Environment | The Guardian

Fiona Howie, Tom Greeves, Andrew Gilruth and Amanda Anderson respond to George Monbiot’s article on reclaiming our national parksGeorge Monbiot raises some legitimate concerns about the management of parts of our national parks (Here’s a novel idea: protecting wildlife in our national parks, 28 February) but to write off all 15 of them entirely is nonsense.Monbiot says: “Much of the land in our national parks is systematically burned.” But they are more than just moorlands; they contain one-third of England’s public forest estate. Northumberland contains some of the cleanest rivers in England; the New Forest includes a special area of conservation, an EU designation, that encompasses almost 30,000 hectares; and the Pembrokeshire coast some of the most biodiverse coastal habitats. Continue reading...

Cat Burton, Steve Emsley and Geoff Williams on using the car batteries to turn up the heat in their electric vehicles when neededI had to laugh at John Richards’s worry about people freezing in stuck electric vehicles because their batteries would run down in “no time” while those in a petrol car could run their heater (Letters, 3 March). Running the heated seats and climate control for about seven hours costs about three miles of range for my Tesla and it’s probably something similar for a petrol or diesel car. The big difference is, the electric vehicle won’t be killing the occupants with carbon monoxide poisoning. Indeed, the advice has always been not to run the engine if stuck.Teslas have a 12v battery for “domestic” uses and a 400v battery for motive power. The 400v kicks in to recharge the 12v when needed. Think of the 400v battery as the equivalent of running the engine to top up the battery.

Threatened species, pressure on Great Barrier Reef and climate change all worsened by full-blown land-clearing crisis

Environment department originally wrote to landowners asking them to show why planned clearing was not illegal, but later reversed courseAttempts by the federal government to stop potentially unlawful clearing in Queensland were reversed after political intervention, with a highly unusual apology letter sent to every landholder suspected of planning unlawful clearing at the direct request of the minister, documents obtained by the Guardian under FOI laws reveal.In December 2015 and January 2016, the federal department of environment took the exceptional step of asking 51 landholders with approval from the Queensland government to clear their land, to explain why the clearing wasn’t unlawful under federal environmental law. Continue reading...

Environment Agency issues 16 flood warnings and 35 flood alerts as country thaws outThe cold snap, in which the UK has been hit by hazardous conditions and freezing temperatures, is coming to an end. But high tides and easterly winds could mean flooding for several parts of Britain, particularly in the coastal areas in the south-west and north-east.Some areas will enjoy temperatures as warm as 10C (50F) on Sunday and Monday, although Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and the north of England will remain cool for a few more days.

Demand from Chinese workers raises demand for skin and body parts of endangered speciesConservationists who have uncovered a growing illegal trade in jaguar fangs in South America are linking it to Chinese construction projects that could be threatening wildlife globally.Experts say major Chinese power plant, road and rail works in developing nations are key stimulants of illicit trade in the skins, bones and horns of endangered animals. Continue reading...

Last week’s brief but unnerving shortfall was a reminder, if any were needed, of the central importance of energy efficiencyCarry on cooking as normal, the energy minister said. This is how the market works, said industry experts, as the wholesale price of gas rocketed 200% in the wake of National Grid’s warning on Thursday that the country was facing a gas shortfall. In other words, don’t panic, nothing to see here.To an extent, they’re right. In the short term the UK was fine, despite huge demand fuelled by cold weather coinciding with a series of interruptions to supply. No domestic gas supplies were cut off and neither was National Grid forced to ask industrial users to stop using gas. Continue reading...

Campaigners want inquiry into overall strategy to examine how effective culling has beenThe government is to review the controversial badger cull as part of an inquiry into its strategy to clamp down on bovine TB.The review raises the possibility that experts conducting it will examine disputed evidence about the cull’s efficacy, potentially paving the way for a change in policy. Continue reading...

An earthly paradise is ravaged by inferno and flood, the earth itself rising to proclaim a horrifying and deadly new normalWhen people ask me where I live and I say, “Santa Barbara,” I wait for the inevitable reply, “Paradise,” and the quizzical look that says, how does one live there, rather than vacation. It’s as if I had replied, Disneyland.People who visit from colder climates have been complaining lately. Last year, when it finally rained after six years of drought, and we were practically on our knees with gratitude, a woman from New England remarked, “I didn’t come here for the rain.” I almost said, “Well, then, why don’t you go back home?” Another pestered a friend: when was her club in Montecito going to open? My friend replied, “I think it’s under eight feet of mud.” She wanted to add, “And they’re still looking for the bodies.” Continue reading...

