A slipper-shod Lord Fraser emerges from his Westminster home to berate climate campaignersA Tory peer has confronted Extinction Rebellion protesters in his dressing gown as they marched past his home in central London.Andrew Fraser, who was made a life peer by David Cameron in 2016, emerged from his Westminster home on Lord North Street on Tuesday morning. He was pictured wearing a white dressing gown and slippers as he confronted protesters, who were were banging drums and waving banners as part of the second day of Extinction Rebellion’s planned two-week shutdown of the heart of the capital. While the nature of the exchange between the peer and the protesters is unknown, one activist did try to hand him a flyer. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s description of XR protesters is met with anger and disgust at Whitehall campsiteBoris Johnson described protesters from Extinction Rebellion on Monday night as “uncooperative crusties” occupying “heaving hemp bivouacs” on the streets of Westminster.At the Extinction Rebellion protest site on Trafalgar Square on Tuesday morning, Nicola Hargreaves snorted as she considered the prime minister’s remarks. “I’m a solicitor,” she said. “And I’m dressed in clothes from Whistles that I’m pretty sure don’t have any hemp in them at all. So Boris can shove his comments up his arse.” Continue reading...

Spanish capital to reduce number of brightly coloured birds over public health risk fearsMadrid’s city council has grown sick of its parrots.Or, more precisely, of the thousands of shrill, bright green monk parakeets that screech through the capital’s skies and build vast nests in its trees. Continue reading...

PM hits out at protesters for ‘littering’ London with ‘heaving hemp-smelling bivouacs’The prime minister has attacked the Extinction Rebellion activists protesting in London over the climate crisis, dismissing them as “uncooperative crusties” who should stop blocking the streets of the capital with their “heaving hemp-smelling bivouacs”.Boris Johnson made the remarks at the launch of the final volume of a biography of Margaret Thatcher written by his former boss at the Daily Telegraph, Charles Moore. Continue reading...

Energy minister ducks questions about Scott Morrison’s criticism of ‘internationalist bureaucracy’The energy minister, Angus Taylor, has ducked questions about what “negative globalism” means in the context of Australia’s participation in international climate negotiations, and has sidestepped questions about Australia’s emissions reduction strategy for 2050.Asked to explain Scott Morrison’s recent criticism at the Lowy Institute of what he termed “unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy” and “negative globalism” – and interpret what the prime minister’s observations meant for Australia’s participation in United Nations-led climate discussions – Taylor hedged. Continue reading...

Heavy rains have helped military contain blazes that have burnt more than 4m hectares of landHeavy rains over recent days in the Bolivian Amazon have helped put out forest fires that have raged for two months across the land-locked South American nation, charring more than 4m hectares of land, local authorities said on Monday.The storms helped Bolivia’s military contain blazes in the region of Chiquitania, home to large areas of dry forests and indigenous communities that have lived in them for centuries. Continue reading...

A wave of disruptive protests in the city launched as part of a global week of action by the UK-based group Continue reading...

Demonstrators were arrested in a wave of US protests that are part of a global week of action by the UK-based groupMore than 20 people were arrested by police in New York City’s financial district after Extinction Rebellion climate protesters poured fake blood over the famous Charging Bull statue, a symbol of American capitalist might.The protesters launched a wave of disruptive protests in the city on Monday. A smaller number of arrests were made at a “die in” outside New York’s stock exchange, with protesters subsequently blocking a nearby road to traffic. Continue reading...

Supreme court issues ban on felling in suburb of Aarey amid growing protestsA mass felling of trees in one of the world’s most-polluted megacities has been halted by India’s top court, amid protests that their removal would strip Mumbai of a precious “green lung”.Some 2,700 trees were to be cut down in India’s financial capital to make way for a depot for subway carriages in the city of nearly 20 million people. Continue reading...

Official says there have been multiple sightings of whale measuring at least 5m longA humpback whale measuring at least 5 metres (16ft) has been spotted in the River Thames east of London.“We are 99.9999% sure it is a humpback whale – there have been multiple sightings,” said a spokesman for the Port of London Authority (PLA), which oversees the river. Continue reading...

