Move hailed as first formal reintroduction of a once native mammal in the UKLarge populations of wild beavers living in the southern and western Highlands of Scotland are to be allowed to expand naturally after ministers granted them protected status.
Environmental groups hope Utah, Nevada and Grand Canyon will be included in rapid conservation efforts as Trump plans to expand fossil fuel extractionBarack Obama’s administration is rushing through conservation safeguards for large areas of public land ahead of Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House, presenting a conundrum for the new president’s goal of opening up more places for oil and gas drilling. Continue reading...
All of the supermarket’s own-brand cosmetics and cleaning products will be free from the tiny plastic pieces within a monthTesco will have phased out microbeads from all its own brand cosmetics and household cleaning products within a month, it was announced on Thursday.While UK ministers recently said personal care products containing these tiny pieces of plastic will be banned from sale by the end of 2017, it is not clear yet whether the ban will extend to other types of products that rely on their abrasive properties. Continue reading...
The Natural History Museum has chosen 25 of the year’s best images from its Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 shortlist. Voting is open until 10 January to find the people’s choice winning photo of the year• Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London Continue reading...
Europe’s bioenergy plants are burning trees felled from protected conservation areas rather than using forest waste, new report showsProtected forests are being indiscriminately felled across Europe to meet the EU’s renewable energy targets, according to an investigation by the conservation group Birdlife.Up to 65% of Europe’s renewable output currently comes from bioenergy, involving fuels such as wood pellets and chips, rather than wind and solar power. Continue reading...
Release of captive-bred marsupials into 7,800ha Mt Gibson wildlife sanctuary part of ongoing attempt to save critically endangered species in Western AustraliaFourteen numbats will be released into a predator-free wildlife sanctuary 350km north of Perth in an ongoing attempt to save the critically endangered species.It is the first release of captive-bred numbats into the 7,800ha Mt Gibson sanctuary, which has been declared free of feral cats and foxes following an extensive baiting program. Continue reading...
With 83% of the fund spent, the government’s central climate policy is almost exhausted, with no further funding committedThe federal government’s Direct Action carbon reduction policy appears to be running out of steam, with participation from industry dropping, the cost of the program rising and the budget for emissions reduction nearly exhausted.The Clean Energy Regulator announced on Thursday it would pay a further $367m to polluting industries, in return for a commitment for them to reduce carbon emissions by 34.4m tonnes. Continue reading...
Sandy Bedfordshire The sycamore’s leaves, free to swing in the gappy canopy, seem to dance in a soundless jigIn the past fortnight, winter has descended into the branches of a big sycamore tree. As if they were the hangers-on at a party, a scattering of leaves are still flying the flag, wearing ready-to-drop yellow. Liberated from the constrictions and crowding of their erstwhile neighbours, they are free to swing in the gappy canopy. As the breeze lifts, they are raised up as one into a rocksteady beat.Never have the leaves looked so alive as when so close to death. The great pointy-edged plates are picked up wonderfully by the wind as with no other tree around, and seem to dance in a soundless jig. Continue reading...
The former Smiths frontman wrote to automaker CEO explaining that animal-friendly option would ‘only broaden appeal’ of Chevy Volt and Bolt modelsMorrissey has a complaint: the leather that runs smooth on the passenger’s seat isn’t vegan.The former Smiths frontman has penned a letter to General Motors’ chair and CEO, Mary Barra, asking the automaker to consider adding the option of vegan leather to its interiors. “Given that the Volt and Bolt are being marketed to eco-conscious buyers, entirely vegan options would only broaden their appeal,†the singer-songwriter wrote. Continue reading...
Plastic packaging | The lure of London | Lewis Carroll’s Latin pun | ‘Ultra-high-net-worth individuals’ | Yugoslavia | Humanities v sciences | HyggeIf we are not recycling all our plastic waste, largely because many councils cannot deal with all the variations (Just a third of plastic is recycled, survey shows, 22 November), why are the major supermarkets allowed to keep inventing new wrappings consisting of mixed materials and marked “Not currently recyclable�
The money for new roads and freezing fuel tax overwhelms support for electric cars, further fuelling the nation’s air pollution crisisDrive, baby, drive - that was the message from chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn budget statement, with more money paving the way to new roads and a freeze on fuel tax.The problem is the UK already has an air pollution crisis that causes tens of thousands of early deaths – more traffic will only make it worse. Furthermore, rising transport emissions are one of the biggest obstacles to the nation meeting its legal targets for cutting carbon emissions. Continue reading...
