Environment | The Guardian

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...

Global research group will trace Totten glacier’s history back to last ice age, in hope of predicting future melting patternsIn East Antarctica, 3,000km south of the West Australian town of Albany, an ice shelf the size of California is melting from below.The concerning trend was confirmed by Australian scientists in December, who reported that warming ocean temperatures were causing the rapid melt of the end of the Totten glacier, which is holding back enough ice to create a global sea rise of between 3.5 metres and six metres. Continue reading...

East coast residents have derided the severe storm warnings as ‘a load of rubbish’Police and Environment Agency officials today defended their decision to warn tens of thousands of people living near the east coast of England to leave their homes because they were at risk of flooding.Thousands were evacuated on Friday after the Environment Agency issued 17 severe weather warnings – which warn of danger to life – with people living in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex told they were most at risk. Continue reading...

The outdoor industry is leading the fight to protect America’s public lands from being developed for gas and oilUtah, a state rich in epic landscapes and national parks, is becoming ground zero for a fight between the $646bn outdoor industry and state lawmakers over public land management.At a trade show for outdoor clothing and gear makers in Salt Lake City this week, two prominent figures from the industry called on their peers to move the semi-annual event out of the state unless Utah leaders stop supporting efforts by Republicans in Congress to transfer or sell federal land to states. Utah governor Gary Herbert was also called out for challenging a federal law that allowed President Obama to create the new, 1.4m-acre Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah last month. Continue reading...

Evacuated residents allowed to return home as seven people rescued from sinking cargo ship off Kent coast

With former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson poised to lead US foreign policy, activists like Peter Willcox, skipper of the Rainbow Warrior, are needed more than ever. But are they losing their nerve?Dawn was breaking when the campaigners used slingshots to fire ropes on to the rig. But as they began to scale the Prirazlomnaya, aiming to unfurl a banner denouncing Russia’s attempts to drill for oil in the Arctic, their hopes of another successful Greenpeace “action” swiftly faded. They had been anticipating high-pressure hoses that sprayed freezing seawater at intruders. They weren’t prepared for balaclava-wearing soldiers shooting at their inflatable boats.One soldier grabbed the rope used by one of the climbers, slamming her body repeatedly against the rig. They captured two other activists. Then the Russians demanded to board the Greenpeace ship. But the Arctic Sunrise’s captain, Peter Willcox, fearing his boat would be seized, resisted. Continue reading...

Airedale, West Yorkshire A book from a century ago tells me when I might hear the ‘spring’ songs of each common songbirdThe robin has uncorked its spring song. This one – a male, I suspect, giving it some welly in the upper reaches of a bare horse chestnut – is the loudest, the fullest, I’ve heard so far.

As the protest against the Carmichael project – Australia’s largest proposed coalmine – moves beyond the courts and into the realm of civil disobedience, activists have a clear warning: ‘If you’re in bed with Adani, you’re a target’Across Australia a secretive network of activists are laying the groundwork for what they expect will be the biggest environmental protest movement in the country’s history.Of course this won’t materialise if Adani and the rest of the miners proposing to open up one of the world’s biggest coalfields walk away from Queensland’s Galilee basin first. Continue reading...

Police and military working to protect residents on east coast as snow disrupts travel in Scotland and the northThousands of people along England’s east coast are facing evacuation from their homes as life-threatening floods were expected to hit towns and villages at high tide on Friday night, while in Scotland and northern England snow has caused transport disruption.Police, the fire service and the army were called out to protect residents along the east coast with those in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex most at risk. Continue reading...

Wholesale cost rose 50% in 2016 as fish farmers from Scotland to Norway and Chile tried to tackle parasite problemYou may never have heard of Lepeophtheirus salmonis, and you’re unlikely to have spotted one, because they are usually less than 1.5cm long, but the humble sea louse is creating waves that are about to wash on to your dinner plate.Balanced on blinis, tucked into bagels or crafted into sushi, salmon has become an everyday luxury in the UK. But fans of seafood may be forced to take it off the menu as prices are expected to soar because of a surge in sea lice hitting production. Continue reading...

