Environment | The Guardian

‘SharkCam’ could shed light on sex lives of basking sharks in Sea of the HebridesBasking sharks off the coast of the UK are having their own Love Island moment: an underwater robot has been filming their interactions to shed light on everything from sex to group behaviour.Researchers say the autonomous “SharkCam”, which was deployed in July around the Inner Hebrides, has captured wide-angle high-definition video of sharks that have been tagged, with the team now wading through the footage. Continue reading...

Approval of the Wambo open-cut coalmine in the NSW Hunter Valley may be linked to the countries it exports toMining company Glencore could be forced to only sell coal from a new mine in New South Wales to signatories of the Paris climate agreement, under a proposal floated by the state’s independent planning commission.Opposed by Glencore and its joint-venture partner in the mine, Peabody, the condition would see approval of the Wambo open-cut coalmine in the state’s Hunter Valley linked to the countries it exports to. Continue reading...

20 people have refused to leave extended evacuation zone despite repeated warningsAn elderly married couple among the Whaley Bridge residents criticised by police for refusing to leave their homes at risk of catastrophic flooding have rejected claims they are needlessly putting emergency crews’ lives at risk.Malcolm Venton and Lorraine Ellis say they could not leave their two border collies, Meg and Amy. The couple were asked to leave on Saturday when the evacuation zone was extended, but decided to hunker down, despite the threat of a huge wave rushing out of the damaged Toddbrook reservoir. Continue reading...

Figures expected to confirm fall in GDP as Brexit hits automotive and service sectors

Death toll almost half that of US troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, data showsKillings of environmental defenders have doubled over the past 15 years to reach levels usually associated with war zones, according to a study that reveals how murders of activists are concentrated in countries with the worst corruption and weakest laws.At least 1,558 people in 50 states were killed between 2002 and 2017 while trying to protect their land, water or local wildlife, says the analysis, which calculates the death toll is almost half that of US troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Continue reading...

The fracking company will ask Lancashire council to change its licence, which ends in NovemberUK shale gas company Cuadrilla will ask for extra time to drill for shale gas at its Lancashire fracking site after its November deadline.Within the next month the fracking pioneer will ask Lancashire county council for permission to continue its drilling campaign until at least the spring of 2021. Continue reading...

Critically endangered Monaro and Werriwa grassy woodlands affected by new regulationThe New South Wales government has made it easier for landholders to clear critically endangered grassy woodlands for agriculture and forestry in the state’s south east.The environment minister, Matt Kean, and the agriculture minister, Adam Marshall, have introduced a regulation that covers two grassy woodlands newly listed as critically endangered under NSW laws: the Monaro grassy woodlands and the Werriwa grassy woodlands. Continue reading...

Friday Night Ride to the Coast has been spreading the joy of night riding for almost 15 yearsIf you missed this year’s Dunwich Dynamo, or feel that it’s a little too big, chaotic or (whisper it) competitive, you might trying catching the next Friday Night Ride to the Coast.This is a carefully organised event run by “the Fridays”, a club devoted to the singular cause of safely delivering you at a conversational pace from the Smoke to the sea. They do this every month from spring through autumn, requiring only third party insurance and an annual membership fee of £2. Continue reading...

Phoenix Environmental Group banned by EPA from accepting rubbish at its Coolaroo facilityAnother Melbourne recycling company has been banned from accepting rubbish, just days after a major recycling player went into liquidation.Phoenix Environmental Group has been told to stop accepting waste at its Coolaroo facility – the third time Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority has slapped a ban on the company. Continue reading...

Last summer, overall numbers of butterflies in England were up 110% on 2017 figuresThe common blue butterfly could be booming in the UK thanks to recent spells of hot weather, according to a conservation charity.Experts are predicting that the July heatwave and Met Office forecasts for above-average temperatures in August might mean that the common blue has its “best ever summer”, Butterfly Conservation said. Continue reading...

