Academics and environmental campaigners from the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network say challenging questions about confronting the risk to global biodiversity were left unanswered by a recent Guardian briefing articleDamian Carrington are to be congratulated on a wide-ranging and informative article on the urgency and scale of the current global threat to biodiversity and the Guardian (What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?, theguardian.com, 12 March). However, we of the Beyond Extinction Economics (BEE) network have reservations about the article’s diagnosis of its causes, and proposals for addressing the crisis.First, to say “we” or “human activity” is responsible for biodiversity loss sidesteps the more serious challenge of identifying the specific socio-cultural, and, more centrally, economic drivers of destruction. Second, to slip easily from population rises to industrial development, housing and farming as the causes of the destruction of wild areas evades critical questions about what sort of industry, producing what sort of consumer goods and what kind of farming and food distribution system – let alone questions as to who has the power to decide and who gets to consume and who doesn’t. Continue reading...

More than 71,000 hectares of protected countryside in the south-east face risk of drilling

New Mexico is a battleground in the fight over once public waterways, sparking fears it could set a national precedentAs Scott Carpenter and a few friends paddled down the Pecos river in New Mexico last May, taking advantage of spring run-off, the lead boater yelled out and made a swirling hand motion over his head in the universal signal to pull over to shore. The paddlers eddied out in time to avoid running straight through three strings of barbed wire obstructing the river.Swinging in the wind, the sign hanging from the fence read “PRIVATE PROPERTY: No Trespassing”. Continue reading...

Protests continue to grow over controversial PFI contract that has resulted in thousands of trees being cut downTwo Labour MPs in Sheffield have called on the city’s Labour-run council to pause tree felling in the city, as protests grow over a controversial road maintenance contract that has resulted in thousands of trees being cut down and replaced with saplings.Related: For the chop: the battle to save Sheffield’s trees Continue reading...

For the first time ever, scientists in Antarctica have attached a camera to a minke – one of the most poorly understood of all the whale species. The camera (attached with suction cups) slid down the side of the animal – but stayed attached – providing remarkable video of the way it feeds. Continue reading...

Good Fish Guide calls for consumers to move away from cod, haddock, salmon and prawns in favour of more sustainable choicesLess popular species such as dab, hake, herring and mackerel should be Britons’ fish supper of choice in order to support the UK fishing industry and help the seas, a conservation charity has recommended.The Marine Conservation Society wants consumers to wean themselves off the “big five” staples – cod, haddock, salmon, prawns and tuna – in favour of more sustainable, lesser-known, choices.

Unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs demands polluters pay for air pollution causing ‘national health emergency’The car industry must pay millions of pounds towards solving the UK’s toxic air crisis under the “polluter pays” principle, according to an unprecedented joint inquiry by four committees of MPs.The MPs call the poisonous air that causes 40,000 early deaths a year a “national health emergency” and are scathing about the government’s clean air plans. These judged illegal three times in the high court, with the latest plan condemned as “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors. Continue reading...

Tate Modern and Costa Coffee among outlets offering free tap water in five areas of the capitalThe National Theatre and Tate Modern are to join an initiative offering people free tap water refills as part of the mayor of London’s plans to reduce purchases of single-use plastic bottles in the capital.

Crook, County Durham: starving birds lose their inhibitions if apples are available in gardensThe steep climb from the start of the Deerness Valley Way follows the route of an old rope-worked incline where, a century ago, a stationary engine on the hilltop hauled railway wagons up from Bankfoot coke works. Today it was hard work hauling ourselves up the hill, with every footstep sinking into thawing snow that was still knee-deep in places. Continue reading...

After death of milkwood tree, which predates European settlement, five other heritage listed trees left in Northern Territory capitalA heritage-listed Darwin tree that survived at least two devastating cyclones, the arrival of European settlers and a Japanese bombing has died, leaving just five listed trees in the Northern Territory city.The milkwood tree in downtown Darwin was given protection in 2006 as a rare example of the vegetation that covered the Darwin peninsula before European arrival in 1869. Continue reading...

