Researchers say dirty air is killing 800,000 people a year in Europe, and urge the phasing out of fossil fuel burningThe number of early deaths caused by air pollution is double previous estimates, according to research, meaning toxic air is killing more people than tobacco smoking.The scientists used new data to estimate that nearly 800,000 people die prematurely each year in Europe because of dirty air, and that each life is cut short by an average of more than two years. The health damage caused by air pollution in Europe is higher than the global average. Its dense population and poor air results in exposure that is among the highest in the world. Continue reading...

Environmental groups oppose the underwater pipeline that would bring fracked gas from Pennsylvania to New YorkA battle is erupting over a proposed gas pipeline on the doorstep of New York City, with environmental groups claiming the project is unnecessary and would lock in planet-warming emissions for decades to come.Energy company Williams, based in Oklahoma, plans to build a 23-mile-long underwater pipeline through New York’s lower bay to bring fracked gas from Pennsylvania to New York. The $1bn project would link existing infrastructure in New Jersey, to the Rockaways in the New York borough of Queens. Continue reading...

Angus Taylor says Coalition assessing new projects despite pushback from moderate Liberals, but says taxpayers will only support ‘viable’ projectsThe energy minister Angus Taylor has confirmed the Morrison government is continuing to assess new coal generation projects despite pushback from moderate Liberals, but he says taxpayers will only support projects that are “viable”.In a statement to Guardian Australia, Taylor confirmed the government was continuing to consider 10 coal projects through its power generation underwriting program, as well as new gas and pumped hydro proposals. Continue reading...

UN warns of global failure to tackle hazards – with risks ranging from cancer to coral damage

Alexandria Villasenor is among the American student activists joining the global fray and helping to organize the first nationwide strike on 15 MarchAlexandria Villasenor looks a slightly incongruous figure to stage a lengthy protest over the perils of catastrophic global warming. The 13-year-old, wrapped in a coat and a woolen hat, has spent every Friday since December seated on a frigid bench outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City with signs warning of climate change’s dire consequences.Most passersby, probably hardened to confronting New York street scenes, scurry past, eyes diverted downwards. But some mutter words of support, while the odd passing driver rolls down their window to offer a thumbs up. Continue reading...

The legislation, if signed, would see the state become the first in the US to legalize the alternative to cremation and burialWhen Briar Bates was dying she made a request to her friend, Katrina Morgan: bury me in my garden.As a 42-year-old artist and landscape designer, Bates had spent years tending to her garden on Vashon Island, Washington, and didn’t want to leave it behind when she died, according to Morgan. Continue reading...

It is no surprise that the government’s strategy on fracking has been deemed unlawful, write Robin Russell-Jones and Geraint Davies. Carbon emissions will be even lower if the gas boiler is run on hydrogen gas, writes Carl Arntzen. And Stephen Martin and Stephen Sterling say wealth redistribution is needed to reduce global warmingIt is no surprise that the government’s strategy on fracking has been deemed unlawful (Fracking guidance illegally ignores climate change, 7 March). Gas may be more fuel efficient than coal when burnt, but shale gas is 95% methane, and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. According to the IPCC it has a global warming potential (GWP) 85 times greater than carbon dioxide over a 20-year timeframe. Misleadingly, HMG have relied on an obsolete figure of 36 for the GWP of methane, dating back to 2013.Methane levels plateaued in the late 1990s, but have started to increase again over the past decade and have now reached 1,900 parts per billion, against a pre-industrial level of 700. Fracking is the obvious culprit. Satellite data over the US has shown that methane leakage exceeds 5% of shale gas production, an observation that fits with more recent studies by Nasa showing that fossil fuels are the major contributor to the continuing rise in atmospheric methane. Continue reading...

High court to hear five challenges to plans for UK’s biggest aviation hubFive judicial reviews challenging the legality of the government’s decision to allow a third runway at Heathrow airport have begun in the high court.Protesters against the decision by the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, to approve the expansion demonstrated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Monday before the start of the hearing. Continue reading...

Australian Electoral Commission unable to take further action as Facebook page carried an authorisationElectoral authorities say they are powerless to take further action over a lack of transparency on pro-coal Facebook advertisements linked to a secret Glencore-funded campaign.Last week, the Guardian revealed that Glencore, the multinational mining giant, had funded a vast, covert campaign to bolster support for coal, run by political operatives at the C|T Group. Continue reading...

