The stance is outraging Christian environmentalists, but the church says there are caveats to its supportThe fracking industry has praised the Church of England (CoE) after two groups at the church tentatively backed the controversial technology as a way to help the UK cut carbon emissions.Shale gas was a “potentially useful element” in switching to a low-carbon economy as it was cleaner than coal, so long as it did not harm renewable energy’s expansion, a church briefing paper said. Continue reading...

At Senate confirmation hearing to lead Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt defends his relationship with fossil fuel industry

National Farmers Union labour survey highlights sharp decline in availability of seasonal EU workers following Brexit voteBritish agriculture has already been hit by a sharp decline in EU migrants willing to undertake seasonal work since the Brexit vote, a House of Lords inquiry has been told.The evidence of “a dramatic change in the availability of EU labour” in the last six months comes as the government’s chief adviser on migration warned that post-Brexit curbs on low-skilled EU migration to Britain would only provide a “modest” boost to wages and employment for British workers. Continue reading...

Proposed reforms to Environmental Protection Agency a bid to make regulator more proactive in prosecuting companies for environmental breaches

Firsthand accounts from Native Americans along with live footage suggest that police deployed ‘less than lethal’ weapons against unarmed peopleNorth Dakota law enforcement and the national guard have responded to the latest Standing Rock demonstrations with an aggressive show of force, according to indigenous activists who fear that police violence will escalate after Donald Trump’s inauguration.Related: Standing Rock activists eye pipeline finances to cement Dakota Access win Continue reading...

Amateur footage shot on Monday shows Standing Rock activists clashing with police and the National Guard, as demonstrations continue over the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Activists live streamed some of their encounters with police, which at times turned violent Continue reading...

People in St Hill Green, West Sussex brand church ‘selfish and arrogant’ after 22 trees were cut down, but spokesman says more trees have been plantedThe church of Scientology has angered neighbours at its UK headquarters by expanding its facilities without planning consent and felling trees in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty.Residents close to the sprawling HQ near East Grinstead in West Sussex have accused the church of “selfishly and arrogantly” carrying out “destructive development plans before authorisation” by building a coach and minibus park before securing planning permission. Continue reading...

Goldman prize winner Isidro Baldenegro López, who was known for his activism against illegal logging, was shot dead months after Berta Cáceres was murderedA Mexican indigenous activist who received the prestigious Goldman environmental prize for his crusade against illegal logging has been shot dead, the second award-winner to have been murdered in less than 12 months.Isidro Baldenegro López, a subsistence farmer and leader of the Tarahumara community in the country’s northern Sierra Madre mountain region, was shot at a relative’s home on Sunday. Continue reading...

A climate change skeptic who has sued the agency, Pruitt faces opposition from Democrats and environmentalists who say he’s too cozy with fossil fuel industryEnvironmental Protection Agency administrator Continue reading...

How do you improve a neighbourhood without causing land prices to rise? Residents along a polluted waterway in San Juan set up a community land trust to help save their homes, as well as the environmentFor years a graffiti message has appeared throughout San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, as an urgent demand: Dragado ya! (meaning “dredging now!”).Even passersby who have never set foot in the eight barrios making up the Caño Martín Peña community – a large informal settlement along 3.75 miles of canal in the central city – know the message points to the dire need to dredge the waterway, which has become so clogged with refuse that those driving by with the windows down can immediately smell the stagnant waters. Continue reading...

Sharp Tor, Bodmin Moor Turf hummocks mask mine workings beside the old railway, which weaves between flowering gorseOn the eastern edge of the moor, granite sleepers mark part of the Kilmar railway, used in the second half of the 19th century by trucks carrying moorstone destined for the port of Looe via the Liskeard and Caradon railway. Turfy hummocks mask mine workings beside the way, which weaves between flowering gorse bushes and hawthorn trees draped in bearded lichen. Blue sky reflects in puddles and frost crystals sparkle in cold hollows.Dumps of wasted stone interspersed with tall conifers tower above the track as it passes beneath disused Cheesewring quarry; ahead, above sunlit sheep pastures, Sharp Tor is fringed with orange bracken.

Ryan Zinke distanced himself from the president-elect in confirmation hearing: ‘The climate is changing. The debate is what is that influence and what can we do’Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of interior, Ryan Zinke, distanced himself from the president-elect on Tuesday, saying “the climate is changing. The debate is what is that influence and what can we do”.

