Highly prized for its swim bladder – served in soups and stews – the fish could disappear altogether from Africa’s Lake Victoria thanks to the lucrative tradeA thriving trade in fish maw – made from the swim bladders of fish – could lead to the extinction of the Nile perch fish in east Africa’s Lake Victoria.Demand for fish maw has spawned such a lucrative business enterprise in the region that it is raising concerns of overfishing. Continue reading...

Renault board reportedly plans to go public with partnership after a meeting on Monday morningFiat Chrysler and Renault are expected to announce on Monday that they are in talks on a potential tie-up, in a move that could address some of the main weaknesses of both carmakers at a time of transformation for the sector.The Renault board is planning to go public about the possible partnership after a meeting in the morning to discuss the deal, according to reports. Continue reading...

Commercial sales dip but environmental concerns make home yoghurt kits a growth areaSue Reed, who lives in Northumberland and runs a business knitting with recycled wool, has been making her own yoghurt for years. “We’ve been trying to live sustainably and frugally for a long time. We grow our own veg, try not to use supermarkets and were eating seasonally before it all became zeitgeisty,” she says. “You could say we’re hippies in the hills, but it really is so much cheaper and tastier to make your own yoghurt.”Reed is not alone. Store chains John Lewis and Lakeland both report a rise in sales of yoghurt-making products, and online retailer EasiYo says demand is up by 26% in the past year. Continue reading...

Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion demonstrators, many dressed as endangered animals, rally in BrisbaneAround 250 environmental activists have laid down among the dinosaurs at the Queensland Museum on Sunday, in the first large Extinction Rebellion event in Brisbane.Protesters, many dressed as endangered animals, laid on the floor of the museum’s Lost Creatures exhibit amid fossils and dinosaur reconstructions, including the state’s famous Muttaburrasaurus. Continue reading...

Australian science agency says there are a ‘negligible number of human deaths’ from snake bites in AustraliaThe popular suggestion that Australia is home to the world’s deadliest snakes is largely a myth, with the risk of bites and death far greater across Asia, Africa and South America, the nation’s science agency has said.Herpetologist Ruchira Somaweera from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said the myth was born a few decades ago and came out of a study of the relatively high toxicity levels found in Australian species, such as brown snakes. Continue reading...

For locals, the phenomenal success of this driving route means blocked roads, a racetrack mentality and mess, rather than the promised benefits to businessAt Bettyhill General Merchants, a convenience store and post office in a remote village on Scotland’s far north coast, perched above the spectacular dunes of Torrisdale Bay, owner Susan Malone is anticipating the summer tourist season with ambivalence.“There’s a sense among locals that the situation is going to get worse this summer. We’ve already had a much busier April and May than expected: I don’t think anybody realised how popular this [driving route] would become.” Continue reading...

Plantations are an excellent way to combat climate breakdown, writes Andrew Weatherall, of the National School of Forestry. And Rachel Kerr says heather moorland is rarer than rainforest and the underlying peat is more effective at carbon storage than treesThe Forestry Commission was established 100 years ago to create a “strategic reserve of timber” after Lloyd George stated “Britain had more nearly lost the war for want of timber than of anything else”. The UK is 50% self-sufficient in food, but only 20% self-sufficient in wood, so we still want timber more than anything else.Any call to redirect subsidies to restore woodlands is welcome (Use farm subsidies to rewild quarter of UK, urges report, 21 May). The Rewilding Britain report states: “Commercial conifer plantations should not be eligible, except where they are removed and replaced with native woodland.” This approach is understandable if the aim is to increase habitat for wildlife. However, plantations are an excellent way to combat climate breakdown, because the growing trees sequester carbon and the forests store it, just like in more natural woodlands, but harvested wood products also provide a carbon substitution effect when used instead of concrete or steel. Continue reading...

Albatross lovebirds, white storks in England and a walrus mother and baby Continue reading...

Organisers say more than 1.4 million young people are set to protest about the climate crisisHundreds of thousands of children and young people are walking out of lessons around the world on Friday as the school strike movement continues to snowball.Climate strikes were planned in more than 1,400 cities in more than 110 countries. Organisers say the number of young people taking part is set to top the 1.4 million people who participated in the global day of strikes in March. Continue reading...

