Laos accused of breaching Cites treaty to protect endangered species and China of encouraging trade in live animals

Allendale, Northumberland The melancholy thistle’s heads are magenta shaving brushes lighted on by hoverflies and beesThe garden is all heat and light on this summer afternoon, pulsing and multilayered with insect sounds and constant movement.Wild flowers jostle with the cultivated, in varieties chosen for their nectar and pollen. Bumblebees wiggle up into the blue throats of viper’s bugloss, hoverflies taste scabious, dabbing with their tongues, soldier beetles clamber over wild carrot, bumping into each other before hurriedly parting. Continue reading...

Satellite analysis shows clearing of more than 100 hectares at Cape York’s Olive Vale station in year after minister’s interventionLand is being cleared in north Queensland without federal government approval despite concerns about threatened species in the area, in what conservation groups have claimed is an unfolding environmental crisis.Four peak environmental bodies on Tuesday released satellite analysis showing more than 100 hectares at Olive Vale station in Cape York were cleared without approval in the year following the intervention of the federal environment minister in 2015. Continue reading...

Steps to control protected reptiles have seen 40 killed this year and could bring an end to the ban on exporting their skins

Outrage and demand for Icac investigation follows ABC report alleging that taxpayer-bought water was being pumped out for cotton growingThe South Australian government, key senators, Indigenous and environmental groups are calling for urgent investigations into allegations that water was being harvested by irrigators in the Barwon-Darling region of the Murray-Darling basin to the detriment of the environment and downstream communities.The SA water minister, Ian Hunter, wants a judicial inquiry, Senate crossbencher Nick Xenophon wants the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate “stolen” water and he joined South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young in calling for a Senate inquiry with full parliamentary privilege to protect witnesses. Continue reading...

Rabbi, Uniting church reverend, former Catholic priest and Buddhist leader call for Frydenberg to withdraw support for mineReligious leaders from several faiths have occupied the electorate office of Josh Frydenberg today, demanding the federal environment minister withdraw his support for Adani’s Carmichael mine, and vowing to stay there until he does so.

Modelling suggests Australia would face more frequent drought-inducing weather events beyond any climate stabilisationExtreme El Niño events that can cause crippling drought in Australia are likely to be far more frequent even if the world pulls off mission improbable and limits global warming to 1.5C.International scientists have released new modelling that projects drought-causing El Niño events, which pull rainfall away from Australia, will continue increasing in frequency well beyond any stabilisation of the climate. Continue reading...

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Readers respond to news of scrapped rail electrification plans and the folly of HS2The transport secretary’s announcement (Fury as soaring cost halts electrification, 21 July) is disastrous for the UK – on economic, social and environmental grounds. It is a further sign that this government has no real interest in the economy and communities anywhere but London and the south-east.That the centre and south-west should not have an “electric spine”, when you look to the high-quality, reliable, electric services enjoyed across the rest of Europe, leaves us stuck far in the past – and even further from meeting our obligations under the Climate Change Act and the Paris climate accords. Continue reading...

Poll shows new ministry is popular, including among Labor voters, but 45% concerned over Peter Dutton’s control of all security servicesMost Australians support the creation of a new national security ministry, including a slim majority of Labor voters according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.The poll, conducted between 20 and 24 July, found 56% approved of the new national security ministry, which amalgamates the immigration department with security agencies and the Australian federal police under the immigration minister, Peter Dutton. Continue reading...

How we define “pre-industrial” is importantIn the Paris climate treaty, nearly every world country agreed to try and limit global warming to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures, and preferably closer to 1.5°C. But a new study published in Nature Climate Change notes that the agreement didn’t define when “pre-industrial” begins.Our instrumental measurements of the Earth’s average surface temperature begin in the late-1800s, but the Industrial Revolution began in the mid-1700s. There’s also a theory that human agriculture has been influencing the global climate for thousands of years, but the mass burning of fossil fuels kicked the human influence into high gear. Continue reading...

London mayor accuses Volkswagen of making the UK a laughing stock over refusal to pay £2.5m in compensation while it’s paid billions to US customersSadiq Khan has accused Volkswagen of showing “utter contempt” for Londoners after it refused to pay £2.5m compensation for its role in the dieselgate scandal.The German car manufacturer has paid billions of dollars compensation in the US after admitting around 11m cars worldwide were fitted with “defeat devices” that switched the engine to a cleaner mode to improve results in tests. Continue reading...