Region’s first conference on the trade hears of growing demand for live and dead animals from world’s most biodiverse continentThe illegal wildlife trade is increasing all across Latin America, the first high-level conference on the issue in the Americas was told.After drugs, guns and human trafficking, wildlife trafficking is the world’s most lucrative organised crime with an annual value of around $20bn (£16bn) each year, according to a 2016 report by Interpol and the UN environment programme. Continue reading...

Protests take place in Melbourne, Brisbane and other Australian cities to kick off a week of activity by Extinction RebellionFour teenage girls are among dozens of protesters demanding government action on climate change to be arrested in Sydney on Monday.The Extinction Rebellion climate protests movement has planned a “spring rebellion” from Monday to Sunday, including marches aimed at blocking traffic. Continue reading...

Consumer goods giant to push reusable packs, refills and alternative materials and halve usage by 2025Unilever is to slash it use of virgin plastic by creating greener versions of its household products, a shift that could make shampoo refill stations, cardboard deodorant sticks and toothpaste tablets the norm at the supermarket.The consumer goods giant, which owns more than 400 brands including Dove, Comfort and Sure, currently uses 700,000 tonnes of plastic each year and has pledged to halve that figure by 2025. To get there it will cut its absolute usage by 100,000 tonnes – by switching to selling reusable packs, concentrated refills and using alternative materials, including recycled plastics in its containers – and start collecting more packaging than it uses to help create a circular economy for recycled plastic. Continue reading...

Twenty institutions including Newcastle and Exeter club together in 10-year deal worth £50mTwenty of the UK’s leading universities have struck a £50m deal to buy renewable energy directly from British windfarms for the first time.The collaborative clean energy deal will supply electricity from wind farms across Scotland and Wales to universities including Newcastle University, University of Exeter and Aberystwyth University. Continue reading...

Environment officials are unsure whether the poisoning of the birds in northeast Victoria was an accidentAn insecticide is likely to be behind the deaths of almost 200 native birds in northeast Victoria, environment officials believe.After dead wedge-tailed eagles were found near Violet Town in August the state’s environment department found more – along with hawks and falcons – on a nearby property. Continue reading...

Environmental activists plan to blockade roads in the centre of government for two weeksEnvironmental activists from around Britain are set to swoop on Westminster on Monday morning in an attempt to “shut down” the heart of government with two weeks of disruptive protests.Extinction Rebellion (XR) said its members are planning to blockade “every single road” into the central London district and plan to maintain the protests for at least 14 days, or until their demands are met. Continue reading...

A conservation group plans to buy the largest privately owned sequoia grove as the climate crisis threatens the species’ futureFew living beings have experienced as much as the giant sequoias. With ancestors dating back to the Jurassic era, some of the trees that now grow along California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains been alive for thousands of years, bearing witness to most of human history – from the fall of the Roman empire to the rise of Beyoncé.But a couple hundred years of human encroachment on to the sequoias’ habitat, combined with the climate crisis, increasingly intense wildfires, and drought have threatened the species’ future. The last of the world’s most massive trees now live on just 73 groves scattered across the Sierras. Most lie within protected national parks such as Sequoia national park, where visitors flock from around the world to marvel at General Sherman, the world’s most massive tree. Continue reading...

In effort to restore marsupial’s population, 30 released into Mallee Cliffs national park inside predator-free enclosureBilbies have been reintroduced to the Mallee Cliffs national park in the far south-west of New South Wales in an effort to restore populations of the marsupial, which is regionally extinct in the state.Greater bilbies haven’t been seen in the national park for more than a century. Continue reading...

Miner given permission due to ‘loopholes’ in safeguard mechanism, Australian Conservation Foundation saysAn Australian mining company was able to massively increase greenhouse gas emissions from two of its coalmines without penalty under a government policy that is meant to limit carbon pollution from large facilities.Centennial Coal was given permission on three occasions since 2016/17 to increase the greenhouse gas emissions from its Myuna colliery and Mandalong mines in New South Wales, according to data kept by the clean energy regulator. Continue reading...

