Environmental campaigners say backing for Woodhouse colliery cannot be justifiedBritain’s first new deep coal mine in 30 years has been given the go-ahead by Cumbria county council, sparking protests from climate change campaigners that the decision would harm the UK’s efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.The £165m Woodhouse colliery was backed by Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors, who said it would bring vital jobs to the area. Copeland’s Conservative MP Trudy Harrison has “wholeheartedly” endorsed the proposed undersea mine, saying the investment it would bring to the area was crucial. Continue reading...

Destructive power of storms likely to increase in future as world warms upThe climate crisis that is driving sea level rises and more extreme rainfall is making deadly storms like the one that hit southern Africa more severe, according to experts.Cyclone Idai, the tropical storm that ravaged Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, has been described as the worst weather-related disaster to hit the southern hemisphere, and the UN says more than 2 million people have been affected. Storm-surge floods of up to six metres have caused widespread devastation. Continue reading...

Former South Australian premier says NSW Coalition is a barrier to getting action among the statesThe New South Wales Labor party has wheeled out the former South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, to help bolster its credentials on climate change in key seats where the issue could be the decider.Climate change is the top issue in Coogee, currently held by the Liberals on a margin of 2.9%, and Balmain, which Labor hopes to reclaim from the Greens, which holds it by 4.7%. Continue reading...

Bird of prey 10 times more likely to die on English grouse moors than other habitatsHen harriers are 10 times more likely to die or disappear from or near to English grouse moors than any other habitat, according to a long-term study which reveals the scale of the illegal persecution of the endangered raptor.An analysis of hen harriers over a decade found 72% of 58 satellite-tagged birds were confirmed or considered “very likely” to have been illegally killed. Just 17% of juvenile hen harriers survived beyond their first year around grouse moors in northern England and southern Scotland, compared with 36% across the Scottish mainland, where persecution has also been recorded, and between 37% and 54% on Orkney, where there are no grouse moors. Continue reading...

Images show marine biologist removing 88lb worth of plastic bags from stomach of whale that died in Philippines of ‘gastric shock’

Recycling of 500,000 bags is small fraction of 11m made daily, campaigners say

Scientists say AP study consistent with peer-reviewed literature and shows clear sign of human-caused climate changeOver the past 20 years, Americans have been twice as likely to sweat through record-breaking heat rather than shiver through record-setting cold, a new Associated Press data analysis shows.The AP looked at 424 weather stations throughout the US lower 48 states that had consistent temperature records since 1920 and counted how many times daily hot temperature records were tied or broken and how many daily cold records were set. In a stable climate, the numbers should be roughly equal. Continue reading...

Activist Greta Thunberg, 16, says action proved ‘no one is too small to make a difference’More than 1.4 million young people around the world took part in school strikes for climate action, according to environmental campaigners.Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish student whose solo protest last August prompted the global movement, said: “We proved that it does matter what you do and that no one is too small to make a difference.” Continue reading...

Carmaker to join with renewable energy agency to create $7.5m centre for commercial-grade hydrogenToyota and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) will kick in $7.4m to transform part of the carmaker’s decommissioned car manufacturing site in Altona into a commercial-grade hydrogen production and refuelling site.The new centre will demonstrate the processes required to produce hydrogen from renewable sources through electrolysis, and then the subsequent compression and storage. Continue reading...

Less than 1% of products certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council were mislabelledDNA barcoding of more than 1,400 seafood products certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has revealed that less than 1% were mislabelled, compared with an average of 30% across the sector as a whole.The MSC is the international NGO that sets the standard for sustainable fishing around the world and its blue label – on products in store, on fresh fish counters and on restaurant menus – indicates that seafood has been sustainably caught and traced back to its source. More than 300 fisheries in over 34 countries are certified to the MSC’s standard and more than 35,000 seafood products worldwide carry the label. Continue reading...

Some are offering free flights to shuttle stranded residents to and from Fremont, and bringing in suppliesA Nebraska city walled off by massive flooding is getting a big lift from private pilots who are offering free flights to shuttle stranded residents to and from their hometown.Flooding from the Platte River and other waterways is so bad that just one highway lane into Fremont remains uncovered, authorities said Monday. Emergency responders have restricted access for safety reasons, leaving residents in the city of 26,000 stuck on an island in the middle of Nebraska farm country, about 40 miles north-west of Omaha. The flooding in Fremont comes as communities in several midwestern states grapple with swollen rivers and breached or overtopped levees following heavy rain and snowmelt. Continue reading...

