Caribbean Princess discharged thousands of gallons of polluted bilge waste along British coast, while other ships used rigged sensors to hide contaminationPrincess Cruise Lines will pay a US$40m penalty after pleading guilty to seven federal charges in an illegal ocean pollution case that involved one ship’s use of a so-called magic pipe to divert oily waste into the waters.Miami US attorney Wifredo Ferrer told a news conference the penalty was the largest ever of its kind. A plea agreement filed in federal court also requires Carnival, the UK and US-listed parent company of the Princess line, to submit 78 cruise ships across its eight brands to a five-year environmental compliance programme overseen by a judge. Continue reading...

The federal and Queensland governments are risking the reef being put on Unesco’s in-danger list with their coal obsession and shoddy progress reportIf you’ve ever visited the Great Barrier Reef, or are one of the 70,000 people whose job relies upon it, you know why it’s considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world.Yet it faces more pressure than ever before, from global warming, water quality, industrialisation of the coastline, and ever more extreme weather. Continue reading...

National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority censors documents sought by GreenpeaceAustralia’s offshore oil regulator is censoring documents about BP’s plans to drill in the Great Australian Bight on the grounds that environmental campaigners could use the information to “oppose all drilling activities” there – and that the plans are too “technical” for the public to understand.Nathaniel Pelle, a Greenpeace campaign who requested the documents under freedom of information laws, said the decision hindered democratic debate. Continue reading...

Doctors warn excessive intake can pose risks for some patients and say medical advice needs to be more specificThe common advice to drink plenty of water when ill is based on scant evidence and can actively harm chances of recovery, doctors have warned.Medics at King’s College hospital NHS foundation trust, in London, raised the alarm after they treated a patient with hyponatremia – abnormally low sodium – from drinking too much water to help with a recurring urinary tract infection.

One cruise liner is offering passengers weeklong cruises centered entirely around volunteer work. But are these vacations as sustainable as they seem?Cruise lines are among the travel industry’s worst polluters, notorious for dumping insufficiently treated sewage into oceans or producing as much soot as 1m cars per day.Now, cruise companies are seeking to offset that tainted image by offering “voluntourism” experiences. Passengers onboard Carnival Cruises’ Fathom line, for example, can expect to tan by the pool in the morning, build water filters in the Dominican Republic in the afternoon, then dance on the ship’s deck at night. Continue reading...

Overwhelming majority of people agree the government should legislate to stop chemicals polluting the Great Barrier ReefMore than two-thirds of Australians think the condition of the Great Barrier Reef should be declared a “national emergency” and support much stronger measures to protect it than are now being considered.On Thursday the government released its report on the reef to Unesco, which was a condition of the reef being excluded from the UN body’s “world heritage in-danger” list. The government reported slow progress on the key issue of water quality and the failure of a major plank in the plan – slowing tree clearing in Queensland. Continue reading...

Tree campaign groups across Sheffield have been at pains to garner expert inputs to substantiate their very clear arguments against the Sheffield chainsaw massacre (Letters, 29 November). The Woodland Trust is a longstanding critic of the Sheffield “Streets Ahead” programme and its epic and disastrous plans for street tree “management”. Equally, the Sheffield Wildlife Trust has not been shy about its deep reservations. More recently, the Arboricultural Association has felt compelled to take a position. It is insulting to condemn them as “fanatics”.Campaigners do not advocate saving every tree and have a clear position on the removal of the dead and the dangerous. Yet we live in a post-truth, post-factual world. Perhaps then we should be unsurprised when finding some rot and a little deadwood are being cast in the way of constructive dialogue. Continue reading...

New £310m plant hailed as positive ‘perfect storm’ for port area with one of Britain’s highest unemployment ratesA new £310m factory in Hull that makes wind turbine blades has been hailed by ministers as proof that manufacturing has a “glittering” future in the UK.

UK capital experiences high pollution levels on Thursday with warnings telling people to avoid strenuous exerciseAir quality alerts have been issued at bus stops, tube stations and roadsides across London because of high pollution levels, said a spokeswoman for the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.The alerts will notify Londoners on Thursday evening during their commute home from work.

