The Australian Automobile Association has found some SUVs use up to 20% more fuel on the road than reported in laboratory tests. Is your vehicle underperforming?

Porous dams in Purbeck are being used to rewet' the mires, bringing a richer landscape for flora and faunaLeaky dams may not sound ideal but they are being used to great effect on dried-out marshland in the English West Country to produce fresh habitat for carnivorous plants and a spider that whizzes over the surface of water to grab prey.Bales made out of heather and bunds constructed out of peaty soil and timber are being used to create porous dams on two mires, Agglestone and Greenlands, in Purbeck, Dorset. Continue reading...

BMW X3 has biggest gap between manufacturer's laboratory consumption claims and real-world testing in latest Australian Automobile Association data

Sunak becomes first PM to address conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, as Tories court farming sectorRishi Sunak has told farmers: I have your back" at the National Farmers Union conference, as he promised to change the culture" in government around farming.Sunak was the first prime minister to address the NFU conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, and had brought three Defra ministers with him to put the Conservative case to farmers. Continue reading...

Sultan Al Jaber, an oil executive, calls for governments to be honest' about costs involved in transition to net zeroThe problem of the ever-growing demand for power must be addressed if the world is not to risk descending into energy turmoil" as it transitions towards clean energy, according to the president of last year's Cop28 summit.In a discussion hosted by the International Energy Agency, Sultan Al Jaber warned governments that they must be honest and transparent" about the potential costs of transition, and the trade-offs involved in transforming energy supplies. Continue reading...

Yearlong trial of ban, including potential prison time, follows two high-profile recent incidents of spearing of protected fish

IQAir labelled Milan unhealthy' over PM 2.5 levels, triggering limits on daytime trafficMilan was under a blanket of smog on Tuesday as a row broke out over data from a monitoring group that ranked the northern Italian city long known for its poor air quality among the most polluted in the world, alongside Dhaka, Lahore and Chengdu.The controversy began on Sunday, when the Swiss real time air quality website IQAir labelled Milan unhealthy" as the level of fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, in the city's air was 24 times above the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), ranking the city third after Dhaka in Bangladesh and Lahore in Pakistan. Continue reading...

Federal tests of one-third of water systems find 70 million Americans exposed to PFAS - suggesting 200 million affected overallAbout 70 million people are exposed to toxic PFAS forever chemicals" in US drinking water, new testing from the Environmental Protection Agency has found.But the testing completed to date has only checked about one-third of the nation's public water systems, meaning the agency is on pace to find over 200 million people are exposed, or at least 60% of the US population. Continue reading...

Jim Pillen breaks with 14 other Republican governors to enroll in Summer EBT, a new food program for school vacation monthsNebraska's governor announced this week that the state would accept federal dollars to help feed children from low-income families, breaking away from the more than a dozen other Republican governors around the US who have refused to do so.Just last month, Jim Pillen joined 14 other Republican governors in opting not to enroll in Summer EBT, a new federal food program that provides low-income families with a monthly payment of $40 per child during summer vacation. In participating states, families with children in free or reduced-price school lunch programs will get $40 per qualifying child on an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card throughout each of the three summer months. That money can be used to purchase groceries and food from farmers' markets. Continue reading...

Friends of the Earth dismisses government's revised climate action plan as a pipe dream'UK ministers are facing court for a second time over plans to meet legally binding climate targets, after environmental groups branded revised measures a complete pipe dream".The government has already been forced to change its climate action plan after a legal challenge by environmentalists, but the same groups are taking it back to court over updated plans they say are riddled with holes and relian[t] on risky techno-fixes". Continue reading...

Voters have made their position clear but our politicians are still not talking about how we can change the way we live and work to ease the climate crisis

Fines of up to $2.2m can be levied against those who ignore biosecurity order to counter invasive insects

Huge amounts of raw sewage were discharged into the river between November 2019 and February 2020Severn Trent has been fined more than 2m for polluting the River Trent near Stoke, with the Environment Agency calling its storm contingency plans woefully inadequate".Huge amounts of raw sewage were discharged into the river from Strongford wastewater treatment works near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, between November 2019 and February 2020. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Bill also criticised by Greens and Environmental Defenders Office who claim it will help fast-track offshore gas developments

Measures to eradicate wild boar population designed to stem risk of African swine fever outbreakNorway could build a fence along its border with Sweden as part of a package of measures designed to eradicate its wild boar population after an outbreak of African swine fever in Sweden last year.Up to 2,000 wild boars face slaughter in Norway under the plan submitted by the country's food safety authority and its environment agency, on the grounds of the great danger" boars pose to commercial pig farming. Continue reading...

