Environment | The Guardian

Warning fresh milk supply could be curbed as East Gippsland in Victoria and NSW south coast brace for fires

Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation foreign editor says listeners were angry at the airing of ‘extremist views’The Israeli public broadcaster has come under fire from angry listeners after broadcasting an interview with Tony Abbott in which he said the world was “in the grip of a climate cult”.During the interview, recorded on 15 December while his home state of New South Wales was fighting terrifying bushfires, Abbott denied that carbon dioxide was driving global warming. The interview was broadcast on New Year’s Eve in a special show reviewing key international issues of the decade. Continue reading...

Millions of Americans make free online returns each year, contributing to greenhouse-gas emissions – and many items end up in landfillsMillions of Americans will head to the post office this month, unwanted holiday gifts in hand. But while it may be convenient to return that ugly sweater from your mom, that ease comes at a huge cost to the environment.Related: Iran crisis: Trump says Suleimani 'should have been taken out years ago' – live updates Continue reading...

Potential female mate spotted in habitat of wild male in east of countryA lone wolf in Belgium has a love interest, after a potential female mate was spotted in his habitat in the east of the country, authorities have said.The Flemish Agency for Nature and Forests (ANB) revealed this week the first images of a she-wolf it has christened Noëlla, who was spotted in the north-eastern province of Limbourg, bordering the Netherlands. Continue reading...

National park’s boss accused of using the issue of diversity to turn region into a ‘theme park’The head of the Lake District national park authority (LDNPA) has been accused of using the issue of diversity to push through commercial development schemes that would put the area’s Unesco world heritage status at risk.Richard Leafe, the longstanding chief executive of the LDNPA in Cumbria, said the park was too white and middle-class and called for change to make it more inclusive. Continue reading...

Experts predict green will be the colour of the decade, but industry’s eco awareness is still laggingThere’s nothing new about fashion using nature as its muse – see Miranda Priestley’s withering put-down in The Devil Wears Prada: “Florals for Spring? Groundbreaking.” This year, however, it’s not flowers but foliage that will have a major fashion moment.At the spring/summer 2020 collections several major brands have taken leaves and plants as their inspiration. Continue reading...

Cononish goldmine expected to produce enough ingots to kickstart cottage industryA small goldmine in the Highlands plans to start producing gold in commercial quantities for the first time after repeated delays.The mine at Cononish near Tyndrum, a village on the edge of Loch Lomond national park, is expected to produce enough gold to make nearly 440 ingots and kickstart a cottage industry in Scottish gold jewellery-making this spring. Continue reading...

Further steps have been taken to clean up beaches and seas in 2019 – but much more needs to be doneThe beach at Muncar on the island of Java was revolting. The 400-yard wide, mile-long stretch of sand was feet deep in foul-smelling sauce sachets, shopping bags, nappies, bottles and bags, plastic clothes and detergent bottles. Bulldozers had cleared away and buried some of the huge mat of plastic and sand two years ago, but every tide since then had washed up more rubbish from the ocean, and every day tonnes more plastic was washed down the rivers from upstream towns and villages. Now it was fouling the fishing boats’ propellers.“We fear for the future,” one elderly woman said. She remembered Muncar only a decade ago as one of the most picturesque towns in Indonesia and a tourist hotspot. “If it carries on like this we will be buried in plastic. We have no choice but to throw plastic into the rivers. Now we are angry. Something must be done,” she said. Continue reading...

At least nine people have died since Christmas Day, with the RFS urging people to evacuate the New South Wales south coast before dangerous conditions on the weekend

Poll for waste authority finds 83% of Britons have at least six items unworn for a yearClothes swapping or “swishing” is set to become mainstream this year, a poll predicts, as consumers try to reduce their waste amid growing awareness of the environmental impact of fashion.The research suggests 83% of Britons have at least six items of clothing in their wardrobe that they have not worn in the last year. Some admit to owning 200 items that they don’t wear. Continue reading...

