Environment | The Guardian

A wood stove emits more harmful air particulates than a diesel truck. Does their newfound popularity in cities threaten to wipe out progress in reducing air pollution?

Sandy, Bedfordshire: These grit peckers are masters of last-minute escapology. But not alwaysTwice every day, soon after dawn and a little before dusk, wood pigeons come down on country roads to feed. Not for them the tyre-stamped carcasses that are peeled off the asphalt by crow beaks. Pigeons are grit peckers, heads down like chickens in a yard. They gobble up tiny stones to act as so many grinding pestles in the mortar of their digestive tract.While crows have adapted to life in the fast lane with cunning and calculating judgment, wood pigeons are masters of last-minute escapology. But not always. Last autumn, I noticed one standing in the middle of a straight, wood-edged road, head lowered, picking away at the ground. I drove on, slowed and waited for it to fly. It flew all right: just a few metres in front of the car it gave a tiny hop that brought it just above the bumper. I heard a soft thud and then, through an explosion of down, a grey bundle smacked against the windscreen, after which I looked in the rear-view mirror to see the poor bird’s body cartwheeling off towards the verge. Weeks later, I was still picking out pale feathers that had wedged firmly on impact in the radiator grill. Continue reading...

Labor frontbencher says party must ‘get the policy mechanisms right’ over Carmichael coalmineAnthony Albanese says Labor should not single out existing projects, like the Adani coalmine, that have already gone through approval processes “and then retrospectively change existing laws, which would have ramifications across the board”.The Labor frontbencher has effectively ruled out Labor overhauling the Environmental Protection Biodiversity and Conversation Act as part of a strategy to boost legal options of killing the controversial Queensland coal project. Continue reading...

Federal court to announce next week whether Stuttgart and Düsseldorf can use vehicle bans to try to improve air qualityOne of Germany’s top courts will rule next week on whether heavily polluting vehicles can be banned from the urban centres of Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, a landmark ruling which could cause traffic chaos and dramatically hit the value of diesel cars on the country’s roads.Related: First fall in car sales since 2011 blamed on fears over diesel ban Continue reading...

Traditional scale used goes only to five but strength and intensity of storms is increasing, says scientistsThe increasing strength, intensity and duration of tropical cyclones has climate scientists asking whether a new classification needs to be created: a category-six storm.The Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale currently runs in severity from one to five, with five describing near-total destruction. Continue reading...

Multinational says deadline was predicated on a subsidised Australian government loanAdani’s plan to build Australia’s largest coalmine has suffered another setback. The company has abandoned its March deadline for securing financing for the first stage of the Carmichael mine.In October, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, the chief executive of Adani Australia, told Reuters it aimed to settle financing for the project by March 2018. Continue reading...

Clear skies above Beijing again – but some fear the problem is just being pushed elsewhereThe photographs on display at Wu Di’s Beijing studio imagine China and Beijing at their dystopian worst.Naked, expectant mothers stare out from the walls, their bellies exposed but their faces hidden behind green gas masks. Continue reading...

Potential for floating windfarms is huge, as many countries have windy sites close to shoreFloating windfarms are likely to be the next large-scale development in renewable energy. The first Hywind Scotland, developed by the Norwegian state oil giant, Statoil, has proved a greater success than its designers hoped. The five giant six-megawatt turbines, 25 miles east of Peterhead, produced more power than expected in the first three months and withstood hurricane-force winds and giant waves.The potential for this technology is hard to overstate. Few countries have shallow continental shelves like the UK to build offshore windfarms on the sea bed, but many have windy sites close to shore where floating windfarms could be anchored to provide power for coastal cities. Continue reading...

Police chiefs seek new powers to help combat ‘very significant’ issue of pets worrying livestock

The Australian white ibis, AKA the 'bin chicken', might not have won the title of Australia's favourite bird, but its next race might help scientists understand how dinosaurs walked and ran Continue reading...

High court says approach to tackling pollution in 45 local authority areas is ‘not sufficient’ and orders urgent changesFor the third time, the UK government has been slammed by the courts for failing to produce an adequate plan to tackle the growing problem of air pollution, in a landmark judgment that will force ministers back to the drawing board in their efforts to clean up dirty urban air.The high court ruled that the government’s current policy on air pollution was “unlawful”, and ordered changes. Air pollution has become a leading test case for environmental legal activism in the UK, as scientists have found as many as 40,000 people a year are dying from dirty air across the country. Continue reading...