Energy and climate targets are ‘well within reach’ but the transport sector is lagging behindEU countries are on track to meet their 2020 targets for renewable energy and emissions cuts but could fall short of ambitious longer-term goals, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said on Thursday.“The EU’s 2020 targets on energy and climate are now well within reach,” EEA executive director Hans Bruyninckx said. Continue reading...

Environmentally friendly groups at Companies vs Climate Change said they will work to make sure Trump won’t undo all the progress the country has madeFrom his claim that global warming was a gigantic hoax masterminded by China to his promise to pull the United States out of the landmark Paris agreement, Donald Trump’s surprise election win was widely decried by those who feared that recent progress in tackling climate change was about to come undone.Related: Donald Trump presidency a 'disaster for the planet', warn climate scientists Continue reading...

Protesters gather to support Simon Crump and Calvin Payne, who appeared in court after trying to save 100-year-old treeApproximately 150 people have staged a protest in support of two men who appeared in court in Sheffield after they tried to stop a 100-year-old tree being cut down.Simon Crump and Calvin Payne are two of five people to have been arrested in the long-running battle over the local authority’s tree-felling programme. Continue reading...

Communities feel effects of US-funded developments; abortion activists challenge state laws; senators seek declassification of files on Russia and electionThrough the US Export-Import Bank, Barack Obama’s administration has spent nearly $34bn supporting 70 fossil fuel projects around the world, work by Columbia Journalism School and the Guardian has revealed. Guardian reporters have spent time at American-backed projects in India, South Africa and Australia to document the sickness, upheavals and environmental harm that come with huge dirty fuel developments. In India, for example, the reporters heard complaints about coal ash blowing into villages, contaminated water and respiratory and stomach problems. “While Obama can claim the US is the world’s leader on climate change – at least until Donald Trump enters the White House – it is also clear that it has become a major funder of fossil fuels that are having a serious impact upon people’s lives,” they write. Continue reading...

The last Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, is said to have died in 1936 and was declared extinct in 1986. The Thylacine Awareness Group claims there have been 5,000 reported sightings of thylacines in the past 80 years, however, they do acknowledge video evidence is ambiguous

Efforts to curb tree clearing have failed, the government admits in its update to Unesco on work to save the world heritage siteAustralia needs to work faster on lifting water quality to save the Great Barrier Reef, according to its first progress report to Unesco since the world heritage site was spared an “in-danger” listing.The report admitted that a key plank of Australia’s conservation plan – land-clearing reforms in Queensland to staunch water pollution – had failed. It also highlighted climate change, which is the biggest threat to the reef and led to the worst recorded coral bleaching in its history this year, but which the plan makes no attempt to address. Continue reading...

Waitrose, John Lewis and Argos among the first users of a new biomethane fuel for gas-powered trucks, reports BusinessGreenGas-powered lorries laden with Christmas parcels are set to have a lighter carbon impact this season thanks to the launch today of a new renewable fuel from CNG Fuels.

Through the Export-Import Bank, the Obama administration has spent nearly $34bn on dirty energy plants in countries from India to Australia to South AfricaSeemingly little connects a community in India plagued by toxic water, a looming air pollution crisis in South Africa and a new fracking boom that is pockmarking Australia. And yet there is a common thread: American taxpayer money.Through the US Export-Import Bank, Barack Obama’s administration has spent nearly $34bn supporting 70 fossil fuel projects around the world, work by Columbia Journalism School’s Energy and Environment Reporting Project and the Guardian has revealed. Continue reading...

The actor will take the lead in The Humanity Bureau, set in 2030 when global warming has destroyed much of the Earth’s hottest regionsNicolas Cage is to take the lead in a new sci-fi movie depicting a world ravaged by climate change. The film, called The Humanity Project, takes place in 2030, when much of the midwest of America has been rendered uninhabitable.The government agency of the title exiles people felt to be unproductive and banishes them to a colony, New Eden. Cage plays a caseworker seeking to appeal the exile of a single mother (Sarah Lind) and her son (Jakob Davies). Continue reading...

Variable speed limits, removal of speed bumps and ‘no idling’ zones near schools among Nice recommendationsSpeed bumps should be removed, speed limits made variable on England’s motorways, sometimes dropping as low as 50mph, and a congestion charge considered in more cities to cut air pollution and save lives, health experts have said.

