CP Foods condemns, in the strongest possible terms, all aspects of human trafficking and slavery, and we take this opportunity to reassert our strong commitment to human rights and a sustainable supply chain.In light of a recent lawsuit filed in California (Costco and CP Foods face lawsuit over alleged slavery in prawn supply chain, 19 August ), CP Foods would like to provide further detail on the actions we have been taking to ensure traceability and humane and sustainable practices throughout our shrimp (prawn) supply chain. Continue reading...

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, a pilot project is using heat-loving algae to clean wastewater and generate energy

Coal lobbyists think Australians should be shocked that climate campaigners have strategies and are coordinatedBefore I reveal some chilling truths about environmental campaigners, you’d best grab your nearest cuddly toy and take refuge behind the sofa.

Freedom of information requests unearth inconsistent messaging from miner and Northern Territory government on the extent of heavy metal contaminationGlencore has yet to finish erecting signs warning of contaminated river life near a Northern Territory mine more than a year after the miner and the state government became aware of elevated levels of heavy metals.Government documents have revealed inconsistencies in the information given to the public about potential lead contamination of fish near the company’s McArthur river mine, despite the NT government and mining giant being aware of recommendations for warnings since July 2014. Continue reading...

Tropical songbirds produce fewer, high-quality nestlings per breeding effort than do songbirds that breed in temperate zones, according to a study published today. This study reports that tropical songbirds’ nestlings grow longer wings, and faster, which means they spend less time in the nest where they are vulnerable to predatorsIt has been a long-standing ornithological mystery as to why tropical songbirds have smaller clutches of eggs and raise fewer chicks per breeding effort than do temperate songbirds. But today, a study published in the journal Science argues that life history strategies lie at the heart of this conundrum. In this study, evolutionary ecologist Thomas Martin, an Assistant Unit Leader and Senior Scientist at the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Montana, compares nestling growth rates between closely-related species of tropical and temperate songbirds. He documents that nestlings of tropical songbirds grow longer wings, and grow them faster, than do nestlings of temperate songbirds. Further, they achieve longer wings without increasing their time in the nest, which reduces their risk of predation. Further, because tropical songbirds have more resources available to invest into their offspring, they produce fewer chicks per breeding effort and invest more resources into each individual, thereby giving their offspring a higher survival rate after they fledge (leave the nest). In contrast, temperate songbirds have fewer resources available to nurture their chicks and their offspring suffer a higher mortality rate after they leave the nest, so temperate songbirds compensate by producing a greater number of lower-quality offspring. Continue reading...

Renewable energy sector condemns proposal to cut feed-in-tariff for small-scale solar installations by almost 90% from 1 JanuaryThe government wants to slash by 87% subsidies for householders who install solar panels on their rooftops, in a move that renewable energy experts warn could kill off a promising industry.The potential reductions in the level of feed-in tariff (FIT), contained in a long-awaited consultation document released by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (Decc), and are far larger than expected. Continue reading...

After a rough decade, the fishing industry around New Orleans is struggling to recover from the lingering damage from Katrina and the BP oil spillLike Louisiana’s largest city, New Orleans, the state’s verdant, marshy coastline is wild and diverse: a fat, largemouth bass might snatch the same topwater lure in the same fishing spot where you just landed a 30lb bull redfish. Just beyond the beady iridescent eyes of a freshwater gator emerges the fin of a benevolent porpoise. The coastal fishery’s singular bounty has traditionally provided for many.It’s tempting to ask how Louisiana fishing culture is faring 10 years after Katrina. But given the abuse doled out to the state’s fisherman since that famous storm – including three more hurricanes and the effects of the 2010 BP oil spill – it’s a wonder Louisiana’s commercial fishing industry hasn’t gone extinct even sooner than most local fishermen now predict. Continue reading...

