Environment | The Guardian

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

The Labor opposition, conservationists and Indigenous groups have expressed shock at the move

Biotech giant's alleged comments come as world leaders at Cop16 discuss how to share benefits from genetic code discoveries fairlyAstraZeneca has said it may cut jobs at its UK operation if the government enforces a global push to make companies share profits derived from nature's genetic codes, multiple sources have told the Guardian.The alleged comments from the company came amid a concerted lobbying push by the pharmaceutical industry against the profit-sharing measures. Continue reading...

Advocates vow to sue, saying plan, crucial to Biden's clean energy agenda, will drive Tiehm's buckwheat to extinctionFor the first time under Joe Biden, a federal permit for a new lithium mine has been approved for a Nevada project essential to his clean energy agenda, despite conservationists' vows to sue over the plan, which they say will drive an endangered wildflower to extinction.Ioneer Ltd's mine will help expedite production of a key mineral in the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles at the center of the president's push to cut greenhouse gas emissions, administration officials said Thursday in Reno. Continue reading...

Agriculture board approves regulations, including ban on moving infested soil between islands, to thwart pestsHawaii is doubling down in its fight against invasive coconut rhinoceros beetles, with state authorities greenlighting rules to prevent the damaging insects from spreading across the Pacific archipelago.The Hawaii agriculture board on Tuesday approved regulations, including a ban on moving infested soil and compost between islands and an increase of insect inspections, to thwart an influx in pests, according to Honolulu Civil Beat. Continue reading...

Leaders are eager to fill us with positivity, but research shows people in distress are more likely to take collective actionIf despair is the most unforgivable sin, then hope is surely the most abused virtue. That observation feels particularly apposite as we enter the Cop season, that time of United Nations megaconferences at the end of every year, when national leaders feel obliged to convince us the future will be better, despite growing evidence to the contrary.Climate instability and nature extinction are making the Earth an uglier, riskier and more uncertain place, desiccating water supplies, driving up the price of food, displacing humans and non-humans, battering cities and ecosystems with ever fiercer storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and forest fires. Still worse could be in store as we approach or pass a series of dangerous tipping points for Amazon rainforest dieback, ocean circulation breakdown, ice-cap collapse and other unimaginably horrible, but ever more possible, catastrophes. Continue reading...

Citizen power forced Germany's greenest city-state into a binding agreement balancing housing and natureWhen Fritz Schumacher laid out his vision for Hamburg a century ago, the sketch looked more like a fern than a town plan. Fronds of urban development radiated from the centre to tickle the countryside, bristling with dense rows of housing. The white spaces in between were to be filled with parks and playgrounds.Schumacher was Hamburg's chief building officer in the early 20th century, and a pioneer of green cities with widespread access to nature. Building sites emerge even if you don't invest in them," he warned in 1932. Public spaces disappear if you don't invest in them." Continue reading...

Expert reminds owners freeze it, don't squeeze it' when it comes to the parasites, ideally with a freezing spray from a chemist

More than 30m homes are thought to contain lead paint, including nearly 4m where children under age of six liveTwo weeks after setting a nationwide deadline for removal of lead pipes, the Biden administration is imposing strict new limits on dust from lead-based paint in older homes and childcare facilities.A final rule announced on Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on lead dust on floors and window sills in pre-1978 residences and childcare facilities to levels so low they cannot be detected. Continue reading...

Pace of growth helps maintain renewable energy when weather conditions interfere with wind and solarFaced with worsening climate-driven disasters and an electricity grid increasingly supplied by intermittent renewables, the US is rapidly installing huge batteries that are already starting to help prevent power blackouts.From barely anything just a few years ago, the US is now adding utility-scale batteries at a dizzying pace, having installed more than 20 gigawatts of battery capacity to the electric grid, with 5GW of this occurring just in the first seven months of this year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). Continue reading...

Move is designed to combat environmental damage from single-use vapes and their widespread use by childrenDisposable vapes will be banned from sale in England next summer, the government has confirmed.From June 2025 it will be illegal to sell single-use vapes, in a move designed to combat environmental damage and their widespread use by children. Continue reading...

