Environment | The Guardian

Prime minister says government needs to be more strategic and more sophisticated' to compete globally

Worst-ever fire season in 2023 saw 15m hectare burned, eight firefighters killed and 230,000 people evacuatedCanada risks another catastrophic" wildfire season, the federal government has warned, forecasting higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country, boosted by El Nino weather conditions.Last year, Canada endured its worst-ever fire season, with more than 6,600 blazes burning 15m hectares (37m acres), an area roughly seven times the annual average. Eight firefighters died and 230,000 people were evacuated from their homes. Continue reading...

The state's uniquely lax regulation permits chicken waste to collect outdoors - but there's no easy way to complain about itJefferson Currie II is at war with flies.Spotted flypaper dangles from the ceiling of his home in North Carolina's Scotland county. He shows off a two-quart jar trap, marketed as an outdoor pest control solution for farms, full of flies he's caught indoors. On Zoom meetings for his job as the Lumber Riverkeeper with the non-profit Winyah Rivers Alliance, he mutes himself and goes offscreen to avoid distracting others with the heavy thunk of his pump-action, salt-shooting plastic fly gun. Continue reading...

In letter vice-chancellor requested committee not publish joint submission by two academics and redact parts of second submission unfairly' critical of CDU

Gas Leaks Project launches campaign targeting the American Gas Association, which claims nearly all utilities in the US as membersA group of advocates and Democratic senators gathered in Washington DC on Tuesday to decry utilities' practice of spending customers' money to advance a pro-fossil fuel agenda.Americans are already paying the price of climate change," said Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts at a gathering at the US Capitol. They shouldn't have to pay the salaries of those who are fueling it." Continue reading...

EPA takes action for first time in 27 years against forever chemicals' feared to be contaminating water for over 200 millionThe US Environmental Protection Agency has set legally enforceable drinking water limits for a group of the most dangerous PFAS compounds, marking what public health advocates hailed as historic" rules that will dramatically improve the safety of the nation's water.PFAS, known as forever chemicals", are ubiquitous in the environment and thought to be contaminating drinking water for more than 200 million people across the US. Any exposure to some highly toxic varieties of the compounds is considered a health and cancer risk. Continue reading...

Reduction in yields means UK will be dependent on imports for wheat in coming year and possibly beyondRecord-breaking rain in recent months has drastically reduced the amount of food produced in the UK, farming groups have said.Livestock and crops have been affected as fields have been submerged since last autumn. Continue reading...

Heat stress from global heating could lead to impaired vision and increased deaths of pregnant mothers and their unborn young, Australian researchers say

Steven Miles says good news' as government finds way for seized bird to be returned to couple and Peggy, their Staffordshire bull terrier

PA Burns Reserve and the Altona Coastal Park the latest sites to have small amounts of asbestos' discovered

Switch could also cut prevalence of disability linked to diet-related disease and help tackle the climate crisis, researchers foundSwapping red meat for forage fish such as herring, sardines and anchovies could save 750,000 lives a year and help tackle the climate crisis, a study suggests.Mounting evidence links red meat consumption with a higher risk of disease in humans as well as significant harm to the environment. In contrast, forage fish are highly nutritious, environmentally friendly and the most abundant fish species in the world's oceans. Continue reading...

Paper dates 82 pottery pieces found in single dig site at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old

Environmental Protection Agency finalizes rule to strengthen protections for communities living near industrial sitesMore than 200 of the US's chemical plants will be mandated to reduce toxic emissions linked to cancer to and better protect communities from hazardous pollution, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday.The long-awaited rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will strengthen protections for communities living near industrial sites, especially along the Gulf coast. Continue reading...

Retailer works on changing diet with aim of cutting 11,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a yearMarks & Spencer is investing 1m in tackling cows' carbon footprint by changing the diet of the herds that provide its milk.The retailer is working with all 40 of the pasture-grazed dairy farmers in its supply base with the aim of cutting 11,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually produced by cattle burps and manure. Continue reading...

From decomposing waste to building coral reefs, invertebrates provide structure to ecosystems

The city's pioneering step fell flat after a long fight in court, but campaigners - and leading chefs - say they're still going electricFour years ago, Berkeley made history when it became the first city in the US to ban natural gas hookups in new buildings.It was a natural step for the famously progressive California community, which was an early adopter of curbside recycling in the 1970s, banned styrofoam in 1988, and more recently led the charge to outlaw single-use packaging and plastics. Continue reading...

