Environment | The Guardian

Industry says it is losing money after firefighting foam leaked from airline’s hanger into Brisbane riverQueensland prawn farmers are seeking compensation from Qantas after toxic firefighting foam leaked from its hangar into the Brisbane river.The embattled industry, already struggling with white spot disease, was dealt another blow this week when it was advised not to catch produce from the contaminated zone. Continue reading...

Scientists have attached cameras to whales to unlock the mysteries of their lives in Antarctica, revealing where, when and how they feed, their social lives, and even how they must blow hard to clear sea ice and allow them to breathe. Vision: WWF Continue reading...

Green Alliance says simultaneous charging could potentially damage electronic equipment unless action is taken by 2020The UK’s energy networks are not ready for a surge in electric cars and solar panels that is coming within the next few years, according to a report.Clusters of the battery powered cars could result in 1% of the UK experiencing unplanned drops in voltage – potentially damaging electronic equipment – without action by 2020, the Green Alliance said. Continue reading...

Report by Adelphi thinktank warns terrorist groups will exploit natural disasters and water and food shortagesClimate change will fuel acts of terrorism and strengthen recruiting efforts by terrorist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, a report commissioned by the German foreign office has found.Terrorist groups will exploit the natural disasters and water and food shortages expected to result from climate change and allow them to recruit more easily, operate more freely and control civilian populations, argues the report by Berlin thinktank Adelphi. Continue reading...

BBC Springwatch presenter, making a film about Malta’s spring hunt of migrating birds, accused of assault and trespassChris Packham, the naturalist and broadcaster, has been charged with assault and trespass in Malta after confronting hunters he believed had illegally trapped wild birds.The BBC Springwatch presenter and naturalist will appear before magistrates on Thursday morning on the island of Gozo after being charged with “attempting to use force” and “pushing against” a Maltese man. Continue reading...

A hipster brewery in a Sydney suburb has created beer with an environmental message

While the politicians dither around energy policy, Newtown is teaming up with a pair of hipster brewers to support a solar-powered brewery and beer with a conscience

150ft iceberg, which dwarfs nearby town of Ferryland, becomes tourist attraction as number of icebergs moving into North Atlantic shipping lanes spikesA towering iceberg is causing traffic jams in a remote town on Canada’s east coast, as tourists jostle for a glimpse of the mass of ice sitting in shallow water just off Newfoundland.The iceberg, which has dwarfed the nearby small town of Ferryland, is estimated to measure some 46 metres (150ft) at its highest point. “It’s the biggest one I ever seen around here,” mayor Adrian Kavanagh told the Canadian Press. “It’s a huge iceberg and it’s in so close that people can get a good photograph of it.” Continue reading...

Doug Derwin is investing up to $2m to persuade Tesla’s CEO to speak out against US climate change policies and resign from groups advising TrumpLuxury car owners may seem like an unlikely target for organizing a political resistance movement, but to Doug Derwin, it’s all about the make: Tesla.Derwin is investing up to $2m in an effort to persuade Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, to speak out against Donald Trump’s climate change policy and resign from his positions in groups advising Trump on business and manufacturing jobs. On Monday, Derwin launched the website ElonDumpTrump.com laying out his argument that Musk’s role in the administration is inconsistent with his role as a leader on climate change. Continue reading...

The first ever camera trap survey in the previously inaccessible Karen State hill forests has recorded a wealth of globally threatened mammals living in south-east Asia’s last great wilderness Continue reading...

Housing association invests in electricity-generating turbines that will fund affordable homes in rural ScotlandAmid the rolling hills and woodland pastures of south-east Scotland, a wind of change is blowing through communities where low wages and casual work sit uneasily alongside the popular image of timeless market towns and pretty coastal villages.High above rich arable land by the North Sea, three tall wind turbines, blades spinning wildly, have started generating electricity for the national grid with two social purposes: to sell energy and use the income to deliver hundreds of new homes in a scattered rural community while, at the same time, providing additional funds for similar schemes elsewhere in Scotland. Continue reading...

