When the snow melts, rafters ride the runoff. But in the Colorado Rockies, the winter snowpack has been melting more quickly, leading to intense rapids and a shorter rafting season that is peaking weeks earlier than the usual mid-June.Early snowmelt has been blamed for potential water supply issues, and also has been correlated with more wildfires. It could have implications for water lovers from the Rockies to the Gulf of Mexico.Why is it misbehaving? Stand-up comedian Travis Irvine speaks with rafters in Idaho Springs, Colorado, for their views – and also asks the snowmelt for its side of the story.

Even the carbon tax-scrapping Australians will do more than New Zealand to address climate change, reports Stuff.nzEmission-slashing pledges by countries including the United States have experts questioning if New Zealand’s recently-announced climate change target is as fair and ambitious as it was described to be.

ITV documentary seeks to prove notorious predators live off British coastlineAdventurer Ben Fogle has embarked on an expedition to hunt for great white sharks in UK waters, using the carcass of a 30ft whale as bait.The investigation will reveal the hidden creatures lurking in British seas for an upcoming ITV documentary fronted by the presenter. It is believed to be the first whale-fall experiment to take place in the UK, recreating what happens when a whale drops to the bottom of the ocean once it dies. Continue reading...

Television news shows the surface of China’s River Hai coated in dead sticklebacks – a scene which Deng Xiaowen, the head of Tianjin’s environment monitoring centre, said ‘was not uncommon’. Chinese authorities have denied that the deaths of thousands of fish near the scene of a catastrophic industrial disaster are linked to last week’s chemical explosions in Tianjin which killed at least 114 people Continue reading...

Artist Bryan Little’s Endemic Project features animal paintings in reflective tape that illuminate in car headlights to reveal species endemic to the Western Cape and Fynbos floral kingdom of South Africa. Drivers can download a soundtrack to accompany the immersive installation along Rhodes Drive in Cape Town Continue reading...

Premier Daniel Andrews has moved in an opposite direction to Tony Abbott over renewable energy with a plan he says will create 1,000 jobs for regional VictoriaThe Victorian government has set itself against the Coalition government over renewable energy by fast-tracking plans to build 50 new wind turbines worth $200m.The premier, Daniel Andrews, made the announcement on Friday at Keppel Prince Engineering, the same wind tower manufacturer in the state’s south-west where 100 staff were made redundant in 2014 because of uncertainty regarding the federal government’s renewable energy target. Continue reading...

State fisheries minister denies the program is a cull but is merely aimed at catching sharks near popular beachesQueensland’s fisheries minister, Bill Byrne, has defended a shark protection program that caught and killed 621 sharks between July 2014 and June 2015.He said the program had bipartisan support and focused on sharks that could injure or kill swimmers.

PM’s claim of ‘massive and unmanageable costs’ are laid bare by figures showing that a 45% emissions target would cut GDP by a maximum of just 0.7%The Abbott government has released its own economic modelling of long-term greenhouse gas reduction targets, confirming that the prime minister’s assertions about the costs of more ambitious targets have been incorrect and overstated.Two weeks ago, Tony Abbott unveiled a new long term greenhouse gas reduction goal of reducing emissions by between 26% and 28% of 2005 levels by 2030. Continue reading...

Media outlets are becoming more reliant on NGOs to uncover corporate wrongdoing, says Global Witness’s new executive directorDelving into the murky world of natural resources and corruption is dangerous work. Two people are killed every week, on average, defending land, forests and waterways against companies and criminals staking their claim on land.

Reports from trade missions show the lengths to which Indian mining billionaire Gautam Adani has gone to charm ministers and state Premiers.Why is it that for so long and under such extreme pressure, Australian political leaders of both dominant stripes have stood by one of the most controversial coal projects in the country’s history?The project in question is the Carmichael coal mine – a $16 billion (or so) plan for Queensland’s Galilee Basin being endlessly proposed by Indian company Adani. Continue reading...

I single handedly saved the cassowaries with quite a lot of help from loads of other people who did all the work. Also, they’re not saved. Yet

South Uist Perhaps the greatest use of the structure is made by the three rams that are the usual occupants of the field in which it standsOn South Uist it’s not unusual to come across a roadside shrine. Each has a glass-fronted niche containing a devotional statue of the Virgin Mary and often a posy of artificial flowers. With whitewashed or painted exteriors, sometimes decorated with shells, they are all beautifully maintained. All, that is, except for the one in the adjacent field which has fallen into disuse.But though no longer in service as a shrine it is not without purpose. Its unpainted stone has been colonised by lichens. Best of all is the familiar orange Xanthoria parietina, which sits atop the roof like a miniature thatch. Continue reading...

