Environment | The Guardian

The size of storm Harvey is unusual – but rapid expansion, poor infrastructure and a distinctive topography have played a role in the devastating impact

Theories include toxins from algal blooms and accidental discharge from a water plant though true cause still unclearThe chemical cloud that left beachgoers on the East Sussex coastline with stinging eyes, sore throats and even vomiting on Sunday remains a mystery, with officials saying it is unclear what caused the haze or what it was composed of.Experts have put forward a number of possibilities, ranging from accidental discharges of chemicals at water treatment plants to toxins from algal blooms. Continue reading...

The small Louisiana town of Cameron could be the first in the US to be fully submerged by rising sea levels – and yet locals, 90% of whom voted for Trump, still aren’t convinced about climate change

Producing, selling and using plastic bags becomes illegal as officials say they want to target manufacturers and sellers first

Authorities say mysterious haze that left 150 people requiring medical treatment is unlikely to have come from FranceThe Green party has called for an urgent investigation into the chemical cloud that closed beaches across East Sussex on Sunday.Caroline Lucas, the party’s co-leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion, said an inquiry was needed to determine “how this gas came to be in our atmosphere and engulfing our beaches, and an action plan put in place to ensure this never happens again”. Continue reading...

We can’t say that Hurricane Harvey was caused by climate change. But it was certainly worsened by it

A new study finds that a lecture from evangelical climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe successfully educates evangelical college students, validating the “trusted sources” approach

An exhibition of cycling helmets designed by artists will be on show at London bike shop and cafe Look Mum No Hands! from 1 September. Helmets will be auctioned online to raise money for the brain injury charity Headway Continue reading...

University of Adelaide modelling finds koala numbers on island have more than tripled over past five years

Department for Transport offers £22m to projects developing waste-based fuels for vehicles too heavy to use electric powerAirline passengers could fly to their destinations on jets fuelled by industrial waste or the contents of people’s dustbins if a government scheme succeeds in creating a new green energy source.The Department for Transport (DfT) is offering £22m of funding for projects to develop low-carbon, waste-based fuels for planes and lorries. About 70 groups want to bid for funding.

PM says he will put more pressure on electricity retailers to reduce prices as Bill Shorten says scheme will ‘take years’Malcolm Turnbull has announced a further $8m in federal funds for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro energy storage scheme and promised to put further pressure on electricity retailers to reduce prices.At a press conference in Cooma on Monday, Turnbull revealed the Australian Renewable Energy Agency would contribute the funding towards the scheme’s $29m feasibility study, to be completed by the end of the year. Continue reading...

Wothorpe-on-the-Hill, Cambridgeshire The air is awash with noise, a roar that wavers only slightly, and never below uncomfortableThe road climbs and thins with each turn. Where it reaches a little fist of cottages it doesn’t stop but instead, strangely, has its way blocked from waist height up by low branches. A dead road, leading to the old reservoir. I walk a footpath bordered by stone walls, then over a stile and here it is, a sweep of miniature country. A rumpled slope, trees fat with summer, a little pond catching the sky. August dew sits on everything, and early sun lights every drop to a shimmer. I see rabbits, molehills, every bush twitching with life.I live less than a mile from here and would come to this meadow more, but for one thing. The air is awash with it, a roar that wavers only slightly, and never below uncomfortable. It’s rush hour now, so maybe this is as bad as it gets. But it never goes away. Continue reading...

Fourth-largest city in the US could see 50in of rain as rescue workers struggle to keep up with calls for help and flood defences are tested to the limit

Award named after campaigner is backed by UTS and Guardian Australia and worth $3,000 to winner and $1,000 to runners-upA new essay prize has been set up in the name of Dr Gill Owen, the energy efficiency expert and social equity campaigner who died last year.Supported by the Guardian Australia and University of Technology Sydney’s Institute of Sustainable Futures, the essay prize will address the future of energy efficiency and social justice. The winning essay will receive $3,000, while two runner up essays will each be awarded $1,000. Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 31 August 1917When the heavy showers had passed, the sun burst out from behind drifting clouds, and studded the dripping hedges with diamonds. For ten yards or more privet, in full flower broke the monotony of thorn and bramble, and here fifteen or twenty red admiral butterflies fanned their gorgeous wings as they sipped the sweets. The air was heavy with the scent of privet. Golden–rod, a blaze beneath the hedge, attracted other red admirals, and amongst them were small tortoiseshells and a few peacocks. True to its name, the wall butterfly was more plentiful where rugged stone walls replaced the hedgerows, but it abounded alike in all the lanes and on the rocky outcrops, covered with ragwort, scabious, and eyebright, which are so noticeable a feature of North Wales.Privet, by the way, is troubling one of my correspondents. He finds his hedge attacked by small white grubs, which shelter in the curled and shrivelled leaves. I do not find my privets badly damaged, though a few shoots have been attacked. It is the caterpillar of one of the small leaf-mining moths, for the grubs in their earlier stages, at any rate, feed within the two layers of leaf-skin. I can only advise that he cuts off the damaged shoots and burns them so as to diminish the numbers of the moths. Continue reading...

