Galicia has agreed to a cull of the creatures, which are turning up in unusually large numbers and feasting on the region’s key exportGalicia, in north-west Spain, has declared war on an apparently inoffensive creature that is putting livelihoods under threat.The region’s shellfish farmers say that an unusually large population of starfish has begun devouring their crop of mussels, cockles and clams. They recently obtained permission from the regional government to cull the starfish, and divers have been hauling up hundreds of kilos a day. Continue reading...

It’s a lie that humanity has to choose between prosperity and protecting the future, former US secretary of state tells Australian conferenceThe former US secretary of state John Kerry has warned that humanity risks marching off a cliff unless governments take immediate action to fight the climate emergency.In a keynote address to the Global Table food and agriculture conference, Kerry made veiled swipes at the Australian government’s lack of climate and energy policy. He also weighed in on the heated debate about the massive Adani coalmine proposed for north Queensland. Continue reading...

Las Vegas is the fastest-warming city in the United States. The city’s poorest residents are most at risk in the heatThe Clark county death investigator Jill Roberts vividly recalls the sunny 115F (46C) afternoon last summer when she entered a Las Vegas home with no functional air conditioning. The indoor heat felt even worse than the broiling temperature outside. She climbed up the stairs, through thick, stifling air, landing in a third-story bedroom where the resident had died in sweltering conditions. The room had no fan and the door was shut. It felt as if it couldn’t get any hotter.“Our elements are unforgiving. Especially on those 115F days, it doesn’t take a lot,” Roberts told the Guardian. “In that situation I’ll go stand in the sun in the 115F heat to do my paperwork as opposed to staying in the house because it’s that hot.” Continue reading...

Newspaper says event ‘gives us cause for concern’ after protests outside its officesThe New York Times has scrapped plans to sponsor one of the world’s biggest oil industry conferences after pressure from climate campaigners including Extinction Rebellion.There were protests outside the newspaper’s offices in Manhattan this month over the Oil and Money conference, which is in its 40th year and which green groups have called a “climate crime scene”. Continue reading...

Concern in New Zealand that trend of taking photographs with penguins and other creatures is having impact on feeding, breeding and birth ratesAt the International Penguin Conference in New Zealand, the experts were worried. Among sobering discussions about the perils of the climate crisis and habitat loss, the unlikely issue of wildlife selfies photobombed the agenda, with increasing concern that the celebrity-fuelled search for that perfect shot is affecting animal behaviour.Professor Philip Seddon, the director of Otago University’s wildlife management programme, said: ‘We’re losing respect for wildlife, we don’t understand the wild at all.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: AMA points to ‘clear scientific evidence indicating severe impacts for our patients and communities’The Australian Medical Association has formally declared climate change a health emergency, pointing to “clear scientific evidence indicating severe impacts for our patients and communities now and into the future”.The AMA’s landmark shift, delivered by a motion of the body’s federal council, brings the organisation into line with forward-leaning positions taken by the American Medical Association, the British Medical Association and Doctors for the Environment Australia. Continue reading...

Future Super, KeepCup and clean energy retailer Amber among 20 firms to join Not Business as Usual allianceAustralian tech company Atlassian is encouraging its workforce to take part in global climate strikes this month that will be held to coincide with the United Nations climate summit.The software company is among an alliance of Australian and global companies urging businesses to support employees who want to strike in solidarity with students on 20 September. Continue reading...

Barclays and HSBC targeted on final day of protests against fossil fuel investmentsEnvironmental protesters have glued themselves to banks in Manchester to protest against fossil fuel investments on the final day of Extinction Rebellion’s action in the city.Nine activists stuck themselves to the pavement outside Barclays in Piccadilly Square, with a further two following suit at HSBC in St Ann’s Square on Monday. Continue reading...

Barnacle geese have begun forsaking traditional feeding stop south of Arctic circle, study finds

English river’s ecosystem is thriving, 62 years after being declared biologically deadIt has been a highway, a sewer and was declared biologically dead in the 1950s but the River Thames is now a nursery for 138 baby seals, according to the first comprehensive count of pups.Scientists from ZSL analysed photographs taken from a specially-chartered light aircraft to identify and count harbour seal pups, which rest on sandbanks and creeks around the Thames estuary, downstream from London, during the summer, shortly after they are born. Continue reading...

