In a weekend scouring the Salcombe estuary, we found everything from bottles to a toy dolphin. The pollution in our waters is ubiquitous – and devastatingOne My Little Pony, two crabbing buckets, five balloons, six balls, seven straws, nine shoes, a dozen coffee cups, 20 carrier bags, 205 plastic bottles and lids, polystyrene and a huge amount of rope. That is just a fraction of what my six-year-old daughter, Ella, and I collected over the course of two days last weekend, as we paddleboarded around the Salcombe-Kingsbridge estuary in south Devon, scouring the foreshores of every creek and cove for 22 miles.Within seconds of setting off from South Sands beach by the mouth of the estuary, we spotted a clear plastic carrier bag floating in the shallows. Marine wildlife could easily have mistaken it for a jellyfish. Ella grabbed it with a litter picker as we paddled past. Continue reading...

Coal rebound and slowing efficiency gains in 2017 suggest Paris goals may be missed, says oil firmThe renewed upward march of global carbon emissions is worrying and a big step backwards in the fight against climate change, according to BP.Emissions rose 1.6% in 2017 after flatlining for the previous three years, which the British oil firm said was a reminder the world was not on track to hit the goals of the Paris climate deal. Continue reading...

Councillor calls for sign to be removed from battlements saying it is ‘beyond irony’A historic town in south Wales has been criticised for celebrating becoming a plastic-free community by hanging a banner made of plastic from a 13th-century gateway.Chepstow fixed the large banner to the battlements of its town gate after being granted plastic-free status by the green charity Surfers Against Sewage. Continue reading...

Sir William Worsley is tasked with stopping the unnecessary felling of trees and support plans to plant 11 million treesThe environment secretary, Michael Gove, has appointed a “tree champion” to stop the unnecessary felling of trees and boost planting rates.

Species including the wildcat and black rat may be lost within a decade while others such as deer are thriving, analysis showsThe wildcat and mouse-eared bat are on the brink, but deer are spreading and otters bouncing back, according to a comprehensive analysis.At least one in five wild mammals in Britain faces a high risk of extinction within a decade and overall populations are falling, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: There were masses of southern marsh orchids, many of which were in the early stages of flower opening like a slow-motion firework display

Garden warblers in fact prefer thick scrub, which is dying out in our tidy countrysideSome birds are very well named: such as the cuckoo, treecreeper and song thrush. Others, including Kentish plover, grey wagtail and garden warbler, are almost wilfully misleading.Garden warblers are, unlike their cousin the blackcap, hardly ever found in gardens. They prefer thick scrub, a transitory habitat that is becoming harder and harder to find in our increasingly tidy countryside. Continue reading...

Andrew and Jane Clifford promise to match donations in bid to stop feral catsA $1m donation to the fight against feral cats could help to double the size of the world’s largest cat-free sanctuary or help genetically neuter cats, conservationists say.Sydney philanthropists Andrew and Jane Clifford have pledged to match every donation made to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy up to $1m before the end of the financial year, hoping to create a $2m fund to eradicate Australia’s cat plague. Continue reading...

Readers react to George Monbiot’s article on dropping meat and dairy, news about Sainsbury’s selling vegan ‘fake meats’ , and a report on meat being found in vegan and vegetarian mealsAlongside George Monbiot’s suggestion (Want to save the planet? Drop meat and dairy, 8 June), another way to reduce greenhouse gases is to stop keeping pets. It’s been calculated that an average dog has an ecological footprint twice as large as that of a large car.Like meat-eating, pet ownership is nowadays encouraged by a vast industry; the pet insurance sector alone is said to generate more of Britain’s GDP than fishing does. The production of pet food, provision of veterinary services and breeding the creatures are big businesses, all with an interest in promoting the alleged benefits of owning a furry friend. Continue reading...

With names like Strawberry Breezecake and Cherry Gale-cia, ice-cream maker pushes for government re-thinkTubs of Strawberry Breeze-cake, Cherry Gale-cia and other wind-themed ice-creams will feature in a campaign by Ben & Jerry’s to persuade the government to rethink its opposition to onshore windfarms.The renamed flavours will be sold at half price on “windy Wednesdays” to support a pro-renewables push by the Unilever-owned firm, which has a history of campaigning on climate change and environmental issues. Continue reading...

