Scottish government and beef industry reassure consumers there is no threat to human health or wider impact on farmersA movement ban has been imposed on a beef farm in Aberdeenshire after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, was found in its herd.The Scottish government and beef industry moved to reassure consumers there was no threat to human health or any wider impact for Scottish farmers after the BSE was found during routine tests on a dead cow. Continue reading...

The injustice of my time in prison is dwarfed by the profound inequities that inspired my action in the first placeThis morning I woke up outside of prison for the first time since 26 September. I was jailed for 16 months after being convicted of causing a public nuisance for a four-day protest on top of a lorry at the UK’s first fracking site. On Wednesday the verdict was quashed by the court of appeal, on grounds that the sentence was, as the lord chief justice, Lord Burnett, put it, “manifestly excessive”.Many people are saying justice has been served – but we know there is still a long way to go before we get there. Continue reading...

London’s second airport hopes to rival Heathrow with 70m passengers a year by 2032Gatwick is proposing to spend £500m to widen its emergency runway and bring it into daily use as a second runway, as part of a plan to bring more than 100,000 additional flights a year to the airport by 2032.The core proposal in an ambitious 15-year masterplan published on Thursday shows that Gatwick, the UK’s second-biggest airport, in south-east England, hopes to serve up to 70 million passengers a year with two runways – almost as many passengers as Heathrow today. Continue reading...

In a confidential document obtained by the Guardian, officials say releasing records could have a ‘chilling effect’ on their deliberationsThe Trump administration is moving to restrict the release of information about its decisions on endangered species, according to a confidential internal document obtained by the Guardian.It comes as wildlife advocates and scientists accuse the government of attempting to weaken protections for wildlife, including wolves, grizzly bears and sage grouse, while boosting domestic energy production and mining in crucial animal habitat. Continue reading...

Scientists work to stay ahead of white nose syndrome, a deadly fungus that has killed millions of bats in the US and CanadaNate Fuller was just starting out as a bat scientist nine years ago when he entered a massive cave in rural Pennsylvania to look for live animals. Instead, he found himself wading through a distressing muck, the decomposing bodies of thousands upon thousands of dead bats.That was in the early years of white nose syndrome, the creeping, lethal fungus that has decimated North America’s bat population, killing millions of bats and sparking frantic research and conservation efforts across the United States and Canada. Continue reading...

Energy minister Claire Perry, who has defended fracking, admits she has ‘not yet had the opportunity’ to visit any siteThe minister spearheading the UK’s renewed push for fracking has admitted she has never been to a shale gas well.In the week that fracking restarted in the UK for the first time in seven years, the energy minister, Claire Perry, revealed to a fellow Conservative MP that she had not yet had the chance to visit a shale site. Continue reading...

Many of the 20 contenders for this year’s prestigious global prize focus on ways to create a more sustainable futureCutlery made from potato peelings and a robotic cleaner that can tackle pollution in rivers, lakes and canals are among the groundbreaking international designs shortlisted for the prestigious annual James Dyson award.Over half the world’s population currently live in cities, according to the United Nations – a proportion expected to rise to seven in 10 people by 2050 – and the projects share a common theme of aiming to redefine urban living through technology to create a more sustainable future. Continue reading...

Australia’s environment minister says encounter was ‘pleasant and light-hearted’Melissa Price has said she can’t “recall the complete conversation” in which three witnesses say she disparaged Pacific nations to the former president of Kiribati but maintains the version provided by Labor’s Pat Dodson is incorrect.Under fire from Labor for misleading the House, the environment minister qualified her remarks that she “100% disagreed” with Dodson by adding in question time on Thursday that she did not recall the entire “very pleasant and light-hearted conversation”. Continue reading...

