Environment | The Guardian

Planned tax will make public more aware of climate harm caused by flying, ministers hopeAir passengers may have to pay an extra “carbon charge” on flights as part of a government initiative to reduce CO2 emissions and tackle the climate crisis.Passengers could choose to pay more for travel tickets, which would then be used to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Or the scheme could work on an “opt-out” basis and also be applied to trains, buses and ferries. Continue reading...

Readers respond to the 50th anniversary of the moon landings and the future of space explorationMy husband and I felt a little discombobulated when we read “The moon was once a frontier. But new worlds now beckon” (Journal, 20 July).On the TV and in the press we are invited to get excited all over again about men landing on the moon 50 years ago. We are told that several incredibly rich men are now busy designing rockets to take equally rich folk on the trip of a lifetime. In the meantime, we are witnessing the despoliation of our own planet to such an extent that in a few decades it will not be fit for human habitation. It seems to us that we’ve so many grave problems to solve here on Earth that all our efforts should be devoted to protecting the marvellous world we live in for us and future generations.

Camden citizens’ proposals focus on housing, transport and green space

Trust says it is recovering 100 bikes a year – docked, dockless, even electric – in London aloneHundreds of dockless bikes are being dumped in canals and rivers and most operators should do more help clean up the mess, the body responsible for the UK’s waterways has complained.The Canal & River Trust said it was growing increasingly frustrated by the number of hire bikes abandoned in and beside its 2,000-mile network. It said more than 100 hire bikes a year were being thrown into canals in London alone. Continue reading...

Concerns over climate crisis growing among British public, poll findings revealProtecting the environment has overtaken affordable housing and the threat of terrorism in the British public’s policy priorities over the last eight months, polling has revealed.Polling by BritainThinks, commissioned by Engage Britain, found that concern about the climate crisis has risen at roughly the same rate for all age groups, and has emerged as the single most important issue for young people. It comes as the activist group Extinction Rebellion is due to stage another round of protests expected to bring parts of the country to a standstill. Continue reading...

In the choice between big chemical corporations and ordinary citizens, the Environmental Protection Agency has made clear where its allegiances lie

Schools should teach pupils gardening skills to instil a passion for the environment in future generations, says horticultural chiefFrom the water vole to the Scottish wildcat, the dwindling numbers of Britain’s most at-risk animals are well documented. But now the alarm bell is sounding over a rather more overlooked endangered species: green-fingered children.Young people are so rarely spotted in gardens across Britain nowadays that the Royal Horticultural Society is warning that the country is facing a green skills crisis unless more learn to garden. Continue reading...

Fair Bluff has already been hit by two hurricanes – but if another arrives this year, it could become one of the US’s first climate crisis ghost townsThe water slithered up while the people went to sleep. No text alerts. No sirens. Just the Lumber River, the color of black tea, carrying out its slow, silent ambush, creeping up to the steps of the Baptist church and the rototillers at the hardware store and the 99-cent greeting cards in the pharmacy.In her final hours in the home where she grew up, 55-year-old Bonnie Savage pulled a load of warm clothes from the dryer and folded them. She was hardly concerned about Hurricane Matthew. It had come ashore in South Carolina as a category 1 and was a tropical storm by the time it tumbled inland and into her hometown of Fair Bluff in eastern North Carolina. Continue reading...

Breakthrough means less pollution and lower greenhouse gas emissions

Camden council officials say they intend to implement at least some of the panel’s ideasBritain’s first climate “citizens assembly” opened its final session on Saturday morning at which more than 50 Londoners will decide on carbon-cutting measures they want their district to enact in order to confront climate change.Camden’s Citizens Assembly, convened to interrogate what locals, neighbourhoods and the council can do for the environment, is deliberating action that would reduce fossil fuel usage in homes and public buildings and on roads. Continue reading...

As wildfires increase in intensity, how can farmers safeguard their animals – and their way of life?Two years after wildfires killed the pigs on his family farms in British Columbia, Scott Kellington is still coming to terms with the destruction.This particular fire had come from the north, its towering flames whipped into a terrible ferocity by strong winds and sustained by the 40C heat. After making sure his wife was evacuated, Kellington and his three sons stayed behind to try to save the neighbourhood homes and livestock. Continue reading...

The president could have used a question about plastic waste to inflame the culture wars – but his answer wasn’t far off the markThere was no shortage of pressing issues for Donald Trump to address on Friday afternoon when he spoke briefly to the press as he made his way to board a helicopter that would carry him to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Reporters posed questions about:Iran’s seizure of British oil tankersTrump’s racist and xenophobic smears of representative Ilhan Omar and three other Democratic congresswomenthe first amendmentAmerican exceptionalismJeffrey Epsteinallegations that Trump was involved in directing his personal attorney Michael Cohen to make illegal hush payments to Stormy Danielstrade talks with Chinathe potential involvement of Senator Rand Paul in talks with Iranthe definition of racismRobert Mueller’s upcoming testimony to Congresssanctions against Zimbabwe Continue reading...

