Environment | The Guardian

Protesters mock announcement by Cuadrilla as they start three-month protest at Lancashire siteThe first large-scale fracking in Britain has moved a step closer after an energy firm said it had completed drilling the UK’s first horizontal well at a site in Lancashire.Cuadrilla said the development was a “major milestone” towards the first shale gas exploration in the UK since 2011, when work was halted after it triggered a minor earthquake. The company said it hoped to begin fracking at its site on Preston New Road, near Blackpool, in the summer, pending government approval. Continue reading...

Even with aggressive climate policies to limit global warming, food security in some areas will be threatened

Claxton, Norfolk: The birds, wildflowers and insects burst into action; it’s what the great environmentalist Roger Deakin called ‘opening time in nature’s great saloon’At last those winter rains have ended and the sun shone here for two full days. Suddenly it is time for cock pheasants, flushed crimson with testosterone, to fight long tail-twisting battles; for wild violets to flower quietly over our meadow-lawn; for goldfinches to strip spider thread from the back wall to bind their nests; for hairy-footed summer-bees to zip among the rosemary blooms, and for buff-tailed and early bumblebee queens to truffle the green hellebore heads in a last garden before the marsh. They’re all part of that dramatic upwelling of life which Roger Deakin once called “opening time in nature’s great saloon”. Continue reading...

Defra consultation on proposals received more than 70,000 responses, 88% in favourA UK ban on ivory sales, which the government claims will be the toughest in Europe and one of the strictest in the world, is to be introduced after the proposals were overwhelmingly backed in a public consultation.The ban makes exemptions only for musical instruments containing a small percentage of ivory, some antiques, and museum objects. Continue reading...

Agency says Barack Obama’s timeline set standards ‘too high’ in move that could lead to legal showdown with CaliforniaUS environmental regulators announced on Monday they would ease emissions standards for cars and trucks, saying that a timeline put in place by Barack Obama was not appropriate and set standards “too high”.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it had completed a review that would affect vehicles for model years 2022-25 but it did not provide details on new standards, which it said would be forthcoming. Current regulations from the EPA require the fleet of new vehicles to get 36 miles per gallon in real-world driving by 2025. That’s about 10 miles per gallon over the existing standard. Continue reading...

Coastal rubbish dumps dotted around Britain are at risk of erosion and nobody knows what exactly is inside themBritain’s coasts were battered in this winter’s storms. The Royal North Devon Golf Club, England’s oldest golf course, had a sizeable chunk of its eighth hole washed away during Storm Eleanor in January. Less well publicised were fears of flooding at a nearby landfill site, which was last used in 1995 and contains hospital waste and other toxic material.Related: Pollution risk from over 1,000 old UK landfill sites due to coastal erosion Continue reading...

Like anti-Adani protesters today, those who stood up at Jabiluka were attacked. It’s good to remember that people can prevailOne of Australia’s proudest land rights struggles is passing an important anniversary: it is 20 years since the establishment of the blockade camp at Jabiluka in Kakadu national park. This was the moment at which push would come to shove at one of the world’s largest high-grade uranium deposits. The industry would push, and people power would shove right back.The blockade set up a confrontation between two very different kinds of power: on the one side, the campaign was grounded in the desire for self-determination by the Mirarr traditional Aboriginal owners, particularly the formidable senior traditional owner Yvonne Margarula. They were supported by a tiny handful of experienced paid staff and backed by an international network of environment advocates, volunteer activists and researchers. Continue reading...

The base of the ice around the south pole shrank by 1,463 square kilometres between 2010 and 2016

Three-year restriction on unnamed keeper on Philip Astor’s estate after incident with baited trap

Government funding delay for £1.3bn scheme may force firm to lay off staff within weeks

There are win-win solutions to this problem.

