Environment | The Guardian

Scotland’s whisky-makers reveal they had to halt production in 2018 heatwave because they ran out of waterScotland’s nature conservation agency last week painted an apocalyptic vision of a country devastated by the climate crisis, from polluted rivers to eroded peatlands and forests devoid of birds. Now comes a warning about another part of Scottish culture which could, it is feared, also be hit by global heating: whisky.Scottish distilleries have revealed that during last year’s blistering heatwave, they had to halt production because they ran out of water. In a summer marked by high temperatures and little rainfall, water levels in springs and rivers fell so low that in the Scottish Highlands some whisky makers missed up to a month’s production. Continue reading...

Helping the critically endangered mammal is vital because it’s the last survivor on its branch of the evolutionary treeSolenodons are some of Earth’s strangest creatures. Venomous, nocturnal and insectivorous, they secrete toxins through their front teeth – an unusual habit for a mammal. More to the point, the planet’s two remaining species – the Cuban and the Hispaniolan solenodon, both highly endangered – have endured, virtually unchanged, for the past 76 million years. Other related species have become extinct.And that makes solenodons very important, according to Professor Sam Turvey, of the Zoological Society of London. “They are the last fruits on an entire branch of the tree of evolution,” said Turvey, who was last month awarded one of the most prestigious awards in zoology, the Linnean medal, for his work on evolution and human impacts on wildlife. “There are no close counterparts to solenodons left on Earth, yet they have been on the planet since the time of the dinosaurs.” Continue reading...

Severe weather has spawned multiple tornadoes, flooding and even snow across America’s Midwest and Northeast Continue reading...

UK petrol station loyalty shifts as Nectar card is criticised for encouraging fossil fuel useA major UK consumer loyalty programme has been criticised by environmental campaigners for making Esso – whose parent company ExxonMobil has been under fire for its track record on climate change – its new fuel partner.Petrol company BP has axed its 16-year partnership with the Nectar loyalty card, which means that from Saturday the 20 million holders of the card – owned by Sainsbury’s – will no longer be able to earn points with BP and will instead pick up Nectar points at Esso-branded sites when filling up their tank. Continue reading...

About 70 creatures found washed up on coast of North America but federal agency believes it is a small fraction of total fatalitiesUS government scientists have launched an investigation what has caused the deaths of an unusually high number of gray whales found washed up on the west coast of North America.About 70 whales have been found dead so far this year on the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, the most since 2000. About five more have been discovered on British Columbia beaches. Continue reading...

Young people to hold day of action on Saturday highlighting lawsuit as youth-driven climate movement growsStudents in Austin, Texas, want you to veg out. Kids in Westport, Connecticut will screen a film. And in rural North Carolina, activists will draw on a toxic spill to commemorate the environmental justice movement.All of these rallies will be part of an international campaign on Saturday to spotlight environmental issues. Their message: I Am Juliana. Continue reading...

Terraforming holds the key to colonising Mars, writes Jan Miller. And we already have a sizeable nuclear fusion reactor, writes David E HankeI don’t agree with Philip Ball’s thesis (Life on Mars? Sorry, Brian Cox, that’s still a fantasy, 27 May) – ever since I studied planetary geology in the 1970s I have been excited by the idea of terraforming – if you read Kim Stanley Robinson’s trilogy you will find it eminently plausible. It’s not about leaving this planet because we have trashed it and starting to do the same on another planet, but about us having overcrowded it so badly that we have to move a large chunk of the population to a new planet where we can revive a dormant landscape into a new paradise. It is all about vision and political will – if we could get all the fanatical warlords on Earth just looking up at the potential of space – we can do it. That is how we will get the drive and the money to start the colonisation of Mars, just like the exodus to the New World in the 17th century.Yes there will be thousands of people who want to take the one-way trip, and yes there will be various religious fanatics and self-serving people among them; but the survival difficulties on Mars will be such that they will be forced to cooperate. And this time we will not be subjugating an indigenous population or an existing biosphere; we will be creating our own new one. CO to warm Mars will be generated by introducing plants and a new greenhouse effect from our activities. Just imagine!