With fewer than 20 left in the South American country’s Gran Chaco forest – the big cats could be classed as a ‘non-human person’Argentina’s supreme court has been asked to recognize the legal rights of the South American jaguar, of which fewer than 20 individuals remain alive in the country’s Gran Chaco region.The largest cat in the Americas once roamed the continent as far north as the Grand Canyon, but is now in decline across the entire western hemisphere. Continue reading...

Campaigners say full consultation was not carried out before 2014 reopening of European-owned Fenix siteGuatemala’s constitutional court has upheld a request from indigenous campaigners to suspend operations at one of the largest nickel mines in Central America, in a battle over the facility’s environmental impact.The court found in favour of an appeal brought by campaigners who claim the ministry of energy and mines failed to carry out a full consultation with local people when it decided, in 2016, to extend the licence for the Fenix mine. Continue reading...

Firebugs in Russia, monkeys in India and penguin visitors in a New Zealand sushi shop Continue reading...

At meeting of randomly selected Londoners there are differing views but a respectful toneIn an airless library in north London, 56 people are trying to help fix not one global crisis but two. There are students and builders, a civil servant, an entrepreneur, a restaurateur, a support worker. There are immigrants and retirees and even a retired immigrant.This is Britain’s first climate assembly, a randomly selected panel of local people convened by the London borough of Camden to consider what can be done to confront the climate emergency. The jurors have been assembled to listen to briefings, pose questions, assess facts, debate and discuss, and then ultimately recommend action to Camden council. The big question before them is what action the district can take to limit global heating and its impact. Continue reading...

Activists and residents demonstrate in Bermondsey in protest at pollution from lorriesExtinction Rebellion protesters have blockaded the entrance to the construction of London’s £4.2bn super-sewer project as part of a fifth day of protests.About 50 activists – including mothers and children from the nearby Riverside primary school – began a blockade to halt concrete pouring at Chambers Wharf in Bermondsey, south-east London, at 7.30am on Friday. Continue reading...

Our conditions have forced us to temper our expectations, but my friend and I won’t let them stop us pursuing what we love

High numbers have reached UK in past six weeks and many of their offspring will emerge during Big Butterfly CountWildlife lovers are being urged to help record the greatest influx of painted lady butterflies for a decade as part of the world’s largest butterfly survey.Unusually high numbers of the migratory butterfly have flown into Britain from continental Europe in the last six weeks and some of their offspring will emerge during the Big Butterfly Count, which starts on Friday. Continue reading...

Rare photos capture astronauts in the Apollo program training in the rugged canyons, craters and lava fields of ArizonaOn 20 July 1969, the world paused as an estimated 600 million people watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. But few knew they were watching steps those men had long practiced in the canyons, craters and lava fields of Arizona.Fifty years after the moon landing, Arizona’s role remains a forgotten piece of history – but this pockmarked landscape of high rocky plains once served as Nasa’s training ground for astronauts headed to the lunar surface. Continue reading...

Tender process for seabed use made more transparent after warnings from energy firmsThe Queen’s property manager has bowed to criticism over its plans for the biggest offshore wind auction in a decade by agreeing to fairer terms for renewable energy companies.The Crown Estate, which holds the rights to seabeds around the British Isles, told windfarm developers on Thursday that it has “refined” its controversial plans for the upcoming tender to make it more affordable to develop renewable energy. Continue reading...

Former PM doesn’t want wind farms ‘spoiling our landscape’ and praises Angus Taylor for supporting coal-fired powerThe former prime minister Tony Abbott has continued his crusade against wind turbines, labelling them the “dark satanic mills of the modern era”.Abbott, who was dumped at the 18 May election as the member for Warringah, had previously questioned the health impacts of wind turbines, despite there being no “consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects”. He has also previously dismissed them as “ugly”, “noisy” and “visually awful”. Continue reading...

Evironmental Protection Agency rejects proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, despite growing evidence of its toxicityThe US government has rejected a proposed ban on a toxic pesticide linked to brain damage in children, dismissing a growing body of research on the health hazards of a widely used agricultural chemical.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in a ruling on Thursday that it supported farmers’ continued use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that growers have long sprayed on almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, walnuts and other major crops in America. The decision, outlined in a response to a petition from environmental and public health groups, said “critical questions remained regarding the significance of the data” on neurological impacts on children. Continue reading...