Doubts about the science are being replaced by doubts about the motives of scientists and their political supporters. Once this kind of cynicism takes hold, is there any hope for the truth? By David Runciman• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, iTunes, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...

In this excerpt from The Bernie Sanders Show, Sanders talks to Gore about his new film, An Inconvenient SequelIn this episode of the Bernie Sanders Show, Sanders talks to Al Gore about his new film, An Inconvenient Sequel. Below is an abridged transcript of their conversation. Continue reading...

In the foothills of Vietnam’s Annamite mountains, hundreds of small forest owners are joining forces to produce sustainable acacia used in furniture around the world. With much of the country’s plantations owned by individuals, expanding the approach may be the best chance for saving forests in the Greater MekongAll photographs: James Morgan/WWF“It all starts with the seedlings!” says Le Thi Thuy Nga (left), the manager of Tien Phong forestry company in central Vietnam’s Thừa Thiên-Huế province. “All of ours are propagated from the ‘mother tree’ kept by the Academy of Forest Sciences in Hanoi. With a 99% survival rate, they effectively double overall plantation productivity.” Continue reading...

Hallsands, South Devon New grass on old roofs, confusing ruined masonry with cliffs – this is what natural reclamation looks like

Rainfalls 80% below normal have affected farming across the country and could result in the capital’s famous fountains being turned offScarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined to put Romans at risk of drastic water rationing as soon as this week.Sky TG24 TV meteorologists noted on Sunday that Italy had experienced one of its driest springs in some 60 years and that some parts of the country had seen rainfall totals 80% below normal. Among the hardest-hit regions was Sardinia, which is seeking natural disaster status. Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 28 July 1917SURREY, JULY 26

If building new roads and fast traffic lanes does not cut traffic, can it work the other way round?You would think that ending a traffic restriction would improve journey times, but the sudden termination of Jakarta’s high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes had the opposite effect. To use these lanes drivers required two passengers, but a trade in hiring people bought the lanes to an abrupt end last year. The traffic could spread across all lanes, but journey times and congestion increased. In fact, traffic worsened over the whole network almost immediately. Even on roads with no HOV lanes, at times when the lanes had not operated, delays increased by up to two minutes per km. The US embassy measures air quality from its roof in Jakarta. It is too early to see the changes, but we can be sure that it did not get better.La #piétonnisation de la rive droite, une mesure juste et pertinente. #Pollution #Transports #Santé #RivesdeSeine https://t.co/N5mKXTWX1j pic.twitter.com/xQTe6UEN3l Continue reading...

They are widespread in the British Isles and could be found almost anywhere, but often aren’t, which is a bit of a mysteryThe common lizard, Zootoca vivipara, is at its most numerous and active at this time of year. In late July it is giving birth to between three and 11 young at a time. They emerge from an egg sack that breaks during birth or immediately afterwards. That is why it is sometimes called viviparous lizard, meaning bearing live young, an unusual trait in reptiles.Viviparous might be a better name in any case, as this lizard is not common at all in many places and some people may go for years without seeing one. Continue reading...

Tories urged to look at onshore windfarms which can be built as cheaply as gas plants and deliver the same power for half the cost of Hinkley Point, says ArupOnshore windfarms could be built in the UK for the same cost as new gas power stations and would be nearly half as expensive as the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, according to a leading engineering consultant.Arup found that the technology has become so cheap that developers could deliver turbines for a guaranteed price of power so low that it would be effectively subsidy-free in terms of the impact on household energy bills. Continue reading...

Plans to bring the wild cats back to Northumberland have prompted concerns from farmers, but – from beavers to red kites – rewilding in the UK has generally been a success

An underwater robot has captured images of what is believed to be suspected debris of melted nuclear fuel inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. Locating and analysing the fuel debris is crucial for decommissioning the plant, which was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami

Robot spots suspected debris of melted fuel for first time since 2011 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the plantImages captured by an underwater robot on Saturday showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan’s destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant.

Lester, who was blinded by British atomic tests in South Australia in the 1950s, campaigned to get recognition for the 1,800 Indigenous Australians affectedTributes have poured in for Aboriginal elder and activist Yami Lester, who died at the age of 75.Lester, who died in Alice Springs on Friday night, lived a life of “great hardship and challenge” after being blinded as a young adolescent by the Maralinga atomic tests in the 1950s, which he called the “black mist”. Continue reading...