Students around the world are walking out of lessons to demand politicians take urgent action on climate change

New timeframe for controversial Carmichael mine is ‘good news’, Queensland premier saysThe Queensland government has placed a three-week deadline on the final environmental approvals for the controversial Adani Carmichael coalmine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.The assessment and management plan for the endangered black-throated finch is due next week, on 31 May, and a decision on the groundwater management plan is due on 13 June. Continue reading...

Midway Atoll to be bombarded with rodenticide after scientists and volunteers discovered seabirds with open woundsMidway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean was the scene of a crucial naval battle in the second world war. It is now set for a very different sort of conflict – a bombing campaign to rid the area of mice.The US government is moving ahead with a plan to strafe Midway with poison aimed at eradicating mice that are on a deadly rampage through one of the world’s most important sites for seabirds. Continue reading...

Hunt is on in Melbourne for grassland earless dragon – not seen since 1969 – after one species was reclassified as fourA newly reclassified species of lizard that is native to areas now paved by Melbourne’s suburbs could become the first reptile on mainland Australia to be declared extinct.A taxonomic survey of the grassland earless dragon, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal this week, discovered that the species classified as Tympanocryptis pinguicolla was in fact four species – one of which has not been seen since 1969. Continue reading...

Eighteen-count DoJ indictment alleges Assange, who was arrested last month in London, ‘risked serious harm’ to America

Parents across Europe take action as air pollution found to restrict children’s lung growthAlmost every week our newspapers report new studies on the damage that air pollution does to our health and especially to children. For example, last November, researchers revealed reduced lung growth in children who lived in the most polluted parts of east London.In March 2018, a group of Belgian parents took action. Instead of going for coffee on a Friday morning, they closed the road outside their children’s school. They named their movement Filter-Café-Filtre. Over the next two weeks, another 42 schools joined in. Now parents and teachers in 21 cities meet each Friday morning. With hazard tape from DIY shops, banners and musical instruments, they close about 76 schools. Children play in the street and the parents drink coffee together to demand traffic-free zones, better walking and cycling routes and public transport so children do not have to be driven to school. Continue reading...

In some central and western areas on Murray-Darling no ground water can be accessed by bores, as dams run close to dryTowns in western and central New South Wales, including Dubbo, Nyngan, Cobar, Walgett and Tamworth, are facing a crisis in their water supplies within a few months unless it rains, prompting emergency planning by water authorities.And on properties throughout the Murray-Darling basin, irrigators are bracing for their water entitlements to be reduced to around 10% of their usual allocations, which will severely constrain agricultural production. Continue reading...

Vast quantities of carbon would be saved if the UK moved away from primary productionRecycling steel could provide a much-needed lifeline for the UK’s troubled steel industry, a new study has found, and have the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.Two-thirds of the steel currently used is made from primary production, and most of the remainder comes from off-cuts of the steel-making process, rather than recycled goods. The UK does not currently use all the scrap steel produced in the country, but global stocks of recyclable steel are expected to rise sharply in the coming decades. Continue reading...

Global general strike on 20 September could be historic turning point, say activists

Maryland congressman wants to capture carbon dioxide pollution heating the planet and transport it in pipelines criss-crossing USThe first three Democratic presidential candidates to declare their plans to tackle the climate crisis are focussing on setting deadlines to neutralize US pollution. But one Democrat is proposing something vastly different. Environmental advocates are likely to find it unacceptable, but some experts say it might be necessary.Maryland congressman and long shot 2020 candidate John Delaney wants to scale up technology to capture the carbon dioxide pollution heating the planet, and transport it in pipelines crisscrossing the country. Continue reading...

We asked children around the world to tell us why they will be taking part in Friday’s climate strikes. Here’s what they said

Country with Africa’s largest elephant population says its growth is affecting farmersConservationists have reacted with outrage and concern to a decision by Botswana to lift its ban on elephant hunting.The southern African country said the move was justified by an increase in population and its impact on farmers’ livelihoods. Continue reading...