Nearly 400 companies and nonprofits signed a letter to express support for the Paris climate agreement. We asked a handful to tell us whyMany businesses that supply the goods and services we use every day understand that they have a role to play in keeping global warming in check. Their profits depend on it. The long term rise in global temperatures will change where and how we extract raw materials and produce the many things we take for granted, from the grapes crushed to make wine to the cotton spun to make the shirt you are wearing.Nearly 400 companies and nonprofits signed a letter last week urging president-elect Donald Trump to stay in the Paris climate agreement and support policies that combat global warming. The list covers a wide range of industries and includes Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and Sierra Nevada Brewing. It also contains surprising signatories: companies that aren’t known to take part in environmental initiatives, such as Tiffany & Co, Monsanto and Staples. Continue reading...
Only Italy has more annual deaths from nitrogen dioxide, according to a report by the European Environment AgencyThe UK is second only to Italy in Europe for the highest number of annual deaths from a major air pollutant, a report has found just days after a court gave UK ministers a deadline for drawing up a stronger air quality plan.
With a reality TV demagogue in power, it’s crucial that we find a story in which people can discern a better futureClimate change is like the type of film director who, having already thrown the audience into seemingly inescapable peril, keeps piling on the jeopardy. The carbon budget to stay below the Paris climate accord’s target of 1.5C of warming is all but used up, and staying below even its lower goal of 2C now requires elaborate leaps of faith. Continue reading...
Police looking for Russell Sherwood, 69, from Neath, South Wales, find body at river OgmorePolice divers involved in the search for an elderly man who went missing during this week’s storms have recovered a body.Russell Sherwood, 69, went missing after leaving his home in Neath, South Wales, on Monday morning. Continue reading...
43 UK universities have pledged to dump investments in fossil fuels, having accepted the arguments of campaignersPretty much all we know about climate change comes from academia, which makes the news of a leap in fossil fuel divestment by universities in the UK particularly important.On so many issues over the decades, where universities lead, society follows. Now, as I report here, 43 UK universities have pledged to dump investments in fossil fuels, having accepted the arguments of campaigners that funding these companies is both economically and morally bankrupt. Continue reading...
by Rowena Mason Deputy political editor on (#22NP3)
Gavin Williamson refuses to get rid of ‘ruthless killer’ Cronus, despite Westminster banThe Conservative chief whip has declined to remove a tarantula called Cronus from his office despite a House of Commons ban on pets.Gavin Williamson, appointed by Theresa May as her parliamentary enforcer in July, has spoken in recent days about his unusual deskmate, who is kept in a glass tank and named after a Greek god who castrated his father and ate his children. Continue reading...
The worst drought in 25 years in Bolivia is affecting at least seven major cities. In La Paz alone, water rationing has hit almost half of the city’s 800,000 inhabitants while, elsewhere, peasants and miners are competing for the use of aquifers. Continue reading...
Environmental Protection Authority allows for threefold expansion of Andrew Forrest’s Solomon mineThe Environmental Protection Authority has cleared the way for a threefold expansion of Andrew Forrest’s Solomon iron ore mine which would see it remain in production for the next 35 years.But Western Australian authorities have raised concerns that a new field of water bores needed for the production could affect Hamersley Gorge, which is 4km south of the mine, in Karijini national park. Continue reading...
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire There is something about the combination of sky-blue, red and black that fascinates me – I don’t understand whyFor a moment before dusk, the sky was sky-blue. Like looking into a pool, only overhead, the sky’s edges around its horizons were pale, chalky, blackbird egg blue, deepening through Wedgwood into the above as it thickened ultramarine and darkened inkily towards space.Oddly, the colour gained more substance as the atmosphere became thinnest, so that light itself was the material of air. From high on the Edge, the blue replaced everything I noticed about the sky: crazy shoals of rooks and jackdaws, arrowheads of geese, wraiths of starlings speeding towards murmurations. Continue reading...
