Environment | The Guardian

Move piles pressure on European states scrambling to salvage nuclear dealIran has launched a plan to increase its uranium enrichment capacity with new centrifuges, raising the pressure on European diplomats scrambling to rescue the crumbling nuclear deal after the US pulled out.“If conditions allow, maybe tomorrow night at Natanz [plant], we can announce the opening of the centre for production of new centrifuges,” said the vice-president, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, according to conservative news agency Fars on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Tory splits mean government may have to rely on Labour and SNP to win parliamentary voteThe government has finally given the green light to the plan to build a third runway at Heathrow after years of delays and opposition from campaigners.The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, told MPs the announcement represented a “historic moment” that showed ministers had a clear vision to build “a Britain fit for the future”. Critics claim it will damage the environment and could end up costing the taxpayer billions. Continue reading...

The plan to expand Heathrow still faces hurdles, including environmental impacts and whether the sums add upHeathrow has long argued it is in effect full, with the number of flights capped on its two runways. Its contention is that only a major hub airport, with connecting flights adding passengers from around Britain, can sustain the long-haul route network that an island nation requires, particularly in regards to trade with emerging markets and the post-Brexit environment. It is a point of view shared by many business leaders and the Department for Transport. Most international airlines want to fly to Heathrow rather than other London airports, and most cargo goes the same way. Continue reading...

A third runway at Heathrow airport is ultimately indefensible on environmental groundsThe decision to go ahead with the third runway at Heathrow was taken two years ago; Chris Grayling’s confirmation yesterday marked the point when it seemed to its promoters that enough of the opposition on the ground had been defeated, so it was safe to proceed with a final vote in three weeks’ time. If that is won, and all goes according to plan, the bulldozers will go in around 2021, when the inevitable cycle of cost overruns and slipping deadlines can begin, 31 years after the project was first mooted. By then the UK may be two years into a lengthy “transitional” post-Brexit period, and the bright economic forecasts which are used to justify the plan may be no more use than hot air balloons.There is a case that air travel has made life better for many people and that more of it would continue to do so. Nearly two-thirds of Heathrow’s present traffic is leisure flying. Mass tourism has boosted the economy of many countries and greatly enlarged our experience of the world, and perhaps our sympathies as well. However unpleasant the experience of a modern airport can be, through which we are run like rats in a maze of shopping malls and security checks, it still seems better to many of us than being trapped in our own countries all year round. Heathrow as it stands today is an unimposing portal to Britain. Failing to expand it is simply sabotaging the country. Beyond that, the country is dependent, like all others, on air freight. So the plans for expansion are in some ways well motivated. We can even overlook the fact that they are promoted by Mr Grayling, a man notoriously unable to make even trains run on time. Continue reading...

Country will also introduce a campaign against marine litter and a pledge to make 100 national monuments litter-freeIndia will eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022, prime minister Narendra Modi has announced.The pledge is the most ambitious yet of the global actions to combat plastic pollution that are taking place in 60 nations around the world. Modi’s move aims to drastically stem the flow of plastic from the 1.3 billion people living in the fastest growing economy in the world. Continue reading...

Government has given the green light, but there are still many more potential obstaclesThe cabinet has endorsed as official policy a revised national policy statement on aviation, whose key point is to enable Heathrow expansion, specifically a third runway to the north-west of the existing airport. A wider vote will now take place within 21 sitting days in parliament, or by 10 July. Continue reading...

Judge seeks assurances that legal action was brought at behest of elected councillorsTree protesters in Sheffield are being taken to court on the orders of the council leader, a judge has heard.

Early this year, the South African government announced that Day Zero was looming – a moment, after three years of unprecedented drought, when dam levels would be so low that taps would be turned off and people would have to fetch water at communal collection points.

To celebrate World Environment day, Reuters photographers met people from Athens to Singapore trying to play their part as the war on plastics becomes a key political topic

Drivers continue to shun diesel in the face of environmental and tax concernsSales of plug-in hybrid cars soared by nearly three-quarters year on year in May, dramatically outstripping the 3.4% overall growth in new car registrations.Nearly 4,000 plug-in hybrids, which typically run for about 50 miles on a battery before a combustion engine kicks in, were bought last month, up from 2,301 in May 2017. Continue reading...

