The senator who started out as an anti-pokies campaigner is likely to be leading a new, significant political force after the pollIf Malcolm Turnbull wins the election, Nick Xenophon could help him introduce emissions trading, stop some of his company tax cuts, frustrate his attempts to cut Gonski schools funding and stall some of his sweeping changes to superannuation. If Bill Shorten wins, Xenophon could force big changes to Labor’s centrepiece policy on negative gearing.

Norway issues licences for fresh areas of exploration for the first time in 20 years as part of what minister calls ‘a new chapter’ for petroleum industryNorway awarded Arctic drilling licences to 13 oil companies on Wednesday, including in a hitherto unexplored part of the Barents Sea, drawing condemnation from environmental groups.Related: Licence to drill: Centrica awarded rights to explore Barents Sea Continue reading...

Districts with nearly 40m will compare water supply and demand assuming that dry conditions will stretch for three years, but some say it’s a tough decisionCalifornia decided Wednesday to allow hundreds of local water districts to set their own conservation goals after a wet winter eased the five-year drought in some parts of the state.The new approach lifts a statewide conservation order enacted last year that requires at least a 20% savings. Continue reading...

This election is Australia’s last chance to save the reef, which requires $1bn a year for 10 years to reduce water pollution to give it a chance to survive climate change, report warnsThe 2016 Australian election is the last opportunity to save the Great Barrier Reef, the authors of a new scientific paper have warned.The government needs to commit to $1bn a year for 10 years to reduce water pollution, which would give the reef a chance to survive the impacts of climate change, according to the paper published in the journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. Continue reading...

The more than 88,000 Fort McMurray residents evacuated during the wildfire must wait until June to begin a phased re-entry plan, says Alberta premierThe wildfire in northern Alberta continues to rage out of control, growing to more than 423,000 hectares as officials said it would be at least another two weeks before the tens of thousands of evacuated Fort McMurray residents would be allowed to return to the city.

The kiteboard and duck hunting club rebuilt levies, added two helipads, and created a lounge area on the tiny island near Silicon Valley without a permitAn exclusive kiteboarding club on a tiny island – just a 15-minute helicopter ride away from Silicon Valley – has been threatened with a $4.6m fine by a California state water agency, which is accusing the club’s owner of damaging tidal wetlands.Since purchasing the tiny island, the Point Buckler Club, in 2011, John Sweeney, a former professional sailor and advertising executive, has rebuilt levies, added two helipads, and built a lounge area featuring dark green shipping containers, astroturf, a wood burning stove, and bright orange styling to achieve what he describes on Facebook as a “Sunset Magazine look circa 1960s”. Continue reading...

Almost 90% of Americans throw away food prematurely. Two bills introduced in Congress today aim to avoid confusion by simplifying food labelingThe US Senate and the House of Representatives today introduced bills to clarify the rules regarding expiration date labels on food. The current labeling system means an estimated 8m lbs of food is thrown away prematurely every year.The bills, from Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep Chellie Pingree (D-ME), aim to standardize America’s food date labeling system. Instead of the many different dates currently in use, the new system would have just two – one to indicate peak quality and another for use on products, such as deli meat and unpasteurized cheese, that could make people ill if eaten after a certain date. Continue reading...

A protest planned outside the company headquarters in Sydney will be matched by others around the world by people affected by Glencore minesThe McArthur River mine in the Northern Territory – one of the world’s biggest zinc, lead and silver mines – must shut immediately and owner Glencore must cover the clean-up costs, say traditional owners who will protest outside the company’s headquarters in Sydney on Thursday. Continue reading...

Owner of British Gas criticised by Greenpeace for risking safety by drilling in Alaskan ArcticCentrica has walked into new controversy by obtaining a licence to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic.The owner of British Gas, fresh from rows over annual domestic energy profits, has been awarded rights to explore in the Barents Sea off Norway. Continue reading...

Adam Ramsay’s sincerity cannot be doubted (The Greens can still reshape Britain’s political landscape, 17 May). He eloquently puts the case for a better society. The problem is the way he proposes to get there.Despite statements to the contrary, the Green party has never been a leftwing party. Common ownership of the means of production is not party policy. It does share common values of fairness and mutualism with liberals, social democrats and some socialists. But that doesn’t of itself make the party leftwing. Continue reading...

