Fears for native biodiversity as climate ideal for propagationThe raucous squawking comes first. Then they are seen, banking and diving before they crash-land on trees.If Greeks had been told, not long ago, that their skies would become the preserve of ring-necked parakeets, the response would have been one of incredulity. Continue reading...
Education secretary asks headteachers to consider using sustainable alternativesSchools are being encouraged to set themselves the target of eliminating their reliance on single-use plastics by 2022.The education secretary, Damian Hinds, has urged headteachers in England to consider using sustainable alternatives instead of non-recyclable plastic for items such as straws, bottles, bags and food packaging. Continue reading...
Federal environment department publishes proposal on Christmas Eve and public has only 10 business days to commentThe oil and gas company Woodside Energy has applied for federal approval for dredging and pipeline construction in waters near the Western Australian Dampier Archipelago marine reserves.The company has sought the approval as part of its proposed Scarborough gas project, an offshore development about 380km from the Burrup peninsula that would use a 430km pipeline to transport gas to its existing Pluto liquefied natural gas facility on the peninsula. Continue reading...
Figures showing declining birth rates are ‘cause for celebration’, not alarmDeclining fertility rates around the world should be cause for celebration, not alarm, a leading expert has said, warning that the focus on boosting populations was outdated and potentially bad for women.Recent figures revealed that, globally, women now have on average 2.4 children in their lifetime a measure known as total fertility rate (TFR). But while in some countries that figure is far higher – in Niger it is more than seven – in almost half of countries, including the UK, Russia and Japan, it has fallen to below two. Continue reading...
Foxhunts may hold Boxing Day meets under guise of trail hunting, warn campaignersEnvironmental groups fear the ban on foxhunting is being ignored as hunters prepare for the largest event of the year this Boxing Day.Across the country, 53 foxhunts are scheduled to meet on Wednesday, including two on National Trust land. However, campaigners say there are likely to be more fox, hare and stag hunts that are not listed. Continue reading...
The Gulf of Maine’s rapidly warming waters draws in larger numbers of Kemp’s ridley turtles, enticing them to stay longerAt the New England Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital in a repurposed shipyard building south of Boston, the casualties of climate change swim in tanks as they recover after being pulled stunned from the beach.Every year, as autumn turns to winter and ocean temperatures off Massachusetts drop below 10C (50F), dead, dying and stricken sea turtles wash up on the shores of Cape Cod as those shelled reptiles that have failed to migrate south start to die in the chilly waters. Continue reading...
Company already committed to spend $1bn-$2bn annually in the next two years on low carbon energyShell has declared an ambition to double the amount it spends on green energy to $4bn (£3.2bn) a year, in a sign of how the Anglo-Dutch company is looking to speed up its move to a future beyond oil and gas.Maarten Wetselaar, the head of the gas and new energy unit which generates a third of the company’s revenues, said he wanted to raise Shell’s investment in low carbon energy. Continue reading...
Authorities in Indian capital rate conditions as ‘severe to emergency’Pollution in Delhi has reached its worst level this year in the past two days, prompting authorities to rate conditions as “severe to emergencyâ€, which indicates the potential for a public health crisis.Senior government officials said the main reasons for the increase in smog were unusually cold air, fog and a lack of wind. Continue reading...
Releasing ‘pure’ animals could counter interbreeding with domestic cats, experts sayConservationists could release wildcats captured from other European countries in the Scottish Highlands in a final effort to protect Scotland’s population from extinction.Recent genetic testing by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland of 276 Scottish wildcat samples found those in the wild are so heavily interbred with domestic cats that they are close to becoming functionally extinct. Continue reading...
Many towns claiming to be the birthplace of Santa Claus have seen unseasonal temperaturesAfter a year in which the climate has been far more naughty than nice, even Father Christmas – in his various guises – is feeling the heat, according to the towns that claim to be his birthplace.From Alaska to Finland, half a dozen Arctic towns have staked a claim to be the home of Santa Claus or whatever other name he is locally known as. And almost without exception, these winter wonderlands are hotting up. Continue reading...
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey says economic and social regeneration must be part of transition to low-carbon futureA future Labour government would oversee an economic revolution to tackle the climate crisis, using the full power of the state to decarbonise the economy and create hundreds of thousands of green jobs in struggling towns and cities.Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary who is driving the party’s climate agenda, said the UK’s “entire society and entire economy†needed to be refocused to meet the looming challenge of ecological breakdown. Continue reading...
Visitors face ‘disruption and disappointment’ as states scramble to keep key sites openThe doors remained locked at Fort McHenry National Monument in Maryland, the birthplace of the US national anthem. In Georgia, the Fort Pulaski National monument announced it would be closed except for one boat ramp. At Washington’s Mount Rainier national park, ranger-led snowshoe walks were cancelled.And at the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, California, a scheduled talk by the nation’s oldest park ranger, 97-year-old Betty Reid Soskin, had to be called off. Continue reading...
