Booker prize-winning author predicts climate reality will not be far from scenarios imagined in her post-apocalyptic fictionClimate change will bring a dystopian future reminiscent of one of her “speculative fictions”, with women bearing the brunt of brutal repression, hunger and war, the Booker prize-winning author Margaret Atwood is to warn.“This isn’t climate change – it’s everything change,” she will tell an audience at the British Library this week. “Women will be directly and adversely affected by climate change.” Continue reading...

Green groups welcome decision as a sign of a larger trend away from fossil fuels towards renewables• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Plans to expand a coal port in Newcastle, New South Wales, have been scrapped by the developer because demand for coal has not increased enough to support the project.Port Waratah Coal Services said on Thursday it would allow its lease for the T4 terminal to lapse when it expired next year because the capacity of existing terminals was likely to be sufficient for future growth in coal exports. Continue reading...

Queensland environment department will investigate but New Hope denies allegations• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Queensland’s environment department is investigating claims that the mining company New Hope expanded existing operations at its New Acland coalmine without permission.The state environment department confirmed on Thursday it was investigating New Hope’s controversial mine, west of Brisbane, but the company insisted the complaints were part of a campaign against it. Continue reading...

Australia is one of the few countries in the world where hives are free of the debilitating varroa miteThe soaring price of Australian beeswax could be bad news for local beard owners – and good news for scammers – as demand for high-quality beeswax heats up.New uses for the wax – from cosmetics to food wraps – and the comparative health of Australia’s bees have driven the export price of Australian beeswax up in the global marketplace. Continue reading...

With no spectators, no bags of freebies and no medals, the 400km London-Wales-London ride provides a welcome antidote to overblown sportives“Cycling far?” asks a woman in the bakery as a group of us queues for coffee and sausage rolls, as well as an all-important receipt to prove we passed through Tewkesbury.Increasing numbers of cyclists are getting bored with 100-mile sportives and looking for something else Continue reading...

Coalition says phosphate exploration would have had unacceptable impact on endangered seabirdThe Turnbull government has knocked back a controversial phosphate exploration proposal on Christmas Island “because it is likely to have significant and unacceptable impacts on matters protected under national environment law”.Phosphate Resources Limited – the owners of a phosphate mine on Christmas Island – had proposed to clear 6.83ha of land and undertake exploration drilling along 44 survey lines in an effort to determine the extent of the additional phosphate resources on Christmas Island. Continue reading...

Comins Coch, Ceredigion: Meadow grasses and flowers have grown in abundance, but the trees have been slow to greenIn the pasture beside the lane, dandelions have already set seed, their spherical heads intact and waiting for the right gust of wind to break the seeds free and disperse them across the village like invading paratroopers. The meadow grasses and wild flowers have grown rapidly in confused abundance, but the crown of the oak tree across the field remains more defined by the framework of branches than by new foliage. Possibly the sudden drop in temperature that preceded the late snow selectively stalled development.Further uphill the old meadow was marked by fresh molehills among the rushes and the lady’s smock, showing where these stolid hunters have been clearing and extending their shallow runs. The activity of their favoured prey, earthworms, is triggered by rising temperature and an attractive level of soil moisture – conditions that have apparently been satisfied. Continue reading...

There is nothing logical about the Kinder Morgan pipeline – especially not the decision to gut environmental laws for itThe twists and turns in the saga of the Kinder Morgan pipeline just took a turn for the seriously weird today, but the path has never been clear.

Benjamin Mancroft says Labour allowed its prejudice that all hunting people were toffs to blind it to the realities of managing foxes. Plus letters from Andrew Barker, Karen Lloyd, Ian Coghill and Philip MerricksThere is growing anecdotal evidence that the fox population in lowland rural Britain is in sharp decline (Is Britain’s fox population in decline?, Shortcuts, G2, 23 May). This is not because they are short of food, and thus in need of feeding on roadkill by Chris Packham or anybody else.Professor Stephens of Durham University is right that “fox populations appear to have dropped specifically within the past 15 or 20 years”, ie since the enactment of the ban on fox-hunting in 2004. Nor is he wrong when he suggests that “people who were enthusiastic about hunting would often encourage fox populations”. More accurately, this means that they provided habitat (which benefited all wildlife), observed a closed season to allow foxes to breed and rear their cubs in peace, and practised a method of culling that encouraged survival of the fittest and removed the surplus numbers required to maintain a level population. The existence of hunts also acted as a deterrent to those wishing to shoot foxes indiscriminately and all year round with rifles which have significantly increased in accuracy and range over the past 15 years. Continue reading...

