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...

Conservationists say 27,000 hectares of green space will be lost to development by 2050Battle lines have been drawn for one of the biggest nimby battles in decades with a warning from conservationists that a plan to build a million new homes between Oxford and Cambridge will concrete over an area the size of Birmingham.The Council for the Protection of Rural England has calculated that the scheme, proposed last year by the government’s national infrastructure commission (NIC), could see 27,000 hectares of greenfield farmland and woodland lost to development by 2050. Continue reading...

First in network of chargers three times faster than current models installed near ParisShell has stepped up its move into electric vehicle infrastructure with the installation of its first ultrafast charging points in western Europe – but they are so powerful that no car currently on sale today would be able to fully exploit them.The chargers at a motorway service station outside Paris are one of 80 European locations the Anglo-Dutch firm is planning for swift charging by 2020, including as many as eight in the UK. Continue reading...

Union’s president says bill’s current wording could lead to a lowering of standardsThe National Farmers’ Union has told Theresa May she must treat the food industry as being of equal importance as the car sector, with special protections enshrined in new laws covering standards and production.The NFU president, Minette Batters, said she had raised concerns in a phone call to the prime minister that food production was not at the heart of a new agriculture bill, the first major overhaul of legislation in the sector since the second world war. Continue reading...

Move is aimed at halting the spread of ‘superbugs’ resistant to medical treatmentThe European parliament has approved a suite of restrictions on the use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals in a bid to halt the spread of “superbugs” resistant to medical treatment.Europe’s animals consume more antibiotics than humans on average, often via livestock feeds on factory farms, where farmers routinely use them as a prophylactic against the occurrence or spread of disease. Continue reading...

Burning coal is the single largest contributor to global climate breakdown. Human rights violations at the sites of fossil fuel extraction are often hidden.The connections between County Clare, Ireland and La Guajira, Colombia may not be entirely obvious at first glance. Yet the regions are linked through a shared commodity: coal. Extracted in one region and burned in the other.Coal extraction in La Guajira has a dirty secret, which I’ve witnessed first-hand: it is connected to a system of production entrenched in violence, bloodshed and environmental destruction. Continue reading...

More than 2,000 GP surgeries and hospitals in UK are in areas that breach WHO air pollution guidelines, study saysHundreds of thousands of patients who visit more than 2,000 hospitals and GP practices across the UK are breathing poisonous air that breaches World Health Organization guidelines, according to a new report.The study found that a third of GP surgeries and a quarter of hospitals – including some of the biggest children’s centres – are in areas that breach limits for the most dangerous particulates: PM2.5. Continue reading...

Only third who buy squash to create lanterns will cook leftover flesh, finds surveyThe UK will bin 8m pumpkins after Halloween, the equivalent of enough pumpkin pie to feed the entire nation, research has found.Almost three-fifths (58%) of consumers buy pumpkins to hollow out and carve, of whom only a third bother to cook the leftover but edible innards, according to the annual #PumpkinRescue campaign. Continue reading...

Program that protects and restores environmentally sensitive land on private property badly under resourced, report warnsQueensland’s 4.4m hectare network of nature refuges is “stretched to breaking point” and badly under-resourced, a new report commissioned by an alliance of conservation groups warns.The refuges are designed to protect and restore environmentally sensitive land on private property across Queensland. Landholders agree to dedicate part of their property as a private protected area, and in turn receive government support. Continue reading...

Proxy firm secures support from major investors for three resolutions calling for company to align policy to Paris agreementActivist shareholders in Australia’s largest independent coalminer are expected to vote in record numbers on Thursday to demand Whitehaven Coal aligns its long-term company strategy with the Paris climate agreement.Guardian Australia understands the group Market Forces has secured support from some superannuation funds and large overseas investors in Whitehaven for three resolutions that will be put to the company’s annual general meeting in Sydney. Continue reading...

Allegations of spying are unfounded, says government, as UN expresses alarmFive environmentalists have been charged in Iran with national security crimes punishable by death, in a development the UN environment head said was deeply troubling.The activists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation were arrested in January alongside at least four other people, and face allegations of spying, which human rights campaigners and Iran’s own government say are unfounded. Continue reading...

Compromise follows long-running dispute over council’s road maintenance schemeSheffield city council has proposed a deal under which fewer trees would be cut down as a result of its controversial road maintenance scheme, following a long-running dispute with campaigners.The council paused the felling temporarily in March after dozens of protesters were arrested while attempting to stop trees being chopped down. Continue reading...

East Island has vanished after coming into contact with Hurricane Walaka, an intense storm that hit Hawaii earlier this monthA piece of the United States has been dramatically wiped off the map after an island in Hawaii was washed away by a powerful hurricane.East Island, a remote spit of gravel and sand that sat atop a coral reef, has vanished after having this misfortune to come into contact with Hurricane Walaka, an intense storm that surged past Hawaii earlier this month. Continue reading...

Iran is tackling the potential water supply crisis exacerbated by climate change

‘Sometimes you just have to suck it up,’ former deputy PM tells ousted Liberal leader. This blog is now closed.

Forests in the region of Raub in Malaysia are being burned and cleared to make way for durian plantationsThe habitat of one of the world’s most endangered tigers is under threat, according to environmental groups, as forests in Malaysia are cleared to meet growing demand for durians, the divisively pungent fruit hugely popular in China.Forests in the region of Raub in Malaysia, which has become a popular destination for Chinese and Singapore tourists on “durian tours”, are being burned and cleared to make way for plantations to grow the Musang King variety of the spiky but stinky fruit. Continue reading...