Charities write to Sajid Javid requesting increase of spending from £17bn to £42bn over next three yearsBritain’s biggest environmental groups have warned the government that funding to tackle the climate emergency must be more than double next year to avoid an even greater cost from catastrophic ecological breakdown in the future.Writing to the chancellor, Sajid Javid, as he prepares to announce on Wednesday his spending priorities for the year ahead, more than a dozen leading environment charities, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth as well as other leading organisations such as Oxfam and Christian Aid, said urgent action was required to raise spending. Continue reading...

Teenage climate activist responds to criticism, saying ‘when haters go after your looks and differences ... you know you’re winning’Greta Thunberg has spoken about her Asperger’s syndrome diagnosis after she was criticised over the condition, saying it makes her a “different”, but that she considers it a “superpower”.Thunberg, the public face of the school climate strike movement said on Twitter that before she started her climate action campaign she had “no energy, no friends and I didn’t speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home, with an eating disorder.” Continue reading...

The charity also spent a record £148m on conservation and restoration in 2018/19National Trust membership has climbed above 5.5 million in a record-breaking year for conservation spending.The charity announced in its annual report that its membership had increased in the past year by more than 300,000 to 5,600,000. It also revealed that it had spent more than £148m on conservation and restoration projects in 2018/19. Continue reading...

Research finds belief that scoffing crickets or worm burgers will be commonplaceNearly a third of Britons believe insects will eventually be part of mainstream human diets in the UK amid mounting challenges in food production, new research reveals.With UK farmers facing pressure from the climate crisis, pests and plant diseases – alongside the need to boost productivity and compete with imports – research released on Monday claims that 32% of British adults think that regularly tucking into cricket snacks and buffalo worm burgers will become commonplace within 10 years. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Top Queensland farmers’ group supports controversial scientist Peter Ridd’s questioning of climate science

Lyn Jenkins was visited by police after being reported to counter-terrorism programmeA retired doctor who took part in non-violent environmental protests was visited by police at his home after his local NHS trust reported him to the government’s counter-terrorism programme.Lyn Jenkins, 69, joined the Extinction Rebellion environmental campaign after he became convinced that urgent action was needed to avert climate breakdown. Continue reading...

Readers respond to Stephen Buranyi’s long read on how air cooling systems burn electricity and fuel global heatingKudos to Stephen Buranyi for drawing attention to the growth of air conditioning worldwide and the accompanying taste for cold in a time of global warming (Blowing cold and hot, The long read, 29 August). Having lived and worked in the American south, I can attest there are even more pernicious dimensions to this addiction to cold. Restaurants and bars are kept uncomfortably chilly, thus encouraging higher levels of consumption (heat dampens the desire to eat), fuelling not only profits but the obesity crisis.Cold has become a mark of prestige: the fancier the establishment, be it office block or shopping mall, the colder it is likely to be. Anecdotally, moving between these absurd temperature extremes several times a day seems to increase the incidence of colds. When I requested that the AC in my workplace (a public university) be set to a warmer level, the response of the facilities staff was to provide a heater for my office. Here in New York, a hotel on my street keeps a roaring fire in the lobby – in August – while the ambient indoor temperature is freezing. All this amounts to what Richard Seymour has recently called “climate sadism” – a form of masochism outwardly and ostentatiously directed, consumptive and destructive madness. May we find ways not to get caught up in its drive.

Investment in fracking denies proper support to cheaper renewables, says David Cragg-James; government policies are damaging the environment, says Michael Miller; and Charles Harris on the importance of voting to bring about changeIan Duncan, the UK’s minister for climate change (Letters, 31 August), vaunts our achievements and “ambitions to become one of the cleanest and most innovative energy systems in the world”. He allows a generous 30 years before a “net-zero emissions economy is achieved”, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it clear that real change must be evident in fewer than a dozen years.How can he hope to realise his longer-term targets while pursuing fracking as a transitional fuel? Investment in the hugely expensive development of fracking denies proper support to cheaper renewables, and delaying the switch ties the operator and investor into the production of a fossil fuel until a return is achieved. That exposes communities to the harms already documented, and contributes – by combustion, extraction and transportation – to the climate change the government hopes to mitigate. Continue reading...

Judge denies costs protection over injunction restricting protests at Lancashire siteAn environmental group has been forced to withdraw its legal challenge to a wide-ranging injunction by the fracking firm Cuadrilla after being “priced out of court”.Three fracking protesters are facing court action after the energy company obtained the injunction restricting protests at its shale gas exploration site in Lancashire. Continue reading...