Republican officials and their industry benefactors are sowing doubt about the wildlife extinction crisis that threatens as many as one million speciesMaybe you’ve read King Lear and remember this famous line: “‘Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.” The words were written more than 400 years ago as a comment on the deadly consequences of greed, delusion and political folly, but they could serve just as well as a Republican party slogan today. They’re a fitting description of the Republican party’s delusional campaign to deny the environmental crises that threaten our planet and our civilization.For decades now, Republican politicians and their patrons in the fossil fuel industry have used thinktanks, front groups and public relations operatives to promote faulty science and perpetuate the myth that the climate crisis is a hoax. This campaign of climate deception, which is elegantly documented in books like Merchants of Doubt, has exacted a huge toll on the planet and its people – it has sabotaged domestic and international efforts to combat greenhouse gas pollution and exacerbated a crisis that is acidifying oceans, melting polar ice caps, supercharging storms and making the Earth less hospitable to human and animal life. We have a name for the purveyors of this deceitful campaign: we call them “climate deniers”. Continue reading...

100kg fish lands in brothers’ five-metre vessel north of Coffs Harbour, slicing man’s arm openA large marlin weighing up to 100kg jumped into a small boat off the New South Wales coast, seriously injuring two brothers, with one of them suffering a fracture when his arm was sliced open.The marlin breached and landed in the brothers’ boat off Wooli, north of Coffs Harbour, at midday on Thursday. Continue reading...

In Colorado Springs, businesses are suing the military for perfluorinated compounds, which some are calling ‘Agent Orange 2.0’Over the last 80 years, much of the land surrounding Venetucci Farm was sold to the US army to establish the base now known as Fort Carson, and today it is hemmed in by highways. Still, with its 200 acres of fields, farmhouse and big red barn, it is a beloved institution in Colorado Springs. As the only community urban farm left in the sprawling city, it is a valuable resource, educating thousands of children about agriculture, sustainability and healthy eating and known above all for its annual pumpkin giveaways. Continue reading...

Shadow environment minister says ALP can’t keep pushing a market mechanism to reduce emissions nor could it ‘give up’ on tackling crisisThe shadow environment minister, Tony Burke, has declared Labor can no longer pursue a climate policy based on a market mechanism to reduce emissions.But he insists there can be no retreat from what the science says needs to happen to avoid dangerous warming. Continue reading...

After 25 years and a half-billion dollars, only half of the project’s water delivered to Pine Ridge Reservation comes from the Missouri River – unlike supplies for white ranchersUp until late last year, Ella Coleman, a diminutive, soft-spoken Oglala Sioux grandmother who lives in one of the hundreds of mobile homes on the semi-arid plains of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, lacked running water.Sometimes, she received water deliveries by truck. Other times, she drove to a community spigot, where she filled buckets and hauled them in her minivan. At home, she ladled water from the buckets for cooking and bathing. Continue reading...

MacMines Austasia abandon plans, raising questions about basin’s viability as a source of Queensland employmentThe backer of a massive coal proposal in the Galilee Basin, adjacent to Adani’s Carmichael mine site, has quietly abandoned its plans amid growing doubts about the long-term profitability of Australian thermal coal exports.The ABC reported this morning that the proponents of the $7bn China Stone mine had withdrawn their application for a mining lease in March. Continue reading...

Levels of ozone-depleting gas spiked when air from industrialised areas of China arrived, say researchersIndustries in north-eastern China have released large quantities of an ozone-depleting gas into the atmosphere in violation of an international treaty, scientists have said.Since 2013, annual emissions of the banned chemical Chlorofluorocarbon-11 (CFC-11) from that region have increased by about 7,000 tonnes, according to a report in peer-reviewed journal Nature. Continue reading...

Two nations have been at odds over 69 containers of waste sent to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his government to hire a private shipping company to send 69 containers of garbage back to Canada and leave them within its territorial waters if it refuses to accept the rubbish.“The Philippines as an independent sovereign nation must not be treated as trash by other foreign nation,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a media briefing. Continue reading...

Conservative members of Congress called on climate change deniers at hearing on endangered speciesThe climate crisis has become a top issue among Democrats running for president. But many Republican lawmakers are still resistant to the science showing global heating is a serious, manmade problem.When Democrats in control of the House scheduled a hearing for international scientists to explain their warnings that humans are critically wounding biodiversity on Wednesday, conservative members of Congress called on career climate science deniers to testify alongside them. Continue reading...

