Environment | The Guardian

Report recommends few changes to vegetation management act but notes LNP concernsThe Queensland government may push land-clearing laws through parliament as early as next week, after a committee report recommended few changes to its proposed vegetation management act.The report, tabled late on Monday night, noted concerns from the Liberal National party opposition that the process was rushed and that consultation with people in regional areas had been inadequate. Continue reading...

A campaign to prevent the pollution of the Earth’s oceans with plastic, begun by Lauren St John, now has 50 children’s writers involvedFifty children’s authors, including Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake and Jacqueline Wilson, have come together to call on the book trade to ditch plastic and help save the oceans.The Authors4Oceans campaign wascreated by the award-winning novelist Lauren St John, whose children’s books include the eco-adventure Dolphin Song and the forthcoming seaside mystery Kat Wolfe Investigates. St John devised the project, which is asking publishers, booksellers and young readers to help halt the amount of plastic being dumped in our oceans, after she ordered a drink in a bookshop, and found it came with a plastic straw. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Scientists say governments and corporations need to ‘legislate and incentivise’ to tackle ocean plastics• Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningPlastic has been found in ocean-floor sediments 2km below the surface in one of Australia’s most precious and isolated marine environments.

Form of carbon incorporated into concrete created stronger, more water-resistant composite material that could reduce emissionsThe novel “supermaterial” graphene could hold the key to making one of the oldest building materials greener, new scientific research suggests.Graphene has been incorporated into traditional concrete production by scientists at the University of Exeter, developing a composite material which is more than twice as strong and four times more water-resistant than existing concretes. Continue reading...

Pruitt is one of TIME’s 100 most influential people for his efforts to maximize polluters’ profitsTIME magazine announced last week that Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is among their 100 most influential people of 2018. George W. Bush’s former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman delivered the scathing explanation:If his actions continue in the same direction, during Pruitt’s term at the EPA the environment will be threatened instead of protected, and human health endangered instead of preserved, all with no long-term benefit to the economy. Continue reading...

The discovery of the Tapanuli orangutan has not stopped a Chinese state-run company from clearing forest for a planned dam. Conservationists fear this will be the beginning of the end for a species only known for six months

Arctic Dispatches, part 3: A pilot project at a lake in northern Alaska is one of a number aiming to slow climate change with geoengineering – but some worry about unintended consequences

Hundreds of academics, authors and scientists sign open letter as divisive issues comes to headHundreds of academics, scientists and authors have signed an open letter calling on Cambridge University to stop investing in fossil fuel companies, marking an escalation in an increasing bitter divestment campaign at the institution.The move, by signatories including Sir David King, until recently the UK’s permanent special representative for climate change, Thomas Blundell, the former president of the UK Science Council and the author Robert Macfarlane, comes as the university council is set to consider the issue at a meeting on Monday. Continue reading...

Afon Mawddach, Gwynedd: As I pondered my options, pools of water formed in the carpet of vegetation around my bootsPassengers for Morfa Mawddach station, to use the formal language of the announcement, “should inform the conductor that they wish to alight”. Your reward, if you do so, is a single narrow platform overlooking the salt marsh on the southern side of the Mawddach estuary. The station was once an important railway junction and, almost hidden by the undergrowth, an abandoned platform edge marks where a second track curled eastward towards Dolgellau. This line has been closed for more than 50 years, but the trackbed has found a new life as a route for walkers and cyclists. Continue reading...

Winners are all grassroots activists who have taken on powerful vested interests

Winners of the world’s leading environmental award faced down Vladimir Putin and the country’s recently deposed leader, Jacob Zuma, to overturn a multibillion-dollar nuclear deal

From an anti-nuclear court ruling in South Africa to a campaign that nudged the Vietnamese government from coal to renewable energy, the winners of the world’s leading environmental prize are all grassroots activists who have taken on powerful vested interests Continue reading...

Report on the state of the world’s birds reveals a biodiversity crisis driven by intensive farming, with once-common species such as puffins and snowy owls now at riskOne in eight bird species is threatened with global extinction, and once widespread creatures such as the puffin, snowy owl and turtle dove are plummeting towards oblivion, according to the definitive study of global bird populations.The State of the World’s Birds, a five-year compendium of population data from the best-studied group of animals on the planet, reveals a biodiversity crisis driven by the expansion and intensification of agriculture. Continue reading...

