Environment department officials say meeting did not discuss a compliance action involving a Taylor companyAngus Taylor did not declare at a meeting with environment officials about critically endangered grasslands that he had a financial interest in a company that was under investigation for poisoning them.And no notes were taken by the senior department official who attended the meeting in 2017, a Senate committee has heard. Continue reading...

Why people should be worried about the blazes and increased deforestation in BrazilThousands of fires are burning in Brazil, many of them in the world’s biggest rainforest, which is sending clouds of smoke across the region and pumping alarming quantities of carbon into the world’s atmosphere. Continue reading...

Jeremy Corbyn pressures UK government to take action against the Brazilian presidentBoris Johnson has expressed concern about the fires raging in the Amazon and called for international action to protect rainforests, as his government came under pressure from Jeremy Corbyn to take action against the Brazilian president.“The prime minister is deeply concerned by the increase in fires in the Amazon rainforest and the impact of the tragic loss of these precious habitats,” Johnson’s spokesperson said ahead of this weekend’s G7 summit in Biarritz, after a call to action from the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Continue reading...

State’s highest court rejects attempt to derail project by opponents who want to force developer to reapply for state approvalNebraska’s highest court lifted one of the last major hurdles for the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday when it rejected another attempt to derail the project by opponents who wanted to force the developer to reapply for state approval.The pipeline faces intense resistance from environmental groups, Native American tribes and some landowners along the route who worry about its long-term impact on their groundwater and property rights. But in Nebraska, many affected landowners have accepted the project and are eager to collect payments from the company. Continue reading...

Endangered white rhinos, breeding cycads and fires in the Amazon rainforest Continue reading...

Punjab joins regions where polythene bags are illegal and stiff fines take effect in Islamabad amid demands for alternativesPunjab has become the latest region in Pakistan to ban plastic bags, as the country battles to reduce single-use plastics that are damaging the environment.So far there is no date for implementation in Pakistan’s most populous state. The south-eastern province of Sindh has announced it will ban polythene bags from October, and last week a ban took effect in Islamabad. Continue reading...

Coalition of 32 companies will present its Fashion Pact at the G7 summit in BiarritzA coalition of 32 of the world’s largest fashion groups and brands has published a manifesto that details the practical objectives and targets it has set to minimise the industry’s impact on the climate, oceans and biodiversity.The Fashion Pact, which was released on Friday and will be presented at the G7 meeting in Biarritz, says it “will not reinvent the wheel, but create an overarching framework for action”, and will make its findings open source. It intends to build on the work of existing organisations such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Fashion For Good. Continue reading...

Restoration project uses seed-rich hay taken from roadside verges to regrow lost meadowsThere is something back to front about the idyllic scene on a meadow south of Norwich. Hay is normally gathered in, but this freshly cut, sweet-smelling grass is being carefully forked across a field.The hay, harvested from nearby roadside verges, is spread to scatter the seeds contained within it, part of an innovative scheme to restore natural flower-rich meadows and reverse losses. More than 97% of Britain’s wildflower meadows have vanished since the 1930s. Continue reading...

German chancellor ‘convinced of emergency’ but Brazil’s leader accuses European leaders of colonialismAngela Merkel has backed Emmanuel Macron’s call to put the fires in the Amazon on the agenda at this weekend’s G7 summit, after the French president said the situation amounted to an international crisis.Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for the German chancellor, told journalists in Berlin on Friday: “The extent of the fires in the Amazon area is shocking and threatening, not only for Brazil and the other affected countries, but also for the whole world. Continue reading...

Experts say international pressure may be only way to sway Bolsonaro governmentInternational pressure may be the only way to stop the Brazilian government from taking a “suicide” path in the Amazon, one of the country’s most respected scientists has said, as the world’s biggest rainforest continues to be ravaged by thousands of deliberate fires.The large number of conflagrations – set illegally to clear and prepare land for crops, cattle and property speculation – has prompted the state of Amazonas to declare an emergency, created giant smoke clouds that have drifted hundreds of miles, and sparked international concerns about the destruction of an essential carbon sink. Continue reading...

Administration’s move is a ‘head in the sand approach’ that will further imperil creatures threatened by the climate crisisLife as a sea turtle is already harrowing. Emerging alone from a shell to crawl through a deadly gauntlet of predatory birds, dogs and ants, all for the goal of reaching the ocean, a place where fish swallow you whole and fragments of discarded plastic slowly suffocate you.Now climate change – in the form of sea level rise, rising temperatures and fiercer storms – is adding further, existential hardships and in the US a recent weakening of endangered species protections by the Trump administration will further imperil sea turtles and other creatures threatened by the climate crisis. Continue reading...