London is one of the most polluted cities in Europe. We cannot keep this under wraps if we are to address the problem (Johnson ‘buried’ study linking toxic air and deprived schools, 17 May).The dangerously high pollution levels in the city are harmful to everyone – they’re associated with asthma, premature births, lung cancer and heart disease. For children though, the risk is even higher. Their exposure to air pollution is much greater than adults’, and studies show that they absorb pollutants and retain them in the body for longer. Continue reading...

The Church of England’s Shrinking the Footprint campaign is encouraging dioceses, cathedrals and parishes to reduce energy bills and lower carbon emissions through practical steps, from installing energy-efficient lightbulbs to switching to renewable energy (Blessed be the solar roof installers, Letters, 17 May).More than 400 churches, church buildings and vicarages already have solar panels installed, with other developments including the first carbon-neutral churches. Other measures adopted have included the installation of ground source heat pumps in some churches. Continue reading...

Country’s low emissions action plan cannot be undone even by a Donald Trump presidency, but it may put global cooperation on climate change at riskThe US would still meet its obligations under the Paris accord on climate change if Donald Trump were elected president, a senior US administration official has told the Guardian.He said the path of the US towards a lower-carbon economy was already set, and was dependent on market forces that would not easily succumb to political tinkering. Continue reading...

US brands are increasingly turning to recycled nylon to make everything from outerwear to skateboardsThree years ago, David Stover, Ben Kneppers and Kevin Ahearn quit their jobs in finance and co-founded Bureo, a Los Angeles-based company that makes skateboards and sunglasses from recycled nylon.Related: Recycling old fishing nets to limit environmental damage Continue reading...

Arson attacks and eviction at gunpoint for plantations driving many to despair and take their own livesThe small Apy Ka’y community of around 150 Guarani Indians has lived in squalor by the side of Highway BR 463 in southern Brazil since 2009. Since then, they have been forced out three times by unknown gunmen, had their makeshift camp burned down twice by arsonists and three young people from the group have killed themselves.

Women now hold six of the most influential positions at global climate talks, but can they make a difference on the ground? Climate Home reportsWhisper it quietly, but a gender revolution is taking place at the global climate change negotiations.As of 17 May, the six most influential positions within the UN process are all held by women, a significant increase on last year’s total of two. Continue reading...

Thanks to the great western commons, which the Bundys and their legislative champions would like to dismantle, all Americans still enjoy the freedom to roam on some of the most spectacular lands on the planetIt goes without saying that in a democracy, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions. The trouble starts when people think they are also entitled to their own facts.

The ability to cooperate and coordinate will mean the difference between looking forward with hope to the future or facing catastrophic climate changeIn 1972 the law was passed that allowed the UK to join what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC). Despite Europe’s current crises, it’s unchanging, fundamental challenge was expressed that year by Sicco Mansholt, then president of the European commission, probably better than by any of the current voices in the referendum campaign, whether for or against UK remaining in. Continue reading...

Whether you are taking part in protests or live in an area threatened by proposals we’d like to hear from youResidents of Kirby Misperton in north Yorkshire wait in anticipation to hear whether a planning application to frack a well near the village will be approved or not.Related: In the timeless Yorkshire moors of my childhood, the frackers are poised to start drilling Continue reading...

Zero emission milestone reached as country is powered by just wind, solar and hydro-generated electricity for 107 hoursPortugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures.Electricity consumption in the country was fully covered by solar, wind and hydro power in an extraordinary 107-hour run that lasted from 6.45am on Saturday 7 May until 5.45pm the following Wednesday, the analysis says. Continue reading...

Even eco-protesters show by their actions the disconnection between humanity and the rest of the animate world – which just wants us to leave it aloneThis spring is proving to be spectacular when it comes to its quota of sea monsters. As if reports of a sea serpent in the Thames and the Loch Ness monster being “found” weren’t enough, reality bites back with some true-life beasts beyond all expectation.A bizarre beaked whale washes up on an Australian beach like a primeval message from prehistory. A narwhal, complete with spiralling tusk out of some medieval bestiary, turns up in a Dutch estuary. And last Sunday a bowhead whale – an animal that may reach 300 years in age, and which surpasses all description with its huge, arching mouth filled with plates of fibrous baleen four metres long – surfaced off Cornwall, 1,000 miles and an ocean away from its designated domain. Continue reading...

