Environment | The Guardian

Unlike other birds, robins have always sung throughout the season, but now other species are joining them due to their warming environment

Researchers say ‘source reefs’ could produce larvae and help repair damage by bleaching and starfishA group of “source” reefs have been identified that could form the basis of a life support system for the Great Barrier Reef, helping repair damage by bleaching, starfish and other disturbances.Researchers from the University of Queensland, CSIRO, Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Sheffield searched the Great Barrier Reef for ideal areas that could potentially produce larvae and support the recovery of other damaged reefs. Continue reading...

Centre for Policy Development urges companies to adopt standardised analysis of climate’s impact on businessAustralian companies need to start developing sophisticated scenario-based analyses of climate risks, and incorporating them into their business outlooks so shareholders know how climate change will affect profitability, a thinktank has said.However, the Centre for Policy Development (CPD) said companies needed to do so in a standardised way, so investors and regulators were able to easily understand economy-wide risks to whole industries. Continue reading...

Há dois anos, uma seca desencadeou violência, saques e ‘estados de calamidade’ oficiais pela metrópole, com o Exército de prontidão para intervir. Agora, novos sinais sugerem que a história poderia se repetir – e apontam para um surpreendente responsável

A drought two years ago triggered fighting, looting and official ‘states of calamity’ across the metropolis, with the army preparing to send in troops. Now, new warnings suggest it could happen again – and point to a surprising culprit

Anglo-Dutch giant to spend $2bn on wind power, biofuels and electric cars as it bows to shareholder pressure by setting new company climate change targetShell has doubled its spending on clean power and bowed to shareholder pressure by promising to halve the carbon footprint of the energy it sells by 2050, as the oil giant said it was stepping up its ambitions on green energy.The Anglo Dutch firm is increasing capital expenditure for its new energies division, to $1bn-$2bn (£750m to £1.5bn) a year for 2018-2020, up from a previous plan of up to $1bn a year by 2020. Continue reading...

Atmospheric rivers, salt lakes and autumn leaf colour are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthPeak autumn leaf colour in north-central Maine, New England, US. The familiar reds and golds typically appear earliest on deciduous trees and shrubs at higher latitudes and elevations, such as here in the mountains of Baxter state park, and take a few weeks before they reach foliage at the coast. Continue reading...

A crocodile attack in Australia that left a British tourist with a leg wound was captured on camera. In the footage, posted to Facebook by Ally Bullifent, a crocodile can be seen jumping out of the water towards the woman. The attack took place on Monday as the woman walked along the edge of a creek in Cape Tribulation, in the far north of Queensland. Continue reading...

Security industry regulator also starts inquiry after video shows two Green party members being sworn atOfficials at HS2 have launched an investigation into alleged abusive behaviour by security guards against environmental protesters, the Guardian has learned.The company behind the controversial high-speed rail link, which is currently carrying out works in the Colne Valley, launched the inquiry after an encounter between guards and two female protesters was captured on video. In an email acknowledging the complaint, it said that the guards’ actions were “clearly unacceptable” and added that they fell “well below the standards required”. Continue reading...

Woman treated in hospital after saltwater crocodile leaps from water in Far North Queensland and injures herA crocodile attack that left a British tourist with a leg wound has been captured on camera in Australia. In the footage, posted to Facebook by Ally Bullifent, a crocodile can be seen jumping out of the water towards the women as they scream.The attack took place on Monday as the woman walked along the edge of a creek in Cape Tribulation, far north Queensland. Continue reading...

Rights group publishes full evidence review, including statements alleging Shell managed undercover police unit in 1990s after its operations ended in OgonilandAmnesty International is calling for a criminal investigation into the oil giant Shell regarding allegations it was complicit in human rights abuses carried out by the Nigerian military.A review of thousands of internal company documents and witness statements published on Tuesday points to the Anglo-Dutch organisation’s alleged involvement in the brutal campaign to silence protesters in the oil-producing Ogoniland region in the 1990s. Continue reading...

UK fashion designer backs Ellen MacArthur foundation campaign to stop the global fashion industry consuming a quarter of the world’s annual carbon budget by 2050Clothes must be designed differently, worn for longer and recycled as much as possible to stop the global fashion industry consuming a quarter of the world’s annual carbon budget by 2050.Fashion designer Stella McCartney condemned her industry as “incredibly wasteful and harmful to the environment” as she joined forces with round-the-world sailor and environmental campaigner Dame Ellen MacArthur to call for a systemic change to the way clothing is produced and used. Continue reading...

