Environment | The Guardian

ACCC chairman Rod Sims says energy policy can still be made without political agreement on emissionsThe chairman of Australia’s competition watchdog, Rod Sims, has warned it is foolish to wait for political agreement on emissions reduction before formulating an energy policy, because Australia’s political parties have now demonstrated they have irreconcilable differences.In remarks referencing the tortuous debate over the national energy guarantee and the preceding decade, the ACCC chairman told a conference on Thursday the only way to get progress was to separate the objectives of emissions reduction, reliability and affordability. Continue reading...

Pat Conroy says Australia can replace thermal coal exports with renewable energy and also develop hydrogen economyAustralia is in a position to replace thermal coal exports with the export of renewable energy technologies if the parliament can settle an energy policy and end a decade of policy chaos, the Labor frontbencher Pat Conroy says.The shadow assistant minister for climate change and energy will use an appearance at a renewable energy conference on Thursday to argue that Australia can remain an energy export “superpower” during the transition to low-emissions energy – “it just won’t be fossilised carbon, instead it will be wind and solar power”. Continue reading...

Clearing of forests in reef catchment zone show Australia a global deforestation hotspot, campaigners sayNew official data shows clearing of forests near and along the Great Barrier Reef continued despite Australian government pledges to protect the natural wonder, with at least 152,000 hectares felled in 2016-17 alone.Forests covering 770,000ha – an area about three times the size of the Australian Capital Territory – in the reef catchment zone have been bulldozed over the past five years. The area cleared last year was larger in size than that covered by new re-growth. Continue reading...

International agreement will protect vast areas of sea that have opened up as the ice meltsCommercial fishing will be banned across much of the Arctic under a new agreement signed on Wednesday in Greenland, closing down access to a vast area of sea that is newly opening up under climate change.The moratorium on Arctic fishing will safeguard an area about the size of the Mediterranean for at least the next 16 years, as warming temperatures allow summer navigation across what was previously ice. Continue reading...

Virgin Atlantic flight from Orlando to Gatwick powered by blend of jet fuel and ethanolThe first commercial flight to use jet fuel partly made from recycled industrial waste has landed at Gatwick.The Virgin Atlantic plane, travelling from Orlando to London, was powered by a new blend of normal jet fuel and ethanol produced from waste gases, which the airline says could significantly lower aviation’s carbon footprint. Continue reading...

Cases occurred after confirmed reports of invasive species feared as threat to honeybeeA British wildlife charity has warned that a spate of bad news stories about the invasive Asian hornet is leading to the persecution of its home-grown equivalent.Devon Wildlife Trust said it has across cases of people exterminating the European hornet (Vespa crabro) thinking it was the troublesome Asian hornet (Vespa velutina). Continue reading...

The administration’s lengthy slate of rollbacks will slow progress on reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases that warm the planet, health experts sayDonald Trump’s administration is racing against the clock to rescind or rewrite every major pro-environment policy enduring from Barack Obama’s presidency – but the government will probably not be able to usher those changes through the courts before the next presidential election.Green-minded states and advocates cannot sue until regulations are final, and it could take years for the courts to rule. In the interim, the lengthy slate of rollbacks will slow progress on reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases that warm the planet, health experts say. Continue reading...

Visitors flocked to Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh island after it was in Leonardo DiCaprio filmOne of the world’s most popular beaches, made famous by the 2000 film The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is to be closed indefinitely to allow it to recover from the damage caused by millions of tourists.The golden sands and crystal blue water of Maya Bay, ringed by cliffs on Ko Phi Phi Leh island, has become one of Thailand’s most-visited tourist destinations since it shot to fame as the movie’s location. Continue reading...

New eco-designs for products such as TVs and fridges are also crucial to Europe meeting its climate targets, say expertsNew energy efficient eco-designs for 15 products including fridges, TVs and dishwashers have been delayed, EU diplomats say, even though experts consider them “crucial” to meeting Europe’s Paris climate pledge. The delays are also expected to mean consumers will miss out on lower energy bills.The design revamps would have saved 62m tonnes of CO2 emissions – as much as Sweden’s annual primary energy consumption – but now look set to be dealt with by the next commission, in which far right parties may be more influential. Continue reading...

