Environment | The Guardian

Ruling cancels indefinitely a controversial sport hunt of grizzlies in Wyoming and IdahoIn a ruling hailed as historic for wildlife conservation in America, a US judge on Monday ordered that the world-famous grizzly bears living in and around Yellowstone national park be returned to the endangered species list.The move means that a controversial sport hunt of grizzlies in Wyoming and Idaho – outside the boundaries of the park – will be canceled indefinitely, extending protections against hunting that have lasted 44 years. Continue reading...

As people flee intense heat in Arizona for gentler climes, rental and property values soar. But what about those left behind?Only half-jokingly, some residents of a progressive city 300 miles north of the Mexican border have adopted the “build the wall” slogan in the face of a wave of newcomers. But these perceived interlopers are starkly different from Donald Trump’s imagination.They are American, mainly white and are fleeing the unlivable heat. Continue reading...

Submission to Senate inquiry urges reforms to ensure international obligations to protect biodiversity are metThe Law Council of Australia is concerned Australia’s system of environment laws was failing to meet international obligations to protect its biodiversity.In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the high rate of fauna extinctions, the council’s environment and planning law committee has called for reforms to reverse the decline in native species. Continue reading...

Roadmap outlines steps firms must take to reduce waste at every stage of supply chainLarge supermarkets and manufacturers are signing up to efforts to drive down the UK’s annual £20bn food waste bill by committing to halving waste from “farm to fork” by 2030.A roadmap being published on Tuesday by the government’s waste reduction body, Wrap, and the food and grocery charity IGD sets a series of milestones for businesses to reduce waste at every stage of the supply chain. The annual bill is equivalent to more than £300 per UK citizen. Continue reading...

Party committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by middle of the centuryAlmost all of Britain’s homes and businesses would be powered by wind, solar and nuclear power by 2030, under bold new green energy plans being outlined by Labour.Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, will declare on Tuesday that the party is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the middle of the century. The UK’s current goal is an 80% cut by 2050. Continue reading...

Glyphosate – the most used pesticide ever – damages the good bacteria in honeybee guts, making them more prone to deadly infectionsThe world’s most used weedkiller damages the beneficial bacteria in the guts of honeybees and makes them more prone to deadly infections, new research has found.Previous studies have shown that pesticides such as neonicotinoids cause harm to bees, whose pollination is vital to about three-quarters of all food crops. Glyphosate, manufactured by Monsanto, targets an enzyme only found in plants and bacteria. Continue reading...

Devon and Cornwall police warn activists as cull zone is massively expandedPolice have warned badger cull protesters that they may use drones to try to keep order in the far south-west of England following heightened tensions between activists and officers.In an email to protesters seen by the Guardian, a Devon and Cornwall officer said the force would consider using drones “where intelligence dictates”. Continue reading...

Unfortunately, mainstream climate scientists are still right, and we’re running out of time to avoid dangerous global warmingWe’re currently on pace to double the carbon dioxide-equivalent (including other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere by around mid-century. Since the late 1800s scientists have been trying to answer the question, how much global warming will that cause?In 1979, top climate scientists led by Jule Charney published a report estimating that if we double the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from pre-industrial levels of 280 ppm to 560 ppm, temperatures will warm by 3 ± 1.5°C. Four decades later, ‘climate sensitivity’ estimates remain virtually unchanged, but some climate contrarians have argued that the number is at the low end of that range, around 2°C or less. Continue reading...

By the end of this century, sea level rises alone could displace 13m people. Many states will have to grapple with hordes of residents seeking dry ground. But, as one expert says, ‘No state is unaffected by this’After her house flooded for the third year in a row, Elizabeth Boineau was ready to flee. She packed her possessions into dozens of boxes, tried not to think of the mold and mildew-covered furniture and retreated to a second-floor condo that should be beyond the reach of pounding rains and swelling seas.Boineau is leaving behind a handsome, early 20th-century house in Charleston, South Carolina, the shutters painted in the city’s eponymous shade of deep green. Last year, after Hurricane Irma introduced 8in of water into a home Boineau was still patching up from the last flood, local authorities agreed this historic slice of Charleston could be torn down. Continue reading...