Renewable Energy Index shows sector will generate power to run 90% of homes once wind and solar projects being built in 2016-17 are completedAustralia’s renewable energy sector is within striking distance of matching national household power consumption, cranking out enough electricity to run 70% of homes last financial year, new figures show.The first Australian Renewable Energy Index, produced by Green Energy Markets, finds the sector will generate enough power to run 90% of homes once wind and solar projects under construction in 2016-17 are completed. Continue reading...

The highest mountain in the British Isles is currently without snow – and researchers believe permanent white mountain tops could soon be a thing of the pastAin’t no mountain dry enough? Ben Nevis may well have grown by a metre last year but now it is also nude from basecamp up for the first time in 11 years.You would expect snow under foot atop the summit’s stone cairn at the lofty height of 1,345m, not a blunt, barren crown. So what on earth happened to the formerly covered peak? Continue reading...

An ambitious tree-planting campaign aims to counteract the CO2 released by Donald Trump’s climate policiesA campaign to plant enough trees to offset Donald Trump’s climate policies is under way. Organisers hope to plant 10bn trees by 24 December 2017, with the last one being a Christmas tree planted in front of the White House.

The zero-waste revolution has been postponed, except on Instagram. But there are some constructive steps to be takenI’ve been hearing about a “zero waste” world for half my life. What would it look like? It would be rubbish-free for starters, no more single-use plastic being shovelled into landfill. Shelves would be full of intelligent products designed to have a second useful life. Materials that couldn’t be reused would gently turn into compost, nourishing the earth as they broke down.The high priestess of waste-free living is Californian Bea Johnson, whose home produces remarkably little waste Continue reading...

Controversial three-day South African sale condemned by conservationists, but seller says it was ‘successful’South Africa’s first online auction of rhinoceros horn – held amid outrage from conservationists – attracted fewer buyers than anticipated, lawyers for the organiser said on Saturday.John Hume, owner of the world’s largest rhinoceros farm, organised the controversial three-day selloff which ended on Friday. Continue reading...

Norway wants urban gardeners to cultivate wildflowers and keep hives to reverse a decline in biodiversityOn a sloping meadow near the centre of Oslo, red-tailed bumblebees gather pollen from hairy violets, spiders spin webs between maiden’s tears while hoverflies buzz between yellow daisies and white yarrow.Such a bucolic scene might normally be associated more with a rural past than an urban future, but it is part of a thoroughly modern attempt to reverse the decline of bee populations and put biodiversity at the heart of city planning in Norway’s capital. Continue reading...

Native Americans and environmental advocates get help from outdoor retailers as they battle proposal to change monuments’ boundariesEnvironmental activists, Native American groups and a coalition of outdoor retailers have vowed to redouble their efforts to protect public lands, after the US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, recommended on Thursday that Donald Trump change the boundaries of a “handful” of national monuments.Related: US public lands: Trump official recommends shrinking national monuments Continue reading...

Ryall, Dorset The wax cells are studded with pollen gems in carnelian, citrine, garnet – an almanac of the seasonsThe bees think it’s autumn. Since mid-July they have been reducing their numbers and sealing up the hives with propolis. Dark brown, sticky when fresh, brittle as cinder toffee when dry, propolis is a glue bees make from tree sap. It’s antimicrobial and despite its bitter taste some beekeepers chew it as a remedy for a sore throat.Bees use propolis to fill small gaps in the hive and to mummify any invaders that are too big for them to carry outside. Occasionally, you find a dead mouse inside a hive its body shrouded in propolis, pieces of varnished bone showing through as if fossilised. The ancient Egyptians revered bees and it is thought they might have learned the principle of mummification from them. Continue reading...