Government agencies and departmental officials spend full day scrutinising Peter Dutton's controversial plan to build seven nuclear power plants

Just designating key areas will not meet 30x30 target on nature loss, study says, pointing to oil drilling in parksBiodiversity is declining more quickly within key protected areas than outside them, according to research that scientists say is a wake-up call" to global leaders discussing how to stop nature loss at the UN's Cop16 talks in Colombia.Protecting 30% of land and water for nature by 2030 was one of the key targets settled on by world leaders in a landmark 2022 agreement to save nature - and this month leaders are gathering again at a summit in the Colombian city of Cali to measure progress and negotiate new agreements to stop biodiversity loss. Continue reading...

Plant enthusiast Darren Williams made the discovery in Marys Creek State Forest just west of Gympie in Queensland. The male platypus was freshly killed, probably after what would have been a fierce struggle with the ambush predator. Williams and his companion Elliot Bowerman photographed the roughly 2-metre long carpet python with its jaw firmly clasped around the platypus before quickly moving on. 'We didn't want to disturb the snake,' Bowerman said

Grizzly No 399 was at least 28 years old and beloved by many in Grand Teton national parkA famous grizzly bear beloved for decades by countless tourists, biologists and professional wildlife photographers in Grand Teton national park is dead after being struck by a vehicle in western Wyoming.Grizzly No 399 died on Tuesday night on a highway in Snake River Canyon south of Jackson, park officials said in a statement on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Rachel Reeves urged to shelve fuel duty plans and overhaul taxes amid expected switch to electric vehiclesA pay-per-mile road pricing system must be brought in now, according to Tony Blair's thinktank, which is urging the chancellor to overhaul motoring taxes.Rachel Reeves is widely expected to confirm the end of a temporary 5p cut in fuel duty, and possibly announce an inflationary rise in the tax paid on petrol and diesel at the pumps, in her budget next Wednesday. Continue reading...

RHS says ensuring access to green space as part of housebuilding push could make Britons healthierRequirements for gardens and the planting of trees must be included in Labour's planned new rules for housebuilders, green groups have said.The government is drawing up its future homes standard for new developments and it is not yet clear what requirements there will be for green space. Continue reading...

US firm Wolfspeed and German car parts supplier ZF postpone plans over doubts about viabilityA project to build a 3bn factory making microchips for electric vehicles once hailed as part of a return of the industrial revolution" in Germany has been put on hold, as the crisis in the country's hi-tech manufacturing industry deepens.The US company Wolfspeed and the German car parts supplier ZF have postponed plans to build an EV chip factory, adding to problems caused by a delay to two large-scale factories belonging to the US chip giant Intel and possible factory closures being considered by Volkswagen. Continue reading...

With no power, no water and soon-to-spoil food, Asheville residents fired up their grills and emptied their freezers for communal mealsErin Kellem's Asheville, North Carolina neighborhood is a short drive from the city center, but feels remote. The Haw Creek area's culs-de-sac are fronted by spacious yards and surrounded by thick woods that give the illusion of isolation.Hurricane Helene changed that, dropping an ocean of rain on the southern Appalachian mountains. Floods of biblical proportions killed dozens. Power outages left thousands without electricity for at least two weeks in most places. There was no gas or cellphone service for days following the storm, and most of the city is still without potable water. Roads disappeared under rushing water and mud. The help that was on its way had no way in, and those stranded in their homes had no way of checking on loved ones. Continue reading...

US readers are responding to the reality of the climate crisis by adapting their homes, from insulation as a refuge from heat to removing yard debris in case of wildfiresRose, 62, was living in a remote area of Washington, west of Seattle, when the scorching heat dome" of 2021 hit the Pacific north-west. As the house Rose shared with her then 93-year-old mother grew hotter, and their two air conditioning units struggled to make any dent on the wall of heat, Rose's heart rate climbed, and she watched as all the rubber bands in the house liquefied.The heat dome - which broke local records to reach highs of 120F (49C) - buckled roads, melted electrical cables and caused about 600 excess deaths, and research showed it was virtually impossible" without climate change. It's just one example of a worsening picture for US extreme weather driven by human caused global heating: including more frequent hurricanes, wildfires and devastating floods. Continue reading...

The Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg has told the US cable host its biggest threat is not the climate crisis, but do his claims stack up?

Oceanographer Stefan Rahmstorf explains why Amoc breakdown could be catastrophic for both humans and marine lifeThe dangers of a collapse of the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, known as Amoc, have been greatly underestimated" and would have devastating and irreversible impacts, according to an open letter released at the weekend by 44 experts from 15 countries. One of the signatories, Stefan Rahmstorf, an oceanographer and climatologist who heads the Earth system analysis department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, explains here why he has recently upgraded his risk assessment of an Amoc breakdown as a result of global heating - and what that means for Britain, Europe and the wider world. Continue reading...

