Environment | The Guardian

Activists and residents demonstrate in Bermondsey in protest at pollution from lorriesExtinction Rebellion protesters have blockaded the entrance to the construction of London’s £4.2bn super-sewer project as part of a fifth day of protests.About 50 activists – including mothers and children from the nearby Riverside primary school – began a blockade to halt concrete pouring at Chambers Wharf in Bermondsey, south-east London, at 7.30am on Friday. Continue reading...

Our conditions have forced us to temper our expectations, but my friend and I won’t let them stop us pursuing what we love

High numbers have reached UK in past six weeks and many of their offspring will emerge during Big Butterfly CountWildlife lovers are being urged to help record the greatest influx of painted lady butterflies for a decade as part of the world’s largest butterfly survey.Unusually high numbers of the migratory butterfly have flown into Britain from continental Europe in the last six weeks and some of their offspring will emerge during the Big Butterfly Count, which starts on Friday. Continue reading...

Rare photos capture astronauts in the Apollo program training in the rugged canyons, craters and lava fields of ArizonaOn 20 July 1969, the world paused as an estimated 600 million people watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. But few knew they were watching steps those men had long practiced in the canyons, craters and lava fields of Arizona.Fifty years after the moon landing, Arizona’s role remains a forgotten piece of history – but this pockmarked landscape of high rocky plains once served as Nasa’s training ground for astronauts headed to the lunar surface. Continue reading...

Tender process for seabed use made more transparent after warnings from energy firmsThe Queen’s property manager has bowed to criticism over its plans for the biggest offshore wind auction in a decade by agreeing to fairer terms for renewable energy companies.The Crown Estate, which holds the rights to seabeds around the British Isles, told windfarm developers on Thursday that it has “refined” its controversial plans for the upcoming tender to make it more affordable to develop renewable energy. Continue reading...

Former PM doesn’t want wind farms ‘spoiling our landscape’ and praises Angus Taylor for supporting coal-fired powerThe former prime minister Tony Abbott has continued his crusade against wind turbines, labelling them the “dark satanic mills of the modern era”.Abbott, who was dumped at the 18 May election as the member for Warringah, had previously questioned the health impacts of wind turbines, despite there being no “consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects”. He has also previously dismissed them as “ugly”, “noisy” and “visually awful”. Continue reading...

Evironmental Protection Agency rejects proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, despite growing evidence of its toxicityThe US government has rejected a proposed ban on a toxic pesticide linked to brain damage in children, dismissing a growing body of research on the health hazards of a widely used agricultural chemical.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in a ruling on Thursday that it supported farmers’ continued use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that growers have long sprayed on almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, walnuts and other major crops in America. The decision, outlined in a response to a petition from environmental and public health groups, said “critical questions remained regarding the significance of the data” on neurological impacts on children. Continue reading...

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says ‘further loss of coral is inevitable’The federal agency that manages the Great Barrier Reef has made an unprecedented call for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, warning only the “strongest and fastest possible action” will reduce the risks to the natural wonder.The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has published a climate position statement that says the reef is already damaged from warming oceans and it is “critical” global temperature rises remain within 1.5 degrees. Continue reading...

States will be required to spend agreed portion of procurement budget on recycled materials for public projectsThe federal government is preparing to unveil “ambitious” new targets that will require all states and territories to spend a portion of their procurement budgets on recycled materials for public projects.New waste reduction minister, Trevor Evans, who is the first person to hold the portfolio at a federal level, said he would seek agreement from state and territory environment ministers for the new target at their next meeting, expected before the end of the year. Continue reading...

Only 10,000 upgrades such as loft insulation happen each month compared with 65,000 in 2014, report showsEfforts to end fuel poverty and energy waste by making the UK’s draughty homes more efficient have collapsed by almost 85%, according to new government data.The report, published on Thursday, shows that the number of energy efficiency upgrades undertaken each month has fallen to 10,000 on average for the six months to the end of May. This compares with an average of 65,000 a month in 2014. Continue reading...