There are several ways to embrace nature – no matter the size of your plotRewilding excites people with its images of wolves and ambition to return entire landscapes to nature as humans withdraw after centuries of domination. But the grandeur of rewilding can also make the concept seem remote or irrelevant to people living ever more urban lives.To declare we are rewilding our garden, or window box, is probably a contradiction in terms and risks cheapening this important conservation concept. But there are principles of rewilding – stepping back and allowing natural processes to occur, and encouraging wild plants and insects – which we can all embrace. The most relevant rewilding idea for us urban beings? Let go, and reduce our micromanagement of whatever small patch of earth we own, rent or enjoy and influence. Continue reading...

For farmers planting crops they hope will bear fruit in 25 years – including avocado trees – climate change must be reckoned with nowChris Sayer pushed his way through avocado branches and grasped a denuded limb. It was stained black, as if someone had ladled tar over its bark. In February, the temperature had dropped below freezing for three hours, killing the limb. The thick leaves had shriveled and fallen away, exposing the green avocados, which then burned in the sun. Sayer estimated he’d lost one out of every 20 avocados on his farm in Ventura, just 50 miles north of Los Angeles, but he counts himself lucky. Continue reading...

Purchasing huge tracts of land in Chile and Argentina, former clothing tycoons Doug and Kristine Tompkins have led a quarter century-long effort to reintroduce threatened and locally extinct species to the wilds of South AmericaDuring an elegant dinner in the wilds of Patagonia, Kris Tompkins suddenly remembered the fresh guanaco carcass down the road. She rose from the table and drove us to the nearby grasslands of Patagonia national park, gushing about the possibility of staying up all night with a torch in hope of spying a mountain lion come to feast on the dead llama-like creature. Continue reading...

New index finds many of the world’s largest protein producers failing to measure or report emissions, despite accounting for 14.5% of greenhouse gasesMeat and fish companies may be “putting the implementation of the Paris agreement in jeopardy” by failing to properly report their climate emissions, according to a groundbreaking index launched today.Three out of four (72%) of the world’s biggest meat and fish companies provided little or no evidence to show that they were measuring or reporting their emissions, despite the fact that, as the report points out, livestock production represents 14.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading...

Conservationists call for end of ‘abhorrent’ whaling programme, which Japan argues is conducted for scientific purposesMore than 120 pregnant whales were killed during Japan’s annual “research” hunt in the Southern Ocean last summer, a new report has revealed.

Those still at the agency fear climate science funding will be cut since it is now considered a ‘sensitive subject’

Newly reintroduced chequered skippers are fluttering about Rockingham forest as other butterflies emerge in the sunlightButterfly lovers’ emotions tend to boom and bust like butterfly populations. Two weeks of sunshine in my part of the world and my heart’s lifted by plentiful orange tips, small whites and brimstones, while last summer’s peacocks gamely fly on. Alongside a decent abundance of common species there’s the exciting addition of 41 chequered skippers from the continent, now enjoying the warm glades of Rockingham forest, Northamptonshire.The chequered skippers – males and females collected in Belgium – have been reintroduced as part of the Back from the Brink project, after the species became extinct in England following the hot summer of 1976. (A similar summer would be too dry for this species’ caterpillars, which need moisture to survive.) Continue reading...