Survey suggests pest problem is worst in south-east England, and in flats and pre-1950s housingGot a lovely collection of cashmere sweaters you don’t want devoured by moths? Then maybe you should move to a new-build house in the east Midlands. That, you see, is the type of dwelling and region least likely to be tormented by the pesky insects, according to a new study by English Heritage at least.English Heritage conservators have been monitoring the remorseless rise in moth numbers, blamed on a string of exceptionally mild winters – although the survey ended before the spectacularly bitter weather of last winter – and last year invited visitors to their properties to help by collecting free moth traps and reporting their haul. Continue reading...

The environmental scourge of plastic has shot to the top of the political agenda. We talk to the creatives and campaigners behind five imaginative new venturesAmong retailers and manufacturers, they talk of “the Blue Planet effect”. The BBC series, screened late last year, was the moment that many of us realised the catastrophic impact our use of plastics was having on the world’s oceans. Scenes such as a hawksbill turtle snagged in a plastic sack, the albatrosses feeding their chicks plastic or the mother pilot whale grieving for her dead calf, which may have been poisoned by her contaminated milk, are impossible to unsee.It’s a crisis that affects us all, and the facts make for dispiriting reading. If nothing changes, one study suggests that by 2050 our oceans will have more plastic swimming around, by weight, than fish. It’s already estimated that one third of fish caught in the Channel contain plastic; another piece of research found that “top European shellfish consumers” could potentially consume up to 11,000 pieces of microplastic a year. Continue reading...

Arctic Dispatches, part 2: As the Arctic heats up, residents of Utqiaġvik are experiencing first contact with unusual species that are making their way polewards

Removing a thick fishing rope from a highly fertile whale’s jaw was a priority for scientists who fear the species may be in terminal declineA mission to disentangle a particularly important North Atlantic right whale from a thick rope wrapped around its jaw has proved a partial success, amid growing fears that the endangered species is approaching a terminal decline.The individual female whale, known as Kleenex, is considered one of the most productive North Atlantic right whales left in existence, having given birth to eight calves. Its condition has deteriorated, however, since it was spotted off the coast of Delaware in 2014 with a thick fishing rope wrapped around its head and upper jaw. Continue reading...

Taps in capital city of Maputo being turned off every other day as climate change exacerbates southern African droughtIn the township of Chamanculo, in Maputo, Mozambique, a network of household taps made the community water pump obsolete years ago, freeing residents from the daily burden of lugging massive jerrycans of water long distances.But a water crisis, partly caused by an ongoing drought affecting much of southern Africa, is already reversing progress in this coastal city. An emergency “orange alert”, declared last February by the country’s disaster management council after failed rains, has triggered such strict water rationing across the capital city that the taps are turned off every other day and irrigation is banned. Continue reading...

Decision on Tasmanian, NSW and Queensland woodlands’ on hold despite advice from expert committee• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Farmers’ associations, the Tasmanian deputy premier and a Tasmanian Liberal senator lobbied the environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, not to grant critically endangered status to woodlands eligible for protection under Australia’s national environment laws.In 2017 the independent threatened species scientific committee, which provides scientific advice to the government about conserving threatened species, recommended two new woodlands be listed as critically endangered ecological communities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Continue reading...

Arctic Dispatches, part 1: The past winter was the warmest on record in the Arctic, putting a lifestyle that has endured for millennia at risk: ‘The magnitude of change is utterly unprecedented’‘Amazing but also concerning’: weird wildlife ventures to northern AlaskaA few days before Christmas last year, Harry Brower, mayor of Alaska’s North Slope Borough, was at home when he heard a stunning noise – the sound of waves lapping at the shore.The sound was as wrenching and misplaced as hearing hailstones thud into the Sahara. Until fairly recently, the Arctic ocean regularly froze up hard up against the far north coast of Alaska by October. In 2017, it wasn’t until the final few days of the year that the ice encased the waves. Continue reading...

Marshwood Vale, Dorset: ‘Askers’, great crested newts, used to be common here but the number of suitable breeding pools has more than halvedIt’s the yellow that catches my eye. Bright egg-yolk splotched with black warts, glistening against wet asphalt. Long, striped toes. A forearm flung out, fingers drooping, thumb hanging down, elegant as a lady offering her hand for a kiss. A great crested newt, Triturus cristatus, squashed.The pattern of pulping suggests a big, ridged tyre, probably a tractor. The driver would never have seen it in the dark, perched up high on his plastic seat, roaring up the lane to feed the heifers, one last job before turning in. Continue reading...

