Environment | The Guardian

As the public turns against plastic, celebrities and designers are making reusable bottles a fashion statementWhat does your water bottle say about you? An awful lot judging by the £5.5bn industry that has sprung up to convince us that a designer reusable bottle is a fashion statement and status symbol that comes with added environmental kudos.Arguably, it all began with celebrity endorsements: actress Julia Roberts photographed with a S’well bottle (£45); model Gisele Bündchen seen leaving a gym clutching a BKR (£30); actor Jonah Hill lugging a 64oz Hydroflask (£45). Continue reading...

With demand for electricity set to rocket, the UK cannot rely on renewables aloneYour business leader misses the bigger picture, as indeed do other supporters of renewable energy, such as Greenpeace (“Moorside’s atomic dream was an illusion. Renewables are the way to a clean future”).The bigger picture is that we can expect to see a substantial and sustained increase in electricity demand over the next 20-30 years due to the electrification of transport and heat. Heat alone, by the most conservative estimates, will add 300GW of peak thermal demand, which would add 100GW to the grid, dwarfing the current 65GW or so of peak UK demand. Yes, renewables backed up with energy storage and smart control can make an impact but a significant baseload method will still be needed. As pointed out in the late David Mackay’s excellent book Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air, the least bad option of meeting this is likely to be nuclear fission.

As diesel emission fears mount, a growing number of parents now consider clean air the main factor when choosing a schoolAn increasing number of parents are shunning good schools because of the local air quality while some are even looking to move out of cities altogether, as fears over the effects of diesel emissions on health mount.Last week a major study published in the Lancet found that pollution from diesel vehicles was stunting the growth of children’s lungs, leaving them damaged for life. Continue reading...

Death at ‘gilet jaunes’ demonstration caused by panicking driver as anti-fuel tax blockade grips countryOne protester has died and more than a hundred were injured after a nationwide wave of peaceful protests aimed at French president Emmanuel Macron turned to tragedy.Demonstrators from the gilets jaunes – yellow vests – movement had called for people to turn out and gridlock France’s road network to show their anger at increases in fuel taxes. Continue reading...

A female protester has died after being hit by a motorist as demonstrators angry at fuel tax hikes gridlocked parts of France on Saturday. Police said 47 other protesters had also been injured, three critically, as France's newest people's movement, the "gilets jaunes" (yellow vests), staged a day of action

Biodiversity experts say mass extinction of wildlife is as big a danger as climate changeAs a UN conference convenes to work out a new deal for protecting the planet’s biodiversity, the focus falls on the nations that are not attending.Amid the worst loss of life on Earth since the demise of the dinosaurs, the agenda at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh could hardly be more important, but the spirit of international collaboration appears to be as much at risk of extinction as the world’s endangered wildlife. The United States has never signed up and Brazil is among a growing group of countries where new nationalist leaders are shifting away from global cooperation. Continue reading...

‘I remember the horror,’ says Baillie Gifford non-fiction prize-winner, who lived through the 1986 nuclear disasterSerhii Plokhy, who on Wednesday won the Baillie Gifford non-fiction prize for Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, always intended to write about the world’s worst nuclear disaster, not least because he lived through it. “I was there at the time,” he says of his days as a young university lecturer living 500km downstream from the explosion at the Ukrainian nuclear plant in 1986 that contaminated vast swaths of Europe, worrying if the waters of the Dnieper River had been contaminated. “I remember the horror.”Former classmates were directly affected by the radiation released by the explosion, and he suffered from an inflamed thyroid he believes may have been the result of exposure. Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union in 1986, and the disaster had such an impact on the country that the 61-year-old Plokhy, now professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard, felt he should tell its story. But he was almost too close to it; the testimonies of survivors were too emotional, too powerful. As a historian, he felt he lacked critical distance. Continue reading...

Cuadrilla won’t say if it has halted Preston New Road exploration, at cost of £94,000 a dayThe shale gas firm Cuadrilla has refused to confirm whether it has halted fracking after triggering a series of minor earthquakes near Blackpool, raising questions over the operation’s future prospects.Dozens of small tremors have been registered near the company’s Preston New Road site, after it started pumping high volumes of water underground in October to explore for gas. Continue reading...

Exelon lobbies against proposals and says weakening emissions rule would kill jobs and waste billions in investmentsA leading US energy company is lobbying against the Trump administration’s move to roll back a major Obama-era environmental regulation, arguing that weakening a rule on mercury emissions would potentially kill jobs across the south and waste billions of dollars of investment.Exelon, one of the largest producers of electricity in the US, has also argued to the Environmental Protection Agency that compliance with the existing mercury rule, a 2012 regulation that limits how much of the toxic pollutant can be emitted from coal-fired power plants, has had “substantial” health and environmental benefits and has cost a small fraction of what was originally anticipated. Continue reading...

