Environment | The Guardian

Report says high prices have pushed global energy markets more quickly towards cheaper and cleaner alternativesThe Australian coal export industry has peaked and entered a “terminal long-term decline”, says a new report that argues high prices have pushed global energy markets more quickly towards cheaper and cleaner alternatives.

First map of Earth’s intact ecosystems shows just five nations are responsible for most of them – but it will require global action to protect themJust five countries hold 70% of the world’s remaining untouched wilderness areas and urgent international action is needed to protect them, according to new research.Researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have for the first time produced a global map that sets out which countries are responsible for nature that is devoid of heavy industrial activity. Continue reading...

Bill Shorten’s government would, if elected, create a national environment protection authority and a new environment actA Labor government would bring in new federal environment laws and strong independent agencies including a national environment protection authority (EPA) to enforce them, under a draft policy platform signed off by the ALP national executive.Developed by a 60-member policy forum chaired by the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, and the outgoing party president, Mark Butler, the platform is the basis for debate at Labor’s national conference in Adelaide next month. Continue reading...

Images from the Chinese capital show the city’s pollution levels rising in October 2018In 2012, more than 1 million people reportedly died from air pollution in China, according to the World Health Organization, with winter smog proving a particular problem in the country’s densely populated capital, Beijing. Continue reading...

Vishnu Viswanath and Meenakshi Moorthy of India apparently set up their camera near popular overlook with no railingAn Indian husband and wife who fell to their deaths from a popular overlook at Yosemite national park in California were apparently taking a selfie, the man’s brother said Tuesday.Park rangers recovered the bodies of Vishnu Viswanath, 29, and Meenakshi Moorthy, 30, on Thursday about 800ft (245 meters) below Taft Point, where visitors can walk to the edge of a vertigo-inducing granite ledge that doesn’t have a railing. Continue reading...

Secretary Ryan Zinke has been linked to real estate deals and questionable actions that benefit lawmakers, businesses and familyAn ethics watchdog has referred findings of misconduct by the US interior secretary to lawyers at the justice department who will decide whether to pursue a criminal investigation, according to the Washington Post and CNN.The watchdog – the interior department’s inspector general - has conducted several probes involving Secretary Ryan Zinke, and it’s not clear which the Justice Department could review. Continue reading...

Third day of storms bring widespread damage to towns as lagoon city baptistery is submerged by 90cm of waterViolent storms battered Italy for a third consecutive day on Tuesday, killing at least 11 people, and flooding much of Venice.Related: Venice flooded by high tide – in pictures Continue reading...

Barry Quirk says further tests should have been ordered after contamination came to lightThe chief executive of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has apologised to the communities affected by the Grenfell Tower fire and said the authorities should have ordered more sweeping tests for potential contamination in the surrounding area months ago.Barry Quirk said he wished the council (RBKC) had acted in February when it was told of concerns about toxins found in preliminary tests on soil and residue samples around the tower. Continue reading...

We’re now at a fork in the road: either we cut out fossil fuels completely, or we pass on a dying planet to our childrenThe world faces a near-impossible decision – one that is already determining the character and quality of the lives of the generations succeeding us.It is clear from the latest IPCC climate report that the first and only effective course, albeit a deeply unpopular one, would be to stop using any fossil fuels. The second would be to voluntarily minimise their use as much as climate scientists have calculated would deliver some prospect of success. Finally, we can carry on as we are by aiming to meet the growth in demand for activities dependent on fossil fuels, allowing market forces to mitigate the problems that such a course of action generates – and leave it to the next generation to set in train realistic solutions (if that is possible), that the present one has been unable to find. Continue reading...

Largely relieved of pressure from deforestation and hunting, bears are increasingly coming into contact with peopleThe swift rebound of bear populations in the US is presenting a growing number of Americans with a major challenge – what to do about the enormous hirsute neighbors that are breaking into their homes, gorging on their food and guzzling their cans of soda?Black bears, largely relieved of pressure on their numbers from untrammeled deforestation and hunting, are increasingly coming into contact with people in places where the two species haven’t interacted in many decades. Continue reading...