Ambitious scheme to channel water from regions with a surplus to drought-prone areas could begin in days, but Bangladesh has raised concernsIndia is set to start work on a massive, unprecedented river diversion programme, which will channel water away from the north and west of the country to drought-prone areas in the east and south. The plan could be disastrous for the local ecology, environmental activists warn.The project involves rerouting water from major rivers including the Ganges and Brahmaputra and creating canals to link the Ken and Batwa rivers in central India and Damanganga-Pinjal in the west. Continue reading...

London’s former mayor says he knew about the report showing deprived schools were disproportionately affected by air pollution, so why wasn’t it made public?The former mayor of London’s response to claims he buried a report on how toxic air disproportionately affects deprived schools was trademark Boris Johnson bluster. To allege there was a cover-up was “absurd” and “risible”, he said. Of course he hadn’t hid the impact of dirty air.But in defending his record on air pollution, he also seemed to make things worse. On Monday we didn’t know if Johnson himself was personally aware of the findings of the unpublished report that the new mayor Sadiq Khan accuses him of suppressing. Continue reading...

Government plans to fell Poland’s Białowieża forest have divided families, led to death threats against green campaigners and allegations of an ‘environmental coup’ by government and state timber interestsEurope’s last primeval forest is facing what campaigners call its last stand as loggers prepare to start clear-cutting trees, following the dismissal of dozens of scientists and conservation experts opposed to the plan.

Environment minister refuses to admit Coalition has to change climate policies if it is to meet emissions reduction targetGreg Hunt – aka “the best minister in the world”* – is certainly hitting his key performance indicators when it comes to avoiding questions.

More than 30 green groups sign statement after damning report says extending regional forestry agreements ‘would constitute an irrational decision on environmental, economic and social grounds’More than 30 environmental groups have signed a statement demanding that agreements allowing the logging of Australian native forests not be renewed.Australia’s 10 regional forestry agreements (RFAs) were signed between 1997 and 2001, each running for 20 years, with the first two expiring in 2017. Continue reading...

Campaigners are seeking an explanation from officials on their level of knowledge about the dangers of a chemical mandated for sheep dippingGovernment officials have been criticised for an ongoing delay in explaining what they knew about the serious health risks to farmers of using a mandatory chemical treatment.As the Guardian revealed last year, at least 500 farmers across the UK were left with debilitating health problems after using organophosphate-based (OP) chemicals to protect their sheep against parasites, under the government’s compulsory dipping programme which ran up until 1992.

Parracombe, Exmoor From the greenery sounds the first cuckoo, so I follow tradition and run about to ensure the luck of liveliness for the rest of the yearOn the northern side of Exmoor luminous beech hedges thread upland fields and mark the onset of spring; regularly flailed banks flaunt drapes of fresh leaves, and sturdy trunks are topped with diaphanous crowns.Swallows, which have just arrived, twitter and swoop around a sheltered farmstead; mud has dried up and dusty ways are edged in uncurling ferns, stunted bluebells, leafy foxgloves and a sprinkling of white stitchwort. Continue reading...

The fossil fuel industry, fee-hungry lawyers, banks and those that stay silent are profiting from the reef’s destruction. It’s time for them to say no moreIt’s the worst crisis ever to hit the Great Barrier Reef and the extent of the devastation is only just coming to light. The reef is in the middle of the worst bleaching event ever seen, with unusually warm water killing as much as half the corals in the northern sections, with the trend set to continue for the next 20 years.Who’s to blame for this destruction? And which businesses are profiting from the activities that are causing this havoc?

Trust sets unusual terms because property in North Wales is on land that requires time-intensive, ‘nature first’ approach

Commissioner says decision not to proceed made after legal advice from prosecutorsTasmania police have dropped charges against the former Greens leader Bob Brown over a protest at a logging site in the state’s north-west.The 71-year-old was among several people charged after they allegedly failed to comply with directions to leave a business access area. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Market Forces says halt to refinancing existing loans would also test banks’ support for 2C warming targetAustralia’s big four banks could act on their stated ambition to help achieve a 2C warming target simply by giving no new loans to coal projects, analysis by financial activists Market Forces reveals.Such a move – including a halt to refinancing existing loans – would virtually empty the banks’ loan book of the $8bn they are lending to coal in just five years. Continue reading...