2 April 1918 Close at hand rise a group of single upright stalks, each topped by a small green knob, the inconspicuous flowers of the moschatel or adoxaThe golden kingcups light up the stagnant ditch which through the winter has been filmed with a yellowish scum. Their roots are deep in the ancient leaf-mould and decomposing twigs and branches, a rich, black ooze; this forcing-bed has sent up a thick cushion of leaves stretching from bank to bank, and now that the handsome flowers are out the ditch is transformed. On the steep bank below the now green

Valley of Desolation, Wharfedale, Yorkshire Dales: The snow revives innocence, but it’s from this winter’s dramatic destabilisation of the polar vortex and a reminder of climate changeSpring is held in a sort of suspense. The sun’s growing confidence brings hope, but the blizzards are back again, shutting out the light, clogging the floor of Strid Wood with snow, smothering the first leaves of dog’s mercury and ramsons. Around this date in previous years I have heard drumming snipe on the moors or found breeding frogs in the ponds around here, but there will be few such mood-lifting discoveries today. Continue reading...

Doug Jones, Bernie Sanders and Chris Christie add to pressure over $50-a-night deal linked to chief executive of energy lobbying firmThe Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, is under increasing pressure over a rental arrangement he had with a leading energy sector lobbyist.Related: Veterans affairs chief David Shulkin says he was fired: 'I did not resign' Continue reading...

Bruce Kent of CND and Linda Rogers respond to Owen Jones’ article on Jeremy Corbyn and the UK’s nuclear weapons. Plus letters from Mike Clancy of Prospect, Frank Jackson and David LowryCan Owen Jones (Corbyn has to lead on nuclear weapons, 29 March) really mean that Labour party policy can’t be changed? The only argument for Trident, and any successor, is a false sense of national prestige. Can’t some major trade unions think of anything else to make than weapons of mass destruction? Far from our nuclear weapons being independent, without the regular loan of US missiles we would have nothing on which to put our warheads. They are no answer anyway to suicidal groups or to nuclear accidents. It was Robert McNamara, at the end of a life devoted to nuclear planning, who said that we were only saved by “good luck”. If we have over £205bn to spend, it makes much more sense to spend those billions on the NHS, housing and poverty at home and abroad. The 1968 NPT obliges us to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons “in good faith”. A replacement of Trident does not sound like good faith to me.

The Río Nuevo, which now stretches across 16 miles of San Luis province, is believed to be the product of deforestation, changes in farming practices and climate change. Now as its changing course threatens farmland, roads and even a city, the government is struggling to contain it Continue reading...

Supermarket estimates the change will save almost 350 tonnes of plastic every yearThe Co-op supermarket plans to switch all of its own-brand water to 50% recycled plastic bottles in a move it expects will present an “ethical dilemma” to customers.The new bottles will have a cloudier and greyer appearance than those that do not contain recycled plastic and the Co-op said it accepted that they could test shoppers’ environmentally conscious credentials. Continue reading...

As the price of pods has soared so has violence – and forest defenders are increasingly risking their lives to protect precious wildlife habitat from being felled for profitThe vanilla thieves of Anjahana were so confident of their power to intimidate farmers they provided advance warning of raids. “We are coming tonight,” they would write in a note pushed under doors in this remote coastal village in Madagascar. “Prepare what we want.”But they either undervalued their target commodity or overestimated the meekness of their victims. After one assault too many at the turn of the year, a crowd rounded up five alleged gangsters, dragged them into the village square and then set about the bloody task of mob justice. Continue reading...

Cwmystradllyn, Gwynedd: By 1871 the village was deserted, its consumptive and dispirited inhabitants dispersed. But much architectural beauty remains

Ministry says country has 9m sources of pollution, with factories breaking emissions rules the big problemChina’s environment ministry has said the number of sources of pollution in the country has increased by more than half in less than a decade.Releasing preliminary results of an ongoing “environmental census”, China’s ministry of ecology and environment said the number of sources of pollution in the country stands at about 9m, compared to 5.9m in its first census, in 2010. Continue reading...

Interrupted hibernation can play havoc with the caterpillar population with the consequences seen in butterfly numbers later in the yearA long, hard winter is no bad thing for butterflies. Researchers are discovering that milder winters wreak more havoc, disrupting the hibernation of many of our 59 native species, most of which endure the coldest months as caterpillars.So this late spring may be a blessing in disguise, although erratic pulses of cold weather could spell disaster for some species. This March, I’ve only seen two small tortoiseshells – an unprecedentedly meagre return. Continue reading...

Parma ham industry accuses animal welfare groups of a smear campaign following the release of ‘grim’ images of pigs kept in filthy and barren conditionsImages of pigs in filthy pens and barren conditions have sparked a row between animal welfare activists and the makers of Italy’s Parma ham.