Critically endangered bird – down to just 14 in the wild – not helped by being ‘morons’ with poor survival instinctsScientists are scaling trees in Tasmania in an attempt to save the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot after the wild population dropped to the “stupidly low numbers†of just 14 individuals.Three of those wild-born birds are females that have begun the process of selecting nest boxes in Melaleuca, a blustery outpost in the wilderness world heritage area near the southwest tip of Tasmania. Continue reading...
‘We need more gas,’ Australia’s environment and energy minister says, urging state governments to follow US leadAustralia’s environment and energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, has welcomed Donald Trump’s commitment to lift Obama administration’s restrictions on fossil fuel exploration within his first 100 days in the White House, saying the move will be a boon for consumers.
Asked by the New York Times whether he would pull the US out of the Paris climate accord, the president-elect wavered on his previously stated positionDonald Trump has said he has an “open mind†over US involvement in the Paris agreement to combat climate change, after previously pledging to withdraw from the effort.Related: Donald Trump drops threat of criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton – live Continue reading...
A privatization spree in Canada could cost regular people billions, erode democracy and undermine the fight against climate changeWhile prime minister Justin Trudeau flogged our public assets last week, he had a soothing message: rest assured, we’ll be well-served by the private sector. Bankers and billionaires lined up to sound a note of confidence. “I think it’s unprecedented,†exclaimed Canada’s top business lobbyist John Manley. “A once-in-a-generation opportunity,†enthused Trudeau’s economic advisory council.These corporate figures are rubbing their hands because Trudeau is about to put one of our great crises in their hands: the need for historic investment in the country’s infrastructure, for so long the domain of the state. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth in London, Severin Carrell in Edinbug on (#22KEK)
US president-elect does not deny pushing interim leader Nigel Farage and key associates to fight development of windfarms in ScotlandDonald Trump urged the interim leader of a British political party and his key associates to lobby against the development of windfarms, which he has fought against having built near his Scottish golf courses.Related: Donald Trump drops threat of criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton – live Continue reading...
In response to concerns from the former cycling commissioner, the deputy mayor for transport insists plans are on trackSadiq Khan is committed to being the most cycling-friendly mayor that the capital has ever had – and is already delivering real results. However, there have recently been a number of inaccurate reports about his plans and I’d like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.Making cycling safer and easier will be a significantly higher priority for Sadiq than it was for the previous administration. Continue reading...
Woman dies after being pulled from sea off Kent and fears mount for 69-year-old man from Neath who went missing on SundayA woman has died after being pulled from the sea and concerns are growing over 69-year-old man feared drowned as rough seas, flash floods and swollen rivers continued to cause problems across swaths of the UK.Although drier, colder weather is expected, the Environment Agency warned homes and businesses that have escaped so far may still be hit by flooding as water makes its way through river and stream systems. It highlighted particular concerns for Dorset and York. Continue reading...
WWF report states that infrastructure boom could lead to animals’ habitat being carved up, undoing years of progressThousands of kilometres of railways and roads planned across Asia risk dismantling progress made to save the world’s last tigers, conservationists have warned.The WWF said an infrastructure boom in coming years will lead to the construction of 11,000km of new transport projects, carving up the big cat’s habitats and stopping them from travelling across the huge ranges they need. Continue reading...
The cleanup begins after a combination of Storm Angus and continued heavy rain have contributed to widespread flooding around the UK since Sunday Continue reading...
by Isabel Hilton for Environment 360, part of the Gua on (#22JY3)
With the US president-elect threatening to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Beijing is to ready to lead world’s climate efforts, reports Environment 360In one of the more entertaining moments of COP22, the global climate conference held in Marrakech last week, the Chinese vice-foreign minister Liu Zhenmin, gave the absent US president-elect a short lesson in the history of climate diplomacy. Climate change, he explained, was not a Chinese hoax. In fact, long before the issue had been discussed behind the high vermillion walls of Zhongnanhai, China’s contemporary Forbidden City, it had been put on the global agenda by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the 1980s, supported by Ronald Reagan and George Bush (senior).Mounting international concern led eventually to the Kyoto Protocol, the first global agreement to try to limit climate change, signed by President Bill Clinton subsequently rejected by the US Congress. When President Obama’s administration formally entered the successor Paris Agreement in September this year, the president knew better than to try to seek endorsement from a hostile Congress. Yet the US has been present throughout, as the world grappled with how to distribute the burden of global action to ward off climate catastrophe, although its leadership has been, at best, intermittent. It has tended to resemble a temperamental adolescent, periodically playing the game, but intermittently flouncing off the field, its ball firmly under its arm. Continue reading...
