Environment | The Guardian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parties plan to introduce separate motions for individual affected regionsLabor and the Greens have launched a fresh attempt to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government last week, bowling up individual motions to boost the chances of scuttling at least part of the proposal.

Resources minister tells press club references to transition are really about job destructionMatt Canavan has backed greater exploitation of resources such as an expansion in oil and gas drilling, including in the Great Australian Bight, and land-clearing to develop agriculture in northern Australia.At the National Press Club on Wednesday, the resources and northern Australia minister gave an at-times fiery defence of coal, lashing opponents of burning fossil fuels for using the “highly objectionable” term of “just transition”, which he said was a euphemism for destruction of jobs. Continue reading...

Project Pressure is a charity that has been working with renowned artists in a pioneering project to document the world’s vanishing glaciers. This week it brought its touring photographic exhibition to the Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change, Hong Kong, where visitors can experience the different types of glaciers found on each continent and take a video journey to see how glaciers are retreating Continue reading...

A green coalition demands a review of health and environmental impacts of intensive animal farming ahead of budget talks next monthThe EU is facing calls to overhaul its industrial farming sector by promoting more plant-based diets in the next common agricultural policy (CAP), as budget negotiations approach a crunch point.

The mild winter was followed by a good breeding season, boosting garden sightings of finches and titsFinches and tits have enjoyed a golden year, according to the results of this year’s RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.These small bird species suffer particularly badly in cold weather but in the past year benefited from a mild start to the winter that followed a good breeding season. Blackbird sightings in gardens were down – the result of plentiful food elsewhere – but a dearth of robins followed a poor nesting season. Continue reading...

Figures show that just 17,000 tonnes of the 270,000 tonnes of edible surplus food in the supply chain is redistributed annually to charitiesThe government is being urged to introduce a £15m fund to tackle hunger by preventing food which could be eaten from going straight into landfill, animal feed or anaerobic digestion.New figures from the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, FareShare, reveal that just 17,000 tonnes of the 270,000 tonnes of edible surplus food in the supply chain is redistributed annually to charities. Continue reading...

The sale of the Kestrel mine makes Rio now the only major global company with no coal assetsRio Tinto has sold its remaining coalmine in Australia for $US2.25bn, making good on a pledge to exit the fuel.As the Australian resources minister, Matt Canavan, launched a taskforce to boost the coal industry, the deal leaves Rio as the only major global mining company to have no coal assets, the Royal Bank of Canada said. Continue reading...

Sharp rise globally in the dirtiest fossil fuel investments reverses progress made after the Paris agreement, with tar sands holdings more than doubling in Trump’s first year in officeBank holdings in “extreme” fossil fuels skyrocketed globally to $115bn during Donald Trump’s first year as US president, with holdings in tar sands oil more than doubling, a new report has found.A sharp flight from fossil fuels investments after the Paris agreement was reversed last year with a return to energy sources dubbed “extreme” because of their contribution to global emissions. This included an 11% hike in funding for carbon-heavy tar sands, as well as Arctic and ultra-deepwater oil and coal. Continue reading...

Consumers to receive small cash sum for returning plastic, glass and metal drinks containersAll drinks containers in England, whether plastic, glass or metal, will be covered by a deposit return scheme, the government has announced.The forthcoming scheme is intended to cut the litter polluting the land and sea by returning a small cash sum to consumers who return their bottles and cans. Continue reading...

Many common frogs were trapped under ice in early March and some inevitably diedThe common frog Rana temporaria is having a difficult spring. The extreme cold at the beginning of March trapped many under ice. A lot continued to breathe through their skin, but after several days some died from lack of oxygen. The survivors then got breeding under way in many ponds, only for another three-day cold snap to halt proceedings. Some ponds still have no spawn, while in others the adults have already left piles of jelly to take their chance.Related: How to make your garden frog-friendly Continue reading...

Wildlife film-maker, author and conservationist best known for Tarka the Otter, which was voted one of the greatest family films of all timeDavid Cobham is best remembered for his classic films on British wildlife, including the 1979 cinema feature Tarka the Otter and his 1972 TV programme The Vanishing Hedgerows, the first explicitly environmental film broadcast by the BBC.Cobham, who has died aged 87, made The Vanishing Hedgerows for the corporation’s prestigious strand The World About Us. Presented by the author Henry Williamson, it was a powerful elegy to Britain’s disappearing farmland wildlife, with shocking scenes showing the fatal effects of pesticides on birds. Continue reading...

Scandinavian study finds bears responding to Swedish law banning hunting of family groups by keeping cubs close for an extra yearFemale brown bears have learned to protect themselves from being shot by spending more time caring for their young as they adapt to legislation banning the hunting of mothers with cubs.The finding, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, was made by a team of international researchers who spent 22 years studying data on the reproductive strategy and survival of Scandinavian brown bears. Continue reading...

Greenpeace wants health shops like Boots to follow the lead of Holland & Barrett and ditch products that threaten the pristine waters home to penguins, seal and whalesCampaigners are calling on high street retailers to stop stocking health products containing krill that have been caught in the pristine waters of the Antarctic.The Guardian reported earlier this month on the threat industrial krill fishing poses to animals like penguins, whales and seals. Continue reading...

Network thinks infrastructure and capacity can be in place a decade earlier in 2030National Grid would support the government bringing forward its 2040 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales by a decade.The company, which runs the UK’s national electricity network and wants to build superfast car charging points at motorway services, told MPs it could cope with the demands of an earlier surge in electric car numbers. Continue reading...

Ground rising and falling in region that has been ‘punctured like a pin cushion’ since the 1940s, new study findsOil and gas activity is contributing to alarming land movements and a rising threat of sinkholes across a huge swath of west Texas, a new study suggests.Related: 'Like thunder in the ground': Texans fear link between quakes and fracking waste Continue reading...

Parties have the option of redrafting the disallowance and resubmitting it as soon as WednesdayA first attempt by Labor and the Greens to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government last week has failed in the Senate after the government flipped the order of business and brought on the chamber debate.The Turnbull government on Tuesday night pulled its proposal to lower the tax rate for big business to 25% and abruptly changed the order of business in the Senate to force consideration of Labor’s disallowance motion on the marine parks. Continue reading...

Conservation charities estimate cost of dealing with predators at £2bn a year, and warns this may spiral without strong prevention measuresInvasive species such as Japanese knotweed, signal crayfish and New Zealand flatworms must be subject to stronger safeguards after Brexit, a group of conservation charities has urged, or the cost of dealing with them may spiral.They fear that future increased international trade outside EU rules could threaten further invasions, while the status of safeguards under potential trade deals could be put in doubt. Continue reading...