Trump’s team used last week to sneak in disastrous, linked policies on climate change and child refugee camps

Scheme will send supercooled gas to Asia as countries switch over from coalShell has approved a $12bn (£9.3bn) investment in a mega energy project to send supercooled gas from Canada to China and other Asian countries as they turn from coal to gas.The scheme will be Canada’s biggest ever infrastructure project and is the world’s first major liquefied natural gas project to be given the go-ahead in five years. Shell has a 40% stake in the $31bn Canada LNG joint venture, along with Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese and South Korean energy firms. Continue reading...

‘Last Straw’ installation aims to raise awareness of plastic waste as the firm bans single-use straws from UK and Irish storesIkea today symbolically unveiled its last single-use plastic straw in a display at London’s Design Museum, after it stopped serving or selling the items in any of its UK and Ireland stores, restaurants and bistros this week.The so-called Last Straw installation will be on show to the public until Saturday and aims to inspire consumers to collectively take small steps that will have a positive environmental impact. Continue reading...

To mark today’s 50th anniversary of the US national trails system, six hikers and outdoor writers pick their favourite routes across the American wildernessLength: 3,700 miles

In this historically precarious moment, we need something more fundamental than climate strategies built on shame and castigationThere was a barely stifled schadenfreudian glee echoing across the liberal press through this burning hot summer. Environmentalists could scarcely disguise their we-told-you-so smirks as one suffocating heatwave after another rolled over the globe, wildfires savaged landscapes from Siberia to California and broken temperature records kept piling up.But yearning for catastrophe is an ugly desire, and it is exactly the wrong way to think about global warming. Disasters always hit marginalised people first and worst, and as tempting as it might be to hope the calamities of 2018 bring new kinds of change, that desire only betrays how badly environmentalism needs to be overhauled. Continue reading...

Letter from 20 scientists and ex-ministers, including Peter Garrett, condemns plan to raise dam wallA group of prominent scientists, former environment ministers and conservationists have written to the New South Wales premier condemning legislation to raise the Warragamba Dam wall.The $670m plan to raise the dam wall by 14 metres was announced by the NSW government in 2016 as a strategy to prevent catastrophic flooding in outer-western Sydney. Continue reading...

Green Energy Markets predicts more than 6,000 annual jobs will be created but urges federal policy interventionThe renewable energy construction boom in Victoria is on track to create more than 6,000 annual jobs, according to a new analysis.As of August 2018, large-scale wind and solar projects under construction in Victoria had created 5,169 job years of employment – meaning one person working full time for one year – overtaking Queensland with 5,156, according to an analysis by Green Energy Markets released by GetUp on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Court says extraction ban is among cases it refuses to review, in victory for environmental groups and Native American communitiesThe ban on new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon implemented by the Obama administration was effectively upheld on Monday when the US supreme court declined to hear a challenge from the industry.Environmental groups and Native American communities declared victory when, on the first day of its fall season, the bench announced that the uranium extraction ban was among cases it refuses to review. Continue reading...

Thomas Bareiß says use of polluting fuel at RWE plant is needed to keep the lights onControversial plans to chop down a German forest to build a vast coal mine should proceed because Germany needs the polluting fuel to keep the lights on, according to the chief of the country’s state secretary for energy.Dozens of treehouses built and occupied by campaigners for years have been recently cleared by police to make way for plans by energy firm RWE, which owns Hambach forest near Cologne, to expand its nearby opencast coal mine. Continue reading...

As a wealthy, warm country, the US would benefit from implementing a carbon tax to slow global warming

PM says he and Mathias Cormann were responsible for awarding the money to foundation in one yearScott Morrison has said he and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, were responsible for the government’s decision to give $444m to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation in one year.At a doorstop in Perth on Monday the prime minister said that the pair, as the Coalition’s economic team before the 2018 budget, had worked out “the best way to do [the grant] financially”, and argued it was the right decision because it helped the reef without “blowing the budget”. Continue reading...

