Deputy PM accused of orchestrating ‘National party takeover’ with nomination of irrigation lobbyist Perin DaveyThe intergovernmental war over water management has deepened as it has emerged that Barnaby Joyce has nominated an irrigation lobbyist to the board of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA).Perin Davey worked for Australia’s largest private irrigation company, Murray Irrigation, as the executive manager of corporate affairs until April 2017. Continue reading...

The national climate policy is a greenwash – the country is certain to miss its 2020 emissions target and still handing out drilling licences

As a trio of lawsuits claim compensation for sea rises resulting from fossil fuel emissions, campaigners say carbon majors must change their business modelsThree Californian communities have launched legal action against some of the world’s biggest oil, gas and coal companies, seeking compensation for the current and future costs of adapting to sea level rises linked to climate change.San Mateo and Marin Counties, coastal communities in northern California, and Imperial Beach, a city in San Diego County, have filed complaints against 37 “carbon majors”, including Shell, Chevron, Statoil, Exxon and Total. Continue reading...

A proletariat era symbol gets a modern makeover as a nostalgic nation warms up to its iconic bike brand

McArthur’s book of photographs puts the spotlight on ethics of zoos around the world. Accompanied by essays by Born Free Foundation’s Virginia McKenna and philosopher Lori Gruen, the images and stories are also shared online through A Year of Captivity. Images from both projects will be exhibited at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre from 7 to 10 September Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire A fantasia of hoverflies, solitary bees, bumblebees, butterflies and beetles feed on ragwortRagwort makes fields of gold, and to walk in them feels far more transgressive than a bucolic stroll through wheat or barley. Unlike the pale, safe, beige of ripening cereal crops, the ragwort is bold as brass. Unlike the slim pickings in the stashes of mice (and men), the ragwort swarms with life.The insects, and those creatures who feed on them, are harvesting a crop that is toxic to humans yet the antidote to the intensive agriculture that harms insects. Continue reading...

Water minister responds to allegations first aired on Four Corners that billions of litres reserved for the environment were being pumped out by irrigatorsBarnaby Joyce has said allegations of water theft are “overwhelmingly” an issue for New South Wales and anyone who has broken the law will be dealt with.In his first response to allegations raised on Four Corners on Monday night, the federal water minister and deputy prime minister likened water thieves to cattle and sheep rustlers but stressed there were only allegations of water theft at this stage.

Survey finds Highlands population has halved since 1990s, believed to be because of climate change and human activityConservationists have called for action to protect the capercaillie, one of Scotland’s rarest and most treasured birds, after data showed its population had fallen 50% in just over two decades.An extensive field survey of capercaillie breeding grounds in the Highlands estimated a population of only 1,114 birds between 2015 and last year, compared with an estimate of 2,200 between 1992 and 1994. Continue reading...

Plans follow French commitment to take polluting vehicles off the road owing to effect of poor air quality on people’s healthAs part of a government strategy to improve air quality, Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health.The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle.

Ben McCarthy of Plantlife, Ruth Borthwick of the creative writing charity Arvon, Minette Batters of the NFU, Graeme Willis of the CPRE, Tracy Worcester of Farms not Factories and Gwyn Jones of RUMA respond to reports on the increase in intensive factory farming of poultry, pigs and cattle in the UKThe “unnoticed” expansion of mega-farms raises serious concerns about farm animal welfare and our food system (Mega-farms transforming UK countryside, 18 July). Even less visible is the air pollution generated by intensively housed animals and the devastating impact it is having on nearby wildlife.At high concentrations, such as from these mega-farms, ammonia and other nitrogen emissions cause direct damage to lichens, mosses and other plants, including bleaching and discolouration. Continue reading...

Energy policy | Civil partnerships | Codeword puzzles | Dramatic accents | Irritating BBC presentersDid I invent the solar panels scheme which paid a generous feed-in tariff to install panels on your roof? I think I may also have imagined a green deal which was so advantageous that nobody much took it up. I fear this new initiative (UK ‘on verge of clean energy revolution’, 25 July) is going to place a similar strain on my mental faculties when it vanishes without trace under the label “green crap”.

According to a report obtained by the Guardian, health officials in Pittsburgh have downplayed the dangers of lead contamination discovered in local waterHealth officials in a major American city downplayed dangers of lead contamination in water even as officials in Flint, Michigan, faced a criminal investigation, according to a report obtained by the Guardian.

Bureau of Land Management says it is moving to discard 2015 regulation as it duplicates state rules and ‘imposes unjustified costs’ on oil and gas industryThe Trump administration has proposed scrapping an Obama-era rule that aimed to ensure fracking for oil and gas does not pollute water supplies.

Higher than normal levels of enterocci sparked bathing ban at Canal de l’Ourcq structure that drew queues of Parisians trying to beat the heatA new public swimming area on Paris’s Canal de l’Ourcq has reopened after it was temporarily closed due to higher than normal bacteria levels following weekend rains.

From problems with poor disabled access to restrictions against photographers, readers describe mixed experiences of privately owned public spaces in London following a Guardian Cities investigation

North Wales’ Arfon Jones, a former anti-fracking activist, had queried why his force was helping Lancashire policeThe North Wales police and crime commissioner has been accused of “cronyism” after his force withdrew from policing anti-fracking protests following his intervention.Arfon Jones, a member of Plaid Cymru and former police inspector, was an anti-fracking campaigner before being elected to the police and crime commissioner job last year. Continue reading...

Foreign animals and plants can cause huge damage, with the march of Argentine ants in the UK a new example of how climate change is boosting the threatInvasions by alien species and global warming form a “deadly duo”, scientists have warned, with the march of Argentine ants in the UK a new example. The public are being asked to be on alert for invaders such as the raccoon dog and Asian hornet, as eradication can be near impossible after a species becomes established.As trade and human travel has become globalised many thousands of species have crossed oceans or mountain ranges and become established in new regions, with some causing “invasional meltdown” and over a trillion of dollars of damage a year. Continue reading...

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...