Focus of London mayor’s proposed ban will be on educating owners not to burn wood during bad air quality episodes

Sadiq Khan wants to reduce air pollution – and one of the worst offenders is the wood-fired stove. But is there any other use for your Scandi-inspired heater?In a blow targeted straight at the city’s middle-class heart, Sadiq Khan is trying to occasionally ban some wood-burning stoves from being used in London. To reduce air pollution, he is seeking powers to prohibit the burning of wood in any areas that suffer from poor air quality. However, there are 1.5m wood-burning stoves in the UK, and that number is increasing by 200,000 annually. So, if you have a wood-burning stove that you can’t currently use, what are you supposed to do with it? Some thoughts.• Use it to burn something less harmful to the environment than wood. Polystyrene perhaps? Continue reading...

Food Standards Agency, Tesco and Sainsbury’s investigate 2 Sisters Food Group plant after Guardian/ITV News story

In his new documentary, the explorer joins Borneo’s Penan tribe to see what the world’s indigenous people can teach us about our own survival and that of the planet

Mercury is found in household items from beauty products to electronics, and even in food. Without proper safeguards our health is in dangerMercury is far more pervasive than most people realise, and we have no idea how many people are at risk. It can be found in everything from mascara and dental amalgam to thermometers and skin whitening creams – and that’s before it reaches the food chain.There is no safe level of exposure, and everyone is at risk when mercury is released without safeguards. Children and newborn and unborn babies are most vulnerable, along with populations who eat contaminated fish. Studies have shown that children as far afield as Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia and Greenland all suffer cognitive impairment from eating fish containing mercury. Continue reading...

Bigger livestock in larger numbers in more regions has led to methane in the air climbing faster than predicted due to ‘out-of-date data’Emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from livestock are larger than previously thought, posing an additional challenge in the fight to curb global warming, scientists have said.Revised calculations of methane produced per head of cattle show that global livestock emissions in 2011 were 11% higher than estimates based on data from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Continue reading...

While Flint battles a water crisis, just two hours away the beverage giant pumps almost 100,000 times what an average Michigan resident uses into plastic bottlesGina Luster bathed her child in lukewarm bottled water, emptied bottle by bottle into the tub, for months. It became a game for her seven-year-old daughter. Pop the top off a bottle, and pour it into the tub. It takes about 30 minutes for a child to fill a tub this way. Pop the top, pour it in; pop the top, pour it in. Maybe less if you can get gallon jugs.Luster lives in Flint, Michigan, and here, residents believe tap water is good for one thing: to flush the toilet. Continue reading...

September saw more fires than any month on record, as experts say uptick is due to expansion of agriculture and reduction of oversight and surveillanceBrazil has seen more forest fires in September than in any single month since records began, and authorities have warned that 2017 could surpass the worst year on record if action is not taken soon.Experts say that the blazes are almost exclusively due to human activity, and they attribute the uptick to the expansion of agriculture and a reduction of oversight and surveillance. Lower than average rainfall in this year’s dry season is also an exacerbating factor. Continue reading...

Welburn, North Yorkshire Neighbourly etiquette precludes releasing our captives near another house, and compassion compels me to avoid roadsWhile we were on holiday recently, our home became the venue for an unsanctioned party. It probably started with one or two acquaintances, a few nibbles. But word got around, as it does. The first we knew of the ensuing orgy was the smell in the kitchen, the ureic perma-damp stink I associate with concrete-floored public toilets.Our house is highly permeable to small mammals. On moving in we found dozens of bank vole skeletons in the loft. Two shrews once drowned in a nappy bucket and another morning we found a baby rabbit camped under a bookcase. Sometimes bats appear in the kitchen. Continue reading...

Welsh climber Andrew Foster, 32, was man killed on El Capitan, say authorities, and ‘substantially bigger’ fall has since taken place

London mayor cites figures showing that the home stoves, used in 16% of households, produce up to a third of all the capital’s fine-particle pollution

Forests globally are so degraded that instead of absorbing emissions they now release more carbon annually than all the traffic in the US, say researchersThe world’s tropical forests are so degraded they have become a source rather than a sink of carbon emissions, according to a new study that highlights the urgent need to protect and restore the Amazon and similar regions.Researchers found that forest areas in South America, Africa and Asia – which have until recently played a key role in absorbing greenhouse gases – are now releasing 425 teragrams of carbon annually, which is more than all the traffic in the United States. Continue reading...