Ex-minister says opponents of third runway should be allowed to have their sayThe government must allow a free vote on Heathrow expansion plans to allow ministers and MPs to represent their constituents, the former education secretary Justine Greening has said.Greening, a fierce critic of the plans, said ministers such as Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, should be allowed to register their long-held opposition to a third runway without breaking collective cabinet responsibility. Continue reading...

Call for fisheries changes after study says excessive fishing mostly to blameThe number of large fish species in Australian waters has declined by 30% in the past decade, mostly due to excessive fishing, a new study says.Marine ecology experts are calling for changes to fisheries management after publication of the study by scientists from the University of Tasmania and the University of Technology (UTS), Sydney. Continue reading...

Reef monitoring program shows northern section has lost half of its coral coverA steep decline in coral cover right across the Great Barrier Reef is a phenomenon that “has not been observed in the historical record”, a new report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science says.

Sadiq Khan should take heed of the evidence and push on with the changes needed to keep cyclists safe on London’s roadsThe decay of London’s cycling programme is starting to cost lives. In the last three and a half weeks, three cyclists have been killed at locations where schemes to make the road safe, or provide a safe alternative route, have been watered down or stopped under the mayoralty of Sadiq Khan.On 11 May, Oliver Speke died after a collision two days earlier with a lorry at Romney Road, Greenwich. On 18 May, Edgaras Cepura was killed by a lorry on the same road, a mile or so to the east. There was supposed to have been a new cycle superhighway avoiding Romney Road by now, and a safe, segregated junction at the roundabout where Cepura was killed. Both schemes were postponed indefinitely after Khan came to office. Continue reading...

We urgently need consumers, business and governments to cut consumption of single-use, throwaway plastics, writes the UN Environment chiefPlastic pollution has grabbed the world’s attention, and with good cause.More than 100 years after its invention, we’re addicted. To pass a day without encountering some form of plastic is nearly impossible. We’ve always been eager to embrace the promise of a product that could make life cheaper, faster, easier. Now, after a century of unchecked production and consumption, convenience has turned to crisis. Continue reading...

Scheme in north-west England could aid grids as wind and solar power growsA pioneering project in north-west England will turn air into liquid for energy storage to help electricity grids cope with a growing amount of wind and solar power.The world’s first full-scale “liquid air” plant is based on a technology that advocates say is cheaper and able to provide power for longer periods than lithium-ion batteries. Continue reading...

Ben Lecomte hopes to make it from Japan to San Francisco in 180 days while raising awareness of plastic pollutionA French anti-plastic campaigner has begun a six-month journey to swim through the giant floating rubbish mass known as the Great Pacific garbage patch.

Garron Point, Aberdeenshire: The wailing of the birds created a wraparound atmosphere of such density and chaos that I was almost unbalanced by itBeyond Sandend village and the slow white waves running into its sunlit bay, there was this wilderness of guano-nourished grass and three northward-facing ribs of metamorphosed sedimentary rock. The latter were tilted on end and weathered along their joints, and the gulls on the raised slabs of ancient stone were spaced in heraldic assembly.Through the luxuriant hummocks by the cliff edge I manoeuvred with caution that was more than just fear of falling. The wailing of the birds created a wraparound atmosphere of such density and chaos that I was almost unbalanced by it. Continue reading...

$1bn project in Queensland’s Bowen basin to consist of almost 200 turbinesThe Queensland government has approved the country’s largest windfarm, a $1bn project to build almost 200 turbines in the shadow of the Bowen basin’s coalmines.The 800-megawatt Clarke Creek project, in cattle country north-west of Rockhampton, received planning approval on Tuesday morning. The company behind the project, Lacour Energy, says it will create about 350 jobs during three years of construction and has the capacity to provide 3% of the generation required to power the entire state. It also includes a solar component. Continue reading...

GMB chief launches campaign to return England’s nine water firms to national ownershipThe bosses of England’s privatised water companies have been criticised for banking £58m in pay and benefits over the last five years while customers have been faced with above-inflation rises in their water bills.The GMB union said the chief executives of England’s nine water and sewage companies were “fat cats” earning “staggering sums” from the management of a natural resource. Continue reading...

Transport secretary will set out proposals amid growing rift over expansion schemeChris Grayling is to confirm the government’s final plans for a third runway at Heathrow as the Tories prepare to impose a three-line whip in favour and Labour considers whether to remove its backing for the project.

