Environment | The Guardian

Uncertainty around Third Energy’s North Yorkshire project blamed for resignationsThird Energy, one of the firms at the frontline of the UK’s fracking drive, has been hit by the departure of two of its directors due to delays over its flagship project in North Yorkshire. Campaigners said the resignations were a sign of a company “in meltdown”.The Barclays-backed company had looked likely to be the first shale explorer to frack in the UK for years, but its plans for the KM8 well have been pushed back by government checks over its financial health. Continue reading...

John Schubert appears before Senate inquiry into the grant awarded to his small non-profit without tenderThe chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, John Schubert, has told a Senate inquiry he did not know the government was going to offer a $444m grant when he agreed to meet with the then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg.In the hearing on Tuesday, Schubert said the prime minister’s office called with an invitation two days before the 9 April meeting but gave no information on what was to be discussed. Continue reading...

The flow of Gulf capital into Britain stifles the development of more sound economic policies and keeps us too close to some of the world’s worst regimesThis month marks 10 years since the financial crisis turned into a full-blown crash, and 10 years since the purchase of Manchester City Football Club by the royal family of Abu Dhabi. What links the two is the flow of revenues generated by the sale of oil and gas (“petrodollars”) into Britain from the Gulf Arab monarchies – principally Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. The role of Gulf petrodollars remains the untold story of the financial crisis and of the continuing dysfunction of late-period neoliberalism in the UK.Related: Ten years after Lehmans, it’s as if we’ve learned nothing from the crash | Aditya Chakrabortty Continue reading...

Head of Holborn primary school shocked to learn air pollution in classrooms far exceeds World Health Organisation guidelines

Tiny particles of black carbon from car exhausts lodge themselves in children’s lungs and can enter the bloodstream and potentially the brain

Green groups say the federal government decision amounts to ‘preferential treatment’The federal government has ruled the Indian mining company Adani does not have to complete a full environmental impact statement for its application to drastically expand a dam and build a pipeline for its Carmichael coalmine.

Three years after the Dieselgate scandal erupted, number of highly polluting diesel vehicles on Europe’s roads has risen to 43 millionThe number of dirty diesel vehicles pumping out toxic emissions on Europe’s streets is still rising three years after the Dieselgate scandal began, according to a new report. More than 7m such cars and vans remain on UK roads alone.There were 29m diesel vehicles whose emissions on the road were significantly higher than official laboratory-based EU limits when the diesel scandal erupted in September 2015. But that has now risen by to 43m, according to analysis by the group Transport & Environment (T&E). France has the most dirty diesels on the road, with 8.7m, followed by Germany’s 8.2m and the UK’s 7.3m. Continue reading...

State government’s decision has appalled scientists and conservationists, and widens divide between city and countryWhen the Batemans marine park, not far from my home on the New South Wales south coast, was first created, fishing on a beach next to my property was illegal. Then, under immense pressure from recreational fishers, the zoning throughout the marine park was changed. A few hundred metres offshore stayed a no-take zone but line fishing and spearfishing is now allowed from my local beach. One of my greatest pleasures is to head down to the water with my children and cast into the breakers at dusk, hoping to catch my dinner.The rezoning along the Batemans coast meant substantial areas remained off limits to recreational anglers like me. But there are still more than enough spots to fish throughout the marine park. The tourists still come and everyone who wants to catch a fish can. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Research finds claims emissions targets make electricity more expensive are misguidedEmissions reduction targets, even relatively ambitious ones, will not drive up power prices for Australian consumers, according to new research from the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss) and the Brotherhood of St Laurence.While the Morrison government has abandoned the national energy guarantee because conservatives complain that emissions reduction policies drive up power prices, the new research finds that critique is misguided. Continue reading...

Extra coal-burning may lead to problems meeting binding carbon targetsBritain’s ability to meet its emissions targets is being challenged by a comeback for coal power stations that threatens to drive up the energy sector’s carbon emissions for the first time in six years.Coal plants have become more economic to run than their gas counterparts in the past month because wholesale gas prices have hit 10-year highs. A report by Imperial College London said the extra coal-burning had increased emissions by 15% in September, equivalent to an extra 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per hour. Continue reading...