Kremlin official warns of more difficult days ahead after towns and cities overwhelmed by major rivers swollen by snowmeltRussia and Kazakhstan have ordered more than 100,000 people to evacuate after swiftly melting snow swelled rivers beyond bursting point in the worst flooding in the area for at least 70 years.The deluge of meltwater overwhelmed many settlements in the Ural mountains, Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan close to rivers such as the Ural and Tobol, which local officials said had risen by metres in a matter of hours to the highest levels ever recorded. Continue reading...

Ben van Beurden says company is undervalued in UK and US investors are more positive' about fossil fuels

Court finds in favour of group of older Swiss women who claimed weak policies put them at greater risk of death from heatwavesWeak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled.In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such rulings by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent. Continue reading...

Weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights, the European court of human rights has ruled.In a landmark decision on one of three major climate cases, the first such ruling by an international court, the ECHR raised judicial pressure on governments to stop filling the atmosphere with gases that make extreme weather more violent.The court's top bench ruled that Switzerland had violated the rights of a group of older Swiss women to family life

While the ecosystem is thriving off the coast of Argentina, the proliferation of salmon farms in Chile's waters is threatening marine life, say criticsA rocky path, strewn with thick tree roots, leads from a dirt road down to a small green hut overlooking the choppy waters of the Beagle Channel, a strait between Chile and Argentina. The shack is home to Diane Mendez and her family but doubles as Alama Yagan, one of nine restaurants in the fishing village of Puerto Almanza.The village, in Argentinian Tierra del Fuego, has become a foodie haven, and the final stop on the king crab route, a trail that starts in the provincial capital Ushuaia, 45 miles to the east. But things could have been different. Continue reading...

Florida is on track to ban cell-cultivated meat while three others float it - but experts say the reasoning has little to do with safety, ethical or environmental questionsAt a press conference in February, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, told a room full of reporters: We're not going to do that fake meat. That doesn't work." He'd been discussing legislation under debate in the statehouse that would ban cell-cultivated meat - an emerging technique that, instead of slaughtering animals for consumption, grows meat in a lab using a small sample of animal cells.A few weeks later, a Republican member of the Florida legislature - and cattle rancher - Dean Black took to the House floor, saying, Cultured meat is not meat ... it is made by man, real meat is made by God Himself ... If you really want to try the nitrogen-based protein paste, go to California." Continue reading...

Law says people who decide to live next to an existing farm, shop, bar or restaurant cannot complain about noiseAnyone thinking of moving to the French countryside who objects to being woken by crowing cockerels, mooing cows, the sound of tractors or the smell of manure will be sent packing from the courts from now on.The French parliament has adopted a law in an effort to put an end to hundreds of noise complaint cases brought by disgruntled neighbours every year, mostly new arrivals from towns seeking rural peace and quiet. Continue reading...

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Walker Corporation had proposed 3,000 apartments, marina and shops for the site, which is a critical habitat for the endangered eastern curlew Toondah Harbour: should a wetland home to endangered birds become $1.3bn worth of shops, high-rises and a marina?

Onshore wind and solar could provide 226GWh of electricity without impairing food production, says Friends of the EarthEngland could produce 13 times more renewable energy than it does now, while using less than 3% of its land, analysis has found.Onshore wind and solar projects could provide enough electricity to power all the households in England two and a half times over, the research by Exeter University, commissioned by Friends of the Earth (FoE), suggested. Continue reading...

G20 countries spent $142bn in three years to expand operations despite a G7 pledge to stop doing so, study findsThe world's biggest economies have continued to finance the expansion of fossil fuels in poor countries to the tune of billions of dollars, despite their commitments on the climate.The G20 group of developed and developing economies, and the multilateral development banks they fund, put $142bn (112bn) into fossil fuel developments overseas from 2020 to 2022, according to estimates compiled by the campaigning groups Oil Change International (OCI) and Friends of the Earth US. Continue reading...

If the anomaly does not stabilise by August, the world will be in uncharted territory', says climate expertAnother month, another global heat record that has left climate scientists scratching their heads and hoping this is an El Nino-related hangover rather than a symptom of worse-than-expected planetary health.Global surface temperatures in March were 0.1C higher than the previous record for the month, set in 2016, and 1.68C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to data released on Tuesday by the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Continue reading...