After leaving school at 16, the entrepreneur has built up a vast business employing 23,000 peopleHis soft West Midlands accent betrays the fact that Ranjit Singh Boparan has not ventured far from his roots during a career in food. But in business terms he has travelled miles.The entrepreneur, who left school at 16 with few qualifications and spent his early working life toiling in a local butcher’s shop, founded 2 Sisters Food Group in West Bromwich in 1993 with a bank loan, and has since grown the firm into the UK’s second largest food business by turnover. Continue reading...

We sent two undercover journalists to work in the supermarket supply chain and found some alarming food safety practices“Have you just got out of prison?” the slaughterhouse foreman asks his new recruit.

Concern grows that cause of toxic plume last month, which left 150 people seeking hospital treatment, may never be knownMPs have criticised a decision to wind down an investigation into the mysterious chemical haze that caused Sussex beaches to be evacuated and left dozens of people reporting sore eyes and breathing problems.People affected by the incident expressed alarm that they may never know the cause of the toxic plume that gave them sore throats for weeks after it drifted on to Birling Gap and other beaches on 27 August. Continue reading...

MEPs withdraw parliamentary access after the firm shunned a hearing into allegations that it unduly influenced studies into the safety of glyphosate used in its RoundUp weedkillerMonsanto lobbyists have been banned from entering the European parliament after the multinational refused to attend a parliamentary hearing into allegations of regulatory interference.It is the first time MEPs have used new rules to withdraw parliamentary access for firms that ignore a summons to attend parliamentary inquiries or hearings. Continue reading...

Greenland wildfires, deforestation and tropical storm Harvey are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthTropical storm Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico on 24 August. This geocolor image appears differently depending on whether it is day (right of the image) or night (left). Continue reading...

The latest example, Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Otto has a strong clean energy proposal

Environment secretary hopes for ‘decent conversation’ with council, but says he is also exploring ‘legal or policy avenues’Michael Gove has asked government officials to explore ways of stopping the “bonkers” felling of thousands of roadside trees in Sheffield.The environment secretary said the government would examine “legal or policy avenues” to end the scheme that has triggered months of protests by residents. Continue reading...

World faces disaster if those who contributed ‘lion’s share’ to global warming don’t aid low-income countries, IMF saysThe International Monetary Fund has told rich countries they must do more to help poor nations cope with climate change or suffer from the weaker global growth and higher migration flows that will inevitably result.In a chapter released ahead of the publication of next month’s World Economic Outlook, the Washington-based IMF said low-income countries had contributed little to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations and could not afford to tackle the problem from their own meagre resources. Continue reading...

Survey of 11 European countries reveals huge government subsidies to the transport sector and for fuels such as gasGovernments of 11 European nations are providing subsidies totalling more than £80bn a year to fossil fuel industries, green campaigners have claimed.Transport fuels account for the lion’s share of the support to fossil fuels. Many of the 11 countries surveyed encourage drivers to use diesel as it produces less carbon per mile than petrol, despite the fuel’s effects on air pollution which is particularly harmful to children. For many years, governments had incentives to prioritise the use of diesel, as it helped them meet internationally-set carbon reduction targets. Continue reading...

Clissold Park, London Folded in on itself, the grey heron is still, only slightly moving its head to watch the water for an eel or frogOld Spear-Face crouches in the rushes. The great grey heron has folded itself, all beak and eye, wing and leg, invisibly for such a large bird, into the watery edge of bulrushes in a park busy with people. Perhaps the people pretend not to notice the heron so the heron believes it really is invisible; they may steal a glance at each other from different realities in the same place but their gazes never meet.Old Spear-Face is still, only slightly moving its head to watch the water for an eel or frog, while the surface reflects the finest autumn afternoon, high clouds and rumours of change in the trees. The bird’s eye, with its golden ring, has a determined look, like that of self-conscious cyclists, sellers of socialist papers, wedding photographers, proprietors of food stalls. Its wings cloak its body in plumy tassels of grey, and the scaly stick of its one leg (or so it seems) is jammed into the mud of the New river. Continue reading...

