Environment | The Guardian

We asked you to share your April pictures of the wildlife around the world wherever you are. Here’s a selection of our favourites• You can add your May wildlife photographs here Continue reading...

May signals the last month of spring for the northern hemisphere, while the southern hemisphere edges closer to winter. We’d like to see your photos of the May wildlife near youThe northern hemisphere will be hoping for warmer weather ahead with the arrival of May. For the southern hemisphere the new month signals the last few weeks of autumn as preparations are made for the winter months ahead. So what sort of wildlife will we all discover on our doorsteps? We’d like to see your photos of the May wildlife near you.Share your photos and videos with us and we’ll feature our favourites on the Guardian site. Continue reading...

Barnaby Joyce says the loans are designed to provide a financial incentive to states to invest in water infrastructure such as dams and pipelines• Click here for full budget coverageA $2bn water infrastructure loan facility is the centrepiece of the Coalition’s regional policy, to provide concessional loans to the states and territories for projects.The deputy prime minister and agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, said the loans were available from 2016 for 10 years and were designed to provide a financial incentive to state governments to invest in water infrastructure such as dams and pipelines. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson has left Londoners with an urgent problem with dirty air. Whoever replaces him needs to act quickly – starting with diesel carsA year ago, ClientEarth obtained a landmark ruling from the supreme court, ordering the government to prepare plans to bring air pollution within legal limits across the country. Last week we were granted permission to take it back to court – because its new plan still isn’t nearly good enough.Air pollution across the UK continues to threaten people’s health, and children are some of the first to suffer. Research by King’s College London suggests the lung capacity of youngsters living in London has been reduced by living or going to school near main roads. These children have an increased risk of disease such as asthma and bronchitis and face the prospect of a permanent reduction in lung capacity. Continue reading...

As soya companies appropriate land in Paraguay, many small-scale campesino farmers are forced out to cities. For those who stay to fight for their land, the conflict can turn bloodyFor 14 years, Juan Aveiro broadcast Radio Mandu’arã to a cluster of communities in a remote corner of eastern Paraguay. He and his team of volunteer journalists worked from a makeshift studio painted with a mural depicting Paraguayan farmers, or campesinos, with their fists in the air, beneath a banner proclaiming “peace and justice!”Then, in November, police raided Mandu’arã’s studio. “They took everything,” Aveiro says. Continue reading...

Britain’s threatened birds including kingfishers, bitterns and Cetti warblers find a refuge in Woodberry Wetlands, once a barren wastelandThe UK’s newest nature reserve was opened in east London over the weekend by Sir David Attenborough. Overshadowed by council tower blocks and swanky high rise developments, the 11 hectare (27 acres) site which includes a reservoir that supplies water to millions of Londoners, has become home to some of Britain’s more threatened birds including kingfishers, bitterns and Cetti warblers.London Wildlife Trust has transformed the once barren wasteland into Woodberry Wetlands, with teams of dedicated volunteers planting dense reedbeds, hedgerows and wildflower meadows to attract birds, bees, butterflies and other insects. Continue reading...

The Sierra Club was pushed out of its home because of high rent. The grassroots environmental group will be fine – it’s San Francisco I worry aboutLast week, the Sierra Club left San Francisco, its home since its founding 124 years ago. Like so many individuals and institutions, it was pushed out by high rent.The Club, the US’s largest grassroots environmental organization, will be fine in its new home across the bay in Oakland; it’s San Francisco I worry about. Continue reading...

Hundreds of activists take control of vast site and bring operations to a halt as part of a coordinated global direct action against fossil fuel companiesHundreds of environmental activists have invaded the UK’s largest opencast coalmine and halted operations across the vast site.Dressed in red boiler suits, groups of protesters crossed barbed wire fences to gain access to Ffos-y-fran mine near Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales. Some chained themselves to machinery, others lay across access roads. Continue reading...

The reduction would slash greenhouse gas emissions by 100m tonnes a year by 2030 and even more after that, comparing well to other proposed measures

The treasurer says the Australian people have ‘moved on’ from analysing the budget through the prism of ‘winners and losers’. Read on if that’s not true!• Click here for full budget coverageAustralians aren’t interested in winners and losers any more. That’s what the treasurer, Scott Morrison, said during Tuesday’s pre-budget speech. “Australian people have moved on from that,” he claimed. But just in case Mr Morrison is wrong about that ... Continue reading...