Conservationists call for action to end slaughter of birds after study uncovers epidemic of illegal shooting, trapping and gluingAbout 25 million birds are being unlawfully shot, trapped and glued in a Mediterranean crime wave that is even affecting birds vulnerable to extinction, according to the first report of its kind.Conflict-hit countries such as Syria and Libya fare particularly badly in the study by BirdLife International, with Egypt the worst offender, with 5.7m birds killed each year. Continue reading...

A sick cassowary who was put down because a sanctuary admitted only chicks, has prompted calls for new ways to protect the endangered birdsQueensland’s government is launching an investigation into how it deals with injured cassowaries after the “regrettable” killing of one of the endangered birds.The emaciated female cassowary, found in the Atherton Tablelands, was put down this week because the Garners Beach cassowary rehabilitation centre at Mission Beach admits chicks only. Continue reading...

First confirmed wolf sighting in the state since 1924 led to discovery and photographs of pack of five cubs and two adults near Mount ShastaCalifornia’s first grey wolf pack since wild wolves disappeared from the state nearly a century ago has been spotted in the woods in the northern part of the state, wildlife officials said on Thursday.

An inquiry is under way into how a cull of somewhat similar-looking pukeko birds has led to the slaughter of 5% of the wild population of takahēThe head of New Zealand’s national deerstalkers’ association has apologised “to the country at large” after four critically endangered takahē were mistakenly shot by hunters carrying out a cull of a somewhat similar-looking bird.Deerstalkers were contracted by the Department of Conservation to carry out a cull of pukeko, a non-endangered, very common relative of the takahē, on an island sanctuary in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. Continue reading...

Around half a million ants hold a protest in Cologne, Germany, calling for Angela Merkel, the country’s chancellor, to continue supporting the protection of the Amazon rainforest. As Merkel makes a visit to Brazil, conservation organisation the World Wildlife Fund lazered messages onto leaves, which read, ‘Stand up’ and ‘Save the Amazon’. Ants then carried the messages on their backs as they crawled across their ant farm Continue reading...

Latest report finds climate change intensified the drought in California from 2012 to 2014 and predicts ‘enhanced drought’ throughout 21st centuryGlobal warming has increased the severity of the ongoing drought in California, as part of a larger trend of human-caused climate change intensifying dry weather spells, scientists said on Thursday.

The agency has said it doesn’t monitor hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines, or know which one could be the source of the next big toxic spillThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it has no system for monitoring hundreds of thousands of abandoned mines that pock the American landscape, or knowing which one could be the source of the next big toxic spill.

Star Trek was one way of dealing with the social anxieties of the 1960s. Since sci-fi mirrors the present, ecological collapse requires a new dystopian fiction

EU’s top climate official warns that ‘painfully slow’ negotiations must be accelerated to seal a meaningful global emissions pact at Paris summitWith 100 days to go until the Paris climate summit, the EU’s climate chief has warned that progress in thrashing out a draft negotiating text is proceeding too slowly and urgently needs to be stepped up.Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU’s climate commissioner, said that the 85-page draft agreement currently being poured over by diplomats still contains far too many bracketed options that need to be rapidly narrowed. Continue reading...

Before the end of 2015 at least 80 new wind turbines will rise up, increasing capacity by a third, reports De StandaardWind turbines are under construction everywhere. In the coming months they will be unmissable along Flemish roads, as an unprecedented building boom breaks out, a survey by De Standaard and green power companies reveals.The result of the boom has been a sharp increase in wind power capacity in Flanders. Late last year the counter stood at 604 megawatts. Already during the second half of this year, 195 megawatts will be added. In comparison, the smallest nuclear reactors in our country – Doel 1 and 2 – each have a capacity of 433 megawatts.

Expert says neonicotinoids, even at EPA’s ‘safe’ levels, could devastate aquatic invertebrates: ‘The water issue is probably as important as the pollinators’The most comprehensive survey to date of pollution in the US from a controversial group of pesticides has found the chemicals are widespread in streams and rivers. Though not considered a human health threat, the findings underscore the environmental ubiquity and potential for ecological harm of neonicotinoids.While neonicotinoids have been blamed for fuelling declines of bees, researchers say their effects could extend beyond pollinators. Also at risk are invertebrates that form the foundation of aquatic food chains and the myriad creatures who feed upon them. Continue reading...

