Exclusive: Election-eve ban aims to cut contamination from coal and oil spills to help struggling reefThe Queensland Labor government has banned the loading of coal ships at sea in the Great Barrier Reef marine park, following through on its 2015 election promise.The environment minister, Steven Miles, signed off on the ban on Saturday, in response to public concerns after the environment department last month flagged allowing so-called trans-shipping in the marine park under certain rules. Continue reading...

The 50-year civil war is over but, in the Cauca Valley, indigenous communities are on frontline of fight against drug gangs, riot police and deforestationA green-and-red flag flies over a cluster of bamboo and tarpaulin tents on the frontline of an increasingly deadly struggle for land and the environment in Colombia’s Cauca Valley.It is the banner for what indigenous activists are calling the “liberation of Mother Earth”, a movement to reclaim ancestral land from sugar plantations, farms and tourist resorts that has gained momentum in the vacuum left by last year’s peace accord between the government and the leftwing guerrillas who once dominated the region – ending, in turn, the world’s longest-running civil war. Continue reading...

Though regarded as among the tastiest fish, 90% of the catch goes to Europe. Now a supermarket campaign aims to change thatAt close to midnight, the crew of the Rachel Anne are surprisingly cheerful, given they have spent seven hours fruitlessly searching the English Channel for sardines. Scanning the screens in the wheelhouse, Richard Chamberlain, the skipper, suddenly spots a red blob on the echo-sounder which indicates a sizeable shoal is close by. “It’s looking good,” he shouts, checking its location and satisfied that it is a “tight” (and therefore plentiful) shoal, and not too deep. “Let’s shoot.”The nocturnal silence off Cornwall is shattered as a huge circular net is catapulted or “shot” overboard by a hydraulic winch and – engine revving – the boat lurches ahead in a giant curve, the net unfurling behind. Continue reading...

This year’s Halloween confectionery will contain palm oil grown on land that should lawfully be habitat to orangutans, rhinos and clouded leopards, despite commitment to clean up supply chainsNestlé, Mars and Hershey have been accused of breaking pledges to stop using “conflict palm oil” from deforested Indonesian jungles, just days before the annual Halloween confectionery frenzy.The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says consumers have been “deceived” by promises from the brands to clean up their supply chains which were subsequently delayed, revised or watered down. Continue reading...

Once it grew only sugar and was heavy handed with fertilizers and pesticides, now Cuba is in the grip of a small-scale organic farming revolutionIn the town of Hershey, 40 miles east of Havana, you can see the past and the future of Cuban farming, side by side.The abandoned hulk of the Camilo Cienfuegos sugar plant, shut along with 70 other cane refineries in 2002, towers over the town. But in the lush hills and grasslands around Hershey, fields of cassava, corn, beans, and vegetables are a sign that there is life after sugar. Continue reading...

Caersws, Powys Afon Hafren meanders to the flood plain, a broad, stately, river in comfortable middle ageLong before the Romans built their two forts at Caersws, the ridge to the west of the town was dominated by the ramparts of Cefn Carnedd. In the low afternoon sunshine the defensive banks that still rise above the hillside woodland were picked out by deep shadows.The iron-age fortress stands above a kempt farmed landscape drained by the afon Hafren (river Severn) as it meanders across the valley floor. Only a few miles from where it rises, gathering volume from the tributary streams funnelling in from the many side valleys, it has already changed from a lively moorland torrent to a broad, stately, river in comfortable middle age. Continue reading...

Scientists find that climate change has helped push first frosts later across the countryThe length of the US winter is shortening, with the first frost of the year arriving more than one later than it did 100 years ago, according to more than a century of measurements from weather stations nationwide.The trend of ever later first freezes appears to have started around 1980, according to data from 700 weather stations across the US going back to 1895 and compiled by Ken Kunkel, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information. Continue reading...

From solar to running generators, some have quit the energy grid and several others are showing interest in ‘defecting’In the heart of Queensland’s mining belt, a businessman who has grown his enterprise mostly off the back of the coal industry sees the energy sector going only one way.“I think renewable energy is where the market’s going – what we class as the energy revolution,” says Jason Sharam. Continue reading...

President will reverse protections established by two Democratic presidents on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, sparking fury from environmentalistsDonald Trump is shrinking two national monuments in Utah, accepting the recommendation of interior secretary Ryan Zinke to reverse protections established by two Democratic presidents, a Republican senator said Friday.Related: National Park Service wants to sharply raise entry fees at most popular parks Continue reading...