While comforting to children, practice may help circulate rabbit virus RVHD2Burying dead pet rabbits in the garden is a sad, but consoling childhood ritual that many adults recall with fondness. No longer: rabbit owners are being warned that garden burials may be helping to spread a deadly virus across the UK’s rabbit and hare populations.The first cases of rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD2), which causes death by internal bleeding, were reported in the UK in 2013. It is believed to have spread among wild rabbits, and cases in wild hares have also appeared recently. Continue reading...

Britain has set a new record for going without coal-powered energy, but how long will it last and when will we ditch the dirty fuel entirely?Britain is setting new records for going without coal-powered energy. In the latest milestone, it has gone for two weeks without using coal to generate electricity – the longest such period since 1882. Continue reading...

England, Scotland and Wales went for two weeks without coal at 3.12pm on Friday

A frog, an albino panda and a ‘seabed garden’ Continue reading...

Exclusive: Companies bidding for public sector contracts must ‘put people and planet before profit’Companies bidding for public sector contracts will be forced to take radical steps to tackle the climate crisis under new regulations being proposed by the Labour party, addressing energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste.If elected, the party would force suppliers to “put people and planet before profit”, with the threat of losing contracts if they do not, in a stark redrawing of priorities for contract bidders. Continue reading...

Region’s likely new president Isabel Díaz Ayuso believes congestion is part of city’s cultural identityMadrid may be about to become the first European city to scrap a major urban low-emissions zone after regional polls left a rightwing politician who views 3am traffic jams as part of the city’s cultural identity on the cusp of power.Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who is expected to become the new Popular party (PP) president of the Madrid region, believes night-time congestion makes the city special and has pledged to reverse a project known as Madrid Central, which has dramatically cut urban pollution. Continue reading...

Conservationists say protection helps stop marine-damaging activitiesAn area nearly twice the size of England will become a “blue belt” of protected waters after the government created 41 new marine conservation zones.The short-snouted seahorse, the ocean quahog, ross worm reefs and blue mussel beds are among the species and habitats that will benefit from the new protections, although dredging and other damaging activities can only be halted in zones that lie within inshore waters, up to 12 nautical miles from the coast. Continue reading...

Environment department says process has been rigorous but critics warn approved plan puts bird at risk of extinctionThe Queensland government has signed off on Adani’s black-throated finch management plan, one of two state approvals the company needs to begin preparatory construction for its Adani coalmine.Queensland’s coordinator general published the decision on Friday morning. Continue reading...

Five-day marathon to state capitol leaves Reserve, where chemical factory presents greatest risk of cancer to surrounding communityDemonstrators in Louisiana stepped off on a five-day march on Thursday, demanding environmental justice for a region besieged by toxic pollution from chemical plants.The protest began just a few hundred feet from a factory in Reserve, Louisiana, that presents the greatest risk of cancer to the surrounding community of any in the nation, according to government data. Continue reading...

Some 13,000 sq km removed from conservation areas since 1997, researchers sayAustralian governments have slashed the legal protection of nature reserves in favour of business growth, a global study reveals.The country is one of 73 dropping the ball on land protection, according to the study, which was published in the journal Science on Friday. Continue reading...

Work related to groundwater research will need to be signed off as opponents say new government papers show mine is ‘not ready to go’Adani will not be allowed to dig any coal from its Carmichael mine until it gets further federal government approval – despite the Coalition’s pre-election green light for parts of the project.With Adani’s controversial project looming as a central issue in the federal election campaign, the Coalition made political capital in Queensland out of the decision in April by former environment minister Melissa Price to approve Adani’s groundwater management plans. Continue reading...

Exclusive: report reveals investment in the sector has halved in recent yearsThe number of jobs in renewable energy in the UK has plunged by nearly a third in recent years, and the amount of new green generating capacity by a similar amount, causing havoc among companies in the sector, a new report has found.Prospect, the union which covers much of the sector, has found a 30% drop in renewable energy jobs between 2014 and 2017, as government cuts to incentives and support schemes started to bite. It also found investment in renewables in the UK more than halved between 2015 and 2017. Continue reading...

The weather is wild, the tariffs are rising, and as frustration ripples through the Iowa corn fields, rural America is ready to confront its 2020 candidatesAaron Heley Lehman listened to the rain tap his window pane in the machine shed for two weeks, wondering when he would ever finish planting corn on his central Iowa farm, and watched the markets tank as Donald Trump blustered on in his trade war with China.Related: Robert Mueller breaks silence to insist he did not exonerate Trump Continue reading...