Rainer Schimpf got swept into the mouth of a Bryde’s whale off coast of Port ElizabethLike the Bible’s Jonah, a South African marine conservationist has narrowly survived after being caught in the jaws of a whale.Rainer Schimpf, 51, was swept into the mouth of a large Bryde’s whale off the coast of the South African town of Port Elizabeth while snorkelling and filming a sardine run last month. Continue reading...

Family escapes unhurt after research station burns down on remote Shetland islandThe directors of a world-renowned bird observatory on the remote island of Fair Isle, which was destroyed by fire on Sunday, hope to quickly rebuild the research station.The observatory, based in a two-storey wooden lodge that opened to visitors in 2011, was razed to the ground after a fire broke out on Sunday morning and quickly took hold. Continue reading...

Mesophotic underwater ecosystem off Puglia could be tens of kilometres longThe first coral reef in Italy has been identified, according to researchers.The underwater ecosystem extends for at least two and a half kilometres on the Adriatic coast near Monopoli, in Puglia. Continue reading...

Research finds ‘nurdles’ washed up on Scottish beaches tainted with E coli, with potentially far-reaching health implicationsDangerous sewage pathogens have been found “hitch-hiking” on plastic litter washed up on some of Scotland’s finest bathing beaches, raising concerns from scientists the phenomenon could have far-reaching implications for human health worldwide.The findings, by the University of Stirling, have confirmed environmentalists’ fears that ubiquitous, persistent and tiny plastic beads, or “nurdles”, found on beaches and in rivers and seas around the world, act as rafts for harmful bacteria, transporting them from sewage outfalls and agricultural runoff to bathing waters and shellfish beds. Continue reading...

Public Health England calls for raft of urgent measures to tackle air pollutionCars should be banned from idling near schools and congestioncharges imposed across the UK as part of measures recommended by the government public health agency.In a report on Monday, Public Health England (PHE) said up to 36,000 people were dying each year from human-made air pollution. Continue reading...

Eight years after the disaster, not a single location will take the millions of cubic metres of radioactive soil that remainNot even the icy wind blowing in from the coast seems to bother the men in protective masks, helmets and gloves, playing their part in the world’s biggest nuclear cleanup.Related: Eight years after Fukushima, what has made evacuees come home? Continue reading...

The inhabitants of a remote village at the heart of India’s coal industry brave deadly sinkholes and toxic gases simply to surviveIn the village of Liloripathra, in a remote corner of India’s eastern Jharkhand state, mother-of-three Sushila Devi grips the hands of two women sitting on either side of her. Coal fires spew clouds of smoke into the already heavy, polluted air.At about 8pm, a policeman cradling a small body wrapped in black plastic bags emerges through the smoke and the crowds that have gathered around her home. He has come to deliver the body of her 13-year-old daughter Chanda, killed along with two others from the village when a coal mine caved in on top of them. They had been scavenging in a colliery operated by Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a subsidiary of state-owned Coal India. Continue reading...

In November, Scott Morrison told the striking students to ‘go to school’ – this time even more of them will strikeFour months on, 17-year-old Doha Khan says the school climate strikers have learned a lot.On Friday, thousands of primary and high school students are again planning to walk out of class across the country, protesting against the government’s inaction on climate change, and what they see as the destruction of their future. Continue reading...

Bid to keep the spotlight on the Coalition and on Labor which is yet to decide if it will follow suitThe Greens will use the resumption of parliament for the looming budget session to try to extract documents associated with the Morrison government’s decision to use carry-over credits from the Kyoto period to meet the Paris 2030 target.The move by the Greens to extract documents relevant to the decision is an effort to keep the spotlight both on the Coalition’s decision to count a 367-megatonne contribution from carry-over credits, and also on Labor, with the opposition yet to take a decision on whether it will follow suit. Continue reading...

Tens of thousands were evacuated after the tsunami and nuclear meltdown in March 2011. Less than a quarter have returned. Some of those who did explain whyOn 11 March 2011, one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded struck Japan’s north-east coast, triggering a tsunami that killed almost 19,000 people. In Fukushima, the waves’ destructive power unleashed another menace – a triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.Radiation forced tens of thousands to evacuate, turning towns and villages into no-go zones. Today, neighbourhoods closest to the plant are trapped in time. Homes have fallen into disrepair and weeds and other plants have been left to swallow up pavements, roads and once well-tended gardens, while boar and other wild animals roam the streets. Continue reading...

