Environment | The Guardian

Scientists say climate targets cannot be met using the technologies, which either risk huge damage to the environment or are very costlyWays of sucking carbon dioxide from the air will not work on the vast scales needed to beat climate change, Europe’s science academies warned on Thursday.

Durham city: Minute male capsules on the prothallus burst open, releasing sperm with whiplash tails that swim frantically towards the egg cells

Directive seeks better access to safe drinking water to reduce use of throw-away containersThe EU is to oblige national governments to provide greater access to drinking fountains, encourage restaurants to offer free tap water, and raise the standards required of suppliers, as part of a move to clamp down on plastic waste and improve the health of Europeans.

Campaigners ask Westminster to ‘drive war on plastic waste’ and Prince Charles calls for actionCampaigners are demanding that the UK parliament cuts its use of throwaway plastics, as new figures show the Westminster estate purchased more than 2m plastic straws, bottled drinks, plastic-lined coffee cups, food sachets and cutlery items last year.Freedom of information requests submitted by Surfers Against Sewage show that hundreds of thousands of items of plastic cutlery, more than a million takeaway coffee cups and nearly 22,000 plastic straws were used last year in the Commons and Lords. Continue reading...

Boxset comes with message from David Attenborough as PM hopes for China’s help to cut pollutionTheresa May will present Xi Jinping with a Blue Planet boxset when the two meet in Beijing on Thursday, but the Chinese president may have already seen the BBC series – considering its huge popularity in his country.The seven-part natural history series was watched by millions across the globe, and proved especially popular in China where an estimated 26 million people saw the first episode and approximately 100 million watched the second online, resulting in the country’s internet slowing to glacial pace.

Naturalist describes accolade as ‘Boaty McBoatface in book form’ after Fingers in the Sparkle Jar beats Wind in the Willows and The PeregrineWhen academics asked readers to vote for Britain’s favourite piece of nature writing, they probably didn’t expect a celebrity memoir about Asperger’s to trounce otters, badgers and peregrines.But Chris Packham has seen off famous poets and naturalists such as John Clare, Kathleen Jamie and Gilbert White, as well as much-loved children’s classics The Wind in the Willows and Tarka the Otter, to top the online poll organised by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Continue reading...

Study warns that use of anti-malarial nets may reduce people’s protection and affect fish stocks, and calls for urgent research into potential impactsAnti-malarial mosquito nets are being used to catch fish around the world, according to the first global survey, risking harm to people and fish stocks.More research is urgently needed to assess these impacts, say the scientists, but they also caution that the draconian bans on mosquito net fishing seen in some countries may cause more harm than good, particularly where people rely on the fish caught to survive. Continue reading...

Airline vows to eliminate use of nonrecyclable plastics on aircraft and at head offices and basesRyanair has pledged to become “plastic free” in the next five years, with the airline set to trumpet its relative green credentials as part of its ongoing makeover.The Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has famously suggested shooting environmentalists, and repeatedly denies climate change is driven by carbon emissions, which aviation produces in abundance. Continue reading...

Lawmakers overwhelmingly vote for the bill to abolish trade by 2021, which will shut down a massive ivory market and throw a ‘lifeline’ to elephantsHong Kong has voted to ban ivory sales in a landmark move to end the infamous trade in the city.Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted for Wednesday’s bill, which will abolish the trade by 2021, following China’s complete ban on ivory sales that went into effect at the end of last year. Continue reading...

Three-person team reported to have been attacked by government forces while patrolling in the Keo Seima wildlife conservation sanctuarySoldiers in an area of north-eastern Cambodia where illicit logging and smuggling are rife are reported to have killed a forest protection ranger, a military police officer and a conservation worker in apparent retaliation for their seizure of equipment from illegal loggers, officials have said.Keo Sopheak, a senior environmental official in Mondulkiri province, said the three-person team was attacked late Tuesday afternoon after patrolling in the Keo Seima wildlife conservation sanctuary. He said the dead civilian was a Cambodian employee of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. Continue reading...

Our buyer’s preferred lender won’t consider them for a mortgageWe bought a house in 2010 and had solar panels installed on a leasehold basis. We want to sell, but the buyer’s preferred lender won’t lend on properties with leasehold panels.We have tried to buy out the panels, as per a clause in the lease. It states that we have to compensate the company for the loss of their “feed-in tariff” – we know this will be around £20,000. Continue reading...

Footage taken at the Sealife Melbourne aquarium shows a green sea turtle that was rescued from a beach on the Mornington peninsula swimming laps alongside predators to prepare for his release into the wild. Terry the turtle has a phalanx of divers to act as bodyguards for his first foray into the tank Continue reading...