Louisiana wetlands are eroding faster than almost anywhere in the world – and endangering the wildlife that call them homeBiologists crouched in the mud squint past their headlamps at the secretive marsh bird.They have tramped through tall cordgrass for two hours, trying to stir the creature up by shaking cans of bolts and metal pellets. A few hundred feet away, the stretch of Louisiana marshland gives way to the Gulf of Mexico. Closer to their faces, mosquitoes swarm. Continue reading...

Without efforts to rebuild soil health, we could lose our ability to grow enough nutritious food to feed the planet’s populationThe world grows 95% of its food in the uppermost layer of soil, making topsoil one of the most important components of our food system. But thanks to conventional farming practices, nearly half of the most productive soil has disappeared in the world in the last 150 years, threatening crop yields and contributing to nutrient pollution, dead zones and erosion. In the US alone, soil on cropland is eroding 10 times faster than it can be replenished.If we continue to degrade the soil at the rate we are now, the world could run out of topsoil in about 60 years, according to Maria-Helena Semedo of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Without topsoil, the earth’s ability to filter water, absorb carbon, and feed people plunges. Not only that, but the food we do grow will probably be lower in vital nutrients. Continue reading...

We don’t talk enough about the street food scandal – leftovers chucked away without a second thoughtEvery day for the past month complete strangers have bought me lunch. And breakfast. And dinner. And they don’t even know it.I have been living high on the hog, and it hasn’t cost me a penny – because I have been dining out on the half-eaten fast food and takeaways thoughtfully abandoned by my fellow Britons on pavements and park benches and tube platforms all over the city. Sometimes they even leave them in bins. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former minister Ed Davey aims to broaden party’s appeal with climate focusThe former Liberal Democrat cabinet minister Ed Davey launched his bid for the party leadership on Thursday, pledging to fight a no-deal Brexit by working with remainers in parliament to make revoking article 50 the legal default if no agreement on leaving the EU is reached by October.Davey, the former secretary of state for energy and climate change, said he would make stopping Brexit the cornerstone of his leadership, but also said the party must broaden its appeal and that he would do so by focusing on the environment. Continue reading...

Press release from department said increasing export capacity is ‘critical to spreading freedom gas throughout the world’America is the land of freedom, as any politician will be happy to tell you. What you don’t hear quite so often is that the stuff under the land is also apparently made of freedom as well. That is, at least according to a news release this week from the Department of Energy (DoE).Mark W Menezes, the US undersecretary of energy, bestowed a peculiar honorific on our continent’s natural resources, dubbing it “freedom gas” in a release touting the DoE’s approval of increased exports of natural gas produced by a Freeport LNG terminal off the coast of Texas. Continue reading...

Researchers believe 3,150 to 8,500 birds starved in Bering Sea due to loss of prey speciesThe death of thousands of tufted puffins in the Bering Sea may have been partly caused by the climate breakdown, according to a study.Between 3,150 and 8,500 seabirds died over a four-month period from October 2016, with hundreds of severely emaciated carcasses washed up on the beaches of the Pribilofs Islands in the southern Bering Sea, 300 miles (480km) west of the Alaskan mainland. Continue reading...

The metals are used to produce a number of goods, including mobile phones and camerasWhat are rare-earth metals?

Voracious fish are bleeding into ocean ‘like a cut artery’, says top marine biologistCyprus has held its first organised cull of lionfish after numbers of the invasive species have proliferated in recent years, threatening the Mediterranean ecosystem and posing a venomous danger to humans.“They’re actually very placid,” said Prof Jason Hall-Spencer, a marine biologist, after spearing 16 of the exotic specimens in the space of 40 minutes in the inaugural “lionfish removal derby” off the island’s southern coast. He added: “The problem is they are not part of the natural ecosystem and we are seeing them in plague proportions.” Continue reading...

Environment minister says recycling sent from Australia included plastic bottles that were ‘full of maggots’The Malaysian government will send back up to 100 tonnes of Australian plastic waste because it was too contaminated to recycle, but will not yet name the companies responsible.On Tuesday, Malaysia’s environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, announced that 3,000 tonnes of waste, sent from around the world, would be returned because it was either rotting, contaminated, or had been falsely labelled and smuggled in. Continue reading...