With sows producing 23 piglets a year on average, intensive farming is called into question over rise in animals suffering prolapseDeath rates for female pigs in the US are rising fast, sending alarm bells ringing throughout the farming industry.The mortality rate rose from 5.8% to 10.2% on farms owning more than 125 sows between 2013-2016, according to one organisation that collects data across 800 companies. Continue reading...

Campaigners say sediment has not been tested properly and may do ‘irreversible harm’

Study concludes considerable likelihood waste from coal seam gas operations could contaminate Stockyard Creek in headwaters of Murray-Darling BasinPlans to dump up to 15m tonnes of salt and other waste near a creek in drought-stricken Queensland carry a “considerable” risk of water contamination, a new study has found.Approved plans to expand a dump near the town of Chinchilla allow salt waste from coal seam gas operations to be stored fewer than 100 metres from Stockyard Creek, in the headwaters of the Murray-Darling Basin. Continue reading...

Australia Institute report find communities, graziers, small irrigators and native title holders are being left behindA new report looking at how the $13bn for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is being spent has found that big agribusiness is being compensated for giving up access to water while communities, graziers, small irrigators and native title holders are having to wear the often harsh effects of the plan.The report, Trickle Out Effect, by the Australia Institute, looks at the Lower Darling and the Menindee region, and finds wildly different treatment of stakeholders. Continue reading...

News that governments are not meeting targets is alarming, but the actions of activists are a reason to hopeThe world is failing to combat the threat of climate change. Global carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil and gas increased by 1.6% in 2017, after three years when they rose little or not at all. Demand for oil is increasing by around 1.5% a year. Last week one of the authors of a key United Nations climate report warned that governments are “nowhere near on track” to meeting their commitment, made in Paris three years ago, to avoid global warming of more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.When it is unveiled next week, the report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will give a clearer idea of the probable consequences of this failure. One recent study suggested the impact of a temperature rise of 2C could be more severe than previously thought, and include sea level rises of six metres by 2100. The relationship between climate change and specific weather events is complex, but modelling suggests global warming made this summer’s European heatwave twice as likely. The increased frequency and severity of tropical storms fit with longstanding predictions that warmer oceans will bring more chaotic weather. Continue reading...

Ministers under pressure to fund new generation of small-scale nuclear power stationsBackers of mini nuclear power stations have asked for billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to build their first UK projects, according to an official document.Advocates for small modular reactors (SMRs) argue they are more affordable and less risky than conventional large-scale nuclear plants, and therefore able to compete with the falling costs of windfarms and solar power. Continue reading...

Father asks why politicians are not acting on child health crisis caused by illegal toxin levelsFor David Smith, the final straw came as he was standing at the bus stop near his home in south London with his two-year-old son Ely.He had become increasingly aware of the damage pollution was doing to young people’s health since the birth of his two youngest children. And when the gridlocked traffic edged forward and a lorry pulled up a metre from Ely, something snapped. Continue reading...

Morrison says rate of increase not as high as previous years and renewables investment will ensure Australia meets commitmentAustralia’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise, but Scott Morrison seized on the silver lining, maintaining Australia would meet its Paris commitment, despite the government having no legislated instrument to help it get there.Figures released on Friday showed Australia’s emissions increased 1.3% in the year to March 2018, up all sectors – except land use and electricity, where renewable technologies were having an impact on the latter. Continue reading...

A Danish ship has successfully completed a trial voyage through the Russian ArcticA Danish-flagged cargo ship has successfully passed through the Russian Arctic, in a trial voyage showing that melting sea ice could potentially open a new trade route from Europe to east Asia.The Venta Maersk made the journey as a one-off trial, said Palle Laursen, the chief technical officer of A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s biggest shipping group. Continue reading...

Young people face a long term ‘health crisis’ unless the government acts to clean up pollution, says children’s charityChildren in the UK are being denied their basic human right to breathe clean air and facing a long term “health crisis” because of the toxic fumes they breathe on their way to and from school, according to leading children’s charity Unicef.The organisation, which campaigns on children’s rights and wellbeing around the world, described the situation in the UK as “horrific” and has announced it is to make protecting youngsters from air pollution its priority across the country in the months ahead. Continue reading...