Empty rhetoric from corporates is not enough as climate change is accelerating far faster than expected

The land-clearing crisis has been hastened by individual decisions, but it’s supported by a network of power brokers, lawmakers and enforcement agenciesThe broadscale denuding of the unique Australian landscape is the result of thousands of landholders making a tapestry of individual decisions.Over the past few years, millions of hectares of land has been cleared of native vegetation, exacerbating climate change, the decline of threatened species and the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Continue reading...

We’re not yet optimizing biofuel production for both economic and environmental factors

Government should have got binding commitments a private owner would continue to investThe government’s £1.6bn sale last year of the Green Investment Bank (GIB) to the Australian financial outfit Macquariewas a shambles, it was argued here at the time, and now the public accounts committee agrees. The rough summary of its report runs as follows: in their eagerness to trim a few quid from the national debt ministers accepted a few airy pledges from Macquarie about future investment and called them commitments.The MPs’ verdict makes a nonsense of the government’s claim that a sale would deliver “the best of both worlds” – value for money and a new owner that would definitely use GIB to support UK energy policy and invest in low-carbon infrastructure. The price tag looks OK since the Treasury made a profit of £186m, but the boast about Macquarie’s good intentions has been exposed as an exercise in hopeful assumptions. The Aussie financiers may decide to play ball, but, if they don’t, there is little the government will be able to do. Continue reading...

Recycling industry in Victoria and NSW on verge of collapse, Senate inquiry toldAustralia’s kerbside recycling systems are at risk of collapse, a Senate inquiry has heard. China’s ban on importation of recyclable rubbish has left councils and state governments in Victoria and New South Wales scrambling to find space to stockpile growing mounds of waste.An estimated half of Australia’s recyclable waste was going to China before the ban, the hearing was told, although the precise share of waste exported was not known. Continue reading...

UK households throw away 24m slices of bread each day, says anti-food waste campaignAround 24m slices of bread are thrown away every day in the UK – more than a million an hour – because people do not get around to using it in time and worry it is stale.Now a new campaign from the anti-waste charity Love Food Hate Waste is urging consumers to freeze bread and toast it straight from the freezer, and to consider eating toast as a snack at any time of day. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: this is mythologised woodland, a secular sacred place, a hunting ground and a sanctuarySunlight pools on thousands of wild garlic leaves on the bank of an abandoned railway cutting. Trees stand in companionable silence, the breath between them is slight. Days ago, slender ash trunks rattled like yacht masts in a marina, hawthorns hissed in the east wind, great oaks and steeple limes soughed in deep snowy murmurs. Much of the storm wreckage has been cleared from the path; it is now a gallery full of early birdsong and light falling in patches as if from high windows.Yesterday a blackbird repeated a one … two-three … four syllable phrase of song; today it is elaborated by bright description and excited story. Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It about the bird under the greenwood tree singing “come hither” with no enemy but “winter and rough weather”. Continue reading...

They might be disparaged as bin chickens now but in ancient Egypt they were reveredIn Australia they’re reviled as bin chickens. But in ancient Egypt, ibises were revered and offered as gifts to the gods.Two mummified ibises have given researchers at the University of Sydney a riveting insight into their ancient appeal. Continue reading...

Conservationists say proposal would make sediment problems on the reef – which funding is designed to prevent – much worse

Committee says government should have got stronger commitments on bank’s futureMPs have accused the government of a “deeply regrettable” failure to put in place strong guarantees that the UK’s green investment bank will continue to support renewable energy after its privatisation.The public accounts committee said it was unclear whether the bank would continue to support the government’s energy policy or climate change goals, because the bank’s new owner is not legally bound to stick to its green aims. Continue reading...

From the Amazon to Africa, WWF report predicts catastrophic losses of as much as 60% of plants and 50% of animals by the end of the centuryThe world’s greatest forests could lose more than half of their plant species by the end of the century unless nations ramp up efforts to tackle climate change, according to a new report on the impacts of global warming on biodiversity hotspots.Mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds are also likely to disappear on a catastrophic scale in the Amazon and other naturally rich ecosysterms in Africa, Asia, North America and Australia if temperatures rise by more than 1.5C, concludes the study by WWF, the University of East Anglia and the James Cook University. Continue reading...