Walkhampton, Dartmoor A shepherd on his quad bike remarks on the contrast with last week’s rain, wind and mudFrom the western edge of Dartmoor, heat haze obscures views towards familiar territory in the Tamar Valley. Up here, by Lowery Cross, in sight of glittering ripples on Burrator Reservoir, ponies graze among dazzling yellow gorse; drab turfy banks are starred with a few violets, and the sound of chiffchaff echoes from coniferous plantations.Nearby, a bridge, rebuilt in 2015, is part of the footpath and cycleway on a section of the long-defunct Plymouth and Dartmoor railway; across the bridge and via the gently sloping trail, Princetown is seven miles away, twice the distance that a crow might fly.

Humane Society applies for lethal shark control programs to be listed as ‘threatening’ under conservation actEnvironmentalists are attempting to list shark culling and the use of drum lines as threats to endangered species under federal law.Humane Society International has applied for lethal shark control programs in in New South Wales and Queensland to be listed as “key threatening processes” under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Continue reading...

Five environmental groups point to ‘trophy’ hunting – largely by Americans who travel to Africa – among key threats to animalsConservationists have lodged a formal request for the US government to list giraffes as endangered in a bid to prevent what they call the “silent extinction” of the world’s tallest land animal.A legal petition filed by five environmental groups has demanded that the US Fish and Wildlife Service provide endangered species protections to the giraffe, which has suffered a precipitous decline in numbers in recent years. Continue reading...

19 April 1913: Author and wildlife illustrator Ernest Thompson Seton gives a lecture in London about his first job as a ‘wolver’

Environment minister says federal government ‘would welcome any proposal to protect human life first’ after attack on surfer Laeticia BrouwerThe federal government would consider any strategies to prevent further shark attacks off Australia’s coast, following the death of teenager surfer Laeticia Brouwer.“In light of the recent shark attack the commonwealth would welcome any proposal to protect human life first and foremost,” the federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, told the West Australian. Continue reading...

Talks between government and producers on Wednesday follow crisis summit, where PM threatened reservation policy if supply could not be guaranteedMalcolm Turnbull has warned the LNG chiefs it is “clearly unacceptable” to have a shortage of gas on the east coast of Australia ahead of new talks with the industry in Canberra on Wednesday.

Unlikely coalition of fossil fuel firms, environmental groups and Republicans are calling on president to stay despite his pledge to ‘cancel’ agreement

From Harrogate to Tokyo cherry blossom is in full bloom at the peak of spring Continue reading...

Exclusive: Greenpeace says ‘gagging law’ favours big business and refused to register as a campaign group in run-up to 2015 electionGreenpeace has become the first organisation to be fined under the government’s Lobbying Act which critics warned would silence legitimate campaign groups.Ministers said the legislation, dubbed the “gagging law” by charities, would hold corporate lobbyists to account when it was introduced in 2014. Continue reading...

March for Science on 22 April will see scientists and supporters at more than 500 locations stand up for evidence-based thinkingScientists and science supporters will take to the streets in a global March for Science on 22 April . What began as a small Facebook group in the US capital, Washington DC has spiralled into a global phenomenon that will now see marches and other events in more than 500 locations around the world, from Seattle to Seoul.It is great news that so many people are prepared to stand up and defend the need for evidence-based thinking and the scientific method. But it is also a sad comment on our times that a March for Science is needed at all. Post-truth populism has infected democracies around the world, scientific objectivity is under threat from multiple sources and there seems a real danger of falling into a modern dystopian dark age. Continue reading...

Seattle has become the first major US city to shut a public bike share scheme. Was it the helmet law … or the lack of cycle lanes and the notorious hills and rain?A small group of supporters, journalists and a city councilman gathered at the end of last month to take Seattle’s cycle share bikes out for one last spin. Mayor Ed Murray had pulled the plug on the Pronto system after two-and-a-half years of low ridership, financial troubles and waning political support.Sitting tall on the clunky, lime green bikes, our group of 10 pedalled through downtown’s heavy evening rush hour traffic, picking up a few more mourners on Pronto bikes en route. Continue reading...

