Environment | The Guardian

Peruvian lawsuit in London claims Xstrata should be liable for alleged police violence against demonstrators near Tintaya mineA UK-registered mining company, which is now part of Glencore, is facing claims in a London court that it hired security forces to mistreat environmental activists protesting about a copper mine in Peru.Two demonstrators died and others were left with serious injuries following the confrontations which lasted for several days during May 2012 on a remote hillside in the Andes, the court has been told. Continue reading...

Caritas says thousands face threats to their wellbeing, livelihoods and ‘their very existence’ due to rising sea levelsPacific Islanders whose homes face eradication by rising sea levels have called on Australia to not fund the Adani Carmichael coalmine, as a new report reveals the worsening impact of climate change across Oceania.Residents of the endangered islands have described their forced displacement as like “having your heart ripped out of your chest” as they called on the Australian government to do more to combat climate change. Continue reading...

Algal blooms, hurricanes and volcano fields are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthA potentially harmful algal bloom covered more than 700 square miles in the western basin of Lake Erie in late September, turning the lake bright green and alarming residents and local officials. Blooms tend to thrive in Lake Erie during summer, sustained by warm water temperatures and nutrients from farm runoff. This year, the bloom had been ongoing since mid-July. Continue reading...

Green MP Caroline Lucas criticises attempts by chemicals multinational Ineos to impose a sweeping injunction against anti-fracking campaignersThe chemicals multinational Ineos is facing criticism for seeking to curb democratic protests against fracking in a move described by Green MP Caroline Lucas as “extremely worrying”.On Tuesday Ineos began its latest legal move to impose a sweeping injunction against all campaigners protesting over its fracking operations. Continue reading...

Calvin Payne may get two-year term after being found guilty of twice entering ‘safety zones’ around trees the council plans to fellA campaigner could face up to two years in jail after being found guilty of breaching a court order while trying to stop trees being felled in Sheffield. Calvin Payne was found to have twice stepped inside so-called safety zones erected around trees due to be felled, in breach of an injunction brought by Sheffield city council.Related: I’m defying the council I serve on to stop it felling trees | Alison Teal Continue reading...

A new documentary, Rodents of Unusual Size, follows the hunters waging war against an invasive species that ‘put New York City sewer rats to shame’There are no medals to be earned for the hunters who are fighting the swamp rat takeover of southern Louisiana. Instead, their reward after waging a successful battle against the 20lb, orange-toothed critters is $5 for each severed 12-18in tail they collect.Louisiana’s government collects the tails as proof of a kill and gives a cash payout to incentivize citizens to help the state’s efforts to rein in the swamp rats, known as nutria, whose grazing has accelerated coastal erosion of land already vulnerable to hurricanes. Continue reading...

Report reveals large gap between government pledges and the reductions needed to prevent dangerous global warmingThere is still a large gap between the pledges by governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the reductions scientists say are needed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, the UN has said.Current plans from national governments, and pledges made by private sector companies and local authorities across the world, would lead to temperature rises of as much as 3C or more by the end of this century, far outstripping the goal set under the 2015 Paris agreement to hold warming to 2C or less, which scientists say is the limit of safety. Continue reading...

Project announced after British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta chairs his first Zen Energy board meeting in AdelaideThe clean energy company Zen Energy has approved a $700m solar, battery and pumped hydro project at the South Australian town of Whyalla to power the OneSteel steelworks at Whyalla.The project was announced on Monday after the British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, who bought the Arrium steelworks from receivers on 31 August, chaired his first Zen Energy board meeting in Adelaide. Continue reading...

Río Almonte, Extremadura, Spain Camel-haired legs, gleaming black eyes and the largest pair of spider jaws you’ve seen in your life – a tarantulaThere were all sorts of exciting birds overhead, including vultures in elegant spirals and clusters of crag martins spooked up by a hunting sparrowhawk. Yet the group’s attention had been called to an insignificant hole in the bare ground by the picnic table.The hole was 4cm across and had an untidy circlet of dead grasses arranged in a silk-knotted perimeter. By sheer chance I had just read about the occupant and how it could be lured into view with a grass stem drooped into the burrow entrance like a fishing line. Sure enough, within seconds, book learning was turned into startling experience. Continue reading...

Heatwaves, pollution and disease are the main health issues linked to global warming but action to halt emissions would deliver huge benefitsThe health of hundreds of millions of people around the world is already being damaged by climate change, a major report has revealed.

Surfing dolphins and walrus cubs help follow-up to hit 2001 series attract up to 10.6 million viewers on Sunday eveningThe opening episode of Blue Planet II, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, drew on average more than half a million viewers than Strictly Coming Dancing on Sunday evening.

Rosamund Young, farmer and author of The Secret Life of Cows, says she is really a ‘ghostwriter’ for her herd, with a mission to explain how they play games, babysit and even judge us. But that doesn’t mean she’s a vegetarian …

Global carbon pollution appears to be close to peaking

Carmichael mine opponents disrupt campaign as LNP leader Tim Nicholls fends off questions about One NationThe Adani controversy has dogged Annastacia Palaszczuk at the outset of her state election campaign, with the premier forced to contend with disruptions from mine opponents within hours of hitting the trail in regional Queensland.An anti-Adani protester crashed a live TV interview Palaszczuk was giving from Airlie Beach in north Queensland on Monday morning, and a Labor staffer tackled the man as he brandished a sign. Continue reading...

Scientists optimistic of creating early-warning system after identifying two-year gap between clearance of forests inhabited by fruit bats and emergence of virusScientists studying links between the Ebola virus and deforestation have made a breakthrough that could lead to the development of an early warning system for outbreaks.Existing research into how the disease could be spread from animals to humans found Ebola hotspots matched deforestation patterns in west Africa. Continue reading...

Menstrual pads are hard to talk about, and also an eco disaster on our beaches – but we need to change our waysThis column nearly didn’t happen. When a manufacturer of eco friendly menstrual pads bounded up to me and asked me brightly in public: “Are you a flusher or a binner?” I stared at her in total horror. Menstrual products and their disposal represent one of the last great consumer taboos – odd in a society which cheerfully discusses the vajazzle. It’s a taboo that powers a huge environmental issue. In their 2016 beach clean-up, the Marine Conservation Society found 20 tampons and sanitary items per 100 metres of shoreline.Why not embrace the rise of the reusables? Continue reading...

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.