Environment | The Guardian

Birds are not just diverse, vivid and extraordinary. They can also save our souls – let’s protect themFor most of my life, I didn’t pay attention to birds. Only in my 40s did I become a person whose heart lifts whenever he hears a grosbeak singing or a towhee calling, and who hurries out to see a golden plover that’s been reported in the neighbourhood, just because it’s a beautiful bird, with truly golden plumage, and has flown all the way from Alaska. When someone asks me why birds are so important to me, all I can do is sigh and shake my head, as if I’ve been asked to explain why I love my brothers. And yet the question is a fair one: why do birds matter?My answer might begin with the vast scale of the avian domain. If you could see every bird in the world, you’d see the whole world. Things with feathers can be found in every corner of every ocean and in land habitats so bleak that they’re habitats for nothing else. Grey gulls raise their chicks in Chile’s Atacama desert, one of the driest places on Earth. Continue reading...

Unsustainable exploitation of the natural world threatens food and water security of billions of people, major UN-backed biodiversity study revealsHuman destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food, water and security to billions of people, according to the most comprehensive biodiversity study in more than a decade.Such is the rate of decline that the risks posed by biodiversity loss should be considered on the same scale as those of climate change, noted the authors of the UN-backed report, which was released in Medellin, Colombia on Friday. Continue reading...

Sajid Javid says environmental impact of Northumberland plan outweighs economic benefitsThe government has rejected plans for an opencast coal mine in Northumberland on the grounds that it would exacerbate climate change.Eighteen months after Sajid Javid first took responsibility for a planning decision for a new coal mine at Highthorn, the communities secretary said he had concluded the project should not go ahead. Continue reading...

EU’s subsidy system, that benefits big farming rather than sustainability, needs to change to prevent ongoing collapse in birds and insect numbers, warn green groupsEurope’s crisis of collapsing bird and insect numbers will worsen further over the next decade because the EU is in a “state of denial” over destructive farming practices, environmental groups are warning. Continue reading...

If even oil companies accept human-caused global warming, why doesn’t everybody?In a California court case this week, Judge William Alsup asked the two sides to provide him a climate science tutorial.The plaintiffs are the coastal cities of San Francisco and Oakland. They’re suing five major oil companies (Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips and BP) to pay for the cities’ costs to cope with the sea level rise caused by global warming. Chevron’s lawyer presented the science for the defense, and most notably, began by explicitly accepting the expert consensus on human-caused global warming, saying: Continue reading...

‘His blubber shook like Jell-o,’ says researcher of the attack on newborn orca by unrelated 32-year-old maleScientists in the Canadian province of British Columbia have documented what is believed to be the first reported case of an orca whale killing an infant of the same species.“We knew right away that this was a remarkable event,” said Jared Towers, a Cetacean researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, of the encounter he and two colleagues witnessed in December 2016. Continue reading...

Leopards roaming the Sanjay Gandhi National Park could be helping to control the city’s dangerous stray dog population, study suggestsA fleeting glimpse of the black spots and gold fur of a leopard is not an uncommon sight at Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the Indian city of Mumbai.

Mining for lignite - or brown coal - in Greece is a huge industry. Together with Germany and Poland, the country accounts for more than one-third of the world’s coal production. But for residents of villages in the extraction areas of West Macedonia, it has many impacts, from displacement to health problems. Photographs and research by Anna PanteliaThick dust suspended in the atmosphere makes it hard to see the sun over Ptolemaida, a city 500 kilometres north-west of Athens in the West Macedonia region, known for its brown coal (lignite) mines and power stations.Kostas works as a guard for the state-owned Public Power Corporation (PPC), like his father before him. “My father died of cancer when I was 12,” he says. “Four other men from his shift lost their lives from cancer.” Continue reading...