Nationals leader talks tough on energy in face of demoralised party room, saying he stands for affordable powerThe deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, has suggested renewable energy will eliminate night sport in Australia, declaring voters can “forget night footy” and “forget night cricket” if Labor wins the election and legislates a 45% emissions reduction target, or if Australia moves in the direction of an electricity grid powered by renewables.McCormack, who heads a demoralised party room, and has had the former party leader Barnaby Joyce signalling in recent days he wants to return to the top job, claimed on Sunday it was “nonsense claptrap”, “rubbish” and “absolute garbage” that Australia could provide its energy needs from 100% renewables. Continue reading...

The two groups are affected the most by environmental degradation and pollution, but they often feel left out of the movementBernadette Demientieff, a representative for the indigenous Gwich’in nation, finds Washington DC anxiety-inducing, especially compared to the wide open spaces and tall mountains of Alaska.She makes frequent trips to the US capital to fight oil drilling in what she considers sacred caribou calving grounds in the Arctic. But Demientieff is an outsider in the nation’s capital, where her concerns have fallen on deaf ears with the Trump administration. She’s also a bit of an outsider to the national environmental movement, too. Continue reading...

Government has failed to live up to its protection standards promise, say green organisationsFive leading green organisations have called on Theresa May to delay Brexit to avoid losing environmental protections created by “decades of campaigning”.Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace UK, Green Alliance, E3G and ChemTrust have said the prime minister should try to extend article 50 because the government has failed to live up to its promise that existing environmental standards would be maintained or even enhanced. Continue reading...

The Kent foodie town will harvest three million rock oysters this year, but some say local waters have now become a danger-zoneThe harvesting of oysters on the mudflats of the Thames estuary has helped transform Whitstable, the quaint seaside town on the north-east Kent coast, from a neglected backwater into a foodie mecca.At weekends its narrow pavements are packed with day trippers beating a path to one of its many shellfish shacks or restaurants where half a dozen freshly shucked native oysters, the local, highly prized, wild variety, will set you back £15. Continue reading...

Hyke gin is part of effort to drive down UK’s annual £20bn food waste billA major British fruit supplier and a craft spirits producer have teamed up to find a way to prevent an estimated 166m surplus supermarket grapes from going to waste every year – by turning them into gin.The new Hyke gin – the first in the UK to be made from grapes grown to be eaten fresh – goes on sale at 300 Tesco branches later this month. Continue reading...

The canyon, which turns 100 this year, sees 6 million annual visitors. An Arizona travel writer reveals how to get off the beaten trackThe Grand Canyon is already a pretty famous hole in the ground in Arizona. Now, with Grand Canyon national park celebrating its centennial in 2019, it’s receiving an additional jolt of publicity. Six million people visit each year, and if you happen to be there on a holiday weekend, it feels like you’re stuck behind all of them.Yet here’s the thing – Grand Canyon is big, an immense tear in the earth’s fabric 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and a mile deep. So it’s not hard to find privacy if you know where to look. Here are some tips to get you started. Continue reading...

Park in DRC was shut last year for more than eight months after series of attacks on staffA forest ranger has been killed in Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, weeks after the reserve was reopened to tourists.Virunga, home to critically endangered mountain gorillas as well as hundreds of other rare species, was shut for more than eight months for a review of security after a series of attacks on staff last year. Continue reading...

World’s largest sovereign wealth fund was created to invest North Sea oil profitsThe world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which manages $1tn (£770bn) of Norway’s assets, is to dump investments in firms that explore for oil and gas, but will still hold stakes in firms such as BP and Shell that have renewable energy divisions.The Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), whose assets exceed those of rival sovereign wealth funds such as China’s, said it would phase out oil exploration from its “investment universe”. Continue reading...

Bison in snow, a wolf puppy and the world’s only alpine parrot in this week’s gallery Continue reading...

Days before Brexit vote, Labour leader says party not ‘obsessed by constitutional questions’Jeremy Corbyn has downplayed the Brexit crisis by claiming poverty and climate change are far greater priorities for Labour and the country.Addressing Scottish Labour’s annual conference, Corbyn said his party was not “obsessed by constitutional questions, like the others are. We’re obsessed, absolutely obsessed, with tackling the problems people face in their daily lives”. Continue reading...

EDF Energy says cracks in offline Hunterston B reactor growing faster than expectedFootage has been released of cracks found inside a reactor at a nuclear plant in Scotland.The unit at Hunterston B in North Ayrshire has not been operating after the cracks were found to be growing faster than expected. Continue reading...