Measures would demand ‘all reasonable measures’ are taken to ensure handlers are licensedPeople who have their rubbish dumped illegally could face fines of up to £400, even if they do not personally engage in fly-tipping, under proposals being considered by ministers.The measures are aimed at tackling people who charge householders to take away their rubbish and then dump it illegally. They build on existing powers to issue on-the-spot fines to save the hefty court costs often involved in pursuing offenders. Continue reading...

The government has pledged to review its long-term climate targets. Renewable energy, housing and and transport are just some areas where new policies could cut emissions fastMore wind farms, solar power and electric cars: these are likely to be the future of the UK, under government plans announced this week to seek a zero-carbon economy in the next 30 years.Some of the less obvious effects could be just as transformative, however, involving innovations such as smart houses and smart roads, widespread changes to the countryside wrought by new tree-planting and new farming practices designed to conserve soils. Continue reading...

A newly hatched turtle, a roaming peacock and egrets in China are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Supermarket clashes with Compassion in World Farming over award given in 2010Sainsbury’s has been accused of breaking promises on improving welfare conditions for chickens after it handed back a good practice award.The animal rights pressure group Compassion in World Farming said Sainsbury’s applied for the group’s “good chicken” award in 2010 and committed to upgrade within five years all its fresh own-label chicken to the RSPCA welfare mark, which involved giving birds more living space and light. Continue reading...

Former pro-cyclist Doug Petty has been bringing cyclists to the Balearic island for more than 50 years to ride the famous hairpin bends on its spectacular mountain roadsMallorca attracts more than 200,000 roadies a year. Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome are usually credited for popularising winter riding on this Spanish Balearic island, but it’s two others who really put the island on the cycling map, one of them quite literally.

The energy friendly agenda inside Trump’s interior department is revealed in records obtained by the Guardian and the watchdog groups Documented and the Western Values Project

The state’s glut of marijuana – over 1m lb of unsold pot – is in many ways the result of an industry still finding its feet

New installation at Somerset House in London lets visitors experience the air of some pollution hotspots – plus a pristine Norwegian islandNew Delhi: the suffocating smell of old cars and industry. São Paulo: enough ethanol to make your eyes water. And in London, a scent called Living Diesel.Those are the dominant notes of those cities’ contaminated air, according to an “artist’s approximation” that aims to raise awareness of the problem of pollution around the world. Continue reading...

Scientists discover ant species that fights enemies by detonating themselves, covering their foe in toxic gooWoe is the insect that crosses the path of the Colobopsis explodens ant.Scientists exploring the Borneo jungle have just discovered the species, which dwells in the trees, and they were most intrigued by the ant’s unique ability – to explode and shower toxic yellow goo on to its enemies. Continue reading...

Calls for state governments to invest in long-term recycling and sustainable waste solutions

Campaigners say $90m should be used instead to help Latrobe Valley transition away from brown coalA $90m fund set aside for failed “clean coal” projects in the Latrobe Valley should be spent on helping the region transition away from reliance on coal, Environment Victoria has said.The Victorian government said this week that the Advanced Lignite Demonstration Program (ALDP) would be shut down after its third and final project to find a low-emissions use for the valley’s enormous brown coal store was declared unsuccessful. Continue reading...

It’s not just Chris Packham who has helped birdwatching become mainstream, writes Jennifer M JonesIt was encouraging to read your item on birding becoming mainstream (Shortcuts, G2, 19 April). While Chris Packham and the ’watches teams have indeed contributed to this, please do not ascribe this emerging enthusiasm to just one source. Other TV naturalists, including Iolo Williams and Mike Dilger, have done much to encourage and enlighten young people about wildlife issues. Organisations such as the British Trust for Ornithology and RSPB provide excellent opportunities for youngsters to realise that birding can be fun. Local RSPB reserves and groups, Wildlife Trusts and talented individuals are also playing a part. We need these youngsters to care for the future and should be grateful to all those, often working hard behind the scenes, who are enabling this. Many an older birder will express gratitude to one enthusiastic mentor who set them on the road to a lifetime of birdwatching. Long may this continue and not just rely on charismatic TV presenters.

Supermarket chain’s new range includes spicy chilli buffalo worms and smoked cricketsDespite being a country that guards its culinary traditions more jealously than most - the recipe for the perfect tortilla proves enduringly divisive, and woe betide the anglosajón celebrity chef who dares pollute a paella with chorizo - Spain could be set to swell the ranks of the two billion people on the planet who regularly eat insects.Or so the supermarket giant Carrefour is hoping. Continue reading...