Met says it is working with CPS on more than 900 cases from environmental protestsPolice have accused Extinction Rebellion of causing “high level” disruption and called for courts to pass sentences big enough to deter them from causing fresh chaos, as the environmental group braces itself for mass prosecutions of its activists.Laurence Taylor, the deputy assistant commissioner in charge of protest policing for the Metropolitan force, said last April’s mass civil disobedience, when thousands of activists occupied four sites across London, saw 90 of the people being arrested only to be released and rejoin the protests. Taylor said police were talking to the government about tougher and clearer powers. Continue reading...

Environmental groups condemn cutting of company’s fine from £37.7m to £3mEnvironmental groups are demanding one of Britain’s biggest water companies be made to pay tens of millions of pounds to restore the damage to habitats and wildlife caused by thousands of pollution spills into the rivers and beaches across the south-east of England.As details of the scale of the criminal inquiry into the allegedly deliberate misreporting of data and cover-up of thousands of pollution spills by Southern Water emerge, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are calling on the regulator, Ofwat, to review a penalty of £126m imposed on the company last month. Continue reading...

Sarah Green and Laura Hughes raised concerns over impact on Colne Valley near LondonTwo environmental protesters campaigning against the HS2 high-speed rail link have walked free from court after a prosecution against them collapsed.Sarah Green, 63, a Green party member, and Laura Hughes, 37, of Extinction Rebellion, were both charged with aggravated trespass for protesting against work HS2 was carrying out in the Colne Valley nature reserve in Hillingdon, London, home to a variety of fauna and flora including bats, owls and osprey. Continue reading...

Amid widespread US heatwave, experts predict dangerous extremes in summer temperatures will only get worseAs the climate crisis progresses, the number of extremely hot days around the US could more than double, according to a peer-reviewed study and report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.By mid-century, an average of 36 days a year could feel like 100F (37.7C) or hotter. Toward the end of the century, 54 days a year could feel that hot, researchers with the science advocacy group found. Continue reading...

Submerged sculptures and others that appear at low tide to be installed at several Queensland sites, as part of a project that also aims to rehabilitate sections of the reefFrom a colour-changing figure warning of warming seas to a sunken skeletal greenhouse encrusted with coral, a new museum of underwater art in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef marine park aims to raise awareness of the threatened ecosystem – and rehabilitate parts of the reef.Created by British sculptor and environmentalist Jason deCaires Taylor, the Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA) will feature partially and fully submerged installations and sculptures that will become sites for coral and marine life regeneration. Continue reading...

Latest list shows extinction now threatens a third of all assessed species, from monkeys to rhino raysFrom the tops of trees to the depths of the oceans, humanity’s destruction of wildlife is continuing to drive many species towards extinction, with the latest “red list” showing that a third of all species assessed are under threat.The razing of habitats and hunting for bushmeat has now driven seven primates into decline, while overfishing has pushed two families of extraordinary rays to the brink. Pollution, dams and over-abstraction of freshwater are responsible for serious declines in river wildlife from Mexico to Japan, while illegal logging is ravaging Madagascar’s rosewoods, and disease is decimating the American elm. Continue reading...

Wild Justice plans legal action over environmental impact of shooting industry’s release of 50m non-native birds each yearThe legality of releasing 50 million non-native pheasants and partridges into the British countryside each year is to be challenged in the courts by a new crowdfunded campaign.The government should be forced to carry out environmental assessments of the impact of the shooting industry’s release of game birds into the wild each year, according to Wild Justice, a campaign group led by environmentalists Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham. Continue reading...