Data confirms that reptiles use Coral Sea as a highway between their nesting beaches and feeding groundsCritically endangered hawksbill turtles that nest on islands east of Papua New Guinea have been tracked moving across parts of the Coral Sea marine park where the Australian government wants to allow commercial fishing, conservationists have found.Ten of the turtles were tagged at the privately owned Conflict Islands in early January, with seven swimming across the Coral Sea to the Great Barrier Reef to feed. Continue reading...

2017 was a standout year for renewables, the Clean Energy Council says as it calls for ‘policy certainty’ in 2018• Sign up to receive the latest news in Australian politics every weekdayThe emissions reduction target in the national energy guarantee is too low to encourage the development of renewable energy projects on a scale sufficient to drive down power prices as Australia’s ageing coal plants retire, according to the Clean Energy Council.A new report from the council, to be released on Wednesday, says 2017 was a standout year for the renewable energy industry, with the largest domestic rollout of rooftop solar in history, and 16 large-scale renewable energy projects completed, adding 700 megawatts of new generation to the mix. Continue reading...

My mother, Pat Callaghan, was a champion of urban wildlife who was dedicated to making sure people in towns and cities had access to green spaces. With the help of many others she ran “urban safaris” to demonstrate that the environment is not just a matter for rural areas. As chair of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust (1995-2007) she also helped to promote and shape new ideas about conservation.Pat, who has died aged 86, had a background in radio broadcasting – she worked on the Countrywise programme for BBC Radio Stoke – and her communication skills allowed her to forge many partnerships. She worked tirelessly to foster links between environmental projects, agricultural organisations and grassroots community groups. She also helped to establish the National Forest, a project to plant trees across 200 square miles of central England. Continue reading...

Finance minister says ‘this is an investment in Canada’s future’ and says pipeline will and must be builtCanada’s federal government has announced it will buy a controversial pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to the Pacific coast to ensure it gets built.The country’s finance minister, Bill Morneau, said on Tuesday that Justin Trudeau’s government will spend C$4.5bn (US$3.45bn) to purchase Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. Continue reading...

Changes mean RBS has ‘strongest energy sector policies’ of top five UK banksRoyal Bank of Scotland will no longer fund Arctic oil projects and has pledged to cut lending to firms profiting largely from coal as part of an updated energy policy.The changes cover the mining, power and oil and gas sectors and are aimed at taking a tougher line on climate change. They mean the bank will not provide “project-specific finance” to new coal-fired power stations, new thermal coal mines, oil sands or Arctic oil projects, or those involved in “unsustainable” vegetation or peatland clearing. Continue reading...

Investigation uncovers about a dozen intensive beef units, despite assurances that US-style practices would not happen hereThousands of British cattle reared for supermarket beef are being fattened in industrial-scale units where livestock have little or no access to pasture.

Met Office warns of power cuts and travel disruption in southern England and WalesThunderstorms will continue to strike the UK as hot weather brings the risk of flooding, travel disruption and power cuts, forecasters have warned.

Even though smart climate policies could save tens of trillions of dollarsLast week, the Washington Post obtained a White House internal memo that debated how the Trump administration should handle federal climate science reports.The memo presented three options without endorsing any of them: conducting a “red team/blue team” exercise to “highlight uncertainties in climate science”; more formally reviewing the science under the Administrative Procedure Act; or deciding to just “ignore, and not seek to characterize or question, the science being conducted by Federal agencies and outside entities.” Continue reading...

The whale was found entangled in netting off the Sydney beach on Tuesday afternoon. Passengers on a whale-watching cruise spent several hours trying to help, and succeeded in cutting some of the netting before the operation had to be abandoned at nightfall Continue reading...

Whale watchers attempt to disentangle mammal but darkness stops rescue efforts• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon A 10-metre humpback whale trapped off in netting off Bondi beach in Sydney may have to wait until Wednesday morning to be freed after darkness hampered rescue efforts.Whale watchers were able to free the mammal of some of the netting but a rescue team from National Parks New South Wales was unable to fully release the whale before night fell. Continue reading...

Minister rebuffs former PM’s call to bring plan back to Coalition party roomJosh Frydenberg has declined to bring his national energy guarantee back to the Coalition party room for a full discussion before a make-or-break meeting of energy ministers.