Popular gadget of 70s and 80s bubbles up again, remarketing itself as the greener alternative to fizzy drinks’ copious cans and bottlesFor anyone growing up in the 70s and 80s having a SodaStream was the kitchen sink equivalent of a magic show with the gadget up there with Swap Shop and E.T. as a pop culture reference for the era. At that time the coveted “fizzy-drinks maker” was proudly displayed on 40% of British kitchen counters, attracting the kind of awed attention that a spiraliser could only dream off today.It was a simpler time for consumers and today SodaStream faces stiffer competition for the nation’s attention as NutriBullet fruit and veg blenders bump up against Magimixes on crowded worktops. Continue reading...

Free swimming at La Villette is first step in Paris’s efforts to reopen some of its murky waterways to casual bathers, and the Seine could be nextStanding in his swimming trunks, Gilles looked up at the modern grey apartment buildings and trees that lined the Paris canal. He took a deep breath, then dived into the dark mass of water that had been officially banned to swimmers for decades.“Bliss,” he said after doing 500m of front crawl, occasionally brushing past bits of green algae in the new temporary swimming zone at La Villette canal basin, where Parisians can take their first legal dip in a city waterway for a century. Continue reading...

Comins Coch, Aberystwyth I was looking forward to seeing the ramshackle structure for myself. Then the anxiety beganA month or so ago, a friend casually mentioned that they thought red kites were starting to nest near their house. Very near, in fact; actually in the garden. Even in the hills beyond Tregaron, where kites wheel and dive in such abundance as to be almost unworthy of comment, having a nest within view of your kitchen window is unusual.On the boundary of the property, the crook of a sycamore tree provided an apparently suitable spot for the pair to set up home; occasional bulletins told of the progress, albeit slow and halting, of nest building. It seemed the birds were in no great hurry – limiting their activity to the odd twig or two each day – but eventually they had assembled a slightly ramshackle structure that managed to support the weight of a sitting bird. Continue reading...

First-class degrees | Female saints | Rambutan | Tennis and nationality | Sheep v giant hogweed | LitterGosh! How clever we have all become. Fifty years ago, only the top 2% of the population went to university and about 10% of them got firsts, so 0.2% of the population. Now, 30% go to uni, and 25% of them get firsts (Number of UK degree students receiving firsts soars, theguardian.com, 20 July), making 7.5% of the population. The universities say there is no grade inflation so we must be more than 30 times cleverer! Impressive or what?

Palm oil plantations on illegally deforested land in Sumatra – home to elephants, orangutans and tigers – have allegedly been used to supply scores of household brands, says new reportPepsico, Unilever and Nestlé have been accused of complicity in the destruction of Sumatra’s last tract of rainforest shared by elephants, orangutans, rhinos, and tigers together in one ecosystem.Plantations built on deforested land have allegedly been used to supply palm oil to scores of household brands that also include McDonald’s, Mars, Kellogg’s and Procter & Gamble, according to a new report. Continue reading...

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox Continue reading...

Gove’s vision for the environment is undoubtedly ambitious but it is at odds with much government action – making it real will be a gargantuan taskWho knew? Environment secretary Michael Gove, arch Brexiter and seen just months ago grinning and thumbs up in eco-villain Donald Trump’s lair, turns out to be – in words, at least – a deep green.

A pod of pilot whales, nesting storks and a clan of hyenas are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Sixty-five MPs have written to the environment secretary urging him to include the measures in his new strategy to tackle the air pollution crisisA cross party group of MPs is calling on Michael Gove to adopt a clean air bill in his new strategy to tackle the crisis of air pollution in the UK.Sixty five MPs have written to the environment secretary as he prepares to address the most pressing issue in his intray – a demand by judges for a new air quality strategy by 31 July to cut illegal levels of pollution from diesel vehicles. Continue reading...

Drivers who fail to give cyclists enough space when overtaking will be pulled over, and officers will explain how to overtake cyclists safelyLondon’s police force has launched a new initiative to tackle drivers who pass cyclists too closely, using plain clothes officers.From Friday, the Space for Cyclists initiative will be carried out by UK’s only cycle-mounted police command, the Met’s cycle safety team, after months spent adapting the tactic for London’s roads from a West Midlands Police initiative, introduced last year. Continue reading...