German carmaker seeks to revive fortunes after diesel scandal by becoming world leader in clean-energy vehiclesVolkswagen said it wants to be the world leader in electric cars by 2025 as it unveiled a major shift to clean-energy vehicles in the wake of the dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.The US market, where the pollution crisis first erupted, will play a key role in the revamp, according to VW brand chief Herbert Diess. He announced a “comeback story†for the region, with plans for electric cars to be built in North America from 2021. Continue reading...
The way opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline have been treated by police is likely to be replicated on a massive scale under Donald TrumpHorrific scenes have been coming out of North Dakota these last several days, where the battle is ongoing to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. On Sunday night, police turned tear gas and rubber bullets on hundreds of unarmed “water protectorsâ€, as those taking on the pipeline prefer to be called. They deployed water cannons as well, in temperatures well below freezing. More than 160 people were injured, and many sent to the hospital. As a result of the standoff, a young woman could lose her arm.For those with a passing knowledge of the kind of tactics faced by America’s civil rights movement, the above might sound like blast from our more brutal past. As Donald Trump prepares to enter the White House, it should also sound like our possible future. Continue reading...
The survival of elephants depends on what humans do now. Join us on Tuesday 22 November from 1-2.30pm to discuss how to save this threatened species2.47pm GMTA wonderful and wide-ranging discussion of an immensely complex and emotionally-charged issue. Some final thoughts.2.39pm GMTAn entirely self-indulgent question, I will admit, but that’s my prerogative! This excellent panel give us measured hope for the future.In many countries I'm afraid it will not possible. We often forget Central and West Africa where elephants are in many areas doomed. If we cannot stop the current elephant poaching crisis, your grandchildren will probably be able to see wild elephants only in a handful of African countries, in the Eastern and Southern Africa, tiny islands of elephants surrounded by oceans of people.Yes, but unless we all redouble our efforts to combat poaching, build community support for conservation, reduce HEC, reduce trafficking (including through market closures), and dramatically reduce demand for ivory, the number of places with significant numbers of wild elephants, functioning as they should, will be very much smaller than now. But there is real hope!I think so Karl, because high value tourism areas will be maintained. They might be private, however, like Ol Pejeta and Lewa in Kenya. Unfortunately, in getting to them you and your kids will drive through or fly over farms and livestock grazing lands because people have eradicated the wildlife.You know what the word in English is for pest animals with no value - vermin. Current policy is in effect making wildlife vermin from the perspective of rural African communities.Karl, I think that with increasing momentum to listen to the elephant specialists talking about the species, (not just local abundant populations in one or two countries), we can get ivory under control and poaching significantly lessened. And I strongly believe that if we don't want simply islands of elephants but connected, migrating herds, we have to plan this now and in the next 5-10 years while we have something to work with. This applies in Asia too, where the IUCN Asian elephant specialist group just met last week. For all of those people who have or are going to have grandchildren the question is back to you all, are you with us? We need you to make your desire known to politicians and help us fund the work until the governments and corporations step up their funding and stewardship for elephants and their habitat. Continue reading...
Pop artist behind Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album sleeve says rollout of ‘workaday’ devices inspired Leeds showSir Peter Blake has revealed his latest and perhaps most surprising art collection, inspired by the imminent arrival of smart meters to every home in the UK.
Britain leads world in campus action to pull funds from oil, gas and coal companies, due to climate change concernsThe number of British universities divesting from fossil fuels has leaped to 43, a quarter of the total. The surge means the UK leads the world in campus action to pull university funds from oil, gas and coal.Financial institutions and charities are also divesting and at least $2.6tn (£2.1tn) of assets are covered by such pledges around the world. Scientists have shown that most fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned without dangerous climate change. Campaigners argue this makes fossil fuel companies bad investments on both moral and financial grounds. Continue reading...
by Arthur Neslen in Tarfaya and Marrakech, Morocco on (#22J6N)
Morocco’s ambitious plans for wind power in Western Sahara have drawn international praise - but are raising heckles in the disputed territoryLast week’s Marrakech climate summit shone a light on Morocco’s clean energy plans, which have drawn praise from around the world. At the heart of King Mohammed VI’s ambitions is a windfarm in the country’s south-west region, which, due to an expansion over the summer, has seen off an array of challengers for the title of Africa’s biggest.Built in just two years and launched in 2015, the Tarfaya complex stretches more than 100 square km across the Saharan desert, its 131 wind turbines grinding out enough electricity to power a city the size of Marrakech every day. Continue reading...