Big Butterfly Count records worst summer ever for the species, despite the heatwave providing a boost to most othersFears are growing for the small tortoiseshell butterfly after this once-common garden insect continued its baffling decline despite the hot summer proving a boon to most species.The small tortoiseshell suffered its worst summer in the history of the Big Butterfly Count with sightings falling by 32% compared with last year, according to the charity Butterfly Conservation. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon told more vigorous action needed to achieve post-2020 emissions targetNicola Sturgeon’s government needs much tougher policies on cutting emissions from Scotland’s roads and farms to meet its ambitious CO2 reduction targets, experts have warned.The UK government’s committee on climate change (CCC) said the Scottish National party government was well on track to hit its 2020 target to cut emissions by 56%, reducing them faster than the UK as a whole. However, that was largely because of substantial gains from the closure of Scotland’s last coal-fired power station at Longannet in Fife in 2016 and gains from cutting CO2 emissions from waste, which were relatively easy things to achieve. Continue reading...

Increasing demand from airlines will more than offset reductions from electric carsWorld oil production will soar to new records over the next five years, as a dramatic expansion in demand from airlines offsets the arrival of electric cars, according to a report from Opec.In a forecast that will dismay environmentalists – and which questions the theory that oil company reserves will become “stranded assets” – Opec’s annual report significantly revised production estimates upwards. Continue reading...

‘True risks’ of warming played down to placate fossil-fuel nationsWarnings about the dangers of global warming are being watered down in the final version of a key climate report for a major international meeting next month, according to reviewers who have studied earlier versions of the report and its summary.They say scientists working on the final draft of the summary are censoring their own warnings and “pulling their punches” to make policy recommendations seem more palatable to countries – such as the US, Saudi Arabia and Australia – that are reluctant to cut fossil-fuel emissions, a key cause of global warming. “Downplaying the worst impacts of climate change has led the scientific authors to omit crucial information from the summary for policymakers,” said one reviewer, Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Continue reading...

Protesters including Billy Bragg and Chris Packham take to central London to demand pro-wildlife policiesThousands of people marched to Whitehall on Saturday to demand the government invests in wildlife-friendly policies and swiftly reverses the decline of British ecosystems.Protesters including Billy Bragg delivered a radical manifesto, co-edited by the broadcaster Chris Packham, to Downing Street. The manifesto called for an end to the “war on wildlife” following the decline of more than half of British species in recent decades. Continue reading...

To celebrate National Public Lands Day, a selection of our public lands storiesUS national parks are offering free entry today to mark National Public Lands Day, a celebration of the 640m acres of America that belong to the American people. We’ve been covering the fate of public lands relentlessly: they are adored by outdoors enthusiasts of every stripe, even as the administration of President Donald Trump is seeking to allow more mining and drilling and has already downsized two national monuments in Utah. Climate change, too, promises to be unforgiving – wildfires are reaching unfathomable size and glaciers are vanishing.Here is a selection of our public lands stories that should give you an idea of how to spend the day, visiting national monuments, forests and seashores from coast to coast. For a dose of reality, we’ve also included a few pieces exploring the threats America’s public lands are facing in the Trump era. Continue reading...

Lightweight bags will be rolled out within weeks to almost 1,400 stores across BritainThe Co-op is to be the first major supermarket in the UK to replace single-use plastic carrier bags with lightweight compostable alternatives that shoppers can reuse as biodegradable bags for food waste.The bags – a stronger version of the biodegradable bags the convenience chain has been trialling since 2014 – will be rolled out within weeks to almost 1,400 stores across England, Scotland and Wales, and then to all 2,600 shops. Continue reading...

The $1bn, decade-in-the-making creation can measure height and thickness of ice sheets to within a centimeter

There has been outrage online but Croydon locals seem unfazed and experts say real issue is carsOn the streets of Croydon on Friday morning, the only apparent sign of slaughter was a very dead pigeon, so trodden into the road as to be barely recognisable as animal remains. But for nearly three years, Croydon and the surrounding area of south London has been the hunting ground for an alleged mass killer of cats.At one point as many as 15 Scotland Yard officers, plus actor Martin Clunes, were on the case of the so-called M25 cat killer, suspected in approximately 500 cases of slaughter and mutilation reported since late 2015. On Thursday afternoon, however, it was announced that the long-running investigation, Operation Takahe, had concludedthat foxes were responsible. Continue reading...