The band and the composer have released the track, which is a reworking of Radiohead’s Bloom and will be the theme to the forthcoming nature seriesRadiohead and Hans Zimmer have released a clip of their collaboration (Ocean) Bloom, which will be the opening music for the forthcoming BBC series Blue Planet II.The track is an orchestral reworking of Bloom, Radiohead’s song from their 2011 album The King of Limbs, and will appear during the prequel to the BBC’s flagship nature documentary about life in the world’s oceans. Continue reading...

Family rivalry and Brazil’s Catholic church helped miners devastate an indigenous territory that was once a leader in the fight against deforestation. Climate Home reportsThe Paiter-Suruí are a tribe of roughly 1,400 people, uncontacted until 1969, who live in the Amazon forest on the border between the Brazilian states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso.In 2013, they became the first indigenous population in the world to sell carbon credits under the UN’s major anti-deforestation scheme. Then, last year, they discovered the earth beneath their forest was rich with diamonds, and all hell broke loose. Continue reading...

UK-based airline has linked up with US firm Wright Electric to build battery-powered aircraft for flights under two hoursEasyJet could be flying planes powered by batteries rather than petroleum to destinations including Paris and Amsterdam within a decade.The UK carrier has formed a partnership with US firm Wright Electric, which is developing a battery-propelled aircraft for flights under two hours. Continue reading...

Capital is given emergency warning as polluted air from the continent combines with toxic air at homeThe mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has triggered the capital’s emergency air quality alert as polluted air from the continent combines with toxic air in London to create dangerous levels of pollution.The alerts will see warnings displayed at bus stops, road signs and on the underground. Khan has also asked TV and radio stations across the capital to warn their viewers and listeners in news bulletins. Continue reading...

As usual, conservative media outlets distorted a climate science paper to advance the denialist agenda

Study of skull, as well as DNA analysis, confirms new species in genus of mosaic tailed rats or Uromys

Stamford, Lincolnshire A little ashy triangle in the grass, the red admiral looked oddly serene amid the gathering tempestAutumn arrives, as . storms suddenly acquire names. Over there, Hurricanes Irma, Jose, Maria. Over here, Storms Aileen, Brian, Caroline: a queue of peculiarly civilian namings – a quiz team of meteorological terror – due before Christmas, the news says.A drop in temperature, a greying of the light and a whine of wind through cracks sent me into the garden to dismantle the swaying paraphernalia of summer. As I reached the buffeting tent my children had been playing in, I saw a patch of colour in the grass. Continue reading...

Without action to tackle global warming, deadly summer temperatures of 40C in Europe could be normal by 2050The scorching temperatures across Europe’s Mediterranean nations this summer were made at least 10 times more likely by climate change, according to scientists.Furthermore, without action to tackle global warming, such summer heatwaves with temperatures soaring over 40C will become normal by 2050. Continue reading...

Annual general meeting told of plans for ageing power station, including reiteration of reasons it should be decommissionedAGL has proposed to replace its ageing Liddell power station with renewables, batteries, gas power, upgraded coal power and demand response. And the company again outlined a laundry list of problems with the federal government’s request for it to extend the plant’s life or sell it.At AGL’s annual general meeting on Wednesday its chief executive, Andy Vesey, outlined the “broad architecture” of a plan to replace the eight terawatt hours of energy produced by Liddell each year (a terawatt is 1,000 gigawatts), as well as the 1,000MW of standing capacity the plant maintains. Continue reading...

‘Clean growth’ report steps into scrapping of green deal void and reinstates all new homes be zero carbon by 2020Progress in making Britain’s homes more energy efficient has stalled, but the government could salvage billions in wastage by taking a few key steps, a new report with wide backing has found.Ministers are preparing a new “clean growth” plan after the scrapping of the green deal, which left the UK without a government policy on making homes more energy efficient and tackling fuel poverty. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Evidence showed that billions of litres was taken from the Barwon river but federal agency rejected it as flawedThe Murray-Darling Basin Authority knew about allegations of substantial water theft as early as July 2016 but took no serious action until an ABC investigation broadcast new claims a year later, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.Related: NSW accused of 'running scared' after postponing review of water regulations Continue reading...