Thousands of dolphins, whales, seals and porposies have been spotted in the Thames. It’s good news for the London riverIf marine mammals are the canaries of the sea – offering advance warning signs of the healthy state, or otherwise, of our waters – then the new report from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) on the extraordinary numbers of seals, porpoises, dolphins and even whales appearing in the Thames must be good news.The ZSL survey, conducted over 10 years, records an astonishing 2,732 sightings in the river and its estuary (although it cannot say how many of these were repeat visits by individual animals). Many were seals – easier to spot since they hang about at the surface. But 444 porpoises and dolphins were also seen, and a truly remarkable 49 whales, including minke whales, larger than any elephant, and more commonly seen from whalewatch boats in places such as Scotland and Cape Cod. Continue reading...

The UK government’s bid to weaken EU laws to limit toxic pollution wouldn’t appear in any manifesto. It reveals a party working in the interests of corporate coal rather than the publicIt’s interesting to note how readily modern conservatism degenerates into a defence of corporate malfeasance.By this I don’t mean a defence of corporations in general, which you might expect from a political movement aligned with the interests of wealth and power, but of the worst corporations in particular. That is not a pro-corporate position, as favouring bad practice undermines the competitive position of more responsible companies. It’s a decision to side with the worst capitalists against the better capitalists. Continue reading...

BP was part of oil and gas lobby that successfully undermined EU renewable energy targets and subsidies in favour of gas as a climate fix in 2011The fossil fuel giant BP helped spur a concerted industry push to curb EU policy support for renewable energies such as wind and solar in favour of gas, the Guardian has learned.

I believe California is illegally discriminating against students of color by permitting wells that are disproportionately close to the schools they attendEvery morning, I send my daughters off to school with a kiss on the cheek and a heavy heart. School is supposed to be a safe and supportive environment where children are able to learn without worrying about threats to their health. Unfortunately, this is not the case in my hometown of Shafter, California.California state laws have allowed oil companies to hydraulically fracture oil wells perilously close to my daughters’ schools, exposing them to dangerous air toxins and putting their health and safety at risk on a daily basis. Continue reading...

As illegal poaching escalates in national parks from Selous to Ruaha, officials attempt to silence the crisis and many fear Serengeti herds will be nextFor tour guides in Tanzania, the results of a continental elephant census showing that the country had lost two-thirds of its herd in five years and become Africa’s ivory trading hub came as no surprise.

The crisis at SeaWorld reflects people facing up to uncomfortable truths about animal welfare and what it means to be humane – and not before timeWhen I started work on Blackfish, I could not possibly have imagined the effect it would have on SeaWorld. Let’s be honest. Not a lot of people see documentaries. And not a lot of people want to see a movie that sucker punches a beloved cultural icon. But it seems as though the movie has indeed changed how many view the park.Over the past couple of years, SeaWorld’s visitor numbers have fallen, its stock has plummeted, lawsuits have confronted their business practices, legislation has challenged what goes on at Shamu Stadium, and reported profits were down 84% on the previous year. Continue reading...

Crook, County Durham We count the usual suspects among the rubble – teasels, mugwort, ragwort, poppies, mullein and melilotThe fragrance of newly mown hay drying in the sun in Weardale’s meadows is just a memory now that the last cut has been gathered in, but 10 miles down the dale, in this small market town, it lingers. It grows stronger as we walk down an alley to the post office, past a bulldozed wasteland that was, until last year, the council depot.A forest of melilot (Melilotus altissima) has appeared in the brick and concrete rubble. This is a plant supercharged with coumarin, the compound that gives mown grass its heady aroma. Today the scent comes in waves, released as the plant’s tangled stems brush against each other in the warm wind. Continue reading...

Medical charity sold off two-thirds of its investments in Shell but lost an estimated £175m in the last year due to falling share prices in the fossil fuel sectorThe Wellcome Trust’s investments in fossil fuel companies have lost an estimated £175m in the last year, due to sharp falls in share prices. Research by the Guardian shows the medical charity has sold off two-thirds of its holding in Shell but also increased its investment in the fastest falling of its stocks, mining giant BHP Billiton, by 8%.The Wellcome Trust is the world’s second-biggest non-governmental funder of medical research but has been the focus of a Guardian campaign asking the Trust to sell its fossil fuel investments, which today stand at an estimated £370m. Continue reading...