Derbyshire’s deputy chief constable said there are about 20 properties with residents refusing to leaveA police chief who has been at the forefront of a near disaster in a Derbyshire town has said some residents who refused to leave their homes had put lives at serious risk.About 400 mainly local people packed a school hall to discuss the damaged dam in Whaley Bridge which is still at risk of collapse. Continue reading...

Scepticism and safety concerns persist before vessel begins 4,000-mile Arctic journey

Emergency workers continue efforts to prevent dam collapse as further heavy rain expected

UK’s largest bird of prey set for release on Isle of Wight later this monthSea eagles have returned to the Isle of Wight 239 years after they were last seen there. Six chicks brought from Scotland were taken to the island last month as part of a programme to reintroduce the birds to England’s south coast.Also known as white-tailed eagles, the birds will be released into the wild in the next few weeks. Continue reading...

Bob Brown’s objection to a proposed windfarm draws attention to where renewable energy projects are being builtDo windfarms kill birds? Unarguably, they have and do.The damage turbines can inflict was infamously highlighted at California’s Altamont Pass, where early industry farms were built in a migratory path. One estimate suggested it killed as many as 1,300 birds of prey a year before changes were made to reduce death rates. Continue reading...

Scientists urge caution because infected ticks may also be spread by many other speciesBritain’s deer are being unfairly singled out as the chief culprits in spreading Lyme disease, experts claim. By contrast, they say the role played by other factors – and animals – should also be examined.Open season on deer commenced last week when the BMJ reported that UK cases of the disease, a bacterial infection passed to humans by an infected tick bite, may be three times higher than previously estimated. Continue reading...

The race is on to produce an eco-friendly version of the in-vogue accessorySequins, like dogs, are not just for Christmas. The essential element of festive dressing has jumped season this year to put the sparkle into summer. But not everyone is happy to see plastic making a comeback just as the fashion industry is trying to become more sustainable.“I love a sparkly dress, but covering a dress in plastic cannot be justified if its worn once and discarded,” says Natalie Fee, founder of City to Sea, which campaigns to stop plastic pollution. “It needs to be a wardrobe staple.” Continue reading...

Evacuated residents urged not to return home with damage to structure at ‘critical level’Emergency services will continue their efforts to prevent a damaged dam from collapsing in Derbyshire, as forecasters warn more bad weather could be on the way.Water levels at the Toddbrook reservoir in Whaley Bridge have been reduced by half a metre since Thursday but the damage to the 180-year-old structure remains at a critical level. Continue reading...

About half a million acres of land in the rural Yazoo backwater area in Mississippi is underwater, a devastating blow for a poor region where agriculture is the economy’s lifebloodDating back to late February, about 550,000 acres of land have been underwater in the rural Yazoo backwater area of the lower Mississippi delta. About half of the acreage is farmland, creating devastating effects in a region where agriculture is the lifeblood of the economy. While flooding in the region is common, this year’s floodwater has hung around longer than ever. Continue reading...

The change, taking effect 20 August, is part of SFO’s plan to become a zero ‘waste-to-landfill’ facility by 2021The days of picking up a plastic bottle of water to stay hydrated during a long flight will soon be over for people flying out of San Francisco’s international airport (SFO).The airport, which restricted the distribution of single-use plastic straws when the city law went into effect in July, is now banning convenience shops, restaurants and vending machines from selling plastic water bottles. Starting on 20 August, only water in glass, recycled aluminum, or certified compostable materials can be sold. Continue reading...

PM tells residents that Toddbrook reservoir looks ‘dodgy but stable’The prime minister has visited the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge, where at least a thousand residents were forced to flee their homes amid fears a dam could collapse, engulfing the community of 6,500 people.Boris Johnson met a number of families affected by the evacuation. He told them he had flown over the dam twice and it was “dodgy but stable”, but police warned there was still “a substantial threat to life” if the dam wall fails. Continue reading...

Far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro calls satellite data showing rise in deforestation ‘lies’The director of Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE) has been sacked in the midst of a controversy over its satellite data showing a rise in Amazon deforestation, which the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has called “lies”.Ricardo Galvão, who had defended the institute and criticised Bolsonaro’s attack, was dismissed on Friday after a meeting with the science and technology minister, Marcos Pontes. Continue reading...