CEO Andrew Mackenzie warns jobs in peril due to government policy failure after power was cut to 200,000 properties on Wednesday nightFederal and state governments must make power security a priority after South Australia suffered another widespread blackout, the boss of mining company BHP Billiton has warned.Andrew Mackenzie said problems which cut power to 200,000 properties on Wednesday night showed that investment and jobs were being placed in peril by the failure of policy to both reduce emissions and secure affordable and uninterrupted power. Continue reading...

Leaves and branches can slow air currents and cause pollutants to settle, says health watchdogCity trees, popularly thought to remove pollutants and improve urban life, may also increase the amount of foul air that people breathe, says the UK body which gives independent health guidance to national and local government.

Unchecked global warming is greatest threat to 21st-century security where mass migration could be ‘new normal’, say senior militaryClimate change is set to cause a refugee crisis of “unimaginable scale”, according to senior military figures, who warn that global warming is the greatest security threat of the 21st century and that mass migration will become the “new normal”.The generals said the impacts of climate change were already factors in the conflicts driving a current crisis of migration into Europe, having been linked to the Arab Spring, the war in Syria and the Boko Haram terrorist insurgency. Continue reading...

Wolsingham, Weardale Most hedgerow blackthorns are brutally trimmed but these small trees, unpruned and unharvested by birds, are laden with fruitIn early May, this blackthorn thicket had been smothered in the most spectacular display of blossom that I had ever seen and I made a mental note to return in autumn, to see if it had fulfilled its promise.I’d intended to return sooner. Now it felt like the first real day of winter, and my breath turned to steam in the icy wind. In the shade of the trees beside the beck, where deep shadows would linger all day, fallen leaves were fringed with frost crystals. Continue reading...

Start to tourism season prompts environment minister to override federal law and allow the nets in NSWJosh Frydenberg overrode federal law to give the go-ahead to lethal shark nets in northern New South Wales to save the local tourist industry and nipper clubs.The environment minister has argued that there was a “national interest” in installing the controversial nets because, with the tourism season about to start, surf shops were experiencing decreased sales and nipper clubs had fewer registrations. Continue reading...

Malcolm Turnbull says ‘mechanisms’ to meet 2030 Paris emission reduction targets may need to be examinedMalcolm Turnbull has acknowledged the looming review of the Direct Action climate policy in 2017 “may result in some changes” to the federal renewable energy target.

Greg Clark welcomes 700-job factory, which will produce hundreds of 75m-long blades a year for a new generation of offshore windfarmsThe first batch of 75-metre-long wind turbine blades will roll out of a new factory in Hull on Thursday, destined for huge windfarms off the UK’s coast.

Victorian woman spends two days in hospital after being stung on neck off Fitzroy IslandA female snorkeller is lucky to be alive after suffering heart failure following an Irukandji jellyfish sting in far north Queensland.The 39-year-old Victorian woman was snorkelling off Fitzroy Island last Friday when she was stung on the neck by the deadly, thumbnail-sized jellyfish. Continue reading...

The Thylacine Awareness Group is ‘dedicated to the research, recognition and conservation of our most elusive apex predator’ – officially extinct since 1936Six years ago Neil Waters moved to Tasmania. There, he says, he had a “brief encounter” with a thylacine, the carnivorous marsupial known as the Tasmanian tiger, declared extinct in 1986.Two years later, in January 2014, he was doing work on his house when a smaller animal walked up a dirt track leading out of a tin mine and past his bedroom window. Continue reading...

New analysis of nine species that ‘walk’ by night on shallow reefs shows their range is much smaller than was knownBizarre “walking sharks” are at a greater risk of extinction than previously thought, with new information about their distribution leading researchers to expect greater efforts to protect them from human threats such as fishing and climate change.Bamboo sharks include nine species of sharks that swim and “walk” in shallow waters around northern Australia, Papua New Guinea and parts of Indonesia. In 2013 a new species of the genus was found in Indonesia. Continue reading...

Parts of UK experienced coldest night of the season on Tuesday, with temperature of -9.4C (15F) recorded in Powys in WalesEngland and Wales will continue to experience some of the coldest temperatures of the last 12 months over the next few days , as the meteorological winter starts on Thursday.Related: Cold snaps: frost and ice around the UK – in pictures Continue reading...