The environmental movement has a long history in America’s south – yet people of color and impoverished communities continue to face dangerous pollutionIt doesn’t surprise me that the environmental justice movement began in the south, a place where, historically, the pressure of injustice builds until it explodes into organized resistance. Continue reading...

To cut greenhouse gas emissions we need to increase cyclist numbers and that means getting more women on their bikesSo much of the world around us is designed for men; from the mundane (public toilets and smartphones) to the potentially deadly (stab vests and crash test dummies). My own research, recently launched at the C40 Women4Climate conference, revealed similar trends in how we design cities and formulate transport policy, with devastating consequences.Transportation accounts for up to one-third of greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s biggest cities and traffic is the largest source of toxic air pollution. To create sustainable, healthy and liveable cities, we need to increase the number of cyclists on our streets, and that means getting more women on their bikes. In San Francisco, only 29% of cyclists are women; in Barcelona, there are three male cyclists for every female cyclist; in London, 37% of cyclists are female. Continue reading...

Experts point to climate change for shift in garden pest and disease rankingsAn invasive bug with a taste for beans has jumped into the top 10 list of the worst garden pests as it benefited from the warm summer.The Royal Horticultural Society said its latest annual list of which pests and diseases were causing the most trouble in gardens revealed the impact of the hot dry weather in the UK last summer. Continue reading...

Australia leads operation to remove remaining 600 tonnes of oil from the stricken vessel MV Solomon TraderThe clean-up of an oil spill from a bulk carrier run aground in the Solomon Islands could reach $50m, experts have said, as efforts began to prevent more oil leaking into the sea.Eighty tonnes of heavy fuel oil has leaked so far in an area close to a world heritage coral site on Rennell Island. Continue reading...

The opening of Murohara Surfboards is part of an attempt to revive the area’s reputation as a surfing hotspot after nuclear meltdownThere was a time when Shinji Murohara thought he would never again surf along the coast where he grew up.On 11 March 2011, the waves of the Pacific that gave him his love of the sea suddenly, violently left his community in ruins. That afternoon, a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami along Japan’s north-east coast that killed almost 19,000 people, including about 600 in his home town of Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture. Continue reading...

Heritage group says law passed as part of plan to raise Warragamba Dam wall could endanger cultural valuesThe New South Wales government has been accused of not following due process when it passed legislation to allow flooding in the heritage-listed Blue Mountains.The Greater Blue Mountains area is already recognised globally for its environmental significance but now some sections are being assessed by the federal government for inclusion on the national heritage list for Aboriginal cultural values. Continue reading...

Changes to the emissions baselines proposed by the Coalition mean businesses are less likely to breach rules in the short termThe Greens have expressed alarm over changes to the emissions safeguard mechanism that will make it less likely that heavy polluters such as mines and smelters will be caught by the scheme – at least in the short term.In the week following an attempted pivot on climate change policy by the Morrison government, the Department of Environment and Energy has published amendments to the safeguard mechanism that take effect immediately. Continue reading...

Residents of Allensworth, a historic town established by a former slave, have struggled with clean water access for decadesOne day in 1979, Nettie Morrison, then 44 and living near Bakersfield, California, announced she was moving to a tiny, rural town called Allensworth, 40 miles north. Hardly anyone had even heard of it, and those who had thought she was crazy. “People said, ‘Why would you want to move out there?’” recalls her daughter, Denise Kadara. “‘There’s nothing for you up there.’ But she knew it was a historically black town and wanted to be a part of it.”Colonel Allen Allensworth, a former slave who rose to become a Union officer during the American civil war, had founded the eponymous town in 1908, when he bought 2,700 acres of alkali flats to establish a black utopia in a part of the San Joaquin Valley known as the Tulare Basin. By 1913, some 1,200 people from across the country had responded to Allensworth’s call – sent out via newspaper advertisements – to build the “Tuskegee of the west”. Back then, abundant clear water flowed from artesian wells, enough to drink and to irrigate crops of alfalfa, sugar beets and corn, along with feed for livestock. Continue reading...

EPA chief says new regulations are needed to meet Paris targets, putting future LNG projects under threatWestern Australia’s environmental protection authority has announced tough new measures aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from large projects.The EPA, which works independently and makes recommendations to the WA government about whether new developments should be granted environmental approval, said on Thursday it was setting a “higher bar” for how it would assess the impact of major projects on the climate. Continue reading...