Six right whales were killed in June, and two in July – a potentially devastating blow to a population estimated to be no more than 400Canadian conservationists are sounding an alarm over the survival of the North Atlantic right whale, a once numerous species that live off the east coast of the US and Canada.This June, six right whales were killed, followed by two more in July – a potentially devastating blow to a population that is now estimated to be no more than 400 strong. Continue reading...

Government told it is not acting quickly enough to upgrade infrastructureThe Whaley Bridge dam scare is a warning of the potentially disastrous consequences of failing to build new infrastructure to cope with the climate emergency, experts have said.As the environment secretary, Theresa Villiers, chaired a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on efforts to make the dam safe, the government was facing calls for an urgent overhaul of flood defences and water infrastructure. Continue reading...

Mansion that was Mr Darcy’s home in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice saved by sandbagsA major clean-up operation is under way at one of the National Trust’s best-known properties after severe flooding caused “significant damage”.The trust said it was unsure when Lyme Park, which featured in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, would reopen. Continue reading...

A dragonfly in Turkey, moose calf in Finland and wild boar in Barcelona

Record 35 chicks expected to leave nests this year in successful wildlife comebackThis summer, as the snows finally melt across the Alps, a record 35 bearded vulture chicks are expected to leave their nests and take to the skies to patrol their mountain home, in one of the most successful wildlife comebacks of recent times.“Bearded vultures were hunted to extinction in the Alps in the early 20th century. People referred to them as the devil bird believing that they would carry off small children and sheep,” said Théo Mazet, who works for Asters, a French wildlife organisation helping to bring the birds back to the Alps. Continue reading...

Mean maximum temperature 2.23C above average as authorities predict fire season worse than averageAustralia has just experienced its third-hottest July on record, beaten only by records set in 2017 and 2018, as fire and water authorities in the eastern states prepare for a worse than average fire season.The year-to-date temperatures from January to July were the second warmest on record, according to a monthly statement from the Bureau of Meteorology. Rainfall recorded during that period is the fifth lowest on record, with the drought worst in New South Wales, southern Queensland, and eastern and central Victoria. Continue reading...

Australian News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt labels 16-year-old environmental activist ‘strange’ and ‘disturbed’News Corp’s Andrew Bolt showed “absolute ignorance” when he mocked the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg in a column for the Herald Sun, an autism awareness advocate says.The high-profile columnist for Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and Sky News commentator attacked the 16-year-old campaigner as “deeply disturbed”, “freakishly influential” and “strange” in the piece published on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Judges overturn injunction won by plastic manufacturers after thin plastic bags were outlawedMalawi’s highest court has imposed a ban on plastic bags, a huge milestone for the government and environmental charities who beat off challenges from some of the country’s big manufacturers.The government imposed the ban on thin plastic bags in 2015, but the move was overturned by the high court after a number of plastic manufacturers who operate in the southern-east African nation obtained an injunction, citing an “infringement of business rights”. Continue reading...

Firm handling half of Victoria’s recycling hoped buyer’s $40m injection would save it but ‘funds have not been received’The supreme court of Victoria has ordered recycling company SKM to be wound up, as tens of thousands of tonnes of recycling more than previously disclosed may be headed for landfill.SKM, which is owned by Melbourne’s Italiano family and handles about half of Victoria’s recycling, had staked its hopes on a buyer who was willing to rescue the company with a $40m injection. But a lawyer representing SKM, Reegan Grayson Morison, told the court on Friday that the “funds had not been received as hoped by the company” and SKM was not in a position to oppose the wind-up. Continue reading...

Company says parts of coal-fired Hunter Valley plant will stay open until 2023, and life of Torrens A, near Adelaide, may also be extendedAGL has delayed the closure of parts of its coal-fired Liddell power plant in New South Wales to meet energy demand over the summer months.The company has been under pressure from the federal government either to delay the closure or sell the plant to another operator. Continue reading...