Colin Bannon on how to tackle a post-Brexit problemThe WWF is absolutely right that our fish stocks are at risk from leaving the common fisheries policy (Call for Brexit monitoring of UK fishing fleet, 27 October). This is because in reality fish stocks all round Europe are precarious and all the (welcome) “recovery” in cod stock means is that there are now very few fish instead of very, very few.My contribution to the future of fish stocks is to not eat fish until there are marine conservation zones all around the UK and fish stocks are allowed to increase massively. Continue reading...

Taskforce from UK’s pig, dairy and poultry farming sectors will aim to bring down use seen as major cause of increasing antibiotic resistanceFarming organisations have set new targets to reduce the use of antibiotics in raising animals for food, in an effort to cut the widespread overuse that has been blamed as a significant factor in increasing medicinal resistance among humans.The chief medical officer for England, Dame Sally Davies, has repeatedly said that the rapidly increasing resistance to antibiotics and the rise of resistant “superbugs” is one of the greatest threats to human health, which could make even routine operations life-threatening in future. Continue reading...

Universal credit | Weatherwatch | Real signs | Candles in Bath | Butter shortageI recently completed my tax return for 2016-17 and as I owe less than £3,000 HMRC is happy to let me start paying the bill on my tax code from April 2018. This generosity from the government for those of us fortunate enough to have taxable income seems in stark contrast to those being moved to universal credit (Rent arrears spiral in universal credit pilot, 24 October), where it is deemed better that vulnerable people live without any money for a few weeks because the money tree can’t afford it.

Green party’s Alison Teal accuses Sheffield council of behaving like ’bullies’, saying their pursuit of her for protest was ‘frightening for democracy’A Green party councillor has been found not guilty of breaching a court order while trying to stop trees being felled in Sheffield.Alison Teal, the councillor for Nether Edge and Sharrow, could have faced up to two years in jail for allegedly ignoring an injunction brought by Sheffield city council over its controversial programme, which has resulted in about 5,500 mature trees being chopped down. Continue reading...

Interior secretary Zinke calls himself a ‘Teddy Roosevelt guy’ – but he’s quietly dismantling environmental protections and yielding to oil industry interests

Vaquita, Fynbos flowers and the world’s only alpine parrot are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Non-partisan analysis reveals the cost of energy secretary Rick Perry’s proposal to give handouts to some of the country’s oldest and dirtiest power plantsA Trump administration plan to subsidize coal and nuclear energy would cost US taxpayers about $10.6bn a year and prop up some of the oldest and dirtiest power plants in the country, a new analysis has found.The Department of Energy has proposed that coal and nuclear plants be compensated not only for the electricity they produce but also for the reliability they provide to the grid. The new rule would provide payments to facilities that store fuel on-site for 90 days or more because they are “indispensable for our economic and national security”. Continue reading...

Woodwalton Fen, Cambridgeshire One magnificent specimen is a metre-wide rosette of oar-shaped leavesStorm Brian has eased, but the gusts still rustle the sallow, alder and willow leaves and sway the reeds. The firmament transforms rapidly from broken ashen blankets to a solid leaden layer and then a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. We strike south through a wooded area of the fen, towards the low sun glittering through the trees.A fallen birch trunk hosts many Fomes fomentarius, a heavy-duty bracket fungus known as the hoof fungus. On the tree’s now vertical root-plate wild lettuce plants grow. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Agency that manages Australia’s environmental water did not want to buy unreliable entitlements• $78m government spent on Darling water buyback nearly double its valuationThe federal government is likely to have bought “ghost water” for environmental flows into the Darling when it paid $78m in June for water entitlements in the Lower Darling – more than twice the sum recommended by its own official valuation.

University of Melbourne paper combines latest understanding on Antarctica and current emissions projection scenariosCoastal cities around the world could be devastated by 1.3m of sea level rise this century unless coal-generated electricity is virtually eliminated by 2050, according to a new paper that combines the latest understanding of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level rise and the latest emissions projection scenarios.It confirms again that significant sea level rise is inevitable and requires rapid adaptation. But, on a more positive note, the work reveals the majority of that rise – driven by newly recognised processes on Antarctica – could be avoided if the world fulfils its commitment made in Paris to keep global warming to “well below 2C”. Continue reading...

The winner of the 10th annual environmental photographer of the year competition is Quoc Nguyen Linh Vinh, from Vietnam, for his poignant image of a young girl and her mother, surrounded by filth, danger and pollution, making their living by collecting waste Continue reading...

Data shows companies made much higher payments to developing countries in 2016 than to Canadian, provincial governmentsCanada taxes its oil and gas companies at a fraction of the rate they are taxed abroad, including by countries ranked among the world’s most corrupt, according to an analysis of public data by the Guardian.