Conservationist and 1,461 other scientists release statement describing Australia’s oceans as a ‘global asset’ that must be protectedGrowing global momentum to protect the world’s oceans from overfishing could be undermined by Australia, warns renowned conservationist David Suzuki and more than 1,461 other scientists.Australia is currently considering the world’s biggest downgrading of a protected area with a reduction in the size of its network of marine reserves. Continue reading...

The pub chain’s decision to do away with straws is expected to stop 70m of them ending up in landfill or the sea every year. Here are some other plastics we perhaps could do withoutDrinkers heading to Wetherspoon’s for a tipple will have to do without plastic straws from the end of this year as the cheap (and occasionally cheerful) high-street pub chain does its bit to tackle the problem of global plastic pollution.Following on the heels of companies such as Tesco, which last month announced it would stop selling its 5p single-use plastic bags, Wetherspoon’s senses the tide is turning against unnecessary plastics and claims that the move will stop 70m plastic straws finding their way into landfill or the world’s oceans every year. Continue reading...

Campaigners welcome U-turn on Renca reserve but threat still exists as Brazil president has close ties to mining industryAmazon conservation groups have hailed a victory as the Brazilian government announced a U-turn on plans to open up swaths of the the world’s biggest forest to mining corporations.President Michel Temer had sparked outrage in August when he announced a decree to abolish the Renca reserve, an area of 17,800 square miles – roughly the size of Switzerland – that is an important carbon sink and home to some of the world’s richest biodiversity. Continue reading...

Corbyn ally says unions are failing to speak up for renewable energy because they do not have members in that sectorAn ally of Jeremy Corbyn has claimed trade unions that are involved in the nuclear industry have become “a voice for big business” because they have been weakened in other sectors.

For a while it looked as if a plan to turn fruit waste into electricity might bring light for a giant Nigerian market – but then, like so many other power plans, nothing happened. When will renewables really come on line?Two kids run across the road shouting, “Thief! Thief!” as a big rat races away into a nearby hole for refuge. It has rained and the drains are clogged with waste: the water pools on the road and fills the potholes along the thoroughfare leading to Lagos’s famous Ikosi fruit market.One of the largest of its kind in the city, the market is a popular spot for trading vegetables and fruit like pineapples, bananas and plantains. But here, like most parts of Nigeria, there is rarely a steady power supply – according to the World Bank, 75 million people in a country of 186 million don’t have access to electricity. Continue reading...

It’s not just animals, many seed crops are also endangered. So why is agrobiodiversity so overlooked? This valuable source of affordable, nutritious food could disappear if we don’t act• Read more: Sixth mass extinction of wildlife also threatens global food suppliesA “sixth mass extinction” is already under way, scientists are now warning us. Species such as the Bengal tiger and blue whale are vanishing at an alarming rate, and mournful eulogies are being written on how those born in 20 years’ time may never see an African elephant. But who is writing the eulogy for our food? Huge proportions of the plant and animal species that form the foundation of our food supply – known as agrobiodiversity ­– are just as endangered and are getting almost no attention.

Sandy, Bedfordshire Once full of lambs, today the field is a thigh-high forest of vegetation and saplings rise above the jungleDown by the river is a place that five springs ago was a field full of lambs. I had spent a couple of years there acting as “lookerer” (or volunteer shepherd) for a flock of Southdown sheep, and on one blossom-filled morning of cuckoo flowers and lesser celandines, I helped the shepherd with a difficult birth.Related: Country diary: Sandy, Bedfordshire: The best midwife in his field – a shepherd gets to grips with lambing Continue reading...