Bedgebury Pinetum, Kent Checked and weighed by surer hands than mine, I felt the hollow-boned weightlessness of a blue tit in the cup of my palmThere’s something extraordinary about holding a bird in the palm of your hand. For me, out bird-ringing with volunteers from the British Trust for Ornithology one brisk November morning, it was a blue tit. It had been checked and weighed by surer hands than mine and then placed delicately in the cup of my palm. A familiar bird transformed by such proximity. I felt the hollow-boned weightlessness of it, the fast-fluttering life that sat there for a moment, looking around with black-bead eyes. Its feathers were iridescent in the low slant of the winter sun. Then it was gone, up into the trees, and it was as if I’d lost something precious.We were at Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent just after dawn. It was a blustery day and the pines soughed and sighed, the resident ravens cronking overhead. High in the canopy were hawfinches and crossbills, birds that twitchers come from miles to see. We had set mist nets near the pinetum’s eastern edge, up above the lily pond. These nets are so fine as to appear transparent to the birds, who fly into soft pockets and are gently dandled until they can be extracted, ringed and measured. Continue reading...

Guardian readers share their stories on the success of dowsingRe your article “Water firms admit they still use ‘medieval’ dowsing rods” (22 November): in the 1950s, our family lived on a farm in an isolated part of northern Somerset. The farmer submitted an application for planning permission to build two new houses in a field, including details of water supply and drainage (there were no mains services at all). He had already walked over the field with his L-shaped birch twig, and we watched as the point of the L creaked downwards in his hands as he walked over a spot he had marked on the ground. A man from the water board arrived and looked at the site with geological maps. After half an hour he said “it’s anyone’s guess”, went back to his van and brought back his own birch twig. When he walked across the mark, the point of the L creaked upwards in his hands. He said that was the right place to dig a well, which the farmer and my father dug, and it never dried up.I believe that when dowsers were tested many years ago, they were taken to a field under which was an underground reservoir. None of them located water. The farmer in Somerset told us that his own technique of dowsing only locates running water, so the reservoir would not have been indicated by this method. Continue reading...

EU votes to reauthorise the pesticide, ending a bitterly fought battle that saw 1.3 million people sign a petition calling for a banGlyphosate, the key ingredient in the world’s bestselling weedkiller, has won a new five-year lease in Europe, closing the most bitterly fought pesticide relicensing battle of recent times.The herbicide’s license had been due to run out in less than three weeks, raising the prospect of Monsanto’s Roundup disappearing from store shelves and, potentially, a farmers’ revolt. Continue reading...

Commonwealth did not value extra 22GL of water, which was then transferred to other NSW properties owned by the companyThe agribusiness company Webster was allowed to retain 22 gigalitres of water entitlements, purchased by the commonwealth for environmental flows, for an extra year so that it could grow another cotton crop – but the water was transferred within weeks to other properties owned by the company.The $78m purchase of water from the property Tandou, on the lower Darling near Menindee Lakes in far-western New South Wales, has come under intense scrutiny in the Senate after reporting by the Guardian on the sale. The water transfers raise further questions about whether the deal was good value for taxpayers.

Animals were used in protected forest area in Assam, where authorities want to demolish about 1,000 bamboo and tin hutsIndian police have taken the unusual step of using elephants in an attempt to evict hundreds of people living illegally in a protected forest area in the country’s remote north-east.Related: More than 1,000 people killed in India as human and wildlife habitats collide Continue reading...

The United States Global Change Research Program report paints a bleak picture of the consequences of climate denial

Sixty-five animals died on railway track on Saturday while further 41 killed last week during winter migrationMore than 100 reindeer have been killed by freight trains in northern Norway in the past days in what has been called a senseless tragedy.One train killed 65 deer on a track on Saturday while 41 died between Wednesday and Friday, the public broadcaster NRK reported late on Sunday. Continue reading...

More than a third of about 2,800 planned new dams are in protected areas, threatening rivers and biodiversityHydropower constructions have rocketed by 300% across the western Balkans in the last two years, according to a new analysis, sparking fears of disappearing mountain rivers and biodiversity loss.About 2,800 new dams are now in the pipeline across a zone stretching from Slovenia to Greece, 37% of which are set to be built in protected areas such as national parks or Natura 2000 sites. Continue reading...

Cycling has its challenges as the nights draw in and the frosts arrive – but it can also be more rewarding and straightforward than one might thinkThe nights have well and truly drawn in, and for many Britons the frosts have arrived. Time to pack away the bike for a few months?