Helm Crag, Lake District A flock of pregnant Herdwick ewes are expertly herded along the rocky fellsides

Rescue operation under way to save 15 beached whales in Hamelin Bay near Augusta on state’s south-west coastOne hundred and thirty-five whales have died after being washed ashore in Western Australia.A rescue operation began on Friday morning in Hamelin Bay, on the state’s south-western tip, to save the remaining 15, with volunteers and vets trying to keep the surviving short-finned pilot whales alive before deciding when to herd them out to sea. Continue reading...

Tony Burke says if the Greens back the plan, the ‘largest removal’ of a conservation area will be locked in for a decadeLabor has blasted the Greens for not lining up immediately behind their commitment to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government this week.

If we are to reduce our consumption levels, says Linda Marriott, we must walk the walk, not just talk the talkBravo, Mark Boyle – your world sounds very beguiling to an oldie like me (I left a troubled world behind. Now let me tell you how to fix it, 20 March). However, I’ve lost count of the number of times in my life that I have heard this siren song, but no one with any influence ever seems to listen or even wake up. But, as Mark says, we can try small remedies ourselves should we be lucky enough to have a garden. It reminds me of an old Canadian friend who was convinced he could protect his family from the coming apocalypse by buying a farm, until he realised he’d have to have a gun – and use it – to stop those less fortunate from taking what he had. Or the 1970s German bumper sticker that translated as “everyone wants to go back to Eden but no one wants to go on foot”.

A new study says that even in the ‘unrealistic’ event of a total halt to the flow of agricultural chemicals the damage will persist for 30 yearsThe enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico will take decades to recover even if the flow of farming chemicals that is causing the damage is completely halted, new research has warned. Continue reading...

Anne Ruston says National Parks Association “engaged in a campaign to mislead the Australian people” after groups make public submissions on RFAsThe government has accused green groups of deliberately misleading the Australian people by raising concerns about the roll over of long term logging agreements.Related: NSW Labor refuses to approve forestry agreements based on 'out-of-date' science Continue reading...

NSW will need extra generation capacity unless AGL rolls out all three stages of its transitionAustralia’s energy market operator says an additional 850 megawatts of dispatchable generation capacity will be needed in New South Wales after the closure of the ageing Liddell power plant if AGL Energy fails to complete all three stages of its transition plan.Last December AGL confirmed it would close Liddell in 2022 and replace the coal plant with a mix of renewables, gas power for peak periods and battery storage. Continue reading...

Bill before parliament would allow culling by landowners, harvesting of crocodile eggs and hunting safarisScientists have rubbished the logic behind a new push to cull crocodiles in north Queensland, saying the only way to completely stop attacks would be to eradicate the species.Katter’s Australian party MPs on Wednesday lodged a private member’s bill in the Queensland parliament to allow culling by landowners, the harvesting of crocodile eggs and hunting safaris led by Indigenous rangers. Continue reading...

The patch of detritus is more than twice the size of France and is up to 16 times larger than previously estimatedAn enormous area of rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean is teeming with far more debris than previously thought, heightening alarm that the world’s oceans are being increasingly choked by trillions of pieces of plastic. Continue reading...

At a high-level talking shop for the global water industry in Brazil, river defenders and community activists - who are often murdered or criminalised for trying to protect their resources - have set up an alternative forum to share their stories

Crowdfunded case claims offshore oil licences were granted illegally by the Guyanese governmentThree major oil companies preparing to drill off the shores of Guyana, where a string of discoveries have sparked a rush for crude, are being challenged by a group of citizens who say their dash for oil is illegal.Lawyers acting for the Guyanese campaigners are to lodge the latest challenge in a court in Guyana this week. They are funding the battle against oil giants Exxon Mobil, Hess Corporation and Nexen, a subsidiary of Chinese national oil, through the crowdfunding site CrowdJustice. Continue reading...

Tongass is the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, with trees more than 1,000 years old. But a pro-logging effort could uproot themAt south-east Alaska’s last industrial-scale sawmill, wheel loaders stack debarked logs two storeys high on the frozen ground. A bumper sticker on a battered Ford in the parking lot reads “Cut Kill Dig Drill”, a mantra that many in the 49th state appreciate repeating.Viking Lumber Company employs 34 people and sustains itself primarily on old-growth trees harvested from the Tongass, the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world. Many of them have been around longer than the United States – some for 1,000 years. Continue reading...