Britain’s milder weather is attracting exotic guests. While we may celebrate their arrival now it should also alert us to what’s aheadMediterranean egrets balancing on the backs of cows, multicoloured moths the size of a human hand, and impossibly exotic bee-eaters hawking for insects under English skies. All are here as a direct consequence of the climate crisis, which has allowed continental European species to extend their ranges northwards, and then make the leap across the Channel to gain a foothold in southern Britain.Whenever I take a walk along the disused railway line across the Avalon marshes, near my Somerset home, I can’t help noticing these new arrivals. Tall and elegant, great white egrets first arrived here from France just a few years ago; now I encounter them every time I visit. Down the road, at the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s reserve at Catcott Lows, flocks of cattle egrets – the same species we see in wildlife films from Africa – gather to feed, perched appropriately on the backs of cattle. Elsewhere on the marshes, secretive night herons and little bitterns have also bred in recent years. Continue reading...

Venerated indigenous leader speaks out on the threat posed by destruction of the rainforestAt close to 90 years old, Brazil’s most venerated indigenous leader, Raoni Metuktire, has returned to the spotlight to challenge the man he calls the worst president of his lifetime, Jair Bolsonaro.In an interview with the Guardian, the Kayapó chief said he wanted to speak out about the far-right administration’s plans to allow mining in indigenous territory and he warned that Brazil’s Amazon policies threatened global efforts to protect nature and address the climate emergency. Continue reading...

Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire: There was something monumental about these terracotta-coloured funnels, these magical vessels of rain-river-cloudAnd there they were, gone. We stood on the boathouse steps in Dale End park below the Albert Edward bridge, staring over the river into trees above which the four cooling towers of the power station loomed. Except that, now, they didn’t. We had come to see their absence, to look into the space where they had been, as had others. A small group of folks gathered at the riverside; I’m not sure what we expected to see. There was nothing to witness; the crowds that assembled to watch what television news showed as synchronised explosions wobbling the great towers like sloppy clay on a potter’s wheel had long gone. Dust had settled; lumps of Buildwas power station concrete were already on eBay; rain fell into the void.Perhaps we had seen them as landmarks, heard stories about construction workers falling to their deaths; stories about coal-fired pollution causing acid rain in faraway forests. Perhaps we had come to ponder dismantling symbols of an engineering genius that began here in Coalbrookdale in the 18th-century birthplace of the Industrial Revolution to become the leviathan of 21st-century climate chaos and ecological crisis. Buildwas power station was the last big working industrial structure in the Ironbridge Gorge, once fed by local coal and local people who spent their entire working lives here until it closed a few years ago. Continue reading...

Snow-capped peaks and glaciers discoloured as former PM says ash could accelerate glacial meltingSnow and glaciers in New Zealand have turned brown after being exposed to smoke, dust and ash from the Australian bushfire crisis.On Wednesday many parts of the South Island woke up to an orange haze and red sun, after smoke from the Victorian and New South Wales blazes drifted east on Tuesday night, smothering many parts of the island for most of the day. Continue reading...

President says the party’s young membership understands the risk if no climate change action is takenThe New South Wales division of the Young Liberals’ push for a change in the government’s climate policy was spurred on by a membership which understands the risk it faces if no action is taken, its president has said.The NSW branch passed a motion at the Young Liberal council in early December calling for a “practical, market-based means” for Australia to cut emissions by 30% of Kyoto levels by 2030, and provide energy market certainty. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology data shows average temperature record across the country beat previous high of 2013The year 2019 was the hottest on record for Australia with the temperature reaching 1.52C above the long-term average, data from the Bureau of Meteorology confirms.The year that delivered crippling drought, heatwaves, temperature records and devastating bushfires was 0.19C hotter than 2013, the previous record holder. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Concerns about groundwater security at Cherrabah overridden by Campbell Newman’s governmentQueensland government experts raised repeated warnings about the long-term sustainability of groundwater extraction at a southern Queensland property which has since been approved to operate as a commercial water mine.The approval for the 96m litre a year bottled water extraction operation at Cherrabah – in a severely drought-hit area where locals are on water rations and communities at imminent risk of running dry – has raised significant questions about the oversight and regulation of critical water resources in Queensland. Continue reading...