Magnitude 0.4 tremor follows several others recorded since Cuadrilla restarted drillingFracking operations in Lancashire have been shut down after seismic activity was detected. The move came a little more than a week after the process was restarted in the UK for the first time since it was banned in 2011.Cuadrilla Resources, which is carrying out the operations at its Preston New Road site, confirmed it paused work early on Tuesday as a precaution because of the microseismic event, which was measured at a magnitude of 0.4 and within the limit allowed by UK authorities. Continue reading...

Since 2015, Canadian companies have provided $2.4 billion in combat vehicles, weapons, surveillance technology, pilot training relied on by the oil-rich SaudisEach time she learns Saudi bombs are falling on Yemen, Shireen Al-Adeimi rushes to her cell-phone.Living an ocean-away in the United States, the Yemeni-Canadian anxiously scrolls through her WhatsApp chats to make sure her friends and family back home are safe. Continue reading...

Aurelia Skipwith, who worked as a lawyer and in research at Monsanto, will be nominated to run the Fish and Wildlife ServiceDonald Trump is nominating a former executive of agrochemical company Monsanto to run the US Fish and Wildlife Service.Aurelia Skipwith has been the deputy assistant secretary of fish, wildlife and parks for the interior department since April 2017. She is a lawyer and was in research for six years at Monsanto, where she led a team that brought new agricultural products to market, and then was in corporate affairs, according to her self-reported work history. Continue reading...

Exclusive interview: Angus Taylor will look at overcoming financing problems new generation projects faceThe energy minister, Angus Taylor, has signalled the Australian government could indemnify new power generation projects against the future risk of a carbon price, and says it could also support the retrofitting of existing coal plants.In an interview with Guardian Australia, the man dubbed the “minister for getting power prices down” by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has also committed to keeping current subsidies for households and businesses to install renewable energy technology like solar panels until 2030, and insists Australia’s electricity sector will reduce emissions by 26% on 2005 levels in “the early 2020s”. Continue reading...

As the Coalition announces new measures to reduce power bills, Taylor talks to political editor Katharine MurphyInterview with the energy minister Angus Taylor and Guardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy. The discussion follows government announcements on measures to reduce power prices, including a “last resort” divestiture power to break up power companies, and mechanisms to boost investment in new electricity generation.I’ll get on to today’s announcements [about measures to lower power prices and increase investment in generation] in a second, but first, what are you doing with small-scale renewable energy scheme (SRES)? Labor has now said it stays until 2030. Continue reading...

Climate breakdown is an imminent threat to humanity. But an international treaty could avert calamityHow did government respond to the recent scientific conclusion that only “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” can deliver the globally agreed target for stopping climate breakdown? In the UK, fracking for fossil fuels was given the green light, plans were announced for a huge new road in the south-east, incentives for electric vehicles withered, the expansion of Heathrow airport is still going ahead and Gatwick airport is trying to expand too by bringing a back-up runway into use. It’s like seeing a sign that says “Danger: vertical cliff drop” and pulling on your best running shoes to take a flying leap.Something isn’t working. The head of the oil company Shell responded to the new climate science warming by clarifying that “Shell’s core business is, and will be for the foreseeable future, very much in oil and gas.” BP announced new North Sea oil projects. Immediate choices are being made with blank disregard to avoiding climate breakdown. Continue reading...

New plastic-to-fuel technology means there is a growing case for stockpiling our plastic waste, argues Patrick Cosgrove. David Reed says it’s time to start burning all household rubbish to generate powerIn August, exchequer secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Tackling the scandal of plastic pollution is one of our top priorities.” But it’s now confirmed what many have long suspected, that the UK recycling industry is riven with corruption (Report, 19 October) and only now is government dimly aware of the problem. Taxing coffee mugs and plastic straws, and placing a charge on plastic bags are commendable actions, but in the face of ever-increasing plastic production, single-use or not, are minuscule and potentially token. In addition to stamping out the illegal export of waste and reducing single use plastic at source, a radical upheaval of domestic recycling is required. Local authorities pay waste management companies to collect, sort and, hopefully, recycle domestic plastic waste. Yet they only recycle a proportion of it and ship the rest abroad. Much ends in landfill or in the oceans. The council tax we pay for these destructive processes could be better deployed.With rapid progress now being made on carbon capture, home and industrial-based pyrolysis (waste to energy), and other plastic-to-fuel processes, there is a strong case to stockpile plastic that is difficult to recycle or contaminated. In compacted or granulated form at 10% of its previous volume, it can be stored for future use as feedstock for negative emission energy production and other innovative uses. We used to have grain mountains and wine lakes. Why not temporary plastic mountains?

There’s a 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming, but most Americans are unaware

Australian Maritime Safety Authority report says food waste and grey water spill occurred on 26 August

Charities tackling hunger could save Britain £500m a year if they had capacity, finds reportThe collection and redistribution of edible food by the UK’s largest charity tackling hunger – and that would otherwise go to waste – saves the UK economy some £51m every year, according to an independent report published on Monday.If FareShare and other charities in the sector were able to scale up their capacity in order to handle half of the surplus food available in the UK supply chain, the value back to the state could be as much as £500m per year, it claims. Continue reading...

Thinktank says transition to low-carbon economy could result in ‘local deprivation’As many as 28,000 jobs will be lost in the north of England in the next 12 years under the government’s drive towards a low-carbon economy, a thinktank has warned.The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said in its report that the region could be at the heart of a “clean energy revolution” – with a potential for 46,000 new green jobs – but instead faced economic decline under current plans. Continue reading...

Michael Gove unveils consultation on move to cut pollution and protect oceansPlastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds could be banned within a year under government plans to cut pollution, Michael Gove is to announce.Launching a consultation on the proposals on Monday, the environment secretary will cite the success of the 5p charge on single-use plastic bags, which led to an 86% drop in their use at major supermarkets. Continue reading...