Two trains built by the French train maker Alstom are now operating on a 62 mile stretch of line in northern GermanyGermany has rolled out the world’s first hydrogen-powered train, signalling the start of a push to challenge the might of polluting diesel trains with costlier but more eco-friendly technology.Two bright blue Coradia iLint trains, built by French TGV-maker Alstom, on Monday began running a 62 mile (100km) route between the towns and cities of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervoerde and Buxtehude in northern Germany – a stretch normally plied by diesel trains. Continue reading...

Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order for statewide carbon neutrality by 2045

Coalition’s backdown follows reversals on stadiums, greyhounds, council amalgamations and emergency services levyThe New South Wales government has performed yet another about-face, ditching a proposed ban on fishing at 25 “no take” sanctuary zones in a proposed marine park stretching between Newcastle and Wollongong.Just weeks after the government announced the plan to create the Sydney region marine park, the primary industries minister, Niall Blair, backed down on Monday after sustained opposition from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party. Continue reading...

Accusation comes only weeks before the UK’s first fracking in seven yearsThe shale gas explorer Cuadrilla has accused the Labour party of being divided on its proposed fracking ban and of unnecessarily politicising the search for shale gas.Francis Egan, the chief executive of Cuadrilla, which is only weeks away from beginning the UK’s first fracking in seven years, said the prospect of a Labour government coming to power was a risk that he would be “silly to ignore”. Continue reading...

Great whites follow seals and collisions with swimmers and surfers ensue. I decline to demonize the scything dorsal finThe terrible news of a young man’s death after an attack by a shark off Cape Cod comes wreathed in a kind of narrative that cannot be any consolation to his family, suffering the grief of his violent taking.Related: Cape Cod shark attack: Man dies from injuries suffered in incident Continue reading...

The catastrophic prospect of 300m tonnes of carbon a year appears to have been averted, but even 25m poses a danger to the climateThe recent announcement by Adani that it will halve the costs of its rail line to the proposed Carmichael coalmine by building a shorter, narrow-gauge line raises an obvious question: if such a massive cost-saving is feasible, why didn’t Adani go that way in the first place?The short answer is this is the latest in a string of changes that have massively downsized both the Carmichael project and the bigger plans to develop the Galilee Basin. The longer answer is that, despite optimistic talk about a long-term future for coal, the writing is on the wall. The only way to make money out of coal is to do so quickly, before the present gradual decline turns into a collapse. Continue reading...

‘We need to stick to the Paris agreement, we need to stop burning coal and we need to commit to more renewable energy,’ Longreach farmer says“This drought has really hit our family hard,” says Longreach farmer Jody Brown. “Climate change is making the droughts more severe.”Those two sentences are the opening lines to a new advertisement challenging the federal government’s stance on climate change and the drought in Australia’s eastern states. Continue reading...

In Dar-es-Salaam, local fishermen are being squeezed out by illegal boats with explosives which take much of the catch, killing coral reef and putting an eco-system at riskFishing boat XTK191, known as Home Boy, returned to Kivukoni fish market in downtown Dar es Salaam at dawn one day last week. The 15 young men on board the old dhow dropped anchor and heaved their catch over the side for others to run it across the beach to where hundreds of traders milled.Within an hour of landing in eastern Africa’s largest fish market, Home Boy’s fish, crabs, prawn, lobsters, tuna, squid and shark pups were being sold in impromptu auctions, along with the catches of several dozen other boats. Continue reading...