The initiative, which would apply to the UK if passed, would wipe out 44m tonnes of food waste every yearPeople are being urged to support calls by a major pan-European group to halve ‘farm to fork’ food waste in Europe by 2030, on the eve of a landmark vote later this month.The European parliament’s environment committee will vote on new regulations on 24 January, which are set to shape the next 15 years of EU food waste policy and have the potential to be the most ambitious, legally binding target on food waste in the world. Continue reading...

The argument for renewable energy is now a purely economic one – and the move away from coal will only pick up speedThe inauguration of President Trump this Saturday (Australian time) marks a radical change in the world as we know it. It ushers in the beginning of four years where progressive issues as far reaching as race equality, women’s health, nuclear and foreign policy, and of course climate change will be under sustained attack.Less than a year after the world agreed a historic climate pact in Paris, the US – the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas polluter – elected a man who wants to revive the glory days of coal, oil and gas. Continue reading...

The Green Investment Bank is a real success story. Publicly owned, it has helped fund innovative new smart green technologies to fight climate change and attracted capital to UK infrastructure.It is widely rumoured that Australian investment bank Macquarie is set to purchase the bank (Is May being green about Macquarie? 10 January). Yet, it makes absolutely no sense to sell it off, least of all to a company with Macquarie’s record of buying assets, stripping them, paying itself huge dividends and selling off what’s left. It has a similarly been criticised over its tax strategy. Press reports suggest Macquarie is already making plans to offload projects and assets after it has taken control of the bank, and the government would be powerless to do anything about it if the deal goes through. In last Wednesday’s exchange in the House of Commons, where I flagged up my concerns about Macquarie, the minister also refused to rule out investment in fracking projects by the future owner of the bank. Continue reading...

Woman whom president-elect mistook for his daughter on Twitter uses her 15 minutes of fame to speak out on environmentA digital consultant from Brighton whom Donald Trump mistook for his daughter on Twitter says she is more concerned by the prospect of a climate change denier in the White House than someone who makes slip-ups on social media.Ivanka Majic, 42, a former digital director for the Labour party, said it was “very surreal” to discover that the president-elect had retweeted a message intending to praise his daughter, Ivanka Trump, that included her Twitter name instead. Continue reading...

A new study shows the Northeast USA will reach the dangerous 2°C warming threshold faster than most of the rest of the planet

It was hoped bike-hire schemes would cut pollution and congestion but it seems some users just want to ride and dumpIt has been billed as a hi-tech bike-sharing boom that entrepreneurs hope will make them rich while simultaneously transforming China’s traffic-clogged cities.But, occasionally, dreams can turn sour. Continue reading...

Rockland, Norfolk It’s not uncommon to see two fight over fruit for minutes on end, each lunging alternately at the otherOur neighbours grow apples commercially and their five acres supply both the community in autumn and the thrushes during winter. Recently I fulfilled a long-held promise to erect a hide and watch the birds among the windfalls there. First I had to gather several barrowfuls of my own, which was itself a memorable exercise. While I raked the wasp-mined Bramleys my boots mulched down the flesh, sending up a sweet foetor and leaving geometrically patterned cakes of apple mud underfoot.Once I’d tipped 100lb of fruit in a sunlit heap by the hide, I retired to steep the whole scene in silence, before returning next day. Continue reading...

Economists and energy analysts question environmental and economic case for Matt Canavan’s coal pushResearch touted by the resources minister that reportedly suggests Australia can rely on coal to meet emissions reduction has been attacked by experts and appears to have been misreported.The Australian reported on Tuesday that research conducted by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science – and commissioned by Matt Canavan, the federal minister for resources – showed Australia could cut its emissions by 27% if it replaced its existing coal power stations with the more efficient “ultra-supercritical” technology. Continue reading...

Beijing’s chief climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, talks down fears that joint leadership shown by China and the US will be reversed under new presidentChina’s chief climate negotiator has attempted to calm fears that Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House will spell disaster for the fight against climate change.

Leonie the shark astounds researchers by producing live hatchlings after being separated from her mate in 2012A leopard shark in an Australian aquarium has reproduced asexually after being separated from her mate.It is the first reported case of a shark switching from sexual to asexual or parthenogenetic reproduction and only the third reported case among all vertebrate species. Continue reading...