A family of brown bears, a whale shark and a new species of frog are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Reversal in position comes after protests against council’s plans to cut down up to 17,500 treesSheffield council has lost another ally in its plans to cut down up to 17,500 trees after union leaders in the city withdrew their support and urged councillors to rethink the project.The Sheffield Trades Union Council (TUC) has unanimously passed a motion calling on the Sheffield Labour group to pursue “an immediate, mediated settlement to the felling of Sheffield street trees”. The deployment of dozens of police officers and security guards at tree-felling operations has caused “appalling negative publicity nationally for the city”, it added. Continue reading...

Brands including Patagonia and the North Face have presented a unified front in fighting for America’s public lands Continue reading...

Allendale, Northumberland: Our neighbouring farmer has a mixture of stock. What’s good for keeping cows away from our property, won’t deter the sheepAs the noise begins, a curlew flies off, calling in alarm. Deep thuds resonate through the earth and I can feel them through my feet as I stand on the gravel path. A fencing machine with a hydraulic hammer is ramming a heavy-duty post into the field just outside my garden. These “strainers” will have wire strung between them and need to be strong enough to carry its tension.The old posts, being rotten, needed replacing to prevent the cows from pushing down the drystone walls. Curious youngsters, full of joie-de-vivre and energy, they like to rub and nudge the rough stones. Last year, two black bullocks enjoyed leaning over to tug at a climbing rose which I pruned back hard to take away the temptation.

Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings spotted after cleanup of Versova beach by Afroz Shah and volunteersHatchlings from a vulnerable turtle species have been spotted for the first time in decades on a Mumbai beach that was rejuvenated in the past two years by a massive volunteer cleanup operation.At least 80 Olive Ridley turtles have made their way into the Arabian Sea from nests on the southern end of Versova beach in the past week, protected from wild dogs and birds of prey by volunteers who slept overnight in the sand to watch over them. Continue reading...

President seen as potential saviour as people direct rage over toxic dumps towards local officialsThe stench from the Yadrovo landfill is bearable only when it is downwind. When the breeze shifts, the fumes become overpowering, a mix of petrol fumes and a noxious sulphur smell that powers its way into your nose and down your throat.For decades, it was a local dump viewed as a minor nuisance. But six months ago, dozens of trucks each day began hauling in garbage from Moscow. Levels of hydrogen sulfide and chlorine in the air rocketed, children began suffering skin rashes and respiratory ailments, and the town of Volokolamsk, 60 miles north-west of Moscow, became an unlikely centre of an ecological protest. Continue reading...

A decline in the number of diesel cars would not jeopardise COtargets – in fact it would make them cheaper to achieveThe UK Society of Motor Manufacturers blamed February’s rise in the average new-car CO emissions on an “anti-diesel agenda [that] has set back progress on climate change”. Petrol v diesel cars is often presented as a trade-off between health-harming air pollution and climate-harmful CO. Diesel cars do more miles to the litre than petrol, but this exaggerates the difference in CO emissions since one litre of diesel contains more energy and more carbon than one litre of petrol. If fuel were taxed on energy and carbon, rather than volume, then the tax on diesel would be 10 to 14% greater than that on petrol.The International Council on Clean Transportation points out that petrol engines and petrol-hybrids have improved faster than diesel and will continue to do so. They conclude that a decline in diesel cars from around 56% to 15% would not jeopardise EU CO targets. Instead, it would make the targets cheaper to achieve since petrol engines cost less to make and have simpler exhaust clean-up. The future might be electric cars (or better yet for public health: cycling, walking and public transport), but in the short term new petrol cars, instead of diesel, might help both climate change and air pollution. Continue reading...

Scientists say an internal Environmental Protection Agency document encourages the use of misleading statements about scientific certaintyScientists have accused the US Environmental Protection Agency of distributing misleading statements about climate change, following the leaking of an internal email advising agency staff to downplay the certainty of the science.The email, issued by the EPA’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) and sent out to communications directors and regional public affairs directors, was forwarded to others and shared throughout the agency. The email acknowledges that communities face “challenges” in dealing with the consequences of climate change. Continue reading...