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Residents of Australia’s capital are told to stay indoors and brace for more smog in the coming daysCanberra has experienced its worst air quality on record, as bushfire smoke became trapped by atmospheric conditions and residents were told to stay indoors and brace for more smog in the coming days.The ACT’s acting chief health officer, Dr Paul Dugdale, said the smoke was the worst since the 2003 bushfires and was “certainly the worst” since air quality monitoring started in the city 15 years ago. Continue reading...

Rise in renewables and decline in coal-fired power leads to cleanest energy year on recordZero-carbon energy became Britain’s largest electricity source in 2019, delivering nearly half the country’s power and outstripping fossil fuels for the first time.Following a dramatic decline in coal-fired power and a rise in renewable and low-carbon energy, 2019 was the cleanest energy year on record for Britain, according to National Grid, which owns and operates the electricity transmission network in England and Wales, and also runs the Scottish networks. Continue reading...

New rules introduced by International Maritime Organisation expected to reduce certain forms of air pollutionSulphur will be cut drastically from global shipping transport fuels in 2020, in a move that should reduce some forms of air pollution, and may help towards tackling the climate emergency – but which could also lead to a rise in the price of flights.From 1 January 2020, ships will only be allowed to use fuel oil with a very low sulphur content, under rules brought in by the International Maritime Organisation. This cut in sulphur content has been more than a decade in the planning, and almost all shipping around the world is expected to comply, or face penalties. Continue reading...

Once confined to the western states, the wolf’s adaptable smaller cousin has been carving out a niche in urban areasDonald Trump has a $269m golf course in New York City that is regularly prowled by feared, largely nocturnal individuals that instinctively prey upon those they deem smaller and weaker.We are, of course, talking about coyotes. Continue reading...

Move is hailed by Sir David Attenborough as ‘the most prestigious environment prize in history’Prince William has announced what was described as “the most prestigious environment prize in history” to encourage new solutions to tackling the climate crisis.The “Earthshot prize” will be awarded to five people every year over the next decade, the Prince said on Tuesday, and aims to provide at least 50 answers to some of the greatest problems facing the planet by 2030. Continue reading...

What scientists can see and measure, in the garbage patches and on beaches, accounts for only a tiny fraction of the total plastic entering the waterEvery year, 8m tons of plastic enters the ocean. Images of common household waste swirling in vast garbage patches in the open sea, or tangled up with whales and seabirds, have turned plastic pollution into one of the most popular environmental issues in the world.But for at least a decade, the biggest question among scientists who study marine plastic hasn’t been why plastic in the ocean is so abundant, but why it isn’t. What scientists can see and measure, in the garbage patches and on beaches, accounts for only a tiny fraction of the total plastic entering the water. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology says two climate patterns behind the dangerous fire conditions have shifted towards neutral

City bans most polluting vehicles from area 20 times the size of Madrid’s zoneThe largest low-emissions zone in southern Europe opens in Barcelona on New Year’s Day, banning the most polluting vehicles from entering an urban area including the city and some satellite towns.Petrol-driven cars bought before 2000 and diesels older than 2006 will be banned and face a fine of €100-€500 (£85-£425) each time they enter the zone. A moratorium will be in place for the first three months, during which time offenders will receive notification of the infraction but will not be fined. Continue reading...

City councillors unveil ‘unashamedly ambitious’ goal to cut carbon emissionsThe medieval city of York has announced plans to ban private car journeys from the city centre within three years in an effort to cut carbon emissions.Councillors spelled out the “unashamedly ambitious” goal that would follow the lead of Bristol, which is due to become the first UK city to ban diesel cars by 2021. Continue reading...

As we enter the fourth year of the Trump presidency, here are some of the ways the president has left a deep, and often dangerous, mark on American life

Some of the world’s leading voices on the environment discuss concerns and areas of optimismAt the end of a tumultuous decade for biodiversity, in which a report based on the most comprehensive study of life on Earth warned that “nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history”, we spoke to some of the world’s leading voices on the environment about their greatest fears for the next decade – and also their hopes. As the IPBES report’s authors noted: “It is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global.”We asked three questions: Continue reading...

From the first Ebola-free baby to advances in women’s rights, we take our pick of the breakthroughsThere was a glimmer of hope amid the rising death toll in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s largest Ebola outbreak when a baby called Sylvana tested negative for the virus. Continue reading...

