralia’s ban on super-sized industrial fishing boats is far too narrow and places local fisheries under threat, environmentalists have said.A report released on Tuesday by the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Save Our Marine Life says just six of the 76 super trawlers worldwide are banned from operating in Australian waters. Continue reading...

Labor leader leaves open option of boosting wages for aged care workersBill Shorten has left open the option of boosting wages for aged care workers, saying the fact that Labor is supporting early childhood educators in this election “does not mean that we won’t work to help aged care work force in the future”.In a solo appearance on Q&A on Monday night, the Labor leader was asked why he was making a special case for subsidising the salaries of childcare workers, but not aged care workers. Continue reading...

After 20 years of arguments, the eradication plan that has split families and divided neighbours will finally go aheadFor the past few weeks little plastic boxes have been popping up on Lord Howe Island. By mid-May the boxes will be filled with poison-laced grain pellets as part of an ambitious attempt to eradicate rats and mice from the world heritage-listed island.They cover the island like a net, 2,400 points laid out at 10-metre intervals throughout the accessible, human-occupied areas and running along waterways. Continue reading...

Biggest cost of tree disease will be loss of benefits such as clean air and water, study findsAn invasive fungal disease killing ash trees will cost the British economy nearly £15bn, a study has found.Ash dieback, which is lethal to European ash trees, originated in Asia and is thought to have been brought to the UK on imported ash trees some years before it was first identified in Britain in 2012. Continue reading...

Ministers announce report on economic case for biodiversity, but activists insist actions, not studies, are neededThe British government has commissioned Sir Partha Dasgupta, a professor at Cambridge University, to write a report on the economic case for biodiversity as policymakers across the planet are urged to step up efforts to reverse the alarming decline of the natural world.Senior United Nations officials praised the announcement, which was made at the G7 environment ministers’ meeting at the weekend, and expressed hope it will lead to a biodiversity study that is as influential as the Stern review on the economics of climate change. Continue reading...

Environmentalists say Australia should be at the forefront of a global deal to save natureAustralia’s major political parties are facing calls to explain what role they will play in securing a global deal to save nature and the human populations reliant on it after a major scientific report warned a million species across the world face extinction.The first-of-its-kind assessment by an international scientific panel convened by the United Nations, known as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, warns species are declining at a rate unprecedented in human history, with three-quarters of land-based environments and two-thirds of the marine environment significantly altered. Continue reading...

In the area closest to the local chemicals factory, residents face a cancer risk of 50 times the national average. So what’s in the air?St John the Baptist parish sits about 20 miles from New Orleans in southern Louisiana. Home to about 45,000 people, this predominantly black parish contains the US neighborhoods most at risk of cancer due to air toxicity, according to government science. The parish sits at the heart of a region sometimes described as “Cancer Alley” because of the pollution from a high concentration of petrochemical plants.Throughout the year, the Guardian will be reporting from St John and other places nearby. Here’s a rundown of the common questions on the science behind the health hazards in this corner of Louisiana. Continue reading...

Residents of the town on the banks of the Mississippi River have watched as family members and neighbors have been lost to cancer. Official figures show the risk of cancer from toxic air is 50 times higher in Reserve than the national average. Feeling neglected by politicians, they are fighting back against the chemical plant has been emitting chloroprene into the air for half a century Continue reading...

A small town, a chemical plant and the residents’ desperate fight for clean air Continue reading...

Long before Reserve, Louisiana was home to a chemical plant and riddled with cancer, it had suffered the violent deprivations of enslavementAt night the Pontchartrain Works lights up the horizon. During the day the tall scaffolding and plumes of emissions soar into the sky.The chemical plant has caused misery here for years. But the land on which it is built holds older and even darker secrets. It is a history, say some residents of Saint John the Baptist parish, which helps explain the pervasive racial and environmental inequality that persists to this day. Continue reading...

Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have seen water levels hit near-decade lows after a hot summer and dry autumnSydney, Darwin, Brisbane and Melbourne are all facing the prospect of dams below 50% capacity after low rainfall and high temperatures across the country.In Sydney, inflows are at their lowest since 1940. Greater Sydney’s 11 dams were at a combined 55% capacity on Sunday – compared to 73% at the same time last year. Continue reading...

Photographer Matthew Newton travelled alongside the 5,000-strong protest against Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine, which left Hobart on 17 April before making its way to Clermont in central Queensland and on to Canberra, where it ended on 5 May. The former Greens leader Bob Brown lead the charge Continue reading...

Motorised traffic will be banned during Open Streets event on first Sunday of each monthRoads in the centre of Edinburgh were closed to traffic for the first time on Sunday as the city joined the Open Streets movement to reduce air pollution.Related: Amsterdam to ban petrol and diesel cars and motorbikes by 2030 Continue reading...

Centre Alliance says water resources ‘must be managed in the national interest’The Centre Alliance, which could hold or share the balance of power in the Senate after the election, has announced it will push for a referendum to give the commonwealth power over the Murray-Darling River system, in the wake of multiple scandals over enforcement and questions over spending of the $13bn allocated to the plan.Rex Patrick, who led a push by the Senate in the last parliament to make the Murray-Darling Basin plan more effective, says giving the federal government a clear mandate to make laws for rivers that flow through more than one state is now essential. Continue reading...

New teams and sponsors take heart as number of spectators more than doubles in a yearFormula E, the electric-powered racing series, has revealed that its pretax loss widened by 26.7% to £22.6m last year, giving it combined losses of £142.2m since it held its first race in 2014.Formula E Operations is based in London and its biggest shareholder is Virgin Media-owner Liberty Global which has a 23.9% stake. The series features cars that are powered by a 250kW motor giving them a top speed of 280kph (174mph). They are 25% slower than Formula One cars but, unlike their bigger siblings, they produce little noise and no emissions. Continue reading...

Structure of county’s hedges mean they do not get same protection as those elsewhereThe Cornish hedge – teeming with flora and fauna and one of the most beloved features of the landscape in the far south-west of Britain – is under threat from developers, conservationists are warning.Some Cornish hedges are believed to be more than 4,000 years old, making them among the oldest human-built structures in Britain. Continue reading...

Parents claim lack of pollution regulation at a new brownfield development in Southall is putting children’s health at risk

Experts warn numbers are collapsing as 300,000 are killed for sport every yearThe nation’s deep affection for the hare, once a common sight in fields, is recorded in prose, pub names and poetry. Writers including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and Ted Hughes have paid tribute to the UK’s fastest land mammal, while any English county will boast at least one pub with the word hare in its name. But now a failure to revive numbers after a century of decline from an estimated four million to under 800,000 has triggered moves to protect hares during their breeding season.Former agriculture minister George Eustice is introducing a private member’s bill that would make it illegal to shoot hares from February to September. “England and Wales are among the few remaining European countries that do not have a modern close season on shooting hares during their breeding season, which is a terrible oversight,” Eustice said. Continue reading...

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says most South Australians do not want oil drilling in Great Australian BightHundreds of people have gathered on an Adelaide beach to protest against Norwegian energy giant Equinor’s plans to drill in the Great Australian Bight.Attending the Hands Across the Sand protest, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the majority of South Australians don’t want any oil drilling in the Great Australian Bight. Continue reading...