These masters of disguise are some of the world’s oldest surviving mammals, but they are threatened by habitat loss, traffic and feral cats – and they need our helpThey may be one of the world’s oldest surviving mammals – around for at least 25m years – but scientists don’t know much about echidnas. Now researchers believe the remaining Australian population may be threatened and they need citizen scientists’ help to save them.

Minette Batters becomes first woman to hold top job since NFU was founded in 1908The National Farmers’ Union has elected Minette Batters as the first female president in the organisation’s 110-year history.Batters, a Wiltshire beef, sheep and arable farmer who has also diversified her business into weddings and catering, was previously the NFU’s deputy president. Continue reading...

Previously unseen government records detail ‘deeply worrying’ incidents in pork and poultry plants, raising fears of ‘dirty meat’ entering the UK under a post-Brexit trade dealShocking hygiene failings have been discovered in some of the US’s biggest meat plants, as a new analysis reveals that as many as 15% (one in seven) of the US population suffers from foodborne illnesses annually.A joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Guardian found that hygiene incidents are at numbers that experts described as “deeply worrying”. Continue reading...

Campaigners had opposed £1.8m activity hub in Thirlmere, saying it would ruin the landscapePlans to erect zip-wire rides across one Britain’s most picturesque national parks have been abandoned after protests from residents and environmental campaigners.Treetop Trek Ltd had applied for planning permission for a £1.8m activity hub with eight aerial lines up to 1,200 metres long criss-crossing an area in the Lake District. Continue reading...

Activists seize upon Labor’s contradictory messages on Queensland coalmine in battle for inner-city MelbourneThe Greens will use Labor’s failure to make an unequivocal statement on whether it will oppose the Adani coalmine to ramp up campaign efforts in the Melbourne electorate of Batman.

Luckett, Tamar Valley: Vegetation hides the extensive spoil heaps and the midday sun gilds catkins on sprawling hazelsOn the north side of Kit Hill, remnants of last night’s hail lie beside the steep road leading to the old mining settlement of Luckett. A solitary stack in a field above Deer Park Farm used to vent poisonous arsenic fumes from works in the valley below; down there, beside abandoned mine workings, dilapidated single-storey dwellings have been mooted as a mining museum. Continue reading...

South Australian premier also promises country’s first renewable energy storage target in a ‘rejection of the federal government’s approach’The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, has gone all in on the state’s transition to renewable energy, promising to lift the state-based renewable energy target from 50% to 75% by 2025 and to introduce the country’s first renewable energy storage target.A re-elected Labor government would set a target that 25% of the state’s peak demand be met by stored renewable energy, equating to about 750MW of storage. The target would be met with subsidy arrangements, the premier said. Continue reading...

Study highlights urgent need to adapt urban areas to cope with floods, droughts and heatwavesMajor British towns and cities, including Glasgow, Wrexham, Aberdeen and Chester, could be much more severely affected by climate change than previously thought, according to new research.The study, by Newcastle University, analysed changes in flooding, droughts and heatwaves for every European city using all climate models. Continue reading...

Seagrass shelters fish and acts against erosion and climate change, but is under threatMeadows of seagrass are one of our great but sorely neglected wild plant spectacles. This humble plant spreads out in lush green carpets that can stretch for miles around much of Britain’s coast. There they shelter young fish and shellfish, as well as protecting against erosion of the coast by storms and floods, by trapping sediment in their roots.

Bosses from British Airways, Virgin and easyJet urge MPs to secure pledge on cost before voteThe true cost of Heathrow expansion is likely to be “grossly” higher than the £14.3bn the airport has cited, airlines have told MPs, adding that transparency and guarantees should be supplied ahead of a crucial vote.Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, British Airways’ parent company and the main operator at Heathrow, said parliament should not trust Heathrow and said he had “zero confidence” that a third runway would be delivered on time and budget.

But oil giant expects demand for crude to grow and not peak until late 2030sBans around the world on single use plastic items such as carrier bags will dent growth in oil demand over the next two decades, according to BP.However, the UK-headquartered oil and gas firm said it still expects the global hunger for crude to grow for years and not peak until the late 2030s. Continue reading...

Farming union president Meurig Raymond takes veiled swipe at Liam Fox’s ‘cheap food policy’ at NFU conferenceTrade with the EU after Brexit needs to be “frictionless” if the UK’s food and farming sectors are to survive the transition, the president of the National Farmers Union has said at the opening of the NFU’s conference.Meurig Raymond, who farms a large acreage of mixed arable and livestock in Wales, said: “We must have frictionless trade with the EU. Everything else, including the final shape of any domestic agricultural policy, is dependent on that.” Continue reading...