Claxton, Norfolk At Thorpe Hall near Haddiscoe, 340 pairs of rooks once nested, but this spring there is not oneAssessing the rook population in the Yare valley has long been a favourite ritual of my springs. Since the nests are coarse bundles of sticks in the bare treetops it is easy to combine the serious census work with the season’s wider pleasures: the sounds of first chiffchaffs or blackcaps, the lemon wings of male brimstone butterflies, and the year’s first glamorous colour from primroses, marsh marigolds and walls of blackthorn blossom.

Conservation charity warns that almost half of world heritage sites designated for importance to nature are at riskAlmost half of the Unesco world heritage sites designated for their importance to nature are threatened by the illegal wildlife trade, a WWF report has said.Poaching, illegal logging and fishing, and the trafficking of rare species are plaguing 45% of the world’s most precious natural areas, the report from the conservation charity said. Continue reading...

First to be threatened by climate change, island nations want renewable energy, even if it costs them moreAs home to Australia’s largest naval base, it is no surprise that foreign governments are curious about the secretive goings-on at Garden Island, just offshore from Perth in Western Australia.Peering across from the other side of the Indian Ocean, the Mauritian government is not gathering intelligence on Australia’s military power, however – but rather how the military is powered. Continue reading...

Mud-dwelling organism that lives head down in a tusklike tube found alive for first time, although its existence had been known of for centuriesAbout three feet long and glistening black with a pink, fleshy appendage, it looks like the entrails of an alien from a bad horror film. In fact, it is a giant shipworm.Discovered in the mud of a shallow lagoon in the Philippines, a living creature of the species has never been described before – even though its existence has been known for more than 200 years thanks to fossils of the baseball bat-sized tubes that encase the creature. Continue reading...

New rules are expected to be implemented as soon as next week, most likely in form of price cap on standard variable tariffsCentral heating systems are being turned off across the country as spring takes hold, but winter is coming for energy companies who have recently hiked bills for millions of households.Theresa May said the energy market was “manifestly” not working after a flurry of price rises by the big six companies – British Gas, e.on, EDF, npower, ScottishPower, and SSE – and dozens of smaller suppliers. Continue reading...

Humans are changing Earth’s climate at an alarmingly fast rate

Donald Trump is a creep and unpleasant to look at, but at least he’s not a stunning hypocrite when it comes to climate change

Police confirm 17-year-old died after attack at Kelp Beds, near Wylie Bay in EsperanceA 17-year-old girl has died after being attacked by a shark in Western Australia.Monday’s attack happened at Kelp Beds, near Wylie Bay in Esperance, just before 4pm, police said. Continue reading...

The administration’s rejection of the science on chlorpyrifos, widely used in California’s Central Valley, means its use will continue – and Latino residents are worried their children’s health issues will worsen along with itA white cloud of pesticides had drifted into Fidelia Morales’s back yard, coating her children’s swing set.The 40-year-old mother of five gestured toward the citrus groves that surround her house in California’s Central Valley as she recounted when an air blast sprayer sent chemicals floating onto her property last year – landing on her family’s red and blue jungle gym. Continue reading...

Paul Kingsnorth complements his fiction with a selection of thought-provoking essaysFancy ripping out your plumbed-in lavatory and replacing it with a bucket, some pine needles and sawdust? This is Paul Kingsnorth’s new environmentalism: less concerned with arguing for grand political gestures that won’t prevent Earth’s “sixth mass extinction” in any case, rather, arguing for small change in the immediate world around us. Last year, Kingsnorth published the second instalment of his earthily brilliant Buckmaster fictional trilogy and Confessions is akin to its nonfiction companion: a collection of essays that often act as both a paean to a landscape we are losing and a mournful realisation that little that can be done about it now. The title piece is Kingsnorth at his best, a tremendous combination of the personal and the political. His views on the past and future of environmentalism are perhaps over-rehearsed over the course of a book, but taken as a collection to dip into rather than read from cover to cover, there’s plenty to enjoy, learn from and even inspire.• Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist by Paul Kingsnorth is published by Faber (£14.99). To order a copy for £11.24 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99 Continue reading...