The liquid tinkling of this tiny finch adds to the springtime chorus in Spain but can we expect to see the bird in Britain?Under a fiercely blue sky, the sun shines down on groves of oranges and almond blossom. I am in the mountain village of Sella, in Spain’s Alicante province, enjoying a sneak preview of spring – a month or more before it arrives in Britain.The migrant birds are not yet back, but half a dozen different butterflies are on the wing and birdsong fills the air. The scratchy sound of Sardinian warblers, the metallic song of the black redstart, and, from every little bush and tree, the liquid tinkling of serins. Continue reading...

Phllip Hammond accused of delaying action after he announces consultationEveryday single-use plastic items such as disposable coffee cups, takeaway boxes and polystyrene packaging could be hit with charges akin to the 5p levy on plastic bags, the government has warned.The Treasury said it was looking at changes to taxation and new levies to tackle plastic waste, but campaigners and politicians accused the government of delaying action. Continue reading...

New bill will be first step by ministers to protect and restore soil as fears grow over a future soil fertility crisisA new bill will be brought before parliament this year mandating, for the first time, measures and targets to preserve and improve the health of the UK’s soils, amid growing concern that we are sleepwalking into a crisis of soil fertility that could destroy our ability to feed ourselves.The UN has warned that the world’s soils face exhaustion and depletion, with an estimated 60 harvests left before they are too degraded to feed the planet, and a 2014 study in the UK found matters are not much better, estimating 100 harvests remaining. Continue reading...

Scientists found a strong link between high temperatures near the pole and unusually heavy snowfall and frigid weather farther south.The sort of severe winter weather that has rattled parts of the US and UK is becoming more common as the Arctic warms, with scientists finding a strong link between high temperatures near the pole and unusually heavy snowfall and frigid weather further south.A sharp increase in temperatures across the Arctic since the early 1990s has coincided with an uptick in abnormally cold snaps in winter, particularly in the eastern US, according to new research that analyzed temperature data from 1950 onwards. Continue reading...

Justine Greening and Vince Cable among those saying plan would jeopardise spending elsewhereThe true cost to the public of building a third runway at Heathrow has not been spelled out to taxpayers, according to a cross-party group of MPs, who warn that domestic flight connections and other transport spending will be jeopardised.Justine Greening, who quit Theresa May’s cabinet in January, is among the MPs calling on the government to clarify what backing expansion at the London hub airport would mean, saying: “The transport secretary has a duty to spell out the true costs for taxpayers – and to be realistic about the benefits.” Continue reading...

Taxpayers everywhere – including those living hundreds of miles away from the south-east – will all pay for the expansion, write local MPs, lords and council leadersWe are writing to you regarding Heathrow and the hidden costs that we believe need to be explored.Lots of promises have been made to lots of people in different parts of the country about the extra domestic routes they can expect if a third Heathrow runway is built. It’s all part of a divide-and-rule strategy which glosses over the health impacts of worsening noise and air pollution in south and west London while cheerily talking up the prospects of improved internal connections from an expanded hub airport. Continue reading...

New device is designed to prevent power output plummeting when the sun isn’t shining – but practical application is still some years offA solar panel that can generate electricity from falling raindrops has been invented, enabling power to flow even when skies cloud over or the sun has set.

Philip Hammond has delivered his first spring statement. Here are the key points, with political analysis

Greenpeace finds industrial fishing taking place in the feeding grounds of whales and penguins, with vessels involved in oil spills and accidents

Wiggonholt Common, West Sussex: The nuthatch hops around, searching the ground, before launching high into a tree above me, where it starts to singDawn passes barely perceptibly in the damp darkness of the wood. Rain is falling, dripping through the canopy, forming thin, cold cascades of droplets pattering on the mud below. I turn a corner and stop – a nuthatch is drinking from a pool on the track, raising its pointed bill to gulp down the water. With its black eye-stripe, blue-grey back and bright orange underparts, the bird is a flash of colour in the grey woodland.