The major international agencies should devise a progressive tax regime that penalises the biggest carbon emitters and offsets costs for the poorestPresident Macron needs to win the war on fuel tax. Every country does. It is an issue on which the governments in Paris and Nairobi have been forced to make U-turns. It is rising up the political agenda in other countries, including the UK and Germany, where the rebirth of the Greens and the rise of the rightwing AfD has paralysed the Bundestag.Without some kind of resolution to how much consumers and business pay for burning fossil fuels – a deal that most agree gets near being fair and addresses the problem of climate change – the battle will not be fought politely inside parliamentary debating chambers, but on the streets. Continue reading...
Numbers may be at an all time low as a new adaptation of the novel hits our TV screensThe real Watership Down is not hard to find.In the introduction to his book, Richard Adams helpfully gives the Ordnance Survey map reference – sheet 174. Once located on paper, long-remembered names jump from the map: Nuthanger Farm, Ashley Warren and Honeycomb are all there. It was the multitude of rabbits found on this little square of England that inspired Adams to write Watership Down. Continue reading...
Conservation group says it will keep the parks ‘as accessible as possible’ as thousands prepare to go on winter holidaysChaos may reign for the thousands of visitors planning to take snow hikes, rock climbing trips and sightseeing visits to US national parks over the winter holidays, if the government shutdown goes forward at midnight on Friday.Park conservation groups say it is likely to mirror past shutdowns – with confusion about which parks are open, closed facilities, a lack of protections for guests and wildlife, and many disappointed visitors. Continue reading...
Utilities firm breached environmental regulations over raw sewage flowing into a brook in the CotswoldsThames Water has been handed a £2m fine for a “reckless failure†that led to the polluting of a tributary of the Thames with raw sewage.The £2bn-turnover utilities firm admitted breaching environmental regulations in relation to untreated sewage flowing into a brook near Milton-under-Wychwood, near Chipping Norton in the Cotswolds, in August 2015. Continue reading...
Experts concerned for safety of Alba, world’s only known albino orangutan, in country where poverty drives illegal huntingFears have arisen for the world’s only known albino orangutan, Alba, who has been released into a protected forest more than a year after being discovered bloodied and emaciated in a remote Indonesian village.The blue-eyed, white-haired great ape is “very strong†after undergoing intensive rehabilitation with the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF), which nursed the primate back to health after finding her caged and weighing just 8kg in April 2017. Continue reading...
Extinction Rebellion group calls for environment to be made ‘top editorial issue’The BBC’s central London headquarters has been put on lockdown due to a protest by climate change campaigners who are demanding it uses its status as national broadcaster to declare a “climate and ecological emergencyâ€.Extinction Rebellion, a direct action group that has recently shut down key London roads, has demand the BBC makes the environment its “top editorial issueâ€. Continue reading...
Wildlife groups say delay has allowed some farmers to systematically cull the animals• Letter: Scotland must commit to helping beavers make a comebackWildlife experts have said wild beavers in Scotland are being trapped and shot because ministers have broken promises to make them a protected species.A group of 17 prominent ecologists and conservation bodies have signed a letter to the Guardian urging the Scottish government to honour its pledge two years ago to legislate to protect more than 400 wild beavers in the southern Highlands and Tayside. Continue reading...
Rat-related callouts rise as experts say warming temperatures are helping New York’s rats feed and mate longer into the yearThe discarded slices of pizza that litter New York’s streets have long fuelled its sizeable population of rats, but now the city’s growing swarm has a new reason to enjoy their home – warming temperatures.Related: Man v rat: could the long war soon be over? | Jordan Kisner Continue reading...
Scrubbing up the skies is hard – however many filter towers and houseplants are on the jobAmong the high-rise apartment blocks of Xi’an, China, there is a 100-metre cylindrical tower. It looks like a chimney, but it has a very different purpose. It is trying to filter the city’s air. Smaller examples of outdoor air filters have been erected in the Netherlands and Poland, and filters have been installed next to roads in Delhi and on buses in Southampton. Other ideas include plants and surfaces that react with the pollution, but cleaning outdoor air is difficult since the pollution is already diluted. It’s like trying to take the milk out of your tea.Related: What would a smog-free city look like? Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#45E07)
Findings expose ‘big lie’ behind European marine conservation, scientists sayDestructive trawling is more intense inside official marine sanctuaries, while endangered fish are more common outside them, a startling analysis of Europe’s seas has revealed.It shows that far from conserving sealife, legal marine protection areas (MPAs) are in fact the places most damaged by industrial fishing. The work has exposed “the big lie†behind European marine conservation, experts say, with most MPAs completely open to trawling. Continue reading...