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

Police say they are not ‘crying wolf’ in asking residents in Jaywick, Mistley and West Mersea to leave homes immediatelyEssex police have insisted they are not “crying wolf” in urging residents in the coastal communities of Jaywick, Mistley and West Mersea to evacuate their homes immediately before expected severe flooding on Friday night.By early afternoon evacuees were beginning to arrive at emergency “rest centres” in Clacton and West Mersea. Continue reading...

Fighting meerkats, a posing leopard and rescued turtles are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world Continue reading...

Carmaker’s shares fall as French prosecutors launch inquiry just a day after US authorities charged Fiat ChryslerFrench prosecutors have announced they will investigate Renault over suspected “cheating” in emissions tests of diesel motors, causing shares in the carmaker to fall.Following a massive emissions scandal involving Volkswagen, independent French experts found dangerously high levels of emissions from diesel engines of several carmakers, including Renault, the Paris prosecutors office said on Friday.

Greenpeace study estimates air pollution kills more than 1 million Indians each year and cuts country’s GDP by 3%Not a single city in northern India meets international air quality standards, according to a Greenpeace report that estimates air pollution kills more than 1 million Indians each year and takes 3% off the country’s GDP.The report released this week also shows that levels of the most dangerous airborne pollutants grew by 13% in India between 2010 and 2015 but fell at least 15% over the same period in China, the US and Europe. Continue reading...

Langstone, Hampshire As the sparrowhawk swoops, corvids explode into the air like a firework starburstIt is the hour before sunset and the paddock is bathed in liquid gold light. Heavy rain and frost melt have saturated the soil and the turf is pockmarked with hoofprint craters. The horses’ coats and feathered fetlocks are caked with mud the colour of wet concrete. Huddling round an old tractor tyre stuffed with hay, they jostle each other for the best stalks.Related: Birdwatch: Sparrowhawk Continue reading...

Actor Jane Fonda criticises Justin Trudeau while speaking in Edmonton on Wednesday, saying the Canadian prime minister ‘betrayed’ what he committed to in the Paris climate talks. Fonda says people should not be fooled by ‘good-looking liberals’ such as Trudeau, who disappointed her by approving pipelines from the Alberta oil sands

Canadian prime minister ‘betrayed’ what he committed to in Paris climate talks and ‘disappointed’ her by approving oil pipelines, political activist and actor saidActor Jane Fonda has said that people should not be fooled by “good-looking liberals” such as the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who “disappointed” her by approving pipelines from the Alberta oil sands.Fonda said after touring the oil sands area that environmentalists everywhere were impressed by Trudeau at the Paris climate conference in late 2015. Continue reading...

George Monbiot makes many good points (Farmers fear life outside the EU, but it could mean a rebirth for rural Britain, 11 January), including free markets’ impact on small farmers whose incomes fall in times of plenty. He could have said more on food security. Climate change, including gas escapes from frozen deposits, is a growing threat but pests, diseases, routine weather and even large volcanic eruptions (eg Tambora, 1815) can create havoc. So who is actually responsible for food security, here or abroad?“Britain can always import” is the reply despite a falling pound, but a recent Russian drought caused a grain export ban which could spread if global supplies struggled. Fisheries are exhausted, good British land is vanishing under development, yet nobody wants the bill for food storage. Instead surplus food yields quick profits via livestock feed, biofuels, brewing or even cosmetics. Continue reading...