The thrill of a once-in-a-lifetime sighting mingles with a fear that this story may not end wellGrant Hazlehurst, a civil servant from Bromley, Kent has seen many whales. “Fin, sperm, Cuvier’s beaked, True’s beaked, sei, long-fin pilot …” most of them from his regular jaunts on a car ferry in the Bay of Biscay. “But I never thought I would see a beluga, not in the Thames,” he said. “So, I’m hoping.”So were the two dozen or so others who, on Friday morning, gathered on a windy shore near Gravesend, scanning foam-flecked waves in anticipation that, for a fourth day, the beluga whale that has somehow got lost in the Thames, would show itself. Continue reading...

A flock of house martins, red foxes and a Bengal tigress are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Conservation groups speak out as fears grow of Lake District being eyed as possible siteThe National Trust and 18 other conservation groups have urged ministers to rule out burying nuclear waste below national parks as fears grow that the Lake District is being eyed as a potential site.In January, the government restarted its attempt to find a community willing to host such a facility after a previous search collapsed five years ago. Ministers have refused to exclude national parks from the process. Continue reading...

Gardeners using methods like these to protect against gastropods are wasting their time, study showsEnvironmentally friendly gardeners who attempt to deter slugs and snails from devouring their vegetables with eggshells or copper tape are wasting their time, according to a study by the Royal Horticultural Society.Gastropods inflicted the same damage to lettuces protected with five natural methods – eggshells, copper tape, horticultural grit, pine bark mulch and wool pellets – as they did to lettuces left untreated. Continue reading...

Banned PCB chemicals are still severely harming the animals – but Arctic could be a refugeAt least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to toxic and persistent pollution of the oceans, according to a major new study.Although the poisonous chemicals, PCBs, have been banned for decades, they are still leaking into the seas. They become concentrated up the food chain; as a result, killer whales, the top predators, are the most contaminated animals on the planet. Worse, their fat-rich milk passes on very high doses to their newborn calves. Continue reading...

After receiving a custodial sentence, the three men promise they will win battle against frackingThree environmental activists jailed for their part in an anti-fracking protest have released a video message promising they will win the battle against fracking.The men became the first to receive a custodial sentence for environmental protests against shale gas extraction this week. Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were given 16 months in prison and Richard Loizou, 31, was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Wednesday after being convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Preston crown court in August. Continue reading...

Residents face drastic price rises and being cut off from Irish Republic’s electricity supplies, documents showNorthern Ireland faces blackouts and drastic electricity price rises in the event of a no-deal Brexit, leaked government documents reveal.The country would likely be cut off from electricity supplies from the Republic of Ireland and unable to use its sole electricity link to the UK mainland, according to an internal briefing. Continue reading...

Erik Solheim, under pressure over frequent flying and rule-breaking, has also now recused himself over wife’s jobThe UN’s environment chief, under fire over huge travel expenses and rule-breaking, has been forced leave the UN general assembly in New York early and return to his Nairobi headquarters to deal with the growing crisis.The problems for Erik Solheim, Norwegian head of the UN Environment Programme (Unep), include the Netherlands becoming the latest nation to withhold millions of dollars in funding until the issues are resolved. Continue reading...

Washington man faces prison for role in years-long operation to poach and sell 250,000lb of poorly understood creatureA Seattle-area fish processor who hoped to cash in on China’s appetite for sea cucumber faces years in prison for his role in a $1.5m poaching scheme that rocked an already unstable fishery.Federal prosecutors claim Hoon Namkoong led a years-long operation to poach and sell sea cucumbers as regulators were cutting the struggling Washington state fishery. Dozens of divers are also implicated in the poaching ring. Namkoong bought at least 250,000lb of stolen sea cucumber taken illegally from waters once rich with the echinoderms. Continue reading...