Building a wind farm or solar energy project is nothing professionals in fossil fuels can’t manage, but there are too few programmes to help them retrainAdriaan Kamp used to be a die-hard oilman. After 17 years at Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell, the 54-year-old Dutchman now runs a consultancy based in Oslo advising national governments on transitioning to cleaner energy.“In 2007 to 2008, we were looking at future energy scenarios in the Shell Group [and] there was a question on my desk about how do we play with renewables,” he says. “And from there, the journey started.” Continue reading...

From beekeeping to working as a River Cottage chef, here are some of the best schemes for apprentices that want to make a difference in their career Continue reading...

Sully, a pregnant grey-headed flying fox, savours some fresh grapes hours after being found unresponsive on the ground in a Sydney park. She was nursed back to health by a bat rescuer for six weeks before being released, still pregnant. Sully’s carer says bats should not be feared but can carry viruses, so should be handled only by people who are vaccinatedWatch the full recovery story here Continue reading...

If grey squirrels killed every year in the UK were sold for meat, it would be no bad thing. Factory farming is more harmful to the environment

As Barack Obama opens up the Arctic Ocean to oil drilling, how can this pristine wilderness withstand the human hunger for fossil fuels?At midnight on 29 June, the sun was directly north and well above the hills. It had not gone down since I arrived in the Arctic, three days earlier, and would not set for weeks. It rolled around the sky like a marble in a bowl, sometimes behind clouds or mountains or the smoke of the three or four hundred wildfires somewhere south of us, but never below the horizon. The midnight sun made the green hilltops glow gold, and lit our walk through the wildflowers and the clouds of mosquitoes to the mountaintop.Down below, I could see our tents, our camp kitchen, tiny from the heights, and our two rafts, all along the sandy beach and flowery grass bench alongside the shallow Kongakut River. A few days earlier, a couple of bush planes had dropped off our group of nine for a week’s journey 65 miles down the river that threads its way from the Brooks Range of mountains to the northern coast of Alaska. Continue reading...

Ouse Fen, Cambridgeshire It was as if someone had burst a thousand pillows along the bankThere are specks in the sky over every field and garden, silver-spoked seeds of thistledown, the snowflakes of summer. Up there in the blue, some float past to wherever, some bunch up unloved in the corner of a spider’s web, and one has slipped indoors and rests weightless on my windowsill.The other day, I went to a mass-production fluff factory, the thistle-lined dykes of Ouse Fen outside St Ives. Continue reading...

Thirty-five-year-old Hervey Bay man smuggled the reptile in his work boot after purchasing it from Darwin, where it is legal to buy crocodilesA man who bought a pet crocodile under the Northern Territory’s liberal wildlife-purchasing regime fell foul of the law only when trying to smuggle the reptile in his work boot on a plane into Queensland.The juvenile crocodile, which the man purchased from a Darwin crocodile park, was gravely ill by the time it was uncovered by authorities at Brisbane airport in a cardboard canister, hidden in a work boot inside a suitcase that was stored in the plane’s baggage hold. Continue reading...

Anglers join conservationists in high court case, saying Cameron government is failing in legal duty to safeguard rivers and coasts from agricultural run-offConservationists and angling organisations have joined together in a legal challenge, accusing the government of failing to protect some of England’s “most precious rivers” from agricultural pollution.WWF UK, the Angling Trust and Fish Legal say they have been granted permission by the high court to pursue their challenge to protect rivers, lakes and coastal areas from further damage. They are seeking a judicial review, arguing that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Environment Agency are failing in their legal duty to take the necessary action to tackle the problem. Continue reading...

A Q&A with the bestselling author before her visits to Melbourne and SydneyNaomi Klein, the Canadian author, film-maker and social activist, will arrive in Australia this month for a series of events. The author of No Logo and the Shock Doctrine – a self-confessed fan of avocado on toast – will be discussing climate change and capitalism, the key topics in her new bestselling book This Changes Everything. She spoke to Guardian Australia’s Oliver Milman.

Environmental groups band together to call on agency to improve laws for disposal of wastewater, often dumped in places that could leak toxic chemicalsEnvironmental groups have threatened to sue the Obama administration for failing to prevent swarms of earthquakes that came in the wake of America’s fracking boom.