Company sued Quebec township of 157 people after it created a no-drill zone, fearing for its water supplyA small municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec that was facing a million-dollar lawsuit from an oil and gas exploration company has won its court battle, bringing an end to a four-year ordeal that began when residents took steps to protect their water supply.“Reason and law prevailed today,” François Boulay, the mayor of Ristigouche Sud-Est, a township of 157 people on Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula, said in a statement. “We are relieved that our right to protect our drinking water is finally recognised.” Continue reading...

Caroline Lucas derides ‘fluffy communications strategy’ and ‘inadequate’ action on plasticsThe Conservative party’s rhetoric on the environment is a “fluffy communications strategy” when change on plastics could happen in half the time pledged, the co-leader of the Greens has said ahead of her party conference speech.Caroline Lucas will use her speech on Saturday in Bournemouth to call for petrol and diesel-only new cars to be phased out by 2030 and a deposit return scheme on drinks containers to be launched by the end of the year. Continue reading...

Inshriach, Aviemore Tracks revealed the badger and I had been cohabiting all this time. I just wasn’t looking hard enough

House lawmakers say Russia backed Dakota Access pipeline protesters and supported them on social media, but evidence is thinA powerful US congressional committee has alleged that Russia financed major environmental organizations and used social media to support opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline, fracking and fossil fuels.

If the trend continues, researchers warn, the migration of blacktip sharks could grind to a halt because of the rapidly warming oceanBlacktip sharks that journey down the Florida coast have declined in number so sharplythat researchers warn one of the largest migrations in US waters could grind to a halt because of the rapidly warming ocean. Continue reading...

Olive ridley sea turtles, a sparrowhawk and Europe’s highest sand dune are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Working people will end up with fewer resources and less collective power if the US supreme court undermines the power of unions with its decision on JanusThis week the US supreme court may have given the Koch Brothers yet another tool to help them achieve something they have been dreaming of for decades: weakening the power of public-sector unions.Oral arguments were held on Monday 26 February on Janus v AFSCME, a case that some have called the most important labor case of the century. The aim of the plaintiff’s case is to eliminate “fair share fees”, dividing public sector workers and limiting their power in numbers. If the supreme court finds in favor of the plaintiff, as they are widely expected to, public sector unions will no longer be able to collect fees automatically from the employees they represent, and these unions’ ability to operate will be dramatically undermined. Continue reading...

Climate change is forcing indigenous people to find new ways to survive as a remote village of 600 grapples with rapid erosionAt the edge of an imperiled Alaska town, Dennis Davis sent a drone over a patchwork of ice covering the Chukchi Sea.“Some people think it’s a toy, but a lot of people know that it’s an actual tool,” he said of the $5,000, microwave-sized machine with a camera mounted to a carbon fiber frame. As snowmachines zoomed past, Davis, 39, a resident and former police officer, looked at the pictures that were beamed back. Continue reading...

The discovery shows the remote area is a vital refuge for wildlife from climate change and overfishing and should be protected by a new reserve, say scientistsHuge “mega-colonies” of penguins have been discovered near the Antarctic peninsula, hosting more than 1.5 million birds. Researchers say it shows the area is a vital refuge from climate change and human activities and should be protected by a vast new marine wildlife reserve currently under consideration.

Two more defenders in Latin America have lost their lives challenging their country’s economic growth model which prizes profit at all costAs the Guardian and Global Witness revealed that almost four environmental defenders were murdered every week in 2017, War on Want learned of two more killings through our Latin American partner organisations.On 24 January, Márcio “Marcinho” Matos, involved in the fight for rights of landless peasants in Bahia in north-east Brazil, was shot in front of his son. Three days later, Temístocles “don Temis” Machado, a prominent figure in the struggle of Afro-Colombian communities across the Colombian Pacific, was murdered in his home in the Isla de Paz community. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Kemper power plant promised to be a world leader in ‘clean coal’ technology but Guardian reporting found evidence top executives knew of construction problems and design flaws years before the scheme collapsedHigh above the red dirt and evergreen trees of Kemper County, Mississippi, gleams a 15-story monolith of pipes surrounded by a town-sized array of steel towers and white buildings. The hi-tech industrial site juts out of the surrounding forest, its sharp silhouette out of place amid the gray crumbling roads, catfish stands and trailer homes of nearby De Kalb, population: 1,164.The $7.5bn Kemper power plant once drew officials from as far as Saudi Arabia, Japan and Norway to marvel at a 21st-century power project so technologically complex its builder compared it to the moonshot of the 1960s. It’s promise? Energy from “clean coal”. Continue reading...