Policymakers, farmers and consumers face ‘deeply uncomfortable choices’, says author of report advising urgent reduction of unsustainable livestock sector

There is no such thing as a category 6 hurricane or tropical storm - yet. But a combination of warmer oceans and more water in the atmosphere could make the devastation of 2017 pale in comparisonThere is no such thing as a category 6 hurricane or tropical storm – yet. The highest level – the top of the scale for the most powerful, most devastating hurricane or tropical storm capable of destroying entire cities like New Orleans or New York – is a category 5 storm.Meteorologists and scientists never imagined that there would be a need for a category 6 storm, with winds that exceed 200 miles per hour on a sustained basis, sweeping away everything in its path. Until now, such a storm wasn’t possible, so there was no need for a new category above category 5. Continue reading...

Bags for fruit and veg to be replaced by compostable versions and 5p bags to be axedWaitrose & Partners is to remove traditional plastic bags for loose fruit and vegetables and 5p single-use plastic bags from its stores by next spring.The supermarket said the move would cut 134m plastic bags, the equivalent of 500 tonnes of plastic a year. Continue reading...

Japan hints it may leave International Whaling Commission after attempt to resume commercial hunting voted downAustralia has encouraged Japan to remain within the International Whaling Commission after the country’s attempt to lift a 33-year ban on commercial whaling failed to win enough votes.Japan’s so-called “way forward” proposal for the IWC to start a “sustainable whaling” program lost by 41 votes to 27 on a tense final morning of the IWC meeting in Florianópolis, Brazil. Continue reading...

Announcement at climate summit comes after former US secretary of state John Kerry warns that international action is slowingCalifornia is set to launch a satellite to track greenhouse gases, as former US Secretary of State John Kerry and island nation leaders warned that the world is far off course to avoid the worst effects of rising temperatures.Gov. Jerry Brown announced plans for the satellite on the last day of a climate change summit hosted by San Francisco, in a final rebuke to President Donald Trump’s denial of man-made warming. Continue reading...

Government criticised after alerting Southampton and Derby to ‘serious consequences’The government has warned two councils of “serious consequences” after they failed to meet the deadline for dealing with air pollution.In 2015, five local authorities with some of the worst pollution outside London – Derby, Southampton, Leeds, Nottingham and Birmingham – were ordered to produce proposals to tackle air pollution by 15 September. Continue reading...

Anti-whaling nations defeat proposals that would have allowed for the return of huntsAn attempt to overturn the decades-old global ban on commercial whaling has failed, to the relief of conservationists.Anti-whaling nations defeated by a decisive margin proposals from the Japanese government that would have allowed for the return of whale hunts. Continue reading...

Villagers believe changing status of moorland near firing range will stop farmers grazingCumbrian villagers have accused the Ministry of Defence of attempting a “land grab” after a proposal to turn common land into a firing range.A public inquiry has been launched over plans to remove the common land status from an area of moorland near Appleby-in-Westmorland. Continue reading...

A cuddly lion and a rescued baby gibbon are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Thousands of volunteers will help remove plastic and other litter from beaches this weekendRecord numbers of volunteers are anticipated this weekend to help clear litter from the UK’s beaches, in the 25th annual Great British Beach Clean organised by a leading marine charity.The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has been running the four-day beach cleaning event for the last 24 years and expects the 2018 event to beat all previous records. Originally a modest citizen science project, it has become the largest and most longstanding beach litter survey in the UK, with all items recorded according to an internationally agreed methodology. Continue reading...

President’s ‘energy first’ agenda means vast tracts of public land up for sale – without proper consultation, critics sayDemocrats and conservatives alike are decrying moves by the Trump administration to permit oil and gas drilling near national parks and in wildlife migration corridors, and charge that the public is not being adequately consulted.Officials from the US interior department are pursuing an “energy first” agenda, and some 2.9m acres are up for lease auction, including many parcels close to recreation areas such as Petrified Forest national park in Arizona, Chaco Culture national historical park in New Mexico, and Dinosaur national monument in Colorado. Continue reading...