Chief scientist Virginia Burkett says: ‘I thought it was just a US problem but it’s not, apparently, it’s a global problem’A senior US government official has decried a “disturbing” rejection of climate science by Australian politicians.

New global database shows human activity has led to increased spread of invasive speciesMany of the world’s plants are turning “alien”, spread by people into new areas where they choke out native vegetation in a worsening trend that causes billions of dollars in damage, scientists said on Wednesday.

Authorities in Mexico will deploy drones on southwestern beaches in Oaxaca to protect against a reported surge in poaching of the eggs of the threatened Olive Ridley turtle. The turtles return to the country’s coast each year to lay their eggs in the sand. The sale of turtle meat and eggs has been banned in Mexico for more than two decades, but the threat of jail has not deterred poachers Continue reading...

Marine Conservation Society says record numbers of creatures being reported, mostly barrel jellyfish but also more exotic species

AG Barr ends policy after 110 years, citing reduction in number of bottles returned for 30pIrn-Bru’s maker, AG Barr, is to end glass-bottle returns after 110 years as it invests £5m in new facilities. The company cited a reduction in the number of bottles returned for 30p as customers increasingly chose to recycle at home.

Queensland mining minister set to announce Abbot Point environmental impact statement complete, putting Adani closer to submitting plan to Greg HuntThe latest version of Adani’s controversial plan to dredge in Great Barrier Reef waters to expand its Queensland coal port is poised to go before federal environment minister Greg Hunt for approval.Guardian Australia understands Queensland mining minister Anthony Lynham will announce on Thursday that an environmental impact statement on the Abbot Point port expansion is complete, opening the way for an application to Hunt. Continue reading...

Tackling climate change means inventing a new economy, not drilling even deeper into the old oneFor the first time, Hillary Clinton has openly criticised President Obama in her bid to win the Democrat nomination. In a tweet last night , she condemned the president’s decision to licence Arctic drilling that was he signed off earlier this week. “The Arctic is a unique treasure,” she said. “Given what we know, it’s not worth the risk of drilling.” Her criticism has been echoed around the world. Lobbyists globally are trying to work out why the man who has so clearly identified climate change as a legacy issue, and who in the past year has done so much to promote the green agenda, has taken such a controversial, counterintuitive step.Back in May, when his decision was first indicated, the president justified it by arguing that it would be impossible to abandon fossil fuels until the transition to clean energy sources was finally accomplished. He said it would be better if the US, with its high safety standards, exploited all its available reserves, rather than importing oil from what he implied was any old foreigner. A few days later, he too took to Twitter to justify his actions, pointing out that Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant which has already spent more than $6bn on the project of winning permission to drill, had been sent back to the drawing board and forced to redesign safety aspects of its plan. Supporters pointed out that the permissions had originally been granted under President George W Bush, and halting them, for example by a moratorium on the entire coastal shelf, as another Democrat candidate Bernie Sanders demanded, or by buying out the permissions, would require formidable amounts of compensation and would be likely to face a legal challenge. And, they say, it is only a permit to explore, not yet a contract for commercial exploitation. If the anticipated reserves are present, those contracts would be a matter for the next administration. Continue reading...

New analysis takes fuel quality into account for first time, but China is still world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gassesChina’s carbon emissions from fossil fuels and cement production may have been overestimated by as much as 14%, according to a new analysis by scientific researchers.The report, published in the journal Nature, estimates that in 2013, China’s CO2 emissions totalled 2.49 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon, 14% less than previously thought. Over the period 2000-2013, it calculates that the difference is 2.9 gigatonnes, larger than China’s total forest sink – the amount of carbon it absorbs – between 1990 and 2007. Continue reading...

Mayor of Bay of Naples island featured in film plays down environmental test results showing high levels of E coli and faecal bacteria off Pozzo Vecchio beachThe mayor of an idyllic Italian island has refused to close a beach featured in an Oscar-winning film, despite warnings from environmental protection agents that the sea contains high levels of E coli and faecal material.A picturesque island in the Bay of Naples, Procida can boast of being just as beautiful as the nearby Amalfi coast, but without the tourist crowds. The island gained fame through the Oscar-winning film Il Postino (The Postman), a love story following the protagonist around Procida on his bicycle.