The poll shows 57% support for Labor’s carbon emissions policy and 43% of voters in favour of negative gearingLabor has maintained a 52-48, two-party preferred lead in the latest Essential poll, and also received majority support for its carbon policy.Related: Labor proposes two emissions trading schemes costing $355.9m Continue reading...

Government says change will improve biodiversity but conservation groups say it means ‘disaster for nature in NSW’ and a return to broadscale clearingLand clearing regulations are set to be relaxed in NSW, as the government releases draft legislation that would allow farmers to clear native vegetation without approval in many cases, and give others access to “offsets”. It has also committed $240m over five years to pay farmers not to clear land, followed by $70m a year thereafter.The government said the changes would improve biodiversity, even though they will allow protected areas to be cleared. Continue reading...

Claxton, Norfolk To be touched by those fluttering wings is to be brushed by velvet. Yet in this way they contest anything that transgresses their boundaryNormally all the softness of the English summer is in a blackbird’s syrinx. Today, however, as the sound of the song wafts towards me across the garden, it somehow seems to congeal in these north-easterlies. It is like a dark warm spawn-filled pond of music but with ice edges. I go out and the air is cold. The new greens in the hawthorns and the oaks are cold in tone. Even the sunlight feels cold, and the blue above has clouds with an unmistakable hint of ice.Sure enough, when it rains for about 60 seconds as I reach the marsh, it falls as hail. Then it stops again. The sun beats down and it feels like the weirdest spring I can recall. Continue reading...

The 2.42-metre whale washed up on Lake Tyers beach and authorities suspect it could be rare species spotted only 17 times since records began in AustraliaA rare dwarf sperm whale that has been spotted only 17 times since records began in Australia may have washed up on a Victorian beach, local authorities have said.The 2.42-metre whale died after becoming stranded on Lake Tyers beach in Gippsland, about 330km east of Melbourne, on Saturday. Continue reading...

Australian Conservation Foundation argues emissions from coal mined from Adani’s project will put the Great Barrier Reef at risk by exacerbating climate changeA landmark case pitting the Great Barrier Reef against Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine begins in the federal court on Tuesday.The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is arguing that environment minister Greg Hunt unlawfully approved the mine in central Queensland, which would be the largest in Australia. They will argue the emissions released when the coal from the mine is burned will put the world heritage values of the Great Barrier Reef at risk by exacerbating climate change. Continue reading...

New studies suggest that the weather in far off Greenland, one of the fastest warming parts of the Earth, is affecting the rainfall patterns in Britain. This is linked to the extremely wet summers of 2007 and 2012.Sheffield University, checking data back to 1851, found that since the 1980s there has been an increase in the number of summer high pressure blocking systems that become anchored over this vast island ice sheet. The result has been to drag warm air over Greenland causing melting on a much-increased scale. Continue reading...

Danny Price, who helped devise the Coalition’s climate policy, says Labor scheme to shut brown-coal generators would lead to higher pricesA little-noticed part of Labor’s climate policy could push up retail power prices by between 8% and 25%, economist Danny Price has claimed, with price hikes in Victoria exceeding the impact of the former Labor government’s carbon tax.

Honduras officials report arrests of two people linked to company building hydroelectric dam which Cáceres had foughtFour men have been arrested in connection with the murder of the Honduran indigenous activist Berta Cáceres, who was shot dead at her home two months ago.Two of those arrested are linked to the company building a hydroelectric dam which Cáceres had campaigned against. Continue reading...

Footage from a live web camera nest shows bald eagles serving up a cat to eaglets – but the Audubon Society determines dead cat was not preyed uponCat owners have been warned of the dangers their feline companions face when venturing outdoors after video emerged of bald eagles feasting on the body of a dead cat near Pittsburgh.