Our politicians, under the influence of big business, have failed us. As they take the planet to the brink, it’s time for disruptive, nonviolent disobedienceIt is hard to believe today, but the prevailing ethos among the educated elite was once public service. As the historian Tony Judt documented in Ill Fares the Land, the foremost ambition among graduates in the 1950s and 60s was, through government or the liberal professions, to serve their country. Their approach might have been patrician and often blinkered, but their intentions were mostly public and civic, not private and pecuniary.Today, the notion of public service seems as quaint as a local post office. We expect those who govern us to grab what they can, permitting predatory banks and corporations to fleece the public realm, then collect their reward in the form of lucrative directorships. As the Edelman Corporation’s Trust Barometer survey reveals, trust worldwide has collapsed in all major institutions, and government is less trusted than any other. Continue reading...

Extreme weather thought to have stripped trees of their leaves, which usually secrete hormones to prevent floweringThe arrival of Japan’s famed cherry blossoms is the cue for groups of office workers to eat and drink, cast off their inhibitions and ponder the transient nature of life against a backdrop of pale pink petals falling to the ground.But the nationally observed rite of spring has come early, with reports from hundreds of locations that the country’s beloved sakura are blooming several months ahead of schedule. Continue reading...

Nellie’s Tree - entwined by her husband to form her initial – is among the four winners of this year’s Woodland Trust prizeLovers in Paris have caused havoc and serious damage in recent years by commemorating their relationships with padlocks attached to the city’s famous Pont Neuf bridge.But those seeking a more lasting – and environmentally friendly – symbol might instead consider planting a tree. It worked for a romantic young man from Leeds a century ago, whose tree has just been voted the UK’s favourite. Continue reading...

Cheering supporters greet activists at prison gates after sentences are overturnedThree protesters jailed for blocking access to a fracking site have walked free after the court of appeal quashed their sentences, calling them “manifestly excessive”.Simon Blevins, 26, Richard Roberts, 36, and Rich Loizou, 31, were sent to prison last month after being convicted of causing a public nuisance with a protest outside the Preston New Road site near Blackpool, Lancashire. Blevins and Roberts were sentenced to 16 months and Loizou to 15 months. Continue reading...

The EPA isn’t rescinding the standard as of yet but has finished deciding to reconsider the analysis for the Obama-era ruleThe US Environmental Protection Agency next month will unveil plans to start weakening the economic justification for a rule limiting toxic mercury pollution from coal plants.The EPA isn’t rescinding the standard as of yet but has finished deciding to reconsider the underlying analysis for the 2011 rule, according to the government’s newly published agenda. Continue reading...

Three protesters jailed for blocking access to a fracking site walked free on Wednesday after the court of appeal quashed their sentences, calling them manifestly excessive. Simon Blevins, 26, Richard Roberts, 36, and Rich Loizou, 31, were greeted by cheering supporters after judges ruled that they should be freed immediately

The court of appeal protected the right to protest. If Theresa May persists with this disastrous policy, expect far more direct actionThere were cheers inside court four of the Royal Courts of Justice this afternoon, when after a markedly short recess three appeal court judges returned to give their verdict. Sentenced to lengthy jail sentences last month, three-anti-fracking protesters - Simon Blevins, Richard Roberts, Rich Loizou - had what they had known all along confirmed by the lord chief justice, Sir Ian Burnett: the punishments handed down by the judge in their trial had been “manifestly excessive”. Instead of serving 15 or 16 months in HMP Preston, their release from prison is now imminent. But be in no doubt: they should never have been behind bars in the first place.Related: Court quashes fracking protesters' 'excessive' jail sentences Continue reading...