With a shake of the hand, the US president has tightened Kim Jong-un’s grip over an enslaved nation – and got almost nothing in returnA useful way to test the deal Donald Trump has reached with Kim Jong-un is to imagine what Trump himself would have said had it been Barack Obama rather than him who shook hands with the North Korean dictator. Trump and his echo chamber on Fox News and elsewhere would have poured buckets of derision on Obama for the piece of paper he signed with Kim, for the fawning praise he lavished on a brutal tyrant, and for the paltry non-concessions he got in return. He would have branded the agreement a “horrible deal” and condemned Obama as a sucker for signing it.Look first at what Kim got from the encounter. Once ostracised as a pariah, Kim was treated as a world statesman on a par with the president of the United States, the two meeting on equal terms, right down to the equal numbers of flags behind them as they shook hands. The tyrant now has a showreel of images – including his walkabout in Singapore, where he was mobbed by what the BBC called “fans” seeking selfies – which will feature in propaganda videos for months, if not years. Continue reading...

Are we doomed to societal collapse? Not if we break the mould of ever-greater production and consumptionEnough concrete has been produced to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer two millimetres thick. Enough plastic has been manufactured to clingfilm it as well. We produce 4.8bn tonnes of our top five crops, plus 4.8 billion head of livestock, annually. There are 1.2bn motor vehicles, 2bn personal computers, and more mobile phones than the 7.5 billion people on Earth.The result of all this production and consumption is a chronic, escalating, many-sided environmental crisis. From rapid climate change to species extinctions to microplastics in every ocean, these impacts are now so large that many scientists have concluded that we have entered a new human-dominated geological period called the Anthropocene. Continue reading...

Committee was set up by former prime minister Tony Abbott to handle complaints about wind turbine noise• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noonAn independent scientific committee on wind turbines established by the Coalition in 2015 failed to hold one face-to-face meeting last year and failed to have its research accepted by peer-reviewed journals.The independent scientific committee on wind turbines was created to advise on the science of potential impacts of wind turbines on people’s health. Continue reading...

Moves to set up state-owned CleanCo were to start in first half of 2018 but have been delayedThe Queensland government appears to have stalled on plans to create its own clean energy generation company, even as it delivered a state budget propped up by a surge in coal royalties.The June 2017 “powering Queensland” plan introduced the idea of CleanCo, a government-owned renewable energy corporation that would operate renewable generators and develop new projects.

Pagham Harbour, West Sussex: Among the detritus, towers of red valerian shake in the wind and sea kale plants explode in a flurry of wavy green leaves Continue reading...

Inland lake where Christians believe Jesus walked on water has reached its lowest level in a centuryThe shrinking Sea of Galilee, the inland lake where Christians believe Jesus walked on water, is to be topped up with desalinated seawater.A plan given Israeli cabinet approval will pump 100 million cubic metres of water annually by 2022 into the lake in the Galilee region, said Yechezkel Lifshitz, from the country’s energy and water ministry. Continue reading...

Singer apologises for firing ticker-tape cannon at gig after outcry from environmentalistsGary Barlow has promised not to use confetti cannons after being criticised by environmental campaigners for firing the tiny pieces of plastic during a concert at the Eden Project.The environmental attraction in Cornwall is running a campaign against single-use plastics and has banned the sale of plastic water bottles and similar items in its shops. But the singer-songwriter went off-message during his appearance on 6 June, when the crowd was showered with ticker tape. Continue reading...

New Australia Institute paper finds neither Coalition nor Labor’s pollution reduction targets would see us doing our fair sharePollution reduction targets for 2030 proposed by the Coalition and Labor will not see Australia contributing its fair share to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris climate agreement, according to new research.A paper from the progressive thinktank the Australia Institute finds the Turnbull government’s target of a 26-28% reduction on 2005 levels is “inadequate according to any recognised principle-based approach” and the Labor target of a 45% reduction is “the bare minimum necessary for Australia to be considered to be making an equitable contribution to the achievement of the Paris agreement’s two degree target”. Continue reading...

Champion of wildlife conservation in towns and citiesGeorge Barker, who has died aged 77, was a champion of wildlife conservation in towns and cities. During his long service in the government wildlife service, the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC), and its successor bodies, he became the acknowledged expert on urban nature conservation, a field that had been largely neglected. His openness to new ideas, unusual in a public servant, and gentle advocacy over four decades, helped to make a success of urban wildlife conservation both at home and abroad.Acting almost alone at first, Barker set about destroying the myth of the “urban wildlife desert”. Long before ecosystem services became a crucial part of urban planning and design, Barker realised that city landscapes can be surprisingly rich in wildlife, especially in post-industrial “brownfield” sites such as quarries and spoil-heaps. These places were seen as derelict land and were completely unprotected. Barker also understood that urban parks and even gardens can become reservoirs for wildlife if managed in the right way. Continue reading...