Electric vehicles’ share of new UK registrations rises to 2%, still falling far short of Norway’s 48%Sales of electric cars in the UK have risen 11% on last year, putting the country in the premier league of those ditching petrol and diesel engines, though it is still miles behind Norway and China.An analysis of the latest global sales of electric vehicles found that nearly half the vehicles registered in Norway in the first three months of 2018 were electric (48%), compared to just over a third (35%) during the same period in 2017. The vehicles are run almost exclusively off the nation’s hydropower resource, underlining Norway’s claim as the world leader. Continue reading...

Repairs to masonry damaged by intruder put Craignethan’s cellar tunnel out of bounds to publicParts of a Scottish castle remain closed to the public after a “very angry badger” took up residence. The cellar tunnel at Craignethan Castle, in South Lanarkshire, was initially closed last week after the animal arrived, and remains closed while the damage it caused is repaired.It is thought the animal had become lost, and staff tried to lure it out with cat food and honey.

The Drastic on Plastic initiative will target single-use plastics, including drinks and toiletry bottles, straws, food trays, cable ties and glitterMore than 60 independent British music festivals have committed to ban single-use plastic from their sites by 2021. The Drastic on Plastic initiative, led by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), will lead to the removal of plastic drinks bottles, plastic straws, glitter, plastic food trays, cable ties and toiletry bottles from festival sites.All 61 of AIF’s members have signed up to the pledge, including End of the Road, Bestival, Boardmasters and Kendal Calling. As an initial measure, participants will also support the Final Straw initiative to ban vendors from supplying plastic straws at their sites this year. Continue reading...

'Monster' is the largest reticulated python in captivity in Australia. Getting her on the the scales for a weigh-in required a number of handlers, and caution. In December she bit one of her handlers on the hand.

Researchers from South Australia’s Flinders University demonstrate how a polymer can act like a sponge to remove crude oil and diesel from seawater. The lead researcher, Dr Justin Chalker, says it has the potential to be a cheap and sustainable recovery tool in areas affected by oil spills. 'Our goal is for this to be used globally,' he says. 'It is inexpensive, and we have an eye for it to be used in parts of the world such as the Amazon Basin in Ecuador and the Niger Delta that don’t have access to solutions to oil spills.'• Researchers create super sponge that mops up oil spills Continue reading...

Consultation to start later this year as Theresa May continues drive against single-use plastic wasteCotton buds, plastic drinking straws and other single-use plastics could be banned from sale in England next year in the next phase of the campaign to try to halt the pollution of the world’s rivers and oceans.Theresa May hopes to use the announcement to encourage the Commonwealth heads of government to join the fight as the meeting opens formally on Thursday. “The Commonwealth is a unique organisation with a huge diversity of wildlife, and environments – so it is vital we act now,” the prime minister will say, urging all Commonwealth countries to participate.

Scientists have chronicled the 'mass mortality' of corals on the Great Barrier Reef, in a new report that says 30% of the reef’s corals died in a catastrophic nine-month marine heatwaveThe study, published in Nature and led by Prof Terry Hughes, the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, examined the link between the level of heat exposure, subsequent coral bleaching and ultimately coral death Continue reading...

Campaign draws up eight principles to guide people who want to be healthier and reduce their environmental impactEating less meat has long been advocated for our health and that of the planet, but the choices we make within that advice can be just as important, according to a new report.Choosing lamb, for instance, means the animal is almost certain to have been grass-fed and free range, as sheep are not factory farmed in the same way as pigs or chickens. Meat from pasture-fed animals also tends to have higher levels of “good” fats, which are healthier. Continue reading...

As the country rushes to cut carbon emissions by 26%, campaigners worry that forests and wildlife are being trampledThe tens of thousands of solar panels resting on the surface of the Yamakura dam reservoir have finally begun to earn their keep.

Queensland council’s mayor, Andrew Antoniolli, says every other council will feel brunt of China’s recycling crackdown

Recovery plan for threatened Mary river turtle and other species drafted in 2013 but never approved

Research shows people with healthy diets rich in fruit and vegetables are the most wasteful and calls for better education for consumersAmericans waste about a pound of food per person each day, with people who have healthier diets rich in fruit and vegetables the most wasteful, research has found. Continue reading...

Report chronicles ‘mass mortality’, the extent and severity of which has shocked scientists

They may be duff at identifying birds and flowers, but some young people are at least showing an interest. So here are our tips for experiencing the best of British nature