California town bars access to site as stunning flowers draw at least 50,000 visitorsRelated: Super bloom: can this tiny California town avoid another 'flowergeddon'?This weekend thousands of tourists frolicked through fields of poppies in southern California, posting photos tagged #superbloom. But for the town of Lake Elsinore, the influx of visitors quickly became a #poppynightmare. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Environment Agency chief calls for use to be cut by a third

Cost of offshore wind has fallen as turbines have improved, along with energy storage schemesIt is hard to keep up with how quickly offshore wind technology is developing. Turbines standing in shallow seas will soon cover hundreds of square miles of the UK’s coasts, providing one-third of Britain’s electricity.Next it will be the turn of floating turbines. Admittedly, it took 15 years for Statoil to develop the first floating windfarm off Aberdeen, but its output has exceeded expectations. The Norwegian state oil company, renamed Equinor to make its image greener, has said more than half of the North Sea is suitable for deploying floating wind power. Electricity produced from these turbines anchored in deep water could provide all the EU’s electricity four times over. Continue reading...

White Hart Lane | A hug that said it all | Car-free rambles | Solar power | Breakup songs | Brexit BrelI’m a long-term Tottenham resident and lifelong Spurs fan living just a few minutes’ walk from the stadium. There is no need to waste public money on renaming White Hart Lane rail station as Tottenham Hotspur (Report, 18 March). Spurs are known for playing at “The Lane”. The effort by the current owners of Spurs to get the name changed is another attempt by corporate interests to makeover and rebrand Tottenham. It is a vibrant multicultural working-class area with a strong sense of community. Neoliberalism can’t stand that.

Environment Agency says flooding expected early this week for rivers Dee and SevernFlood warnings have remained in place across parts of England after torrential rain over the weekend.On Monday there were 16 flood warnings in force, meaning flooding is expected, down from 20 earlier, and 25 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible. Most were in Yorkshire and the Midlands. None were in the most severe category. Continue reading...

BAEconomics modelling had been used by energy minister to claim workers face a pay cut of $9,000 under LaborLifting Australia’s emissions reduction target from 27% to 45% by 2030 would increase the implicit carbon price by as little as $24 a tonne, according to new modelling.The BAEconomics modelling, released on Tuesday, was leaked to the Australian and then used by the energy minister, Angus Taylor, to claim workers face a pay cut of $9,000 under Labor. Continue reading...

Hundreds of people have been forced to evacuate as a statewide emergency was declared after rivers overflowed their banks and multiple levees failed Continue reading...

Labour peer Robert Winston has asked about regulating cyclists. An imagined transport minister respondsOn Monday, the scientist and Labour peer Robert Winston is to formally ask a question in the House of Lords about what assessments ministers have made “for requiring adults riding bicycles in city centres to have a licence and third-party insurance”.Below is the entirely imagined response I would like the government to make to him. Continue reading...

Racing pigeon Armando goes for huge sum after bidding war between Chinese enthusiastsA racing pigeon has been sold for a world record €1.25m (£1.1m) as a result of prices being driven sky-high by a craze for bird racing among an elite group of Chinese enthusiasts.Related: The rebirth of coo: reconsidering the pigeon – in pictures Continue reading...

Delegates at UN environment assembly say the oil producers are protecting their industriesThe United States and Saudi Arabia have hamstrung global efforts to scrutinise climate geoengineering in order to benefit their fossil fuel industries, according to multiple sources at the United Nations environment assembly, taking place this week in Nairobi.The world’s two biggest oil producers reportedly led opposition against plans to examine the risks of climate-manipulating technology such as sucking carbon out of the air, reflective mirrors in space, seeding the oceans and injecting particulates into the atmosphere. Continue reading...

Marine biologists horrified to find 16 rice sacks and multiple shopping bags inside Cuvier’s beaked whaleA young whale that washed up in the Philippines died from “gastric shock” after ingesting 40kg of plastic bags.Marine biologists and volunteers from the D’Bone Collector Museum in Davao City, in the Philippine island of Mindanao, were shocked to discover the brutal cause of death for the young Cuvier’s beaked whale, which washed ashore on Saturday. Continue reading...

Democratic candidate says other issues matter, but America cannot afford to have another leader who does not have climate change as their top priorityThere are other things around which Washington’s governor, Jay Inslee, could craft his stump speech. He could talk about how he dropped out of Stanford and moved into his parents’ basement because he couldn’t afford tuition. He could tell voters he was the first governor to challenge Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban.Related: Pete Buttigieg to Fox: 'Ideological spectrum has never been less relevant' Continue reading...