There are critics on the sidelines who say the Green party isn’t needed any more. But without it, vital policies will slide down the agendaThe next leader of the Green party will have one big question to address: what is the party for? Since its birth in the 1980s it has pursued an erratic course. If it was a bird, its flight pattern would be like a nuthatch’s, off the ground but sometimes breathtakingly close to it. At first it was unquestionably a single issue green party, preoccupied with issues around sustainability that it fought to make fashionable. From the early 1990s, it became an environmental party with social policies. At the last general election it was an anti-austerity party, the fate of the planet reduced to only one of six objectives. Now that Natalie Bennett, after four years as leader, is standing down to give her successor time to refresh its appeal before the next election, serious thinking is needed. Is it a potential party of government, or is it a party that seeks to disrupt and to challenge? What sort of a leader does it need; why does it still matter?The well-liked Ms Bennett, a former Guardian journalist, retires after a respectable if not dazzling tenure. She campaigned hard on the doorstep, and the results in the elections earlier this month were reasonable, if not quite as good as had seemed possible after the general election when the party won a record million-plus votes. It held on to its only parliamentary seat in Brighton, home of its former (and possibly future) leader Caroline Lucas. Membership is at a record high, up from 13,000 to 60,000 in the course of Ms Bennett’s leadership, ahead of Ukip, and on level pegging with the Lib Dems. Yet that moment in early 2015 when the Greens challenged for the space left by a lacklustre Labour party clinging cautiously to the centre ground came and went. And under the constraints of first past the post, an insurgent party can only break through on the back of strong local organisations that, outside Brighton, the Greens lack. Its standing in the polls now seems static at around 5%. Continue reading...

Thai authorities have closed the celebrated scuba-diving destination to visitors – but it’s not the first ‘honeypot’ site to take such actionRelated: Thailand closes 'overcrowded' Koh Tachai island to touristsThe trouble for Koh Tachai was that its beaches were just a little too white, its coral reef too colourful, its marine life too dazzling. Now you can’t go there, because Thai authorities have shut it to tourists – the latest and most drastic response to a booming and increasingly itinerant global population. Continue reading...

Nitrogen compounds from fertilisers and animal waste drifting over industrial regions is combining to form fine particulate pollution, report findsFarming is the biggest single cause of the worst air pollution in Europe, a new study has found, as nitrogen compounds from fertilisers and animal waste drift over industrial regions.When the nitrogen compounds are mixed with air already polluted from industry, they combine to form solid particles that can stick in the fine lung tissue of children and adults, causing breathing difficulties, impaired lungs and heart function, and eventually even premature death. Continue reading...

More cycling, better public transport and car bans - cities from Delhi to Zurich are using a range of initiatives to lower traffic pollution and improve healthParis

London’s new mayor must re-define the nature of the job if he’s to make a real difference on transport, housing, policing and social exclusion in the capitalThe euphoria surrounding Sadiq Khan’s election as London’s new mayor is now giving way to the annoying persistence of reality. The fact of his being a Muslim has generated headlines round the world and a transatlantic set-to with Donald Trump. The symbolism of Khan prevailing in the face of the muck thrown at him by Zac Goldsmith and his media allies is glorious. But now the hard graft of keeping the promises he made to voters has begun. It’s time to think about what Khan could achieve in his new job over the next four years.Too often since its creation at the start of the century the London mayoralty has been seen as little more than a showman’s platform, its powers and influence dismissed as insignificant. Khan’s passion for winning City Hall and the purposeful way he went about it suggest a politician equipped to make full use of the potential of his office and re-define it as an institution. What will qualify as success? Continue reading...

With debate surrounding EU subsidies we want to know what the vote will mean for those working in agriculture

2017 finance bill will set price at €30 a tonne in a bid to stir European action to cut emissions and drive forward the Paris climate agreementFrance will set a carbon price floor of about €30 ($33.95) a tonne in its 2017 finance bill as the government seeks to kickstart broader European action to cut emissions and drive forward last year’s landmark international climate accord.