Villagers in Barekuri, Assam, have lived closely with endangered hoolock gibbons for generations. A new Guardian documentary shows their bond - and the fight to protect themOn a misty winter morning, farmer Mohit Chutia sits on the ground outside his home rocking his grandson in his lap. He sings about the hoolock gibbons, the only ape species in India. High in the tree canopy above, the gibbons leap gracefully from branch to branch. Below, Chutia and his family watch.It is a picture of the coexistence that has endured for generations between the endangered gibbons and villagers in Barekuri in Assam, in the remote east of the country. Continue reading...

For over a century the villagers of Barekuri, north-east India's biodiversity hotspot, have coexisted with the country's only ape species, the hoolock gibbon. But this harmony stands in fragile ecological balance. Mohit Chutia, a 55-year-old farmer and father, has been taking care of one gibbon family while raising his own. When researcher Ishika Ramakrishna arrives to study human-gibbon interactions, she joins forces with Mohit and the villagers to tackle the gibbons' urgent population decline, endangered by habitat loss, deforestation and industrial catastrophe Continue reading...

For over a century the villagers of Barekuri, north-east India's biodiversity hotspot, have coexisted with the country's only ape species, the hoolock gibbon. But this harmony stands in fragile ecological balance. Mohit Chutia, a 55-year-old farmer and father, has been taking care of one gibbon family while raising his own. When researcher Ishika Ramakrishna arrives to study human-gibbon interactions, she joins forces with Mohit and the villagers to tackle the gibbons' urgent population decline, endangered by habitat loss, deforestation and industrial catastrophe Continue reading...

Departing secretary general says small island developing states should be given greater access to climate financePatricia Scotland, the departing secretary general of the Commonwealth, has described the 56-member-bloc as a powerful force in the battle against climate breakdown, and urged the members to continue her legacy of supporting small and vulnerable countries.Lady Scotland's two-term tenure began in 2016, shortly after tropical storm Erica destroyed 95% of Dominica's GDP. I came in understanding that this was an immediate threat to human lives, jobs, homes, infrastructure, and our very existence, and urgent action was our only option," she said. Continue reading...

The state Labor government is steering Australia's climate policy, letting emissions soar unbridled as it paves the way for massive fossil fuel projectsWestern Australia sometimes feels more than three hours behind the rest of the country.The tyranny of our distance has always meant it's been hard to get the attention of the east coast. Continue reading...

A sulphur-crested cockatoo named Mickey that had been 'living on brioche' inside a Sydney supermarket for four weeks has been captured by wildlife services and is expected to be set free soon. On Tuesday morning, another cockatoo, Old Lady Doris, was taken into the supermarket by the Feathered Friends bird rescue director Ravi Wasan to comfort the lost bird, allowing Wasan to successfully capture him. Wasan said Mickey looked 'physically fine' and was not hungry because he was eating 'really well' in the supermarket. The NSW environment minister announced on Tuesday evening the bird had 'been safely captured by wildlife rescuers after spending way too long in Macarthur Square' shopping centre

Comprehensive review suggests that adding more parks, trees and greenery could improve public healthGreen spaces in cities play a vital role in reducing illness and deaths caused by climate breakdown, according to the most comprehensive study of its kind.The findings of the review suggest that adding more parks, trees and greenery to urban areas could help countries tackle heat-related harms and improve public health. Continue reading...

Defra body, created to overhaul system amid public fury, may force firms to be run for public good rather than shareholder returns

The division of responsibilities between Ofwat, the Environment Agency and Drinking Water Inspectorate hasn't worked

Report also finds at least 1,344 individual birds of prey were persecuted in the UK between 2009 and 2023More hen harriers were killed in 2023 than in any other year on record, a report has found.The RSPB's Birdcrime report also found that at least 1,344 individual birds of prey were persecuted in the UK between 2009 and 2023, and that 75% of people convicted of offences related to the persecution of birds of prey in that period were connected to the gamebird shooting industry. Continue reading...