The stripy fields have been planted across England as part of a trial to boost the natural predators of pests that attack cereal cropsLong strips of bright wildflowers are being planted through crop fields to boost the natural predators of pests and potentially cut pesticide spraying.

The turtle washed up on a beach in August and will be released into the wild next monthA green sea turtle rescued from a beach has been swimming laps alongside predators at Sealife Melbourne aquarium to prepare for his release into the wild, with a phalanx of divers to act as bodyguards.The immature turtle was discovered washed up on a beach on the Mornington Peninsula in August, severely underweight and battling pneumonia. Continue reading...

Captain of the Rainbow Warrior who led many of Greenpeace’s most dramatic marine campaignsThe seaman Jon Castle, who has died of cancer aged 67, led many of Greenpeace’s most dramatic marine campaigns, including the occupation of the Brent Spar oil platform and the opposition to nuclear testing.After 25 years with Greenpeace he turned his skills to wider humanitarian causes, including rescuing refugees in the Mediterranean and sailing to the Chagos Islands in protest at the British refusal to allow people to return to their homeland following their eviction to allow the US to build a military base. He always acted, he said, not just out of a love of nature but for right against wrong. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ALP’s internal advocacy group wants sweeping reforms to protect natural heritage to be adopted as policy at next conferenceBill Shorten is facing rising internal pressure to make the environment central to Labor’s election pitch after 250 ALP branches passed a motion calling for strong new national laws and an independent agency akin to a “Reserve Bank for environmental management”.Branches from every state and territory have backed a campaign by the Labor environment action network (Lean), an internal advocacy group, for sweeping reforms to protect natural heritage to be adopted as policy at this year’s ALP conference. Continue reading...

UK and eight other states will need to take drastic measures on illegal air pollution to avoid court referrals next week, says EUThe EU has given Britain and eight other states until next Friday to show how they will comply with EU air pollution laws or face the European Court of Justice.The ultimatum came as London reached its legal air pollution limit for 2018 in just the year’s first month, and could lead to heavy fines being imposed on the UK even after Brexit. Continue reading...

Further indication that oil firms are planning for growth of battery-powered vehicle marketBP will add rapid charging points for electric cars at its UK petrol stations within the next two months, in the latest sign of an oil giant adapting to the dramatic growth of battery-powered cars.The British oil firm’s venture arm has invested $5m (£3.5m) in the US firm Freewire Technologies, which will provide motorbike-sized charging units at forecourts to top up cars in half an hour. Continue reading...

Slowing economy, mild weather and energy-efficient appliances among possible reasons for declineThe UK was the only country in the EU to reduce its electricity consumption last year, with power use growing or stable across the rest of the bloc’s 28 member states.Britain’s appetite for power has been waning for more than a decade as industrial activity declined and businesses and households opted for more energy efficient lighting and appliances. Continue reading...

Timing is a significant improvement, due in part to mayor’s measures, but campaigners say national government must ‘get a grip’ on toxic airAir pollution in London has reached the legal limit for the whole of 2018 less than a month into the year, prompting calls for the government to “get a grip and show they’re serious about protecting health”.Toxic air has been at illegal levels in the capital and most urban areas in the UK since 2010 and results in around 40,000 early deaths a year.

UK environment secretary told by Dutch fisheries minister to set out proposals after department missed Christmas white paper deadlineThe Dutch government has called on Michael Gove to provide a clear vision for the European fishing industry for when the UK leaves the EU’s common fisheries policy, amid growing insecurity in communities on both sides of the Channel.

The IPCC is taking guidance on how to communicate its crucial findings beyond speciality scientific and policy circlesThe remit of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one of the more complicated jigsaw puzzles in the world.Since 1988, it has overseen thousands of scientists pulling together tens of thousands of academic papers on atmospheric physics, meteorology, geography, marine science, economics, land-use and much more. A multi-layered process of expert assessment takes place every six or seven years where a set of carefully worded statements is approved by representatives of 120 of the world’s governments, specifying what we know about the defining challenge of the 21st century: climate change. Continue reading...

Researchers have made remarkable finds at sites such as Grand Staircase-Escalante, which the administration has shrunkThe paleontologist Rob Gay wasn’t expecting to find anything significant that day. He and a few of his students were scouting in the southeast Utah badlands in summer 2016 when they came across a hillside littered with hundreds of bones. Scattered haphazardly and protruding from the earth, they were the remains of of prehistoric reptiles that lived 220m years ago, at the same time as the earliest dinosaurs. Continue reading...