But Shell Australia’s Andrew Smith says onshore gas production ban will lead to price hikes for Victorian manufacturersAustralia’s gas companies have manufactured a myth that there is a gas shortage, an economist with the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis, Bruce Robertson, said.The idea that onshore coal seam gas exploration would ease pain for manufacturers by bringing down high local gas prices in a low-price global environment “goes against basic economic theory”, he said. Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s trade and immigration policies will protect big agriculture but leave smaller businesses to failThe most significant event in food and agriculture over the past year did not take place on our farms. Nor did it occur in our factories, in our restaurants or on our kitchen tables. It happened in the voting booth.Rural voters turned out in overwhelming support of Donald Trump, throwing a Hail Mary pass against the growing economic hardship felt by these communities. Caught in a toxic cycle of depressed commodity prices, rising debt and plummeting income, it comes as no surprise that American farmers voted en masse for change and the hope of different leadership with new ideas. Continue reading...

The car company installed software in multiple models that ‘increases air pollution’ for three years, in violation of the Clean Air Act, EPA claimsThe US Environmental Protection Agency has accused a second major car company, Fiat Chrysler, of cheating on its diesel emissions testing by using secret software applications in multiple models.Related: Six Volkswagen executives charged with fraud over emissions cheating Continue reading...

The threat posed to bees by neonicotinoid pesticides is greater than perceived in 2013 when the EU adopted a partial ban, new report concludesEurope should expand a ban on bee-harming pesticides in light of a new report warning of widespread risks to agriculture and the environment, Greenpeace has said.

Ex-energy minister Charles Hendry urges ministers to approve plans, which could provide UK with reliable and clean electricityMinisters have been urged to stop dithering and strike a subsidy deal for a pioneering tidal lagoon in Wales, after a government-commissioned report enthusiastically backed the technology as a reliable source of indigenous, affordable and clean energy.Charles Hendry, a former energy minister, said his independent review of tidal power had concluded a small trial lagoon at Swansea Bay was a “no regrets option” that could open the way to at least five other full-scale projects around the UK. Continue reading...

Chinese companies plan to spend $1bn building a giant solar farm on land contaminated by the nuclear disaster in Ukraine, reports Climate News NetworkIt was the worst nuclear accident in history, directly causing the deaths of 50 people, with at least an additional 4,000 fatalities believed to be caused by exposure to radiation.

The co-chair of parliament’s all-party cycling committee introduces its inquiry into how cyclists are treated by the police and courtsWhat stops more people from cycling? The answer is clear: too many people feel unsafe using Britain’s roads.Almost two-thirds of people agree with the statement, “It is too dangerous for me to cycle on the roads.” Yet roads are too often all that people have available to them. Continue reading...

Sandy, Bedfordshire In the concrete underpass, chemicals leach and stain, yet here the sun can pierce blight with beautyTwo bridges cross the river, 300 metres and an aesthetic mile apart. A little downstream, 18th-century builders had carried the old Great North Road over the Ivel in the only way they knew, fashioning pretty arches from local stone and a humpbacked road wide enough for two carriages to pass.Here, their 20th-century counterparts twinned it with something bigger. Committed to a four-lane, prosaically named A1, they used an all-prevailing material that could be relied on for strength, durability and ugliness. Continue reading...

Proposed plant would would be run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and produce liquid hydrogen for use in vehiclesVictorian government plans to work with a Japanese company to produce hydrogen from brown coal in the Latrobe Valley are “a way of making brown coal look green”, according to one expert.The proposed plant, which would be run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries as part of their Kawasaki Hydrogen Road project, would produce liquid hydrogen that would then be exported to Japan to be used in hydrogen-powered vehicles. Continue reading...

Energy giant failed to declare donations it made to NSW major parties at a time when it was seeking development approvals for projects on state’s mid-north coastEnergy giant AGL has been fined $124,000 for failing to declare political donations it made to the New South Wales Labor, Liberal and National parties.The penalty, handed down in the NSW Land and Environment Court on Thursday, comes after AGL last year pleaded guilty to 11 counts of breaking political disclosure laws between January 2008 and April 2014. Continue reading...