An Institute of Public Affairs-sponsored journal article has been seized on by conservative media outlets. But there are a few problemsPeople who work for climate science denial thinktanks tend not to spend all that much time worrying about getting stuff into scientific journals.Perhaps because it’s easier, people who are paid to tell the public and policy makers that human-caused climate change is overblown bunk would rather pump out newspaper columns, do softball interviews or push out their own self-published reports. There’s a lot less scrutiny in that kind of public relations. Continue reading...

Each year the keepers at the zoo record the animals’ vital statistics to monitor their health and general wellbeing Continue reading...

Police call for cull shooters to be given same hi-tech system they use – but activists buy counter-devices to disrupt shootingHundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ pounds have been spent on equipping badger cull marksmen with radios that link them directly to police, the Guardian has learned.Police have advised the government to invest in the same communications system they use to make it easier for officers to get to conflicts with cull saboteurs in remote areas where the mobile phone signal is poor. Continue reading...

Amazon leaders accuse government of blocking consultation on 30-year contract with Canadian oil firm and have given ministers 20 days to apply lawIndigenous leaders from the area around Peru’s largest oil field have threatened to block the government from accessing their territories and halt oil production unless an indigenous rights law is applied within 20 days.The tribal leaders, who hail from four Amazon river basins, accuse the government of refusing to carry out a consultation process even though it is negotiating a new 30-year contract for oil block 192 with Frontera Energy, a Canadian firm, whose current contract expires in early 2019. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Risk assessment table indicates Glencore may have little or no involvement after McArthur River Mine’s life ends

A shag in the Farne Islands, coral reefs in recovery in Belize, and a fox near Chernobyl are among this week’s images from the natural world Continue reading...

Paula Kahumbu: The sale of rhino horn in South Africa won’t help save rhinos, but it will benefit organised crime

Initiative to convert CO2 into solid carbonates aims to produce building materials on commercial scale by 2020An Australian pilot project capturing carbon emissions and storing them in building materials aims to have a full-scale production plant by 2020.Mineral Carbonation International, an Australian company developing carbon-utilisation technology will officially launch its technology and research program at the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources on Friday. Continue reading...

Government allocates £8.1m to trials of ‘platooning’ which proponents say could cut congestion and hauliers’ fuel costsThe government has given the go-ahead for the first trials of convoys of semi-automated trucks on UK motorways.Up to three wirelessly connected HGVs will travel in convoy, with acceleration, braking and steering controlled by the lead vehicle, a concept named platooning. Each lorry will have a driver in the cab ready to retake control at any time. Continue reading...

Grade II*-listed Garden Wisley could lose 10,000 sq metres of woodland if proposals are approved, warns horticultural charityRelated: Everything in the garden is political – even at Hampton Court Palace | Patrick BarkhamOne of the country’s most important horticultural gardens is under threat from a road-widening scheme, the Royal Horticultural Society has said. Continue reading...

As interior secretary recommends boundary changes to Donald Trump, three national monuments are reportedly at risk of being reduced in sizeIn April, Donald Trump ordered a sweeping review of 27 national monuments, from Maine to Oregon. The monuments were set aside over the last three decades by Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Barack Obama. Trump’s review sought to explore whether the protected land should be opened up to create economic opportunities for industries such as oil, gas, mining and timber.Related: US public lands: Trump official recommends shrinking national monuments Continue reading...

The reasoning the president gave for the review, which could affect 27 national monuments, are demonstrably untrue

Special report: India and China are shifting away from coal imports and coal-fired power while a mega-mine is planned for Queensland. Where does this leave coal in Australia?

Broadcaster says he is more optimistic about the future of the planet after a global shift in attitudes to the natural worldSir David Attenborough has said he is more encouraged about the future health of Earth than he has been for some time after a “worldwide shift” in attitudes about concern for the natural world and the damage that humans are doing to the planet.The veteran wildlife broadcaster said there are “signs of hope” for the health of the planet and called the Paris climate change agreement a “big advance” in an interview at the Edinburgh TV festival despite President Donald Trump’s disengagement. Continue reading...

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Brazilian president has dissolved Renca to attract investment in region thought to contain gold, with critics warning of irreversible damageThe Brazilian president Michel Temer has abolished an Amazonian reserve the size of Denmark, prompting concerns of an influx of mineral companies, road-builders and workers into the species-rich forest.The dissolution of the Renca reserve – which spans 46,000 sq km on the border of the Amapa and Para states – was described by one opposition senator Randolfe Rodrigues of the Sustainability Network party, as the “biggest attack on the Amazon of the last 50 years”.