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says ‘further loss of coral is inevitable’The federal agency that manages the Great Barrier Reef has made an unprecedented call for urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, warning only the “strongest and fastest possible action” will reduce the risks to the natural wonder.The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has published a climate position statement that says the reef is already damaged from warming oceans and it is “critical” global temperature rises remain within 1.5 degrees. Continue reading...

States will be required to spend agreed portion of procurement budget on recycled materials for public projectsThe federal government is preparing to unveil “ambitious” new targets that will require all states and territories to spend a portion of their procurement budgets on recycled materials for public projects.New waste reduction minister, Trevor Evans, who is the first person to hold the portfolio at a federal level, said he would seek agreement from state and territory environment ministers for the new target at their next meeting, expected before the end of the year. Continue reading...

Only 10,000 upgrades such as loft insulation happen each month compared with 65,000 in 2014, report showsEfforts to end fuel poverty and energy waste by making the UK’s draughty homes more efficient have collapsed by almost 85%, according to new government data.The report, published on Thursday, shows that the number of energy efficiency upgrades undertaken each month has fallen to 10,000 on average for the six months to the end of May. This compares with an average of 65,000 a month in 2014. Continue reading...

Met says it is working with CPS on more than 900 cases from environmental protestsPolice have accused Extinction Rebellion of causing “high level” disruption and called for courts to pass sentences big enough to deter them from causing fresh chaos, as the environmental group braces itself for mass prosecutions of its activists.Laurence Taylor, the deputy assistant commissioner in charge of protest policing for the Metropolitan force, said last April’s mass civil disobedience, when thousands of activists occupied four sites across London, saw 90 of the people being arrested only to be released and rejoin the protests. Taylor said police were talking to the government about tougher and clearer powers. Continue reading...

Environmental groups condemn cutting of company’s fine from £37.7m to £3mEnvironmental groups are demanding one of Britain’s biggest water companies be made to pay tens of millions of pounds to restore the damage to habitats and wildlife caused by thousands of pollution spills into the rivers and beaches across the south-east of England.As details of the scale of the criminal inquiry into the allegedly deliberate misreporting of data and cover-up of thousands of pollution spills by Southern Water emerge, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are calling on the regulator, Ofwat, to review a penalty of £126m imposed on the company last month. Continue reading...

Sarah Green and Laura Hughes raised concerns over impact on Colne Valley near LondonTwo environmental protesters campaigning against the HS2 high-speed rail link have walked free from court after a prosecution against them collapsed.Sarah Green, 63, a Green party member, and Laura Hughes, 37, of Extinction Rebellion, were both charged with aggravated trespass for protesting against work HS2 was carrying out in the Colne Valley nature reserve in Hillingdon, London, home to a variety of fauna and flora including bats, owls and osprey. Continue reading...

Amid widespread US heatwave, experts predict dangerous extremes in summer temperatures will only get worseAs the climate crisis progresses, the number of extremely hot days around the US could more than double, according to a peer-reviewed study and report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.By mid-century, an average of 36 days a year could feel like 100F (37.7C) or hotter. Toward the end of the century, 54 days a year could feel that hot, researchers with the science advocacy group found. Continue reading...

Submerged sculptures and others that appear at low tide to be installed at several Queensland sites, as part of a project that also aims to rehabilitate sections of the reefFrom a colour-changing figure warning of warming seas to a sunken skeletal greenhouse encrusted with coral, a new museum of underwater art in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef marine park aims to raise awareness of the threatened ecosystem – and rehabilitate parts of the reef.Created by British sculptor and environmentalist Jason deCaires Taylor, the Museum of Underwater Art (MOUA) will feature partially and fully submerged installations and sculptures that will become sites for coral and marine life regeneration. Continue reading...

Latest list shows extinction now threatens a third of all assessed species, from monkeys to rhino raysFrom the tops of trees to the depths of the oceans, humanity’s destruction of wildlife is continuing to drive many species towards extinction, with the latest “red list” showing that a third of all species assessed are under threat.The razing of habitats and hunting for bushmeat has now driven seven primates into decline, while overfishing has pushed two families of extraordinary rays to the brink. Pollution, dams and over-abstraction of freshwater are responsible for serious declines in river wildlife from Mexico to Japan, while illegal logging is ravaging Madagascar’s rosewoods, and disease is decimating the American elm. Continue reading...

Wild Justice plans legal action over environmental impact of shooting industry’s release of 50m non-native birds each yearThe legality of releasing 50 million non-native pheasants and partridges into the British countryside each year is to be challenged in the courts by a new crowdfunded campaign.The government should be forced to carry out environmental assessments of the impact of the shooting industry’s release of game birds into the wild each year, according to Wild Justice, a campaign group led by environmentalists Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham. Continue reading...