Report warns that rising temperatures threaten the Everglades, including changing rainfall patterns and accelerating sea-level riseSea water encroaching on the Everglades will hamper decades of work by a government program to reverse manmade damage to the vast, fragile ecosystem at the tip of Florida, according to a new report published on Wednesday.The federal, multibillion-dollar Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, authorized by Congress in 2000, was designed to redirect fresh water, reducing sea water incursion in a long-term effort to bring the tropical wetland ecosystem back to the way it looked in the early 20th century, before influxes of people to southern Florida drained much of it for development. The region, known as the “river of grass”, is less than an hour’s drive from Miami but is home to mangrove forests and cypress swamps housing alligators, orchids, storks and ibises, as well as threatened species such as the Florida panther. But it has long struggled to recover from water diversions for agriculture, swelling communities and other forms of environmental degradation, such as fertilizer runoff. Continue reading...

Reserve to cover 1.8m km will protect penguins, leopard seals, orca and blue whalesThe UK government has thrown its weight behind the creation of the world’s biggest environmental sanctuary, covering a huge swathe of the Antarctic ocean.The massive 1.8m sq km reserve – five times the size of Germany – would ban all fishing in a vast area of the Weddell Sea and parts of the Antarctic peninsula, safeguarding species including penguins, killer whales, leopard seals and blue whales. Continue reading...

Few companies specialize in carbon removal and the tools they produce are currently still expensivePeter Fiekowsky, a physicist and entrepreneur, hates silver bullets.But at a climate summit in California last month he found himself pitching one. In partnership with the company Blue Planet, he was demonstrating a low-tech-looking machine that can pull carbon dioxide from the air and store it in construction materials. Continue reading...

Journalists grilled GOP politicians on climate change. It didn’t go wellMajor climate science reports usually pass by largely unnoticed, but in the wake of the latest IPCC report a number of journalists laudably grilled Republican lawmakers about its findings. While their responses were predictably terrible, it’s nevertheless crucial for journalists to hold GOP politicians accountable for their climate denial and policy inaction. Donald Trump’s answers were particularly ignorant and nonsensical in his 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl. Continue reading...

Hundreds gather outside high court in London as jailed trio challenge sentencesSeveral hundred supporters of the three protesters jailed for blocking access to the Preston New Road fracking site in Lancashire have gathered outside the high court in London before their appeal against their sentences.Related: Fracking in the UK: what is it and why is it controversial? Continue reading...

The Radiohead star’s new track is accompanied by footage shot by Greenpeace’s research ship Arctic Sunrise

Poverty, conservation and industry are at loggerheads in the eastern town of SomkheleDrive for an hour into the hills that lie behind South Africa’s wild eastern coast, and you will find a game park full of rhino and big cats, a sprawling town spread over dozens of summits and dry valleys, and a vast opencast coal mine.If all the advantages of the rainbow nation – stunning landscape and wildlife, massive mineral resources and a youthful population – are represented here, then so too are all its problems. Continue reading...

Opponents of the 160-mile Bayou Bridge pipeline, which will cross Native American land and 700 bodies of water, have chained themselves to machineryAs the flat-bottom fishing boat speeds through waterways deep inside Louisiana’s Atchafalaya basin, the largest river swamp in the US, the landscape suddenly shifts from high banks of sediment and oil pipeline markers on either side to an open grove of cypress trees towering above the water. Flocks of white ibis appear, seemingly out of nowhere, to nest and hunt amid the moss-dripped, century-old wetland forest.“This is what the entire basin is supposed to look like,” explained Jody Meche, president of a local crawfishermen alliance and a lifelong resident with a thick Cajun accent. Continue reading...

Environmentalist and former Australian of the Year was diagnosed with cancer in July 2017Ian Kiernan has died at the age of 78.The former builder and Sydney yachtsman became one of Australia’s most well-known environmentalists after he founded Clean Up Australia in 1989. Continue reading...

City firms have hardly covered themselves in glory over the Jamal Khashoggi affairIt should be an easy decision for a board of directors to make: after the disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, it would be obscene to send a corporate representative to next week’s “Davos in the Desert” event in Riyadh. What’s more, it should not be difficult to say so.The list of high-profile dropouts is growing but, sad to report, the British financial establishment has not led the way to the exit. Big-name chief executives from the US – the likes of Jamie Dimon from JP Morgan – pulled out on Monday but the Brits followed only on Tuesday, leaving the impression they jumped only once it was less embarrassing, or commercially safer, to do so. Continue reading...