Garden sightings of the creatures up two percentage points, according to Gardeners' World magazine readersHedgehogs have had some unexpected good news after years of decline in British gardens caused by habitat loss and fragmentation: their numbers may finally be on the way up again.Readers of BBC Gardeners' World magazine were asked to chronicle the wildlife in their gardens, and reported that hedgehog sightings were up two percentage points. The magazine's previous annual survey had them to be declining. Continue reading...

UTS researchers say firms including Coles, Woolworths, Telstra, Rio Tinto and Qantas have no comprehensive, independently verified and fully costed plan' to reduce emissions

US research shows foods such as butter and processed meat likely to increase levels of toxic PFAS in blood over timeDiets rich in foods such as processed meat and butter likely increase levels of toxic PFAS forever chemicals" in human blood over time, new peer-reviewed research has found.The paper identified a range of foods to be among the drivers of high PFAS levels, including teas, pork, candy, sports drinks, processed meat, butter, chips and bottled water. The research also pointed to higher PFAS blood levels among those who consumed more carryout or food prepared at restaurants. Continue reading...

Lough Neagh's flies were seen as a nuisance. Now their sudden disappearance is a startling omen for a lake that supplies 40% of Northern Ireland's water

Warning that soaring number of vessels threaten fish stocks and environment as geopolitics prevents agreement to regulate areaThe scale of unregulated fishing in a disputed region close to the Falkland Islands has reached an overwhelming" level that is threatening fish populations and the rich biodiversity of the area, politicians and environmentalists have claimed.The Blue Hole", a stretch of the south Atlantic Ocean lying approximately 200 miles off the coast of Argentina and north of the Falkland Islands, is one of the only areas of sea that is not covered by a regional fishing agreement. Continue reading...

Independent advice provider calls for clarity on funding and says project may offer poor value for money'Ministers have been urged by Citizens Advice to protect consumers from a hike in household energy bills to pay for the proposed Sizewell C power station, amid international tensions over the rising costs of nuclear projects.The UK's largest independent advice provider has raised concerns that the project in Suffolk may offer poor value for money" and called for greater clarity on its funding, in a letter to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Continue reading...

Global Witness says the five super-majors' are the main winners of the war' while many struggle to heat their homesThe world's five largest listed oil companies have made profits of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars since Russia's invasion of Ukraine led to dramatic increases in energy prices and household bills.The super-majors" - BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies - have made $281bn (223bn) since the war began in February 2022, according to Global Witness. Continue reading...

Farmers say pontiff's blessing will give them strength in their fight to save their industryItalian farmers who were invited, along with a cow called Ercolina II, to mass at the Vatican amid Europe-wide agricultural protests have said the blessing from Pope Francis would give them the strength to win the game".The farmers, their tractor and Ercolina II, who also made an appearance at the recent Sanremo music festival, were among the worshippers gathered in St Peter's Square for the pontiff's Sunday Angelus. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former compliance officer Jason Scarborough criticises Environment Protection Authority and industry over lost opportunity' to prevent contamination

At Native Cat Flat in Victoria's Alpine national park, four fenced-off areas show a strikingly different ecology, highlighting the damage wrought by more than 2,700 feral horses in the area. Behind the fences, lush sphagnum, dense vegetation, grass tussocks, shrubs and herbs thrive. Outside the plots, the ground is pockmarked with deep hoofprints, and the native grasses are overgrazed, exposing endangered animals in the area - which rely on dense vegetation - to predators

Island made famous by BBC series to be rewilded and turned into a survival retreat, say ownersWith spectacular white beaches and an abundance of wildlife, the island of Taransay has seen pagan Celtic settlers, a massacre involving warring medieval clans and in 2000 was made famous by the BBC reality television series Castaway.Now the owners of one of the largest Scottish islands in private hands plan to return it to its natural condition and into a survival retreat. Continue reading...

Vast reforestation a major reason for warming hole' across parts of US where temperatures have flatlined or cooledTrees provide innumerable benefits to the world, from food to shelter to oxygen, but researchers have now found their dramatic rebound in the eastern US has delivered a further, stunning feat - the curtailing of the soaring temperatures caused by the climate crisis.While the US, like the rest of the world, has heated up since industrial times due to the burning of fossil fuels, scientists have long been puzzled by a so-called warming hole" over parts of the US south-east where temperatures have flatlined, or even cooled, despite the unmistakable broader warming trend. Continue reading...