Ernst & Young report previously withheld from the public says $3.2bn water fund poses serious risksThe commonwealth faces “unique fraud risks†arising from its management of the $3.2bn portfolio of environmental water in the Murray-Darling Basin, an internal audit has found.The audit, written by Ernst & Young, and previously withheld from the public, found the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) and the near $3.2bn worth of water it controls, was at risk of being defrauded by state agencies, individual officers within those agencies and private landholders. Continue reading...
Aurelia Skipwith, who lacks predecessor’s experience, faces potential conflicts of interest over links to corporationsThe White House’s nominee to head a top US conservation agency lacks her predecessors’ experience while her political connections raise potential conflicts of interest, a Guardian analysis has found.Aurelia Skipwith, who started her career at the agrochemical giant Monsanto, has been nominated to lead the interior department’s Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees endangered species and wildlife refuges. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#45DAE)
High levels of contamination in Mariana Trench show how pervasively planet has been contaminatedThe deepest point on Earth is heavily polluted with plastic, scientists have discovered, showing how pervasively the world has been contaminated.The researchers plumbed the depths of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, near Challenger Deep, the lowest place on the face of the planet. They found the highest levels of microplastics yet found in the open ocean, compared with surveys from elsewhere in the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Continue reading...
Green energy provided almost a third of electricity between July and SeptemberAlmost a third of the UK’s electricity came from renewable sources between July and September, as wind turbines and solar panels helped achieve a quarterly record for green energy.Major new offshore windfarms connecting to the grid pushed renewables to 33.1% of electricity generation across the quarter, up from 30% the year before. Continue reading...
More than 700,000 hectares cleared over two years, 40% of it in reef catchment, before stricter laws were passedMore than 700,000 hectares of forest and bushland were destroyed in Queensland in the past two years and 40% of it occurred in Great Barrier Reef catchments.Environment groups have described the level of deforestation as an “environmental disaster†and called for federal intervention to end land-clearing in reef catchments and other nationally significant areas. Continue reading...
Judgment details how ‘payment difficulties’ emerged in contract between AECOM and Adani subsidiaryAdani has been ordered to pay almost $12m owed to engineering firm AECOM for work on a scrapped rail line to the Carmichael coalmine.A judgment in the Queensland Building and Construction commission details how “payment difficulties†emerged in a contract between AECOM and an Adani subsidiary company. The 1,862-point commission adjudication says Adani had “anticipated†receiving government support that did not materialise, including a $1b federal loan to build the rail link between Carmichael and the Abbot Point port. Continue reading...
Australian Industry Group says an emissions reduction obligation in national policy is ‘vastly superior’ to separate state schemesThe New South Wales government’s call to end the “climate wars†has won a tick of approval from the Australian Industry Group, which represents Australia’s largest industrial energy users.The employer body’s chief executive, Innes Willox, told Guardian Australia an emissions reduction obligation in national policy was “vastly superior†to separate state schemes and also pushed for policies to reduce emissions outside the energy sector. Continue reading...
by Justin McCurry in Tokyo and Graham Readfearn on (#45CCS)
Tokyo denies report by Kyodo news agency that government will reveal its decision by the end of the yearJapan is to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and resume commercial whaling next year, a report claimed on Thursday, in a move that drew condemnation from Australia, with other anti-whaling nations expected to follow suit.Japan will inform the IWC of its decision by the end of the year, Kyodo news agency said, months after the body rejected its latest bid to resume commercial whaling. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#45BF0)
But Green groups say proposals will mean weaker protection for nature after UK leaves EUA new post-Brexit green watchdog will be able to sue the government over environmental failings, according to new plans set out by Michael Gove. However, campaign groups have questioned the independence of the body because the chairperson and budget will be decided by the environment secretary.The establishment of the watchdog is part of the draft environment bill, which also puts principles such as “the polluter pays†into legal guidance, but only requires ministers to consider them. The bill, the first for 20 years, makes it a legal requirement for the government to have a long-term environment plan and report on progress to parliament each year. Continue reading...
State of the climate report points to a long-term increase in the frequency of extreme heat events, fire weather and droughtAustralia is experiencing more extreme heat, longer fire seasons, rising oceans and more marine heatwaves consistent with a changing climate, according to the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO’s state of the climate report.The report, published every two years, measures the long-term variability and trends observed in Australia’s climate. Continue reading...
Stay of execution for coal subsidies has been heavily criticised by climate analystsAn EU deal to slowly phase out coal subsidies is “completely inconsistent†with the bloc’s Paris climate agreement commitments, analysts say.Marathon negotiations ended early on Wednesday with a benchmark CO2 emissions standard of 550 grams per kWh for all European power plants by 2025. But coal-dependent Poland secured a loophole allowing countries another year to negotiate new “capacity mechanisms†that would be exempted from the deadline. Continue reading...