Emergency plans for homes, roads and industry as country loses 40% of power supply

Glaciers in the Yukon territory are retreating even faster than expected in a warming climate, scientists warnScientists in Canada have warned that massive glaciers in the Yukon territory are shrinking even faster than would be expected from a warming climate – and bringing dramatic changes to the region.After a string of recent reports chronicling the demise of the ice fields, researchers hope that greater awareness will help the public better understand the rapid pace of climate change. Continue reading...

ACF aims to pour resources into three marginal seats to inflict electoral pain on major parties for policy failuresThe Australian Conservation Foundation will target three marginal seats in Victoria and Queensland in a bid to push “middle Australia” to demand more action on climate change, its chief executive has said.Kelly O’Shanassy made the comments at the National Press Club on Tuesday, unveiling the environmental group’s election action plan to break the political deadlock over climate change. Continue reading...

Researchers say amount of vegetation burnt by fires caused by lightning strikes rose dramatically this centuryThe amount of vegetation burnt by fires caused by lightning strikes in Tasmania’s world heritage area has increased dramatically this century, according to new research led by the University of Tasmania.The study, published this month in the academic journal Fire, warns the state’s heritage forests face rising threats because of the tendency toward drier summers and that the probability of “catastrophic” fires could increase as a result of more fuel igniting from lightning strikes. Continue reading...

While violence and poverty have been cited as the reasons for the exodus, experts say the big picture is that changing climate is forcing farmers off their land – and it’s likely to get worseThousands of Central American migrants trudging through Mexico towards the US have regularly been described as either fleeing gang violence or extreme poverty.But another crucial driving factor behind the migrant caravan has been harder to grasp: climate change. Continue reading...

Royal commission counsel also says officials tried to lean on CSIRO to reduce water recovered for the environmentThe Murray-Darling Basin Authority has been accused of maladministration, deliberately ignoring the best science on the river, leaning on the CSIRO to alter reports on the adequacy of the basin plan and ignoring the impact of climate change in its future planning.In a scathing assessment of the authority, counsel assisting the South Australian Murray-Darling royal commission, Richard Beasley SC, has painted a picture of an organisation cowed by its political masters and too afraid to present its own scientific data to the greater scientific community. Continue reading...

Solar will represent a very substantial part of our power supply, but we’re hardly at risk of generating too much. Here’s whyOver the last few weeks there have been a number of reports in the media that Australia is on the verge of hitting too much solar energy.This includes claims by some electricity generators that we are heading towards a “solar peak” – a point at which “there is no point in putting any more solar power into the system” because it will just be spilled and wasted. Continue reading...

Assessment underscores threat to koalas and other native species• Humanity has wiped out 60% of animals since 1970, major report findsAustralia’s east coast has been compared to the Amazon as a “deforestation front” in a new global report by the World Wide Fund for Nature that underscores the threat to populations of koalas and other native species.The Living Planet report, produced by WWF every second year for the past 20 years, says global populations of vertebrate species have declined 60% since 1970. But koala numbers have disappeared at a much faster rate – more than 20% a decade – to the extent they could disappear from the wild in New South Wales by 2050. Continue reading...

1.1-magnitude tremor second to have breached regulatory threshold in recent daysFracking has stopped again at a shale gas well near Blackpool after the area was struck by the most powerful earthquake since operations began.A total of 27 minor earthquakes have occurred near energy company Cuadrilla’s site since fracking started a fortnight ago. Continue reading...

Strong winds push water into historic Italian lagoon city in worst flooding in a decadeVenice has been inundated by an exceptional high tide which put three-quarters of the lagoon city under water. Large swathes of the rest of Italy have also experienced flooding and heavy winds which toppled trees, killing four people.Related: Venice flooded by high tide – in pictures Continue reading...