David Littleproud signals more taxpayer support for rural communities as big dry ‘escalates’The drought and water resources minister, David Littleproud, has acknowledged he “totally” accepts that worsening droughts are linked to climate change, as he signalled more taxpayer support for regional communities was coming as Australia’s big dry “escalates”.Littleproud, who stumbled last month by first telling Guardian Australia he did not know if climate change was manmade, then later clarifying he had always accepted the science on the role humans play in the climate changing, told the ABC on Sunday he understood the link between global warming and drought because “I live it”. Continue reading...

Incident reportedly happened after baby elephant slipped over falls

Ella Mann pleaded with the Royal Shakespeare Company to end its BP sponsorship deal. Days later it did. But, she warns: ‘The fight is not over’Ella Mann is just 19 but she has already made her mark on the world. In September, feeling increasingly frightened by the quickening pace of climate change, she started writing a letter to one of Britain’s leading theatre companies.It was not a decision Mann took lightly, or one that she rushed. She spent days writing the letter which would pile pressure on the Royal Shakespeare Company to drop its longstanding relationship with oil giant BP. Continue reading...

Exclusive: UK supermarkets admit there may be soya-led deforestation in their supply chains due to problems with traceability

Residual sludge from treating waste water has been turned into a money-spinner but what are the costs to health of ‘the most pollutant-rich manmade substance on Earth’?By some estimates, Americans send about 300m pounds of feces daily from the nation’s toilets to wastewater treatment plants.Related: Ocean cleanup device successfully collects plastic for first time Continue reading...

Five-year-old vehicles are now great value and prices are rising as buyers cotton onIf the two people behind a major website championing electric cars have both done it, the rest of us should probably take note.Whisper, so not too many people hear it, but used five-year-old electric cars are arguably one of the best vehicle purchases you can make right now, whatever your environmental credentials. It makes particular sense if you are one of the millions of people who use their car most days. Continue reading...

Tree theft, which led to the deadly Maple fire in Washington, may be costing the US Forest Service up to $100m each yearWhen two men discovered a rare and valuable towering bigleaf maple tree in Washington state’s Olympic national forest last year, they allegedly set about trying to steal it.But there was a problem – the tree was home to a bee hive. The men reportedly tried to use a wasp killer to get rid of it. When that didn’t work, one allegedly poured gasoline on it, and lit it on fire. Continue reading...

More than 3,000 people gathered in the shadow of the University of Iowa on Friday afternoon to hear Thunberg speakThree days prior to Greta Thunberg’s surprise visit to Iowa City on Friday, the organizer and local climate activist, Massimo Biggers, a 14-year-old Iowa City high school student, was preparing to strike – as he has done every Friday, sometimes on his own, since the Global Climate Strike day Thunberg inspired on 15 March.Out of the blue, a message arrived from the Swedish teen activist, with whom he had been in touch, asking him if he was planning to strike again this Friday. “Of course!” he replied, and for the last 48 hours, according to his father, Jeff, neither had slept. “This was truly a miracle to have the town pull this together,” he said. Continue reading...

Most comprehensive study to date finds plastic in sediment collected from bay and tributaries and digestive tracts of fishThe most comprehensive study to date of microplastics in California has turned up a mind-boggling amount of plastic particles in the San Francisco bay.An estimated 7tn pieces of microplastics flow into the San Francisco bay via stormwater drains alone, researchers discovered. Nearly half of the microscopic particles found in stormwater looked suspiciously like tiny fragments of car tires, which rainfall washes off the streets and into the ocean. Continue reading...

Florida clinic says the problem is so common that they have a drop-off point for residents to leave sickly turtlesWhen Emily Mirowski took in a tiny loggerhead turtle that had been washed up in Boca Raton, Florida, she knew it wasn’t healthy. It was lethargic, almost lifeless, with a drooping head – healthy turtles are normally so full of energy that they are hard to hold.But she hoped it would live: its shell was immaculate and healthy looking, a beautiful orange brown, and the turtle was small enough to fit in the palm of the 29-year-old’s hand. It died soon after. Continue reading...