Interior secretary Ryan Zinke says his recommendations include boundary adjustments for some locations among 27 national monumentsConservation safeguards on a “handful” of national monuments across the US could be rolled back following the delivery on Thursday of the White House’s long-awaited review of such public lands, interior secretary Ryan Zinke said.Related: The Trump administration's national monuments 'review' is a sham | Brian Calvert Continue reading...

Climate change has thawed Arctic enough for $300m gas tanker to travel at record speed through northern sea routeA Russian tanker has travelled through the northern sea route in record speed and without an icebreaker escort for the first time, highlighting how climate change is opening up the high Arctic.The $300m Christophe de Margerie carried a cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Hammerfest in Norway to Boryeong in South Korea in 19 days, about 30% quicker than the conventional southern shipping route through the Suez Canal. Continue reading...

Owner of Maurice, who lives on the Île d’Oléron, has tried putting egg boxes in the coop but neighbours maintain morning racket is a health riskMaurice the French cockerel fancies himself as a bit of a crooner. Not quite like his famous namesake Maurice Chevalier, the late French balladeer; but still, each dawn, Maurice does what nature intended cockerels do: he crows.His owner, Corinne Fesseau, who describes herself as a local singer on the Île d’Oléron, an island off France’s Atlantic coast, is used to Maurice’s early wake-up call. Continue reading...

Wildfires in the US and Africa, tropical storms, and Bolivian salt flats are among the images captured by Nasa and the ESA last monthPakistan’s Makran coast meets the Arabian Sea where the dry terrain contrasts sharply with the water. Sometimes coast and water overlap and sediment pours into the sea. Once river water and sediment reach the ocean they are swept along by currents. Inland, the landscape is rugged. Narrow valleys provide pastures for sheep amid the desert. Continue reading...

In the USA, the southeastern states are most vulnerable to the costly impacts from human-caused climate change

Environmental groups have lambasted penalty issued by Queensland government as a slap on the wristAdani has chosen to fight a $12,900 fine by the Queensland government for the unauthorised release of coal-laden stormwater into the sea at its Abbot Point port during a cyclone in March.The Indian energy giant has given notice to the state environment department that it intends to contest the modest penalty infringement notice in court, the Guardian can reveal. Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire Nectar shoppers flutter out of nowhere, a mass of moths, midges and mosquitoes chopping across the torchlit pathUnder a moonless, starless, benighted sky, head torches were switched on and we struck out across the riverside meadow. We had walked for several sure-footed minutes along a closely grazed towpath where white yarrow rosettes glowed like solar garden lights. The only hazards on that firm ground had been the nearly invisible giant plates that I stepped on and found to have hard crusts and soft hearts.Related: Country diary: Sandy, Bedfordshire: The river is my guiding light Continue reading...

State department’s Daniel Kammen quits with note calling out Charlottesville and Paris accord – and a hidden message in the first letters of each paragraphOne of the US state department’s three science envoys resigned on Wednesday, the latest in a wave of defections over Donald Trump’s response to a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.Daniel Kammen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a letter posted on his Twitter account that Trump had failed to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis, part of “a broader pattern of behavior that enables sexism and racism, and disregards the welfare of all Americans, the global community and the planet”. Continue reading...

Special report: The pace of coal plants shutting down in Australia could mean the country’s fleet could be gone before 2040. The transformation is enormous – and seems inevitable• Support our independent journalism and critical reporting on energy and the environment by giving a one-off or monthly contributionFor a glimpse into the future of coal power in Australia, go west. The country’s last major investment in coal-fired electricity was in Western Australia in 2009, when Colin Barnett’s state government announced a major refurbishment of the Muja AB station about 200km south of Perth, far from the gaze of the east coast political-media class.The plant was 43 years old and mothballed. Reviving it was meant to cost $150m, paid for by private investors who would reap the benefits for years to come. But costs and timeframes blew out. An old corroded boiler exploded. The joint venture financing the project collapsed; a wall followed suit. The bill ultimately pushed beyond $300m, much of it to be stumped up by taxpayers – and once completed, the plant was beset with operational problems. It ran only 20% of the time. Continue reading...

Bicycles offer endless opportunities for modification, both practical and decorative. We’d like you to share your bicycle projects with usFrom converting a multi-speed hub into a fixed gear, adding downtube shift levers or simply a comfy seat, a bicycle offers endless opportunities for the DIY enthusiast. We’d like you to share your bicycle modifications with us.Whether it’s to help those with mobility problems, to transport your children or just to look like the coolest rider on the street, there are any number of ways to make your bike even better. Continue reading...