Disclosure regarding the $7.5bn Kemper plant in Mississippi throws further cloud over promise of clean coal energy

Dame Sally Davies says issue is not just environmental and calls on UK government to bring in tougher standards to tackle toxic airEngland’s chief medical officer is calling on the government to do more to reduce air pollution by introducing stringent new national standards to reduce the threat to human health.Dame Sally Davies says pollution must be seen as a public health issue and not just an environmental concern. She recommends the government bring in tougher standards to cut air pollution and standardise any road charging introduced to cut nitrogen dioxide pollution from diesel traffic. Continue reading...

The Royal Horticultural Society also warns that a ‘game-changing’ bacterial disease called xylella poses a very serious danger to UK plants and treesThe box tree caterpillar and fuchsia gall mite will continue their march across British gardens in 2018, experts warn, after the fast-spreading bugs topped the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) pest list for 2017.The RHS also warned that a “game-changing” bacterial disease called xylella, which is devastating parts of southern Europe and has already been intercepted at the UK border, is a very serious danger to UK plants and trees. Continue reading...

Range including leaves, bushes and trees made entirely from plant-based plastic sourced from sugar cane will be available later this yearThe first Lego pieces made from plant-based plastic sourced from sugar cane will go on sale this year, the company has announced.The 85-year-old Danish toymaker said production has begun on a range of Lego botanical elements or pieces such as leaves, bushes and trees, made entirely from plant-based plastic. They will start appearing in Lego box sets with bricks and mini-figures later this year. Continue reading...

Chideock, Dorset: It takes five workers eight hours to thrash three acres worth of wheat reed. That’s enough to thatch the average 30-foot cottageThe smell strikes you first. A mealy odour, dry and tickly, of clean straw and grain. Beneath it, a hint of juiciness, from bruised ears of wheat beaten to release their kernels. Seeds shaken free leap and bounce into the waiting trailer. Some will be sown for next year’s crop; the rest go for cattle feed. Continue reading...

Labor leader dodges questions about plan to revoke Adani licence if he wins next electionBill Shorten has repeatedly denied that he told colleagues he intended to ban the Adani coal mine, but dodged questions about whether he intended to revoke its licence if Labor wins the next election.Shorten was asked on Friday to clarify Labor’s position after the businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins this week gave a detailed account of private discussions he had with the Labor leader over December and January. Continue reading...

Environmental groups welcome move but want freeze on mining expansion until review is finalCoalmining in Sydney’s drinking water catchment will be scrutinised by water experts, the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment has announced.Enviroment groups, which have been warning for years of the impact of coalmining on drinking water welcomed the move but called for a moratorium on any expansion of mining activity until the conclusion of the review. Continue reading...

Government-funded researchers urge change in way clean energy is funded to reduce burden on poorest householdsThe richest households should pay £410 a year more towards supporting energy subsidies for wind farms, solar rooftops and home insulation schemes, government-funded researchers have urged.The UK Energy Research Centre (Ukerc) said that shifting environmental and social levies off electricity bills and instead loading them on to general taxation would reduce the cost of energy for more than two thirds of households. Continue reading...

Global shareholders file motion calling for rethink on membership of coal lobby groupsThe voice of Australia’s coal lobby is under renewed threat as the country’s second biggest miner, Rio Tinto, faces a shareholder revolt over its membership of lobby groups including the Minerals Council of Australia and the role it plays in Australia’s climate and energy debate.Global investors worth $84bn have joined together to file a shareholder motion calling on Rio Tinto to rethink its membership of the MCA, NSW Minerals Council (NSWMC) and the Queensland Resources Council (QRC). It demands Rio Tinto reveal all membership fees paid since 2012, review the consistency of the MCA’s lobbying positions with those held by Rio Tinto, and disclose what it would take for Rio to quit its membership of the MCA. Continue reading...

Whitehaven Coal receives second extension while it continues to bulldoze critically endangered NSW forest to make way for mineFive years after the controversial Maules Creek coalmine in north-east New South Wales was given approval to clear critically endangered native ecosystems, Whitehaven Coal has still not secured the biodiversity offsets demanded by the federal government, receiving a second extension in February.The delay has led opponents to call for offsets – intended to make up for lost ecosystems – to be established prior to the destruction taking place. Continue reading...