Woman also sets off rape alarm and accuses council contractors of ‘raping the trees’A tree protester in Sheffield has been arrested for blowing a plastic trumpet and setting off a rape alarm after accusing council contractors of “raping the trees”.The 57-year-old woman was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of causing intentional harm or distress following a complaint from a member of the public, and she received a court summons, South Yorkshire police said. Continue reading...

Tempsford, Bedfordshire: To us the entrance hole to the sett it is unfathomably small, for in our imaginations we big up the badger into a creature with the dimensions of a stripy bearOn a disused airfield where planes once lifted off on secret night missions to occupied Europe, animals roam the runways under cover of darkness. At one corner, badgers have mined a thicket of thorns with pickaxe claws and shovels for feet. Their sett is lodged among the bushes, its tunnels and chambers shored up and secured by pillars and rafters of roots. It has spread to the point where the mouth of the newest hole gapes out over the open airfield. A portal between day and night, a D-shape on its side, it slumbers in the sun, while, deep inside, curled-up animals dream of dusk, their babies still a couple of months away from emergence. The hole breathes out no sounds, no smells, nothing.The entrance hole to the sett would represent a canyon to a rabbit, but to us it is unfathomably small, for in our imaginations we big up the badger into a creature with the dimensions of a stripy bear. Continue reading...

Plans ‘woefully inadequate’, party says – but it fears replacing some protections with none at allThe Greens have signalled that they might not back a move by Labor to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government, calling for time to consider their position.

Conservation groups produce analysis showing protection for 35m hectares of ocean will be downgradedMore than 35m hectares of “no-take” ocean will be stripped from Australia’s marine parks if plans released by the government go ahead, according to analysis commissioned by conservation groups.The environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, released plans for 44 marine parks on Tuesday, claiming a “more balanced and scientific evidence-based approach to ocean protection”. Continue reading...

BirdLife says loopholes, exemptions, omissions and powers open to politicisation have been exploitedSome of Australia’s favourite birds are threatened with extinction and Australia’s environmental laws are failing to protect them, a new report by BirdLife Australia has found.

Farmers and others in Mildura region are warning trees could be left to wither and dieA huge expansion of irrigated crops in the Mildura region of the lower Murray is threatening to overtake the water available in the river, and has set the scene for a disaster if drought conditions return.A 16-day heatwave that hit the region this summer exposed the vulnerability of the Sunraysia and western New South Wales regions. During that time, the Murray-Darling basin’s water managers scrambled to meet demand, as the region experienced a run of days over 35C between 16 and 29 January. Continue reading...

Villagers come to the rescue after icy wings ground hundreds of migrating birdsWhat would you do if you encountered scores of distressed storks covered in ice lying in a snow-covered field? In Bulgaria, people have been taking them home.A cold snap in the north-east of the country has stranded hundreds of the migrating birds this week, covering their wings in ice and grounding them. Continue reading...

By declaring all sources of oil and gas in limestone and sandstone as ‘conventional’, writes Kathryn McWhirter, the government and oil companies are hoping the controversy over fracking will go awayThe threat that you refer to (National parks land faces new oil threat, campaigners warn, 16 March) actually looms over a great swathe of south-east England, not just national parks. And the plethora of promised wells will not be “conventional” as your article states – at least not in the scientifically accepted meaning of the word. A new, political definition of “conventional” was inserted into national minerals planning guidance in March 2014 by the then Department of Energy and Climate Change. It declared “conventional” all sources of oil and gas in limestone and sandstone. This is not true. Both limestone and sandstone, geologically speaking, can be conventional or unconventional. The scientific divide between the two pivots on permeability – how freely oil or gas can flow through the rocks. And, deep within the shale under the Weald, the thin, muddy limestone layers that are currently the target of oil companies have low permeability. They are unconventional.It is convenient for the oil industry to be able to claim its drilling to be conventional. To the public, media and planners it makes oil wells seem a more minor issue. But the industry’s plans are major. Precisely because of the low permeability of the target rocks (now muddy limestone, soon no doubt the surrounding shale), there will be a need for a great many wells. You can extract oil only by getting up close to each bit of “unconventional” rock, and dissolving it with acid or cracking it open. Stephen Sanderson, CEO of UK Oil and Gas, said of his plans for Surrey and Sussex: “This type of oil deposit very much depends on being able to drill your wells almost back to back.” Continue reading...