Environment minister says she will not allow US TV network Nickelodeon to build park on pristine Palawan islandThe Philippine environment minister has said the US children’s television network Nickelodeon will not be allowed to build an underwater theme park on one of the country’s most pristine islands.Nickelodeon’s parent firm announced on Monday it would build a themed attraction inspired by its cartoon characters such as Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants as part of a 400-hectare (1,000-acre) development on Palawan, generating alarm from environmentalists. Continue reading...

Caroline Lucas criticises proposed sale to Macquarie due to Australian firm’s ‘appalling track record of asset-stripping’Theresa May has been urged to stop the Green Investment Bank being “killed off” by a sale to private firm Macquarie, amid fears the assets will be stripped and its environmental purpose abandoned.MPs from across the parties raised concerns about the proposed sale in the House of Commons, after Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green party, called a debate arguing the whole process should be stopped. Continue reading...

Boreholes set up by local conservationists are saving drought-stricken elephants in Hwange national parkAs a drought-inducing El Niño settled over southern Africa in 2016, the animals of Hwange national park in Zimbabwe faced desperate water shortages.During a heatwave in October, conservation worker Prince Sansole spotted an elephant partially submerged in a muddy pool. His movements initially looked no different from the water games routinely played by the giant creatures. Only a closer look revealed that the young bull was in trouble, struggling to get up. His limp trunk kept dropping back into the water, unable to catch a fresh breath. Continue reading...

Now a fossil fuel executive will run America’s foreign policy, right out in the open. Donald Trump gets credit for a kind of barbaric transparencyIn one of the futile demonstrations that marked the run-up to the Iraq war, I saw a woman with a sign that read “How Did Our Oil End Up Under Their Sand?” In nine words she managed to sum up a great deal of American foreign policy, back at least as far as the 1953 coup that overthrew Mossadegh in Iran and helped toss the Middle East into its still-boiling cauldron.If the Senate approves Rex Tillerson after his testimony on Wednesday, they’ll be continuing in that inglorious tradition – in fact, they’ll be taking it to a new height, and cutting out the diplomats who have traditionally played the middleman role. Continue reading...

Rising temperatures and crop farming mean birds are disappearing from parts of England, says study, while butterflies and dragonflies are faring betterClimate change has already led to the vanishing of some bird species in parts of England, where intensively farmed land gives them no room to adapt to warming temperatures. The revelation, in a new scientific study, contradicts previous suggestions that birds are tracking global warming by shifting their ranges.The research found that birds that prefer cooler climes, such as meadow pipits, willow tits and willow warblers, have disappeared from sites in south-east England and East Anglia, where intensive crop growing is common. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire In this miniature pool had fallen a gunk of seeds and leaves, and lawns of algae had spreadSomething about the fencepost grabbed my attention, and instead of watching the path winding through dark trees against the orchestral sweep of a January sky, I picked out small visual notes: moss, water, tree rings on the post.I’d passed this way 100 times; each time was different and each time I’d been looking elsewhere. What brought the fencepost into focus this time? Perhaps it was the dissimilitude of small birds in the trees: blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, robins, so different from each other yet similar in their size and movement, their little mutterings under breath made me notice smaller details. Continue reading...

Wildlife officers warn heavy rains influencing ‘unexpected’ crocodile movements after 1.5 metre reptile initially mistaken for palm frondWildlife officers were called to remove a saltwater crocodile near a children’s playground in far north Queensland on Tuesday, amid warnings that heavy rains were seeing the dangerous reptiles turning up in “unexpected places”.The 1.5 metre crocodile was spotted by residents in a grass area opposite a caravan park playground in Bramston Beach, near Cairns. Continue reading...

Rusty patched bumblebee population plunged nearly 90% since the late 1990sThe rusty patched bumblebee, a prized but vanishing pollinator once familiar to much of North America, was listed on Tuesday as an endangered species, becoming the first wild bee in the continental United States to gain such federal protection.