Starlings over Rome and the ‘smiling angel’ of the Yangtze are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Wool-shearing footage, filmed by campaigners on 49 farms, appears to show animals being kicked, slapped and beaten with metal clippersFootage that appears to show sheep being kicked, beaten and abused during wool-shearing on English and Scottish farms has been released by animal rights activists.Peta Asia carried out an undercover investigation over the summer in the British sheep shearing industry. The 18 minutes of footage released yesterday is part of a wider investigation, in which Peta documented alleged abuse on 25 farms in Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, Essex, and Northumberland counties. In Scotland they have collected evidence from 24 farms in West Lothian, Fife, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian and South Lanarkshire. Continue reading...

Exclusive: failure to enforce ban on preventive use on farms would ‘pose risk to human health’

Hunter and Latrobe valleys lead the list of polluted postcodes in survey by Australian Conservation FoundationAlmost all of Australia’s most polluting industries are located in low-income areas, according to new research by the Australian Conservation Foundation.The report looks at pollution from emitters including coal-fired power stations as well as mining, refineries and manufacturing and finds the country’s five most polluted areas are the Hunter Valley in NSW, the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Mount Isa in Queensland and Newman and Collie in WA. Continue reading...

Thursday saw air pollution levels climb to unhealthy levels, making San Francisco’s air worst in the worldSchools in the San Francisco Bay Area have been cancelled for Friday and residents warned to stay inside as smoke descends from wildfires hundreds of miles away, producing air quality levels worse than notoriously polluted cities in India and China.“The Camp fire in Butte county generated a tremendous amount of smoke,” said Kristine Roselius, a spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. “That smoke is just pouring into the Bay Area right now.” Continue reading...

Ai Group expresses significant concern with the Morrison government’s controversial plan to underwrite new power generationA leading business group has expressed significant concern with the Morrison government’s controversial plan to underwrite new power generation, noting it could leave taxpayers exposed to liabilities “with a net present value of billions of dollars”.The Ai Group has used its submission to flag major problems with the proposal, ranging from its “extremely aggressive” administrative timetable, with projects being drummed up before the next federal election; a lack of obvious “strong independent governance” arrangements, and the lack of an overarching climate and energy policy. Continue reading...

UK’s largest retailer falls short of removing palm oil from own-brand foods in sustainability driveTesco and WWF have announced they are to collaborate on a long-running sustainable food effort, pledging to halve the environmental impact of the average UK shopping basket within 12 months.The four-year partnership between the UK’s largest retailer and one of the world’s leading environmental organisations is believed to be the first of its kind. They hope its scale will help drive the industry to eliminate food waste and packaging waste and encourage customers to eat more sustainably. Continue reading...

Ernesto Araújo has called climate science ‘dogma’ and bemoaned the ‘criminalisation’ of red meat, oil and heterosexual sexBrazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has chosen a new foreign minister who believes climate change is part of a plot by “cultural Marxists” to stifle western economies and promote the growth of China.Ernesto Araújo – until recently a mid-ranking official who blogs about the “criminalisation” of red meat, oil and heterosexual sex – will become the top diplomat of South America’s biggest nation, representing 200 million people and the greatest and most biodiverse forest on Earth, the Amazon. Continue reading...

Toxic best captures ‘the ethos, mood and preoccupations’ of the year, according to the dictionaryOxford Dictionaries has steered clear of “big dick energy” and the derogatory term “gammon” to name “toxic” as its word of the year, citing the adjective’s use to describe everything from the debate around Brexit to the environment and masculinity.Defining the word as “poisonous”, Oxford said it had become a “descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics”. The dictionary pointed to a 45% rise in the number of times the word has been looked up on its website, and said it best captured “the ethos, mood, or preoccupations” of 2018, thanks to “the sheer scope” of its application. Continue reading...

Heatwaves can limit generator capacity and lead to equipment failures, Aemo warnsExtreme weather over summer could reduce the output of coal, gas and hydro power generators and cause problems with the reliability of electricity supply, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.While there has been extensive political debate in Australia about the reliability of various forms of energy supply, the market operator will make the point on Friday that extreme weather imposes significant stress on the supposed ramparts of the system – thermal generators and transmission infrastructure. Continue reading...