Authors of Can Clean Air Make You Happy? say exposure to nitrogen dioxide can be as damaging as ‘big-hitting’ life eventsThe effect on wellbeing of exposure to nitrogen dioxide, a gas mostly produced in diesel fumes, is comparable to the toll from losing a job, ending a relationship or the death of a partner, research suggests.The study found a “significant and negative association” between life satisfaction and levels of the pollutant, which causes lung problems . These effects were “substantive and comparable to that of many ‘big-hitting’ life events,” according to the researchers behind Can Clean Air Make You Happy?. Continue reading...

Afon Rheidol When I reached the Rheidol falls it was clear that the river was in spate from the recent rainsA narrow-gauge steam railway winds across the steep southern side of the Rheidol valley, slowly climbing the route from Aberystwyth to Devil’s Bridge. While walking deep in the valley beside the river, I was convinced I could hear the train coming and hurried out of the trees to see it pass. The noise persisted, drifting in and out of my hearing as though the engine were rounding the rocky spurs and disappearing into wooded side valleys, yet no train appeared.Slowly, awkwardly, I realised that the sound was that of the low set of waterfalls further up the valley, distorted and modulated by the strong east wind that was straining the still bare branches of the trees. When I reached the Rheidol falls, having taken the sloping path from just beyond the old chapel, it was clear that the river was in spate from the recent rains, with substantial volumes of water pouring over and between the rocks.

On a cold day on Cairn Gorm there was little to occupy the attention – until the appearance of a ring ouzel signalled the return of springGo-back, go-back, go-back! A red grouse was calling just above the car park, at the bottom of the path to the summit of Cairn Gorm. For a moment I was tempted to heed his advice and retreat to the nearby café.But my children were uncharacteristically enthusiastic about the idea of walking up the mountainside; buoyed, no doubt, by the prospect of playing in the snow. And so we headed up the path. Continue reading...

More people than ever are coming to see the reef and those who make a living showing it off want the world to know it’s still a natural wonder. But they worry about its future, and that of their 64,000-strong industryIn the dark clouds gathering over the future of the Great Barrier Reef, there has been a small silver lining for the people who make their living showcasing the natural wonder.When the reef was rocked by an unprecedented second mass bleaching event in the space of a year, the coral hardest-hit by heat stress lay mostly in the tourist-heavy latitudes between Cairns and Townsville. Continue reading...

Celebrities and pressure groups warn UK prime minister against entering into ‘environmental race to the bottom’ to secure post-Brexit trade dealsLeading environmental campaigners have warned the government against scaling back on commitments to tackle climate change and end the illegal market in wildlife in order to secure post-Brexit trade deals.Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth and high-profile figures including Andy Murray and Will Young are among those who have signed a joint letter to the prime minister urging Theresa May not to engage in an “environmental race to the bottom” after withdrawal from the EU. Continue reading...

Researchers estimate there are 150,000 urban foxes in England, with Bournemouth having the highest concentrationThe number of urban foxes in England has quadrupled in the past 20 years, according to a study that estimates there are nearly 150,000 in England, or about one for every 300 urban residents.

Around 13% of cache of ice cylinders extracted from glaciers in Canadian Arctic exposed to high heat in new storage facility at University of AlbertaWithin them sits some 80,000 years of history, offering researchers tantalising clues about climate change and the Earth’s past. At least that was the case – until the precious cache of Arctic ice cores was hit by warming temperatures.A freezer malfunction at the University of Alberta in Edmonton has melted part of the world’s largest collection of ice cores from the Canadian Arctic, reducing some of the ancient ice into puddles. Continue reading...