Such extreme weather events are now happening four times more than in 1980, according to a European science paperGlobal floods and extreme rainfall events have surged by more than 50% this decade, and are now occurring at a rate four times higher than in 1980, according to a new report.Other extreme climatological events such as storms, droughts and heatwaves have increased by more than a third this decade and are being recorded twice as frequently as in 1980, the paper by the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac) says. Continue reading...

In wake of Guardian Australia report, Penny Sharpe says regional forest agreements must include climate change as a considerationNSW Labor has demanded that climate change be on the table as part of a full scientific assessment of the state’s regional forest agreements (RFAs), which are set to expire over the next two years.Penny Sharpe, opposition environment spokeswoman, said NSW Labor would not sign off on proposed extensions because the government “knows the science underpinning the RFAs is out of date and incomplete”. Continue reading...

To mark World Water Day, NGO says accessing water is getting more difficult in world’s most environmentally stressed nations

Authors of report on bird declines say intensive farming and pesticides could turn Europe’s farmland into a desert that ultimately imperils all humansThe “catastrophic” decline in French farmland birds signals a wider biodiversity crisis in Europe which ultimately imperils all humans, leading scientists have told the Guardian.A dramatic fall in farmland birds such as skylarks, whitethroats and ortolan bunting in France was revealed by two studies this week, with the spread of neonicotinoid pesticides – and decimation of insect life – coming under particular scrutiny. Continue reading...

We want to hear from people around the world switching things off and getting involved in Earth Hour 2018

Environmental Defenders Office to urge Palaszczuk government to amend proposed lawsThe Queensland Environmental Defenders Office says proposed new land-clearing laws in the state leave significant loopholes that would allow broadscale clearing to continue unchecked.The group will on Thursday lodge a submission urging the Palaszczuk government to amend its proposed vegetation management laws. Continue reading...

PM phones Michael Gunner after lack of contact with Northern Territory contrasted with Monday’s visit to bushfire-ravaged town of TathraMalcolm Turnbull has sent his thoughts to Darwin, in a phone call to the chief minister five days after Cyclone Marcus tore through the city.The prime minister contacted the Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, on Wednesday morning, speaking for about three to four minutes. They mainly discussed the federally funded Australian defence force personnel based in Darwin helping out with the cyclone recovery. Continue reading...

California judge William Alsup put out a list of questions for a climate change ‘tutorial’ in a global warming case

The Santos project would be exempt from complete fire bans and allowed to flare gas, even in catastrophic fire weatherFirefighters with decades of experience working around the bushfire-prone Pilliga forest say Santos’s controversial Narrabri gas project will create an unacceptable fire risk to workers at the site, as well as to surrounding properties.Those firefighters, who have also opposed the project on other environmental grounds, say fires in the area can be so fast and ferocious that in some weather conditions the project site would need to be evacuated, since if a fire did start there would likely not be enough time to evacuate workers. Continue reading...

Fred Hooper says he interpreted offer as an attempt to get him to persuade Labor to support Coalition’s plan to reduce water for environmental flowsThe government offered an Indigenous group $10m in water entitlements as it tried to get its plan to reduce water for environmental flows in the Murray-Darling basin through the Senate, a senior Indigenous leader has said.Fred Hooper, who heads the Northern Murray-Darling Basin Aboriginal Nations group, said he interpreted the 11th-hour offer as an attempt to get him to persuade Labor to support the government. Continue reading...

