Environment | The Guardian

ANU’s centre for water economics says ‘no discernible impact in reduced water use on a per-hectare basis’More than $5bn used for reforms to safeguard the Murray-Darling river system from drought has been largely in vain, new research has found.About $3bn of taxpayers’ funds used for improving farm irrigation had been a boon to private individuals but led to no cut in water use from the start of the last drought crisis, according to the Australian National University study. Continue reading...

The Australia Institute says the $5bn northern Australia fund lags behind other agencies in process and disclosureThe progressive thinktank the Australia Institute has raised concerns about the operation of the Turnbull government’s $5bn northern Australia infrastructure fund, saying the organisation lacks resources and is not being transparent about its internal procedures.With officials from the $5bn fund due to front Senate estimates hearings in Canberra on Thursday, the thinktank has released a report arguing the NAIF is behind other comparable government organisations in terms of process and disclosure, and in operational funding. Continue reading...

Storebrand, a sustainable investment manager in Norway, hopes pulling shares from three groups will ‘make some sort of impact’ amid Defund DAPL movementNorway’s largest private investor is divesting from three companies tied to the Dakota Access pipeline, a small victory for the Standing Rock movement one week after the eviction of the main protest encampment.

If you are campaigning against high levels of toxic air or planning to relocate because of it, we’d like to hear from you

The much-loved creature of the suburban garden is in rapid decline – with new builds, roads and badgers to blame. Can we prevent their extinction?Hit by a car. Savaged by a dog. Slashed by a strimmer. Burnt in a bonfire. Tangled in garden netting. Poisoned by slug pellets. Caught in a postman’s discarded rubber bands. Head stuck in a tin can. Tricked out of hibernation by increasingly unpredictable winter weather. Modern life, governed by humans, designs a multitude of ingenious ways for a hedgehog to die. It is no wonder that this treasured animal, a suburban garden fixture, which consistently tops favourite-species polls and is the source of many people’s first close encounter with a wild creature, is vanishing from Britain.This disappearance is rapid, and recent. A survey of more than 2,600 people by BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine in February found that 51% of gardeners didn’t see a hedgehog at all last year, up from 48% in 2015. Barely one in 10 saw a hedgehog regularly. Scientific studies are unequivocal. Britain’s hedgehog population was calculated to be 1.55 million in 1995. Since the turn of the century it has declined by a third in urban areas and up to 75% in the countryside. A survey based on roadkill calculates that hedgehogs are declining by 3% each year. This exceeds the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list criteria, which identifies species at greatest conservation risk. Why are we obliterating hedgehogs? Will they become extinct? Or can we save them? Continue reading...

Campaigners in drought-hit Tamil Nadu say it is unsustainable to use 400 litres of water to make a 1 litre fizzy drinkMore than a million traders in India are boycotting fizzy drinks including Coca-Cola and Pepsi after claims from from two Indian trade associations that foreign firms are exploiting the country’s water resources.Traders in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which has a population bigger than the UK, will replace big brands with locally produced soft drinks. Continue reading...

Spring is sprung 26 days earlier than a decade ago, causing problems for the natural cycle of plants and wildlife, Climate News Network reportsSpring is arriving ever earlier in the northern hemisphere. One sedge species in Greenland is springing to growth 26 days earlier than it did a decade ago. And in the US, spring arrived 22 days early this year in Washington DC.The evidence comes from those silent witnesses, the natural things that respond to climate signals. The relatively new science of phenology – the calendar record of first bud, first flower, first nesting behaviour and first migrant arrivals – has over the last three decades repeatedly confirmed meteorological fears of global warming as a consequence of the combustion of fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Broad coalition writes to chancellor, urging him to tackle air pollution with compensation scheme for motoristsTaxi drivers and business leaders have added their voices to the growing campaign calling on ministers to introduce a diesel scrappage scheme to tackle dangerous levels of air pollution.A broad alliance of business organisations and environmental charities has written to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, urging him to introduce a system in next week’s budget to compensate motorists switching from diesel to more environmentally friendly vehicles. Continue reading...

Staying below dangerous climate thresholds requires a carbon pollution price much higher than the federal estimate

With solar energy becoming cheaper – and federal and state authorities offering tax credits and other incentives – now is a good time to switch

Every day, the sun kickstarts mini power plants in about 942,000 homes around America. We are of course talking about solar energy – and in 2017, it’s never been cheaper to invest in it for your home. The Guardian looks at key tips for installing solar panels and why now is the time to switch

This year’s theme is Grow-Conserve and entries will be on show in Somerset House, London, from 9 to 28 March. Winners will be announced on 8 March Continue reading...

