Environment | The Guardian

Government and Senate crossbench combine to reject Greens and Labor motions to disallow controversial management plansA push by the Greens and Labor to attempt to force greater protection of fisheries in Australia’s marine parks has failed for the second time.The parties had vowed to reject controversial management plans for the parks proposed by the Turnbull government. But on Thursday the Senate crossbench combined with the Coalition to defeat disallowance motions on the basis that the parks would then be left with no plans in place and no limits on fishing. Continue reading...

Pauline Hanson wants five-year ban and a plebiscite on Muslim immigration to Australia8.25am BSTOn that note, we will also adjourn until Monday.This first week back went for eternities. Whole civilisations rose and fell while we were locked in this building. I never thought I would be so happy to return to talking energy policy deadlocks.8.12am BSTFrom Tony Burke’s office:The Australian Parliament has just locked in the largest removal of area under conservation in history. Continue reading...

Jorginho Guajajara’s killing is believed by members of his tribe to be the result of conflict with loggers in their Amazon territoryIndigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon are mourning the murder of a community leader who campaigned to protect the forest from logging amid escalating violence in the region.Jorginho Guajajara, a cacique, or leader, of the Guajajara people, was found dead near a river in the city of Arame, Maranhão state, at the weekend. Continue reading...

Peter Kimpton finds a bike that’s perfect for riding on the beach and explores the Glamorgan coast near PorthcawlSmooth tarmac to rough, potholed roads, gravel tracks to mountain paths, cyclists encounter good and bad surfaces, but rarely do we ride on sand. Most bikes would get stuck and seize up in seconds. Beaches may be free of traffic, but they are the last place you think of for a bike ride. Yet a fat-bike defies the laws of traction and discomfort, and allows you to explore thousands of miles of coast in a fraction of the time it would take to do so on foot. But where best to try it?Porthcawl, near Bridgend station on the coast between Cardiff and Swansea, is a surprisingly underused and beautiful beach. It’s the nearest lengthy surf beach to London and several other cities, lies near world-class mountain bike trails, is home to the rarest flower in Britain, and was a film location for Lawrence of Arabia. And for one weekend a year, it’s the surreal home to 35,000 Elvis devotees. Continue reading...

Cancer-linked herbicide, sold as Roundup by Monsanto, present in 45 products including granola, snack bars and CheeriosSignificant levels of the weedkilling chemical glyphosate have been found in an array of popular breakfast cereals, oats and snack bars marketed to US children, a new study has found.Tests revealed glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular weedkiller brand Roundup, present in all but two of the 45 oat-derived products that were sampled by the Environmental Working Group, a public health organization. Continue reading...

Fearsome predator was extinct in England but Scottish relatives have crossed the border and set up home in NorthumberlandThe pine marten, a fearsome but diminutive predator driven to extinction in England, has returned to the country’s largest forest for the first time since 1926.Stills and video from a camera trap have recorded a mature pine marten devouring peanut butter put out for red squirrels at a secret location in Kielder forest, Northumberland. Continue reading...

Wildlife campaigner Tom Langton claims the culls themselves risk making bovine TB epidemic worseBadger culling will be extended across England on an open-ended basis, conservationists have warned, after the high court rejected a challenge to the legality of the government’s policy.Licences to allow badger culling to continue in particular areas beyond a four-year period are legal, ruled Mr Justice Cranston, rejecting a challenge brought by the independent ecologist Tom Langton. Continue reading...

A new study examines potential climate feedbacks that could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state

Tiny jellyfish species normally found in the Yangtze basin in China sighted in British canalFirst came the wasps, exotic sharks and marauding seagulls. Now the long hot summer has revealed another initially alarm-inducing animal in British waters – or more precisely, in the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.Freshwater jellyfish normally native to the Yangtze basin in China have been spotted swimming in the waters near Bridge 23 of the canal between Middlewich and Winsford, according to the Canal & River Trust. Continue reading...