Australian limits on acceptable levels of these toxic chemicals in drinking water orders of magnitude' higher than in US

Keystone species has potentially enormous effects on above-ground wildlife and ecosystem functioning

Around 1 million people, including 13,000 youths, especially vulnerable because they can do little to protect themselvesNearly half of US prisons draw water from sources likely contaminated with toxic PFAS forever chemicals", new research finds.At least around 1 million people incarcerated in the US, including 13,000 juveniles, are estimated to be housed in the prisons, and they are especially vulnerable to the dangerous chemicals because there is little they can do to protect themselves, said Nicholas Shapiro, a study co-author at the University of California in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

The use of AI and animal flyovers' could prevent hundreds of wild elephants dying as railways cut through their habitat, say wildlife expertsLying on a mound of soft sand inside the nursery, Bani looks like a spoilt child being indulged. Two members of the care team massage her hind leg with oil while the third, sitting at her head, funnels sticks of sugar cane gently into her mouth, clucking reassuringly.It's the royal treatment - but Bani, a nine-month-old elephant calf, needs all the medical care and nurturing she can get. Continue reading...

Livestock bosses celebrate outcome at online summit, while critics condemn failure to tackle meat and dairy consumptionLobbyists for the world's biggest meat companies have lauded a better than expected outcome at Cop28, which they say left them excited" and enthusiastic" for their industry's prospects.US livestock bosses reflected on the conference's implication for their sector on a virtual panel, fresh from sharing US agriculture's story" at the climate summit in December.

Footage captures flooding near the rural township of Charleville following a weekend of heavy rain in parts of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. Communities across the region have been impacted by flooding, with some isolated by road closures.According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the Warrego River gauge near Bakers Bend, in south-west Queensland, recorded a peak of 10.16m on Monday morning

Federal emergency declared in Orenburg region and at least 6,000 homes inundated after Ural River overflowsFlood waters were rising in two cities in Russia's Ural mountains on Sunday after Europe's third-longest river burst through a dam, flooding at least 6,000 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee.The Ural River, which rises in the Ural Mountains and flows into the Caspian Sea, swelled several metres in just hours on Friday and burst through a dam embankment in Orsk - one of the hardest-hit cities - 1,800km (1,100 miles) east of Moscow. Continue reading...

Environmental and animal welfare groups call on lender to phase out support for industrial' livestock operationsThe private sector arm of the World Bank is facing claims that it contributes to global heating and the undermining of animal welfare by providing financial support for factory farming, including the building of pig farming tower blocks in China.A coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups is calling on the World Bank to phase out financial support for large-scale industrial" livestock operations. More than $1.6bn was provided for industrial farming projects between 2017 and 2023, according to an analysis by campaigners. Continue reading...

The last time Brood XIX and Brood XIII emerged from underground at the same time, Thomas Jefferson was presidentThey look a little like cockroaches and have bulging orange eyes, and trillions of them are about to erupt from the earth in much of the midwestern and eastern United States. The emergence of two groups of cicadas will assemble a chorus of the insects not seen in several hundred years, experts say.The simultaneous appearance of the two cicada broods - known as Brood XIX and Brood XIII - is a rare event, not having occurred since 1803, a year when Thomas Jefferson was US president. It's really exciting. I've been looking forward to this for many years," said Catherine Dana, an entomologist who specializes in cicadas at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For the public, it's going to be a really special experience."This article was amended on 8 April 2024 to correct the name of Brood XIII. It was formerly written as Brood XII. Continue reading...

Gas platforms in the area are among the oldest offshore oil and gas operations in the country

Act now on air quality in the Belgian capital, which is among the filthiest in Europe, say doctors and environmentalistsMore than 100 doctors and environmentalists in Brussels have called on their politicians to follow London and Paris and take measures to improve the choking air pollution in the Belgian capital.According to IS Global research, Brussels is ranked as the eighth worst of more than 800 European cities for nitrogen dioxide, which damages the lungs and is one of the main byproducts of internal combustion engines. The capital of the European Union is also ranked 308th out of 858 cities for PM2.5, or fine particulates, which can travel deep into the respiratory tract. Continue reading...

Farmers lay carcasses in front of government building in Lausanne to press for resumption of wolf cullFarmers in Switzerland dumped the carcasses of sheep that were killed by wolves in front of a regional government building on Saturday as part of a protest to demand more action against the predators.About a dozen breeders came from the Saint-Barthelemy area in the western Swiss canton of Vaud to lay 12 carcasses in front of Lausanne's Chateau Saint-Maire, the regional government headquarters, AFP reported. Continue reading...

The fate of the calf trapped in a British Columbia lagoon has gripped the public. Can Brave Little Hunter be reunited with her pod?In the early 1960s, Canada's fisheries ministry installed a .50-calibre machine gun on an island in British Columbia. The weapon, typically used against armoured vehicles and low-flying aircraft, was mounted with the sole purpose of killing orcas. The high-powered gun was never used, but the message was clear: the whales, derisively called blackfish", were the enemy.Now, six decades later and less than 100 miles away from where the gun was mounted, that same ministry has joined residents of a remote community in a frantic attempt to rescue a stranded orca calf. Continue reading...