Australian states with bans in place see rise in consumers and retailers resorting to thicker bags to escape the ruleShoppers in states that have banned single-use shopping bags are reportedly buying reusable plastic bags then throwing them away.The Australian Capital Territory requested an investigation into the use of thicker plastic bags last month, after reports that retailers and consumers had simply switched their plastic bag consumption to thicker bags to escape the ban. Continue reading...

The blackouts appear to have been caused by fuses blowing in substations rather than being a problem with supplyBlackouts in Victoria this week caused by substation malfunctions have spawned a plethora of responses, many attempting to pin the blame on either a lack of coal or too much renewable energy.One national newspaper has argued that the focus on substations was a “smokescreen” to hide what it identified as the real cause – Victoria’s moratorium on gas exploration. Continue reading...

Schools will receive an alert every time air pollution is high enough to pose an acute health risk, under new plans announced by Sadiq KhanSchools in London will receive an alert every time air pollution in the capital is set to pose an acute risk to health as part of a renewed push to highlight the scale of the capital’s toxic pollution crisis.Air pollution causes about 40,000 early deaths a year in the UK – more than 9,000 in London – and the young are particularly vulnerable. Continue reading...

On this small, densely populated island, clashes between elephants and humans are rapidly increasing. Rangers and villagers are working to find ways to avoid the conflict and the devastating, at times deadly, impacts on both sides Continue reading...

Blended fuel powers 15-hour Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 flight between LA and Melbourne, reducing carbon emissions by 7%A Qantas plane powered partly by mustard seeds has become the world’s first biofuel flight between Australia and the United States, after landing in Melbourne on Tuesday.The 15-hour flight used a blended fuel that was 10% derived from the brassica carinata, an industrial type of mustard seed that functions as a fallow crop – meaning it can be grown by farmers in between regular crop cycles. Continue reading...

30 January 1959: Conditions described as “very grim” by the AA, with visibility in south-east London varying between nil and ten yardsFog stretched last night from the Home Counties westwards into Devon and South Wales and northwards through the Midlands and East Anglia up to Yorkshire. It is expected to persist to-day.Related: How the Guardian reported on London's Great Smog of 1952 Continue reading...

Temperatures forecast to hit 40C as even prime minister Jacinda Ardern struggles to keep coolA week-long heatwave has floored New Zealand, breaking temperature records across the country and causing a nationwide shortage of fans.Temperatures have soared above 37C (98.6F) in parts of the South Island, with records broken in Dunedin, Wanaka, Christchurch and many other cities and towns. Continue reading...

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Our new in-depth series focuses on the less-scrutinised threats to Australia’s natural places, and you can get involvedThreats to the Australian environment get reported in bursts – a contested development decision or a particular conservation campaign can thrust an issue into the headlines and on to the nightly news bulletins for weeks before a deal is crunched and a “solution” heralded.Related: 'The Franklin would be dammed today': Australia's shrinking environmental protections Continue reading...

The nation is losing the political will to protect our pristine places – and biodiversity is sufferingWhat if the Franklin river hadn’t been saved?Stopping the Gordon-below-Franklin dam was one of the Australian environment movement’s great victories: in the late 1970s, the state-owned Hydro-Electric Commission wanted to flood one of three last temperate rainforests in the southern hemisphere to create a power station. Continue reading...

Maggie Sutton calls on all sellers of loose fruit and veg to supply only paper bags, and Kate Lammin says Waitrose and Prince Charles’s Duchy brand aren’t helping, while Melanie Wood looks to the Guardian to set an exampleI do so agree with Joleah Lamb (‘It’s like gangrene’: disease soars as plastic fouls reef, 26 January) about the need for people to take direct action against plastic. I would love to do so and so would thousands like me, but the question is how when manufacturers and supermarkets are calling the shots? I will buy only loose fruit and vegetables to avoid packaging, but all supermarkets and some market stalls offer only plastic bags to wrap them. A very simple and immediate change that could be made, long before the introduction of biodegradable packaging becomes available, would for all sellers of loose fruit and vegetables to supply only paper bags from now. I for one will be buying my greengrocery at the first supermarket and market stall that does that, and I expect many feel the same way.

Experiments involved monkeys and humans breathing in exhaust fumes for hours at a timeVolkswagen, the world’s biggest carmaker, is under fire globally from politicians and environmentalists following revelations it helped to fund experiments in which monkeys and humans breathed in car fumes for hours at a time.Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said there was an urgent need for the company to reveal the true extent of the experiments, which were commissioned by the European Research Group of Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT), a body funded by Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. Continue reading...