Aquaculture network in Victoria, maintained over 6,600 years, faces final step in recognition processA 6,600-year-old, highly sophisticated aquaculture system developed by the Gunditjmara people will be formally considered for a place on the Unesco world heritage list and, if successful, would become the first Australian site listed exclusively for its Aboriginal cultural value.Known as the Budj Bim cultural landscape, the site in south-west Victoria is home to a long dormant volcano, which was the source of the Tyrendarra lava flow. Continue reading...

Despite agreeing upon climate emergency, delegates vote to back oil and gas companiesMore than 70 Church of Scotland delegates – including the outgoing moderator the Very Rev Susan Brown – have formally lodged their frustration at the decision of its general assembly not to divest from fossil fuels, with advocates describing Wednesday’s vote as “an embarrassing abdication of moral leadership”.Although the general assembly voted to “recognise and affirm the declarations of the Scottish government, UK parliament and others that we are experiencing a climate and ecological emergency” on Wednesday morning, a counter-motion to disinvest from oil and gas companies by 2020 was narrowly defeated. Continue reading...

Birds brooding three eggs due to hatch in June are part of a rewilding projectWhite storks nesting on top of an ancient oak tree could become the first wild pair to successfully breed in Britain for hundreds of years.The enormous birds are brooding three eggs on the rewilded Knepp estate, in Sussex, as part of a project to reintroduce the species to south-east England. Continue reading...

Mining giant loses its appetite for thermal coal and will turn instead to oil, copper and nickelBHP is looking to add more oil, copper and nickel resources to its portfolio, while souring on thermal coal because it thinks the fossil fuel will be phased out, “potentially sooner than expected”.BHP’s chief financial officer, Peter Beaven, told investors and analysts in a strategy briefing on Wednesday that “the world will be a very different place in 10 to 20 years’ time” and the global miner must be thoughtful about the risks and opportunities. Continue reading...

We are exposed to synthetic chemicals in plastics, cosmetics and food every day. Could it be making us toxic? Our environment reporter was tested for over 1,530 chemicals to find out• Help us reach our $150,000 goal to fund this series. Make a contributionSitting on a plastic chair in a small office, I’m wearing medical scrubs rolled up to my knees and I have an X-ray machine strapped to my shin.The machine is scanning my bones for lead as an expert monitors readings streaming on to a screen. Continue reading...

Thousands of potentially harmful chemicals are in products ranging from electronics to medical equipment and carpets in the US• Help us reach our $150,000 goal to fund this series. Make a contributionSynthetic chemicals are in nearly everything we touch and consume. But some chemicals can be potentially harmful and a number of experts are anxious about possible long-term health effects of our everyday exposure. They say US regulations could be stronger.One of those who is concerned is Leo Trasande of NYU Langone Health, an expert in children’s environmental health and author of Sicker Fatter Poorer, which is about the threat of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Continue reading...

Analysis in north-west England linked to evidence of UK’s vulnerability to climate crisisThe floods of 2009 and 2015 in north-west England were the worst for more than 550 years, according to groundbreaking analysis of lake sediment in the region.Residents have long suspected that the devastating floods were the worst in living memory, but this confirmation – from an analysis of lake sediment layers – provides a unique window on to the history of flooding in one of the wettest parts of England, and reveals the global climate crisis. Continue reading...

Government confirms ban on sale and use of items from April next yearPlastic straws and drink stirrers, and cotton buds with plastic stems will be banned from sale and use in England from next April, the government has confirmed.The move, which has been in the offing for more than a year, is hoped to vastly reduce the litter and other environmental impacts of the nearly 5bn plastic straws currently used each year in the UK, along with more than 300m plastic stirrers and close to 2bn cotton buds with plastic stems. Continue reading...

Democrats ranked global heating as the third most important issue on their list, while Republican voters ranked it last in a Yale pollSurging concern among Americans about an overheating planet has done little to shift a political polarization that has now reached a stunning extreme: climate breakdown divides Democrats and Republicans even more than abortion does. Continue reading...

Annastacia Palaszczuk says state ‘needs some certainty’ about timing of outstanding approvalsQueensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says she is “fed up” with the state’s process for Adani’s Carmichael coalmine and has called an emergency meeting to set a deadline for the outstanding approvals.Labor’s vote was hit hard on Saturday in central Queensland seats including Dawson, Herbert and Capricornia, which some commentary has attributed to anger over environmental campaigns against the mine and federal Labor’s failure to articulate a clear position on the development. Continue reading...