Personal trainer Debbie Urquhart says she was running on a bush track when a two-metre-tall ‘big boy’ came out of nowhereA towering male kangaroo hit a Melbourne jogger “like a damn truck” in an attack that left her scratched, bleeding and needing emergency surgery.Debbie Urquhart, a personal trainer, said the “big boy” who came out of nowhere and knocked her down was two metres tall. Continue reading...

A video posted by Kim Joiner to Facebook shows an enormous alligator crossing in front of a group of tourists waiting with their smartphones ready Continue reading...

Report shows of 748 marine animals caught in 2015-16, 86% were threatened, protected or species not intended to be targeted by shark netsNine bottlenose dolphins, four common dolphins and one dolphin that was so decomposed that it could not be identified were caught in shark nets across 51 New South Wales beaches, according to the latest report on NSW’s controversial shark-meshing program.The report showed 748 marine animals became entangled in the nets in 2015-16.

Aircraft are gradually becoming more fuel efficient, but that’s not happening fast enough to keep up with the boom in flyingThe world’s airline industry adds to climate change. It burns the equivalent of more than 5m barrels of oil a day, adding up to around 2.5% of all carbon dioxide pollution, in addition to nitrogen oxides, soot and water vapour, which place an even bigger burden on the world’s climate.Aircraft are gradually becoming more fuel efficient, but that’s not happening fast enough to keep up with the huge boom in flying – since the 1970s, global air traffic has doubled in size roughly every 15 years. Flying is still cheap and budget airlines make it even more attractive, partly thanks to an international agreement reached in 1944 that prohibits tax on aviation fuel for international flights. Continue reading...

Scientists to be removed from Halley VI Research Station amid fears facility could slide into encroaching ice fissureThe British research base which first discovered the hole in the ozone layer is to close for the winter amid concerns it could fall into a giant ice chasm.Scientists will be removed from the Halley VI research station, which is run by the British Antarctic Survey and is situated on an ice shelf, between March and November as a “precautionary measure” because of fears it could slide into an encroaching fissure. Continue reading...

Prince Charles has been signed up by the publishers to write an expert’s book. But maybe readers nowadays prefer spoofsMy twins are “studying” Jack and the Beanstalk, and I’ve just packed them off to school with my battered copy of Ladybird’s Well-Loved Tales.I’ve collected a few old Ladybirds from car boot sales because they are beautiful and nostalgic, hailing from a time when truths were simpler and there was faith in the future. My favourite is The Story of Newspapers, a Ladybird Achievements Book that is testimony to the speed of terrifying technical obsolescence – and welcome progress. A drawing of a newsroom where all 14 journalists are men shows the past wasn’t always lovely. Continue reading...

ETI says technology is 10 times dearer than other low carbon power sources and UK should prioritise tidal streamAn embryonic industry trying to harness the UK’s waves to generate clean electricity has been dealt a significant blow by a warning that the technology is too costly.Wave power devices being tested in Cornwall and at Orkney are 10 times more expensive than other sources of low carbon power and need a radical rethink, the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) said. Continue reading...

Police checks last week found only one in 50 vehicles stopped had sticker despite them being available since JulyDrivers in Paris must display an anti-pollution sticker in their vehicles or face fines in the latest attempt by the French authorities to improve air quality.The sticker scheme, which became mandatory on Monday, includes cars, lorries, motorcycles and scooters, and bans some vehicles from the city during weekdays. Continue reading...

Huge demands for water present complicated challenges, but leaders will not resolve these kinds of interconnected risks without a systems approachProducing electricity from coal, gas and oil is a surprisingly thirsty business. The United States needs around 731,920 million litres a day (161,000m gallons) to produce and burn the nearly 900m tonnes of coal it uses each year to generate just a third of the nation’s electricity.In India, plans to produce 500 gigawatts of coal-fired electricity by 2040, will require at least 58bn cubic metres per year (pdf). And in China, about 15% of national water withdrawals are used for coal mining, processing, ash control, and for cooling of its coal-fired power plants. Continue reading...

Norway’s two-day city centre ban angers motorists who were encouraged to buy diesel vehicles in 2006Oslo will ban diesel cars from the road for at least two days this week to combat rising air pollution, angering some motorists after they were urged to buy diesel cars a few years ago.The ban will go into effect on Tuesday on municipal roads but will not apply on the national motorways that criss-cross the Norwegian capital. Better atmospheric conditions are expected on Thursday. Motorists violating the ban will be fined 1,500 kroner (£174). Continue reading...