Ethiopia has confirmed its commitment to restore its degraded lands to improve food security and biodiversity. Now, it’s looking to the private sector for supportEthiopia is in the midst of the worst drought in 50 years. Famine and malnutrition have now spread to 443 of the country’s 750 districts. Earlier this month, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), called Ethiopia’s condition “a deteriorated humanitarian situation”.Related: African forestry scheme aims to build prosperity by restoring landscape Continue reading...

Environment secretary Liz Truss appeals to supporters of other parties to vote for UK to remain in the European UnionA Conservative cabinet minister has made a direct plea to supporters of other political parties to vote in favour of Britain’s membership of the EU by warning that Brexit would be a “hugely retrograde step” for the environment.In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the environment secretary, Liz Truss, said the referendum was too important to be dominated by internal Tory politics. Continue reading...

Half of us are reluctant to get on our feet for more than 20 minutes. Compared to the progress made on cycling, for walkers it’s been pedestrianIf you live in Britain, and you’re enjoying day three of the bank holiday weekend, you may already be dreading going back to work – not just the grind of the office or factory, but the misery of getting there. If you’re not jammed into an overcrowded, unpunctual train or bus, you’ll be struggling with jams and roadworks in your car, or trying not to be crushed by a lorry on your bike. It’s no better if you’re taking the kids to school or popping to the shops. Thanks to a combination of hypermobility and underinvestment, even the shortest journey can take you to hell and back.Related: Just like cyclists, pedestrians must find a sense of self-righteousness | Zoe Williams Continue reading...

As his #wheredovesdie trip to Malta shows, Packham uses his celebrity status to promote good causes, even if it means making a few enemiesLove him or loathe him Chris Packham is a hard man to ignore. Recently returned from Malta, where he has been for a second time to highlight the massacre of thousands of birds on migration by Maltese hunters, he came up with the hash tag #wheredovesdie in tribute to the late singer Prince. The idea was to draw attention to the plight of the declining turtle dove. In 2014 he was intimidated by hunters and then threatened with arrest for his efforts. This time he has been accused of being an “unethical fake and a liar” by the hunters’ federation chief executive Lino Farrugia and declared a persona non grata on the island.Packham has been credited in the media with waging war on everything from pandas to insect-eating celebrities Continue reading...

Peabody Energy brought contrarians Spencer, Happer, and Lindzen to testify on their behalf, but the judge wasn’t convinced by their case

Government says 330 million people are suffering from water shortages after monsoons failAs young boys plunge into a murky dam to escape the blistering afternoon sun, armed guards stand vigil at one of the few remaining water bodies in a state hit hard by India’s crippling drought.

A jackal squares up to a lion and a gorilla prepares to fight his own reflection. Motion-sensitive ‘camera traps’ capture some startlingly unguarded animal behaviour Continue reading...

Experts make first estimate of the value of tuna fisheries and warn Pacific Islanders have most to lose from declining stocksOverfishing is jeopardising a global tuna industry worth more than $42bn (£29bn), according to the first assessment of its kind. A report produced by the Pew Charitable Trusts has highlighted the significant revenues that fishermen, processors and retailers are generating from severely depleted species of tuna.

Underwater footage shows William Trubridge’s world record breaking 122 metre freedive at Vertical Blue 2016. The elite annual freediving competition takes place at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas, the deepest known salt water blue hole in the world. Vision: Vertical Blue Continue reading...

A bitter dispute over a 300-hectare tract of land has culminated in a Northern Territory government decision not to award it it what would have been the first Aboriginal heritage listing in DarwinIt’s a site that supporters say should be spoken of “in the same breath as the Wave Hill walk-off”, a 300-hectare tract of city-adjacent coastal land, which holds a central role in the history of Indigenous land rights.On Friday, a bitter dispute over attempts to heritage list the Kulaluk lease, less than 20km from the Darwin city centre, seemed to be decided as the Northern Territory planning minister, Dave Tollner, rejected a recommendation by the Heritage Council to list it. Continue reading...

Clocks moved forward by half an hour to restrict use of lighting and power as country grapples with economic crisisVenezuelans lost half an hour of sleep on Sunday as their clocks were moved forward to save power at the order of President Nicolás Maduro.At 2:30 am local time, the oil-dependent South American nation shifted its clocks forward by 30 minutes, to four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. The move, announced in mid-April, was part of a package of measures the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member nation is pursuing to cope with a crippling electricity shortage. Continue reading...