Former foreign affairs minister says the benefits of immigration could be preserved but effects managed by slowing down rateThe former foreign affairs minister Bob Carr has called for Australia to cut its immigration rate in half, declaring that the country’s experiment of running the fastest rate of immigration in the world was an experiment that was failing.

Tax on luxury fossil fuel cars to fund expansion of Australia’s charging networkThe Greens have proposed introducing mandatory fuel efficiency standards, ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, and imposing a four-year 17% tax on luxury petrol and diesel cars as part of an electric vehicle policy announced on Tuesday.Under the proposal Australia would adopt a mandatory fuel efficiency standard of 105g of CO2 a kilometre by 2022, three years earlier than a proposal being considered by the federal government. Continue reading...

A study reveals highest microplastic pollution levels ever recorded in a river in Manchester, UK and shows that billions of particles flooded into the sea from rivers in the area in just one yearThe number of tiny plastic pieces polluting the world’s oceans is vastly greater than thought, new research indicates.The work reveals the highest microplastic pollution yet discovered anywhere in the world in a river near Manchester in the UK. It also shows that the major floods in the area in 2015-16 flushed more than 40bn pieces of microplastic into the sea. Continue reading...

New geological research from Utah suggests the end-Permian extinction was mainly caused by burning coal, ignited by magma

Chew Valley, Somerset: These unruly fields are what we call ‘ancient countryside’ and its pattern may go back to neolithic timesWhen we first visited Folly Farm some 30 years ago this 250-acre plot was up for sale. Gates were hanging from their hinges, the hedges were rampant and the pastures were waist-deep in flowers; the 20th century did not appear to have happened yet, nor even the 19th.These unruly fields were carved from the land, not drawn by a ruler – the first farmers did not go in for squared-off corners as they hacked into the wildwood. The landscape historian Oliver Rackham called this “ancient countryside” (as opposed to the regular fields of “planned countryside” formed by the enclosures) and its pattern may go back as far as the neolithic period. Continue reading...

Photographer Murdo MacLeod visits New Zealand’s South Island where conservationists are seeking to protect the endangered yellow-eyed penguin from predation, disease and habitat destructionAt the end of the day, having avoided being bitten on the flipper by a barracouta or chewed by a shark, a shy yellow-eyed penguin prepares to come ashore and make its bed in the bush. Emerging from the surf, he scans the apparently empty sandy strip with his beady eyes for signs of danger. Though he is a swift swimmer, he is fettered by his stumpy legs when ashore. But he grows confident as he comes close to the dense brush.Then the unexpected happens: eight dark figures spring from three different locations and sprint toward the hoiho – or “little shouter” as the yellow-eyed penguin is known in Māori. He has been bushwhacked like this before and offers only token resistance. “Oh no, not again!” he may have thought. Continue reading...

Some previously rare illnesses are becoming epidemics in some bird populations, scientists sayGarden bird feeders are contributing to the spread of serious diseases among wild birds, scientists have warned, causing previously rare illnesses to become epidemics in some populations.Poor garden feeder hygiene, droppings accumulations and stale food are promoting the transmission of illnesses between garden birds as the animals repeatedly congregate in the same location, coming into contact with species they would not usually interact with in the wild. Continue reading...

Following his shocking photographs of dead albatross chicks and the diet of plastic that killed them, Chris Jordan’s new film is a call to action to repair our broken relationship with planet EarthWe are living in a plastic age and the solutions may seem glaringly obvious, so why aren’t all 7.6 billion of us already doing things differently? Shocking statistics don’t guarantee effective change. So what’s the alternative? American photographer and filmmaker Chris Jordan believes the focus should be on forcing people to have a stronger emotional engagement with the problems plastic causes. His famous photographs of dead albatross chicks and the colourful plastic they have ingested serve as a blunt reminder that the planet is in a state of emergency.While making his feature-length film Albatross, Jordan considered Picasso’s approach: “The role of the artist is to respect you, help you connect more deeply, and then leave it up to you to decide how to behave.” Continue reading...