Campaigner calls out ‘hate and conspiracy campaigns’ after Australian’s attackThe teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has hit back at the Australian News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt for writing a deeply offensive column that mocked her autism diagnosis.The Swedish schoolgirl posted a tweet overnight calling out the “hate and conspiracy campaigns” run by climate deniers like Bolt, adopting his insult that she was “deeply disturbed” and turning it back on him. Continue reading...

Government spends less than $1m for cut equivalent to only 0.01% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas pollutionThe Morrison government’s main climate change policy, the emissions reduction fund, has been labelled “a joke” after its latest auction bought cuts equivalent to only 0.01% of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas pollution.While the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced prior to the election that the policy would get an additional $2bn funding, the first post-election auction from the fund dedicated less than $1m to just three emissions reduction projects. Continue reading...

Decision will leave only four remaining coal plants powering British homesThe German utility giant RWE will close its last UK coal plant after the coming winter, leaving only four remaining coal plants powering British homes.RWE will close the Aberthaw B power station in south Wales at the end of March 2020 after half a century generating electricity from coal. Continue reading...

Dishwater and bathwater can be used to give vital support that councils often cannot afford to young treesInstead of letting your dirty dishwater go down the drain, consider using it to water the trees on your street. That is the message from tree experts, who say survival rates for urban trees could be boosted significantly by volunteers.Russell Miller, a London-based arboricultural consultant, said: “If you plant trees from good stock, at the right time, and provide enough water, you’d lose almost none prematurely. But get that wrong, and more than half can die.” Continue reading...

Redirecting small portion of subsidies would unleash clean energy revolution, says reportSwitching just some of the huge subsidies supporting fossil fuels to renewables would unleash a runaway clean energy revolution, according to a new report, significantly cutting the carbon emissions that are driving the climate crisis.Coal, oil and gas get more than $370bn (£305bn) a year in support, compared with $100bn for renewables, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) report found. Just 10-30% of the fossil fuel subsidies would pay for a global transition to clean energy, the IISD said. Continue reading...

Overall, sales of single-use bags by big supermarkets have fallen 90% since 5p charge introducedShoppers’ use of plastic carrier bags in England has continued to fall following the introduction of the 5p charge, according to new figures. Sales of single-use bags by all large retailers in 2018/2019 slumped by 37% to 1.11bn compared with the previous year.Sales of plastic bags by the seven biggest supermarkets – Asda, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, The Co-operative Group, Tesco and Waitrose – have plummeted by 90% since the levy was introduced in October 2015. Continue reading...

Negative emissions tech is important, but the idea it could replace decarbonisation is pure fantasy. Business as usual is not an optionThe Arctic is on fire, hot on the heels of the latest scorching European heatwave. As the impact of the climate crisis mounts, more and more people are asking: how can we control this beast we have created? The scientific answer is fairly straightforward: reduce the amount of greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere to zero. The sooner that’s done, the lower the stabilised temperature and the fewer devastating climate impacts we must face.Related: UK's biggest carbon capture project is step-change on emissions Continue reading...

Environment movement accuses the Berejiklian government of caving in to big agribusiness over the amnestyNew South Wales farmers who cleared land illegally under the old Native Vegetation Act have been granted an amnesty by the Berijiklian government, which has announced it will no longer launch any new prosecutions for breaches of the old law.Hundreds of cases are believed to be in the pipeline, after the land clearing skyrocketed in north-western NSW ahead of more lenient land clearing laws being introduced by the government in August 2017. Continue reading...

Ministers look at setting up alternative monitoring scheme as existing system shows alarming rise in clearance ratesThe Amazon forest is being burned and chopped down at the most alarming rate in recent memory, but the Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro is focused on reinterpreting the data rather than dealing with the culprits, monitoring groups have said.At a clearance rate equivalent to a Manhattan island every day, deforestation in July was almost twice as fast as the worst month ever recorded by the current satellite monitoring system, which is managed by the government’s National Institute for Space Research. Continue reading...