Bus will clean up air pollution as it drives around the city, using a filtration system on the roofOne of the UK’s largest bus and rail operators has launched the country’s first air filtering bus in an effort to tackle air pollution.The Go-Ahead Group unveiled the Bluestar bus in Southampton on Thursday claiming that the new filtration system attached to the top of the vehicle will clean the air as it moves around the city. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Author of key UN climate report says limiting temperature rise would require enormous, immediate transformation in human activityThe world’s governments are “nowhere near on track” to meet their commitment to avoid global warming of more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial period, according to an author of a key UN report that will outline the dangers of breaching this limit.A massive, immediate transformation in the way the world’s population generates energy, uses transportation and grows food will be required to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5C and the forthcoming analysis is set to lay bare how remote this possibility is. Continue reading...

Report due to be published on Thursday warns of ‘folly of technological tribalism’Abandoning the UK’s ambitions for a number of new nuclear power stations would cause carbon emissions to spike and push up energy costs, according to lobbyists led by a former Conservative MP.The New Nuclear Watch Institute warned against what it called the “folly of technological tribalism” of pursuing a future powered by renewables and gas-fired power stations, rather than any new nuclear plants. Continue reading...

Three protesters given prison sentences for blocking Cuadrilla lorry convoyThree environmental activists are believed to be the first people to receive jail sentences for an anti-fracking protest in the UK.Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were given 16 months in prison and Richard Loizou, 31, got 15 months on Wednesday after being convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Preston crown court in August. Another defendant, Julian Brock, 47, was given a 12-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to the same offence. Continue reading...

This draconian clampdown on peaceful protest reeks of desperation from the fracking industry and the governmentFracking protesters have been sent to prison for the first time. It reeks of desperation from the industry and a clampdown on the right to protest. In 2013 I was arrested in Balcombe, West Sussex, for peacefully blockading a fracking site in solidarity with the local community. The charges against me were dropped, but today, for the first time ever, a judge sent three protesters to prison for doing the same thing in Lancashire.All charges relating to over 350 previous acts of non-violent direct action at Preston New Road since work started in January 2017 have led to fines or community service. But, as Cuadrilla prepares to start fracking within weeks, the police have pursued the most severe charge and sentencing possible. Continue reading...

Ecologists ask public to stay away as beluga is seen 25 miles east of London and 1,500 miles from its normal habitatExperts are monitoring a beluga whale in the Thames estuary for a second day as fears grow for its safety.The whale’s movements are being monitored by experts on a Port of London Authority patrol boat moored to a barge east of Gravesend. Continue reading...

Firm wants #PacketInWalkers campaigners to use envelopes instead of posting used packets with label attachedA social media campaign asking crisp manufacturers to make their packaging recyclable has led to Royal Mail issuing a plea to members of the public to put crisp packets in an envelope before posting them.The #PacketInWalkers campaign was launched on 21 September, asking people to use “a pen, paper, and some sellotape” to send used Walkers’ crisp packets back to the Leicester-based crisp manufacturer. The campaign page says: “It won’t cost a penny as we can use Walkers’ own Freepost address. Imagine the scenes in Walkers HQ when hundreds of packets are delivered each day.” Continue reading...

The River Thames has become a ‘wild west’ unbound by new laws to clean up the city’s roads, say campaignersA huge new cruise ship terminal planned for the river Thames would lead to a surge in dangerous levels of air pollution in the heart of the capital with unknown health consequences for hundreds of thousands of people, campaigners have warned.Under the proposals, which have been given planning permission, up to 55 giant cruise ships would dock in London every year. Each ship would need to run its diesel engines round the clock to power onboard facilities, generating the same amount of toxic NO2 emissions as almost 700 continuously running lorries. Continue reading...

Do you know how an ice sheet can move? You’ll find out below.In this warming world, some parts of the planet are warming much faster than others. The warming is causing large ice bodies to start to melt and move rapidly, in some cases sliding into the ocean.This movement is the topic of a very new scientific study that was just published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The Arctic is warming much faster than other parts of the planet and the ice there is showing the signs of rapid warming. This fact has serious consequences. First, melting ice can cause sea levels to rise and inundate coastal areas – it also makes storms like hurricanes and typhoons more destructive. Melting ice also causes a feedback loop, which can cause more future warming and then more ice loss. Continue reading...