A cascade of courtroom standoffs are beginning to slow, and even reverse, the EPA rollbacks thanks to the administration’s ‘disregard for the law’In its first year in office, the Trump administration introduced a solitary new environmental rule aimed at protecting the public from pollution. It was aimed not at sooty power plants or emissions-intensive trucks, but dentists.

Joint venture claims cheaper green power could save UK households £300 a yearIkea is calling for households to join its latest joint venture – a collective energy switch that promises an exclusive 100% renewable electricity tariff.The furniture retailer has joined forces with the “Big Clean Switch” campaign to use a collective switch to secure cheaper green power for the households that sign up. Continue reading...

Few clubs cater for fans who choose to cycle to the ground, but simple changes could help reduce traffic jams and pollution on match daysI am a football fan and I am a cyclist. These identities do not need to be mutually exclusive – so why is it often such a challenge to go to the game by bike?I support Norwich City and I live in Liverpool, which is the first hurdle. Liverpool is 238 miles away from Norwich, and the direct train takes more than five hours. Because of this, I have pretty much given up on home games. Continue reading...

Research in UK shows invasive species bests native red squirrels in complex tasksThe ability to solve problems may explain why grey squirrels are thriving at the expense of native red ones in the UK, research suggests.Wild greys and reds were presented with an easy task (opening a transparent lid) and a difficult version (a more complex process of pushing and pulling levers) to get hazelnuts. Continue reading...

Shapwick, Somerset: Hundreds of thousands of starlings reduced by distance and number to something like smokeIn any other place a great white egret passing overhead would have commanded all our attention. The national breeding total for this species was just seven pairs in 2017. Here, however, at dusk it was an incidental detail, a stately white shape rowing quietly through the binoculars’ orbit, as we focused on something far more captivating. Continue reading...

Researchers believe introducing frogs to lower elevation areas would help them reach sexual maturity earlierResearchers are hoping to increase the population of one of Australia’s most endangered frogs by helping them reach sexual maturity earlier.

To challenge the Liberals, Jagmeet Singh will have to overthrow Canada’s neoliberal consensusAt the New Democratic Party’s convention this weekend in Ottawa, their new leader Jagmeet Singh declared “the time to be timid was over.” For a party whose shambling meekness in the last election let Justin Trudeau claim the mantle of progressive champion, such a shift could not come sooner.That an opportunity exists to capitalize on enormous hunger for change is apparent. Trudeau harnessed it for his route to power, only to betray it in office. The environmental Adonis transformed into an oil barons’ salesman. An electoral reform promise was broken with a shrug. Instead of a peace offensive, we’ve gotten a military spending spree; instead of novel social programs, novelty socks. Continue reading...

High court order bans eight campaigners from ancient woodland in west LondonThe transport secretary, Chris Grayling, has been granted an injunction banning campaigners opposed to the construction of the HS2 line on an area of ancient woodland in west London from “unlawful protest” on the site. Continue reading...

Expired, unfinished or undeveloped: conservationists call for more transparency and accountability in species management systemsLess than 40% of Australia’s nationally-listed threatened species have recovery plans in place to secure their long-term survival.And close to 10% of listed threatened species are identified as requiring plans to manage their protection but the documents are either unfinished or haven’t been developed, according to data published by the environment and energy department. Continue reading...

Huge rise in air temperature above north pole will allow chilly winds from eastern Europe to blast UK, Met Office warnsBritain will be gripped by a potentially lengthy cold snap as sudden stratospheric warming looks poised to cause temperatures to tumble.

From rising temperatures preventing take-off to rising seas flooding runways, aviation needs to adapt to changes already grounding flights around the worldPhoenix gets hot. But not usually as hot as last June, when the mercury at the airport one day soared above 48C. That exceeded the maximum operating temperature for several aircraft ready for take-off. They didn’t fly. More than 50 flights were cancelled or rerouted.Thanks to climate change, soon 48C may not seem so unusual. Welcome to the precarious future of aviation in a changing climate. As the world warms and weather becomes more extreme, aircraft designers, airport planners and pilots must all respond, both in the air and on the ground. With about 100,000 flights worldwide carrying eight million passengers every day, this is a big deal. Continue reading...