Work starts on first wave of 100 fountains to be installed in drive to cut single-use plastics

Inquiry to address problems including aviation emissions and traffic in UK and abroad

Opposition leader says Labor will support ‘any level’ of funding the Coalition names as long as it doesn’t take funds from other portfoliosLabor leader Anthony Albanese has urged the Morrison government to avoid “playing politics” with drought funding, saying Labor would support “any level” of funding the Coalition names, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of another portfolio.The government’s $5bn “future drought fund” was knocked back in the last parliament, after Labor announced it would not support any moves to take funds from the Building Australia Fund to pay for it. Continue reading...

Experts believe false readings occurred because radar interpreted insects as raindrops

Blowing trillions of tonnes of snow on to ice sheet could halt its collapse, researchers saySpraying trillions of tons of snow over west Antarctica could halt the ice sheet’s collapse and save coastal cities across the world from sea level rise, according to a new study.The colossal geoengineering project would need energy from at least 12,000 wind turbines to power giant seawater pumps and snow cannons, and would destroy a unique natural reserve. The scientists are not advocating for such a project, but said its apparent “absurdity” reflects the extraordinary scale of threat from rising sea level. Continue reading...

Country vows to return 1,600 tonnes of waste as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipmentsCambodia has announced it will send 1,600 tonnes of plastic waste found in shipping containers back to the US and Canada, as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipments.China’s decision to ban foreign plastic waste imports last year threw global recycling into chaos, leaving developed nations struggling to find countries to send their trash. Continue reading...

Owner says its brands including Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear will all follow suitThe owner of high street fashion chain Zara has announced that all of its collections will be made from 100% sustainable fabrics before 2025.Inditex – which was named the world’s third largest apparel company this year by Forbes – said its other brands, including Zara Home, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear, will also follow suit. Continue reading...

Retired Lt Gen Russel Honoré commands what he’s named the ‘Green Army’ against toxic pollution in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’Retired Lt Gen Russel Honoré knows a stupid plan when he sees one.

Crown Estate holds rights to seabeds around British Isles for wind and wave powerThe Queen’s property managers will this week set out terms for the world’s biggest offshore wind auction in a decade.Industry experts expect the complex bidding process to raise record sums, which could increase energy bills and hand a windfall to the crown – potentially generating hundreds of millions for the Queen. Continue reading...

Wood smoke smothers Coyhaique, Chile, in June and July. Yet despite the WHO ranking its air worst in the Americas, residents are reluctant to alter their habitsPhotographs by Claudio Frías“I was born and raised beside a roaring fire,” says Yasna Seguel proudly, as wet snowflakes tap against the kitchen window behind her and orange flames warm an outstretched palm. A tobacco-yellow stain soaks into the table cloth as she sets her mate gourd down to select a fresh log for the fire.Every evening through the bitterly cold winter months of June and July, the southern city of Coyhaique, the most populous in the region of Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, is smothered by a thick, fragrant blanket of damp wood smoke that clings to the hillsides. Continue reading...

US has offered close to 378m acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office through April 2019Donald Trump’s leases of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling could lead to the production of more climate-warming pollution than the entire European Union contributes in a year, according to a new report.The Wilderness Society estimates heat-trapping emissions from extracting and burning those fossil fuels could range between 854m and 4.7bn metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, depending on how much development companies pursue. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ‘Sneaky’ rezoning exercise now under way to address timber shortfallThe New South Wales government is considering reclassifying old-growth forest to open up some protected reserves in the state’s north-east to the timber industry.The Natural Resources Commission of NSW has been asked to remap and rezone old-growth forest in state forest informal reserves that were previously off limits to logging. Environment groups are concerned the move is an attempt to unpick forest protections that have been in place for decades. Continue reading...

If global trends continue for another fortnight, it will beat previous two-year-old recordRecord temperatures across much of the world over the past two weeks could make July the hottest month ever measured on Earth, according to climate scientists.The past fortnight has seen freak heat in the Canadian Arctic, crippling droughts in Chennai and Harare and forest fires that forced thousands of holidaymakers to abandon campsites in southern France and prompted the air force in Indonesia to fly cloud-busting missions in the hope of inducing rain. Continue reading...