The rapid influx of these beaver-like rodents has decimated parts of the Californian wetlands. They were introduced to the US for the fur trade and now share wetland areas with some of the west coast’s most endangered species. The California department of fish and wildlife has compared the threat of their presence to that of wildfiresCalifornia v nutria: state seeks to eradicate scourge of giant rodents Continue reading...

As the dog-sized creatures destroy wetlands and dig through levees, officials have a goal: total exterminationThe call came from a wildlife trapper working in the wetlands of central California.“I think I caught a nutria,” the man said. Continue reading...

Labor pursues environment minister over grant to private foundation and fallout continues from Fraser Anning’s ‘final solution’ speech. All the day’s events, live• Fraser Anning calls for ‘final solution’ on immigration

Foundation board members and government officials will also give evidence into the awarding of the grant

UK industrialist’s plan features 780,000 solar panels, generating enough electricity for 96,000 homesBillionaire UK industrialist Sanjeev Gupta has launched a $1bn, one-gigawatt renewable energy plan based in South Australia’s mid-north that he says will lead Australian industry’s transition to more competitive power.In the first of a number of projects slated for the upper Spencer Gulf region, which will also include a lithium-ion battery bigger than Elon Musk’s, Gupta’s energy company Simec Zen has released details of its Cultana Solar Farm. Continue reading...

Coal-fired power subsidies mean the projections relied on by Coalition are not credible, study saysThe Turnbull government is trumpeting power price reductions as a consequence of its national energy guarantee – but a new analysis says subsidies for coal-fired power stations will render those forecasts “virtually meaningless”.The government has failed to rule out the building of new coal plants as a consequence of its underwriting of new power generation, and Labor declaring that development a deal breaker. Continue reading...

Politicians and farmers say water should be diverted to crops to keep herds aliveThere are growing calls for the federal and state governments to start selling government-owned environmental water entitlements to farmers to alleviate the drought and to keep livestock alive.But the proposals would see wetlands and river courses starved of water with potential environmental stress from the drought exacerbated by the diversion of water onto farmland. Continue reading...

Judy Hindley says we must increase the price of fossil fuels, and Iain Climie raises the issue of climate change refugeesWhile I appreciate your work in keeping the spotlight on the global heatwave (World on fire: the rise of the 50C city, G2, 13 August), I’m scared by the emphasis of your correspondents and leader writers on “adapting” to climate change (Letters, 11 July). You don’t “adapt” to a raging fire, do you? You have to stop it. And the first thing you need to do is stop pouring fuel on it.Leading scientists worldwide now agree that the main cause of the climate crisis is the burning of fossil fuels, and leading economists agree that the solution is to price fossil fuels out of the market. Until that happens, we will be paying – with our health, our lives and our children’s future. Continue reading...

Those interested in mass of oils and wet wipes can now watch a sample of it sweat and growThose who wish to watch the slow sweating of a disgusting, calcified mass of faeces, fats, oils, wet wipes and sanitary products can now do so at the click of a mouse.The Museum of London announced on Tuesday that it had permanently acquired samples of fatbergs and would livestream them to the world. Continue reading...

Heat now kills more Americans than floods, hurricanes or other natural disasters – but cities are facing it almost entirely aloneOn yet another day of roasting heat in Phoenix, elderly and homeless people scurry between shards of shade in search of respite at the Marcos De Niza Senior Center. Along with several dozen other institutions in the city, it has been set up as a cooling centre: a free public refuge, with air conditioning, chilled bottled water, boardgames and books. Last summer a record 155 people died in Phoenix from excess heat, and the city is straining to avoid a repeat.James Sanders, an 83-year-old who goes by King, has lived in the city for 60 years and considers himself acclimatised to the baking south Arizona sun. “It does seem hotter than it used to be, though,” he says as he picks at his lunch, the temperature having climbed to 42C (107F) outside. “Maybe it’s my age. Maybe the wind isn’t blowing. It can’t get much hotter than this though. Can it?” Continue reading...