New woodlands and wild places are needed to fight climate crisis and improve people’s healthHalf of the nation’s farmland needs to be transformed into woodlands and natural habitat to fight the climate crisis and restore wildlife, according to a former chief scientific adviser to the UK government.Prof Sir Ian Boyd said such a change could mean the amount of cattle and sheep would fall by 90%, with farmers instead being paid for storing carbon dioxide, helping prevent floods and providing beautiful landscapes where people could boost their health and wellbeing. Continue reading...

Rhesus macaques were introduced to Silver Springs state park in the 30s but, now 400 strong, they harbor a disease fatal to humansVisitors to Florida’s picturesque Silver Springs state park have been warned that they may encounter an unusual threat: hundreds of wild, herpes-infected monkeys.The monkeys, rhesus macaques, originate from two small groups released into the Silver Springs state park almost 100 years ago by an eccentric boat captain. Their numbers have soared since then, and experts predict there could be 400 roaming the park by 2022. Continue reading...

UK Wildlife Trusts report says 2019 saw sea change in public attitudes to marine conservationSeals, dolphins and seabirds in British coastal waters are increasingly being disturbed by people using drones, kayaks and jetskis, according to a new report.Plastics, ocean waste and discarded fishing equipment have continued to devastate marine species in the UK’s coastal waters, while warming seas driven by the climate crisis have caused a boom in the non-native Pacific oyster, according to the Wildlife Trusts. Continue reading...

Water shortages and extreme weather contribute to tension in Middle East and IndiaViolence associated with water has surged in the past decade driven by attacks on civilian water systems in Syria’s civil war and increasing disputes over supplies in India, according to a comprehensive database of conflicts linked to the vital resource.Recorded incidents of water-related violence have more than doubled in the past 10 years compared with previous decades, the statistics maintained by the California-based Pacific Institute thinktank show. Continue reading...

On a day of extraordinary bushfires the energy minister argued that the country has ‘strong targets, clear plans and an enviable track record’ on reducing emissions. Is he right?Australians should be proud of the country’s achievements on climate change, energy minister Angus Taylor has argued in a newspaper column that claims “quiet Australians” don’t accept the “shrill cries” of the government’s climate critics.The column, published in The Australian, makes a series of claims about Australia’s emissions and how they compare to other countries, as well as highlighting exports such as LNG that are “dramatically reducing emissions” in other countries. Continue reading...

Svante Thunberg says he was concerned about his daughter’s school strike but that her campaigning had helped her beat depressionGreta Thunberg’s father has opened up about how activism helped his daughter out of depression but still worries about how she will deal with the impact of her international fame.Speaking to the BBC to mark his daughter’s guest-editing slot on the Today programme, Svante Thunberg revealed he thought it was a “bad idea” for Greta to stage the school strike that catapulted her into the public eye. Continue reading...

Outgoing Bank of England governor says financial sector cutting back too slowly on investing in oil

Environment minister Sussan Ley says consultation with states and industry will look at ‘innovative’ ways for dealing with the issueEnvironment minister Sussan Ley has announced the nation’s first plastics summit to be held next year in an attempt to address the problem with Australia’s growing rubbish problem.With Australia no longer able to send its mixed plastic waste overseas from 2021, and plastic use predicted to double once again in the next two decades, Ley said the summit will bring together retailers, researchers, school children, and governments to work out how to tackle the crisis. Continue reading...

Martin Forwood’s obituary takes Bridget Gubbins back to the campaigns across the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly in Druridge Bay, NorthumberlandThe death of Martin Forwood, the Cumbrian anti-nuclear campaigner (Obituary, 26 December), has brought back many memories about the threat to Druridge Bay in Northumberland and all the campaigns across the UK in the 80s and 90s. A whole generation has grown up since those days, when the nuclear industry was backed by the government, which planned a new family of nuclear power stations on coastal sites around the UK.In Northumberland, the state-owned Central Electricity Generating Board spent six months drilling the land and drew up the plans that still shelter in some forgotten drawer. The whole period coincided with government actions to shut down the coal mines, resulting in the miners’ strikes with their associated misery. Electricity generation was to be a battle between coal and nuclear. Continue reading...