Director of Third Energy, which wants to frack in North Yorkshire, is Conservative donorCampaigners have accused the Treasury of allowing the appearance of a conflict of interest over its examination of an energy company at the forefront of fracking in the UK.Third Energy’s financial health is being looked at by a Treasury body, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), whose findings will inform whether the government gives the firm a green light. Continue reading...

Current temperatures are hotter than at any time in the history of human civilization

Emily Eavis says festival is working on ‘enormous project’ to ban plastic bottles on site when it returns after year off in 2018Glastonbury festival is to implement a site-wide ban on plastic bottles when it returns in 2019. “It’s an enormous project; it’s taking a lot of time to tackle with all the different people we work with,” organiser Emily Eavis told BBC 6 Music.In 2014, Glastonbury introduced environmentally friendly stainless steel bottles and water kiosks for the cost-free refill of any kind of receptacle, followed in 2016 by stainless steel pint cups designed to be “non-aerodynamic, to minimise injuries from throwing”. Use of these containers was optional. Glastonbury organisers have previously estimated that 1m plastic bottles are used during the event. Continue reading...

Laws banning protest were overturned following legal challenge by Bob BrownThe Tasmanian Liberal government has promised to introduce new anti-protest laws to replace those struck out by the high court if it is returned to power next month.

East Chaldon, Dorset: Her diary records a happy morning when she and her lover, the poet Valentine Ackland, lay on top of a barrow listening to the windA row of round barrows stud a Dorset ridge – five of them, although tumbled gaps suggest there once were more. From the old chalk trackway, trails lead through shaggy grass to the top of each. To the north, charcoal and dun in the wintry light, stretches a broad swathe of heathland; to the south, gentle green hills enclose the village of East Chaldon.In the 1930s, the walk up to this bronze age site was a favourite with Sylvia Townsend Warner, her long career as a writer already launched. Her diary records a happy morning when she and her lover, the poet Valentine Ackland, lay on top of one of the barrows listening to the wind and discussing torpedoes. Today, there’s no hint of things military, only a fly-past by two ravens whose cries sound more conversational than martial. Continue reading...

Screenshot from LNP politician’s Facebook page is sent to police by Greens candidate who said he received death threatsThe Queensland Liberal National party politician George Christensen has been reported to police over a Facebook post showing the MP holding a handgun with the comment “Do you feel lucky, greenie punks?” Ben Pennings, who is running for the lead position on the Queensland Greens Senate ticket, said he sent police the screenshot of Christensen’s post after receiving “numerous” death threats from central and north Queensland. Continue reading...

A chunk of the monster Whitechapel fatberg is now a superstar museum exhibit. It shines a horrifying light on our throwaway age – but will it stop people clogging up the sewers with the grease from their Sunday lunch?The fatberg that went on display this month at the Museum of London is proving something of a sensation. Visitor numbers have more than doubled; there is a palpable air of half-term excitement when I visit; and the fatberg fudge – modelled to look like the rough-hewn fatberg brick, with little raisins to represent flies (or something worse) – has sold out. The museum has hit on an unlikely goldmine.Unsurprisingly, curator Vyki Sparkes is looking pretty pleased with herself, and is already talking about a world tour for her prized object – a slice of the giant Whitechapel fatberg discovered last year. There is just one problem: no one knows if it will survive. It is already changing colour as it continues to dry out, and Sparkes is worried that it may start to disintegrate. It is due to be on show at the museum until July. Best come early to avoid disappointment. But, for now, it is an undoubted triumph, raising the question “what is art” – can hardened sewage in a glass case have aesthetic value? – and confronting us with the environmental destructiveness of our throwaway age. Continue reading...

Documenting fracking protests in Kirby Misperton, photographer Gary Calton found a surprising mix of people uniting to protect Britain’s countrysideIt’s early February and the mood at the anti-fracking camp in the embattled village of Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, is one of cautious optimism. The camp, a collection of makeshift wooden buildings in a muddy field outside town, has been running since December 2016, but it’s only in the last five months that demonstrations against the fracking company Third Energy have flared up, leading to an extraordinary police presence around the village, more than 80 arrests and – just a couple of weeks ago – an apparent victory for the protesters.I’m in the company of Observer photographer Gary Calton, who has been documenting events here for six months. Calton, who lives eight miles away, has pictures of protesters boarding lorries, lying down at the gates to the site and facing off against battalions of police. He has also captured more intimate moments, the protesters running through drills, chatting, sleeping and – a key activity on the freezing day I visit – simply keeping warm as they wait for the next chapter in the fracking saga to unfold. Continue reading...