Worcester is putting LED lighting to innovative use to protect white-light-shy localsBats in Worcester are to get their own red-light area. LED bulbs that emit a red glow will provide bats with a 60-metre-wide crossing area on the A4440, near to Worcester’s Warndon Woodlands nature reserve.Worcestershire county council said research had shown that some species of bat are light shy and will not cross roads lit by white lights, which can stop them finding food and water. Standard street lights also attract insects that bats feed on, reducing the supply available in their feeding areas. Continue reading...

The catwalk world of glamour and luxury hides a business that thrives on wasteful consumerism. Now the climate crisis is forcing a rethinkIn the last days of August, an influx of slender women to midtown Manhattan signals the onset of fashion week, the biannual round of catwalk shows. After passing on to London, Milan and then Paris, the prevailing sensibility coheres into an agreed style.Only this season, the last of the decade, that sensibility may be about to evaporate. A summer of fire in the high Arctic and the Amazon was capped by something to celebrate; the arrival in New York harbour of the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg after she crossed the Atlantic on an emissions-free yacht. Continue reading...

Should we stop building airports? Return to mud and thatch? The climate crisis is an opportunity for creative thinking, but the values of architecture need a radical overhaulNearly 40% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, to use a figure architects love to bandy, are caused by the built environment. Or a bit more, depending on the definitions used. It’s an arresting figure. It suggests that the design of buildings and the planning of cities can do much to counter climate crisis.Architects like to think of themselves as public-spirited, well-intentioned people. The profession tends to attract people who want to change the world for the better. And what could matter more than the prevention of environmental and societal collapse? It makes squabbles about architectural style or form seem trivial by comparison. So what would architecture look like – more importantly, what would it be – if all involved really and truly put climate at the centre of their concerns? Would there be no more concrete, given the material has been fingered as particularly destructive? Or an end to towers clad in panels that have to be replaced every 30 years? Or much less building altogether? Continue reading...

All the reasons that support the project of humanitarian intervention apply with equal, if not greater force, in the case of the environmentThe horrific destruction of the Amazon rainforest under Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, raises a pressing question for the world community: do the prerogatives of sovereignty entitle a nation to destroy resources within its territorial control, when this destruction has global environmental consequences? The answer delivered by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, at the G7 summit is an emphatic no. It is time for the international community to build on Macron’s lead and to recognize a right to environmental intervention patterned on the notion of humanitarian intervention.For centuries, the international community treated sovereignty as an absolute shield against intervention in a state’s domestic affairs. International law insisted that a nation’s treatment of its own citizens and legal subjects was not a matter of international legal concern. The ideology of sovereignty authorized a nation to treat – and mistreat – its people as it saw fit. Continue reading...

As summers get more intense, people who work outdoors, those on a low income and the elderly face imminent perilTo live in Tucson is to be exposed. The Arizona city unfolds beneath four mountain ranges and a gaping sky, welcoming relentless sunlight. Anything here can be sun-bleached – billboards, garden hoses, family photos near windows, laundry left out to dry. Most of the year it’s a dry heat, and sweat evaporates off skin faster than it’s produced.Summertime is different. In monsoon season, heat and humidity steadily increase until a storm breaks. There is no other release. Heat cannot exit from the body, creating a claustrophobic feeling inside the skin. Sweat becomes a vital sign – its absence indicates heatstroke. Continue reading...

The children of Berta Cáceres want to subpoena bank records to a luxury house purchased by the alleged mastermind of the murderThe children of murdered Honduran activist Berta Cáceres have applied to a US federal court to subpoena bank records linked to a $1.4m luxury house in Texas purchased by the alleged mastermind of the crime just months after the killing.Cáceres, 44, a winner of the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental defenders, was shot dead at her home by a hired gunmen on 2 March 2016 after a long battle to stop construction of an internationally financed hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque river, which the Lenca people consider sacred. Continue reading...

A record number of countries voted to restrict fishing of mako sharks in an effort to protect the endangered speciesA record number of countries have voted to protect the world’s fastest shark from extinction in a move welcomed by conservationists as a “wake up call” for fishing nations who have ignored the endangered species’ decline.In Geneva this week, governments voted under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to regulate the international trade in both species of mako shark – long and short fin – in addition to 16 vulnerable species of sharks and rays. Continue reading...