The remaining climate change uncertainties point toward higher risks and greater urgency for action

Tourism in Montenegro is booming, but the approval of plans for a new ‘eco-resort’ has led to protests from conservationists who fear it will threaten a stunning national parkLike its Adriatic neighbour Croatia, Montenegro is a rapidly-growing travel destination: in 2016 there were nearly 1.5 million visits from international tourists – up 6.9% on 2015. But although the country is known for eco-tourism and as a “soft adventure” hotspot, tourism development hasn’t been without controversy.Despite local concern and protests, many concrete resorts have sprung up. In coastal Budva, for example, international developers were recently given permission to convert a second world war concentration camp on Mamula island into a luxury resort. Continue reading...

Australia’s environment minister says government ‘deeply disappointed’ after Sea Shepherd photos show minke whale killing in Antarctic sanctuaryAustralia’s federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has criticised Japan following the release of photographs allegedly showing the slaughtering of protected whales inside Australia’s Antarctic whale sanctuary.Frydenberg’s statement came as conservationists called for tougher action from Australia. Continue reading...

Sharp rise in discarded electronic goods is generating millions of tonnes of hazardous waste, putting pressure on valuable resources, study showsAsia’s mountains of hazardous electronic trash, or e-waste, are growing rapidly, new research reveals, with China leading the way.A record 16m tonnes of electronic trash, containing both toxic and valuable materials, were generated in a single year – up 63% in five years, new analysis looking at 12 countries in east and south-east Asia shows. Continue reading...

Cardigan Bay, Ceredigion Made up of rounded cobbles graded in size, this ‘causeway’ looks beguilingly like the work of our ancestorsThe amount of ice on the narrow footpath came as a surprise. Hidden from the sun on the south side of the valley, it had probably accumulated over a number of days – along with the layered, crusted frost on the nearby vegetation. Few people seemed to have walked this stretch of the Wales coast path recently; a fox crossing the track ahead and a briefly perched buzzard both seemed shocked to see me.As I reached the footbridge above the beach at Wallog, I folded away my heavily used Ordnance Survey map and consulted its nautical equivalent. While OS maps provide only scant information about the space beyond the coast, admiralty charts give detailed data on the underwater landscape – in this case the geological oddity that is Sarn Wallog.

Food retailers in UK and Europe aiming to cut plastic packaging by ditching stickers on fruits and vegetables, instead using hi-tech ‘natural branding’The humble fruit sticker may seem an unlikely cause for environmental concern but removing it from produce could create huge savings in plastic, energy and CO2 emissions.

Creating a sustainable community is about more than solar energy and recycled water, says the Green Building CouncilWith murder rates double, and robbery rates three times, the state average, the Sydney suburb of Blacktown is not an obvious choice as a world leader of sustainable living.But, in 2016, a new master-planned estate in the suburb became the first residential community in New South Wales to be awarded a top, six-star Green Star community rating by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA). Continue reading...

In the past, extreme weather and disastrous harvests have proved socially divisive. We have been warned, say climate researchersIn the winter of 1432-33 people in Scotland “had to use fire to melt the wine before drinking it” ran a line in the research about the coldest decade of winters in the last 1,000 years.

Overwhelming majority believe they are living with the effects of warming and 46% say coal-fired power should be phased outNinety per cent of people living in rural and regional Australia believe they are already experiencing the impacts of climate change and 46% believe coal-fired power stations should be phased out, according to a new study.A poll of 2,000 people conducted by the Climate Institute found that 82% of respondents in rural and regional Australia and 81% of those in capital cities were concerned about increased droughts, flooding and destruction of the Great Barrier Reef due to climate change, and 78% of all respondents were concerned there would be more bushfires. Continue reading...

You report (Tidal lagoon power is ‘reliable and affordable’, 13 January) that the Swansea Bay scheme “would be the first of its kind in the world”. In France, the Rance estuary plant has been operating since 1966. In Canada, in the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world, the plant at Annapolis Royal has been operating since being opened by Prince Charles in 1984. However, the French have no firm plans for more such plants and the Canadians have abandoned them altogether. In Canada, a major consideration has been the devastating impact on fish stocks.It seems to me that the major objective of the proposal might be to extract taxpayer funding for no useful purpose, and the government needs to study the proposals very carefully to ensure we do not end up with a number of very large white elephants in the Severn estuary.