Barton-le-Willows, North Yorkshire: Just weeks ago we were sledging on these hills. Now the branches are laden again, this time with floral snowThe wedding invitation says no gifts. After so long together they wish for nothing but our company. But in 17 years of friendship with this couple, we’ve shared adventures and foolery, elation and loss; we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve raised children. So the occasion merits a token, at least. I decide to forage for something.Our local hedgerows are peaking. As I select primroses, forget-me-nots, stitchwort and sprigs of blossom to adorn the wedding cake, the earworm I’ve hosted for days starts up again: Andy Williams singing It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Christmas bells and all. It’s weirdly apt in a year when the weather has played merry hell with seasonal succession. Just weeks ago we were sledging on these hills. Birdsong greeted blizzards, the first cuckoo called in icy drizzle, and our swallows bowled in over another boreal blast. Now the branches are laden again, this time with floral snow. Continue reading...

Out-of-place Queensland groper seen off New Zealand coast after water temperatures soaredRare tropical fish from Australia have been spotted in New Zealand waters after a record-breaking hot summer and warm ocean temperatures lured the creatures across the Tasman sea.The Queensland groper, also known as the giant grouper, is the aquatic emblem of the state and was spotted swimming around the wreck of the HMNZ Canterbury in the Bay of Islands on Sunday, more than 3,000 kilometres away from its usual cruising spots on the coral reefs and estuaries off the Queensland coast. Continue reading...

Official data shows forest-clearing released 160m tonnes of carbon dioxide since 2015

Judges ordered a 25% carbon emissions cut by 2020 in the first successful lawsuit against a government’s climate policyThe Dutch government has launched a bid to overturn a landmark climate ruling, arguing that judges in The Hague “sidelined democracy” when they ordered a 25% cut in carbon emissions by 2020.Government plans for a lesser 17% cut in CO2 pollution were deemed unlawful three years ago, in the first successful lawsuit against a government’s climate policy. Continue reading...

Our special landscapes are cultural constructs, says Tom Greeves. And public authorities need to think more about urban green spaces, says Ann SharrockMichael Gove needs to be careful in his choice of vocabulary about national parks (England may get more national parks after Gove announces review, 28 May). His review suggests that it is part of a process to enhance protection of “natural” landscapes and habitats. But our English national parks and all areas being considered for designation are equally cultural landscapes created by some 10,000 years of human presence, also needing protection. He should beware the fashionable concept of “natural capital” without balancing it with one of “cultural capital”. And he should be aware that our existing parks are the least democratic part of the English local government system, having no directly elected members. New designations balancing nature and culture, and with direct elections, might be welcomed – otherwise our special landscapes will be no better off.

Brussels proposes ban on plastic straws and cutlery and calls out Brexiter Michael GoveBrussels has challenged the UK’s environment secretary, Michael Gove, to try to outdo it in an environmental “race to the top” as it proposed a ban on plastic straws, cutlery, plates, cotton buds and balloon sticks.Frans Timmermans, the European commission’s first vice-president, directly addressed Gove, a fervent Brexiter, as he unveiled details of the planned prohibition, along with measures designed to reduce the use of plastic takeaway containers and drinking cups. Continue reading...

Charity FareShare is feeding three quarters of a million people a week with food that would otherwise go to waste – a 60% rise since last yearThe UK’s largest food redistribution charity is helping to feed a record 772,000 people a week – 60% more than the previous year – with food that would otherwise be wasted, new figures reveal.One in eight people in the UK go hungry every day – with the most needy increasingly dependent on food banks – yet perfectly good food is wasted every day through the food production supply chain. Continue reading...

ACCC chair says electricity price spike due to network charges, not carbon tax or renewables

Nation which produces 3% of the world’s milk will embark on the biggest cull in its historyNew Zealand will become the first country in the world to try to eradicate the cow disease Mycoplasma bovis, culling tens of thousands of cows in the largest mass animal slaughter in the country’s history.Government and farming sector leaders have agreed to cull 126,000 cows and spend more than NZ$800m ($560m) over 10 years in an attempt to save the national dairy herd and protect the long-term productivity of the farming sector, which is New Zealand’s second biggest export earner. Continue reading...