More than 1,000 businesses across north-west England reopen after being damaged by storms Desmond and EvaMore than 1,000 businesses have declared a return to trading more than four months after being hit by severe flooding during winter storms, the government has said.Related: Electricity firm retracts compensation pledge after Storm Desmond power cuts Continue reading...

Climate group says Australian insurers lag behind overseas companies in not divesting from fossil fuelsClimate activists are targeting the role of insurance companies in the expansion of fossil fuel production, highlighting the impact of extreme weather events on their bottom line.“We’ve already targeted banks and super funds, so insurance companies are the next frontier,” said Dan Gocher from the financial activist group Market Forces. Continue reading...

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 6 May 1916Surrey, May 4

Reports of mining in the River Santiago basin raise concerns given the devastating social and environmental impacts elsewhereThree people in a motorised canoe on the mighty River Santiago in Peru’s northern Amazon some weeks ago saw something deeply alarming. It was one dredge and between 15 and 20 men mining for gold up one left-bank tributary.Two of the people in the canoe were consultants for Lima-based NGO DAR, which has dubbed the River Santiago Peru’s “last frontier” for illegal mining. “In the Amazon gold extraction is only known about in the Madre de Dios and Puno regions in the south of the country,” Esteban Valle Riestra, one of DAR’s consultants, told the Guardian. “The shift to the north, where in the Santiago basin it started within the last three years, is something new.”

‘Real leadership shows that consensus and negotiation is a sign of strength, not weakness,’ opposition leader writes in part-memoir part-manifestoBill Shorten has released his own part-memoir part-manifesto, a book casting his life, career and policies for government as part of Labor’s centrist reforming tradition and in the mould of Bob Hawke’s consensus-driven leadership style.

I have been disappointed by the Green party refusing to be drawn on the use of the second-preference vote in the London mayoral election and by its recent election broadcast suggesting that there is little distinction between the Tories and Labour. I was even more disappointed this weekend to receive in my inbox an email from Lib Dem HQ telling activists to spend the last few days of the campaign “capitalising” on Labour party “troubles”. Let’s be clear: Caroline Pidgeon and I have spent the last four years on the London assembly working closely with both Labour and Green colleagues. Together we have mounted robust opposition to Boris’s abysmal record of inaction on housing, the environment and transport. We have worked together because we have found there to be a great deal more that unites us than divides us. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous and unhelpful.The Tory party is divided and isolated – out of touch and with luck soon to be out of office. Its campaign has been a disgrace. Its only remaining hope is that Zac Goldsmith will be able to spread the delusion that he is somehow an environmentalist. In fact his Tory colleagues on the assembly have spent the last four years arguing that London should become the UK centre for fracking; and he is advocating that Britain leave the EU, whose laws have driven all the major improvements we have seen in recent decades on air pollution, waste management, and carbon emissions. My friend and colleague Caroline Pidgeon will get my first-preference vote for mayor on Thursday. She has a well-thought-out set of policies for London and her eight years of experience at City Hall has shone through during her confident hustings performances. But of course my second-preference vote will go to Sadiq Khan. It’s a no-brainer.

Thirty-three lions rescued from circuses in South America arrive at a big cat sanctuary in South Africa. The lions are seen roaring and playing with each other as they’re freed into nature for the first time. They were rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia and have been resettled in an private estate in Limpopo province Continue reading...

The Nature Conservancy-funded program will test how new hook designs and other practices could reduce bycatch while keeping the fishing business lucrative

We go behind the scenes on a tuna fishing expedition in Palau, an island nation in the western Pacific, where researchers from The Nature Conservancy test a number of sustainable fishing practices that could reduce bycatch – the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing – while keeping the fishing business lucrative

Portable ‘Desolenator’ makes sea water and rain fit for human consumptionTravelling around Thailand in the 1990s, William Janssen was impressed with the basic rooftop solar heating systems that were on many homes, where energy from the sun was absorbed by a plate and then used to heat water for the home.