Australia Institute says commonwealth paid far more than initial price for Condamine-Balonne river system buyback“Monty Pythonesque” is how the Australia Institute has described the federal government’s decision to pay $80m for a water buyback in the Condamine-Balonne river system in Queensland last year.The Guardian reported this month that the company selling the water to the commonwealth, Eastern Australian Agriculture, had immediately recorded a $52m gain on the sale of its water in July 2017. The company itself had valued the water rights much lower in its accounts. Continue reading...

Environment secretary says UK control of fishing waters delayed, not abandoned, by Brexit dealMichael Gove has attempted to reassure Conservatives angry about Britain conceding on fisheries during the Brexit transition by urging them to keep their “eyes on the prize”.The environment secretary said he understood the fishing industry’s grave disappointment at Theresa May’s agreement that would effectively keep the UK inside the common fisheries policy (CFP) until 2020, but without the same level of influence. However, he argued in parliament that the implementation period was a necessary step on the path to the ultimate goal. Continue reading...

Falling cost of wind and solar will unlock £20bn of investment, Aurora Energy Research saysThe UK is well on the way to a new era of subsidy-free renewable energy projects that will largely kill off prospects for new gas power stations, according to industry analysts.The falling cost of wind and solar projects combined with advances in battery storage technology will unlock about £20bn of investment in the UK between now and 2030, Aurora Energy Research said. Onshore wind and solar will both be viable without subsidies by 2025 in the UK, it added. Continue reading...

Documents reveal government plans to extend RFAs without fresh environmental or scientific reviewsFederal and state ministers have discussed legal concerns that imminent extensions to logging agreements might be invalid as they are based on old scientific assessments.Commonwealth and state concerns about the “legal and political risks” to the regional forest agreement extensions that are about to be agreed are highlighted in a collection of 10 documents – including briefing notes and “contentious issues briefs” – prepared for the New South Wales primary industries minister, Niall Blair, and the state’s lands and forestry minister, Paul Toole, and obtained by Guardian Australia. Continue reading...

The tragic death of Sudan the rhino should act as a warning of the need to act to prevent mass extinctions around the world, say conservationistsConservationists have warned that the death of the last male northern white rhinoceros in Kenya is a sign that unsustainable human activity is driving a new era of mass extinctions around the globe.

If you work in the UK fishing industry we’d like to hear what you think about the latest changes to affect fisheries

Opposition condemns Coalition plan to open more recreational and commercial fishing areasLabor says it will move to disallow new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government, branding the change the “largest removal of marine area from conservation, ever, from any government in the world”.

A shoestring expedition to one of the remotest places in Sumatra has returned with stunning photos of tigers, tapirs, clouded leopards among other rare species, large and small. Will they find orangutans next?

Hopes for species rest on IVF with two females after death of Sudan, the ‘gentle giant’The last male northern white rhinoceros has died, leaving only two females with which conservationists hope to save the species from extinction.Sudan, the “gentle giant” who lived in the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, was put down on Monday after the pain from a degenerative illness became too great. He is survived by his daughter and granddaughter. Continue reading...

Plastic and cardboard packaging makes up more than a quarter of product weight in some of the UK’s best-selling chocolate eggs

Set deep in the Valley of the Sun, the lush and sprawling ‘megapolis’ has a problem – the riversJennifer Afshar and her husband, John, pushed their bikes across the grass and paused to savour the sunshine, while their two boys went to look at the duck pond. Other kids were playing soccer or doing tricks in the skate park, and families picnicked on blankets or fired up a barbecue across from the swimming pool.“We moved here from Los Angeles, to get away from the rising cost of living and the traffic,” said Jennifer. “When we saw this park, we thought they were punking us it was so good. There’s low crime, the home owners association takes great care of the grass and trees – we like it.” Continue reading...