Ministers reach initial agreement with Japanese firm Hitachi over new Wylfa plantThe UK will take a £5bn-plus stake in a new nuclear power station in Wales in a striking reversal of decades-long government policy ruling out direct investment in nuclear projects.Ministers said they had reached an initial agreement with the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi to back the Wylfa plant but emphasised that no final decision had yet been made and negotiations were just beginning. Continue reading...

The wilderness of Patagonia – shared by Argentina and Chile – has frequently been threatened by logging and oil industries. But in January, Chile signed a historic act of conservation, creating five protected national parks covering 4m hectares

State reverses decades of importing power, while solar continues to grow nationally and emissions fall, audit showsThe politics may not change much, but Australia’s electricity grid is changing before our very eyes – slowly and inevitably becoming more renewable, more decentralised, and challenging the pre-conceptions of many in the industry.The latest national emissions audit from The Australia Institute, which includes an update on key electricity trends in the national electricity market, notes some interesting developments over the last three months. Continue reading...

Advances in clean energy expected to cause a sudden drop in demand for fossil fuels, leaving companies with trillions in stranded assetsPlunging prices for renewable energy and rapidly increasing investment in low-carbon technologies could leave fossil fuel companies with trillions in stranded assets and spark a global financial crisis, a new study has found.A sudden drop in demand for fossil fuels before 2035 is likely, according to the study, given the current global investments and economic advantages in a low-carbon transition. Continue reading...

As the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, fossil fuel investments worth trillions of dollars, from oil wells to cars, will lose their valueRead more: ‘Carbon bubble’ could spark global financial crisis, study warnsInvestments amounting to trillions of dollars in fossil fuels – coal mines, oil wells, power stations, conventional vehicles – will lose their value when the world moves decisively to a low-carbon economy. Fossil fuel reserves and production facilities will become stranded assets, having absorbed capital but unable to be used to make a profit. This carbon bubble has been estimated at between $1tn and $4tn (£3tn), a large chunk of the global economy’s balance sheet. Continue reading...

Security review to take place after 12 rangers are killed and two Britons are abductedAfrica’s oldest national park will close its gates to visitors until 2019 following the death of a ranger and the abduction of two British tourists by local rebels this year.Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo is home to a world-famous population of mountain gorillas but has been hit by rising instability and violence in the country. Continue reading...

Activists say deal is ‘marriage made in hell’, creating world’s most powerful agribusinessThe Monsanto company name, which has become synonymous with genetically modified food and as a longstanding target of environmental activists, will disappear after the completion of its $63bn (£47bn) sale to the German company Bayer on Thursday.Bayer, a pharmaceuticals and chemicals giant, said on Monday it would immediately retire the 117-year-old Monsanto brand name. “Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name,” it said in a statement. “The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio.” Continue reading...

The powerful few who benefit from the fossil fuel status quo are exerting their influenceOver the past two weeks, media attacks on solar panels and electric vehicles have been followed by Trump administration policies aimed at boosting their fossil fueled rivals. Continue reading...

Despite the PM’s declaration, it is unclear how current climate policy will ensure Australia reaches its Paris commitmentMalcolm Turnbull, on a tour of drought-stricken areas in New South Wales and Queensland, has declared there is “no doubt that our climate is getting warmer”.

4 June 1918 Most of these foliage-devourers are the larvae of geometer moths of various kinds, sometimes called loopersCaterpillars are doing their best to eat up the woods. On some of the sycamores, elms, and other trees the leaves are already reduced to lacework; on others, oaks in particular, many of the leaves have vanished. Most of these foliage-devourers are the larvae of geometer moths of various kinds; they are sometimes called loopers, on account of their habit of humping up their backs and straightening themselves out for the next reach, as they walk, or they are known as stick caterpillars when, at rest, they apparently pretend to be lifeless twigs. Others are smaller moths, leaf-rollers and miners, and others, again, particularly abundant on the hawthorns but by no means confining their attention to this plant, are the showy little hairy “palmer worms,” the caterpillars of the gold-tailed moth, whose irritating hairs give tender skins a rash.Related: Health warning as toxic hairy caterpillars take over woodlands Continue reading...