Australian Power Project launched by former AGL spokesman, with assistance from former Malcolm Turnbull advisor, aims to give a voice to businesses ‘crippled’ by high energy costsA ‘clean coal’ advocacy organisation which is opposed to higher renewable energy targets and seeks to give a voice for businesses “being crippled by massive gas and electricity bills” has been launched by a former spokesman for AGL, with apparent assistance from a former advisor to Malcolm Turnbull.The Australian Power Project, which appears to have launched in late 2016, calls for businesses affected to share their stories and urges government to take a “middle road” in energy policy, and has been quoted in media reports. Continue reading...

The national railway company, NS, said that its renewables target had been met a year earlier than plannedAll Dutch trains have become 100% powered by electricity generated by wind energy, the national railway company NS has said .“Since 1 January, 100% of our trains are running on wind energy,” said NS spokesman, Ton Boon. Continue reading...

Chinadialogue interviews two sociologists who have documented the hidden lives of waste pickers in recycling communities on the outskirts of BeijingRarely do we stop and question where our waste goes and who collects and sorts it. Waste pickers work at the margins of our lives, removing things we don’t want to see. In a new book, The Life of Waste, sociologists Wu Ka Ming and Zhang Jieying describe these unknown lives that play out on the outskirts of Beijing. They visit the village of Lengshui, 50km north of Beijing, home to a community of waste pickers.Part of this world is as one might expect it to be. Piles of rubbish and pools of foul water gather, while pets and children play in the waste. Yet homes are often spotless, as if domestic life becomes more orderly the more chaotic the surroundings. The families from all over China form close-knit communities that extend beyond blood relationships. Chinadialogue (CD) spoke to the authors about life in these recycling communities. Continue reading...

A letter released today contains signatures from 530 companies including Campbell Soup and Johnson & Johnson, urging the president-elect to take actionMore than 600 businesses and investors signed and released a letter on Tuesday urging president-elect Donald Trump to fight climate change – a move that coincides with the start of the Senate hearings to confirm his cabinet nominees, who are poised to gut existing climate policies.The letter contains signatures from roughly 200 more companies and investors than when it was initially submitted after the election in November, including Campbell Soup, Johnson & Johnson and the New York State Retirement Fund. The previous plea was signed by companies like Monsanto, eBay, Levi Strauss and Staples. Continue reading...

Imperial College and climate change charity 10:10 to focus on connecting solar panels directly to train lines, reports BusinessGreenImperial College London has partnered with the climate change charity 10:10 to investigate the use of track-side solar panels to power trains, the two organisations announced yesterday.The renewable traction power project will see university researchers look at connecting solar panels directly to the lines that provide power to trains, a move that would bypass the electricity grid in order to more efficiently manage power demand from trains. Continue reading...

In the Spectator, the GWPF keeps denying facts and reality

Snow leopards are showing up on camera traps in places they’d never been seen before – thanks to an innovative programme in Kyrgyzstan.

Danny Henricks was spear fishing off the north Queensland coast when a bull shark shot out of the depths towards him. Luckily, he had the presence of mind to thrust the spear towards the charging shark, which became impaled. Henricks said of the terrifying encounter, which occurred in December: ‘I lunged forward with the gun a little bit just before he got there but most of it was his force.’ Henricks told the ABC he held on to the spear – which was driven through the shark’s mouth – before abandoning it and swimming to the surface Continue reading...

£1.3bn plan is seen as ‘pathfinder’ for six bigger plants, which could generate more than 10% of UK’s electricityPlans for a pioneering tidal power lagoon in Swansea Bay are expected to be supported by a government-commissioned report this week, potentially unlocking a multibillion-pound series of projects harnessing electricity from the rise and fall of the tide around the UK.When ministers last year ordered a review to see if the technology could affordably provide green energy to the UK, it was widely seen as a way to kill off an ambitious project at Swansea proposed by Tidal Lagoon Power. Continue reading...

Credit card bill was $2.2m last year, and was also used to spend $347 at a jewellery store, $898 at a bike shop and $5,000 at JB Hi-Fi