Budget seeks to reduce non-recycled plastics but resists call for levy on coffee cupsThe government is to introduce a new tax on plastic packaging as it seeks to ramp up efforts to tackle the scourge of litter and waste from single-use plastics, it was confirmed in the budget.Food and drink companies will be taxed on plastic packaging that does not include at least 30% recycled content, in a drive to reduce dependence on “virgin plastics” that are difficult or impossible to recycle, such as black food trays and plastic straws. Continue reading...

Conservationists say money is step in the right direction in tackling climate changeMore than 10m trees will be planted across England with the injection of £60m of new funding over five years, as part of what the government billed as its “drive to preserve the country’s greenery”.The bulk of the money, £50m, will pay landowners for planting trees that lock up carbon, which observers said raised questions over how accessible those woodlands would be to the public. That fund, the Woodland Carbon Guarantee scheme, should pay for 10m trees. Continue reading...

Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Caroline Lucas, John Sauven, Craig Bennett, Ann Pettifor and Leo Murray add their voices to calls for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. Plus letters from John Huggins and John RankenWe, the undersigned, support the call for the UK and other OECD governments to negotiate a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty to complement the Paris agreement on climate change, as proposed in your article “We need a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty – and we need it now” (theguardian.com, 23 October).The latest report from the IPCC shows we cannot afford to burn the vast majority of remaining reserves of fossil fuels if we are to keep warming below 1.5 or even 2 degrees. A new line in the sand is needed. We support an agreement with a moratorium on any further expansion of the fossil fuel industry in rich countries, together with a fund to support renewable energy development in poorer countries to reduce the need for fossil fuels, paid for by redirecting the staggering $10m per minute that governments currently spend on fossil fuel subsidies. The best way to mark the 50th anniversary of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty would be to begin negotiation of its fossil fuel equivalent.

Solar and wind projects are transforming Australia’s power grid, but unclear policies will slow new investmentsThe relentlessly corrosive nature of political debate about climate change can sometimes mask that this is a golden moment for the clean energy industry in Australia.A near-constant stream of investment announcements suggests a barrier has been knocked down such that leading renewable technologies, so long dependent on public subsidies, have assumed market supremacy. Continue reading...

Report says air pollution is having a devastating impact on children worldwide, storing up a public health time bombPoisonous air is having a devastating impact on billions of children around the world, damaging their intelligence and leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths, according to a report from the World Health Organization.The study found that more than 90% of the world’s young people – 1.8 billion children – are breathing toxic air, storing up a public health time bomb for the next generation. Continue reading...

Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch major grant for coastal communities to improve the health of oceansMillions of pounds’ worth of funding to tackle global overfishing and protect coral reefs will be announced at a major conference in Indonesia this week.Politicians, marine experts and philanthropists will convene in Bali at the Our Ocean conference on Monday to agree commitments on how to address the pressures facing our oceans, including rising sea temperatures, unsustainable fishing practices, marine pollution and coral bleaching. Continue reading...

Owners planning to install ‘emissions cheat’ systems to avoid having to buy cleaner, more expensive fuelThousands of ships are set to install “emissions cheat” systems that pump pollutants into the ocean to beat new international rules banning dirty fuel.The global shipping fleet is rushing to meet a 2020 deadline imposed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce air pollution by forcing vessels to use cleaner fuel with a lower sulphur content of 0.5%, compared with 3.5% as currently used. Continue reading...

Campaigners call for temporary ban on new fish farms

Australian Marine Conservation Society calls on Ian Poiner to take ‘aggressive’ stance on reef’s behalfThe Australian government has appointed marine scientist Ian Poiner as the new chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, days after a dire new forecast for coral bleaching was issued.The appointment to the authority, which manages the reef and advises the government on its care, also comes months after the government granted $443m in reef funding to the private Great Barrier Reef Foundation instead of key agencies including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Continue reading...