The EU currently sets fishing catch limits in order to maintain fish stocks. The WWF is concerned that poor management post-Brexit could result in over-fishingAll of the UK’s fishing fleet should be fitted with electronic monitoring technology after Brexit in order to protect fish stocks from poor management and potentially illegal landings of fish, campaigners have urged.Remote monitoring technology, including closed circuit television, is now widely available for fishing vessels, but is often not deployed. A study by WWF, the environmental group, has found numerous examples of fishermen obstructing physical monitoring by independent observers. Continue reading...

Chief scientist says far fewer coal-fired power stations being planned around the world than previously projectedThe chief scientist, Alan Finkel, has challenged figures used by supporters of coal-fired power stations in a Senate estimates hearing.Liberal senator Ian Macdonald suggested there were more than 600 coal plants under way around the world, which would undermine any emissions reduction achieved by Australia. Continue reading...

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary says Adani may have requested letter to help secure Chinese fundingSenior Turnbull government ministers have written a formal letter to China’s government to confirm that the controversial Adani Carmichael coal project in Queensland has passed all necessary environmental approvals.

A14, Huntingdonshire: Taken at a chariot’s pace the highway reveals its pockets of wilderness and unexpected beautyTwo thousand years after the Romans cut an urban vein through rural Huntingdonshire, naming it Via Devana (Chester Street), the road is scheduled to shift its course. I decided to follow the old highway at a chariot’s pace, stopping often to seek out the oddities and glimpses of character you invariably find in the slow lane.My first layby, outside Godmanchester, was jammed with a bumper-to-tail trio of container lorries. A weather-battered and lichen-encrusted fence divided us from a bank of blackthorn bushes bursting with unpickable sloes, and hawthorns with shrunken berries. Continue reading...

Visitors to popular parks, including Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Zion, could see fees double or triple to address backlog of maintenance and infrastructure costs

Environmental Justice Australia says it will seek injunction to prevent logging of area containing centuries-old treesA Victorian government-owned business is poised to clear-fell hundreds of hectares of spectacular old-growth forest, in a move lawyers say is unlawful and which they intend to halt through the supreme court if necessary.The area about to be logged by VicForests contains countless trees that are centuries old. It is made up of two forest types that are required by law to have 60% marked by the government as “special protections zones” that can’t be logged – a step that has not been taken. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Federal government ignored advice of its own research agency when it bought water rights of a NSW property

The Prince of Wales is encouraging companies to sign up to the Cerrado manifesto, which aims to protect globally important natural landscapesThe loss of rainforest in the Amazon has been a familiar cause for activism for more than 30 years, but the partial success of efforts to protect it is moving the spotlight to a new landscape: Brazil’s cerrado.Environmentalists fear that measures to reduce the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest for commodities such as soy and beef have pushed some of those activities into formerly less exploited regions such as the cerrado, a vast tropical savannah covering more than 2m sq km. Continue reading...

Rescued cubs had spent nine months in care at National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross, ClackmannanshireThree orphaned otters have been released into the wild after more than nine months in care.Stream, Smoult and Eddie were taken to the National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross, Clackmannanshire, when they were cubs aged between eight and 10 weeks old. Continue reading...

Exclusive: researchers calculated the total lifecycle emissions of an electric car, including its manufacture, battery manufacture, and all of its energy consumptionElectric cars emit significantly less greenhouse gases over their lifetimes than diesel engines even when they are powered by the most carbon intensive energy, a new report has found.In Poland, which uses high volumes of coal, electric vehicles produced a quarter less emissions than diesels when put through a full lifecycle modelling study by Belgium’s VUB University. Continue reading...

Indigenous community leaders are urging the UK government to do more to protect the forest dwellers who defend rainforests from illegal loggersActivists have marched through Whitehall to urge the UK government to give more support to environmental defenders who risk their lives protecting rainforests, rivers and the climate.The demonstration on Tuesday was led by indigenous leader Candido Mezúa, who bore a banner reading “Guardians of the Forest: end the devastation of the forest and the killing of forest people.” Continue reading...

While almost all companies have plans in place to reduce carbon emissions, those plans don’t go far enough, according to the Carbon Disclosure ProjectNearly nine out of 10 of the world’s biggest companies have plans in place to reduce carbon emissions, new research has found, but only a fifth of them are doing so for 2030 and beyond.

The Google engineer’s infamous sexist manifesto is contradicted by the brilliance of women in science.

Cotton farm in Queensland’s Goondiwindi searched as part of probe into alleged misuse of state-administered grantsA police raid on a Queensland cotton farm came two months after detectives launched a formal investigation of alleged fraud involving millions of dollars of federal funds earmarked for Murray-Darling water savings.Detectives from the major and organised rural crime squad raided Norman Farming at Goondiwindi on Tuesday as part of a probe into the alleged misuse of state-administered grants. Continue reading...

Christine Lagarde warns of ‘dark future’ if the world fails to take steps to address global warmingThe world will be in deep trouble if it fails to tackle climate change and inequality, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde has warned.