A herd of bison, orangutan babies and a pod of hippos are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Erik Solheim’s huge travel bill is a ‘reputation risk’ and he has ‘no regard’ for rules, says draft internal auditThe globe-trotting travels of the UN’s environment chief have been sharply criticised in a draft internal audit as “contrary to the ethos of carbon emission reduction”.Erik Solheim, executive director of UN Environment, was travelling for 529 out of the 668 days audited, spending $488,518 (£370,380), according to the report. The audit also said he had “no regard for abiding by the set regulations and rules” and claimed unjustified expenses. Continue reading...

Black plastic, which cannot be recycled, to be phased out by end of monthLidl UK says it will remove black plastic from its entire fruit and vegetable range by the end of the month.Black plastic packaging is not recyclable in the UK, as it cannot be detected by the sorting systems used for plastic recycling, and the supermarket chain says its move will save an estimated 50 tonnes of black plastic waste a year. Continue reading...

The mayor of London is proud of his work boosting cycling in the capital, but his critics say too little is being doneOn a blustery September day two years into his mayoralty of London, Sadiq Khan appears atop a Santander cycle to open a stretch of kerb-protected bike lane – the 2.5km extension of cycle superhighway 6, from Farringdon to Kings Cross. It may be the first time he’s appeared officially on a bike since his 2016 election campaign but he seems genuinely passionate about cycling and walking, and has clearly done his homework – even if some of his stats don’t tell the whole story.Flanked by his deputy mayor for transport, Heidi Alexander, and his walking and cycling commissioner, Will Norman, Khan is bullish about his cycling record. This despite ongoing criticism over delays, and a bruising exchange with Westminster city council this summer – the council he brands “anti-walking, anti-cycling” after it blocked cycle superhighway 11 and Oxford Street pedestrianisation in quick succession. Continue reading...

For three months from November 1973, the Dutch government banned cars on Sundays to curb oil consumption during the Opec energy crisis. City residents enjoyed picnics on empty motorways and got around on foot, by bike ... and on horseback Continue reading...

Departmental officials repeatedly claim cabinet and budget confidentiality when asked about the grant processAustralia’s environment department head has told an inquiry it is wrong to assume that no due diligence was undertaken before a record $444m grant was offered to a private foundation for Great Barrier Reef projects.But the chair of a Senate inquiry examining the controversial grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation says he is “convinced now that there has been no long-term work into this proposal”. Continue reading...

The Victorian company had planned to explore for conventional gas as well as coal seam gasA company part-owned by Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart has failed to have the Victorian government’s fracking ban overturned or to be awarded $2.7bn in damages.Between 2002 and 2013 two subsidiaries of Lakes Oil, of which Rinehart is the second-largest shareholder, obtained four exploration permits and two retention leases under Victoria’s Petroleum Act 1998. A retention lease grants the right to any petroleum discovered during the permit period. Continue reading...

DfID says scheme to protect species in Indonesia and Liberia will create 16,000 jobsThe UK’s international development secretary has announced funding to help protect Sumatran tigers and west African chimpanzees.Only about 30 tigers are left in Indonesia as their forest habitats disappear, while in Liberia the illegal wildlife trade and loss of habitat threatens the survival of the chimpanzee. Continue reading...

Conservationists launch legal attempt to stop interior department from reversing a 100-year-old law that protects migratory birdsThe eagle may be America’s mascot, but being a bird today in the United States is tough. Billions die each year in the maws of domestic cats, or after crashing into power lines or skyscraper windows. But on a large scale, climate change is warping the environment of birds that migrate long distances, such as whooping cranes or Arctic terns. And bald eagles, the nation’s regal avatar, are being struck down by lead poisoning.Bird conservationists are now alarmed by a fresh threat – the Trump administration. In a striking new stance on a longstanding law protecting migrating birds, the federal government will essentially allow the “incidental” killing of birds via buildings, energy production and other developments that act as avian death traps. Continue reading...

More than 3,000 deer, ponies and cattle died last winter at the Oostvaardersplassen reserveA Dutch provincial council has authorised the mass culling of about 1,000 deer on a controversial nature reserve east of Amsterdam where more than 3,000 red deer, ponies and cattle died last winter, almost all of them shot by park rangers because they were starving.A report by a special committee of Flevoland council this year demanded an immediate end to the rewilding principles on which the unique 15,000-acre Oostvaardersplassen reserve was run, which allowed “natural processes” to determine the herbivore population. Continue reading...