Digestion of plastic into much smaller fragments ‘doesn’t necessarily help pollution’, Australian researchers sayA world-first study by Australian researchers has found that krill can digest certain forms of microplastic into smaller – but no less pervasive – fragments.The study, published in Nature Communications journal on Friday, found that Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, can break down 31.5 micron polyethylene balls into fragments less than one micron in diameter. Continue reading...

Please note: Apple/IOS mobile users should view within the YouTube appWhat happens to a town that has been abandoned for seven years after a nuclear meltdown? Greenpeace took former residents and a 360-degree camera into the radiation zone north of Fukushima to mark the anniversary of the disaster. The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011. The tsunami killed almost 19,000 people along the north-east coast of Japan and forced more than 150,000 others living near the plant to flee radiation. Some of the evacuated neighbourhoods are still deemed too dangerous for former residents to go back. Continue reading...

Australian Automobile Association calls for real-world testing after finding nitrogen oxide emissions four times the levels observed in labVolkswagen cars in Australia are guzzling up to 14% more diesel fuel after a recall fix designed to cut emissions, research has found, reigniting calls for emissions to be tested in the real world rather than a laboratory.The analysis, commissioned by the Australian Automobile Association, which is campaigning for real-world testing, examined affected VW cars before recall and immediately after. Continue reading...

Green groups welcome proposed changes to land-clearing law but there are still reasons to doubt they are enough to halt the crisisLast week, the Queensland government tabled a highly anticipated bill seeking to implement its promise to “end broadscale clearing in Queensland”.Queensland is responsible for more tree clearing than the rest of the country combined, so making good on that promise would go a long way to halting Australia’s growing land clearing crisis. Continue reading...

Wentworth voters overwhelmingly favour review – including 70% of Liberal supportersMore than 75% of voters in Malcolm Turnbull’s Sydney electorate of Wentworth would support reviewing the environmental approvals for the controversial Queensland Adani coalmine, according to a new opinion poll.A ReachTel survey of 676 residents in the prime minister’s electorate, commissioned by the progressive thinktank, the Australia Institute, found an emphatic majority favoured a review of the project approvals, including 70% of Liberal voters. Continue reading...

Startup claims device will automatically switch smart-meter users three times a year and save them £300A device that plugs into a home broadband router and automatically switches supplier when cheaper deals become available is set to revolutionise the home energy market.The launch of Labrador comes as more and more people are changing their energy companies. Continue reading...

New York sends its treated sewage to other states to avoid dumping it in the sea – but it has plagued residents with a terrible stenchNew York City is the beating heart of global finance, a cultural behemoth, and home to more than 8.5 million people who create an enormous amount of poo. Some of this expelled waste has been causing a major stink 900 miles away, in Alabama.

Royal announces amalgamation of four charities to help protect communities and local heritageThe Prince of Wales has urged communities not to lose the dwindling skills that shaped the built environment and prevent specialist trades from disappearing “at an alarming rate”.Ahead of his 70th birthday in November, the prince also said he was “deeply concerned” that young people were growing up without a basic understanding of how the world works and our relationship with food. Continue reading...

What happens to a town that has been abandoned for seven years after a nuclear meltdown? Greenpeace took former residents and a 360-degree camera into the radiation zone north of Fukushima to mark the anniversary of the disaster.The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude-9 earthquake on the afternoon of 11 March 2011.The tsunami killed almost 19,000 people along the north-east coast of Japan and forced more than 150,000 others living near the plant to flee radiation. Some of the evacuated neighbourhoods are still deemed too dangerous for former residents to go back. Continue reading...

Companies say mining poses scant threat but conservation groups say ban should remain until environmental risks have been fully exploredThe US mining industry has asked the supreme court to overturn an Obama-era rule prohibiting the mining of uranium on public lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon.

Some new diesel models emit 12 times legal limit, while others ‘are the cleanest cars on the road’False emissions ratings for cars based on lab tests have cost the UK more than £2bn a year in lost tax revenue, according to the Green party.With CO2 emissions exceeding official measures by an average of 42%, millions of vehicles have been placed in tax bands that do not reflect their true levels of pollution, according to new research published on Saturday. Continue reading...