Booming LNG sector is driving Australia’s carbon output, but industry claims revealing the details would damage international competitivenessThe Australian oil and gas lobby is pushing to limit public information about greenhouse gas emissions from liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants, a move that contradicts the global industry’s pledge to increase transparency about their impact on the climate.The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (Appea) has called for LNG plants to be able to apply for emissions data to be withheld from the public on the grounds that releasing it could help its competitors overseas. It has been backed by Chevron, which operates the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG developments in Western Australia. Continue reading...

Under Greens policy, it would no longer be legal to dig, burn or ship thermal coal by 2030The Australian Greens will propose a phase-out of thermal coal exports by 2030 in a significant strengthening of the party’s existing policy, which has focused on banning new mines.The Greens’ climate change spokesman, Adam Bandt, will outline the shift on Friday in a speech to the United Firefighters Union in Hobart. The speech focuses on the growing risk of wildfires as a consequence of climate change. Continue reading...

Surprise judgment means government must halt capacity market schemeThe UK’s scheme for ensuring power supplies during the winter months has been suspended after a ruling by the European court of justice that it constitutes illegal state aid.Payments to energy firms under the £1bn capacity market scheme will be halted until the government can win permission from the European commission to restart it. Continue reading...

The industry has political supremacy even in left-leaning states, but immediate action can hold off an environmental state of emergencyThe world’s leading scientists issued a report warning of total planetary dystopia unless we take immediate steps to seriously reduce carbon emissions. Then, oil and gas corporations dumped millions of dollars into the 2018 elections to defeat the major initiatives that could have slightly reduced fossil fuel use.Though you may not know it from the cable TV coverage, this was one of the most significant – and the most terrifying – stories of the midterms. For those who actually care about the survival of the human race, the key questions now should be obvious: is there any reason to hope that we will retreat from “drill baby drill” and enact a sane set of climate policies? Or is our country – and, by extension, our species – just going to give up? Continue reading...

Greenpeace says retailers failing to take responsibility for reducing footprintBig supermarkets are producing billions of single-use plastic bags each year despite charges that are designed to reduce their use by the public.The UK’s 10 leading supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Co-op and Aldi, continue to put plastic bags into their shops three years after the introduction of 5p charges under EU law. Continue reading...

Neighbors in tiny Seminole Springs are banding together in the aftermath of California’s deadly wildfires

Retired engineer and manager Bill Bray volunteers with Citizens Climate Lobby, which aims to meet with all legislators twice a yearBill Bray makes sure to wear his ExxonMobil baseball cap to the farmers’ markets and Rotary clubs he visits in Texas to talk about climate change.Related: Shell boss says mass reforestation needed to limit temperature rises to 1.5C Continue reading...

Hilcorp’s plan to extract 70,000 barrels a day follows Trump’s reversal of an Obama-era ban on fossil fuel activity in the regionPlans to establish the first oil drilling operation in US Arctic waters have hit an ironic snag – a lack of sea ice caused by rapid warming in the region.Last month, the Trump administration approved the go-ahead of the Liberty project to extract oil from beneath the Beaufort Sea, off Alaska’s north coast. The drilling would be the first of its kind in federal waters in the Arctic and follows Trump’s reversal of an Obama-era ban on fossil fuel activity in the polar region. Continue reading...

Man used radio to contact coast guard after shark rammed and bit his craft and sent him flying into the ocean on the Sunshine CoastA kayaker has been sent flying after a four-metre tiger shark rammed and then sank its teeth into his tiny craft on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.The man, aged in his 30s, was fishing from his kayak off Moffat beach on Thursday morning when he was flung into the water, surfacing to find the shark with its jaws still clamped around one end. Continue reading...

Government advisers call for radical changes, including turning farmland into forestsTree planting must double by 2020 as part of radical changes to land use in the UK, according to the government’s advisers on climate change.New forests would lock up carbon but also help to limit the more frequent floods expected with global warming. Continue reading...

Major research also shows charging polluting trucks had no effect on healthPollution from diesel vehicles is stunting the growth of children’s lungs, leaving them damaged for life, a major study has found.The research, conducted with more than 2,000 school children in London, is the first such study in a city where diesel pollution is a significant factor, and has implications for cities around the world. It also showed that charges to deter polluting trucks from entering the city did reduce air pollution a little but did not reduce the harm to children’s lungs. Continue reading...

Fossil fuel companies including Chevron and ExxonMobil ‘knowingly caused harm’ by contributing to warming, group saysFor the fourth-generation crab fisherman John Beardon, the warming of Pacific waters off the coast of California has meant toxic crabs, shortened fishing seasons and a near decimation of his livelihood as a crab boat captain. Now he would like to see the industry he says is responsible pay for the damage.On Wednesday, associations representing California crab fishermen like Beardon filed suit against 30 fossil fuel companies seeking to make the companies pay for the harm global warming has caused to California’s fisheries. The suit demands that petroleum interests finance the changes that will be needed to sustain the crab fishing industry in the future. Continue reading...