Australia’s largest export customer for thermal coal is scrapping plans to build power plantsMajor Japanese investors, including those most indebted to coal, are seeking to back large-scale renewables projects across Asia, marking a “monumental” shift that energy market analysts say is “the start of the end for thermal coal”.At the same time, Japanese banks and trading houses are walking away from coal investments, selling out of Australian mines and scrapping plans to build coal-fired power. Continue reading...

Traffic pollution is putting our children at risk. We meet campaigners – many of them concerned mothers – fighting backIn the winter you can taste and smell the pollution,” says Kylie ap Garth, drinking coffee in a cafe in Hackney, east London. “My eldest is eight and he has asthma. Being outside, he would have a tight chest and cough. I just assumed it was the cold weather. I didn’t realise there was a link to the cars.”She is not exaggerating. The main road from Bethnal Green tube station is clogged with traffic, the smell of diesel fumes mixing with smoke from barbecue grill restaurants and construction dust. Anyone trying to escape from the roadside to the canal towpath finds only that the fumes are swapped with coal smoke from the canal boats. Continue reading...

Giraffe welcomes another newborn at New York zoo, two years after her previous pregnancy went viralApril the giraffe gave birth again on Saturday, in front of another enthralled YouTube audience.Related: April the pregnant giraffe: live stream attracts millions – and YouTube censors Continue reading...

Party also want regulator with powers to tackle climate change, air pollution, invasive species, water resources, land-clearing and vulnerable habitatsThe Greens will push for two new environmental agencies, including a regulator with wide-ranging powers to tackle climate change and land-clearing, adding pressure to Labor to provide detail to its own policy pledge.In the new policy the Greens promise laws to expand federal oversight of environmental issues, including the creation of an environment commission to develop protection plans and an environmental protection agency with “real powers” of enforcement. Continue reading...

Twenty-five states have attempted to introduce legislation to chill animal rights activism, and six have succeeded, as a string of ‘ag-gag’ laws are overturned in courtsA US governor has signed off legislation to prop up controversial “ag-gag” laws in Iowa, just months after a federal court declared them unconstitutional.In retaliation, animal rights activists are calling on their supporters to boycott the state as a vacation destination. Continue reading...

Environmentalists say changes will make it harder to stop the long-term decline of the species

Young people, inspired by Greta Thunberg, rally to press politicians to act on climate change

Commitments agreed at UN conference in Kenya do not go far enough, say green groupsEnvironmental groups involved in talks at a United Nations conference in Kenya have accused the US of blocking an ambitious global response to plastic pollution.Representatives of countries at the UN environment conference in Nairobi this week agreed to significantly reduce single-use plastics over the next decade but the voluntary pledges fell far short of what was required, according to green groups. Continue reading...

New group Wild Justice challenging Natural England over licence to slaughter certain wild birdsThe killing of thousands of “pest” birds each year including crows, rooks, jackdaws, magpies and woodpigeons is to be challenged in court by wildlife campaigners including Chris Packham.Wild Justice, a group newly created by Packham and fellow conservationists Mark Avery and Ruth Tingay, is launching legal action against Natural England, the government’s conservation watchdog, for issuing a general licence that allows the unlimited slaughter of certain wild birds all year round. Continue reading...

School and university students continue Friday protests to call for political action on crisis

As thousands of US students join a global strike to demand action on climate change, Guardian US is offering extensive live coverage of the strikes – and devoted our entire front page to climate change to climate change for 11 minutes earlier today

A starry dwarf frog, blooming poppy fields and a black-winged kite Continue reading...

Your questions answered on climate strikes, cross-generational action and hope for the future

O’Rourke wants to be everything to everyone. To take a look back at his career, that’s an invitation he’s extended to the fossil fuel industry“We are truly now, more than ever, the last great hope of this Earth,” Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke ended a video announcing his presidential bid. “At this moment of maximum peril and maximum potential, let’s show ourselves and those who will succeed us in this great country just who we are and what we can do.”Related: Beto O'Rourke is the new Obama. And that's the last thing we need | David Sirota Continue reading...

Young people demanding action on climate change are building a mass movement like we South Africans did to end injusticeIn 1980, at the age of 15, I led a student protest that got me expelled. Every day that I went to Durban city centre, I could see that the schools for white children were different to mine. Even though adults told us that we could not make a difference, once our eyes were opened to this injustice, there was no alternative. My friends and I were determined to make a stand against the glaring inequality in South Africa.Those who lived under apartheid know exactly what it means to live with an inherent threat to your existence. But rather than give in to the fear that it was too big to take on, we had no choice but to trust in the power of our individual actions. There are many lessons here for the climate change movement. Continue reading...