Glass Pharms hope its approach could show the way for all kinds of energy-intensive horticulture in the UKFor 26 years, Olivier Dehon worked in the corporate sector, ending up as chief financial officer for Xerox in the UK and Ireland before retiring four years ago. Last month he delivered his first consignment of high-strength cannabis.Dehon's dope is legal and above board, produced to supply the UK's burgeoning market for medical cannabis on prescription. What's more, Dehon and his colleagues believe it is the first carbon-neutral indoor weed grown anywhere in the world. Continue reading...

Rapid ocean warming and unusually hot winter days recorded as human-made global heating combines with El NinoFebruary is on course to break a record number of heat records, meteorologists say, as human-made global heating and the natural El Nino climate pattern drive up temperatures on land and oceans around the world.A little over halfway into the shortest month of the year, the heating spike has become so pronounced that climate charts are entering new territory, particularly for sea-surface temperatures that have persisted and accelerated to the point where expert observers are struggling to explain how the change is happening. Continue reading...

Seventy percent of pregnant women in state had herbicide dicamba in their urine, up from 28% in an earlier studyPregnant women in a key US farm state are showing increasing amounts of a toxic weedkiller in their urine, a rise that comes alongside climbing use of the chemicals in agriculture, according to a study published on Friday.The study, led by the Indiana University school of medicine, showed that 70% of pregnant women tested in Indiana between 2020 and 2022 had a herbicide called dicamba in their urine, up from 28% from a similar analysis for the period 2010-12. The earlier study included women in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Continue reading...

Scottish Labour leader defends windfall tax proposal as business leaders say levy could cost up to 100,000 jobsAnas Sarwar has shrugged off an attack on Labour's oil tax plans after being called a traitor" by Aberdeen business leaders.The Scottish Labour leader said the party would press on with its plans for a multibillion-pound windfall tax on oil profits, despite claims from more than 800 oil, engineering and business executives that the levy could cost up to 100,000 North Sea jobs. Continue reading...

Residents hope president will announce federal aid as advocates sign letter to him requesting major disaster declaration from FemaJoe Biden will finally make a visit to East Palestine, Ohio on Friday, more than a year after a toxic train derailment devastated the community.For many residents, the trip is overdue. They hope Biden will use the visit to announce federal aid for environmental testing, relocation assistance, and immediate and ongoing healthcare for residents who are still weathering the fallout from the derailment - something community groups have been demanding for the past year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Manufacturers retest contaminated soil fill until it complies' with regulations and can then be used at childcare centres, schools or parks

French energy firm swung to profit in 2023 despite impairment charge on struggling nuclear project in UKThe owner of the Hinkley Point C power plant has taken a near 13bn hit after delays and cost overruns to the vast nuclear project, which have triggered international political tensions.France's EDF Energy said it had taken a 12.9bn (11bn) impairment charge on the project, weeks after it blamed inflation, Covid and Brexit for a four-year delay and extra 2.3bn bill for the Somerset plant. Continue reading...

Opponents lodge legal appeal against Sunday's planned mascleta, a celebration of noise, near recently restored Manzanares riverEnvironmentalists and animal welfare groups are protesting against Madrid city council's plans to stage an especially noisy firework display in a nature reserve created on the recently restored Manzanares river.Opponents say the mascleta, a celebration of noise rather than light, planned for this Sunday lunchtime will lead to a massacre" of wildlife, and of birds in particular. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Exclusive: The animal translocation scheme by wildlife NGOs including African Parks, once headed by the royal, has been dogged by controversyFour more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi. The recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven.In July 2022, more than 250 elephants were moved from Liwonde national park in southern Malawi to the country's second-largest protected area, Kasungu, in a three-way operation between Malawi's national park service and two NGOs: the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), and African Parks. Prince Harry was president of African Parks for six years, before being elevated to the board of directors from 2023. Continue reading...

EPA confirms bonded asbestos found at St John of God hospital in North Richmond, Kellyville Woolworths and Transport for NSW park in Wiley Park

An overturned barge has been leaking oil into the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, prompting authorities on the island nation to declare a state of emergency. Satellite imagery showed parts of the Trinidadian coast dyed black from the spill, and the leak began reaching nearby Venezuela and Grenada. Farley Augustine, chief secretary of Tobago's House of Assembly, said: 'We need those responsible to come clean and we need those responsible to know that they have to pay for this mess, that they are culpable as part of this mess'

The Tijuana River flows through Mexico and empties off California, carrying pathogens and chemicals and threatening public healthRaw sewage and runoff in the Tijuana River is exposing communities at the US-Mexico border to an unusual and noxious brew of pathogens and toxic chemicals, according to a report released this week.Billions of gallons of sewage flow through the river, which winds north from Mexico through California and empties into the Pacific Ocean, containing a mix of carcinogenic chemicals including arsenic, as well as viruses, bacteria and parasites, according to public health researchers at San Diego State University, who published the report. Continue reading...