Chief executive lauded for rescuing oil firm from 2010 Deepwater Horizon disasterBP boss Bob Dudley will step down as chief executive almost a decade after steering the oil major back from the brink of collapse following the Deepwater Horizon disaster.The company said Dudley would end his four-decade career at BP early next year and be replaced in February by insider Bernard Looney, 49, currently head of exploration and production. Continue reading...

A crayfish crossing a road, fur seals living on a volcanic island and dissected seahorses

Move comes as opposition grows to fossil fuel firms’ linsk with UK arts bodies

‘Ministry of sanctuary’ could run more liberal immigration system, conference to be toldThe Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley says the Home Office should be broken up in response to failures over the hostile environment policy, as he seeks to position the party as “the antidote to populist authoritarianism” from Boris Johnson and others.The Greens are holding their annual conference in Newport following success in local and European elections. Bartley’s speech to the event calls for radical change to tackle the anxieties of voters, exemplified by the Brexit vote. Continue reading...

By being on the road, women seem to be transgressing a boundary that some men find intolerableI commute in London by bike. Run-ins with aggressive drivers are as much a part of my daily routine as brushing my teeth. Recently though, I’ve started to wonder whether there is a distinctly gendered dimension to the frequency and intensity with which I am shouted, sworn and honked at.When I talk to friends who cycle, I’m struck by the instant recognition of this phenomenon by fellow women, who are quick to share their stories. Sometimes the abuse is explicitly sexual, more often it’s simply aggressive and unpleasant, or merely patronising. Almost without exception, it’s perpetrated by men. Continue reading...

Climatic change may be behind expanded range of very rare native mammal of British IslesOne of Britain’s and northern Europe’s rarest and most elusive mammals has been discovered living in the east of England for the first time in 115 years.The return to Kent of the greater horseshoe bat has delighted and astounded conservationists, who are now examining whether climate change is shifting the species’ range. The bat is normally found only in Wales and the west of England. Continue reading...

Naya, the first wolf sighted in Belgium for a century, believed to have been killed by huntersEnvironmental groups are offering a €30,000 (£27,000) reward for information that helps identify who killed Naya, the first wolf sighted in Belgium for a century when she entered the country last year.The wolf’s arrival completed the return of the predator to every mainland country in Europe, turning back decades of persecution. Continue reading...

RBA says it is becoming increasingly important for investors and institutions to actively manage carbon riskAustralia’s central bank has delivered a clear warning that climate change is exposing financial institutions and the financial system more broadly to risks that will rise over time if action isn’t taken.The RBA’s financial stability review, released Friday, concluded that while climate change is not yet a significant threat to financial stability in Australia, it is becoming increasingly important for investors and institutions to actively manage carbon risk. Continue reading...

Police say media reports that trained marksmen would be brought in to control the town’s magpies were incorrectPolice in the northern New South Wales town of Casino have denied they planned to deploy specially trained officers to shoot and kill magpies, contrary to media reports.On Friday the Northern Star reported that elite police officers would descend on the town to shoot local magpies which have been deemed too dangerous to live. Continue reading...

Possible rail line insurer Canopius says it is ‘not involved in any negotiations’ over the Queensland projectA Lloyd’s of London insurer – considered one of the few remaining possible underwriters for elements of the Carmichael coal project – has distanced itself from Adani and says it is not involved in negotiations.Canopius was one of two global companies understood to have held discussions with a broker about insuring the construction of Adani’s proposed rail line, linking the Carmichael mine site to the Queensland freight network.

NSW blames Queensland’s shark control program after humpback whale drags net hundreds of kilometres southThe humpback calf freed from netting in waters off Sydney’s northern beaches is one of an unprecedented number of whale entanglements this migration season.The tired and distressed calf, swimming south alongside its mother, became entangled in a shark mesh panel from Queensland’s shark control program. Continue reading...