One-third of species are vulnerable to extinction, a crisis ravaging swaths of creatures, conservationists say in call to fund recovery plansAn extinction crisis is rippling though America’s wildlife, with scores of species at risk of being wiped out unless recovery plans start to receive sufficient funding, conservationists have warned. Continue reading...

In 2017 Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions also fell 3% as coal use dropped and renewables climbedWindfarms and solar panels produced more electricity than the UK’s eight nuclear power stations for the first time at the end of last year, official figures show.Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions also continued to fall, dropping 3% in 2017, as coal use fell and the use of renewables climbed. Continue reading...

He blames green campaigners for delays, but believes industry will eventually take off in UKDavid Cameron has told US oil executives of his frustration that the UK has failed to embrace fracking despite his best efforts, and hit out at green groups for being “absolutely obsessed” with blocking new fossil fuel extraction.His bullish pro-fracking comments at a US oil industry event this week came almost 12 years since Britain’s former prime minister hugged a husky to burnish his green credentials. Continue reading...

Every spring, ponds around the UK start stirring and frogs come out of their winter slumber to mate. Here’s a unique perspective on an event that’s been happening since the age of the dinosaursClick here to view the 360° video.If you’re viewing on mobile you’ll need to download the YouTube app for the full 360° experience. Continue reading...

From potential issues of capacity to accessibility, readers share their concerns on the reality of recycling using deposit return schemes

Ultimately the only thing that matters: we need to cut carbon pollution as much as possible, as fast as possibleIn September 2017, a team led by the University of Exeter’s Richard Millar published a paper in Nature Geoscience, which was widely reported as suggesting that the Paris climate agreement’s aspirational goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures is still technically within our reach. Many other climate scientists were skeptical of this result, and the journal recently published a critique from a team led by the University of Edinburgh’s Andrew Schurer.The debate lies in exactly how the Paris climate target is defined and measured, which has not been precisely established. Millar’s team used the UK Met Office and Hadley Centre global surface temperature dataset called HadCRUT4, which begins in 1850 and estimates global surface temperatures have warmed about 0.9°C since that time. The team thus calculated the remaining carbon budget that will lead to an additional 0.6°C warming. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ministers will now back a target of 65% by 2035, meaning ambitious rhetoric is being supported by firm action, say expertsThe UK has reversed its opposition to tough EU recycling targets and will now back a goal of recycling two-thirds of urban waste by 2035, the Guardian has learned. The nation’s recycling rate has stalled and it is set to miss its current target of 50% by 2020.

*To watch the 360 video, click this link*Every spring, ponds around the UK start stirring and frogs come out of their winter slumber to mate. Here's a unique perspective on an event that’s been happening since the age of the dinosaursViewers watching this video on Google Chrome may need to update their browser. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Excluding unreliable land-use data, 2017 greenhouse emissions were again highest on recordAustralia’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 were again the highest on record when unreliable data from sectors including land clearing and forestry are excluded, according to consultants NDEVR Environmental.Even including land clearing, overall emissions show a continued rising trend, which began in about 2011, putting Australia’s commitment under the Paris agreement further out of reach. Continue reading...

Assessment to include climate science and threatened species impacts, ministers sayFederal Labor is promising to revisit and fix any logging agreements with state governments that are not based on “proper, independent and full scientific assessments”.In a pledge that could have implications for the rollover of nine agreements due to expire in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia over the next three years, the shadow minister for agriculture, Joel Fitzgibbon, and shadow minister for environment and water, Tony Burke said; “Labor will always support proper, independent and full scientific assessments of RFA [regional forestry agreement] outcomes as part of the agreed framework. Continue reading...

Maya Bay, on Koh Phi Phi Leh, will be shut down by Thai authorities for four months to help recover damaged coral reefs and sea lifeAuthorities in Thailand have ordered the temporary closing of the beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach to halt environmental damage caused by too many tourists.Maya Bay, on the island of Koh Phi Phi Leh in the Andaman Sea, will be closed to all visitors for four months annually starting this June to allow for the recovery of the island’s battered coral reefs and sea life. The decision to keep visitors away was made on Wednesday by Thailand’s national parks and wildlife department. Continue reading...