Tackling a tough, three-day course around Stavanger, Peter Kimpton battles the elements to discover a stunning landscape that involves as much water as landGarlanded with wispy clouds, jagged mountains rise sharply above glassy lakes, reflected to sky with such perfection you are almost dizzy with how upside down it all appears. Or is that a mirage – from exhaustion? From the moment 250 cyclists clattered nervously, like skinny, helmeted warriors on to a ferry at 6.45am to battle through the water in mist and rain for 45 minutes even before the start, it was clear this would be no ordinary event. Cycling in Norway is less travelling on land, more an undulating series of roads and bridges linking breathtaking fjords; a constant movement between mountain, sea and lake.Haute Routes sportives are always challenging, designed to replicate professional-level riding, except unlike Alpine routes, this inaugural event is three days long, pleasingly located in one place, the harbour city of Stavanger on Norway’s west coast. One hotel, one race village nearby, and three days of circular routes. So the logistics were easy, everything close at hand, and the post-ride food and massages were excellent. Continue reading...

Country’s commissioner makes impassioned case against a business that no longer has a ‘social licence’There is no longer a “social licence” for countries to kill whales for profit, Australia has told the International Whaling Commission in Brazil.In an impassioned intervention, Australia’s IWC commissioner, Dr Nick Gales, told the key meeting that Japan’s proposal to lift a 30-year ban on commercial whaling was a “business proposition” that Australians reject. Continue reading...

Activists attempted to barricade entrance at the summit and criticized Jerry Brown for allowing over 20,000 drilling operations

As urban air pollution affects the passage of daylight, photovoltaic panels lose efficiency finds studyHaze over cities is a visual reminder of the air pollution we breathe. This is less obvious than the coal smoke induced gloom that Victorians suffered. In the 1880s central London had just 17% of the winter sunshine that was measured in the countryside. This had only improved to 45% by 1916–20.However, even modern haze is still reducing sunlight in cities. Scientists find that in Delhi air pollution over the city is reducing the efficiency of solar panels by between 12% and 17%, depending on the type of photovoltaic technology. Losses are between 9% and 13% in Beijing, and around 2% in London and Los Angeles. Continue reading...

Researchers in Quebec discovered the narwhal, over 100km outside its typical range, was playing with the whalesWhale researchers in Quebec’s St Lawrence River are celebrating a remarkable discovery: a juvenile narwhal far from its arctic home, that appears to have been adopted by a band of beluga whales.The narwhal, more than 1,000km outside its typical range, was filmed by a drone swimming and playing with dozens of belugas that were treating it as one of their own. Continue reading...

Locals say motor traffic in national park threatens world heritage statusA patch of land in the Lake District once owned by Beatrix Potter and described by Alfred Wainwright as “the loveliest in Lakeland” is being ruined by 4x4 drivers who are threatening the world heritage site status of the national park, according to campaigners.They say cars and motorbikes have devastated farm tracks, churning up soil and exposing the bedrock beneath, leaving them impassable to farm traffic. Continue reading...

NDEVR Environmental data suggests Australia will miss targets by 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide under current trajectoryAustralia remains on track to miss its Paris climate targets as carbon emissions continue to soar, according to new data.Related: Climate poll shows Morrison politically vulnerable as more voters back action Continue reading...

Council’s successful legal challenge to Cycle Superhighway 11 follows scrapping of pedestrianisation of Oxford StreetA legal challenge by Westminster city council to block a major cycle route in London has succeeded on a procedural point, in a move that could send Transport for London back to the drawing board and set safety improvements to one of London’s most dangerous junctions back by months.The council’s successful judicial review of Cycle Superhighway 11 (CS11), which was due to run from Swiss Cottage to Portland Place, is the latest of its blocks to cycling, walking and road safety improvements. Following the scrapping of the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, the review has cemented Westminster’s reputation as the car-is-king borough of London. Continue reading...

Ministers expand England’s culling area by 70% to try to curb TB in cattle as scientists dispute programme’s effectivenessThe controversial badger cull in England has been hugely expanded into 10 new areas, with up to 42,000 animals now due to be shot in an attempt to curb tuberculosis in cattle, up from 32,500 last year.The farming minister George Eustice claimed the cull is starting to show results in Gloucestershire and Somerset, with drops in tuberculosis incidence, but did not highlight a rise seen in Dorset. Continue reading...