Great Ridge, Peak District: Momentum builds like a wave, and in a thrilling, spine-shivering moment, a glittering ribbon sparkles into being along the ridgeI reach the top of Mam Tor, out of breath, as the sun is dropping behind the bulk of Kinder Scout and dying in a great flare of scattered orange.It is quarter past nine on a Tuesday night, but the top of the peak is a throng of activity; dozens of people are milling around the summit and marvelling at the sunset, unfazed by a biting wind. I squint into the east, and can faintly make out the dots of hundreds more people trailing into the distance. Continue reading...

Warning about conflicts, wars and mass migration is the wrong way to approach thingsThe Australian Senate’s declaration last month that climate change is a “current and existential national security risk” was clearly intended to inject much-needed urgency into the country’s climate policy stalemate. Bringing together the unusual bedfellows of military generals and environmentalists to warn about the dangers of climate change, it has the possibility to break though Australia’s culture wars on the issue. However, by framing climate change as a security matter, it also has significant consequences in shaping how we respond to a warming planet. As the climate crisis unfolds, is the military the institution we want to turn to for solutions?

City has cleared 8,414 trees in last three years – twice as many as any other authorityNewcastle has become the tree-felling capital of the UK after the council chopped down almost twice as many trees as any other local authority.More than 110,000 trees have been cut down by councils across the UK in the last three years, according to figures gathered under the Freedom of Information (FOI) act by the Sunday Times. Some 8,414 were in Newcastle, more than in any other rural or urban local authority. Wiltshire was next, having felled 4,778 in the same period, followed by Edinburgh with 4,435. Continue reading...

Guy Smith says it’s unfair to point the finger at farming as the cause of environmental damage, Iain Climie addresses food wastage and Dr Blake Alcott says the most effective way to reduce your carbon footprint is to not reproduceOne fundamental point has been overlooked by Kevin Rushby in his article about the plight of the countryside due to agriculture (The killing fields, G2, 31 May). There has been no intensification of agriculture in the UK for 25 years.Government statistics show pesticide and fertiliser use has been significantly reduced. There are fewer crops grown and the numbers of pigs, sheep and cattle have fallen. So to point the finger at farming as the cause of environmental degradation through intensification makes no sense, especially when you consider the other changes that have taken place in that time – increased housebuilding, more roads, and more cars on those roads – and the impact they have had on the country’s landscape. Continue reading...

With 32 million visitors expected this year, fears grow that the country cannot copeGreece is braced for another bumper year. The tourists will not stop coming. For every one of its citizens, three foreign visitors – 32 million in total – will arrive this year, more than at any other time since records began.It’s an extraordinary feat for a country that has battled with bankruptcy, at times has been better known for its protests and riots and, only three years ago, narrowly escaped euro ejection. Tourism is the heavy industry that has helped keep catastrophe at bay. Continue reading...

Sustainability is intrinsic and not an afterthought for many designers taking part in this year’s eventThe future of fashion is sustainable if graduate fashion week is anything to go by. The annual four-day event event at London’s Old Truman Brewery comprises installations, catwalk shows and two prize-giving ceremonies and promises to uncover the torchbearers of “considered design”, according to the event’s creative and managing director, Martyn Roberts.Roberts believes that graduates can help existing fashion houses and retailers tap into “what a new generation of consumers want”. As brands from every echelon seek to improve their social, economic and environmental impact, graduate fashion week, says Roberts, is where many companies are looking for creatives for whom sustainability is intrinsic, as opposed to an afterthought, to show them how it’s done. Continue reading...

When a tsunami hit the nuclear plant, thousands fled. Many never returned – but has the radiation risk been exaggerated?Shunichi Yamashita knows a lot of about the health effects of radiation. But he is a pariah in his home country of Japan, because he insists on telling those evacuated after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident that the hazards are much less than they suppose. Could he be right?Yamashita was born in Nagasaki in 1952, seven years after the world’s second atomic weapon obliterated much of the city. “My mother was 16 years old when the bomb dropped and she was two miles away,” he told me at his office in the city, where he still lives with his mother, who is now 88. Continue reading...