For residents of Anchorage, July’s wildfire and unprecedented temperatures plus the current McKinley Fire confirm that global heating has changed life forever

Report says outlook in India is ‘finely balanced and uncertain’ despite resources industry’s high hopesThermal coal exporters face “significant risk” that demand from India will decline, a report by the Australian office of the chief economist says.It also warned of long-term uncertainties in the market considered a “great hope” by miners. Continue reading...

Pilot scheme on Network Rail’s Wessex route could pave way for direct powering of trainsThe world’s first solar farm to power a railway line directly is due to plug into the track near Aldershot, paving the way for solar-powered trains.From Friday, about 100 solar panels at the trackside site will supply renewable electricity to power the signalling and lights on Network Rail’s Wessex route. Continue reading...

Members cited concerns over changing party rules and opening the door for a flood of single-issue eventsThe Democratic National Committee has rejected mounting calls for a party-sponsored debate on the climate crisis, voting down a resolution that would have dedicated one of the 12 Democratic debates entirely to the issue.Calls for a DNC-sanctioned climate debate have been building for months. In poll after poll, climate has been one of the most important issues to likely Democratic voters in the 2020 presidential election. But little time has been devoted to the topic in debates to date: a scant 15 minutes in the first set of debates, and just over 20 in the most recent two. Continue reading...

Political storm over rainforest devastation as Ricardo Salles attends summitThe environment minister of Brazil, where wildfires have been sweeping the Amazon rainforest, was booed at a climate event on Wednesday as celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio and Ariana Grande joined an international chorus of criticism.Videos of Ricardo Salles being booed by demonstrators as he took to the stage at Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week in the north-eastern city of Salvador circulated widely in Brazil. An opposition senator is planning to seek his impeachment at Brazil’s supreme court. Continue reading...

Researchers say the Thomson catchment is missing out each year on the amount of water used by 250,000 peopleLogging is causing Melbourne’s main catchment area to miss out on about 15bn litres of water each year, equivalent to the amount used by 250,000 people, a peer-reviewed study has found.If logging in Victoria’s Thomson catchment continues as planned, that number would increase to 600,000 Melburnians by 2060, according to the research from the Australian National University. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Farmers United says ‘we know in our hearts and minds’ experts are wrong about run-off damaging the reefQueensland cane growers’ groups are backing an opaque front organisation working to undermine Great Barrier Reef consensus science, including publishing claims that “we know in our hearts and minds” that the experts are wrong.The group, Farmers United, published full-page advertisements in News Corp Queensland newspapers this week. Continue reading...

Lack of rain may be forcing animals to seek food from rubbish bins in AiguafredaA small town outside Barcelona is using wolf urine to deter wild boar that have been coming in from the surrounding countryside.After trying a variety of deterrents, the town council of Aiguafreda has agreed, in association with the local hunters’ association, to see if the smell of the pheromones of the wild pigs’ principal predator will keep them at bay. Continue reading...

Three protesters found guilty despite intervention of shadow chancellor in their supportThree Extinction Rebellion activists involved in protests in central London in April have been convicted of public order offences at a trial which heard a message of support for them from the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell.The men were among more than 1,000 people arrested during the environmental group’s demonstrations – which caused large-scale disruption in what organisers described as the biggest act of civil disobedience in recent British history – but are the first to have gone on trial with legal representation. Continue reading...

Conservationists hope release of six eaglets on Isle of Wight will mirror Scotland successWhite-tailed eagles are gracing the skies of southern Britain for the first time in 240 years after six eaglets were released on the Isle of Wight.The huge birds, which are fitted with satellite tags, are expected to disperse along the south coast of England in a scheme backed by the environment secretary, Theresa Villiers, who welcomed the return of the “majestic” species. Continue reading...

Democratic presidential hopeful’s 10-year plan warns of devastating economic consequences if crisis is not addressedBernie Sanders has laid out an ambitious 10-year, $16.3tn national mobilization to avert climate catastrophe, warning that the US risks losing $34.5tn in economic productivity by the end of the century if it does not respond with the urgency the threat demands.The Vermont senator has long spoken of the climate crisis as a existential danger to the US and the world, and he has previously endorsed a Green New Deal, which he put forward with the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Continue reading...