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire Arrested in a kind of limbo, the plumes of rosebay willowherb had yet to liberate themselves and venture into the wide worldRosebay willowherb seedpods cracked ajar like fans of white feathers. Exhausted after the carmine blaze of summer, the Chamaenerion angustifolium plants were dry, rusty and derelict. Their long thin seedpods had split into four strands, stretching open to reveal a mass of pappus – silky plumes attached to hundreds of tiny spilling seeds per pod, 80,000 or so to a plant.It was a wonder those seeds were still there, given the shaking they must have got from Red Ophelia. But, arrested in a kind of limbo, like a photograph, they had yet to liberate themselves and venture into the wide world. Continue reading...

Transport department publishes new noise analysis and air quality plan, with public consultation now open until 19 DecemberThe public consultation on the planned third runway at Heathrow has been reopened due to new evidence.

Wine producers’ body warns production will fall after Italy, France and Spain were hit by freak weather events in 2017If you haven’t got a wine cellar, it’s time to get one and start stockpiling – because global wine production is to fall to its lowest level in more than 50 years.On Tuesday the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said it expected an 8% decrease in global wine production to 247m hectolitres for 2017. Continue reading...

New report also reveals rise in large-scale illegal ivory shipments which could be due to panic sell-off by traffickers as countries implement domestic bansElephant poaching in Africa has declined for the fifth year in a row, experts have said.But elephant populations continue to fall due to illegal killing and other human activities, while seizures of large-scale illegal ivory shipments were at record highs in 2016, a new report reveals. Continue reading...

Major producers report rot in fields due to rainfall but bursts of sunshine have led to larger than average pumpkinsShoppers can expect fewer but bigger pumpkins on sale in the run-up to Halloween as a result of the UK’s wet summer, farmers and producers have warned.The weather has squeezed supplies of the seasonal favourite, with major growers reporting “significant levels of rot” which have led to thousands being left to turn to pulp in the fields rather than heading for the supermarkets. Continue reading...

Bank calls for water to be treated as valuable resource as study into impact details lack of water’s devastating lifelong scars on children

Glyphosate is found in 60% of UK bread and environmentalists welcome a ban but industry warn of uproar among farmers if herbicide is phased outA pivotal EU vote this week could revoke the licence for the most widely used herbicide in human history, with fateful consequences for global agriculture and its regulation.Glyphosate is a weedkiller so pervasive that its residues were recently found in 45% of Europe’s topsoil – and in the urine of three quarters of Germans tested, at five times the legal limit for drinking water.

Tony Abbott, Craig Kelly and Matt Canavan argue government should cut off support to some renewable investments in 2020Dissident government MPs, including the former prime minister Tony Abbott, are continuing to stir the pot on energy despite last week’s party room sign off on the new national energy guarantee.

Commission says carbon price would benefit consumers and help deliver best possible market reformsThe Productivity Commission has called on the Turnbull government to adopt a “proper vehicle” for reducing carbon emissions that puts a single price on carbon, saying it would benefit consumers.It says a price on carbon must eventually form part of Australia’s energy markets and would help to deliver the greatest possible market regulation reform benefits over the next five years. Continue reading...

Second winner threatens to quit Whitsundays Tourism amid criticism of sponsor ‘who is singlehandedly destroying everything that we stand for’The winner of a Queensland tourism award has rejected its prize because it was sponsored by the mining giant Adani.Another winner in the 2017 Whitsundays Tourism awards, held last month at Hamilton Island with Adani as a silver sponsor, threatened to quit the organisation unless it cut ties with the miner. Continue reading...

New Zealanders were urged to 'vote kea' in a video campaign for the world's only alpine parrot, resulting in thousands more votes cast for the species than ​actual birds in existence. The nation's annual bird of the year competition hit new heights this year with more than 50,000 votes cast from around New Zealand and the world. Despite their protected status, keas have divided Kiwis between those who enjoy the cheeky parrot’s animated nature and those who curse its destructive habits Continue reading...

Vice-president Rosario Murillo calls global pact ‘the only instrument we have’ to address climate change as number of outsiders shrinks to twoNicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries outside the global pact.

The world’s only mountain parrot whose cheeky antics divide Kiwis, beats kererū and kākāpō to coveted crown

Group shown swimming into a baited trap at the scene of a recent fatal attack in Queensland have been criticisedA group of men photographed swimming into a baited croc trap near the scene of a fatal attack in Queensland appear to be vying for the “idiots of the century award”, a local mayor has said.Photos of the men swimming around and even climbing into the trap at the Port Douglas Marina have surfaced online, leaving the mayor of Douglas Shire, Julia Leu, stunned. Continue reading...