The spoon-billed sandpiper has been brought back from the brink after a conservation programme in GloucestershireAfter eight years, conservationists have succeeded in helping spoon-billed sandpipers hatch chicks at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust headquarters in Gloucestershire.The birds belong to the world’s only captive flock of spoon-billed sandpipers, considered to be among the rarest of waders, and highly threatened. About 200 or so birds are thought to be left in the wild. Continue reading...

Survival of four types of fish and four other species in doubt as government skirts conservation laws to build barrier in ArizonaThe survival of eight endangered and threatened species, including four kinds of endemic fish, is in doubt in Arizona, as massive quantities of groundwater are extracted to construct Donald Trump’s border wall.The 30ft-high barrier is under construction on the edge of the San Bernardino national wildlife refuge in south-eastern Arizona, where rare desert springs and crystalline streams provide the only US habitat for the endangered freshwater Río Yaqui fish. Continue reading...

Trees for Life, one of four charities chosen for our climate appeal, runs projects that offer ‘eco-therapy’ to its volunteers

Sarah Sands, editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, admits it ‘felt awkward’Putting a presenter on a flight to Sweden to meet climate activist Greta Thunberg “felt awkward”, the editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme has admitted.The 16-year-old campaigner, who was a guest editor on a special edition of the show, avoids air travel because of its environmental impact. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison bows to pressure from Labor and his own minister over those who lose income while fighting firesThe Morrison government has announced that rural New South Wales fire service volunteers will be compensated for loss of income, after weeks of mounting pressure from the community, political rivals and within its own party.Just days after the minister Darren Chester broke ranks and joined Labor calls for volunteer firefighters to be paid, the prime minister announced eligible volunteers would receive $300 a day up to $6,000 if called out for more than 10 days this fire season. Continue reading...

In a country that aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, returning land to peat bog could save 1.4m tonnes of carbon emissions each yearGill Andersen is, as far as she knows, the only British woman farming the lowlands of central Jutland. And after 32 years, she doesn’t think much of Denmark’s plans to meet new emissions targets by returning much of her land to peat bog.“I don’t think there are any farmers who want to ruin the climate,” she says. “But the answer is not to flood our land and kill all the trees.” Continue reading...

Less than £1 per person a year is spent on planting English trees, but past mistakes loom largeIn 2018, about 1,400 hectares of trees were planted in England, against a government target of 5,000 hectares. Less than £1 per person per year is spent on planting English trees, and less than £2 across the UK, according to estimates by Friends of the Earth, compared with £90 per person per year on roads and £150 on fossil fuel subsidies. Scotland has succeeded in planting more trees, but the UK is still one of the least wooded countries in Europe, with only 13% tree cover, compared with about 32% in Germany and 31% of France. Those trees are also unevenly distributed: tree cover is about 10% in England, 15% in Wales, 19% in Scotland, and only 8% in Northern Ireland.The reasons for the lack of woodland across the UK stretch back centuries, from the timber needed for ships to bolster the empire’s navy and the industrial revolution, to the first world war, when the countryside was so denuded that the government set up the Forestry Commission in 1919 to reforest emptied land and provide a national resource to meet future needs. Continue reading...

Christian Aid report highlights costs of floods, fires and storms around the worldClimate breakdown played a key role in at least 15 events in 2019 that cost more than $1bn (£760m) in damage, with more than half of those costing more than $10bn each.Extreme weather including floods, storms, droughts and wildfires struck every inhabited continent in the past year, causing devastation and loss of life. Christian Aid, which tracked climate-related destruction in 2019, said the costs in human terms and insured losses were likely to have been underestimated. Continue reading...

Exclusive: London has highest level yet recorded but health impacts of breathing particles are unknownMicroplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers, with research revealing that London has the highest levels yet recorded.The health impacts of breathing or consuming the tiny plastic particles are unknown, and experts say urgent research is needed to assess the risks. Continue reading...

It was the decade of austerity, fracking, populism and internet lies. But not everything about the 2010s was terrible Continue reading...