Cycad in Isle of Wight produces outdoor male and female cones for first time on record

Companies are considering years of regulatory uncertainty when aligning with California’s mileage standards dealAutomakers pushing back against Donald Trump’s rollbacks to mileage standards want to avoid drawn-out court battles and be seen as on the right side of the climate crisis, according to one of the architects of the Obama administration rules.Jeff Alson, who spent a decade on the standards as senior transportation and air quality adviser in the Environmental Protection Agency, said the companies are worried about years of regulatory uncertainty that could end with judges deciding against Trump. Continue reading...

Company says most residents will not have felt microseismic event at Lancashire siteCuadrilla was forced to halt fracking at its shale gas site near Blackpool in Lancashire on Wednesday night after triggering the largest tremor recorded at the location.The tremor closed down operations at the Preston New Road site shortly after it was detected at 8.46pm. Continue reading...

Victoria police circle ahead of slated bulldozing of more than 260 trees that are significant to Aboriginal womenA standoff between authorities and hundreds of protestors trying to protect sacred trees in western Victoria could come to a head on Thursday night as a police evacuation deadline looms.More than 260 Djap Wurrung trees that are 800 years old are slated to be bulldozed to make way for a 12km duplication of the Western Highway between Buangor and Ararat. Continue reading...

The city has been on stage-one water restrictions since May, and the outlook for spring is for more dry conditionsSydney’s dam storage levels have dropped below 50% for the first time in more than a decade.Storages dropped to 49.7% on Thursday, a 0.4% decline on the previous week. Continue reading...

Scathing report says Tory governments have held back progress on clean energy goalsThe government should discourage personal vehicle use and reward energy-efficient homebuilding to meet its legally binding target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, MPs have saidIn a scathing parliamentary report, the cross-party science and technology select committee said recent Conservative governments have promised more but done less on the climate crisis, which has left several gaping policy holes that need to be filled. Continue reading...

There are tens of thousands of pythons in the Florida wild, attacking animals and damaging ecosystems – and the quest to stop them has become a collective crusade

Chief executive says hard-to-recycle plastic on own-brand products will be eliminated

Queensland Labor gearing up to criminalise activism is only a taste of the kind of intimidation that’s likely to come“Even though I was the one who had been assaulted, I was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. […] I will never forgive or forget what came next. I was ‘verballed’ by the police who manufactured the most incredible statements about the whole thing.”That was Peter Beattie, who would later become ALP premier of Queensland, detailing his treatment by police during anti-apartheid protests against the South African rugby team in July 1971. Continue reading...

Michael McCormack offers qualified apology after remarks about climate change and seasonal workers caused outrageMichael McCormack has apologised to Pacific Island nations for his comments that they will survive the climate crisis – in part – “because many of their workers come here to pick our fruit”.The deputy prime minister offered a qualified apology at a doorstop in Brisbane, six days after the remarks which further soured a bitter experience at the Pacific Islands Forum, where Australia was roundly criticised for watering down a communique on the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Democrat who had built his campaign around tackling climate crisis says it was clear he would not winJay Inslee, the governor of Washington and a 2020 Democratic hopeful, has dropped out of the presidential race.Inslee, who launched his campaign in March with a singular focus on fighting climate change, announced he was suspending his campaign during an appearance on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Resources minister defends his extraordinary spray accusing engineering firm of being ‘weak as piss’ and giving in to anti-coal ‘bullies’

A sense of futility haunts us all, so I sought to distill in as few words as possible what could be done by us as a people. Writing them, I felt my despair lift

Frank assessment by Aemo says it has been taking ‘reactive action’ to prevent summer blackouts, but that has come at a high costThe energy market operator has used its latest 10-year forecast of reliability in Australia’s power supply to highlight the urgent need for more investment in dispatchable energy and in transmission infrastructure.In a frank assessment, the chief executive of Aemo, Audrey Zibelman, says the energy market operator has been engaged in “reactive action” to ensure the risks of blackouts are reduced during the summer peaks. Continue reading...

Brazilian president blames green groups for rise in blazes, but offers no evidence for claimThe Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has accused environmental groups of setting fires in the Amazon as he tries to deflect growing international criticism of his failure to protect the world’s biggest rainforest.A surge of fires in several Amazonian states this month followed reports that farmers were feeling emboldened to clear land for crop fields and cattle ranches because the new Brazilian government was keen to open up the region to economic activity. Continue reading...

198 had an increase in the average number of days each year that felt 90F or hotter and 106 cities had an increase in ‘danger’ days that felt 105F or hotterNearly 200 US cities have seen an increase in the number of days each year that soar beyond a heat index of 90F (32.2C) or higher, according to an analysis of the last four decades.Related: How US cities are scrambling to protect people from extreme heat Continue reading...