Climate activist detained after Extinction Rebellion protesters tried to block road near Dutch parliamentGreta Thunberg was detained by police at a demonstration in The Hague, in the Netherlands.The climate activist was put in a bus by local police along with other protesters who tried to block a major highway into the city on Saturday. Continue reading...

The late illustrator's elephant hero is to star in a new ecological fable after the discovery of a rough manuscript and drawingsFrom the depths of his extraordinarily vibrant imagination, he famously conjured up Mr Benn, Not Now, Bernard, King Rollo and Elmer the patchwork elephant.Now a manuscript and rough sketches for a new illustrated story about Elmer has been in the archive of the late British children's author and illustrator David McKee. It will be published next year by hisfamily. Continue reading...

A government proposal to cull half a million owls, in order to save a related species, has raised complicated questionsIt sounds like a set-up for an ecological horror film - to save one species of owl, US wildlife officials want to shoot down half a million of its cousins.The federal government's latest proposal to save the endangered spotted owls has raised complicated questions about the ethics of killing one species to save another, and the role of humans to intervene in the cascading ecological conundrums that they have caused. Continue reading...

Publication by mayor's office of environmental justice is first comprehensive survey of environmental inequalitiesNearly half of all New Yorkers live in areas with disproportionate" burdens from pollution, a city report has found. Most affected are communities of color, which are also more vulnerable to impacts from climate change, according to a citywide assessment released on Friday.We've had the orange sky last year, we're going to have more recurrent extreme weather events that are going to impact the most vulnerable in our communities," said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UpRose, an environmental justice group based in Brooklyn. Continue reading...

Letitia James's lawsuit accuses JBS of deceiving customers about being climate-friendly - and the implications could be far-reachingWhen the office of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, announced that it would be suing the world's largest meat company, JBS, for misleading customers about its climate commitments, it caused a stir far beyond the world of food. That's because the suit's impact has the potential to influence the approach all kinds of big businesses take in their advertising about sustainability, according to experts.It's just one in a string of greenwashing lawsuits being brought against large airline, automobile and fashion companies of late. It's been 20 years of companies lying about their environmental and climate justice impacts. And it feels like all of a sudden, from Europe to the US, the crackdown is beginning to happen," said Todd Paglia, executive director of environmental non-profit Stand.earth. I think greenwash[ing] is actually one of the pivotal issues in the next five years." Continue reading...

Fish taxi' tanker crashed after driver lost control on sharp turn, leading to deaths of 26,000 smolts, but remaining fish survivedA creek in Oregon was inadvertently restocked with tens of thousands of young salmon when a tanker carrying the fish overturned and spilled its cargo.State officials said more than 75% of the 102,000 Chinook salmon smolts that the tanker was transporting from a hatchery to the Imnaha river made it into Lookingglass Creek following the accident last Friday. Continue reading...

Regulator faces accusation of acting unlawfully in its investigation of Global Warming Policy FoundationThe Charity Commission is facing a legal challenge by MPs over its failure to investigate campaigning by a thinktank that questions climate science.Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, Labour's Clive Lewis and Green MP Caroline Lucas, supported by the Good Law Project, have sent a legal letter to the regulator over an unresolved complaint they made in October 2022. Continue reading...

Testing of 40 types of bandages found 65% had alarming levels of forever chemicals' in adhesive flaps and pads that touch woundsMany popular US bandage brands contain alarming levels of toxic PFAS forever chemicals", new research suggests, raising questions about the products' safety.Testing of 40 types of bandages made by companies such as Band-Aid, Curad, Walmart and CVS found 26 products, or 65%, contain alarming levels of a marker of PFAS. The chemicals were detected in the adhesive flaps and in absorbent pads that press against wounds. Continue reading...

A supermarket is using eye-tracking technology to find what messaging encourages take-up of unpackaged fruit and vegWith thick black frames and hidden cameras, the glasses look designed for espionage or the metaverse but instead the eye-tracking headgear is being deployed to get inside shoppers' heads as part of the drive to cut plastic packaging from the weekly food shop.It is an unlikely scene. Hooked up with the glasses a shopper is being tailed around a Waitrose produce department by a researcher carrying a large tablet that displays live footage of them picking up banal things such as potatoes, apples and bananas. Continue reading...