Trees planted in memory of a school’s former pupils killed in first world war set to be cut down in road maintenance projectCampaigners are demanding that Sheffield council re-examine plans to cut down trees planted to honour soldiers killed in the first world war, in the latest development of the long-running battle over the local authority’s tree-felling programme.The 23 trees on Western Road in the Crookes area of the city were planted in memory of a group of young soldiers who attended nearby Westways primary school and were killed in the war. Continue reading...

‘We will make China a beautiful country with blue sky, green vegetation and clear rivers,’ vowed President Xi Jinping in September. But these haunting photographs by the award-winning Canadian photojournalist Kevin Frayer, who travelled to Inner Mongolia to witness the activities of unauthorised steel mills, underline the scale of Beijing’s challenge to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels Continue reading...

UK’s two largest supermarket chains will replace the plastic stems with paper ones in all own-brand products by the end of 2017The UK’s two largest supermarket chains have committed to end the sale of cotton buds with plastic stems, which are the most common litter from toilets flushed on to the country’s beaches.Both Tesco and Sainsbury’s will replace the plastic stick with paper by the end of 2017 in their own-brand products. Continue reading...

Exclusive: an agency inside the Obama administration poured billions into fossil fuel projects that will lead to global carbon emissions on a damaging scale

Barack Obama has been called the first ‘climate president’ for acknowledging the real threat of global warming. But work by Columbia University and the Guardian shows that Obama’s climate record has been badly tarnished by investments made in dirty fuels around the world

Plan to cut energy use by 30% before 2030 forms centrepiece of package to help EU meet its Paris climate commitmentsEurope will begin phasing out coal subsidies and cut its energy use by 30% before the end of the next decade, under a major clean energy package announced in Brussels on Wednesday.The 1,000 page blueprint to help the EU meet its Paris climate commitments also proposes measures to cut household electricity bills, integrate renewables into power markets, and limit use of unsustainable bioenergy. Continue reading...

While Trump claims to be open-minded on climate, there are ominous signs that Republicans will try to slash climate research

As an Indigenous American, Joe Whittle never questioned his need to travel to Standing Rock. The resolve he saw to protect a sacred space was transformativeAs an Indigenous American, there was never any question of whether I should travel to Standing Rock or not. I needed to witness firsthand what was happening there, and wanted to offer solidarity to those fighting for the right of tribes to exercise agency over their own futures.Only one problem remained: I had to find a way to go. Continue reading...

Denmark’s capital has reached a milestone in its journey to become a cycling city – there are now more bikes than cars on the streets. Can other cities follow?Bicycle sensors in Copenhagen clocked a new record this month: there are now more bikes than cars in the heart of the city. In the last year, 35,080 more bikes have joined the daily roll, bringing the total number to 265,700, compared with 252,600 cars.Copenhagen municipality has been carrying out manual traffic counts at a number of city centre locations since 1970, when there were 351,133 cars and 100,071 bikes. In 2009, the city installed its first electric bike counter by city hall, with 20 now monitoring traffic across the city. Continue reading...

Many of his staffers are from an opaque corporate misinformation network. We must understand this if we are to have any hope of fighting back against themYes, Donald Trump’s politics are incoherent. But those who surround him know just what they want, and his lack of clarity enhances their power. To understand what is coming, we need to understand who they are. I know all too well, because I have spent the past 15 years fighting them.Related: Trump’s climate denial is just one of the forces that point towards war | George Monbiot Continue reading...

Gunnislake, Tamar Valley Barges that carried coal, corn, manure, granite, bricks and lime had to be hauled manually upstream against the currentFrom the hilltop railway station, rain clouds veil sight of Dartmoor and, in nearby Stony Lane, run-off flows between shoals of sodden beech leaves. Down this sunken way towards the river, ferns, mosses and pennywort show green under the tangle of fading bramble, yellow-leafed hazel and bare sycamore; the enclosing hedge-banks frame occasional glimpses across the valley where steep woodland engulfs river-cliffs and pinnacles like Chimney Rock.Sound of water roaring over the weir carries uphill and becomes even louder below Hatches Green, where tennis court and football pitch in King George’s Field are overlooked by the orange and dark green deciduous and coniferous woods opposite – once part of the Duke of Bedford’s estate. Continue reading...

