Welsh actor narrates A River documentary highlighting risk of river pollution from shale gas drilling in Pontrhydyfen village, Richard Burton’s birthplaceThe actor Michael Sheen has given his support to an anti-fracking film opposing shale gas drilling in the Welsh village of Pontrhydyfen, Richard Burton’s birth place.Sheen narrates the documentary A River, which is soundtracked by original music from Robert Del Naja and Euan Dickinson of Massive Attack, and warns of a pollution risk to the river Afan from potential fracking in the area. Continue reading...

The discovery of unique face markings on individual blennies enabled underwater photographer Paul Naylor to gain new insights into the secret world of these charismatic UK fish Continue reading...

The farm jointly owned by Meurig Raymond has twice been the site of incidents which have led to successful prosecutions“It’s simple,” a civil servant at the government’s environment department, Defra, once told me. “When we want to know what our position should be, we ask the NFU [National Farmers’ Union].”There are not many organisations in Britain - though this country is infested with lobbyists of every persuasion - with a grip on policy as tight as the National Farmers’ Union. Vast conservation bodies (the National Trust, RSPB and Wildlife Trusts have a combined membership of some 6 million) are locked out, while the NFU seems to get everything it wants. Continue reading...

Coalition senator Chris Back joins independent senator John Madigan’s call put projects on hold as a ‘precaution’Two members of a Senate inquiry into the health effects of wind farms – including a Coalition backbencher – have called for a moratorium on building new turbines until two separate medical studies conclude.On Tuesday, the National Health and Medical Research Council announced that it would allocate $3.3m for two university studies on whether noise emitted from wind turbines, known as infrasound, affected health, sleep and mood. Continue reading...

A double whammy of an emerald borer beetle and the fungus causing ash dieback disease could kill millions of ash trees on the continent, study warnsAlmost all the ash trees in the UK and across Europe are likely to be wiped out by a “double whammy” of a bright green borer beetle and the fungus that causes ash dieback, according to a comprehensive new academic analysis.The loss of the ash, one of the most abundant tree species in the UK, would mean losing even more trees than the 15 million elms killed by Dutch elm disease in the 1970s. Ash is the most common hedgerow tree, with 60,000 miles of tree lines. It is the second most common tree in woodland, after the oak, and there are many ash trees in towns and cities. Continue reading...

Conservationists feared victory for the India-based group would have discouraged future legal action against mining schemesAdani has failed in an attempt to make conservationists pay legal costs estimated at more than $1m from a court challenge against its Carmichael coal project.Related: Traditional owners vote to sack representatives who received benefits from Adani Continue reading...

Anohni and THEEsatisfaction are in the vanguard of artists using their music to challenge ecocide and resist big business on behalf of minoritiesLast month, Anohni (formerly Antony and the Johnsons) became the first transgendered artist to be nominated for an Oscar - a benchmark moment organisers felt was important enough to warrant a mention on their trivia page, but not a live appearance: “I want to be clear — I know that I wasn’t excluded from the performance directly because I am transgendered,” said Anonhi in an open letter, entitled ‘Why I am not attending the Academy Awards’. “I was not invited to perform because I am relatively unknown in the US, singing a song about ecocide, and that might not sell advertising space.”It’s true: despite decades of warnings from top scientists, ecocide remains an unfashionable issue, thanks in no small part to intensive lobbying and spin from agribusiness, biotech corporations and carbon barons, who use art world patronage to create an illusion of benevolence. Continue reading...

The new fund will receive the money over a decade from the $10bn in borrowings already allocated to the Clean Energy Finance CorporationThe Turnbull government is setting up a new $1bn clean energy fund alongside the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to lend to, or take an equity stake, in emerging technologies.The fund – to be called the Clean Energy Innovation Fund – will receive $1bn over 10 years from the $10bn in borrowings already allocated to the CEFC. Continue reading...

Boswell Farm and Woodside Farm might sound like the perfect place to source your sausages from. The problem is, they don’t exist. Shouldn’t the supermarket chain be concentrating on giving consumers accurate information instead?Tesco has just launched a new range of meat and fresh produce with a series of farm names, including Boswell Farms’ beef steaks and Woodside Farms’ sausages. So far so bucolic. But, it turns out, all these farms are fictional. While the retailer says every product in the range, which includes vegetables, fruit, salad, pork, chicken and beef, is from “known farms” it has chosen to label them with fake ones. Continue reading...

Company pleads guilty to causing large quantities of sewage fungus in a stream close to homes in Alton, according to the ENDS ReportA brewery has been fined £100,000 for polluting a tributary of the Thames in Hampshire.Molson Coors Brewery (UK) Ltd was sentenced by Basingstoke Magistrates Court on 17 March after pleaded guilty to two offences: causing an illegal water discharge activity and breaching its environmental permit.

Are we failing to achieve a clear global consensus on how to tackle climate change? Former leader of the Labour party Ed Miliband, Guardian journalist George Monbiot and scientist Helen Czerski debate the implications of the historic Paris agreementAmid accusations of short-termism in the political arena, is climate change too insurmountable an issue in the public psyche? After the failures of Copenhagen in 2009, the Paris summit has been hailed as a success, with the representatives from the 180 attending countries agreeing to limit global warming to 1.5c.However, the pledges amount to 2.7c of warming; a still catastrophic temperature rise that will cause climate breakdown highlighting the gulf between the rhetoric of governments and the reality of what they are prepared to commit to.

National Health and Medical Research Council defends decision after grants attacked as waste of timeAn Australian research council has given two grants worth $3.3m to research the impact of wind turbines on human health despite concluding last year there was no evidence turbine noise was harmful.Prof Anne Kelso, the chief executive of the National Health and Medical Research Council, said it had made the grants because “existing research in this area is of poor quality and targeted funding is warranted to support high-quality, independent research on this issue”. Continue reading...

Steve Marsh had tried to sue his GM-canola-cultivating neighbour Michael Baxter over claims his herbicide-resistant crop contaminated his organic farmA West Australian farmer who tried to sue his neighbour after genetically modified canola blew on to his land, contaminating his organic crop, must now pay a hefty court costs bill after a stay order was lifted.

Exclusive: Cabinet committee to review plan to combine Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Arena – agencies that Abbott government had sought to abolishThe Turnbull government is considering a plan to combine two major climate bodies – the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) – with both to be financed by borrowings rather than from federal budget allocations.

The Australian government pledged support for the Paris resolutions, and three months is long enough to see which voices it is - and isn’t - listening toGlobally there are many well-known names who have raised concerns about climate change: the Pope, Barack Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio, Prince Charles, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Rockefeller Foundation.