Draft wild horse management plan for Kosciuszko national park aims to cut the population of wild horses from 6,000 to 600Ninety per cent of the Snowy Mountains brumbies would be culled over the next two decades, under a plan released by the New South Wales government.The draft wild horse management plan for Kosciuszko national park aims to cut the population of wild horses in the park from 6,000 to about 3,000 in the next five to 10 years. Continue reading...

Before you embark on a cruise, there are serious ethical questions to ask…Ahoy, my ageing hearties. Increasing numbers of mega liners are being built. These monster ships can carry, entertain and feed 5,000 passengers at a time. Meanwhile research from Tourism Concern shows that the older vessels are responsible for 36 times as many greenhouse gas emissions per passenger kilometre than Eurostar and three and a half times more than a long-haul flight. And this is just the start of a long ethical rap sheet.So here are the questions to ask before setting sail that nobody does… Continue reading...

Coalition government announces budget funds for national plan to control Australia’s worst freshwater feral pestTuesday’s federal budget will include funding for a $15m for a national carp control plan in an attempt to eradicate Australia’s worst freshwater feral pest, the government announced on Sunday.The plan includes the staged release of the carp-specific herpes virus in the Murray-Darling basin. CSIRO scientists have been testing the virus in Australian native fish species and other animals found along the river for the past seven years and have established that it is safe to release into the ecosystem without harming other species. Continue reading...

Big cats arrive in South Africa, where sanctuary beckons, after having suffered cruel treatment in Colombia and PeruThe roars of lions filled the cargo section of Johannesburg’s main international airport on Saturday evening as 33 lions rescued from South American circuses landed in South Africa.The animals will now be released into a bush sanctuary for big cats. Continue reading...

President Uhuru Kenyatta orders destruction of more than 100 tonnes of tusks in 11 pyresThe Kenyan president set fire to a huge stockpile of ivory on Saturday in an effort to show his country’s commitment to saving Africa’s elephants.Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the destruction of more than 100 tonnes of tusks from around 6,700 elephants, stacked in 11 pyres at a ceremony in Nairobi national park. The fires, destroying a quantity seven times bigger than ever before, are expected to burn for several days. Continue reading...

Government’s failure to tackle health and safety issues, food poisoning and pollution leading to ‘largely avoidable’ deaths, says thinktankThousands of people are dying each year because of the government’s failure to tackle food poisoning, health and safety breaches and pollution, a thinktank is warning.A new report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) claims that lax regulation and weak enforcement are failing to hold businesses in check and are tantamount to state-facilitated “social murder”. Continue reading...

Kenya sets ablaze 100 tonnes of elephant ivory and one tonne of rhino horn, in what is being called the largest stockpile of the material to be destroyed. Led by Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta at the Nairobi national park, eleven giant pyres of ivory is set on fire using 20,000 litres of gasoline. The decision to destroy the ivory was made to highlight the impact of poaching

Kenyan president lights pyres in move some fear will drive further poaching by taking 5% of global stock out of circulationMore than 100 tonnes of ivory has been set ablaze in Kenya, the largest ever such fire, in an attempt to shock the world into protecting endangered elephants.Eleven giant pyres of tusks from around 6,000 elephants, a quantity seven times the size of any previous burn, were lit by the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, at a ceremony in Nairobi national park on Saturday. Continue reading...

Nearly wiped out in a bid to demolish Native American resistance, the bison’s history paints a picture of strife and redemption that mirrors the US’s ownThe bald eagle may appeal to America’s sense of self – soaring, majestic, hard to tame – but as a national symbol, the more humble bison paints a truer picture of the strife and redemption that has marked US history.The bison is to become the first national mammal of the US, elevating it to the giddy heights of symbolism currently occupied by the bald eagle. Little more than 100 years since it was virtually exterminated in America in a manic bid to demolish Native American resistance, the bison now has establishment status. Continue reading...

Kenya has destroyed 105 tonnes of confiscated ivory, almost all of the country’s stockpile, at an event in Nairobi national park attended by several African heads of state and conservationists. The event was intended to send a strong anti-poaching message Continue reading...