Research reveals area size of France is under threat by restoration projects taking place in unsuitable landscapesMisguided tree-planting projects are threatening crucial ecosystems across Africa, scientists have warned.Research has revealed that an area the size of France is threatened by forest restoration initiatives that are taking place in inappropriate landscapes. Continue reading...

National Audit Office to examine risks and costs at nuclear waste site in CumbriaBritain's public spending watchdog has launched an investigation into risks and costs at Sellafield, the UK's biggest nuclear waste dump.The National Audit Office (NAO), which scrutinises the use of public funds, has announced it will examine whether the Cumbria site is managing and prioritising the risks and hazards of the site effectively as well as deploying resources appropriately and continuing to improve its project management. Continue reading...

Lack of activity persists despite lifting of ban on projects last year, and contrasts with 46 applications made in ScotlandNo new proposals for general-use windfarms were submitted for planning permission in England last year, despite the government's much-vaunted relaxation of planning restrictions.Only seven applications were submitted for onshore wind turbines for the whole of 2023 in England, new data from the government has shown, and all of those developments were for the replacement of existing turbines or for private sites, where the energy produced is destined for a particular consumer, such as a business. Continue reading...

Companies knew for decades recycling was not viable but promoted it regardless, Center for Climate Integrity study findsPlastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report.The companies lied," said Richard Wiles, president of fossil-fuel accountability advocacy group the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), which published the report. It's time to hold them accountable for the damage they've caused." Continue reading...

Fuel continues to leak from overturned and abandoned barge as stain spreads into the Caribbean SeaAn oil spill that has stained Tobago's coastline in the Caribbean is entering Grenada's waters and could affect neighboring Venezuela, authorities have warned.Eight days after Trinidad and Tobago's coastguard first spotted the oil from an overturned and abandoned barge, the vessel continues to leak fuel, and portions of the stain have moved about 144km (89 miles) into the Caribbean Sea at a rate of 14km/h. Continue reading...

Small farms and Black farmers are going out of business, while corporate-controlled farms are booming, raking in subsidiesRecord numbers of US farms are going out of business with small farms and Black farmers the hardest hit - again, according to the 2022 agriculture census, a comprehensive snapshot of the state of America's farms and farmers published every five years by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Yet industrial factory farms rearing thousands of livestock in confinement have further expanded into rural America, acquiring smaller farms, raking in taxpayer subsidies and generating environmental harms.The agriculture census is a mammoth data collection effort involving more than a million farmers, which tracks the number, size and types of farm across sectors, as well as the farmers and the financials - at the national, state and county levels. It provides insights into the impact - good and bad - of government programs on farmers, workers, land use, animals, waterways and the climate, and should inform future policy. The latest data set includes the Covid pandemic - an extraordinary time when global food prices, government farm subsidies and food insecurity all surged. Continue reading...

Australian Platypus Conservancy says it's remarkable this animal is still doing as well as he is'

The award-winning short film's creators hope that casting a woman as a female salmon will help viewers connect with the fish, which was recently classed as near threatened'A strange-looking woman in a wetsuit heaves herself up on to a gravel beach in a remote corner of Iceland. Her mouth is swollen and peculiarly wide, she has webbed hands and is wearing a huge black diving mask and flippers. She stops moving abruptly and lies still, not breathing, her arms and legs splayed out at odd angles on the pebbles.But as the camera zooms slowly in on her body and the actor Marianne Faithfull's voice starts narrating, we learn that the webbed woman is not a woman after all. She is a fish. Continue reading...

State's energy minister calls for national approach to energy system resilience as climate change causes more extreme weather events

Cash injection in Great British Energy should be increased to 30bn, thinktank says after Keir Starmer U-turnKeir Starmer is being urged to more than double Labour's investment in publicly owned renewable energy to save consumers billions of pounds on their bills, despite the party drastically scaling back its plans last week.In an intervention after the Labour leader scrapped the party's 28bn green investment pledge in the most controversial U-turn of his leadership, the Common Wealth thinktank said a step-change in government backing for clean energy generation was still required. Continue reading...