Supermarket says South African lemons are mature but need longer to turn yellow

European commission’s inaction is putting people’s health at risk, law firm saysPeople’s health is being put at risk by Brussels’ slow response to the use of dangerous chemicals, according to a report.A study by ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation, found that in nine out of 10 cases the European commission’s decision to ban a toxic chemical after it had been identified was “excessively delayed”, sometimes for up to four years. Continue reading...

The WSJ disguises climate misinformation as “opinion”The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Opinion page has long had a conservative skew, and unfortunately that has extended to politicizing climate change with biased and factually inaccurate editorials.Over the past several weeks, the WSJ’s attacks on climate science have gone into overdrive. On May 15, the Opinion page published a self-contradictory editorial from the lifelong contrarian and fossil fuel-funded Fred Singer that so badly rejected basic physics, it prompted one researcher to remark, “If this were an essay in one of my undergraduate classes, he would fail.” Continue reading...

Don’t think bringing children along for the ride means you have to miss out on one of cycling’s true pleasures. You just need to do a bit of extra planningOne of the great joys of riding a bike is touring – pedalling from place to place, without a fixed timetable, ideally with camping gear and everything else you need strapped to your bike. So that poses a question: can you do it with children?The answer is a qualified yes – qualified in the sense you just need to do a bit more planning. We recently tried out a first brief family cycling tour with our son, now seven, and learned a lot in the few days of cycling through the Surrey and West Sussex countryside. Continue reading...

15 June 1918: Colour shimmered in the sun and seemed to pervade everythingSurrey

Springwatch presenter says Britain is increasingly ‘a green and unpleasant land’He’s currently enjoying a great bounty of nature, from tree-climbing slugs to blackbird-gobbling little owls on this year’s Springwatch, but Chris Packham warns that we are presiding over “an ecological apocalypse” and Britain is increasingly “a green and unpleasant land”.The naturalist and broadcaster is urging people to join him next month on a 10-day “bioblitz”, visiting road verges, farmland, parks, allotments and community nature reserves across the country to record what wildlife remains – from butterflies to bryophytes, linnets to lichens. Continue reading...

Bigland Hall, Lake District: Lost in the fog with a recalcitrant compass, I’m glad to encounter the former coach of the British orienteering teamA sea fret creeping in from Morecambe Bay has me baffled. The ancient ride I’ve been following through a corner of the Bigland Hall estate is covered in fog. Normally my compass’s needle points to magnetic north no matter which way I turn. Today? Useless. The needle spins around like a roulette wheel. With visibility down to a few metres, I’m lost. I have the verges to guide me, but is the Flookburgh-Haverthwaite road still to my right? Or have I inadvertently turned through 180 degrees, so that the B5278 is now to my left and I am walking back the way I came? Continue reading...

After the NSW government gave them heritage protection with the brumby bill, I had no choice but to quit the NSW threatened species scientific committeeLast year, I drove up to the New South Wales high country with my oldest son. We arrived at Geehi, found a camp site, rigged up our rods and waded into the crystal clear water, hoping to snag a trout. Between casts, my attention was drawn to a pair of black cockatoos, sailing overhead. Looking up, I noticed the main range of Kosciuszko. Ancient and imposing, granite worn smooth by rain and snow, embroidered with lichens and wildflowers. I don’t know how long we stood there, in silent awe of the jagged peaks, but it’s a treasured moment frozen in time.Sign up to receive the latest Australian opinion pieces every weekday Continue reading...

Queensland company contracted to build airstrip for troubled Carmichael coalmineAnti-Adani activists say they have launched an escalating disruption campaign against Queensland construction company Wagners, which is being targeted over a $30m contract to build an airstrip for the Carmichael coalmine.Members of the group Galilee Blockade entered a Wagners industrial site at Pinkenba near the Port of Brisbane on Sunday afternoon, dressed as superheroes, as a precursor to further protests. Continue reading...

Countries around the world are closely following the UK’s decision on tidal power, writes Nicholas SternYou reported that the government is planning to reject the Swansea Bay tidal power lagoon because it is considered too expensive (UK taxpayers to help fund new nuclear plant, 5 June).The government has not yet announced its decision but it should, in any case, first publish its internal economic analysis of the proposed scheme so that its rigour and robustness can be checked. I have offered, as a former chief economist of the World Bank and head of the UK Government Economic Service, to have a constructive look at the analytical work. That offer stands; the analysis should be in the public domain and subject to scrutiny before a decision is taken. Continue reading...