Animal climbed over three electric fences and four-metre high barrier to escapeItalian forest rangers are on the hunt for a bear that has been described as an “escape genius” after managing to climb over three electric fences and a four-metre high barrier at a wildlife enclosure in the northern province of Trentino before disappearing into the woods.Code-named M49, the 149kg (23 stone) brown bear fled the Casteller centre within hours of being captured with a tube trap overnight on Sunday in Val Rendena. Continue reading...

Queensland department of environment to allege that document contained false and misleading information about land disturbancesThe Queensland government has started prosecution proceedings in relation to information in Adani’s annual return for its Carmichael mine.The Queensland government’s department of environment and science has commenced legal proceedings against Adani Mining under the Environmental Protection Act over claims it provided false or misleading information in its 2017/2018 annual return. Continue reading...

Politicians have chosen process over lives and the result has been rampant cancer in the region

Millions displaced in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, with Assam and Bihar among the worst-hit regionsMore than 100 people have been killed and millions more affected by devastating floods and landslides across parts of south Asia.Heavy monsoon rains over the past week have left many dead in Nepal and Bangladesh, and submerged vast areas of north-east India. Continue reading...

Implementation of ban ‘inadequate’ and has resulted in more waste, says Lord TeversonThe ban on the wasteful discards of healthy and edible fish at sea has failed, according to a Lords report. Despite its enormous popularity with the British public, the measure has been poorly implemented in the UK and the result is more fish being needlessly wasted.The implementation of the discards ban has been “inadequate” according to Lord Teverson, speaking to the Guardian after a report on the issue that he co-wrote. A committee of the House of Lords criticised the government in a report for failing to put the ban into proper effect. Continue reading...

Radical change needed to make UK food and farming system sustainable within 10 yearsThe true cost of cheap, unhealthy food is a spiralling public health crisis and environmental destruction, according to a high-level commission. It said the UK’s food and farming system must be radically transformed and become sustainable within 10 years.The commission’s report, which was welcomed by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, concluded that farmers must be enabled to shift from intensive farming to more organic and wildlife friendly production, raising livestock on grass and growing more nuts and pulses. It also said a National Nature Service should be created to give opportunities for young people to work in the countryside and, for example, tackle the climate crisis by planting trees or restoring peatlands. Continue reading...

Council in Victorian town to vote whether to re-home birds popular on social media, following reports of ‘intimidating’ behaviourA plan to relocate a flock of domestic geese in the Victorian tourist town of Daylesford has drawn concern from some local tourism operators, who say the geese are a popular Instagram drawcard.The Hepburn shire council will vote on Tuesday night on whether to relocate the 30-odd domestic geese, which have been living on Lake Daylesford in increasing numbers for several years. Continue reading...

Committee urges action over flame retardants found in breast milk and umbilical cordsBritons are being exposed to a “cocktail of chemicals” from the womb onwards, with potentially life-threatening consequences, MPs have warned.Ministers were accused of “sitting on their hands” while “unnecessary and potentially toxic” chemicals continued to enter people’s homes. Continue reading...

Meeting of carmakers also told of plan for new houses to have EV charging pointThe government has handed Jaguar Land Rover a £500m loan guarantee to help accelerate its progress in the global electric vehicle race.Theresa May said the loan would help Britain’s biggest carmaker sell the next generation of electric cars around the world. She told a meeting of industry leaders at Downing Street on Monday that the funding pot would include £500m from UK Export Finance alongside another £125m from commercial lenders. Continue reading...

Divers stayed close to giant animal for an hour before it swam awayA giant barrel jellyfish has been spotted off the coast of Cornwall by divers.“I’ve never seen one that big,” said Lizzie Daly, a biologist who saw the creature near Falmouth. “We had seen a few smaller jellyfish at a beautiful reef nearby, and then out of the murk came this huge, beautiful jelly fish. You just take a double look and ask yourself if it’s actually a metre and a half long.” Continue reading...