In the mountainous area near Asheville, affected growers must now replenish water-logged and often tainted landHurricane Helene took much from western North Carolina where I live, farm and raise my family. The stories are harrowing: houses obliterated by landslides, whole families washed away, corpses revealed as the waters receded.Suddenly, there's deep climate trauma here, in a place where we mistakenly thought hurricanes happened to Floridians and coastal communities, not us. Helene stole our sense of security: we now side-eye trees, which crushed homes, power lines, cars and people. And the rain, the farmer's frequent wish, turned our rivers maniacal. Continue reading...

Energy secretary prepares new pledge for big UK carbon cuts in next decade amid potential cabinet divisionEd Miliband is facing his first key test on Labour's ambitions for global climate leadership, with a crucial decision looming on how far and how fast to cut the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.The energy secretary is preparing a new international pledge for the UK to cut carbon sharply in the next decade, but could face opposition within the cabinet. Continue reading...

Critics say eels could be smuggled eastwards towards Asia but exporter says they are for restocking' projectMillions of critically endangered eels have been exported from the Severn estuary to Russia this year and conservationists fear export quotas will be increased next year.A tonne of glass eels, the young elvers that swim into European estuaries from the Sargasso Sea each spring, was flown to Kaliningrad this year, double the amount exported to the Russian port the previous year. Continue reading...

Deforestation fell by a third when the guerrilla leader Ivan Mordisco violently enforced a logging ban, but now he has changed tack and is threatening Cop16 biodiversity talksIn the Amazon states of southern Colombia, uniform patches of cattle pasture suddenly give way to trees so numerous and densely packed that the blots of emerald, lime green and white overlap as vines, leaves and tree trunks merge into one.According to official figures, this place is an international success story: the frontline of the country's fight against deforestation, which it slashed last year by 36%. Continue reading...

NSW environment minister hopes Mickey will be flying free by tomorrow' after successful capture by wildlife services

Mowi Scotland, which supplies Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's, blames a rise in sea temperatures for the deaths, while campaigners say expanding farms will make things worseMore than a million dead fish, the biggest mass die-off of farmed salmon in Scotland in a decade, have been recorded at a farm belonging to the UK's largest supplier.The deaths at two adjacent Mowi Scotland sites in Loch Seaforth on the Outer Hebrides - licensed as one farm by the Scottish government - rose to just over a million during the year-and-a-half production cycle that it usually takes to raise a salmon in seawater, and which in this case began in spring 2023. Mowi supplies salmon to retailers including Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Ocado. Many of its farms, including those in the Hebrides, are certified under the RSPCA Assured label, which guarantees higher animal welfare standards. Continue reading...

Efforts to reduce levels of PFAS chemicals in our drinking water are important - but most water supplies are already below the new limitsThe Australian National Health and Medical Research Council has today released draft guidelines for acceptable levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in drinking water. PFAS chemicals are also known as forever chemicals" because they do not break down easily and can persist in the environment, including drinking water supplies.The new guidelines - which are not mandatory but will inform state and territory policy - are expected to be finalised in April 2025. They propose a reduction in the maximum levels previously considered safe for four key PFAS chemicals: PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS and PFBS.Evidence to date does not establish whether PFAS at exposure levels seen in Australia might increase risks of cardiovascular disease ... Established risk factors ... are likely to be of a much greater magnitude than those potentially caused by PFAS. Continue reading...

Subsidiary of electricity firm SSE signs unique and novel' employment and social housing deal with local councilsMore than 1,000 new homes are expected to be built across northern Scotland linked to a 20bn investment in grid infrastructure needed to meet the UK's green energy targets.SSEN Transmission, a subsidiary of the electricity firm SSE, has signed a deal with local councils and housing associations in the Highlands to fund at least 1,000 new properties as well as the refurbishment of existing, unoccupied ones. Continue reading...

Rapid urbanisation thought to be damaging adolescent health, as researchers say need for medication and diagnostic tests is urgentMillions of teenagers in Africa are suffering from asthma with no formal diagnosis as the continent undergoes rapid urbanisation, researchers have found.The study, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, involved 27,000 pupils from urban areas in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. It found more than 3,000 reported asthma symptoms, but only about 600 had a formal diagnosis. Continue reading...

Largest group lawsuit in English legal history opens over collapse of dam owned by mining firm that killed 19 peopleThe Anglo-Australian mining company BHP has been accused of cynically and doggedly trying to avoid" responsibility for Brazil's worst environmental disaster at the opening of the largest group lawsuit in English legal history.The claim for up to 36bn in compensation was opened by lawyers acting for more than 620,000 individuals at the high court in London. It comes nine years after the breach of a dam holding toxic waste from an iron ore mine killed 19 people near the town of Mariana in south-eastern Brazil. Continue reading...