The Pacific Island is home to one of the world’s most pristine coral reefs, boasting more than 9,300 marine speciesNew Caledonia has agreed to tougher protections around a huge swathe of some of the world’s last near-pristine coral reefs, in a move conservationists hailed as a major breakthrough.The Pacific nation, a French overseas territory, is home to a rich array of wildlife including 2.5 million seabirds and more than 9,300 marine species such as dugongs and nesting green sea turtles, many of which thrive in and around remote zones off the island nation’s coast. Continue reading...

Culling and loss of moorland in favour of conifer forests blamed for severe decline in wildlifeCulling by grouse moor managers is being blamed for the drastic decline of mountain hares on eastern Scottish moorlands to less than 1% of the level recorded more than 60 years ago.A long-term study by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the RSPB analysed counts of the animals on moorland managed for red grouse shooting and nearby mountain land. Continue reading...

President vows to curb fuel subsidies to prevent reselling in neighbouring countriesVenezuela’s heavily subsidised domestic fuel prices should rise to international levels to avoid billions of dollars in annual losses as a result of smuggling, Nicolás Maduro has said in a televised address.“Gasoline must be sold at an international price to stop smuggling to Colombia and the Caribbean,” the president said. Continue reading...

London Assembly call for bins to be placed in men’s toilets so items that could cause blockages are not flushed awayMen using public toilets in London may soon be confronted with an unusual new arrival in their cubicles.Sanitary bins, familiar for years in female loos, are poised to be introduced into male conveniences in an attempt to cut down on fatbergs in the capital’s sewers, if Greater London Assembly members have their way. Men use wet wipes too, as well as other products that can clog the sewers if they are flushed, not binned. Continue reading...

US interior secretary Ryan Zinke blames environmentalists for the devastation in California and calls for an increase in loggingThe US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has blamed environmentalists for California’s ferocious wildfires and claimed, contrary to scientific research, that climate change had “nothing to do” with them. Instead, he said the fires were worsened because of limits on logging.“America is better than letting these radical groups control the dialogue about climate change,” Zinke told KCRA, a TV station in northern California, on Sunday. “Extreme environmentalists have shut down public access. They talk about habitat and yet they are willing to burn it up.” Continue reading...

Staff at government scientific agency will likely be seconded to help administer funds, documents showThe CSIRO was not aware a $443.8 m grant would be offered to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and staff at the agency are likely to be seconded to the charity to help administer the funds, according to documents tabled in the Senate.The documents, tabled on Monday, show the agency “didn’t have visibility” before the government announced the grant on 29 April, with correspondence from senior staff noting the prime minister’s office appeared to be involved. Continue reading...

Senate inquiry to visit Port Augusta to investigate mistakes made after the closure of the Northern power plantFor the residents living near the site of South Australia’s demolished coal-fired power plant, the coming months could be their third straight summer of dust.A flawed rehabilitation of an ash dam has led to potentially hazardous particles being blown across Port Augusta and its 14,000 residents for the last two years. Continue reading...

70% of vessels implicated in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing are registered in tax havens, report findsMoney channelled through secretive tax havens has been used to fuel deforestation in the Amazon and illegal fishing around the world, racking up a heavy environmental toll but leaving few ways for businesses to be held to account.Billions of pounds worth of finance has travelled through countries internationally recognised as tax havens, and has been traced by researchers to activities that contribute to environmental destruction, such as growing soy and beef in deforested areas of the Amazon, and expanding a network of largely unregulated fishing vessels operating under “flags of convenience”. Continue reading...

ÃŽle Saint-Louis residents demand removal of bright-red receptacles with no stallA set of eco-friendly but completely exposed urinals that have been introduced to the streets of Paris are provoking uproar among residents.

Trump is trying to accelerate the key contributor to California’s expanding wildfires – climate change

Under pressure from Labor, minister proffers timeline of grant decision-makingThe environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, says his department conducted two stages of due diligence on the Great Barrier Reef Foundation before he approached the organisation on 9 April to offer $443.8m in funding.Under pressure from Labor in the House of Representatives on Monday, the environment minister proffered a timeline of his decision making. It came after Frydenberg said on Sunday extensive due diligence had been done ahead of awarding the controversial grant, and the managing director of the foundation said on Monday she was unaware of that due diligence process and no one from the government had contacted her. Continue reading...