Former Greens leader says Robbins Island proposal could harm critically endangered birds and affect landscape’s natural beautyBob Brown, one of Australia’s most prominent environmental activists, says he opposes a major windfarm development because its towers will affect Tasmania’s natural beauty and could kill endangered wildlife without any economic benefit for the state.The former Greens leader said the $1.6bn Robbins Island development could harm migratory and critically endangered birds, and transmission lines to link the plant to a new power cable across Bass Strait would require a path to be cut through the Tarkine wilderness. Continue reading...

They’re cheaper than cabs, less effort than a bike and more convenient than buses. But as the number of e-scooter accidents rises, a backlash is growingMost of the people riding electric scooters around Copenhagen glide like swans, bodies motionless and serene with heads tilted into the sunshine.I am the ugly duckling, wobbling and jerking while I struggle to figure out exactly how this two-wheeled contraption works. Where do I put my feet? How hard do I thumb the accelerator? And how on earth am I meant to indicate left and press the brake with my left hand at the same time? Continue reading...

Ministers are expected to announce plans to bolster nuclear industry this weekThe government will set out plans to resuscitate the UK’s struggling nuclear ambitions with a new scheme which would leave taxpayers liable for rising costs or delays.The funding model, expected this week, could help bankroll the multibillion pound plans for a follow-on to EDF Energy’s Hinkley Point C project in Somerset, which ministers aim to build at the Sizewell site in Suffolk. Continue reading...

Prospectors in Russia dig up remains of extinct animals for trade worth an estimated £40m a yearActivists and officials in northern Russia have warned of a “gold rush” for mammoth ivory as prospectors dig up tusks and other woolly mammoth remains that can net a small fortune on the rapacious Chinese market.Melting permafrost from global heating has made it easier for locals to retrieve the remains of woolly mammoths, which have been extinct for thousands of years, and sell them on to China, where the ivory is fashioned into jewellery, trinkets, knives, and other decorations. Continue reading...

Labour in power would change law to reveal imported emissions and ‘carbon leakage’The UK will stop hiding its “true impact” on the climate by revealing its consumption of carbon emissions from across the world, Jeremy Corbyn was due to pledge on Sunday.In an attempt to place his party at the forefront of the battle against the climate crisis, the Labour leader was due to say, is “even greater than we think” and demands an end to “passing the buck to poorer countries”. Continue reading...

Ambitious export plan could generate billions and make Australia the centre of low-cost energy in a future zero-carbon worldThe desert outside Tennant Creek, deep in the Northern Territory, is not the most obvious place to build and transmit Singapore’s future electricity supply. Though few in the southern states are yet to take notice, a group of Australian developers are betting that will change.If they are right, it could have far-reaching consequences for Australia’s energy industry and what the country sells to the world. Continue reading...

Other events included mass bike ride through A10, Olympic park traffic blocks as well as talks and panels in London FieldsExtinction Rebellion has staged a blockade in Dalston, east London, disrupting traffic at its busiest central junction. Car horns, sirens and swearing competed with drumming protesters, singing and hula dancing. On Saturday the group kicked off a weekend of activity ahead of its summer uprising this week, which aims to disrupt five major UK cities and shock people into action against the climate crisis.About 50 protesters lined the road with banners reading “thank you for your patience” and “sorry for the disruption” in the hope of placating the public for the seven-minute intervals during which they blocked traffic. Some drivers were bored, others were furious. Continue reading...

More living walls are being created in cities to tackle pollution, but keeping them alive can be a major challengeWhen Andrea Carnevali’s son started at St Mary’s Catholic primary school in Chiswick he was alarmed to find that pupils were sometimes kept indoors at break times, despite a large playground.The reason was the nearby six-lane A4 road, which has up to 100,000 vehicles thundering past the school each day. As evidence mounted about the impact of poor air quality on children’s health, the headteacher restricted time outside. Continue reading...