As nations meet in Colombia to confront species and ecosystem loss, the onus is on the global north to put science and collaboration at the heart of the issue

The small town of Dimock saw its water become brown, undrinkable, even flammable - and its residents are still feeling the effectsFracking has burst back on to the national stage in the US presidential election contest for the must-win swing state of Pennsylvania. But for one town in this state that saw its water become mud-brown, undrinkable and even flammable 15 years ago, the specter of fracking never went away.Residents in Dimock, a rural town of around 1,200 people in north-east Pennsylvania, have been locked in a lengthy battle to remediate their water supply that was ruined in 2009 after the drilling of dozens of wells to access a hotspot called the Saudi Arabia of gas" found deep underneath their homes. Continue reading...

As the Cop16 conference begins, scientists and academics say human activity has pushed the world into a danger zoneHumanity is on the precipice" of shattering Earth's limits, and will suffer huge costs if we fail to act on biodiversity loss, experts warn. This week, world leaders meet in Cali, Colombia, for the Cop16 UN biodiversity conference to discuss action on the global crisis. As they prepare for negotiations, scientists and experts around the world have warned that the stakes are high, and there is no time to waste".We are already locked in for significant damage, and we're heading in a direction that will see more," says Tom Oliver, professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading. I really worry that negative changes could be very rapid." Continue reading...

Exclusive: Researchers find 61% of fresh waters in the UK contain high levels of phosphate and nitrateThe UK's rivers contain a cocktail of chemicals and stimulants including caffeine, antidepressants and painkillers from water company sewage releases, polluting freshwaters at levels which can pose a risk to aquatic life, testing has found.Results from three days of testing in rivers by 4,531 volunteers for the environmental research group Earthwatch showed that, in addition to the chemical mix in rivers, 61% of fresh waters in the UK were in a poor state because of high levels of the nutrients phosphate and nitrate, the source of which is sewage effluent and agricultural runoff. England had the worst level of poor water quality in rivers, with 67% of freshwater samples showing high levels of nitrate and phosphate.Of the 91 samples already analysed, 100% contained caffeine, with levels in 80% of these samples presenting some risk to aquatic life, said Woods.Nicotine was found in 25% of samples, with concentrations that present some risk to aquatic life found in 7% of samples. The antidepressant venlafaxine was found in 30% of samples analysed, with 13% of samples containing levels that posed a risk to aquatic life.The antibiotic trimethoprim was found in 10% of samples, all at concentrations that posed some level of risk to aquatic life.Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, was in 11 % of samples, all of which showed some level of risk.In 5% of samples, the fungicide tebuconazole was present as a result of agricultural runoff.The neonicotinoid acetamiprid was present in 19% of samples, all showing some level of risk to aquatic life.Earthwatch said the results showed the strong contribution that citizen science played in presenting a clearer picture of the health of rivers. Continue reading...

National Health and Medical Research Council proposal lowers the limits for four PFAS chemicals in drinking water

Ruth Davis named special representative for nature to put climate and nature at the heart of our foreign policy'The government has appointed the UK's first envoy for nature, a former environment campaigner described as the environmentalist's environmentalist", who will be charged with forging global agreement on halting the precipitous decline of species.Ruth Davis, the new special representative for nature, is in Colombia for the start of two weeks of vital talks that will decide the global response to the biodiversity crisis. The UK has played a leading role in such efforts in the past and Davis helped draw up a global pledge on deforestation that was one of the main outcomes of the UN Cop26 climate summit hosted in Glasgow in 2021. Continue reading...

It has been a nightmare season for farmers, with England said to have had its second-worst harvest on recordGiant orange pumpkins with ghoulish grins have become a Halloween doorstep tradition but this year trick-or-treaters may be greeted with even spookier green-tinged jack-o-lanterns after a nightmare season for growers.In Asda, pumpkin displays have signs telling shoppers don't worry if I'm slightly green, I will ripen at home and turn orange". Continue reading...

Greater bamboo lemur births in captivity are extremely rare and park is only UK collection to have bred it this yearCotswold wildlife park has successfully bred one of Madagascar's most endangered lemurs.The as yet unnamed youngster was born to a breeding male, Raphael, and female, Bijou, at the wildlife park. Continue reading...