Reintroduction programmes of animals driven from their once-natural habits are a cause for optimismIn May, Dutch and Romanian European bison reintroduction programmes were declared successful after several years of conservation efforts. The Dutch project began back in 2007; the wild cattle had been extinct in that region for two centuries. Now, though, both national parks in question are reaping great environmental benefits from the bisons’ grazing, with a consequent flourishing of flora and fauna. Continue reading...

Climate change has caused a catastrophic drop in the numbers of terns, kittiwakes and puffinsSumburgh Head lies at the southern tip of mainland Shetland. This dramatic 100-metre-high rocky spur, crowned with a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather, has a reputation for being one of the biggest and most accessible seabird colonies in Britain.Thousands of puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars gather there every spring to breed, covering almost every square inch of rock or grass with teeming, screeching birds and their young. Continue reading...

As solar farms spread across the central agricultural regions of the sunshine state, opponents are becoming increasingly vocalColin Ash has spent a working lifetime in the cane fields near the Pioneer River in central Queensland, out past Marian, where the mill has processed sugar for more than 130 years.“You can’t get sentimental about things,” he says from the front seat of his truck as he drives slowly around the boundary of his property. “You’ve got to pay your bills.” Continue reading...

Pilot whale was found barely alive in Thai canal and vomited up five bags during fruitless rescue attemptsA whale has died in southern Thailand after swallowing more than 80 plastic bags, with rescuers failing to nurse the mammal back to health.

A 10-year fight between a group of residents and the East Gippsland shire council over grey-headed flying foxes is heating up againThe Australian town of Bairnsdale in Victoria – 300km east of Melbourne – is known as the gateway to east Gippsland’s natural wonders. It is also the scene of a 10-year battle between a group of residents and the East Gippsland shire council over a colony of grey-headed flying foxes that roost along the town’s Mitchell River.

Before the latest auction figures, Adam Morton investigates the plan Turnbull once called ‘a recipe for fiscal recklessness’At some point in June, the Australian government will announce it has spent up to $2.3bn over three years on a scheme that the prime minister believes is a reckless waste of public money.Related: Land-clearing wipes out $1bn taxpayer-funded emissions gains Continue reading...

Start Point, Devon: Spider crabs rub pieces of seaweed against the backs of their shells until they stick, creating remarkable camouflageThe combe above the beach echoes with the calls of chiffchaffs, and cock stonechats flick and churr on the wind-stunted hawthorns that line the footpath. Around the twin radio masts – a 20th-century riposte to Start Point’s whitewashed gothic lighthouse – a small flock of swallows cut and swerve.Beneath the sea there are signs of spring too. Common spider crabs (Maja brachydactyla), which have been overwintering in the depths, start to appear close to shore, a sight that has become a feature of my first sea swims of the year. Continue reading...

Environment minister says up to 2,500 wild horses are causing ‘significant damage’ to plant and animal speciesThe Victorian government has signed off on a plan to remove more than 1,200 feral horses from the Alpine national park, saying the impact of the animals on sensitive ecosystems has reached critical levels.Two weeks ago the New South Wales government announced a proposal to protect Kosciuszko national park brumbies, which conservation advocates have labelled a “disaster” for Australia’s environmental heritage. Continue reading...

Energy firm obtains expanded injunction ahead of plans to begin large-scale fracking at Preston New Road siteA major energy firm has secured an expanded injunction against protesters after it took a big step towards starting fracking on a substantial scale.Cuadrilla Resources went to court to obtain the injunction against all campaigners who opposed its drilling operations at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire. The injunction was granted on Friday on a temporary basis amid growing criticism of the corporate use of injunctions to counter protests. At least five companies have chosen to use them as legal weapons in this way. Continue reading...

Christiana Figueres was also scathing of those who say it is inevitable that the global warming limit set out in the Paris agreement will be brokenBusinesses are moving forward faster than ever on climate change despite the intransigence of US president Donald Trump, the former climate chief of the UN has said.“There is a big difference between the economics of climate change and the politics of climate change,” said Christiana Figueres, the former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change, who oversaw the landmark Paris agreement on climate change. Continue reading...

Blue-throated bee-eaters, a baby anteater and a dehydrated fruitbat are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Four Greenpeace activists climb down into Total's AGM to protest against the oil company’s plans to drill in the mouth of the Amazon and French Guiana. The abseilers descended as the Total chief executive, Patrick Pouyanné, began his presentation, while many people protested outside the venue