Second Hand September aims to raise awareness of fashion’s environmental impactSeptember occupies a mythical position in the fashion industry, when magazines are traditionally heavy with advertising and substantial winter purchases are made. This year, however, fashion’s most important shopping month will be disrupted by Second Hand September, a drive urging consumers not to buy new clothing for the entire 30 days.The Oxfam-organised campaign aims to raise awareness of fashion’s environmental impact. Nicola Tallett, the charity’s director of engagement, said: “We have seen on a daily basis the impact of the climate emergency on people living in poverty, whether through the droughts in east Africa or the earthquakes in Asia, and we wanted to do something about it.” Continue reading...

Asset managers, pension funds and companies halt deals and stop buying bondsFinancial pressure is growing on Brazil over fires in the Amazon and the far-right president’s belligerent response to them.Asset managers, pension funds and companies have issued warnings, halted deals and stopped purchases of government bonds. Continue reading...

Retailer’s glitter ban comes amid concern about microplastics polluting the environmentMarks & Spencer has joined the effort against microplastics by banning glitter from this year’s Christmas cards, wrapping paper, calendars and crackers.The retailer, which last year tested a biodegradable alternative to glitter on its fresh flowers and plants, said it is aiming to be 100% glitter-free by the end of next year. Continue reading...

Ian Duncan responds to letter on energy targets, Carol Blumenthal defends activists, Wendy Mulville recalls her experiences about air conditioning in Texas, Joseph Nicholas on the apocalypse, Michael Cook on forests, and world-class athletes step upThe letter on Wednesday (Clearer green energy targets are needed, 28 August) was quite right in recognising the UK’s lofty ambitions to become one of the cleanest and most innovative energy systems in the world on our path to becoming a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. But I take issue with the suggestion that our ambitions are not matched by our actions. We’re investing £274m to develop cheap, high-performance and durable batteries. We’re removing regulatory barriers to allow more storage facilities across the UK. We’re supporting small-scale localised energy generation through our smart export guarantee – continuing our world-leading support for the solar industry.As members of the EU, we were obliged to implement the VAT increase for solar technology and storage. Once we leave, it may be possible to review this. All of this is supported by upgrades to the country’s energy infrastructure through our smart meter rollout and smart systems and flexibility plan. This enables homeowners to save money by putting them in control of their energy use, such as by charging electric vehicles or storing energy in a battery when it is cheapest. Continue reading...

Average of 0.7% of total second-quarter electricity generated came from most polluting power plantsThe share of coal in the UK’s electricity system has fallen to record lows in recent months, according to government data.The figures show electricity generated by the UK’s most polluting power plants made up an average of 0.7% of the total in the second quarter of this year. The amount of coal used to power the electricity grid fell by almost two-thirds compared with the same months last year. Continue reading...

Multigenerational building would also include care home for older peopleThe UK’s first car-free school is being planned in Leeds as part of a multi-generational building that includes a care home for older people.The developers hope many children will walk to the 420-place primary school, which will have no parking spaces for staff or visitors and will discourage drop-offs. Continue reading...

A rabbit in a buckwheat field and armadillos and snakes challenged by wildfires in Bolivia and the Amazon Continue reading...

Hundreds flock to St Ives in Cornwall to catch a glimpse of the yellow-footed seabirdHundreds of birders have flocked to Cornwall to seek what could be the first ever UK sighting of a brown booby.The large, yellow-footed seabird is usually found fishing in tropical waters on the far side of the Atlantic, around the Caribbean and Venezuela. Continue reading...

Biodiversity chief calls for countries to unite to halt rapid degradation of natureThe fires in the Amazon are “extraordinarily concerning” for the planet’s natural life support systems, the head of the UN’s top biodiversity body has said in a call for countries, companies and consumers to build a new relationship with nature.Related: Brazil: fears for isolated Amazon tribes as fires erupt on protected reserves Continue reading...

Activists protesting against climate emergency set up camp kitchen in busy DeansgateExtinction Rebellion protesters have begun blocking Manchester’s Deansgate in protest at the “huge contradictions” of a city region that has declared a climate emergency planning to massively expand its airport.A yellow boat bearing the words “Planet Before Profit” was parked at the John Dalton Street junction and a tipper truck arrived packed with straw bales. Soon, guerrilla gardeners had set up a nursery of plants on what is one of Manchester’s most polluted streets, and a camp kitchen began to be erected. Continue reading...

Great Barrier Reef report grades sugarcane sector ‘very poor’ with just 9.8% adopting proper management practicesLess than 10% of sugarcane growers in Great Barrier Reef catchments are using appropriate land management practices for reef health, according to a major report that underlines the need for new regulations proposed by the Queensland government.The federal and Queensland governments’ water quality report card for 2017-2018 says the condition of inshore reefs on the Great Barrier Reef has deteriorated to an overall grade of “D” – which means “poor”. Continue reading...