SDCL claims government has not sought value for money for taxpayer in choice of Australian bank MacquarieA last-ditch attempt has been made to derail the government’s controversial sale of the Green Investment Bank to the Australian investment bank Macquarie.

Greenpeace claims Samsung has 4.3m smartphones to dispose of after its Galaxy Note 7 recall. What’s the responsible way to recycle them?At the smartphone world’s annual shindig in Barcelona, there are some things the tech giants have been trying to get people talking about – the relaunch of the Nokia 3310, BlackBerry’s new fingerprint scanner, Samsung’s virtual reality headset.But there’s another, less glamorous story that they haven’t been so keen to promote. And that concerns the fate of their gadgets when consumers have finished with them. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge Daisy – daes eage, day’s-eye – a wonderfully simple poetry that has become a complicated symbolic chain-link of love, innocence and deathHazel catkins are limp, in a still brightness they hang fire, waiting. After the thrashing they got from Storm Doris it’s a wonder they survived, let alone have any pollen left, but from woods and hedges, unimpeded by leaves, the magic dust cloud drifts for wider fertilisation. The pollen record found in peat bogs shows an expansion of hazel during the Mesolithic, 11,000 – 6,000 years ago and the speculation is that travelling people transported hazel nuts, so that now, catkins dangle from here to the Caucasus and Algeria.Related: Country diary: Wenlock Edge: The lesser celandine, the voice of spring Continue reading...

Analysis shows steady warming in the Pacific Ocean and that Australia could be in for a warmer and drier yearAustralia could be heading into another El Niño year according to new analysis by the Bureau of Meteorology, which found the chance Australia would be affected by the phenomenon in 2017 had increased to 50%.Six of the eight models used by Australian climatologists to predict El Niño and La Niña events indicate the El Niño threshold could be reached by July, while seven indicate a steady warming in the Pacific Ocean over the next six months. Continue reading...

‘Citizen science’ project launched as FoE survey indicates population outside London overestimates air qualityPeople across the UK are underestimating the impact of the air pollution crisis in their local areas, according to a new survey.Almost two thirds of respondents said they were concerned about the issue of air pollution, but only one in 10 said they thought the air they breathe is bad. Continue reading...

Plants from semi-tropical climes are overtaking native British species and choking habitat as they flourish in warmer conditionsA half-degree increase in the average temperature in September and October in East Anglia this century has made an already troublesome plant invader even more of a nuisance. While the change in climate has been hardly noticeable to humans, it has made an enormous difference to the floating pennywort, Hydrocotyle ranunculoide, which already threatens to choke slow-moving rivers and the Broads.The extension of warmer weather into autumn has give this semi-tropical South American plant the opportunity to produce viable seeds for the first time enabling it to spread even faster. Continue reading...

Member states approve changes, including €12bn innovation fund, to emissions plan for cleaner technology and pollution cutsAn overhaul of the EU’s flagship trading scheme for cutting carbon emissions by European industries has been approved by the member states.The agreement to reform the emissions trading system comes after almost two years’ of discussions but just two weeks after the European parliament voted in favour of a new directive. Continue reading...

Of course the unacceptable levels of air pollution in our cities is an issue that central and local government must urgently tackle (Report, 25 February). However, the elephant in the room is that millions of city dwellers routinely make unnecessary car journeys and they need to accept their responsibility and switch to alternative means of transport. Ironically, those children at London schools and nurseries you highlight are often being poisoned by their own parents’ vehicles and those of their classmates’ parents on the school run. I walk my children the mile to their school, while most of their friends are driven through the traffic-choked streets. It takes about the same time, but those families have contributed to the toxicity of the air and have done no exercise.

I am completely appalled to read that an organisation that is supposed to promote wildlife and nature in this country should be recruiting volunteers to kill the UK’s grey squirrels in the north (Thousands of volunteers wanted to save red squirrel, 24 February).This diminishes the ethos of the Wildlife Trusts. I do not believe that the culling process can ever be made humane and the idea of bludgeoning squirrels to death is barbaric. In addition I fear that the cull will need to be extended to all of the UK’s regions to prevent replenishment of culled areas by southern squirrels. The enhanced transmissibility of the squirrel pox virus among red squirrels suggests the solution should be to work to increase their resistance to this disease, rather than trying to eliminate it in its entirety by culling grey squirrels in case they harbour it. Continue reading...

RSPB, ClientEarth and FoE launch judicial review of Ministry of Justice’s change to costs cap already criticised by UN and peersLegal challenges to government air pollution standards or to the expansion of Heathrow airport have become too risky financially to pursue under new court regulations, environmental groups are warning.Changes to cost protection orders brought in by the Ministry of Justice from Tuesday will expose campaign groups to prohibitive costs running into potentially millions of pounds, and deter them from bringing important cases, it is claimed. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Plan also targets local air and noise pollution but critics say long-term solutions to environmental challenges are no closer to realityThe huge growth in flights from Heathrow’s planned new runway could be carbon neutral, according to an ambition revealed by the airport.