Foundation’s timeline appears to contradict Josh Frydenberg’s assurance that ‘extensive due diligence’ took place before grantDue diligence the government says it conducted before announcing a $443.8m grant to a not-for-profit group was actually conducted as part of an application for funding for a separate project, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation says.The environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, says “extensive due diligence” took place before awarding the foundation almost half a billion dollars of taxpayer money. Continue reading...

Greenpeace says government should be ‘exercising the precautionary principle’ until more studies conductedGreenpeace has called on the Australian government to suspend the sale of the weedkiller Roundup after a US court ruled it had caused the terminal cancer of an American man.On Friday, the San Francisco superior court of California ruled that Roundup caused school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma – a fatal blood cell cancer. Continue reading...

Coral Triangle could be key to conserving the world’s reefs as Indonesia corals survive worst coral bleaching event in history.

Researchers say endangered killer whale who lives off the coast of Seattle is back to feeding and frolicking with her podResearchers say an endangered killer whale thatcarried her dead calf on her head for more than two weeks has finally abandoned the calf’s body and is back to feeding and frolicking with her pod.The Center for Whale Research in Washington state says it watched the orca, known as J35, chase a school of salmon in Haro Strait west of San Juan Island, between the US mainland and Vancouver Island, on Saturday afternoon. Continue reading...

Papers show UK environment secretary suggested owners voluntarily end controversial practice of burning heather to head off threat of compulsory banMichael Gove, the environment secretary, has been accused of letting the owners of large grouse moors who are alleged to be damaging the environment off the hook.The accusation from campaigners concerns the owners’ practice of repeatedly burning heather on their moorland estates to help boost the numbers of grouse for shooting. Continue reading...

Lamorna has an extraordinary heritage, but locals fear it may be squandered after the site was put up for saleIt is one of the most stunning beauty spots in Cornwall and one of the places that first attracted artists to the far south-west of England. More than 100 painters, sculptors, etchers and potters, as well as writers and poets, are thought to have lived or worked near Lamorna Cove in the first 30 years of the 20th century.But the cove’s future now hangs in the balance after it was put on the market. Local people are anxious about who may buy it, insisting that only a public body would be able to protect the cove and could afford to maintain it. Continue reading...

Roundup was ruled by a Californian jury to have caused Dewayne Johnson’s lymphomaOne of the UK’s largest DIY retailers is reviewing the sale of Roundup weedkiller products amid mounting concerns about their use, after a US jury found that the herbicide had caused a terminally ill man’s cancer.The manufacturer of the weedkiller, Monsanto, has insisted that British consumers are safe to continue using Roundup products, which are widely sold at DIY stores and used by British farmers. But a spokesperson for Homebase said it would be reviewing its product range after the ruling in California. Continue reading...

Proposed offshore island to protect a haunt of Sinatra and Dietrich would be its ruin, says long-time mayorIt is known affectionately as Belgium’s answer to St Tropez – a town once frequented by Frank Sinatra and Marlene Dietrich and which has inspired the pop art of Keith Haring and surrealism of René Magritte, who painted the walls of the town’s casino.But now the chic, if slightly faded, seaside resort of Knokke-Heist is, in the words of its mayor, Count Leopold Lippens, in a “fight for its life”. The Flemish government, in an attempt to limit the damage to the Belgian coast from rising sea levels, has announced plans for an artificial island of 40 hectares (99 acres) 1.2 kilometres from the sandy beach, to act as a bulwark against the waves. Belgium has, until now, been slow to respond to climate change and its coast has suffered severe damage during recent storms. Continue reading...