With crippling quotas and endless regulations all over the country we want to know what the vote will mean for those working in fishing

Report by Wrap says 18% of 270,000 tonnes of edible food waste was redistributed to charities for food banksMore than 400m meals’ worth of edible food waste in the UK grocery supply chain could be redistributed to feed hungry people each year, according to a government-funded report.Just 18% of the 270,000 tonnes of potentially edible food waste produced last year was redistributed to businesses or charities for use in food banks, according to analysis by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (Wrap). Continue reading...

French president backs project despite fears that £18bn price tag could bankrupt EDF, which is 85% state-ownedFrançois Hollande has renewed his support for the controversial nuclear project planned by the French energy company EDF at Hinkley Point in Britain.“I am in favour that this project goes ahead,” the French president told Europe 1 radio on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Report’s author says City Hall publicised positive conclusions but held back the finding that deprived schools were disproportionately affected by toxic airThe author of a report on how London’s illegal air pollution disproportionately affects deprived schools has said City Hall under Boris Johnson held back the study’s negative findings, while publicising the positive ones.The Guardian revealed an unpublished Greater London authority (GLA) report on Monday that showed how deprived schools in the capital were disproportionately affected by toxic air, leading the new mayor, Sadiq Khan, to accuse Johnson of burying the report. Continue reading...

Algal bloom ‘of biblical proportions’ has led to protests and health emergency as concerns raised over dumping of rotting salmon in oceanChilean authorities are investigating the country’s salmon-farming industry after an algal bloom carrying a virulent neurotoxin spread for hundreds of miles along the rugged coastline of Patagonia, triggering a health emergency and angry protests by fishermen.The huge “red tide” has grown rapidly over recent weeks, in what has been described as the country’s worst environmental crisis in recent years: dozens of people have been poisoned by the algal bloom which makes seafood toxic and has deprived thousands of fishermen of a living. Continue reading...

The Catalan capital’s radical new strategy will restrict traffic to a number of big roads, drastically reducing pollution and turning secondary streets into ‘citizen spaces’ for culture, leisure and the communityIn the latest attempt from a big city to move away from car hegemony, Barcelona has ambitious plans. Currently faced with excessive pollution and noise levels, the city has come up with a new mobility plan to reduce traffic by 21%. And it comes with something extra: freeing up nearly 60% of streets currently used by cars to turn them into so-called “citizen spaces”. The plan is based around the idea of superilles (superblocks) – mini neighbourhoods around which traffic will flow, and in which spaces will be repurposed to “fill our city with life”, as its tagline says.This plan will start in the famous gridded neighbourhood of Eixample. That revolutionary design, engineered by Ildefons Cerdà in the late 19th century, had at its core the idea that the city should breathe and – for both ideological and public health reasons – planned for the population to be spread out equally, as well as providing green spaces within each block. Reality and urban development have, however, got the best of it, and as the grid lines became choked with cars, the city’s pollution and noise levels have skyrocketed. What was once a design to make Barcelona healthier, now has to be dramatically rethought for the same reasons. Continue reading...

More than 100 of the world’s poorest and most poorly governed countries have no or limited monitoring of the polluted air their citizens are breathingMore than 1 billion people live in countries that do not monitor the air they breathe, according to data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Pricing carbon is key to spurring the quick deployment of existing low-carbon technologies that we need

Greenpeace slams ‘insane’ plan for dozens of power plants, with huge implications for air quality and climate changePlans by Japan to build dozens of coal-fired power stations will cause at least 10,000 premature deaths, according to a study, as the country struggles to fulfil its climate change obligations five years after the Fukushima disaster closed down almost all of its nuclear plants.

Andaman Sea island to close for indefinite period from October as record numbers of tourists threaten beaches and coral reefsThailand has closed an island in the Andaman Sea to visitors in an attempt to ease the negative effects of tourism on its once-pristine beaches and surrounding coral reefs.Koh Tachai, an island in the famous Similan national park in south-west Thailand, would close for an “indefinite period” from 15 October, the Bangkok Post reported. Continue reading...