US foods are increasingly full of nano-scale additives, even as researchers raise alarm bells about their safetyFrance is clamping down on a common food additive that has been shown to be carcinogenic in animal studies. The ban of titanium dioxide, announced by the French government last month, follows a review that could not rule out human cancer risks.The ban is just the latest chapter in a long-running debate on the safety of widespread food additives known as nanoparticles, which are largely unregulated in the US. This suite of ingredients, engineered to almost atomic scale, might have unintended effects on cells and organs, particularly the digestive tract. There are also indications that nanoparticles might get into the bloodstream and accumulate elsewhere in the body. They have been linked to inflammation, liver and kidney damage and even heart and brain damage. Continue reading...

Hot summer favoured some rare bees but the spring freeze led to a poor year for 24 speciesLast year’s weather extremes, from snowstorms to drought, led to a tough year for many of the UK’s bumblebees, conservationists have said.But several rare species which emerge late and love hot conditions had a very good year, a report from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust reveals. Continue reading...

UN estimates indicate net greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 were 537 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalentAustralia’s greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise in 2018, according to a government report to the United Nations.The submission shows again that Australia faces a huge task in meeting its obligations under the Paris agreement despite the government’s insistence it has laid out “to the last tonne” how it will do this. Continue reading...

Analysis of EU commission figures found diesel cars clean up going at ‘snail’s pace’More than three quarters of the 43m cars tampered with in the Dieselgate emissions test cheating scandal are still on the road four years later.It will probably take another two years to recall the remaining 33m vehicles that were tampered with, according to analysis of unpublicised European commission figures which was released last week. Continue reading...

RepuTex modelling suggests surge in state schemes and rooftop solar will reduce wholesale prices, making gas- and coal-fired power less competitiveAustralia is on track to achieve 50% renewable electricity by 2030 even without new federal energy policies, according to modelling by the energy analysts RepuTex.The analysis, to be released on Wednesday, suggests that a surge in renewable energy driven by state schemes and rooftop solar installations will reduce wholesale prices from $85 per MWh to $70 over the next three years. Continue reading...

Researchers still fearful as approximately 10,000 to 15,000 are killed every yearElephant poaching rates in Africa are declining, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.The annual poaching mortality rate fell from a high of more than 10% in 2011 to less than 4% in 2017, but the researchers warned that current levels were still unsustainable and could spell trouble for the future of the animals on the continent. Continue reading...

Compulsory purchase – or the threat of it – of property on the route of a pipeline for fracked natural gas has left a slew of grievances and lawsuits in West Virginia and VirginiaIn July 2015, Neal Laferriere and his wife, Beth, purchased a home in Summers county, West Virginia. The first time they visited the property after purchasing it, they found stakes outlining what they would later find out to be the route for a gas pipeline.About two years later, representatives for the Mountain Valley pipeline approached the Laferriere family over the land rights to their property. “The land agent was saying if we don’t come to the table they would just take it via eminent domain,” Laferriere told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Tom Frazer plans to make water quality a priority in new role created by Republican governor Ron DeSantisTo say Dr Tom Frazer faces a daunting workload as he begins his new job as Florida’s first chief science officer would be an underestimation. From the increasing risk of ever stronger Atlantic hurricanes, toxic algae blooms that have inundated the state’s beaches and inland waterways, and rising sea levels that threaten to leave Florida underwater by the end of the century, the challenges appear immense.But where many see a five-alarm climate emergency laying siege to his state, Frazer, with a measured approach honed from more than three decades’ experience of working in environmental science, sees only opportunity. Continue reading...

If you care about what you eat, you should care about what it comes inThe internet cheered in December when Trader Joe’s announced it would take meaningful steps towards making its packaging more sustainable. The supermarket chain outlined a plan that included reducing and eliminating excess waste, using materials that could realistically be recycled and avoiding harmful substances. It’s the last part that medical and environmental activists are keeping an eye on.We’re just beginning to understand some of the short- and long-term risks associated with the chemicals in packaging: obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and other health issues. Some consumer advocates say phasing out some of the riskier substances that come into contact with our food is long overdue. Continue reading...