Conservative MP says drilling and pollution are ‘alarming prospect’ for communitiesZac Goldsmith has warned ministers that their plans to fast-track fracking risk turning whole regions of the country against the Conservatives and igniting a political backlash.The Tory MP for Richmond said people had legitimate concerns about fracking and that government proposals to bypass local planning decisions on shale gas wells were a mistake. Continue reading...

Royal College of Nursing, British Medical Association and BMJ among those calling for shake-up to tackle toxic air crisisThe UK’s leading health professionals are calling on the government to implement the biggest shake-up of air quality legislation for 60 years in an effort to tackle the country’s growing air pollution crisis.The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC) – representing major medical bodies including the Royal College of Nursing, the British Medical Association and the BMJ – is demanding ministers introduce a new clean air act amid growing concern about the devastating health impacts of the country’s toxic air. Continue reading...

Stricken by Deepwater Horizon for years, the company is benefiting, like its competitors, from crude’s rapid riseAs the price of oil moves upwards, expectations are that BP’s fortunes will also be gathering momentum. This week, the company is set to reveal its results for the third quarter, and forecasts are positive.The price of oil recently hit a four-year high and some commentators think it could reach $100 a barrel by the end of the year – a price not seen since 2014. Looming Iranian sanctions in November, supply problems in the US and a lack of spare capacity among the big Opec producers are all conspiring to drive the price up. Continue reading...

As air pollution fears rise, Cheltenham ‘put people before traffic’ and banned cars from part of its centre. But not everyone is happyIn the Regency spa town of Cheltenham, famous for its mineral springs and horse racing festival, an angry rebellion is gathering steam.At its centre is a stone fountain supported by three cherubs. The landmark used to be on a roundabout, with cars, buses and trucks swirling around both it and pedestrians trying to cross the high street. Several decades ago the road layout changed to create a tiny plaza around the fountain, which became known as Boots Corner. But heavy traffic still rumbled by. Continue reading...

Tremor at Cuadrilla site in Little Plumpton is 18th since fracking restarted 12 days agoA second tremor in a 24-hour period has been recorded at the UK’s only active fracking site near Blackpool.Cuadrilla was forced to halt operations for 18 hours on Friday after a 0.8-magnitude tremor. Fracking restarted on Saturday morning before a second tremor was detected. Continue reading...

$5bn drought future fund will be financed in part by $3.9bn from an infrastructure fund previously listed for the NDISDisability support agencies have raised concerns about a decision to use funds previously earmarked for the National Disability Insurance Scheme to fund drought relief, saying it adds to the uncertainty and anxiety already surrounding the scheme’s success.The government has said the new funding promise would have no impact on the NDIS, but the National Disability Service chief executive, Chris Tanti, said hearing that funds previously set aside for the scheme had been repurposed “doesn’t instil confidence.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Simple act of breathing is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more, but ‘a smog of complacency pervades the planet’, says Dr Tedros Adhanom• Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: Air pollution is the new tobacco. Time to tackle this epidemicAir pollution is the “new tobacco”, the head of the World Health Organization has warned, saying the simple act of breathing is killing 7 million people a year and harming billions more.Over 90% of the world’s population suffers toxic air and research is increasingly revealing the profound impacts on the health of people, especially children. Continue reading...

Officials are still investigating how man and woman fell to their deaths from cliff famed for its views over park

Exclusive: IPA’s John Roskam says government should ‘stop all subsidies to coal, wind and anything else’The Institute of Public Affairs has blasted the Morrison government’s “big stick” in energy policy – a threat to break up energy companies in a bid to lower prices – accusing it of breaching Liberal values and endangering investment.The IPA executive director, John Roskam, told Guardian Australia that “heavy-handed intervention” was “positively un-Liberal” and would open the door for Labor to campaign on policies bashing big businesses – which are “simply responding to the policy settings the government itself has created” to make a profit. Continue reading...

Body of Julián Carrillo found with multiple bullet wounds in Chihuahua state on 24 OctoberMexico is cementing its reputation as one of the deadliest places in the world for environmental and land defenders, human rights activists have warned after the latest murder of a prominent indigenous rights campaigner.The body of Julián Carrillo, a member of the Alianza Sierra Madre organisation, was found with multiple bullet wounds in the mountains of Chihuahua state on the evening of 24 October. Continue reading...