Families keen on saving money and stopping plastic waste ditch the disposablesIf the idea of cloth nappies conjures images of towelling squares loosely held by a large safety pin, think again. Modern versions have come a long way and are now available in bright colours and a variety of materials, including cotton, bamboo, microfibre and hemp.Growing consumer concern over plastic waste, and a more pragmatic desire to save money, means boom times for the reusable nappy industry. Continue reading...

Emails obtained by New York Times show workers worried that companies could get away with using asbestos in ways the EPA did not listThe Environmental Protection Agency’s own staffers objected to a controversial new US rule governing the use of cancer-causing asbestos, according to internal emails.Related: EPA ordered to ban pesticide linked to learning disabilities Continue reading...

The Carr fire, one of 13 large fires burning in California, was ignited in late July when a trailer tire blew out and created sparks as it ground on the asphalt. It killed seven people and destroyed 1,077 homes in the small city of Redding, in the far north of the state. New photos released by the city show the extent of the damage Continue reading...

A Sumatran orangutan, fireflies mating and a sea lion cooling off in record-breaking Californian heat are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Reduced yields are putting national dish and ‘symbol of Belgium’ under threatFood vendors in Belgium are praying for rain as the hot weather threatens the supply of the country’s national dish, frites.The Europe-wide heatwave has shrunk Belgium’s early crop of potatoes by about one-third compared with an average year. Without significant rainfall over the next few weeks, the key September and October harvests could be smaller still. Continue reading...

It and the Queensland government were aware polluted water could spill during 2017 cyclone, says Mackay Conservation GroupAdani and the Queensland government were aware that polluted water could be released from the company’s Abbot Point coal terminal during cyclone Debbie in 2017, conservationists say.Adani was granted a temporary emissions licence on 27 March last year, before cyclone Debbie made landfall, to pollute the nearby Caley Valley wetlands in an area referred to as W1. Continue reading...

The summer of heatwaves and forest fires leaves my friends feeling helpless and a little hysterical. And who can blame us?The New York Times has devoted an entire edition of its magazine, some 30,000 words, to a terrifying piece about climate change. With 2C warming – an unlikely best-case scenario at this point, scientists were quoted as saying – the planet faces “long-term disaster”. With 3C warming, we are looking at “the loss of most coastal cities”. The possibility that the Earth might warm by 5C, wrote the author, Nathaniel Rich, had prompted some of the world’s leading scientists to warn of the end of human civilisation.Related: Huge rise of people at risk from wildfires as western US population grows Continue reading...

Retailers given six months to stop providing lightweight plastic bags or face fines of up to NZ$100,000New Zealand will ban single-use plastic bags over the next year, the government has announced.Retailers in the country will be given six months to stop providing lightweight plastic bags, or face fines of up to NZ$100,000 (£51,000). Continue reading...

Helicopters, divers and hundreds of firefighters involved in rescue after torrent swept through campsite in Gard region

A24’s pillars for a better society sound a little like the manifesto of a left-leaning Scandinavian nationWhat would the Australia of your dreams look like? That was the question civil society groups, unions, welfare groups and Indigenous representatives asked themselves nearly three years ago.Faced with competing world views of the US president, Donald Trump, One Nation, the Business Council of Australia, alongside the pragmatic visions of Australia’s major parties, the group – known as A24 – began asking themselves: why do we do what we do? What’s our common vision of society that underpins our daily activism? Continue reading...

Michael Myer says size of grant ‘unheard of’ as Josh Frydenberg refuses to say where idea originated

NGO says it used GPS units to track waste from collection points at Officeworks to Hong Kong and ThailandElectronic waste dropped at government-approved recycling points at Officeworks stores was allegedly exported to developing countries, potentially breaching a global waste treaty, a non-government organisation has said.The US-based Basel Action Network (Ban) – which embeds GPS units inside discarded electronics and monitors them – said in a report to be released on Thursday that two LCD monitors the organisation placed at Officeworks’ “Bring IT Back” drop zones in Brisbane were tracked to an area of Hong Kong’s New Territories known for “e-waste trafficking”. Continue reading...