Country rebuts charity’s accusations by inviting officials to see carcasses for themselvesBotswana has rebutted claims of a surge of elephant poaching by putting carcasses of animals that were allegedly slaughtered for ivory on display – some with tusks still intact.The Elephants Without Borders (EWB) charity claimed two weeks ago that it had discovered at least 87 elephant carcasses during a routine aerial survey of conservation areas, suggesting a sudden spike in killings in recent months. Continue reading...

U-turn means company will join BP, Shell and Total in contributing $100m to projectExxonMobil has joined the oil and gas industry’s flagship climate change project, reversing its decision not to join the alliance four years ago.The company was a notable holdout when the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OCGI) was launched, but will now join European peers BP, Shell and Total in contributing $100m (£75m) to curb the impact of global warming. Continue reading...

Spiders’ mating season leaves plants at Aitoliko Lagoon covered in 300-metre cobwebsA Greek beach has been turned into an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare, as spiders have covered it in a web some 300 metres long.A video, posted to YouTube by Giannis Giannakopoulos, shows the beach at the town of Aitoliko in western Greece under siege from the dense web. Continue reading...

Supplemental sand may have saved a North Carolina beach from Hurricane Florence, but some say the projects aren’t worth itWhen the coastal town of Wrightsville Beach, which buffers nearby Wilmington from the open ocean, began to come back to life on Wednesday after Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina, many people returning home were surprisingly relieved.Despite Florence roaring ashore in this exact spot last Friday and now causing catastrophic flooding inland, the hurricane had not destroyed the beach, as many had expected. Continue reading...

Record-breaking US wildfires are fueling a cottage industry of boutique services – and many are happy to pay the price

Documents suggest an aggressive response to possible protests against the oil pipeline amid fears of another Standing RockAngeline Cheek is preparing for disaster. The indigenous organizer from the Fort Peck reservation in Montana fears that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline could break and spill, destroy her tribe’s water, and desecrate sacred Native American sites.But environmental catastrophe is not the most immediate threat. Continue reading...

Financial analysts say regulator’s report makes it clear ‘many Australian companies are not meeting their legal requirements’Australian companies should be doing more to disclose risks to their business from climate change, according to a report by the corporate regulator Asic.The review, published on Thursday, examined climate risk disclosures by 60 companies in the ASX 300, in 25 recent initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses, and across 15,000 annual reports. Continue reading...

Automotive industry risks blowing its carbon budget within 10 years without drastic change, analysis showsNew petrol and diesel car sales in Europe must be phased out before 2030 if the auto sector is to play its part in holding global warming to the Paris agreement’s 1.5C goal, a new analysis has found.Forecourt plug-in hybrids will also have to disappear by 2035 at the latest, according to analysis by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), commissioned by Greenpeace. Continue reading...

Child suffers ‘significant’ leg injury, Australian officials say, as they praise swift actions of doctor in first incidentA girl has been attacked by a shark at the same Queensland island where a woman was mauled less than 24 hours earlier.A rescue helicopter flew to Cid Harbour in the Whitsunday Islands region around lunchtime on Thursday to retrieve a “a female child in a serious condition with a significant leg injury”, rescue services tweeted. Continue reading...

Walkers and KP Snacks are among those failing to address consumer concerns over recyclability, say green campaignersMajor UK crisp brands are failing to address consumer concerns about their unrecyclable plastic packets, new research claims, with many relying on pledges that won’t come into effect for years.The latest findings from campaign group 38 Degrees come after more than 310,000 signed its petition demanding that brand leader, Walkers, take the initiative and ditch plastic packaging in favour of amore sustainable alternative. Recent polling has found that plastic waste will soon leapfrog price as shoppers’ top concern. Continue reading...

Scientists say global warming is behind severe storms but many who face them don’t think humans are the problemScientists warn that human-induced climate change is responsible for an increase in the number and severity of storms – such as Hurricane Florence, which has engulfed the Carolinas in the last week.But many who weathered the tempest, deep in Trump country, don’t believe global warming fueled it and don’t think humans are the problem – or the solution. Continue reading...