Victory for community concerned about the industry’s environmental costs strengthens calls for shakeup of rules along Chilean coastA growing wave of resistance to the expansion of salmon farms along the Chilean coast has led to an important victory in the fight to protect a pristine fjord in southern Patagonia, home to indigenous groups and an array of stunning wildlife.Dolphins, whales and colonies of penguins thrive in the 240km-long Beagle Channel, an area of outstanding natural beauty between Chile and Argentina which attracts tourists from all over the world. Continue reading...

Five-yearly report says climate change is escalating the threat and window of opportunity for action is nowThe outlook for the Great Barrier Reef has deteriorated from poor to very poor according to an exhaustive government report that warns the window of opportunity to improve the natural wonder’s future “is now”.

Landowners who store waste on behalf of the company will not receive any part of $10m assistance packageCompanies holding tens of thousands of tonnes of waste on behalf of recycling group SKM have been told they will not receive any assistance from a multimillion-dollar state government loan aimed at helping clean up SKM sites, and say the material they are holding may end up in landfill.This week, the Victorian government announced a $10m loan to receivers KordaMentha to “help clean up SKM sites and resume waste processing”. Continue reading...

The generation that has benefited most from fossil fuels must start paying the price, argues Daniel ScharfThe principle of restorative justice (Glasgow University to pay £20m in slavery reparations, 24 August) also applies to the issue of climate change. I am of a generation that has profited hugely (knowingly or not) from the careless use of fossil fuels. Reports on the Amazon fires just serve to emphasise the urgent need to take action to eliminate carbon emissions and absorb carbon already in the atmosphere.Reparations in this case are due to the younger and future generations and should start with us “silver rebels” sharply curtailing our emissions and joining with Extinction Rebellion in the collective (international) efforts to eliminate emissions in the next decade, through which many of us elderly hope to live. The “silver rebels” might have less to lose if arrested in the cause. The Guardian’s daily carbon counter will show us how we are all doing.

Orkney Distillery aims to be the first producer powered by hydrogen and renewable energyA craft distillery in Scotland could become the greenest gin and whisky producer in the world as part of the government’s plans to cut industrial climate emissions.The Orkney Distillery has secured a slice of the government’s £390m fund to help develop low-carbon technologies that could reduce carbon emissions from industry. It hopes to use the funds to become the first gin distillery in the world to run on hydrogen made from renewable energy rather than liquid petroleum gas. Continue reading...

EPA will reverse standards to install controls to curb leaks of methane, a potent pollutant contributing to the climate crisisThe Trump administration is rolling back requirements that oil and gas drillers correct leaks of methane – a potent heat-trapping pollutant contributing to the climate crisis.Related: Comey violated FBI policies by leaking Trump memos, justice department rules – live Continue reading...

Even in such a divided and troubled country, there is hope. Between us we can beat the climate destroyersDear Greta,Thank you for travelling across the Atlantic to north America to help us do the most important work in the world. There are those of us who welcome you and those who do not because you have landed in two places, a place being born and a place dying, noisily, violently, with as much damage as possible. Continue reading...

Young activists will pressure world leaders to address crisis, says 16-year-old Swedish activist in Guardian interviewUnprecedented pressure exerted by young activists will push world leaders to address the unfolding climate crisis, even with a recalcitrant US under Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg has told the Guardian.Related: Welcome to the US, Greta. With your help we can save the planet and ourselves | Rebecca Solnit Continue reading...

Up to 20 tonnes of the legume will be dried and packaged to go on sale in mid-SeptemberThe UK’s first commercial crop of chickpeas has been harvested in Norfolk this week.Up to 20 tonnes of the legume – grown by four farmers across the UK – will eventually be dried and packaged by the Suffolk-based pulse specialist Hodmedod’s and will go on sale in mid-September. Continue reading...

Expert who led 2006 review says ban on nuclear should be lifted, but much more overseas evidence is needed on small modular reactorsIt will be about a decade before it is clear whether small nuclear reactors are suitable for Australia and would take about 15 years to bring a plant online if a decision was made to build one, one of the country’s leading experts has said.But Ziggy Switkowski, who headed a 2006 review of nuclear power for the Howard government, said the technology had no chance of being introduced unless Australia had a coherent energy policy. Continue reading...