Lobbyists, hand lotion and Chick-fil-A – it’s hard to keep up with the scandals engulfing the EPA administratorScott Pruitt, the seemingly immoveable administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has an eclectic, almost itinerant, taste in corruption scandals.Pruitt is best known for the ethical quagmires in this administration, shared with other Trump cabinet members, such as indulging in taxpayer-funded first class travel and spending much of his time playing an amenable host to corporations he is meant to regulate. Continue reading...

Trump’s Utah campaign chief shrugs off Stormy Daniels and praises cuts to parks: ‘The land belongs more to me than you’In February 2017, weeks after the inauguration of Donald Trump, a conservative political operative named Don Peay trudged up a steep, sagebrush-covered hillside outside Salt Lake City. Peay served as Trump’s campaign manager in Utah and is a hunting advocate who has gone out shooting with prominent rightwingers such as Dick Cheney, Ted Nugent and Donald Trump Jr.Peay wanted to point out a particular parcel of public land that used to be overrun by highly invasive cheat grass. Several years ago, he worked with local land managers to revegetate it with native plants favored by deer and elk. Continue reading...

The science journalist’s new book boils decades of environmental debate down to the starkly contrasting approaches of two key figuresCharles C Mann is a science journalist, author and historian. His books 1491 and 1493, looking at the Americas before and after Columbus, were widely acclaimed. His new book, The Wizard and the Prophet, examines the highly influential and starkly contrasting environmental visions of Norman Borlaug (the Wizard) and William Vogt (the Prophet). Borlaug (1914-2009) was instrumental in the green revolution that vastly expanded the amount of food humanity has been able to cultivate. Vogt (1902-1968) was a pioneering ecologist who argued that humans had exceeded the Earth’s “carrying capacity” and were heading for cataclysm unless consumption was drastically reduced. One believed in scientific ingenuity as the answer to our problems, the other was convinced that it only deepened the crisis.What made you frame this story of humanity’s future in terms of these two individuals?

Liverpool plains farmer Megan Kuhn says cows are being slaughtered because there is no way of feeding them after years of extreme weatherIn the south-west corner of NSW’s Liverpool plains, in an area called Bundella, farmer Megan Kuhn runs beef cattle and merino sheep with her husband, Martin.They have 400 breeding cows that will calve in six weeks. Shortly, 89 of those cows will leave the property, sold to an abattoir because the cost of feeding the animals during drought has become too great. Continue reading...

Pontiff says clean energy is needed as climate change risks destroying humanityPope Francis has told oil company chiefs that the world must switch to clean energy because climate change risks destroying humanity.“Civilisation requires energy, but energy use must not destroy civilisation,” he said at the end of a two-day conference at the Vatican. Continue reading...

The 100-mile on- and off-road bike-packing event is undoubtedly a challenge, but there is a true sense of adventureTwenty-two miles from the end of a gruelling, beautiful and intensely varied 100 mile cross-country bike ride through Dorset, the rear derailleur on my bike clacked, pinged and, in the manner of a wounded fly, ended its journey upside down, immobile and missing several parts.I stood on the dirt track peering down at it, wondering how I’d finish the ride, before my riding buddies set about trying to get me pedalling once more. Continue reading...

Cefn Garw, Migneint, Snowdonia: Decades ago old Mr Roberts, who shepherded on horseback, departed his remote tyddyn, leaving the moor to fox, raven, pipit-hunting merlinThere are places among the Welsh hills where you may “grow rich/ With looking”. In my copy of RS Thomas’s Collected Poems, the verse from which that’s taken is marked with a curlew’s feather, picked up by Cefn Garw, perhaps the loneliest house in Wales. I’ve often followed the four-mile, climbing track to it alongside the Serw river. Rough ridge, place of quagmires, silken stream – such perfect simplicity in the way Welsh toponymy describes landscape’s essence. Continue reading...

Low light imaging data being used to expose unregulated and unreported fishing on the high seasNew data is being used to expose fleets of previously unmonitored fishing vessels on the high seas, in what campaigners hope will lead to the eradication of illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

Florida woman was identified from evidence collected from a necropsy after she disappeared while walking her dogs by a lakeA woman who disappeared while walking her dogs near a lake in Miami, Florida on Friday was bitten and likely killed by an alligator that was later captured, wildlife officials said.A necropsy confirmed the alligator bit Shizuka Matsuki, 47, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said in a statement. They believe Matsuki was killed and were searching for her body. Commission spokesman Rob Klepper said they were able to positively identify the woman from evidence collected from the necropsy of the alligator, but he wouldn’t specifically say what that evidence was. Continue reading...