New independent panel may allocate funding based on more varied factors than EU CAPFarming conditions across the UK’s regions are to be assessed for the first time with a view to allocating financial assistance after EU subsidies are withdrawn, the government has said.A new independent advisory panel will consider what factors should determine how future funding is divided among England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a remit to look at farm sizes and farm numbers, as well as environmental and socio-economic issues. Continue reading...

Leaked letter shows advisory council recommended the Lake Malbena project not be approvedOne of the first acts of the Morrison government was to greenlight a private tourism development with helicopter access in Tasmanian world heritage wilderness against the recommendation of an expert advisory body.The decision, signed by an environment department assistant secretary on 31 August on behalf of the environment minister, Melissa Price, signalled the luxury camp on remote Halls Island in Lake Malbena was not a threat to matters of national environmental significance and did not need approval under federal laws. Continue reading...

Ministers of island states call for help in tackling organised crime in the fishing industry, which they say is harming both the environment and human rightsMinisters from tiny island states including Palau, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati are calling for help over the “devastating” impacts of criminal networks in the fishing industry.Fishermen, unable to work because stocks are so low, are being lured into gun-running and drug trafficking by international organised crime, the nations’ officials told an industry conference in Copenhagen this week. Continue reading...

Far more must be invested in adapting to warming, says new global commission that aims to rebuild political will after US withdrawal from Paris agreementFar too little is being done to protect people from the heatwaves, storms and floods being supercharged by climate change, according to a high-level international commission. It aims to rebuild the political will to act that was damaged when US president, Donald Trump, rejected the global Paris agreement.The Global Commission on Adaptation is being led by Ban Ki-Moon, Bill Gates and Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank. It involves 17 countries including China, India, South Africa, Indonesia, Canada and the UK. Continue reading...

Almost 900,000 unsold meals are chucked out a day, according to food waste app Too Good To GoAlmost 900,000 perfectly edible, freshly prepared meals end up in the bin in the UK every day, new figures reveal, because they haven’t been sold in time by restaurants and cafes.This means that more than 320m meals are thrown away by British food establishments every year – enough meals for everyone in the UK five times over, according to food waste app Too Good To Go. Continue reading...

As a trained paramedic I understand emergency situations. In the face of catastrophic climate change, protest is a moral obligationI was arrested yesterday for blockading Cuadrilla’s fracking site at Preston New Road in Lancashire for more than 12 hours. It was the first day of fracking after a seven-year delay due to earthquakes, powerful local opposition and legal challenges.As a trained paramedic, I have a good appreciation of emergency situations. Climate change is the biggest emergency of them all. I join more than 350 people who have been arrested for disrupting Cuadrilla’s site in Lancashire over the last two years. People driven to take such action range from local councillors to faith leaders, students to grandparents. In the past fortnight, three people were sentenced to up to 16 months in prison for climbing on top of lorries that carried key fracking equipment. Continue reading...

Big six energy firm drops fossil fuels for generation and say cheap green energy is the futureScottish Power has ditched fossil fuels for electricity generation and switched to 100% wind power, by selling off its last remaining gas power stations to Drax for more than £700m.Iberdrola, Scottish Power’s Spanish parent company, said the move was part of its strategy to tackle climate change and would free it up to invest in renewables and power grids in the UK. Continue reading...

More than 300 mammal species have been eradicated by human activities, say researchersHumanity’s ongoing annihilation of wildlife is cutting down the tree of life, including the branch we are sitting on, according to a stark new analysis.More than 300 different mammal species have been eradicated by human activities. The new research calculates the total unique evolutionary history that has been lost as a result at a startling 2.5bn years. Continue reading...