North Lees, Derbyshire The site of the old smelting works felt wholly reclaimed, and as the rain ended the air filled with insects and soon after wrensThe rain started as I crossed the pasture above North Lees Hall, the model, it is widely accepted, for Thornfield Hall in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre. It’s a house the author visited more than once, staying with her friend Ellen Nussey in nearby Hathersage, and the intertwining of the names – thorn being an anagram of north and lee derived from the Anglo-Saxon for field – coupled with the detailed description Brontë gives, are persuasive. Continue reading...

Big reductions in no-take marine protected areas are being considered, going beyond those recommended by an earlier federal government reviewAustralia’s marine protected areas look set to be slashed by the federal government, with plans announced for cuts that go beyond those recommended by a review commissioned by the previous Abbott government.Draft management plans released by the Director of National Parks on Friday propose that large areas of Queensland’s Coral Sea, as well as off the coast of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and New South Wales, will lose or have their protection downgraded, to make way for expanded long-line fishing and seafloor trawling – which have been shown to damage the conservation value of the oceans. Continue reading...

A recent heatwave in Siberia’s frozen wastes has resulted in outbreaks of deadly anthrax and a series of violent explosionsStrange things have been happening in the frozen tundra of northern Siberia. Last August a boy died of anthrax in the remote Yamal Peninsula, and 20 other infected people were treated and survived. Anthrax hadn’t been seen in the region for 75 years, and it’s thought the recent outbreak followed an intense heatwave in Siberia, temperatures reaching over 30C that melted the frozen permafrost.Long dormant spores of the highly infectious anthrax bacteria frozen in the carcass of an infected reindeer rejuvenated themselves and infected herds of reindeer and eventually local people. Continue reading...

The life of our reef is intimately linked to the health of our politics and the future of our communities. Coal has no role to play

Hotels and local government in Cancún will pay premiums, and insurance industry will pay out if the reef is damaged by stormsA stretch of coral reef off Mexico is the testing ground for a new idea that could protect fragile environments around the world: insurance.

Scuffles and accusations of aggression increase at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road shale gas exploration site near BlackpoolTensions at Britain’s most high-profile fracking site have risen after an increase in violent clashes between protesters, security guards and police. One demonstrator said she had been left unconscious after a “pretty brutal” scuffle with security officers on Wednesday, and another activist fell from his wheelchair, the same day, when police officers pulled him out of the way of a 40-tonne lorry.Both protesters said they planned to report the incidents that had occurred at energy firm Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site, near Blackpool, to Lancashire police. Continue reading...

Six-year-old Xanda was shot and killed by hunters when he roamed outside the protected area of the Hwange national park in ZimbabweA son of Cecil the lion has been killed by trophy hunters in Zimbabwe, meeting the same fate as his father whose death in 2015 caused a global outcry.Xanda was six years old and had fathered a number of cubs himself. He was shot on 7 July just outside the Hwange national park, not far from where Cecil died, but news of the death only became public on Thursday. Continue reading...

Environmental groups accuse agency of turning blind eye as Texas ‘renders useless’ pollution controls by issuing lax permits for oil and gas facilitiesCampaign groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency in a bid to force it to clamp down on industrial air pollution in Texas.Related: Texas companies penalized in less than 3% of illegal air pollution cases – report Continue reading...

Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked wild mammal and decimated Asian populations have sharply shifted the focus of exploitation to AfricaThe true scale of the slaughter of pangolins in Africa has been revealed by new research showing that millions of the scaly mammals are being hunted and killed.

PM says there is a role for government but ‘the goal should always be for investment decisions to be made by the market’Malcolm Turnbull says it is better the market decides whether or not to build a new coal-fired power station in Australia rather than delivering that outcome through government intervention.

Summer’s here, and so are bees. These new macro images by Alejandro Santillana are being showcased in the Insects Unlocked project at the University of Texas at Austin Continue reading...

Individuals, schools and businesses are urged to adopt a five point plan to help make their towns and cities free of single-use plastic

In a film released by Surfers Against Sewage, narrated by the actor Imelda Staunton, the scale of the plastic waste that circulates on the currents of the world’s oceans is compared to a global nuclear security threat. The group is calling for people to adopt a five-point plan to reduce plastic pollution