Ukrainian author Serhii Plokhy, who grew up downstream from the damaged reactor, wins £30,000 prize for Chernobyl: History of a TragedyA Harvard history professor’s “haunting” account of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which delves into the “heartbreaking stories of heroism” from the people who helped to prevent the whole of Europe from becoming uninhabitable, has won the £30,000 Baillie Gifford prize for non-fiction.Serhii Plokhy’s Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy opens as a radiation alarm goes off in a power plant in Sweden, and as staff begin to suspect a Soviet accident. It goes on to lay out what led to the worst nuclear disaster in history, telling the stories of the firefighters, scientists, soldiers, engineers and policemen who worked to extinguish the nuclear inferno in Chernobyl on 26 April 1986. One of more than 200 books submitted for the Baillie Gifford prize, it beat a shortlist that also featured Carl Zimmer’s look at the science of inheritance, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh; Stephen R Platt’s history of the first opium war, Imperial Twilight; and Hannah Fry’s exploration of what it means to be human in the age of the machine, Hello World. Continue reading...

Hurricane rainfall could increase by a third and wind speeds boosted by up to 25 knots if global warming continuesClimate change worsened the most destructive hurricanes of recent years, including Katrina, Irma and Maria, by intensifying rainfall by as much as 10%, new research has found.Related: 'It's hyped up': climate change skeptics in the path of Hurricane Florence Continue reading...

Consulting engineer known for his work on nuclear safety who was never afraid to take on such a powerful industryJohn Large’s working life was split into two halves, the first spent designing civil and military nuclear reactors and the second trying to make sure the industry was kept safe from accidents, nuclear waste and security threats. In this later role as a consulting engineer John was a dangerous opponent for the secretive nuclear establishment because his inside knowledge gave him the ability to ask difficult questions and expose weaknesses. He was never afraid to speak truth to power, although it took courage to take on such a powerful industry.Despite his chosen role as an outsider, John’s abilities meant he had an astonishing list of clients ranging from the Russian Federation, the British government, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Greenpeace International. He was invited by the IAEA to China, North Korea and Iran, and by others to the US and Japan, to give advice on their nuclear programmes and the risks they posed. Continue reading...

Latest legal skirmish in a long battle between activists and the company building the pipeline, which is also behind Keystone XLLandowners in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin have filed suit against the company building the controversial Bayou Bridge pipeline for trespassing and property damage, claiming that it did not obtain legal authority before running stretches of the nearly completed pipeline through their property.It’s the latest legal skirmish in a long battle between Louisiana activists and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), which is also behind the the more well-known Keystone XL pipeline, and one that advocates hope might shutter the nearly completed 160-mile stretch of pipe before it goes live. Continue reading...

Jack Harries was at protest by Extinction Rebellion aiming to bring London to a standstillThe social media influencer Jack Harries has said young people have a duty to protest against environmental destruction, as he took part in a day of protest in London that led to at least 14 arrests.The 25-year-old, whose YouTube channel has 4 million subscribers, spoke to the Guardian as he helped hold a 68-metre banner over the side of Westminster Bridge with the words: “Climate change: we’re fucked”. Continue reading...

Fresh division among environmentalists over nuclear energy, the single largest source of low-carbon electricityLooming climate breakdown is opening fresh divisions among environmentalists over nuclear energy, with a major advocacy group calling for struggling nuclear plants to be propped up to avoid losing their low-carbon power.Nuclear is the single largest source of low-carbon electricity in the US. But a third of nuclear plants are unprofitable or scheduled to close, risking a rise in greenhouse gas emissions if they are replaced by coal or natural gas, a major Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) report has found. Continue reading...

Kazakhstan is rich with oil, gas and coal but Nursultan Nazarbayev, its president for life, has committed the country to a dramatic shift from fossil fuels to green energy. Is this huge nation, which is beset by rural poverty, major infrastructure challenges and environmental crises, able to realise his vision? Phoebe Greenwood travels to the Kazakh capital, Astana, and the Aral Sea region

Retailer’s choice highlighting impact of palm oil production is deemed too political for TVIceland is to unleash a life-size animatronic orangutan on the streets of the UK after its Christmas advert highlighting the impact of palm oil production was banned for breaching political advertising rules.