The city’s healthy startup culture is contributing to Boston’s rapidly growing reputation as a haven for organic food and urban farming initiativesFor those seeking mild, year-round temperatures and affordable plots of land, Boston, with its long winters and dense population, isn’t the first city that comes to mind.But graduates of the city’s nearly 35 colleges and universities are contributing to the area’s growing reputation as a haven for startups challenging and transforming age-old industries, from furniture to political fundraising. The city’s strong entrepreneurial spirit, combined with progressive legislation like the passing of Article 89, has also turned Boston into one of the nation’s hubs for urban agriculture. Continue reading...

Cycling has the power to transform urban transport. But access to bikes is key to getting more of us on to two wheelsImagine the huge improvement in air quality if we shifted to pedal power. In Groningen, in the Netherlands, almost two-thirds of trips are made by bike, making it one of the most cycle-friendly cities in the world. It’s no accident that the Dutch city also has great air quality. The UK manages a meagre 2% cycling rate overall. And we all know about the air quality here.If, by the way, your wheels are redundant, please pass them on to the Bike Project to match with someone who desperately wants one. Continue reading...

Advice not to fish or eat seafood from area affected by Monday night spill not released until FridayQueensland’s environment minister says the government did what it could to notify the public about a toxic firefighting foam leak into waterways near Brisbane airport.Dr Steven Miles was informed about the spill on Tuesday but the public did not receive health advice not to fish or eat seafood from the nearby area until Friday. Continue reading...

It has been a good spring for wildlife loversPerched on the telegraph wires in my Somerset village, is a swallow – all the way back from its winter quarters in Africa. In my back garden, orange-tip and small tortoiseshell butterflies are searching for nectar. And everywhere I look, spring foliage is filling the countryside with green.This has been a vintage spring for wildlife watchers. Thanks to a spell of fine, settled weather at the end of March and the beginning of April, bluebells carpet forest floors, the dawn chorus is reaching its peak, and living creatures – from natterjack toads to great crested newts, bumblebees to badgers – are out in force. What more could we wish for on Easter weekend? Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 21 April 1917Surrey, April 19

Former lawmaker, a member of the president’s ‘shadow cabinet’ spread across the government, was reassigned from the EPA after reportedly talking too muchForty minutes between campaign stops and a Filet-o-Fish sandwich from McDonald’s cemented Don Benton’s place in Donald Trump’s orbit.The brusque former lawmaker from Washington state remained close to Trump as the campaign intensified, reportedly wielding “an unusual degree” of influence over the Republican nominee. Continue reading...

New Forest Clustered around two trees, and shaded by them, is a narrow-leaved lungwort, unreported in the area for nearly 20 yearsWe head into the forest in search of a scarce plant. Nine years ago almost to the day, I chanced upon a single stem of narrow-leaved lungwort (Pulmonaria longifolia), and I want to find out if it is still there. Then, it had been growing in the shelter of a young bramble, with primroses alongside.Before setting out, I check with Martin Rand, the botanical recorder for south Hampshire. When he tells me that he hasn’t had a report of its presence in this area since the turn of the millennium, I regret not having given him a note of my find before. Continue reading...

Standing in a dark pine forest surrounded by bioluminescent mushrooms is as magical and mysterious as it sounds – and worth the midnight trek into the mountains three hours out of SydneyIt’s just before midnight and we’re in the middle of an eerie pine forest in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, dodging leeches and lugging heavy camera equipment. Continue reading...

Greenland ice is melting fast, and could potentially cause many meters of sea level rise

Born to his mother Orla a week ago as part of a captive-breeding programme, Narus is an endangered Rothschild’s giraffeUnder the watchful eye of his mother Orla, the baby giraffe Narus took her first wobbly steps within an hour of being born.Narus is the second calf to be born into Chester zoo’s herd of 11 endangered Rothschild’s giraffes in the past five months. Continue reading...