1 June 1918: It was a small field, hand-mown; swathes were heavy, deadening the sweep of scythes, but tall wild parsley, oat-grass spiked almost like cornSurrey

Families face pressure to decide the fate of their relatives’ grave, dividing the community of Azacualpa where as many as 350 bodies have already been exhumedNothing is sacred in the path of gold miners in northwestern Honduras – not even the dead.

Endangered species can thrive in habitats other than forests, paving way for their returnEighty years after they were hunted to extinction, the successful reintroduction of a herd of wild European bison on to the dunes of the Dutch coast is paving the way for their return across the continent.The largest land-living animal in Europe was last seen in the Netherlands centuries ago, and was wiped out on the continent by 1927. Despite successful efforts to breed the species again in the wilds of Poland in the 1950s, and renewed efforts in the last decade in western Europe, the European bison remains as endangered as the black rhino. Continue reading...

Case centres on state’s 2015 decision to hit company with bill for unpaid royalties and interestSign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon

Manufacturers will act early on September 2020 ban as LED already the preferred option• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon

Government advisers call for changes to Direct Action policy to end investment in schemes that do not reduce emissions

Michael Gove says move prompted by rising population and decline in certain habitatsA new wave of national parks could be created after the environment secretary, Michael Gove, announced plans for a review of protected areas.

Guardian readers respond to Michael Gove’s defence of what the government is doing to address air pollutionWe must cut through the smog of rhetoric if we are to have clean air. Through deft political sleight of hand, the environment secretary Michael Gove’s defence of what the government is doing to address air pollution (Letters, 24 May) diverts attention from the cause of dirty air in most of our cities: diesel-fuelled vehicles. This risks slowing down the action required to tackle air pollution at a moment when more and more people are becoming aware that it is a serious risk to health in places beyond London.As city leaders, we are keen to work with ministers to tackle the wider challenges of air pollution, but this requires a government strategy that has cleaner transport at its heart. We need a national framework so that residents and businesses can make the shift as quickly as possible to less polluting ways of moving around. Continue reading...

Warning by expert panel says up to 400,000 wildfowl a year may suffer lead poisoningSeveral rare bird species, including a breed of red-headed duck listed as “vulnerable”, are under threat from lead poisoning linked to shooting, a new report says.Numbers of common pochard, a duck species at risk of global extinction, have fallen substantially over the past 30 years, a decline partly attributed to the fact that they eat some of the 5,000 tonnes of lead pellets discarded in the countryside by people shooting game, according to the Lead Ammunition Group (LAG). Continue reading...

Government promises action on collisions to avoid slaughter on busy shipping routesIn an office up a steep hill in a seaside suburb of Athens, a tiny blue light flickers from a computer terminal. Dr Alexandros Frantzis, Greece’s foremost oceanographer, points it out. The light, he says, tracks marine traffic “in real time”.It is key to saving one of the world’s most endangered whale populations. Continue reading...

Campaigners demand that post-Brexit Britain matches the EU’s plan to tackle wasteThe EU is to ban plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, cotton buds and balloon sticks in a bid to tackle the rising tide of plastic waste, a move that has prompted urgent calls for the environment secretary, Michael Gove, to guarantee that the UK will follow Brussels’ lead after Brexit.The restrictions on “single-use” plastic will be launched on Monday by the European commission as part of its plan to ensure that 55% of all plastic is recycled by 2030. About 80-85% of all litter in the oceans is plastic, and half of that is made up of throw-away items such as plastic straws. Continue reading...

Pests could cost the state in billions if the spread continues, Invasive Species Council warns• Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon One of the world’s worst invasive pests, red fire ants, have been detected outside a containment zone in Queensland’s scenic rim.The ants, destroyers of crops and harbingers of doom for many forms of outdoor recreation, are considered a potential $45bn problem should they become widely established in Queensland. Continue reading...