Boxes to carry sticker stating hens were kept in barns amid bird flu restrictions – though shoppers will still pay premium priceOn Shrove Tuesday, the biggest egg-buying day of the year, UK consumers are being warned that eggs branded as free range have actually been laid by housed hens because of emergency measures to combat the spread of bird flu.All free-range egg boxes will carry a sticker explaining that the box contains “eggs laid by hens temporarily housed in barns for their welfare”. Continue reading...

Critics say public information film shows Shell ‘understood the threat was dire, potentially existential for civilisation, more than a quarter of a century ago’• ‘Shell knew’: oil giant’s 1991 film warned of climate change dangerClimate change “at a rate faster than at any time since the end of the ice age – change too fast perhaps for life to adapt, without severe dislocation”. That was the startling warning issued by the oil giant Shell more than a quarter of a century ago.The company’s farsighted 1991 film, titled Climate of Concern, set out with crystal clarity how the world was warming and that serious consequences could well result. Continue reading...

Public information film unseen for years shows Shell had clear grasp of global warming 26 years ago but has not acted accordingly since, say critics

Exclusive: Milk will carry Pasture Promise logo indicating cows grazed for 180 days and nights and farmers were offered fair priceA supermarket chain is to be the first major UK retailer to sell “free range” milk – from cows that have been kept outside for at least six months of the year – after consumers said they wanted to be able to buy tasty milk that gives a better deal to farmers.Asda will from Wednesday exclusively sell the new milk, which will carry a Pasture Promise logo, indicating that it comes from animals grazed for at least 180 days and nights a year and also offers farmers a fair price. The label could eventually be extended to cheese and other dairy products made from free range milk. Continue reading...

European countries using deposit return schemes, such as Estonia, have recycling rates far better than the UKMore firms are expected to announce bottle deposit return services after Coca-Cola unexpectedly came out in favour of the idea.Pepsi, Nestlé, Unilever and M&S have already committed to producing more eco-friendly bottles by using plant-based materials or less plastic, and an uptick in that trend could now be on the cards. Continue reading...

Blanchland Moor, Northumberland Strutting and posturing, the grouse makes it clear that this is his territoryOn shallow puddles, delicate fans of ice dissolve under the morning sun as we follow the sandy track over Blanchland Moor. These heather uplands, now every tone of brown from straw to sepia, fill the eye with purple every August.

As the Great Barrier Reef faces the return of coral bleaching, why are Mantra, Accor and Marriott still silent on Adani?According to a blog post on the home page of the tourism giant Mantra Group, a “family holiday in Queensland would be incomplete without a visit to the beautiful Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef system in the world”.Which raises the question, why isn’t the Mantra Group – one of Australia’s largest hotel and resort operators, with more than $8bn in asset management including a string of resorts in north Queensland – vociferous in demanding action to save the reef? Continue reading...

Ai Group report warns steep price rises will become ‘the new normal’ based on declining coal-fired generation and gas production shortagesThe “staggering” increase in energy costs faced by households and businesses will continue thanks to rising gas prices, putting jobs in jeopardy, according to the Australian Industry Group.Warning that last year’s steep price rises are set to become “the new normal”, the Ai Group says in a report on Tuesday that the complexities of the gas market have combined with a decline in coal-fired power generation to produce a perfect storm for consumers. Continue reading...

Shoppers may be forced to forgo nut or pay more after warnings of second year of diminished cropThe price of brazil nuts could rise by more than a fifth after low rainfall hit production in Bolivia where more than half the global crop is grown.The wholesale price of the large curved nut, which is popular for snacking and in muesli, has already risen by more than a quarter to $4.80 a pound (£8.50 a kilogramme) since August after a poor harvest in 2016.

Rangers lost their lives in Kenya, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and IndiaEight wildlife rangers have lost their lives in four separate countries, in a week that highlighted the numerous hazards rangers face in protecting the world’s wild lands and species.

How worrying are the nitrogen dioxide levels at your child’s school?Tens of thousands of children at more than 800 schools, nurseries and colleges in London are being exposed to illegal levels of air pollution that risk causing lifelong health problems.

As with all such lists, the 300 ‘scientists’ badly lack climate expertise

British public support for ethical label lifts sales of Fairtrade goods for the first time since 2013Sales of Fairtrade goods have risen for the first time since 2013 as the increasing popularity of bananas and coffee sold under the ethical label offset falling sales of cocoa and sugar.Revenues from produce overseen by the Fairtrade Foundation body, which guarantees a minimum price to farmers and additional payments for use on social projects such as schools or clean water provision, rose 2% to £1.64bn in the UK last year. Continue reading...