Minister facing calls for demotion from cabinet despite Scott Morrison’s repeated praiseSupporters of the environment minister, Melissa Price, say she was deliberately gagged during the election campaign, as the embattled MP faces calls for her demotion from cabinet.As Coalition MPs jostle for promotion in Scott Morrison’s new frontbench, Price is understood to have told colleagues it was a tactical decision made by the prime minister and Coalition headquarters to keep her out of the limelight during the campaign. Price was supportive of the move, which ensured Morrison kept the focus on the economy and Labor’s tax agenda. Continue reading...

Samoan and Fijian leaders say Australia must take leading role in climate battlePacific leaders have congratulated Scott Morrison on his surprise election victory but have urged him to do more to fight the climate crisis, which poses an existential threat to the region.“[Australia] has been lagging behind,” said Tuilaepa Sailele, the prime minister of Samoa, about Australia’s action on the climate emergency. Continue reading...

More than half of British homeowners feed birds, maintaining 133 speciesThe increasingly appetising buffet provided for garden birds, from sunflower hearts to suet cakes, is supporting a rising number and greater diversity of species in Britain’s urban areas, according to research.In the 1970s, half of all birds using garden feeders belonged to just two species, the sparrow and starling, but by the 2010s the number of species making up the same proportion had tripled, with goldfinches, woodpigeons and long-tailed tits soaring in number because of the food on offer. Continue reading...

Fears that predicted influx of climate deniers would obstruct action on environmentAn influx of climate-denying far-right MEPs could pose a “toxic” threat to EU climate policy after the European elections, according to senior MEPs and academics.Populist parties are expected to take up to a third of the parliamentary seats in Thursday’s vote, with Matteo Salvini’s League in contention to be the largest single party, and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) overtaking Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche in some polls. Continue reading...

Lower-income and minority communities are exposed to majority of the pollution coming from waste-burning plants, report finds

Southern African countries to appeal to watchdog for permission to sell stockpiled ivory worth more than £230mZimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia are making a fresh appeal for a global watchdog to lift restrictive measures on the trade in raw ivory.The watchdog, Cites, prohibits unregulated commercial trade in endangered species around the world. Continue reading...

DJ and producer wants to banish ‘disconnect’ between climate issues and daily lifeOne of dance music’s rising stars is swapping the decks for a microphone to deliver a series of talks about the importance of environmental sciences to help tackle the climate crisis.Jayda G – real name Jayda Guy – is a Canadian DJ and music producer whose livestreamed mixes on YouTube clock up thousands of views, and now she is fusing two worlds by using her platform to expose fans to issues affecting the natural world. Continue reading...

Joint venture aims to turn Alcoa’s open-cut mine site into Anglesea project near Great Ocean RoadA UK charity that redeveloped a china clay quarry in Cornwall into a major ecotourism project has its eyes on Alcoa’s former coalmine in Anglesea, Victoria.The Eden Project and Alcoa announced a plan to turn a portion of the site into a $150m ecotourism attraction based around Anglesea’s coastal location. They say they will seek input from the community. Continue reading...

Ten eco-minded startups to receive assistance from a €2m fund, including a social enterprise training trekking guides in NepalDigital travel firm Booking.com has announced the sustainable travel startups that will receive financial assistance from its 2019 Booking Booster programme. As part of the programme – which has a fund of €2m – awards have been made to a variety of organisations, from a social enterprise training at-risk women to become trekking guides in Nepal, to a hotel school helping young people in Indonesia kickstart their careers.Each organisation’s plans were judged by a panel, including Booking Booster ambassador, Livia Firth. At the awards event Firth spoke about the importance of supporting sustainable travel. “Whoever we are and wherever we work – whether in startups, established companies, policymakers or members of government – we have the power to make a difference every day,” she said. “Today we know that we can also make a huge difference when we book a trip.” Continue reading...

Subsidies to restore woodlands and meadows would also boost wildlife, says Rewilding BritainA quarter of the UK’s land could be restored to nature, making a significant contribution towards cutting the nation’s carbon emissions to zero, under a new rewilding proposal.The plan, published by Rewilding Britain, calls for billions of pounds in farm subsidies to be redirected towards creating native woodlands and meadows and protecting peat bogs and salt marshes. The group says wildlife would benefit, farmers would not lose money and food production need not fall. Continue reading...