World’s biggest fund manager urged to invest in clean energy for good of the climate and its investorsBlackRock, the world’s biggest investor, has lost an estimated $90bn over the last decade by ignoring the serious financial risk of investing in fossil fuel companies, according to economists.A report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has found that BlackRock has eroded the value of its $6.5tn funds by betting on oil companies that were falling in value and by missing out on growth in clean energy investments. Continue reading...

Bank of England governor says firms that ignore crisis ‘will go bankrupt without question’Capitalism is “very much part of the solution” to tackling the climate crisis, according to the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.Challenged in an interview by the Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow over whether capitalism itself was fuelling the climate emergency, Carney gave a strident defence of the economic system predicated on private ownership and growth but said companies that ignored climate change would “go bankrupt without question”. Continue reading...

Godfrey Boyle, who has died aged 74, was founder-editor in 1972 of Undercurrents, a magazine of “radical science and people’s technology”, which inspired a variety of sustainable energy, housing, transport and community projects. In its founding year he led the editorial team of Undercurrents (known affectionately as Undies) to the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, where they distributed a special issue on energy and organised an exhibition on alternative technologies. The publication lasted 10 years before merging with Resurgence magazine.In 1975 Godfrey co-edited (with Peter Harper) Radical Technology, a book with contributions from many of the Undies stable that was perhaps best known for the series of Visions drawings by the anarchist artist Clifford Harper. In the same year Godfrey published his influential book Living on the Sun, which advanced the then novel idea that industrial countries could make a transition to renewable power. Continue reading...

Conservation and climate change policy ‘should be two sides of same coin’, says chair of Natural EnglandA new generation of national nature reserves are being created to help improve people’s health and mitigate the effects of climatic extremes, according to the chair of the government’s conservation watchdog.The South London Downs reserve is the first in a series of landscapes that will be designated a national nature reserve this year, said Tony Juniper of Natural England. Several more will follow this autumn, including what he described as one “very significant” newly protected area. Continue reading...

Punjab residents must plant 10 trees to get a firearms licence – and send photos to prove it

Relative nobodies like John Delaney and John Hickenlooper have taken up more airtime than the climate crisis during the debates. We deserve betterMillions of Americans don’t know who John Delaney or John Hickenlooper are. They probably wouldn’t be able to correctly identify them in a photo. And yet, at the Democratic debate on Tuesday night, Delaney got to speak for nearly 11 minutes, and John Hickenlooper for almost nine. In one night, those two relatively unknown men combined got more airtime than the climate crisis has in all three debates thus far. And that’s despite the fact that, if we don’t do anything to address rising temperatures now, we will see several US cities underwater in the coming decades.So here’s my pitch: if these and other candidates without a shot in hell at winning actually cared about the future of this country, they would drop out. Continue reading...

Met Office’s annual report on state of UK climate also says snowy days have become rarerElectric fans could soon be as indispensable in British weather as umbrellas: a report has revealed the UK is becoming hotter and wetter, while snow days have become rarer.The annual report into the state of the UK’s climate, the fifth of its kind, has been released by the Met Office and comes just days after meteorologists confirmed that Cambridge recently set a new record for the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK. Continue reading...

Southern white rhino calf at San Diego Zoo raises hopes for the future of wild rhinocerosesThe bumbling, sleepy rhino calf at San Diego Zoo is sure to delight animal lovers around the world. But for conservation scientists, his birth has additional meaning – it marks a significant step toward saving wild rhino populations from the edge of extinction.The newborn southern white rhino is the first in North America, and the third in the world, born as the result of artificial insemination. Continue reading...

Ben Lecomte is making a trans-Pacific journey to better understand how plastics pollution is affecting our oceansBen Lecomte is spending his summer swimming in trash – literally. So far, he’s found toothbrushes, laundry baskets, sandbox shovels and beer crates floating out in the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.The 52-year-old Frenchman is journeying from Hawaii to San Francisco via the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to better understand how plastic is affecting our oceans. He will swim a total of 300 nautical miles, intermittently travelling by sailboat with a crew of 10 the rest of the way. Continue reading...