IFS warns the switch from fossil fuel to electric will cause tax revenue to drop £28bnBritain should move to a system of road pricing to combat congestion and compensate for the £28bn loss of revenue from fuel duty as the country makes the transition to electric vehicles, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said.The thinktank said the government’s pledge that the UK would reach zero net emissions by 2050 meant the tax take from petrol and diesel would shrink to nothing over the coming decades and a new way to raise money from drivers was needed. Continue reading...

Fatberg found in Sidmouth, Devon, contained no toxic chemicals or microplastic beadsThe dirty secrets of a huge fatberg discovered lurking under the seafront of a Devon town have been laid bare after scientists carried out an “autopsy” of the monster.As expected, household cooking fats, wet wipes and other hygiene products were key components of the 64m-long beast (bigger than the Leaning Tower of Pisa) but it also contained bits of bone, twigs, string – and false teeth. Continue reading...

Exclusive: discovery comes as authorities investigate tonnes of sediment choking creek near development siteContaminated water has been discovered spilling from a luxury Gold Coast estate development into a Ramsar-listed wetland site, amid a broader investigation into an unfolding “environmental catastrophe” at the once-pristine waterway.On Thursday the Gold Coast council notified the Queensland Department of Environment and Science that a “private recycled water main” at the Serenity Cove site had broken. Guardian Australia understands the contamination is likely grey water, which authorities advise has the potential to turn septic or breed micro-organisms. Continue reading...

SNP minister says licences will be refused, but campaigners say permanent ban is neededThe Scottish government has extended its ban on fracking after ministers confirmed it would not grant permission for any onshore drilling projects.Paul Wheelhouse, the environment minister, said his devolved government would also refuse to issue licences for onshore unconventional oil and gas projects, including fracking, shale gas or coalbed methane projects. Continue reading...

Four arrested after activists lose control of fire engine hose and bystander gets drenchedFour Extinction Rebellion activists have been arrested after trying to spray fake blood at the Treasury in Westminster from the top of a fire engine.Dressed in funeral attire on the out-of-commission vehicle – which had a banner reading “Stop funding climate death” on its side – the protesters criticised the UK’s military role in the Middle East and the UK’s investments in companies that cause vast fossil fuel emissions, and called on others to rebel. Continue reading...

Massive global expansion of tuna fisheries also poses a threat to sharks and other species, says studyScientists have warned that existing levels of tuna fishing are unsustainable after researchers found that global catches have increased more than 1,000% over the past 60 years.A study in the journal Fisheries Research estimated that about 6m tonnes of tuna are now caught annually, a rate that “risks driving tuna populations to unsustainable levels and possible extinction”. Continue reading...

Companies that run UK’s energy pipes and wires earning double-digit returns, says OfgemThe regulator has allowed energy network companies to make bigger than expected profits at the expense of household bills, according to its own state of the market report.Ofgem admitted the companies that run Britain’s energy pipes and wires had earned double-digit returns in the last year despite its efforts to keep a lid on energy bills. Continue reading...

Animal rescue services criticised for killing animal that ran on to motorwayAnimal rescue services in Germany have been criticised for shooting dead a zebra after it escaped from a circus and ran on to a motorway.The runaway beast was one of two zebras that escaped from their cages when the travelling Circus Barlay pitched up at a new location in Tessin in north-east Germany in the early hours of Wednesday. Continue reading...

Low-carbon structures fed by water treatment plants can grow 10% of homegrown cropPeople in Britain will soon be able to feast on tomatoes grown with the help of a water treatment plant in what backers say is a world first.One of the UK’s largest clean energy funds has revealed plans to invest £120m in a pair of low-carbon greenhouses in Norfolk and Suffolk, in eastern England, large enough to grow 10% of the UK’s homegrown tomato crop. Continue reading...

Investor action group says the insurer joins 57 other companies refusing to support the Queensland coal projectAnother major insurer, Axis Capital, has shunned the Adani Carmichael coal project and withdrawn a bid to underwrite the construction of the mine’s rail line.The withdrawal, first reported by Reuters, follows announcements from 15 of the world’s leading insurers which say they either won’t support the Carmichael mine, or won’t insure thermal coal projects. Continue reading...