Trees grow thicker bark and animals burrow for protection. We can use similar techniques to save human livesCalifornia wildfires rarely killed civilians in the 20th century. The Griffith Park fire killed 29 in 1933, while 25 died in Oakland in 1991. Now, for the fourth time in just over a year, California wildfires have become deadly. Within the span of 13 months, nearly 100 civilians have died in wildfires in California, and that devastating number is likely to grow based on the missing persons tally from the town of Paradise.The increasing number of fatalities is occurring globally in so-called Mediterranean climates – regions with mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers. Portugal, Spain, Greece, Chile, Australia and South Africa have all seen civilian wildfire fatalities in recent years, and communities globally are asking themselves the same question: what can we do? How do we stem the soaring number of wildfire fatalities? Continue reading...

Coal, oil and gas subsidies risking rise in global temperatures to 3.2C, well beyond agreed Paris goalClimate action is way off course in all but one of the world’s 20 biggest economies, according to a report that shows politicians are paying more heed to the fossil fuel industry than to advice from scientists.Among the G20 nations 15 reported a rise in emissions last year, according to the most comprehensive stock-take to date of progress towards the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Continue reading...

The world is waking up to the danger posed by single-use plastics to the environment. But consumer pressure is not enough to reverse the decades of plastic waste that litter the globe and clog up the oceans. Stephen Buranyi tells Anushka Asthana how an anti-plastic revolution is under way but the plastics industry is in no mood for retreat. Plus: George Monbiot on why climate change is a crisis that requires a response of civil disobedienceWho is really to blame for the crisis in plastic waste across the globe? And is it too late to fix it? Stephen Buranyi explains how the rise of the plastics industry since the 1960s created a culture of disposable consumerism that has generated a global crisis of plastic waste. He describes how the industry in response poured money into anti-littering campaigns, but did not apply the same standards of waste control to itself.Plus: the Guardian environment correspondent, Matthew Taylor, explains who is responsible for the “tsunami of plastic” coming our way and what may be our only hope to stop it.

‘By the time the science is proven, it will be too late to act,’ chief Peter Coleman saysWoodside Petroleum chief executive, Peter Coleman, has joined mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto in calling for a price on carbon to help with emissions reduction targets and the transition to renewable energy.But the energy minister, Angus Taylor, has claimed Australia doesn’t need a carbon price as emissions levels are coming down – a position at odds with the government’s official emissions data and independent modelling. Continue reading...

Efforts to protect native fauna and flora ‘lack purpose, direction and coordination’Queensland has systematically failed the state’s growing list of threatened species, delaying declarations by up to seven years and botching its conservation management responsibilities, a scathing report by the state’s auditor general has found.Related: Australia's east coast named as 'deforestation front' in WWF Living Planet report Continue reading...

Trend in US regions where once-brutal winters are now mild raises new concerns over climate changeWarmer winters are linked to increased crime rates in parts of the United States, a new study has found.Researchers found that violent crime is almost always more prevalent when temperatures are warmer in the winter months. The trend was especially strong when winters were mild in regions that usually have fierce winters, like the north-east and midwest. Continue reading...

EPA to start writing rule requiring new trucks produce less nitrogen oxide, one of its first moves to regulate industryDonald Trump’s administration plans to cut air pollution from heavy-duty trucks, marking one of its first moves to regulate US industry rather than roll back environmental standards.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will start writing a rule to require new trucks produce less nitrogen oxide, which contributes to smog and particulate matter pollution that causes breathing problems, asthma attacks and early deaths. Continue reading...

The president blamed ‘poor forest management’ for the state’s crisis. But much of the area burning isn’t forestYou cannot possibly understand what it means to live with the risk of wildfire until you have to do so.I’m a fire scientist and have spent most of my adult life in the flammable south-west. At the start of the fire season, you pack up the things in your house you cannot replace and stage them so they are ready to be thrown into the car. You make a plan for your family and your pets. You identify escape routes and put together a bag with clothing and you spend the summer alert to smoke, radio reports and evacuation notices. Continue reading...

Report bitterly contested by scientists who say threat comes from climate change, which has pushed bears closer to humans – not because the population is growing

Angus Taylor speech leads into crucial board decision on whether or not to proceedThe energy minister Angus Taylor has backed Malcolm Turnbull’s pet project, the expansion of the Snowy Hydro scheme, ahead of critical deliberations on the project due next month.Taylor will use a speech on Wednesday to express confidence that Snowy “will be a fundamental part of our future energy needs for many generations”. The board is due to decide in mid-December whether to proceed with additional generation capacity of 2,000MW. Continue reading...

Ambitious scheme also aims to fully decarbonise country’s economy shortly afterSpain has launched an ambitious plan to switch its electricity system entirely to renewable sources by 2050 and completely decarbonise its economy soon after.By mid-century greenhouse gas emissions would be slashed by 90% from 1990 levels under Spain’s draft climate change and energy transition law. Continue reading...