Brendon Common, Exmoor The ponies have been part of Exmoor’s bleak uplands for hundreds, probably thousands, of yearsWhen the first of the herd appeared on the horizon over Withycombe Ridge, the horse I was riding began to tremble. Excitement pulsed up the reins and I could feel his heartbeat thumping through the saddle. He stared transfixed, head high, pink nostrils flared, as the feral ponies flickered into view, their dark brown coats almost plum-coloured next to the dun moorland. They came closer, flowing down the hillside and splashing through the tiny ford at Lank Combe. We could see the light, mealy-coloured patches marking out their eyes and muzzles: a distinct feature of the Exmoor pony, Britain’s oldest native pony breed. Continue reading...

Commercial fishing blamed for the crash in numbers of yellow-eyed penguin on a sanctuary island in New ZealandAlmost half the breeding population of the world’s most endangered penguin species, the yellow-eyed penguin, has disappeared in one part of New Zealand and conservation groups believe commercial fishing is to blame.The yellow-eyed penguin is endemic to New Zealand’s South Island and sub-Antarctic islands, where there are just 1,600 to 1,800 left in the wild, down from nearly 7,000 in 2000. Continue reading...

Chair of policy committee also points to action to extract more North Sea gas and oil, suggesting support for shale gas is coolingThe case for fracking in Britain has weakened because of government action to extract more oil and gas from the North Sea and meteoric growth in renewable power, according to a Conservative MP tasked with developing the party’s energy policy.James Heappey said the new rules on tax relief for offshore oil and gas fields announced in last week’s budget could change the energy landscape. Continue reading...

The power consumed by the internet giants’ massive server farms and the mining of the cryptocurrency are growing into a giant environmental headacheOnce upon a time, a very long time ago – 2009 in fact – there was a brief but interesting controversy about the carbon footprint of a Google search. It was kicked off by a newspaper story reporting a “calculation” of mysterious origin that suggested a single Google search generated 7 grams of CO, which is about half of the carbon footprint of boiling a kettle. Irked by this, Google responded with a blogpost saying that this estimate was much too high. “In terms of greenhouse gases,” the company said, “one Google search is equivalent to about 0.2 grams of CO. The current EU standard for tailpipe [exhaust] emissions calls for 140 grams of CO per kilometre driven, but most cars don’t reach that level yet. Thus, the average car driven for one kilometre (0.6 miles for those in the US) produces as many greenhouse gases as a thousand Google searches.”Every service that Google provides is provided via its huge data centres, which consume vast amounts of electricity to power and cool the servers, and are therefore responsible for the emission of significant amounts of CO. Since the advent of the modern smartphone in about 2007 our reliance on distant data centres has become total, because everything we do on our phones involves an interaction with the “cloud” and therefore has a carbon footprint. Continue reading...

Mindfulness helps us deal with the stress of climate trauma, and seek solutions. Make sure your kit’s sustainably sourced and exercise outsideDaily yoga sessions were the unexpected hit at the recent Cop23 climate talks in Bonn. Delegate demand was so high that the organisers (the Indian delegation) ran out of mats.Yoga is an accessible route to mindfulness, and a crucial tool for exposing environmental emergency Continue reading...

Health dangers and high water use of shale gas extraction make it unacceptable, says mayor’s draft plan for the capitalSadiq Khan will in effect ban fracking in London – and warns that extracting shale gas represents a toxic health risk.In a controversial move, the London mayor will set out in plans to be published this week that councils across the capital should block the exploration, appraisal or production of shale gas via hydraulic fracturing, which sees rocks blasted with water to release the gas. Continue reading...

After decades of recovery, right whales are now under threat from industrial fishingOne of the more hopeful ecological stories of recent years – the slow restoration of numbers of the North Atlantic right whale – has taken a disastrous turn for the worse. Marine biologists have found their population has plunged abruptly in the past few years and that there may now only be around 100 reproductively mature females left in the sea. Many scientists fear the species could soon become the first great whale to become extinct in modern times.The principal cause for the North Atlantic right whale’s precipitous decline has been the use of increasingly heavy commercial fishing gear dropped on to the sea bed to catch lobsters, snow crabs and hogfish off the east coast of North America. Whales swim into the rope lines attached to these sea-bed traps and their buoys and become entangled. In some cases hundreds of metres of heavy rope, tied to traps weighing more than 60kg, have been found wrapped around whales. “We have records of animals carrying these huge loads – which they cannot shake off – for months and months,” said Julie van der Hoop, of Aarhus University in Denmark. Continue reading...