Conservationists say federal environment minister has obligation to protect areas of national significanceConservationists have called on the federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, to intervene to protect the Kosciuszko national park from brumbies after a New South Wales bill was passed giving heritage protection to the feral horses.The Australian Conservation Foundation says the federal government has an obligation under national environment law to protect areas of national significance, including the national heritage-listed Australian Alps national parks and reserves. Continue reading...

June, generally considered a ‘moderate’ month, surprised us last year with searing heat and teeming rainJune is usually thought of as a rather moderate month, weather-wise. Heatwaves tend to happen in July and August, and although there were famous falls of snow in parts of England on 2 June 1975, such events are mercifully very rare.Occasionally June will surprise us. Last year, the month started with unsettled conditions and heavy rain. But from the middle of the month temperatures began to rise, with very warm air from continental Europe bringing temperatures above 30C every day from the 17th to 21st, reaching a peak of 34.5C (94.1F) at Heathrow Airport on the 21st, the highest June temperature since the long hot summer of 1976. That helped push the average temperature up for the month, so that, despite a return to cooler, fresher weather, this was the equal fifth warmest June in the UK since records began in 1910. Continue reading...

A new report found the seafood contains an alarming amount of plastic – and in fact no sea creature is immune. It’s as if the ocean is wreaking its revengeShellfish are the natural filter systems of our seas, mechanisms of purity. So, to discover in a report released on World Oceans Day that mussels bought from UK supermarkets were infested with microplastic seems like a final irony in the terrible story of the plasticisation of the sea. According to the study by the University of Hull and Brunel University London, 70 particles of microplastic were found in every 100 grams of mussels.There’s a vital disconnection here – highlighted by the bottled water you drink to wash down your moules-frites, and the fact that 89% of ocean trash comes from single-use plastic. No sea is immune from this plague, nor any ocean creature, from the modest mussel or zooplankton to the great whales. Continue reading...

Readers look at past battles over the third runway and its likely future impactThe battle to construct a third runway has been going on for much longer than your estimate of 31 years (Editorial, 6 June). It first gained government approval as long ago as 1946 but was abandoned by the incoming government in 1952. Since then there have been further attempts and in 2009 it once again gained parliamentary approval. This was overturned by the coalition government one year later when David Cameron declared: “No ifs, no buts, no third runway.” This might have been the end of the matter but the ‘aviation mafia’ is nothing if not persistent and never gives up.

Pumping £5bn into a new plant in north Wales as a way to fight climate change is a solution at odds with the rest of the worldFor once, ministers have put their money where their mouth is – into taking another stab at nuclear power. This week the business secretary, Greg Clark, announced plans to pump £5bn into a new nuclear power station at Wylfa in north Wales. It was a reversal of a longstanding Conservative policy not to underwrite nuclear construction. So why the sudden enthusiasm? And what does Clark know that the rest of the world does not?For almost everywhere else, governments and corporations are pulling the plug on nuclear. Even in a world fearful of climate change, in which nations have promised to wean themselves off fossil fuels by the mid-century, almost no one wants to touch nuclear. Continue reading...

Activists to escalate action in opposition to environmental impact of proposed expansionActivists opposed to the government’s Heathrow expansion plans have vowed to escalate their protests in the coming weeks to avoid what they say would be an “environmental catastrophe”.

Scheme will cover North and South Circular roads, as well as capital’s centre, in 2021Sadiq Khan has unveiled details of his plan to introduce an “ultra-low emission zone” covering a huge swath of London in the next few years.The scheme, which will see the most polluting vehicles charged for entering the centre of the capital from April next year, will be extended to the North Circular and South Circular roads in 2021. Continue reading...

A recent Citizens’ Assembly ballot shows that there is a huge public appetite for strong action on emissions

Summer tourists cause a 40% spike in plastic marine litter in the region, new figures revealTourists are being urged to reduce their use of plastic as new figures reveal holidaymakers cause a 40% spike in marine litter in the Mediterranean each summer.Nearly all the waste created by the surge in tourism over the summer months in countries like Italy, France and Turkey is plastic litter, says WWF in a new report. Continue reading...

This week marked World Environment day and World Ocean day, both of which highlighted plastic global pollution as the most urgent problem facing our planet. So as a parody of our popular Week in wildlife gallery, from dead pelicans to trapped turtles and garbage-eating cows, we bring you ... the Week in plastic. Continue reading...