Researchers from Australia’s leading marine science agency respond to criticism by two academics that doubts much of their workScientists at Australia’s leading marine science agency say an attack on the integrity of their research into threats to the Great Barrier Reef was flawed and based on “misinterpretation” and “selective use of data”.The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims) researchers were responding to accusations made in November 2017 in a journal Marine Pollution Bulletin that claimed much of their work “should be viewed with some doubt”.

50% of Coalition voters and 67% of Labor voters want to phase out coal, and majority also support striving to cut greenhouse gas emissionsA majority of Australians would support phasing out coal power by 2030, including half the people in a sample identifying as Coalition voters, according to a survey by a progressive thinktank.The research funded by the Australia Institute says 60% of a sample of 1,417 Australians surveyed by online market research firm Research Now supported Australia joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance to phase out coal power by 2030. Continue reading...

Forestry Tasmania’s total cash losses were $454m over 20 years, with a write-down of $751m in value of forest estateThe first Tasmanian regional forest agreement, signed between the state and the commonwealth in 1997, was supposed to start an era in which forestry was both ecologically and economically sustainable.In fact the last 20 years have been a financial disaster for forest management in Tasmania. Continue reading...

Readers respond to Michael McCarthy’s article about the devastation caused by modern farming to insects and birdsMichael McCarthy is quite wrong when he says most people are unaware of the destruction of Britain’s wildlife (We’ve lost half our wildlife. But the damage can be reversed, 26 March). Even if you never visit the countryside, if you have any kind of garden you will be painfully aware of it. Twenty years ago my bird feeder nearly always had numerous birds on it (eight at a time was the record, I seem to remember). Now the peanuts wither and go black in the feeder. Then, we had many species; now, one pair of blackbirds, one pair of robins and a couple of greedy pigeons. Twenty years ago I saw a mother hedgehog parading through the garden trailing several babies. Now, I haven’t seen a hedgehog for at least a decade.Up until a couple of years ago the frogs in my garden pond had their riotous mating ceremony around St Valentine’s Day, followed quickly by masses of spawn and then by innumerable tadpoles. Now the date has become variable but results in very little spawn, which after a couple of weeks collapses into featureless slime. The number of pond species has steeply declined and if you put (say) daphnia into a jar of pondwater, they all die instantly. The problem is, what do I do about it apart from writing letters to the Guardian? The government is quite obviously either totally uninterested or completely in the grip of the big chemical firms and the farming lobby. I am delighted to be told that the problem is reversible, and I’m sure it is, but not without a political revolution, of which I see absolutely no sign.

The government’s rejection of coal-mining in Northumberland is good news, says Marianne Birkby. Now they must follow up by rejecting plans for a new Cumbrian mineWhat fantastic news that the government has rejected plans for an opencast coal mine in Northumberland (Javid rejects plan for opencast coalmine, 24 March).This should put the nail firmly in the coffin of the plan for the first deep coalmine in the UK in 30 years. This would be at the proposed Woodhouse Colliery, which is north of Kendal (not south as wrongly located in your article) and under the Irish Sea off the beautiful coastline of St Bees. Continue reading...

It may be one of the largest wildcats ever recorded, but it still looks much like a very large tabbyName: The Beast of Clashindarroch.Age: Unknown. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The moles’ unlicensed mining and despoliation sends farmers, greenkeepers and gardeners madThe last snow lasted a few days but felt like weeks. It vanished in an instant: one spring-like afternoon it felt as if a conjurer had whipped away the tablecloth leaving everything standing.What had changed, and radically so, was the table. It was as if the ground under the snow had been through a strange transformation and some charm had been working invisibly, resurfacing the countryside. Sheep stared with beatific expressions at earthworks that had appeared around them. In the snow and bitter wind, the sheep had been in a trance and, woken by the vernal equinox, beheld the results of what Jack Kerouac described in The Scripture of the Golden Eternity as “Roaring dreams take place in a perfect still mind.” However, the roaring dreams were not those of sheep but belonged to underground minds of the workers John Clare called mouldiwarps, or “The Mole”, as a gamekeeper of my acquaintance would whisper murderously. Continue reading...

If you live in the UK we’d like to hear what you think about bottle and can deposit schemes near you

As spring arrives and campaigners in Sheffield win a temporary pause in tree felling, here’s a gallery of Friends of the Earth volunteers defending nature in local communities Continue reading...