Success of natural measures in Bossington coincided with revelation that such schemes receive no current government fundingNatural flood defences, such as allowing trees to fall into rivers, have protected homes in Somerset from the torrential rain brought by Storm Angus. The success came as it was revealed that natural ways of cutting flood risk have no current government funding, despite ministers repeatedly backing the idea.Heavy rains saw the rivers above the village of Bossington rise rapidly on Monday, but the 100 homes placed at risk avoided flooding. The catchments of the rivers, all part of the National Trust’s Holnicote estate, had natural flood prevention measures put in place in 2013. Continue reading...
Houses in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, are inundated after severe floods caused by Storm Angus on Monday. Torrential rainfall meant residents had to be evacuated from their homes. 75 flood warnings remain in place across the country on Tuesday
Sophia Wilansky, 21, may lose her arm after being hit by projectile when officers threw less-than-lethal weapons, her father saidA 21-year-old woman was severely injured and may lose her arm after being hit by a projectile when North Dakota law enforcement officers turned water cannon on Dakota Access pipeline protesters and threw “less-than-lethal†weapons.Sophia Wilansky was one of several hundred protesters injured during the standoff with police on Sunday on a bridge near the site where the pipeline is planned to cross under the Missouri river. Continue reading...
This year has seen some of Asia’s worst urban smog episodes in nearly 20 years, as India’s air pollution soars above levels recorded in ChinaThe winter air in Tehran is often foul but for six days last week it was hardly breathable. A dense and poisonous chemical smog made up of traffic and factory fumes, mixed with construction dust, burning vegetation and waste has shrouded buildings, choked pedestrians, forced schools and universities to close, and filled the hospitals.
Conservationists say introduction of 5p levy on single-use carrier bags was instrumental in the reductionThe number of plastic carrier bags found on UK beaches has dropped by almost half, according to conservationists.
Australia should follow PNG’s lead in resource tax reform. As the budget deficit worsens, reintroducing royalties for LNG projects would provide much-needed revenuePapua New Guinea’s 2017 budget takes big steps in resource tax reform. Following suggestions that I made together with former Labor minister Craig Emerson, starting next year resources companies operating in Papua New Guinea will pay a revamped resource rent tax, as well as the existing royalties and company taxes.With Australia’s budget deficit worsening, following Papua New Guinea’s lead may help us bring in more revenue from natural gas, sooner. Continue reading...
by Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent on (#22G46)
ExxonMobil and Chevron among worst in terms of CO emissions and investment in renewables, according to researchOil and gas companies in North America are lagging behind their European counterparts in cleaning up their operations, new research has found, with higher greenhouse gas emissions and less investment in clean alternatives.ExxonMobil and Chevron of the US, alongside Canada’s Suncor, ranked lowest in a review conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) of 11 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies. At the top of the table came Statoil of Norway, Italy’s Eni and the French company Total. Continue reading...
Wind and torrential downpours cause travel chaos as passengers forced to stay onboard ferry that fails to dock in WalesHeavy rain continues to lash Britain as Storm Angus causes flooding and travel chaos across many parts of the country.The wind and torrential downpours that deluged many parts of the UK on Monday saw a ferry stranded at sea, roads closed, homes flooded, schools shut and cars submerged. Continue reading...
Twenty-six people hospitalized from ‘mass casualty incident’ that included bone fractures and hypothermia shown in dramatic video footage of standoff
Morton County police use teargas, a water cannon and rubber bullets against demonstrators from Standing Rock in North Dakota on Sunday night. Protesters braved freezing conditions and percussion grenades as they resisted the controversial pipeline with chants of ‘water not oil’. The company working on the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, has almost completed the system, but lack the permission to drill under the river
Environment minister’s goal to make 90% of Canada’s electricity come from sustainable sources starkly contrasts Trump’s pledge to revive US coal industryCanada has announced plans to phase out the use of coal-fired electricity by 2030.The move is in stark contrast to President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to revive the American coal industry. Continue reading...