Grenfell United group wants to know why residents were not told of soil contamination fearsSurvivors of the Grenfell fire have demanded urgent meetings with ministers and senior health officials following revelations that significant amounts of toxins were found in soil close to the tower in preliminary findings of a major study.The disclosures have prompted Grenfell United, which represents the families of the 72 people who died, to ask why no one who knew about the early results of the research had warned residents of the potential contamination problem. Continue reading...

Operations start at Lancashire site after protesters block entrance and nearby roadFracking has begun in the UK for the first time since 2011 despite an attempt by protesters to blockade the entrance to the Lancashire site.Activists from campaign group Reclaim the Power used a van to block the entrance to a site on Preston New Road near Blackpool for 12 hours from 4.30am on Monday, but the shale gas company Cuadrilla said all the equipment it needed to frack was already there and it had started the process by 1pm. Continue reading...

Activists have attempted to blockade a fracking site in Lancashire as operations began for the first time in seven years in the UK. Campaigners from Reclaim the Power used a van to block the entrance to the site on Preston New Road near Blackpool early on Monday. One protester climbed on top of a scaffold and locked his neck to it. Police dispersed the protesters and the energy company Cuadrilla commenced with planned operations

Chairman of Coalition’s backbench energy committee says Morrison government should wind up programThe chairman of the Coalition’s backbench energy committee, the outspoken conservative Craig Kelly, says the government needs to axe current subsidies for households and businesses to install renewable energy technology like solar panels.With the Morrison government in the middle of formulating its new energy policy, and with Labor now promising to maintain subsidies for households and businesses to install small-scale renewable energy until 2030, Kelly told Guardian Australia the Coalition needed to wind up the program. Continue reading...

Extreme weather damage to the global barley crop will mean price spikes and supply problems, according to new researchTrouble is brewing for the world’s beer drinkers, with climate change set to cause “dramatic” price spikes and supply shortages, according to new research.Extreme heatwaves and droughts will increasingly damage the global barley crop, meaning a common ingredient of the world’s favourite alcoholic beverage will become scarcer. Key brewing nations are forecast to be among the worst hit, including Belgium, the Czech Republic and Ireland. Continue reading...

As Cuadrilla starts operations in Lancashire, we examine the main arguments

Critics demand tougher action as Bank of England stops short of call for mandatory reportsThe Bank of England has stopped short of forcing financial companies to disclose the potential risks they face from climate change, despite growing calls from campaigners for such action.In a warning to finance firms to vastly improve their planning to safeguard against the financial risks posed by global warming, Threadneedle Street asked companies to “consider the relevance” of disclosing their climate-related risks. Continue reading...

Unusual collaboration between upmarket department store and frozen food specialist is because both have committed to going palm-oil-freeBoxes of Iceland mince pies have made a low-key debut in Selfridges’ food halls this year, sharing the aisles with £1,450 tins of beluga caviar and £5,000 Christmas hampers.The unusual collaboration between the upmarket department store and the frozen food specialist is on sustainability grounds, as both retailers seek to boost their environmental credentials by committing to removing palm oil from their own-brand ranges. Continue reading...

Cut carbon pollution as much as possible, as fast as possibleThe Paris climate agreement set a target of no more than 2°C global warming above pre-industrial temperatures, but also an aspirational target of no more than 1.5°C. That’s because many participating countries – especially island nations particularly vulnerable to sea level rise – felt that even 2°C global warming is too dangerous. But there hadn’t been a lot of research into the climate impacts at 1.5°C vs. 2°C, and so the UN asked the IPCC to publish a special report summarizing what it would take to achieve the 1.5°C limit and what the consequences would be of missing it.The details in the report are worth understanding, but there’s one simple critical takeaway point: we need to cut carbon pollution as much as possible, as fast as possible. Continue reading...