In our new column about the American south and climate change, we go towards Christians who have been resistant to ideas of environmental stewardship - perhaps it’s a message they need to hear in their own termsI was, frankly, nervous about speaking to people of faith in the south about climate change. I wrestled with my own preconceived notions and past experiences, and was surprised when conversations took inspiring, if not transcendent, turns.Secular as I am now, I still think fondly of my childhood minister, Dr Lehman, who loved college basketball and Honda Accords (he drove 13 of them during his lifetime). At the conclusion of each Lakeside Baptist service, he’d call the eastern North Carolina congregation to action. Continue reading...
Court hears department and VicForests have not protected minimum area of old-growth forest required by law in East GippslandLogging in old-growth forests in Victoria should cease, according to testimony from the Victorian environment department in a court battle over logging in East Gippsland.The Fauna and Flora Research Collective is pursuing VicForests and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in the supreme court. Continue reading...
Ogoniland women produce most of the family’s food but the twin pressures of land grabs and pollution are making it impossible for them to surviveTwo women pick a slimy path through a creek, prized by generations of their female forbears for its mangroves, which once provided an abundance of food.The elder in orange, the younger in blue, they fail to find a single periwinkle snail, a single fish or a usable piece of kindling between them. Their feet struggle to take purchase on the mud, more slippery than it used to be. Continue reading...
NSW energy minister Don Harwin said he was ‘very disappointed’ with federal minister Angus Taylor heading off a Coag voteThe New South Wales energy minister has blasted his Coalition colleagues in the federal government for blocking his attempt to debate emissions reduction at an energy ministers meeting.Don Harwin said he was “very disappointed†with the outcome of the Council of Australian Governments energy council on Wednesday because an obligation to reduce emissions is “absolutely critical†to encourage investment in new power generation and lower prices. Continue reading...
Don Harwin urges Coalition to ‘put science, economics and engineering ahead of ideology’The New South Wales energy minister, Don Harwin, wants the federal government to end its “climate wars†and start reducing emissions, ahead of a meeting with his colleagues from across Australia.But the Victorian energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the federal coalition was “beyond hope†on the issue and that NSW is calling them out too late. Continue reading...
The case for hydrogen as a fuel has been well made but there has been little investment to bring it to scaleIf Australia wants fair dinkum power, there is a new energy carrier on the block to ensure the supply of reliable renewable electricity.And if Australia gets its act together, it will lead a new global export industry for this clean energy carrier, be at the forefront of a new economy, and become a trailblazer in new technologies. Continue reading...
Toys feature in more than half of EU alerts for products containing banned chemicalsChristmas shoppers are being warned to avoid plastic toys after they appeared in more than half of EU intergovernmental alerts for products containing banned chemicals this year.In all, 290 of the 563 warnings sent out on the EU’s rapid alert system concerned toys with illegally high levels of toxins, most of which were plastic dolls, and all of which could be on sale on British high streets. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#458AR)
Scientists accuse officials of cherry-picking data to defend disease-control schemeMore than 32,000 badgers were killed in England this autumn during the annual cull, which is intended to reduce tuberculosis in cattle.Government officials claimed the culls were effective and starting to reduce prevalence of the disease in cows. But independent scientists said the officials were cherry-picking data and making up targets as they went along. Continue reading...
Government confirms anyone who adds solar from April 2019 will not be paid for excess electricity exported to gridThe government has said households that install solar panels in the future will be expected to give away unused clean power for free to energy firms earning multimillion-pound profits, provoking outrage from green campaigners.The mayor of London, big energy firms and environmentalists had urged ministers not to end the “export tariff†for solar panels under the feed-in tariff scheme, which is closing next year. Continue reading...
Rare species of snail found near A47 will be monitored in new home until 2023Snails with legally protected status could delay a road scheme by five years as a project to rehome them is kept under observation.Ditches alongside a section of the A47 in Norfolk are a habitat for little whirlpool ramshorn snails, whose shells measure just a few millimetres in diameter. Continue reading...
Europe told if it does not act it will be ‘turning blind eye to genocide’ under BolsonaroBrazil’s foremost indigenous leader has called on the EU to impose trade sanctions to prevent ecological disaster and a “social extermination†by her country’s far-right president-elect, who takes office on 1 January.Jair Bolsonaro has terrified indigenous communities by promising to take every centimetre of their land, designate rights activists as “terrorists†and carve a motorway through the Amazon, which could deforest an area larger than Germany. Continue reading...
Far-right government vows to legalise mining and commercial farming on indigenous Yanomami landThe indigenous leader and campaigning photographer who fought to create Brazil’s biggest tribal reserve warned it could be threatened under the far-right government of the president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, as a major retrospective exhibition opens.Bolsonaro has said the Yanomami reserve, which at 9.6m hectares (24m acres) is twice the size of Switzerland, was too big for its indigenous population. Continue reading...