Scientific study finds diameter of storm heading for US east coast will be 50 miles wider due to human-caused warming of planetHurricane Florence is set to bring 50% more rainfall to the US east coast due to human-induced climate change, according to a landmark forecast that has outlined the influence of warming temperatures upon the looming storm.Related: 'Monster' storm: Hurricane Florence is a rare threat in an unusual location Continue reading...

Shadow environment secretary says ministers are not standing up for British fishing industryMinisters have been urged to show some backbone in protecting the British fishing industry after talks to end the so-called scallop wars with French vessels in the Channel broke down.Sue Hayman, the shadow environment secretary, accused the government of “failing to find a voice” in discussions about compensation for British boats that are prevented from harvesting in a disputed territory during a period when the French are banned under domestic law. Continue reading...

Occupiers protesting against coalmine expansion in Hambach forest call for mass mobilisationHundreds of police officers have descended on a patch of forest in western Germany occupied by activists living in treehouses, in an escalation of a long-running environmental battle.Dozens of protesters have occupied 60 treehouses, some as high as 25 metres off the ground, since 2012 in an attempt to protect the ancient Hambach forest from being felled to make way for the expansion of an open-pit coalmine. Continue reading...

First path entirely made of recycled bottles, cups and packaging opens in ZwolleThe world’s first plastic bicycle path made of recycled bottles, cups and packaging has opened in the Netherlands, as part of a pilot that could see similar roads open up across the country.The 30-metre path, made of recycled plastic equivalent to more than 218,000 plastic cups, is expected to be three times as durable as an asphalt alternative. Continue reading...

Former PM’s decision to resign from parliament means he could be compelled to appear if he refuses invitationMalcolm Turnbull will be asked to appear before an inquiry examining a $443.8m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.The Senate inquiry’s chair, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, said on Thursday the committee had resolved to write to the former prime minister and request he give evidence at a future hearing. Continue reading...

Business and political leaders commit to make more vehicles emissions-free – and plan to bypass US government to do soPolitical and business leaders gathering in San Francisco for a major climate change summit have committed to moving towards what was once a fantastical thought – the demise of the internal combustion engine in cars, trucks and other vehicles.A group of 26 city, business and regional or state leaders, representing 122 million people around the world, have used the Global Climate Action Summit to call for carmakers to quicken the pace of electric vehicle rollout. Twelve cities, including Santa Monica, Tokyo and Greater Manchester, have pledged to deploy only zero emission buses from 2025. Continue reading...

Exclusive: inaction on pollution standards leads to 63% rise in transport-related carbon emissions since 1990, report findsAustralia is lagging behind other developed nations in the race to curb greenhouse gas emissions from transport, according to a new report.The report from the Climate Council, due to be released on Thursday, finds that Australia’s transport-related emissions have continued to rise because of policy inaction. Continue reading...

Waste from hog manure pits, coal ash dumps and other industrial sites could wash into homes and contaminate drinking waterHurricane Florence could cause an environmental disaster in North Carolina, where waste from hog manure pits, coal ash dumps and other industrial sites could wash into homes and threaten drinking water supplies.Preparations are also being made at half a dozen nuclear power plants that stand in the path of the 500-mile-wide hurricane, which is barreling toward the US east coast, expected to make landfall on Thursday night. More than 1.4 million residents across North and South Carolina have been ordered to evacuate. Continue reading...

A new study finds that warming in the Atlantic Ocean is changing rain patterns in the Amazon

Runners will not be able to refill bottles, with water distributed in pouches made from seaweed insteadThe capital’s first marathon event pledging to be completely free of “single use” plastic drinks bottles is to take place in north-west London.The Harrow half marathon on Sunday 16 September will be the first time that London has staged a single use plastic-free running event. Continue reading...