Police and military beat and tear-gas citizens demonstrating against government policies and reformsWould you believe me if I told you that while president Rafael Correa was singing “Hasta siempre, comandante” with a band in the main square in central Quito last Thursday night just one block away riot police were tear-gassing and clubbing Ecuadorian citizens? Or that elsewhere in Ecuador the police have been reported to be specifically targeting female protestors’ “intimate parts”?Ecuador is currently in turmoil. Thousands of people are protesting proposed constitutional amendments, the expansion of the oil frontier, mining projects, changes to water and education policy, labour laws and pensions, a proposed “Free Trade Agreement” (FTA) with the European Union (EU), and increasing repression of freedom of speech, among other things. The government’s response? To send the police and military with batons and tear-gas to beat citizens, make arbitrary arrests, raid homes and even – some people believe – to take advantage of volcanic eruptions by declaring a nationwide “State of Exception”. Continue reading...

Yes, it’s another wildlife sumer scare story. This time they’re from Argentina, carry bacteria, walk erratically – and are pretty harmlessIt sounds like the plot of an animal horror B movie: a gigantic plague of flesh-eating “crazy ants” from Argentina invades the city of Birmingham. High on electricity and engorged with salmonella, the psycho killers attack livestock and gnaw through wires to causes fires in overpopulated towerblocks. They. Are. Coming. For. You.So – more or less – go recent news reports of the latest UK wildlife summer scare story (TM), following an alert issued by Basis Prompt, a pest controllers registry, that tropical ants are invading the country. Continue reading...

The role of light in the mating rituals of adult fireflies was little understood until recently, but now scientists want to use bioluminescence for a host of potential medical procedures – including tagging tumors to monitor themIn a green clearing within the forest of Tlaxcala, Mexico, a campground waited for the sun to set.Swarms of moms and dads stood next to abuelas nonchalantly chewing tamales from a nearby stand. Wriggling niños flipped flashlights on and off, while overflowing trashcans marked meeting points. Continue reading...

Andrew Allen walked from London to Cambridgeshire to raise money for Rewildling Britain and got a new insight into the places he travelled through on the train every day, reports Rewilding BritainYou should walk home from work. Last week I did exactly this – a four day journey to connect me with places I commute through every week and to raise money for Rewilding Britain. I found landscapes empty not just of plant and animal diversity, but of people – an environment fenced, tamed and emasculated. It is not just Britain’s uplands that need rewilding, it’s the places on our doorstep, too.I spend a lot of time on trains. A combination of cultish property prices and my narrow career path mean I regularly commute the 80 miles between east Cambridgeshire and London. I am not alone. The capital’s coarse roots have spread across much of south east England, with the rail network alone pouring over a million people into London each day. Continue reading...

Obama’s climate push reflects a mood change ahead of Paris talks, but Ireland’s low carbon bill lacks binding goals and is not expected to achieve the EU’s 2020 targets, reports The Irish Times

Billionaire has previously funded renewable energy and low-carbon initiatives and has called coal a ‘lethal bullet’ for climate changeBillionaire climate philanthropist George Soros invested more than $2m (£1.3m) in struggling coal giants Peabody Energy and Arch Coal in recent months, despite having once called the fuel “lethal” to the climate.Filings with the Securities and Exchange commission show that between April and June this year Soros Fund Management (SFM) bought more than 1m shares in Peabody ($2.25m), the world’s largest private coal company, and 500,000 shares in Arch ($188,000). Continue reading...

Industry unlikely to pick up without advances in carbon capture technology as governments seek to drive down emissions, banking giant warns. RTCC reportsUS banking giant Citigroup says the global coal industry is set for further pain, predicting an acceleration of mine closures, liquidations and bankruptcies.The value of listed coal companies monitored by Citi has shrunk from $50bn (£32bn) in 2012 to $18bn in 2015, a trend it believes will continue. Continue reading...

Ebony Churchill was rounding up dairy cows for milking on a farm in western Victoria when a koala started chasing her quad bike. The 31-year-old was audibly scared and tried to outrun it, but this resulted in the sharp-clawed animal picking up speed. She told the Adelaide Advertiser: ‘He was in love with me and I rejected him so he chased me’ Continue reading...

Every day, millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesYou don’t have to look hard for stories of people who think fracking is bad. There are the two children in Pennsylvania who were given a lifelong gagging order over talking about fracking after a settlement with an oil and gas company. A woman in north Texas experienced nosebleeds, nausea and headaches after drilling started near her home. And in Barnhart, Texas, people blame fracking for the town running out of water.Related: How cheap energy from shale will reshape America's role in the world Continue reading...

A hemp-flavoured coalition of lawyers, activists and seabirds has successfully seen off Adani’s humongous coal mine on a minor technicality called ‘the law’