As Pakistan seeks to address its power crisis by mining coal, villagers in the Thar desert are fighting to prevent state acquisition of their ancestral land

Clean Energy Finance Corporation says project would need to be indemnified against future risk of carbon price being introducedThe Clean Energy Finance Corporation was approached last Friday by proponents of a new $1.2bn coal-fired power station with carbon capture and storage technology – but officials have cast significant doubt about whether such a project could ultimately proceed.

Government bypasses independent nomination panel to announce Vanessa Guthrie for vacancyThe Coalition has handpicked Western Australian mining lobbyist Vanessa Guthrie to sit on the ABC board, bypassing the independent nomination panel.Guthrie is the chair of the Minerals Council of Australia and until December was managing director of uranium developer Toro Energy. Continue reading...

Fiskavaig, Skye This huge island is a complication of landscapes, and on its west coast you walk the divide between them allThe lady had drawn a map to direct me to the beach: there it was, easy enough, but where a road continued off the edge she’d inscribed an arrow, and the words “end of the world”. Curious, I follow the road off her map, past ancient rusting crofts on to a ribbon of singletrack, to where it stops. A knoll stands beyond a sheep gate and I climb it.

Heavy rain during usually dry summer months causes landslides and flooding, leaving three dead and 19 missingMillions of people are without water after heavy rains struck Chile over the weekend during the country’s usually dry summer months, leaving three people dead and at least 19 missing.The rains, which caused rivers to overflow their banks in mountain valleys near Chile’s capital, Santiago, had isolated 373 people, the Onemi emergency service said late on Sunday. Continue reading...

An integrated energy grid could monitor power shortfalls, predict demand and respond accordingly, according to experts, although data will need to be sharedFor South Australia, it was a cruelly ironic one-two punch – a burst of the extreme heat conditions that are so much more likely because of climate change, and a power cut linked to a simultaneous drop in wind that hobbled the renewable energy systems introduced to minimise global warming in the first place.

Originally published in the Guardian on 27 February 1967THE CAIRNGORMS: It didn’t seem at all strange to discover a bedraggled reindeer sheltering from the storm just inside the entrance to the chair-lift the other day, for the wind was like a knife and the ski-runs like tilted ice-rinks. Of course, he might have merely come in for the company – you could see his fellows higher up the snowbound hillside – or he might have been hoping for a chance of something more succulent than the frozen heather roots these creatures seem to live on. But he wasn’t very friendly, responding to a cautious stroking by an angry swing of the head, so I left him standing disconsolate near the ticket office and looking as if he’d lost both Father Christmas and his sledge. I suppose they’re harmless enough although a notice farther down the mountain warns “Beware of Reindeer,” but doesn’t explain why. These were the only wild life we saw in the hills during a wild week, except for the ptarmigan in their white winter plumage hurrying through the snow, and once a handsome pheasant strutting across the track through the Rothiemurchus pines. Indeed, there were days, so fierce the winds, when these popular slopes were even deserted by the humans who normally at this time of year swarm like ants, and one day, especially, when I seemed quite alone in the mountains. Ski-ing that day was out of the question – you needed ice-axe and crampons just to get across the runs – and the wind so strong on the plateau it took you all your time to avoid being blown over the edge. But down by Loch Morlich in the late afternoon the wind suddenly dropped for half an hour, and there was the quiet splendour of purpling hills and a foreground of silvered loch with the birches and pines showing black against a golden sunset like a Chinese painting. Continue reading...

If the third warmest January on record occurred during a La Niña event, scientists are asking what El Niño has in storeRight now south-eastern Australia is having an unbearable summer. Temperatures in Sydney have regularly been in the upper 30s in recent weeks, while inland areas have had several days in the mid-40s.January was the hottest month on record for Sydney since 1859, and the persistent warmth into February (with many places topping 35C day after day) may topple the New South Wales record of 50 hot days in a row. Continue reading...

More than 3.5m of the invasive rodents live in Britain, and their presence is harming the welfare of their native red cousins. Luckily, HRH has a cunning plan to reduce their numbers

Campaigners write to chancellor to urge him to end tax breaks and bring in scheme to encourage switch to greener carsMinisters are coming under growing pressure to remove tax incentives for diesel cars and offer compensation to motorists so they can swap to more environmentally friendly vehicles.A group of medical professionals, environmental campaigners and lawyers has written to the chancellor ahead of the budget to demand a change to the vehicle excise duty that they say subsidises diesel cars. Continue reading...

A cottage industry is growing around new technology for solar power developers to design, build and operate solar farms to help compete with fossil fuel power