Climate scientists have political agendas, US president says in interview with 60 MinutesDonald Trump has reiterated his doubts about climate change, suggesting that the climate could “change back again,” and that climate scientists are politically motivated.The US president has long questioned man-made global warming. In an interview with CBS programme 60 Minutes that aired Sunday night, he said that he no longer believes climate change is a hoax, as he tweeted in 2012. Continue reading...

Often heard before it is seen, the kererū has been known to fall out of the odd tree after too much fermented fruitA native green and bronze wood pigeon with a taste for fermented fruit has been named the 2018 bird of the year in New Zealand.The kererū is endemic to the country and can be found in both the North and South islands, living in cities as well as rural areas. Although quiet and reclusive by nature, kererū have earned a reputation as the drunkest bird in New Zealand, and been known to fall from trees after consuming rotting fruit left lying on the ground. During the summer when fruit is in abundance drunk kererū are sometimes taken to wildlife centres to sober up. Continue reading...

State politicians and Oregon occupation leader Ammon Bundy address gathering against federal land managementAt a conference in Whitefish, Montana, on Saturday Ammon Bundy, a leader of a group which occupied federal land in 2016, shared a stage with Republican politicians, campaigners against Indian treaty rights and other rightwing groups.Related: Rebel cowboys: how the Bundy family sparked a new battle for the American west Continue reading...

Fuel cell could help Colombian farmers by using microbes to eat waste and develop energyScientists have turned coffee waste into electricity for the first time, in research that could help farmers and curb pollution in the developing world.The coffee industry generates a huge amount of liquid waste during the process of turning the raw material of the tree – the coffee cherries – into the 9.5m tons of coffee the world produces each year. Continue reading...

Chief scientist says Australia must use all available technologiesAustralia’s chief scientist says the question facing the nation’s energy future is not about renewables versus coal but how best to create “a whole-of-economy emissions reduction strategy”.In a prerecorded interview with Sky released on Sunday, Dr Alan Finkel responded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report, which warned that greenhouse gas pollution needs to reach zero by 2050 if the world is to have any hope of stopping global warming at 1.5C. Continue reading...

It’s a very lucky person who swims with whales – but many take heart from knowing such ecosystems exist and believe they need to be protectedI pull the outboard out of gear and let the boat’s momentum wash away until we’re dead in the water. Then I switch everything off – engine, echo sounder, even the radio – and there’s silence. Not even the sound of water lapping against the hull. Because it’s breathless out here today. The surface of the gulf is silky. The sky is cloudless, a shade paler than the water. And behind us, onshore, the arid ridges and canyons of the Cape Range are mottled pink and blond in the morning light.There’s only the two of us aboard, and although the air and water are still enough to be dreamlike we’re not at all relaxed. In fact, each of us is craning at opposite sides of the boat, heads cocked, tense with anticipation. Continue reading...

The Calanques national park was targeted by a gang who sold fish to smart restaurants. Now in a landmark case, they will pay ‘environmental damages’Johan Jimenez stood on a cliff, peering through binoculars at a picturesque inlet in this unspoiled corner of the Mediterranean near Marseille.“They don’t think anyone is watching from up here on land,” said the armed guard from the environmental police, scanning the rocks below for day-trippers casually dropping fishing lines into its protected waters. “But we can always get down there to stop them.” Continue reading...

Animal rights groups are outraged as overseas tour companies offer expensive shooting packages in UK conservation parksMany Britons probably think that trophy hunting is something that happens abroad. But anyone looking to bag an animal’s head to grace that empty spot on their wall needs only to head to deepest, darkest Bedfordshire where they can shoot rare deer, or, for the financially stretched, wallabies and sheep.A small number of overseas firms are offering trophy-shooting packages in the county, which boasts several impressive deer parks. A ‘grade A’ red deer stag, highly prized by hunters because of its magnificent antlers, can be shot for a £9,000 trophy fee, according to an online price list dated 2018 and distributed by a Danish travel company called Limpopo & Diana Hunting Tours. Continue reading...