An $87m corridor will extend over Highway 101 to reconnect the ecosystem and possibly save mountain lions from extinctionEngineers in southern California are hard at work designing the biggest wildlife corridor in the world, to extend over US Highway 101 to the north-west of Los Angeles.The corridor will connect different parts of the Santa Monica Mountain chain, which is crucial to the future of mountain lions – but it will help other species as well. The $87m bridge has entered its final design phase and is on track to open in 2023. Continue reading...

UK supermarket guarantees market for unwanted offspring of dairy cows on suppliers’ farms that might otherwise be slaughtered immediatelyMorrisons is guaranteeing a market for all male calves born on its dairy suppliers’ farms in a bid to stop them being killed at birth.

Jadestone CEO says it could cover the cost of cleaning up a major spill, even though company has never made a profitThe new operator of the site of Australia’s worst ever oil spill has dismissed concerns it might not have the financial capacity to clean up should disaster strike again.Ten years ago on Wednesday an estimated 40 million litres of oil leaked from a faulty rig in the Montara field, in the Timor Sea, and for 10 weeks spread over tens of thousands of square kilometres of ocean. Continue reading...

Los Angeles faces a doubling of its extreme heat days but has fresh ideas to keep residents cool - and tackle the inequality of who suffers

Climate crisis pushes retailers to reduce their impact on the environmentThere have been few fashion statements over the years at G7 summits (dress code: world leader suit, sensible shoes).But this year, G7 leaders will be joined by more than 20 fashion retailers and brands, including the owner of Gucci, Kering, H&M and Zara’s parent company, Inditex, for a key fashion moment – a global pact to fight the climate crisis and protect biodiversity and the oceans. Continue reading...

Documents obtained by the Guardian suggest interior secretary is promoting effort tied to his former firmThe US interior secretary, David Bernhardt, is promoting a fossil fuel project for which his former employer, a lobbying firm, is a paid advocate, e-mails obtained by the Guardian suggest.Experts say Bernhardt is probably violating ethics guidelines issued by the Trump administration with the stated goal of “draining the swamp”. Based on these rules, Bernhardt should be recused from specific issues involving a former client for at least two years. Continue reading...

Australia’s largest garbage company buys $60m of debt, aiming to get SKM ‘back to capacity’The garbage company Cleanaway has taken effective control of most of the Victorian recycling group SKM and says it wants to stem the state’s rubbish crisis.Cleanaway said it had paid about $60m to the Commonwealth Bank to buy out the bank’s position as SKM’s major lender and had appointed Mark Korda and Bryan Webster as receivers to run the business. Continue reading...

Mine has been subject to allegations of contaminating environment and mismanagement of toxic wasteGlencore has been given the green light to start work on its plans to vastly extend its controversial mining operations at McArthur River in the Northern Territory.The resource company, McArthur River Mine (MRM), has sought to extend its mining operation until 2048, which will add on a further 1,000 years of rehabilitation and monitoring. Continue reading...

Investor action group says Carmichael coalmine project makes Indian giant ‘brand kryptonite’The global engineering and consultancy firm Aurecon has severed a longstanding business relationship with the Adani Group, amid ongoing efforts by anti-coal activists to target firms working for the Indian conglomerate’s Australian mining arm.Adani Australia released a statement on Wednesday saying it was “surprised” by the decision but that the “concerted campaign” against the Carmichael project by environmental groups had not succeeded, and that construction of the central Queensland thermal coalmine was under way. Continue reading...

Lower Darling pushed into drought three years early because of sheer volume of water extraction by just a few licence holdersA handful of big irrigators are responsible for 86% of water extracted from the Barwon-Darling river system, pushing the lower Darling into drought three years early, an expert report has found.The NSW Natural Resources Commission released the report by the Australian Rivers Institute professor Fran Sheldon on Monday night, after it received criticism for the claim that extraction of water by cotton growers had pushed the river system into hydrological drought three years early. Continue reading...

Closure of tiger farms among urgent steps needed to protect species, wildlife summit hearsTwo illegally smuggled tigers per week are being seized by officials, according to a report, but this represents only a tiny fraction of those being killed.The report, by the wildlife trade experts Traffic, was released at a summit of 183 countries under the Convention in the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), where many delegates have called for stronger action. Continue reading...

Correlation found between poor air quality and disorders including schizophreniaPeople who spend their childhood in areas with high levels of air pollution may be more likely to later develop mental disorders, research suggests.Air pollution has become a matter of growing concern as an increasing number of studies have found links to conditions ranging from asthma to dementia and various types of cancer. Continue reading...