Energy companies in Italy and Spain have faced unexpected local opposition to their own plans to shut polluting plantsEurope’s race to quit coal has hit a speed bump as energy companies face local political resistance to the closure of power stations burning the polluting fuel.ScottishPower owner Iberdrola said this month that it was closing its last two coal power stations in Spain as part of its plan to cut carbon emissions and switch to cleaner power generation. But days later the Spanish government reacted by blocking the shutdowns, starting the process for a royal decree that would give ministers the final say on any power station closure if it was deemed to affect energy security. Continue reading...

Fishing, mining and new hotels will be prohibited in the ‘biologically spectacular’ Revillagigedo archipelagoMexico’s government has created the largest ocean reserve in North America around a Pacific archipelago regarded as its crown jewel.The measures will help ensure the conservation of marine creatures including whales, giant rays and turtles. Continue reading...

Brown bears, grey seals and an errant crocodile are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

In a bid to safeguard knowledge the Matsés in Peru have been planting “medicinal agroforestry” plots and written a 1,044-page two-volume book.The seven indigenous Matsés elders were slowly meandering through the forest. They were explaining how different trees and plants are used for medicinal purposes, exchanging stories about how they had acquired their extraordinary knowledge and put it to good use. There were memories of an encounter with a jaguar and someone’s father struck by some kind of pain in the eye - “not conjunctivitis!” - while claims were made for successfully treating women haemorrhaging, snake-bite, a swollen leg and constipation.The forest we were in was actually more of a garden - or “healing forest” or “medicinal agroforestry” plot - planted late last year by six young Matsés men under the expert guidance of elder Arturo Tumi Nëcca Potsad. “There are all types [of trees and plants] here,” Arturo told the Guardian, holding a spear made of peach palm and looking about him. “About 100 types, 3,000 plants.” Continue reading...

The shopping frenzy will see 82,000 diesel delivery vans on UK streets, with plastic toys and electronic goods among the most popular purchasesThe online shopping frenzy of the Black Friday weekend will see 82,000 diesel vans and trucks on UK roads, raising concerns of air pollution spikes on residential streets as more than £7bn of purchases are delivered.In the UK online shoppers are expected to spend up to £1.35bn today alone, according to analysts at IMRG, the UK’s online retail association. Plastic toys, games and electronic goods are among the most sought after items in the biggest weekend of shopping in Britain and the US, with environmentalists and health experts warning that it will add to the mountain of plastic waste and increase air pollution. Continue reading...

It can be dangerous – we get close to moving supertankers. Then there’s the worry about how private security will reactMy first political epiphany concerned the world trade protests in 1999. I was 17 and had a feeling globalisation was a good thing – until I realised it was about money and economics, not people and culture; so in the early 2000s I joined some anti-globalisation protests in Quebec.Several years later, I heard about kayaktivism. I’d kayaked before, and been an activist, but never married the two. My first kayak protest was in Quebec’s Saint Lawrence estuary in 2014. TransCanada wanted to build a supertanker port in a beluga whale nursery. Our mission was to kayak to a boat doing seismic testing, unfurl a banner and take a picture. It wasn’t about stopping the boat, but drawing attention to what was happening. Continue reading...

The new service by Great Western Railway has reduced bike space, a troublesome booking system and fails to meet the needs of disabled, elderly or less mobile cyclistsGreat Western Railway’s (GWR) new high-speed Intercity Express trains made headlines last month with their gaffe-filled launch that saw new trains temporarily taken out of service after several on-board malfunctions, on a service that arrived 41 minutes late, with the transport secretary on board.There could be more bad news down the line for those travelling with cycles, with the prospect that bike space on the new trains is reduced to zero at times, and those who have not booked a bike ticket told they won’t be able to board at all, whether there is free bike space or not. Continue reading...

With the country poised for Sunday’s elections, the murder of environmentalists in Honduras is being directly linked with water and food shortages, violence and migration. Photographer Sean Hawkey visited what has become a frontline of climate change conflict Continue reading...

Cavenham Heath, Suffolk The woodland reveals beetles both common and rare, and a surprising pile of ladybird wingsBlue sky, still air and the winter sun have lifted the heavy overnight frost. Cavenham Heath contains one of the largest blocks of heathland and acid grassland in the south-west Breckland, but the path from the car park starts in a predominantly birch woodland. Tearing a weathered birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) from a standing trunk, I fumble through its white flesh. It is shot through with burrows and in places under the pale leathery skin it is dry and powdery, while elsewhere the fungus retains a tough marshmallow consistency. Continue reading...