Pig waste pits and toxic coal ash pose threat to rivers and homes in North and South CarolinaAs residents in the Carolinas continued to deal with the fallout from Hurricane Florence, fears have grown over the storm’s longer-term pollution risks – from pig excrement and toxic coal ash potentially seeping into rivers and into people’s homes.Officials said 13 “hog lagoons” – pits filled with pig waste – had overflowed in North Carolina due to the storm, with dozens more likely to follow. In South Carolina, 200,000 tons of coal ash lie in the path of the deluged Waccamaw river, which is expected to reach a record flood stage this week. Continue reading...

A new book explores how, for decades, businesses of all sizes have been burying hazardous waste all over citiesEvery day, in cities across the country, businesses open up, close down, or move to new locations. And every day, in those very same cities, people move in and people move out. A once-industrial neighborhood is reinvented as a trendy hot spot populated by new restaurants and young professionals in search of loft apartments; a formerly low-income neighborhood of modest bungalows is gradually taken over by gentrifying upper-income young families. Continue reading...

Newly found documents from the 1980s show that fossil fuel companies privately predicted the global damage that would be caused by their products.

Senator who kicked off inquiry says Australia contributes to rhinoceros and elephant poaching by providing a marketA bipartisan parliamentary committee has recommended a national ban on the domestic trade of elephant ivory and rhino horn.Australia’s environment minister, Melissa Price, is considering the recommendations from a Senate inquiry examining the trade before she attends an international wildlife trade conference in London next month. Continue reading...

Plenty of sunshine is needed to bring out the intense reds and yellows from the leaves, and this year we’re set for a dazzling displayAutumn colour is perhaps the most striking of nature’s seasonal displays, but the vividness of the annual spectacle is largely dependent on good environmental conditions. This year, following a fine summer and with an Indian summer predicted, we look to be on course for a dazzling display that could trump recent years and extend well into November.Shorter daylight hours and colder nights are what trigger leaf drop – or senescence – but frost, like rain, can damage leaves and cause early leaf fall. Plenty of sunshine is needed to encourage concentrations of colour pigments which help to intensify leaf colour. Continue reading...

Initiative lays out practical steps we can all take to help halt destruction of species and habitats in Britain

Hot weather and conservation drive help once-extinct insect make dramatic comebackA previously extinct butterfly, the large blue, has enjoyed its best UK summer on record thanks to the lovely weather and a determined conservation effort on hills in the West Country of England.The large blue, a popular specimen among Victorian collectors, was declared extinct in Britain in the 1970s but has since made a dramatic comeback. Continue reading...

‘Shocking’ study reveals plastic contaminates our skies as well as the oceans, say scientistsMicroplastic can escape from polluted waters via flying insects, new research has revealed, contaminating new environments and threatening birds and other creatures that eat the insects.Scientists fed microplastics to mosquito larvae, which live in water, but found that the particles remained inside the animals as they transformed into flying adults. Other recent research found that half of the mayfly and caddisfly larvae in rivers in Wales contained microplastics. Continue reading...

Documents show Margie McKenzie failed to declare her interest in Gempearl for her first two years on boardA board director for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has been accused of a potential conflict of interest over public funding directed to companies working on crown-of-thorns starfish culling.Margie McKenzie sits on the board of the authority and also owns a company called Gempearl with her husband, Col McKenzie. Continue reading...

Advocates said retracting the regulation would cause more smog-forming pollution that can cause heart and lung illnessesThe Trump administration is rolling back Obama-era standards to limit planet-warming methane pollution from oil and gas operations on federal lands.Environmental advocates said retracting the regulation would contribute to global warming and cause more smog-forming pollution that can cause heart and lung illnesses. Continue reading...

ReachTel poll of Angus Taylor’s voters finds 42.3% want Australia to cut emissions more deeplyMore voters in the electorate of the new energy minister, Angus Taylor, support an emissions reduction target for electricity and a higher national target than the Paris commitment than oppose those positions.A ReachTel poll of 690 residents across the federal electorate of Hume, which reaches from Boorowa in the southern tablelands of New South Wales to Camden on Sydney’s southern fringe, was commissioned by the Australia Institute. It found the sample was divided over a range of climate and energy questions, but more people supported stronger action on emissions reduction than opposed it. Continue reading...