Deal worth $6bn allows Malcolm Turnbull to proceed with plan to expand hydro to boost east coast gridThe Turnbull government has agreed to buy stakes held by New South Wales and Victoria in the Snowy Hydro project for more than $6bn. The agreement, clinched late on Thursday by Malcolm Turnbull, makes the commonwealth the sole owner of the project.It allows the federal government to proceed with its $4.5bn plan to expand Snowy Hydro’s generation capacity by 50%, to benefit the east coast electricity grid. Continue reading...

Burning wood releases more COthan gas, oil and even coal for the same amount of heat, so to make it climate neutral we need an increase in forestsWith snow on the ground, many people will have been huddling around a wood fire, but researchers are questioning if wood burning is really climate neutral. Burning wood is not CO free; it releases carbon, stored over the previous decades, in one quick burst. For an equal amount of heat or electricity, it releases more CO than burning gas, oil and even coal, so straight away we have more CO in the air from burning wood. This should be reabsorbed as trees regrow. For logs from mature Canadian woodland, it could take more than 100 years before the atmospheric CO is less than the alternative scenario of burning a fossil fuel and leaving the trees in the forest.Related: Wood fires fuel climate change – UN Continue reading...

Deal with Eastern Australia Agriculture, which was done without a tender, raises questions over taxpayer valueOne of Australia’s largest cotton companies, Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA), sold water rights to the federal government in July last year for $79m and then booked a $52m gain on the sale.The deal, which was done without tender, will raise questions about whether the government paid over the odds for the water in southern Queensland. Continue reading...

Wildlife Direct says building work inside Nairobi’s famed national park defies court orderKenyan conservationists have expressed outrage at the construction of a railway line inside Nairobi’s famed national park, saying this defied a court order halting the project.

Sweeping changes to legislation, dubbed the forest code, are a blow for campaigners seeking to protect the Amazon and other rainforest areasBrazil’s supreme court has upheld major changes to laws that protect the Amazon and other biomes, reducing penalties for past illegal deforestation in a blow to environmentalists trying to protect the world’s largest rainforest.Congress agreed to sweeping revisions in the law in 2012, including an amnesty programme for illegal deforestation on “small properties” that occurred before 2008 and reduced restoration requirements in others. Continue reading...

A new study finds that waiting 5 extra years to peak carbon pollution will cost 20 cm sea level rise

Unreported documents show mining company was aware of threat before country’s worst environmental disaster but took no action, prosecutors allegeSix months before a dam containing millions of litres of mining waste collapsed, killing 19 people in Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, the company operating the mine accurately predicted the potential impact of such a disaster in a worst-case risk assessment.But federal prosecutors claim the company – a joint venture between the Brazilian mining giant Vale and the Anglo-Australian multinational BHP Billiton – failed to take actions that they say could have prevented the disaster. The prosecutors instead claim the company focused on cutting costs and increasing production. Continue reading...

Woodland Trust records show more evidence that spring is arriving earlier in the UKWinter in the UK has become a landscape of yellow hawthorn, the orange flash of red admiral butterflies, blackbirds nesting, and bumblebees feeding on mauve chives, pink valerian and lavender.Before the white-out of snow which covered much of the country on Wednesday, reports by the Woodland Trust charity showed yet more evidence that spring is arriving earlier and earlier.

Rokeby Park, Teesdale: It’s tempting to let the imagination wander into the deepest recesses of the wildwood of mossesWith winter almost over it’s tempting to hunker down during these last cold days and focus on the prospect of primroses and bluebells, but there is beauty to be found now in lowlier forms of plant life. Many woodland and grassland mosses begin new growth while it is still too cold for trees to leaf and grass to grow, before they can be cast into deep shade by surrounding vegetation.Today the top of a wall beside this lane near the river Tees was decked with new green carpets. The most luxuriant was springy turf moss, Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus, familiar to anyone who has a poorly drained lawn. Its unruly red-stemmed shoots, forcing their way like jack-in-the-boxes through the matted remains of last year’s grasses, shone in the early morning light. As I bent to examine its hooked leaves, with their long, silvery hair points, there was a hint of that humic aroma of sun-warmed soil that grows stronger as spring approaches. Continue reading...