Native vegetation was home to several threatened species and was in a Great Barrier Reef catchmentQueensland farmers are suspected of having defied rare federal government intervention and cleared a large swath of land without commonwealth approval, according to conservationists.The native vegetation was in a reef catchment, meaning the clearing could worsen pollution on the Great Barrier Reef. Government-commissioned studies show it provided habitat to several threatened species. Continue reading...

Instead of imagining the kind of world we want to live in and the role Australia could play in it, the foreign policy paper paints a bleak picture for our future

Rosemary Mason notices a decline in insects in south Wales; Kate Phillips says there is a major shift in insect and bird life in Buckinghamshire; and Eyke Shannon questions the role played by the Forestry Commission and the RSPB in SuffolkWith regard to David Marjot’s letter about lost insects in Surrey (18 November), we too have noticed a sharp decline in insects over the last 10 years in south Wales, but there are no neonicotinoids used in the area. In fact, as he noted in Surrey, spiders were the first to disappear. However, Dakar Pro, a commercial preparation of RoundUp, is sprayed on city pavements to eradicate weeds. Have any other readers had similar experiences?

Cumbria MP says government is dragging its feet, as torrential rain causes flooding in area hit by Storm Desmond in 2015Torrential rain has forced dozens of families from their homes and caused disruption across the north-west of England, prompting a local MP to accuse the government of dragging its feet over £25m of flood defences promised two years ago.Lancaster and the nearby village of Galgate were the worst-affected areas, with 70 people rescued by firefighters and 27 people evacuated from their homes as rivers burst their banks and drains overflowed. Emergency services said they received 500 flood-related calls and attended 100 incidents in Lancashire overnight. Continue reading...

Understanding what happened to the ice sheet will be key to knowing what the future holds for global sea levelsThere are a lot of scientific eyes on west Antarctica right now, for some pretty obvious reasons.The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) holds a lot of water – enough to push up sea levels around the world by 3m or so. Continue reading...

Official figures show a 9% decline between 2010-15 in birds living and breeding on the UK’s farmlandBirds living and breeding on the UK’s farmland have seen numbers decline by almost a tenth in five years, official figures show.Farmland bird populations have declined by 56% since 1970, largely due to agricultural changes including the loss of mixed farming, a switch to autumn sowing of crops, a reduction in hay meadows and the stripping out of hedgerows. Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan says capital will not be included in the chancellor’s £220m clean air fund despite having 40% of the most polluting roads in England and WalesLondon cannot bid for a £220m clean air fund announced in the budget – despite being home to 40% of the most polluting roads in England and Wales, Sadiq Khan revealed on Thursday.Giving evidence to the Commons joint inquiry into air quality, the mayor of London revealed he was lobbying the government to support a £515m London-based two-year diesel scrappage scheme. Continue reading...

Government accused of ‘turning their back on renewables’ after saying there will be no more money for new low-carbon leviesCompanies hoping to build new windfarms, solar plants and tidal lagoons, have been dealt a blow after the government said there would be no new subsidies for clean power projects until 2025 at the earliest.The Treasury said it had taken the decision to “protect” consumers, because households and businesses were facing an annual cost of about £9bn on their energy bills to pay for wind, solar and nuclear subsidies to which it had already committed. Continue reading...

UK high court extends wide-ranging injunction sought by Ineos which prohibits campaigners from interfering unlawfully with their operationsA multinational firm has secured a long-term, sweeping injunction against anti-fracking protesters despite critics calling it “draconian and anti-democratic”.On Thursday, a high court judge extended the wide-ranging injunction sought by petrochemicals giant Ineos, which covers all anti-fracking campaigners. Continue reading...

The 2016 book by photojournalist Ashley Cooper documented the effects of climate change over 13 years and in more than 30 countries. Earlier this month, Cooper won the Green Apple award for environmental best practice at a ceremony at the UK House of Commons.Cooper is planning to set up a website, I Commit, which aims to get citizens of the world to lower their carbon footprint and upload their own images of climate impacts. Here are his images of how extreme weather has affected the UK in recent years Continue reading...

Jay Weatherill says South Australia opposed to policy in current form and ACT ‘very concerned’ before energy meetingLabor states appear likely to back further investigation of the Turnbull government’s national energy guarantee when energy ministers meet on Friday.