Rowan Williams backs call for mass civil disobedience ‘to bypass the government’s inaction and defend life itself’

Agreement with unions includes early retirement for miners, re-skilling and environmental restorationSpain is to shut down most of its coalmines by the end of the year after government and unions struck a deal that will mean €250m (£221m) will be invested in mining regions over the next decade.Pedro Sánchez’s new leftwing administration has moved quickly on environmental policy, abolishing a controversial “sunshine tax” on the solar industry, and announcing the launch of Spain’s long-delayed national climate plan next month. Continue reading...

Shale gas firm halts work near Blackpool after 17th quake is first over 0.5 magnitude limit

Claire Perry failed to record meeting with Cuadrilla and others on transparency register

This week’s Upside looks at individuals reclaiming the narrative, and others saving our beachesIn the Middle East, a region benighted with seemingly permanent conflicts, increasing censorship and democratic rebellion, an Upside can seem unlikely. Yet, this week our reporters have been finding human stories that help change the perception of the region, giving a voice to its inhabitants and revealing their hopes and wishes.Roger Hamilton-Martin wrote about the Israeli-Canadian Cory Gil-Shuster and his YouTube channel Ask an Israeli/Ask a Palestinian. Gil-Shuster poses questions to Israeli and Palestinian residents, exposing the nature of the conflict and some of their inherent similarities in the process. His unedited videos have racked up over 44m views since he began the project in 2012. “As a person involved in this conflict, I’m trying to figure out where perception meets reality,” he says. Continue reading...

By rebating the revenue to households, disposable income rises, which can be a boon for the Canadian economyLast week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that under the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, Canada will implement a revenue-neutral carbon tax starting in 2019, fulfilling a campaign pledge he made in 2015.Starting next spring, it’ll no longer be free to pollute in Canada. We’re putting a price on pollution in provinces that don’t yet have a plan to fight climate change. More on our plan to cut pollution, grow the economy & create jobs: https://t.co/VjCNOOKLVB

Third of coastline cannot be affordably protected, government climate change advisers say, with current plans ‘not fit for purpose’Rising sea levels will claim homes, roads and fields around the coast of England, the government’s official advisers have warned, and many people are unaware of the risks they face.The new report from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said existing government plans to “hold the line” in many places – building defences to keep shores in their current position – were unaffordable for a third of the country’s coast. Instead, the CCC said, discussions about the “hard choices” needed must be started with communities that will have to move inland. Continue reading...

Philippines tourism hotspot limits visitor numbers and clears out casinos and beach vendorsThe Philippines has reopened its famous holiday island of Boracay – spruced up and newly regulated after it was closed to mend decades of harm caused by unchecked tourism.The sandy idyll was closed to visitors in April after President Rodrigo Duterte called it a “cesspool” tainted by raw sewage flowing from hotels and restaurants straight into the sea. Continue reading...

US oceanographic agency forecasts 60% chance of extreme heat stress and bleachingMass bleaching and coral death could be likely along the entire Great Barrier Reef this summer, according to a long-range forecast that coral experts say is “a wake-up call” for the Australian government.The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has forecast a 60% chance that the entire Great Barrier Reef will reach alert level one, which signals extreme heat stress and bleaching are likely. Continue reading...

US Geological Service included volcanos from Hawaii to California on danger list, its first updated threat assessments since 2005

An estimated 18,000 families live near the huge site, and the capital city’s growing waste problem is making things worseIndonesians living around one of the largest landfills in south-east Asia have called on the government to increase their compensation for tolerating the dump’s nauseating and notorious stink.An hour’s drive from the sprawling Indonesian capital, much of the waste from Jakarta’s 10 million residents ends up in ever-growing mountains of trash that make up the Bantar Gebang landfill. It is the largest tip in the country, covering 110 hectares. Continue reading...