NSW and Victoria argue fracking policies cannot be easily changed after PM says they are putting energy security at riskState governments have rejected Malcolm Turnbull’s request to lift restrictions on new gas production, arguing their fracking policies cannot be so easily changed.Turnbull has written to the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and the Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, asking them to lift their “blanket moratoriums” on new gas production and saying they are putting Australia’s ­energy security and industries at risk. Continue reading...

Carbon emissions pushed to lowest level yet as first subsidy-free large solar power project opens in the UKThe UK has set a new landmark for clean energy after the National Grid announced that the electricity powering the UK’s homes and businesses this summer was the greenest ever.The record comes as the first subsidy-free large solar power project opens in the UK, in what the government described as a significant moment for the energy sector. Continue reading...

We should use our collective purchasing power to send a clear message to businesses threatening communities across the globe, says Ruth ChambersJohn Vidal shines a light on communities across Africa, Latin America and Asia fighting to protect their land, water and livelihoods (Land defenders call on UN to act against violence by state-funded and corporate groups, theguardian.com, 21 September). The efforts of these land rights defenders benefit us all. The forests and land they fight to protect provide globally important carbon stores, havens for wildlife, life-saving medicines and clean water for millions. But these lands are often sacrificed to grow crops or mine metals that end up in our everyday lives. As consumers, we should use our collective purchasing power to send a clear message to businesses that these lands – and their people – matter, and they should be protected.

A Highway Code prompt aimed solely at cyclists – not to the road users that caused more than 99% of deaths on UK roads last year – has nothing to do with improving safetyOn Friday, transport minister Jesse Norman wrote to cycling leaders asking them to remind their members to follow the Highway Code. The letter came less than 48 hours after the announcement of a review on whether the law should be changed to tackle dangerous cycling. Continue reading...

Right-wing media outlets like Breitbart, Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh echoed the Mail’s “significantly misleading” and now censured climate story

Committee on Climate Change says policies needed to reach 2050 goal of 90% reduction are too weak and ill thought outClimate experts have warned the Scottish government its ambitious plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions lack credibility and risk stalling unless its strategies improve dramatically.The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said the devolved government had so far led the UK in its efforts to cut emissions, reducing its actual CO2 emissions by 38% by 2015 compared with 35% at UK level. Scotland is now on the brink of meeting its 2020 target to cut emissions by 42% several years early. Continue reading...

A record 60,000 people took part in the Big Butterfly Count but each participant saw on average only 11 butterflies, the lowest since the count began in 2010Summer’s washout failed to dampen the prospects for the red admiral, one of the UK’s most popular butterflies, whose numbers rose by 75% compared with last year, according to the annual Big Butterfly Count.Other butterfly species were less fortunate, however, with declines seen across the three common species of white butterflies. The green-veined white and both the large white and small white were down more than a third on last year, reflecting difficult weather conditions. Continue reading...

Allendale, Northumberland I count 50 butterflies working the double row of sedums spilling their sticky scent onto the early morning airThere’s an urgency to the swallows’ flight as they hurtle low over the field, snatching flies that the restless cattle have disturbed. With a late brood just fledged from the barn, they have a keen need for food. There’s also a sense of limited time in the frenzy of bees and butterflies rummaging through late flowers within the walled enclosure of the garden. This little domain within the valley provides them with an end-of-season smörgåsbord. Most of the plants I grow are for both day- and night-flying insects, chosen for their pollen and nectar or as food plants for caterpillars.The sun has only been up for half an hour. A butterfly is pressed against the house wall to absorb warmth after the night. A red admiral with pristine wings. I inch up slowly so I can study its striped antennae, its black-haired body, its legs braced against the stone. It is one of many, drawn by the mass of sedums that are spilling their sticky scent onto the early morning air. I count 50 butterflies slowly working the double row planted either side of the path. As the day heats up they will become a restless throng, jostling with the numerous bumblebees, flies and honeybees among the deep pink flowers. Continue reading...

Port Macquarie-Hastings council bows to community concerns and begins removing a whale it buried at Nobbys beachA large excavator has started digging up an 18-tonne humpback whale that was buried at a mid-northern New South Wales beach a week ago.The 12-metre whale died after being beached and its carcass was buried at Port Macquarie’s Nobbys beach because it was too big to be moved. Continue reading...