We Americans can do better in the fight to protect our threatened heritage, writes Theodore Roosevelt IV, a descendant of the ‘conservation president’A truly noble idea – one deeply democratic in its inspiration and one that honors the human need to be in relationship to awe and majesty.America’s public lands. Continue reading...

Fossil fuel faces stiff competition from nuclear, renewables and European importsGas power plant operators will scoop millions of pounds in state subsidies in coming days to go on standby next winter, but the owner of the UK’s largest gas fleet has warned the fossil fuel faces an uncertain future as a cornerstone of UK energy.Auctions starting on Tuesday for contracts in the capacity market, the government’s insurance policy for ensuring reliable electricity supplies, are crucial to the survival of gas plants. Continue reading...

Amid dangers from the Trump administration and climate change, sites including the Grand Canyon and Zion national park are facing yet another threat: ‘massive disrepair’

To avoid dangerous climate change, we can’t rely on natural gas replacing coal

This Land Is Your Land is our series on an American birthright at risk amid privatization, energy extraction and climate change

Heritage Lottery grant will help document inscriptions and wildlife found in graveyardsThe first national database to record all the natural and manmade treasures of burial grounds, from the giant Victorian urban cemeteries to little country churchyards, is to be created with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In 2008 an archaeologist discovered crocodiles living in remote caves in Gabon. Now, genetics hint that these weird cave crocodilians may be in the process of evolving into a new species.

Get monthly email updates from our series covering the threat to America’s public landsAmerica’s public lands are under threat. Sign up for monthly updates from our two-year series, This Land is Your Land, as we cover the challenges facing national parks, forests, deserts, coral reefs and seamounts. We’ll send you the latest stories from the Guardian and our partner publications. Continue reading...

Anger is often the first response to a near miss on the road but there are better ways to hold drivers to accountNot long ago, while riding down Archway Road in north London, I confronted a truck driver who pulled out without warning. The road is a long steep hill where bikes and cars gather decent speed if traffic is minimal. I was riding at just over 20mph, but flowing with traffic in my lane and within the speed limit. When the truck pulled out only metres ahead, I only just had time to brake, narrowly avoiding a collision and fortunate that the cars behind had not piled into me.Adrenaline and anger flooded my system. I asked the driver why he made this dangerous move. He contemptuously said he did not see me and that I was going too fast anyway. This suggested a rational discussion was unlikely, and my anger rose. I swore at the driver, who responded by challenging me to fight in the middle of the road. I turned down his invitation; the prospect of carefully placing my bike to one side and trading blows in the middle of the street while cars behind beeped wasn’t tempting.

Borth, Ceredigion: Arrow-straight as a result of canalisation in the early 19th century, the river once had a meandering path into the open seaAs soon as I reached the top of the sea wall, I realised that I had badly misjudged the state of the tide. Instead of miles of firm sand, recently exposed by the retreating sea, I was faced with a jumble of storm waves breaking against the bank of stone cobbles at the back of the beach. My objective, the dunes of Ynyslas a couple of miles to the north, was temptingly visible through a shroud of misty salt spray – but, stumbling across the shifting, irregular stones, I made only slow progress. Cursing my cursory examination of the tide tables, I realised I had read the time for high water, rather than low.After I had walked for half an hour, the dunes looked as far away as ever and I began to consider alternatives. Looking east, beyond the ridge of stones and the Afon Leri, I could see the great flat expanse of Cors Fochno – a rare survival of raised peat bog, which forms a key part of the Unesco-recognised Dyfi biosphere. With a backdrop of steep, open hills, this diverse wild landscape is an important ecological resource, protected both by statute and its sheer inaccessibility. Continue reading...

City faces lengthy cleanup as water reaches 5.84 metres, just shy of levels seen in 2016The swollen Seine has peaked at more than four metres above its normal level, leaving a lengthy mop-up job for Parisians after days of rising waters.The river rose to 5.84 metres (19.2ft) early on Monday morning, causing problems for commuters as well as people living near its overflowing banks. Continue reading...

Devon and Cornwall force’s idea to ease the pressure of policing the cull was termed ‘appalling’A police force has been strongly criticised by animal rights campaigners after proposing the suspension of the law that protects badgers in areas where the government’s controversial cull has been taking place.Devon and Cornwall police suggested that decriminalising the taking of badgers in cull zones would ease pressure on resources, save the public money and could help stop the spread of bovine TB. Continue reading...