As students around the world cut class to call attention to the threat of climate change, the Guardian asked young activists what motivated them to join the global climate strike.The Guardian asked student environmentalists from groups including the Youth Climate Strike US, the Sunrise Movement, Zero Hour, and Youth v. Apocalypse to explain why they are going on strike. Here are some of the responses we received, but you can read more on our 24-hour Climate Strike edition of our live blog. Continue reading...

The last time Anza-Borrego park experienced a bloom about 200,000 visitors flocked to see the bonanza of spring flowersIt’s lunchtime at Kesling’s Kitchen in Borrego Springs, and the line is out the door and down the block. It takes about 20 minutes to get inside to order food. The rush isn’t surprising: Borrego Springs is a small town that swells in size when people flock to see wildflowers around Anza-Borrego, California’s largest state park.Plentiful winter rain and precise conditions have led to a bonanza of spring wildflowers this season. And while that can be a great thing, it also raised fears that Borrego Springs could once again face what locals have dubbed “flowergeddon”, an apocalyptic situation caused by booming visitation. Continue reading...

Josh Thomas, who worked with three Liberal environment ministers, will get an annual salary of $353,180A former policy adviser to multiple Liberal party environment ministers has been appointed the new chief executive of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the government body responsible for managing the reef.Josh Thomas, who worked as an adviser to current minister Melissa Price, as well as former environment ministers Josh Frydenberg and Greg Hunt, will start a five-year term in the role on 18 March with an annual salary of $353,180. Continue reading...

Angus Taylor tells union leaders the opposition’s 45% reduction target will lead to a $9,000 wages cutThe Morrison government, which is battling a persistent internal fracture on energy policy, is attempting to foment divisions between Labor and the union movement over the opposition’s 45% emissions reduction target in the run up to the election.The energy minister Angus Taylor, has written to trade union leaders claiming the 45% economy-wide emissions reduction target will lead to wages being cut by $9,000. Continue reading...

Nopsema head Stuart Smith is listed to speak at The Great Australian Bight: The Big OpportunityEnvironmental groups have written to Australia’s offshore petroleum watchdog to urge him against speaking alongside the oil lobby at a pro-industry event titled The Great Australian Bight: The Big Opportunity.The head of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (Nopsema), Stuart Smith, is listed as one of three keynote speakers at the South Australian “parliamentary friends of the resource sector” forum dinner on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Lack of action on 14 expired coal seam gas exploration licences now an election issue for uncertain communitiesThe New South Wales government has failed to close a loophole that effectively allows expired coal seam gas exploration licences to be extended indefinitely, despite calls from rural communities for certainty ahead of the state election.More than a dozen licences, mostly in the state’s north-west, have remained active past their expiration dates while the government assesses renewal applications from gas companies. In some cases, those applications have been held up in the system for years. Continue reading...

Climate strike founder put up for award ahead of global strikes planned in more than 105 countries

Revealed: Interior department official says he is ‘thrilled’ by Trump’s ‘knack for keeping the attention of the media and public focused somewhere else’A top US official told a group of fossil fuel industry leaders that the Trump administration will soon issue a proposal making large portions of the Atlantic available for oil and gas development, and said that it is easier to work on such priorities because Donald Trump is skilled at sowing “absolutely thrilling” distractions, according to records of a meeting obtained by the Guardian.Joe Balash, the assistant secretary for land and minerals management, was speaking to companies in the oil exploration business at a meeting of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, or IAGC, last month. Continue reading...

NSW transport minister also criticises bureaucrats responsible for enforcing marine park sanctuary zonesAndrew Constance, the New South Wales transport minister and member for Bega, has told recreational fishers that he has influenced the makeup of a key marine park advisory group that is drawing up the new rules for protected areas off the state’s south coast.He has also criticised the NSW bureaucrats responsible for the marine parks and for enforcing the sanctuary zones. Continue reading...

Strikes are planned at 60 locations in Australia, including every state and territory capitalTens of thousands of Australian school students are expected to walk out of class on Friday to demand governments take action on climate change.The Australian strikes are part of a global campaign by students for greater urgency from politicians in tackling what they see as the greatest threat to their future. Continue reading...

Revelation comes as report calls on global firms to end secrecy over plastic footprintCoca-Cola has revealed for the first time it produces 3m tonnes of plastic packaging a year – equivalent to 200,000 bottles a minute – as a report calls on other global companies to end the secrecy over their plastic footprint.The data from the soft drinks manufacturer was provided to the campaigner Ellen MacArthur, who is pushing for major companies and governments to do more to tackle plastic pollution. Continue reading...