Rescuers found 127 ringtail possums along the shoreline and in the water on Victoria’s Mornington PeninsulaMore than 100 dead and injured ringtail possums have been found by wildlife rescuers along a single stretch of beach in Victoria in what ecologists say is becoming an annual occurrence due to extreme heat.Rescuers and wildlife carers discovered 127 ringtail possums along the shoreline and in the water at Somers Beach on the Mornington Peninsula on Saturday during a four-day period that saw consistent temperatures in the high 30s, warm nights and bushfires in parts of the state. Continue reading...

Conservation groups say Trump administration plan that would scale the wolves’ protected area and allow people to shoot the species on private land will snuff out the species

Giving irrigators a licence to divert huge volumes of water is a recipe for disaster, opponents sayAboriginal groups, graziers, environmental groups and the former commonwealth environmental water holder have urged the New South Wales water minister to halt a controversial move to allow Murray-Darling irrigators to “harvest” overland flows after rain events.Known as “floodplain harvesting” the practice has been unregulated and unmonitored in NSW, but is now diverting huge volumes of water in the northern basin of the Murray-Darling system into irrigation storages. Continue reading...

The regent honeyeater’s plight has blocked previous Hunter Valley development plans in the Hunter economic zoneThe site flagged for a 2,000 megawatt coal-fired power plant in the New South Wales Hunter region was the only breeding site in the state last year for the regent honeyeater, a critically endangered bird whose plight has blocked previous development plans.Guardian Australia revealed yesterday that an agreement had been struck between the China Energy Engineering Corporation, Hong Kong-based Kaisun Holdings and a tiny Australian company, Cavcorp, to build a new coal plant. Continue reading...

Deal with wind sector aims to produce one third of UK’s electricity needs by 2030The government will throw its weight behind an expansion in the use of offshore wind power in the hope the renewable energy source will provide a third of the UK’s electricity by 2030.In a deal between the government and the offshore wind sector, industry players have agreed to invest £250m over the next 11 years in exchange for participation in £557m of state subsidies for renewable energy. Continue reading...

Contamination found across UK lakes and rivers, in US groundwater, along the Yangtze river and Spanish coast, and harbouring dangerous bacteria in SingaporeMicroplastic pollution spans the world, according to new studies showing contamination in the UK’s lake and rivers, in groundwater in the US and along the Yangtze river in China and the coast of Spain.Humans are known to consume the tiny plastic particles via food and water, but the possible health effects on people and ecosystems have yet to be determined. One study, in Singapore, has found that microplastics can harbour harmful microbes. Continue reading...

Witness says cormorant survived the plunge into a 200-foot-deep vortex in a California reservoirWhat happens when a small bird is swallowed by a gaping vortex?The fate of the unassuming-looking waterfowl was the subject of anguished debate Wednesday as video surfaced of the animal disappearing into a 200ft-deep tube in a dammed reservoir in northern California. Continue reading...

Elevated levels of lead have been found in schools across the US, alarming experts who say it is particularly harmful to children Continue reading...

The mining company engaged Sir Lynton Crosby’s firm to push anti-renewables message and counter anti-coal activistsThe multinational mining giant Glencore spent millions bankrolling a secret, globally coordinated campaign to prop up coal demand by undermining environmental activists, influencing politicians and spreading sophisticated pro-coal messaging on social media.An investigation by Guardian Australia can reveal the covert campaign, dubbed “Project Caesar”, was orchestrated by world-renowned political operatives at the C|T Group, the firm founded by Sir Lynton Crosby and Mark Textor. Continue reading...

Court finds government failed to consider scientific evidence against frackingThe government’s attempts to make fracking easier have received a setback after the high court ruled key aspects of its national planning policy to be unlawful.In a case brought by anti-fracking campaigners, the court found that it was material to consider scientific evidence, including the effects on climate change, in deciding policy on fracking, and the government had failed to do so. Continue reading...

Bill under consideration by lawmakers would place a five year suspension on municipalities’ banning of plastic strawsIn the growing war against the environmental impact of plastic, Florida seems to be taking a giant step backwards by pushing legislation that would stop local authorities from banning plastic straws, a move that has, not surprisingly, angered many environmentalists.The bill, under consideration by lawmakers, would place a five-year suspension on municipalities’ banning of plastic straws, pending a study from the Florida department of environmental protection. Continue reading...