Mountaineers at Denali in Alaska put human waste in a glacier but research finds it can persist, staining ice and polluting water sourcesClimbers who come from around the world to tackle North America’s tallest mountain face packing out more of their own human waste after an expert found that a glacier in which much of it is dumped is probably not breaking it down.National Park Service (NPS) rangers trying to protect the spectacular slopes of Denali – formerly widely known as Mount McKinley – in Alaska are concerned that human poop is blighting the environment there. Continue reading...

Red squirrels, for whose troubles the greys are blamed, became virtually extinct in the UK before greys were even introduced, writes Natalia DoranYour article (The faddy eater: Could I stomach southern-fried squirrel?, 22 February) should be admired for its honesty in showing appropriate discomfort with the idea of eating a creature that should have been living, breathing, playing, instead of suffering an early violent death. However, it also propagates a couple of myths regarding the highly intelligent and successful grey squirrel. The thing is, red squirrels, for whose troubles the greys are blamed, became virtually extinct in this country before greys were even introduced. That happened because of habitat loss. The reds were then also reintroduced from continental Europe, so the “nativeness” narrative is flawed. The tree damage is hugely exaggerated as well – the Forestry Commission puts the damage at 5%. More is lost due to poor growing practices. Furthermore, that figure relates to commercial forestry: in natural woodland grey squirrels are uniformly good for the ecosystem.

Exclusive: Despite official denials, emails reveal discussions about the Indian company’s requests before ministers wrote to a Chinese agency vouching for the $16bn projectAdani asked the Australian government to help secure funding for its controversial Carmichael coalmine, documents obtained under Freedom of information reveal. Two government ministers subsequently wrote to a Chinese government agency vouching for the proposed coalmine.One email sent to Chinese and Indian embassy staff had a subject line reading “update on project financing request”, while another talked about how Adani needed support with financing talks in China. Continue reading...

Major step taken by government Multi-Sector Commission following 15 year processTwo “naked” people spotted hunting armadillo. One “naked” family on a river-bank. About five other “naked” people - plus houses, settlements and crops - seen from small planes. Fresh footprints on a path, on a tree trunk, and along a Canadian oil company’s seismic lines. Noises in the night. Whistling and birdsong imitation. A loosed arrow. Fishing utensils, abandoned fires, and food stolen from inhabitants in the surrounding areas. . .This is just some of the vital evidence currently being used to promote the establishment of two new reserves for indigenous peoples living in “isolation” that together could extend for more than 2.5 million hectares across one of the remotest parts of Peru’s Amazon, along the border with Brazil. If created, they could become the biggest indigenous reserves in the country.

Why are scientists worried about freezing temperatures in winter, is the beast from the east a freak event – and what is the polar vortex?Q: Snow in winter. That feels reassuringly normal. Does this mean the climate has fixed itself?A: Unfortunately not. In fact, many scientists are concerned this is a prelude to more extreme and less predictable weather. Continue reading...

Analysis from EU’s scientific risk assessors finds neonicotinoids pose a serious danger to all bees, making total field ban highly likelyThe world’s most widely used insecticides pose a serious danger to both honeybees and wild bees, according to a major new assessment from the European Union’s scientific risk assessors.The conclusion, based on analysis of more than 1,500 studies, makes it highly likely that the neonicotinoid pesticides will be banned from all fields across the EU when nations vote on the issue next month. Continue reading...

The latest article in our new economics series looks at what happened when a German utilities contract expired, and one man thought his neighbours could take over

After lengthy negotiations and record deaths of defenders on the continent, sources say a deal is very likely to be reachedLatin American countries are poised to agree the world’s first legally binding convention to protect environmental defenders at a conference in Costa Rica.Land activists and indigenous people were killed in record numbers on the continent last year, with more than two nature protectors murdered every week. Continue reading...

Mayor announces ‘strong measures’ to tackle pollution in Italy’s traffic-clogged capitalRome, one of Europe’s most traffic-clogged cities and home to thousands of ancient outdoor monuments threatened by pollution, plans to ban diesel cars from the centre by 2024, its mayor has said.Virginia Raggi announced the decision on her Facebook page on Tuesday, saying: “If we want to intervene seriously, we have to have the courage to adopt strong measures”. Continue reading...

The prime minister’s attack focuses on Labor’s policy shift on Carmichael mine and renews attempts to paint Labor leader as ‘not fair dinkum’Malcolm Turnbull has blasted Bill Shorten for going “snorkelling” on the Great Barrier Reef courtesy of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and for selling blue-collar jobs down the river “to get Green votes” in the Batman byelection.