Populations of all kinds of wildlife are declining at alarming speed. One radical solution is to make 50% of the planet a nature reserveThe orangutan is one of our planet’s most distinctive and intelligent creatures. It has been observed using primitive tools, such as the branch of a tree, to hunt food, and is capable of complex social behaviour. Orangutans also played a special role in humanity’s own intellectual history when, in the 19th century, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, co-developers of the theory of natural selection, used observations of them to hone their ideas about evolution.But humanity has not repaid orangutans with kindness. The numbers of these distinctive, red-maned primates are now plummeting thanks to our destruction of their habitats and illegal hunting of the species. Last week, an international study revealed that its population in Borneo, the animal’s last main stronghold, now stands at between 70,000 and 100,000, less than half of what it was in 1995. “I expected to see a fairly steep decline, but I did not anticipate it would be this large,” said one of the study’s co-authors, Serge Wich of Liverpool John Moores University. Continue reading...

Wick Wood, New Forest: Graham Long’s last regular country diary sees him introduce a friend to butcher’s broom, a plant easily missedWe set out for Wick Wood under a bright blue sky, in a clear atmosphere that makes it great to be out and about. It’s bitterly cold. The frost in the air is an unseen presence that bites the nose and ears. There is warmth where the sun breaks through the trees, and the rising mist it creates tempts us to linger, to luxuriate for a moment or two. A few steps on and we’re back into the shade again. The temperature plunges, shards of ice litter the sides of puddles broken by earlier feet, and mosses and ferns are dusted with silver. We press on until we turn into a ride down which the sunlight flows to pick our way through thawed mud and still-iced turf. Continue reading...

Experts say growling grass frog and southern brown bandicoot not likely to be found at Endeavour Fern Gully

Feral pigeons are exposed to the same environmental factors as humans, so help explore the affect of contaminants, say researchersPigeons might be seen as the scourge of cities, but researchers say they could help us explore both the levels and impacts of a host of toxins in the air, from lead to pesticides.Scientists say feral pigeons are a valuable way of probing contaminants in environment, since they are exposed to the same air, water, food and other factors as humans, and don’t venture far from home. Continue reading...

Pound’s decline against euro costs French firm €608m as home energy usage also dropsFrench state-owned energy firm EDF reported falling profits, including a downturn in the UK due to falling prices for nuclear power, improved energy efficiency among its household customers and the slide in the value of sterling since the Brexit vote.Profits in the UK division, which includes EDF Energy, slumped by a third to €1.035 (£920m) as sales dwindled by €579m to €8.68bn, partly because UK customers pay their bills in pounds but the company reports its results in euros. Continue reading...

Readers respond to an earlier letter suggesting that students should replace migrant farm workers after BrexitIn the agricultural sector there is a shortfall of 4,300 jobs with a tiny proportion of the population working on farms. Yet Aileen Hammond (Letters, 15 February) demands that 2.28 million students in higher education descend on to the farms of this country every summer and winter. I’m afraid a few second homes she wants to be made available isn’t going to be quite enough to house these students.I spent my vacations from university volunteering, getting work experience, writing dissertations – all of which has allowed me to contribute to the common good. There are also lots of other important and meaningful seasonal jobs that depend on the student vacation workforce. Forced labour of students on to farms would play havoc with these sectors and merely shift the labour problem elsewhere. Continue reading...

Paul Brannen says Britain needs more trees not least because wood is a raw material that can be used by the emerging bioeconomy; while Peter Price defends Sheffield city council’s tree-planting policyJohn Vidal is absolutely correct in identifying the multiple benefits of agro-forestry (A eureka moment – we’re finally planting trees again, 13 February) but these benefits need to also be unleashed in the developed world, not only in Africa, Asia and South America.Currently 9% of EU agricultural land is given over to agro-forestry, meaning it is not merely a fringe activity. The UK’s largest agro-forestry holding is just to the south of Peterborough, where Steve Briggs farms 125 acres of organic oats with strips of apple trees across; reducing wind erosion of the soil, increasing water retention and improving biodiversity – eg most bird species have increased by 20-50% with barn owls up 400%. Continue reading...

The $5.6bn cost of the 70-storey W350 Project is expected to be twice that of a conventional buildingA skyscraper set to be built in Tokyo will become the world’s tallest to be made of wood.The Japanese wood products company Sumitomo Forestry Co is proposing to build a 350 metre (1,148ft), 70-floor tower to commemorate its 350th anniversary in 2041. Continue reading...