Work starts on first wave of 100 fountains to be installed in drive to cut single-use plastics

Inquiry to address problems including aviation emissions and traffic in UK and abroad

Opposition leader says Labor will support ‘any level’ of funding the Coalition names as long as it doesn’t take funds from other portfoliosLabor leader Anthony Albanese has urged the Morrison government to avoid “playing politics” with drought funding, saying Labor would support “any level” of funding the Coalition names, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of another portfolio.The government’s $5bn “future drought fund” was knocked back in the last parliament, after Labor announced it would not support any moves to take funds from the Building Australia Fund to pay for it. Continue reading...

Experts believe false readings occurred because radar interpreted insects as raindrops

Blowing trillions of tonnes of snow on to ice sheet could halt its collapse, researchers saySpraying trillions of tons of snow over west Antarctica could halt the ice sheet’s collapse and save coastal cities across the world from sea level rise, according to a new study.The colossal geoengineering project would need energy from at least 12,000 wind turbines to power giant seawater pumps and snow cannons, and would destroy a unique natural reserve. The scientists are not advocating for such a project, but said its apparent “absurdity” reflects the extraordinary scale of threat from rising sea level. Continue reading...

Country vows to return 1,600 tonnes of waste as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipmentsCambodia has announced it will send 1,600 tonnes of plastic waste found in shipping containers back to the US and Canada, as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipments.China’s decision to ban foreign plastic waste imports last year threw global recycling into chaos, leaving developed nations struggling to find countries to send their trash. Continue reading...

Owner says its brands including Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear will all follow suitThe owner of high street fashion chain Zara has announced that all of its collections will be made from 100% sustainable fabrics before 2025.Inditex – which was named the world’s third largest apparel company this year by Forbes – said its other brands, including Zara Home, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear, will also follow suit. Continue reading...

Retired Lt Gen Russel Honoré commands what he’s named the ‘Green Army’ against toxic pollution in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’Retired Lt Gen Russel Honoré knows a stupid plan when he sees one.

Crown Estate holds rights to seabeds around British Isles for wind and wave powerThe Queen’s property managers will this week set out terms for the world’s biggest offshore wind auction in a decade.Industry experts expect the complex bidding process to raise record sums, which could increase energy bills and hand a windfall to the crown – potentially generating hundreds of millions for the Queen. Continue reading...

Wood smoke smothers Coyhaique, Chile, in June and July. Yet despite the WHO ranking its air worst in the Americas, residents are reluctant to alter their habitsPhotographs by Claudio Frías“I was born and raised beside a roaring fire,” says Yasna Seguel proudly, as wet snowflakes tap against the kitchen window behind her and orange flames warm an outstretched palm. A tobacco-yellow stain soaks into the table cloth as she sets her mate gourd down to select a fresh log for the fire.Every evening through the bitterly cold winter months of June and July, the southern city of Coyhaique, the most populous in the region of Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, is smothered by a thick, fragrant blanket of damp wood smoke that clings to the hillsides. Continue reading...

US has offered close to 378m acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office through April 2019Donald Trump’s leases of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling could lead to the production of more climate-warming pollution than the entire European Union contributes in a year, according to a new report.The Wilderness Society estimates heat-trapping emissions from extracting and burning those fossil fuels could range between 854m and 4.7bn metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, depending on how much development companies pursue. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ‘Sneaky’ rezoning exercise now under way to address timber shortfallThe New South Wales government is considering reclassifying old-growth forest to open up some protected reserves in the state’s north-east to the timber industry.The Natural Resources Commission of NSW has been asked to remap and rezone old-growth forest in state forest informal reserves that were previously off limits to logging. Environment groups are concerned the move is an attempt to unpick forest protections that have been in place for decades. Continue reading...

If global trends continue for another fortnight, it will beat previous two-year-old recordRecord temperatures across much of the world over the past two weeks could make July the hottest month ever measured on Earth, according to climate scientists.The past fortnight has seen freak heat in the Canadian Arctic, crippling droughts in Chennai and Harare and forest fires that forced thousands of holidaymakers to abandon campsites in southern France and prompted the air force in Indonesia to fly cloud-busting missions in the hope of inducing rain. Continue reading...

Animal climbed over three electric fences and four-metre high barrier to escapeItalian forest rangers are on the hunt for a bear that has been described as an “escape genius” after managing to climb over three electric fences and a four-metre high barrier at a wildlife enclosure in the northern province of Trentino before disappearing into the woods.Code-named M49, the 149kg (23 stone) brown bear fled the Casteller centre within hours of being captured with a tube trap overnight on Sunday in Val Rendena. Continue reading...