Amnesty claims producer Wilmar employs children to do back-breaking physical labour on refineries in IndonesiaGlobal firms behind popular brands such as Kit Kat, Colgate toothpaste and Dove cosmetics use palm oil produced by child workers in dangerous conditions, Amnesty International has claimed.The human rights organisation traced a range of well-known products back to the palm oil company Wilmar, which it alleged employs children to do back-breaking physical labour on refineries in Indonesia. Continue reading...

Is a cost-neutral shift to renewables too good to be true? Energy minister Mark Bailey is ready to take on anyone who says he can’t get to 50-50 without steep price risesIt seemed impossibly good news for the Queensland government in its push to transform Australia’s biggest carbon-polluting state into a renewable energy powerhouse in little more than a decade.An expert advisory panel steeped in what the energy minister, Mark Bailey, described as “hard-nosed economic experience and extensive modelling” last month concluded the state could effectively have its cake and eat it in its pursuit of a greener energy sector. Continue reading...

Many state schools struggling to help disadvantaged pupils (Report, 22 November) are facing a further demand on their shrinking budgets. Prudent schools that have invested in solar panels to reduce their electricity bills now face a retrospective six- to eight-fold hike in their tax rates, if the government gets its way. This would be socially divisive, as it will apply to state schools but not to the private schools that have charitable status. The higher rates will also apply to businesses and other organisations that use solar electricity internally. This is yet another blow to the solar industry, already reeling from four separate subsidy cuts since May 2015. UK solar had been expanding exponentially, creating many new jobs and reducing both the wholesale price of electricity and our carbon emissions.

Exclusive: ‘Confidential’ draft acknowledges coral bleaching but does not make any attempt to address climate changeThe Australian government’s official “response plan” to the worst ever bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef commits it to no new action, pledges no new money and does not make any attempt to address climate change, according to a draft seen by the Guardian.The Northern Great Barrier Reef Response Plan, marked “draft” and “confidential”, begins by describing the bleaching event as “the worst ever coral bleaching” and attributes its cause to climate change. Continue reading...

Timelapse footage shows the construction of a steel shelter designed to prevent radiation leaks from the site of reactor No 4 at Chernobyl. The series of videos captures the shelter’s progression over several years up to its placement on Tuesday. High radiation levels near the reactor meant parts had to be assembled several hundred metres away and then slid slowly into place

It isn’t a great surprise to learn that a director of Greece’s Public Power Corporation believes in exemptions for lignite – an especially polluting type of coal burnt at Greek power plants (Letters, theguardian.com, 24 November). However, the claim that Greece is “among the best performers in emission reductions” must not go unchallenged.In a recent report, Lifting Europe’s Dark Cloud: How cutting coal saves lives, we revealed how Greek lignite plants, responsible for hundreds of premature deaths and thousands of cases of respiratory illness every year, have in fact been granted special exemptions to EU limits set in the industrial emissions directive. As a result, when it comes to emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO), nitrous oxides (NO), dust and mercury, Greek plants are undoubtedly among the worst performers in Europe. Continue reading...

Ukraine plant reactor, scene of worst nuclear accident in history in 1986, covered with airtight structure after years of workReactor No 4 at Chernobyl, the scene of the worst nuclear accident in history, has been enclosed by a vast steel shelter designed to prevent radiation leaks from the site.The structure covers the reactor and the unstable “sarcophagus”, which was hastily built around it by Soviet authorities in the immediate aftermath of the disaster 30 years ago. The shelter is said to be the largest land-based movable object ever constructed. It took several years to build and cost more than €1.5bn (£1.27bn). Continue reading...

In the week Britain exports electricity to France for first time in four years, Gérard Magnin says renewable power will match Hinkley Point C on costThe French nuclear industry is in its “worst situation ever” because of a spate of plant closures in France and the complexities it faces with the UK’s Hinkley Point C power station, according to a former Électricité de France director.Gérard Magnin, who called Hinkley “very risky” when he resigned as a board member over the project in July, told the Guardian that with more than a dozen French reactors closed over safety checks and routine maintenance, circumstances for the state-owned EDF had deteriorated since he stepped down. Continue reading...