The recent news about glyphosate and cancer only highlights a broader problem with our system: our obsession with killing the natural world is poisoning usThe recent headlines announcing billions of dollars in damages to people who have gotten cancer after using Roundup are just the tip of a very large iceberg. There are over 1,000 lawsuits against Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, waiting to be heard by the courts. Beyond concerns about that specific glyphosate-based weedkiller, we should be talking about the innumerable other potentially punishing chemicals in our food system.After all, our food and our health are deeply connected. American healthcare spending has ballooned to $3.5tn a year, and yet we are sicker than most other developed countries. Meanwhile, our food system contains thousands of chemicals that have not been proven safe and many that are banned in other countries. Continue reading...

Australia faces crippling drought with low rainfall and dwindling dam levels, so it’s time to come up with new solutionsWater supplies across Australia are in dire states as the drought continues to bite. This week, stage one water restrictions were announced in Sydney, to take effect from 1 June, as well as tough new fines for those who flout them.New South Wales has been in drought since mid 2017, affecting 98% of the state, but drought has affected the whole country. Queensland, parts of South Australia, Northern Territory and northern Western Australia are all in drought, while water storage is down in all states. Continue reading...

RSPB study shows rats culling favoured nesting of puffins and shearwatersFor years, they were the scourge of seabirds seeking to nest on Lundy.But since rats were expunged from the island off the coast of Devon 15 years ago, the seabird population has trebled to 21,000 birds. Continue reading...

Rapidly falling water levels in Sydney’s dams have prompted the state government to bring in water restrictions earlier than expected

Energy minister effectively demands Labor back away from stronger emissions reduction target of 45%

Green politicians to push agenda urging climate action, social justice and civil libertiesEurope’s Greens, big winners in Sunday’s European elections, will use their newfound leverage in a fractured parliament to push an agenda of urgent climate action, social justice and civil liberties, the movement’s leaders say.“This was a great outcome for us – but we now also have a great responsibility, because voters have given us their trust,” Bas Eickhout, a Dutch MEP and the Greens’ co-lead candidate for commission president, told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Veteran Liberal MP is aiming to rid beaches of plastics, micro and nano plastics, but won’t commit to a banThe Liberal MP Warren Entsch has launched a crusade against single-use plastics as part of his new role as special envoy for the Great Barrier Reef.Entsch told Guardian Australia he was inspired by the 10-year-old campaigner Molly Steer – who convinced Cairns to phase out single-use plastics – comparing her example favourably with activists who he accused of “frightening the living Jesus out of kids” to recruit school students to climate strikes. Continue reading...

A report shows that the animal’s food supply shifted, causing them to travel farther for food and moving them closer to shipping lanesThe endangered North Atlantic right whale faces increased odds because its main food supply has shifted due to ocean warming, according to new research.Related: What’s the future for Sri Lanka’s ‘lost’ population of whales? Continue reading...

Only one female of the critically endangered species remains in the countryMalaysia’s last surviving male Sumatran rhino has died, wildlife officials have said, leaving behind only one female in the country and pushing the critically endangered species closer to extinction.Once found as far away as eastern India and throughout Malaysia, the Sumatran rhino has been almost wiped out, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Continue reading...

Experts on high alert for Xylella fastidiosa, believed to be spread by froth known as cuckoo spitScientists are calling for thousands of keen-eyed volunteers to report findings of frothy spittle, often called cuckoo spit and found on plants across the UK, in a pre-emptive strike against a deadly plant disease.Xylella fastidiosa, is described by the European commission as “one of the most harmful pathogenic bacteria worldwide”. It arrived in Europe six years ago and has already struck several countries, devastating olive groves in southern Italy, and spreading to other EU countries including parts of France and Spain. Continue reading...

Some Wangan and Jagalingou people oppose an agreement to extinguish native title over the Carmichael coalmine areaThe federal court has heard allegations of “slurs” and “surreptitious” tactics in the latest instalment of a legal battle by a small group of traditional owners against mining giant Adani.Some members of the Wangan and Jagalingou are appealing a federal court decision, which last year rejected their objections to an Indigenous land use agreement. Continue reading...