Countryside campaigners fear ministers are set to weaken green belt protection in order to meet housebuilding targetsThe number of homes being planned on green belt land in England has increased to more than 360,000, according to countryside campaigners, who fear ministers are poised to weaken protections to meet ambitious building targets.The assessment by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) found that the number of homes planned on sites previously meant to block urban sprawl has risen from 81,000 in 2012 to 362,346, with the largest number slated for development in the north-west and east of England.

New supplier hopes to sign up 40,000 single variable tariff customers in first year, two months after collapse of GB Energy UKThe ranks of the 40-plus energy companies jostling for householders’ business will swell on Monday with the launch of a new supplier that delivers electricity from windfarms.Fischer Energy hopes to sign up 40,000 customers in the first year to its single variable tariff, with renewable power bought from Denmark’s Dong Energy. Continue reading...

Amount of electronic waste up 63% in five years, with China’s more than doubling, United Nations University report findsLevels of electronic waste are rising sharply across Asia, as higher incomes mean hundreds of millions of people can afford smartphones and other gadgets, according to a UN study.The amount of e-waste in Asia has risen by 63% in five years, a report by United Nations University said, warning of the need to improve recycling and disposal methods across the region to prevent serious environmental and health consequences. Continue reading...

Louisiana residents are starting to get involved in environmental issues and are making themselves heard about the disputed Bayou Bridge pipelineScott Eustis did not stop smiling for hours. The coastal wetland specialist with the Gulf Restoration Network was attending a public hearing in Baton Rouge. Its subject was a pipeline extension that would run directly through the Atchafalaya Basin, the world’s largest natural swamp. Eustis was surprised to be joined by more than 400 others.“This is like 50 times the amount of people we have at most of these meetings,” said Eustis, adding that the proposed pipeline was “the biggest and baddest I’ve seen in my career”. Continue reading...

Anti-whaling campaign group alleges it photographed Japanese whalers carrying out a slaughter inside Australia’s Antarctic whale sanctuaryAnti-whaling campaign group Sea Shepherd says it has photographed Japanese whalers carrying out a slaughter inside Australia’s Antarctic whale sanctuary, the same day the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was in Australia on a state visit.In the first documented killing since the international court of justice ruled Japan’s Antarctic whaling illegal in 2014, Sea Shepherd released photographs of what it says is a dead minke on the deck of the whaler Nisshin Maru at 11.34am on Sunday. Continue reading...

EU pledges £9m to help Britain turn niche market mainstreamNever mind hygge, the new Danish buzzword is folkeligt and it’s going to give Britain’s organic food industry a Scandi makeover.Organic supremos in both nations are drawing up plans for a charm offensive after securing €10.4m (£9m) from the EU to turbocharge industry growth. Britons spend only a tiny portion of their food budget on organics, and the marketing push aims to bring them into line with the Danes, who are the world’s biggest consumers of organic food and drink. Continue reading...

America’s national parks are facing multiple threats, despite being central to the frontier nation’s sense of itselfAutumn in the North Cascades National Park and soggy clouds cling to the peaks of the mountains that inspired the musings of Beat poets such as Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg 60 years ago. Sitting on a carpet of pine needles in the forest below, protected from the rain by a canopy of vine maple leaves, is a group of 10-year-olds listening to a naturalist hoping to spark a similar love of the outdoors in a new generation.This is one of 59 national parks which range across the United States, from the depths of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to the turrets of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. All – plus hundreds of monuments and historic sites – are run by the National Park Service (NPS), which celebrated its centenary last year. The parks were created so that America’s natural wonders would be accessible to everyone, rather than sold off to the highest bidder. Writer Wallace Stegner called them America’s best idea: “Absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.” Continue reading...

The go-ahead for the Swansea Bay project could help end fossil fuel reliance. But ministers have pulled the plug on other inventive schemesBritain’s west coast is facing a revolutionary change. If renewable energy advocates get their way, swaths of shoreline will soon be peppered with giant barrages designed to turn the power of the sea into electricity for our homes and factories. These tidal lagoons could supply more than 10% of the nation’s electricity, it is claimed.Last week former energy minister Charles Hendry published a review that strongly backed the construction of a £1.3 billion prototype lagoon in Swansea Bay. The trial project was a “no regrets option”, Hendry concluded. Continue reading...