Environment | The Guardian

As diplomats search for a deal to curb the world's growing problem of plastic, piles of bottles, buoys, nets and packaging keep building up in what should be a pristine environmentAs our small fishing boat slows to a halt in a shallow bay south-east of Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, in the Galapagos Islands, a green turtle surfaces next to us, followed by a second, then a third a few metres away. A spotted eagle ray glides underneath the vessel.The skipper, Don Nelson, steps on to the black volcanic reef, slippery with algae. We follow, past exposed mangrove roots and up on to higher ground. Pelicans swooping into the trees and small birds, perching on branches, ignore our approach. Continue reading...

Ecuadorian ambassador to the UK is hopeful impasse can be overcome at treaty negotiations in OttawaAs UN talks begin to agree the first global treaty to reduce soaring plastic waste, the chair of the meetings has said he is confident countries will come together to secure an agreement.Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the Ecuadorian ambassador to the UK, admitted it would be a challenge to overcome an impasse that has emerged between countries which produce plastic and others that have ambitions to tackle plastic pollution over its whole life. But Valdivieso, who will chair the UN intergovernmental negotiations on a future international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution in Ottawa, Canada, this week, said: We have to face those challenges and work with them. Compromise is an important word that we need to take into account. Continue reading...

Claire O'Neill, a former climate minister, says PM's move was to try and create political division and dividing lines'The UK government's decision to weaken some of its climate commitments was a retrograde step" that would set back vital cross-party action to cut carbon emissions, Claire O'Neill, a former Conservative climate minister, has said.O'Neill, who was known as Claire Perry when she served as a minister under David Cameron and Theresa May, said the rolling back of emission reduction efforts by Rishi Sunak appeared to be a ploy for political advantage. Continue reading...

Plea from health officials comes after several snake bite victims arrived at emergency departments with the reptile

The Yalmy galaxias is on the verge of disappearing for ever' and Labor on the brink of failing to meet its zero extinctions target

Funds will be targeted at disadvantaged areas to create 200,000 jobs, after last week's oil and gas lease restrictions in AlaskaJoe Biden marked Monday's Earth Day by announcing a $7bn investment in solar energy projects nationwide, focusing on disadvantaged communities, and unveiling a week-long series of what the White House say will be historic climate actions".The president was speaking at Prince William Forest Park, in Triangle, Virginia, touting his environmental record and unveiling measures to tackle the climate crisis and increase access to, and lower costs of, clean energy. Continue reading...

Chris Stark says populist response and culture war around the term is inhibiting environmental progressThe concept of net zero" has become a political slogan used to start a dangerous" culture war over the climate, and may be better dropped, the outgoing head of the UK's climate watchdog has warned.Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said sensible improvements to the economy and people's lives were being blocked by a populist response to the net zero label, and he would be intensely relaxed" about losing the term. Continue reading...

Organizers at Columbia, Tulane and the University of Virginia write to attorneys general arguing schools' investments are illegalCampus organizers at three universities filed legal complaints on Monday arguing that their schools' investments in planet-heating fossil fuels are illegal, the Guardian has learned.The students from Columbia University, Tulane University and the University of Virginia each wrote to the attorneys general of their respective states calling on them to scrutinize their universities' investments. They accuse their universities of breaching the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, a law adopted by 49 states that requires non-profit institutions to consider their charitable purposes" when investing, and exercise prudence" and loyalty". Continue reading...

Results highlight the difficulties government faces in selling energy transition to sceptical public

Historic hearing will receive submissions from people whose human rights have been affected by climate changeJulian Medina comes from a long line of fishers in the north of Colombia's Gulf of Morrosquillo who use small-scale and often traditional methods to catch species such as mackerel, tuna and cojinua.Medina went into business as a young man but was drawn back to his roots, and ended up leading a fishing organisation. For years he has campaigned against the encroachment of fossil fuel companies, pollution and overfishing, which are destroying the gulf's delicate ecosystem and people's livelihoods. Continue reading...

Trudi Warner was accused of contempt for holding placard reminding jurors of right to acquit based on conscienceA high court judge has thrown out an attempt by the government's most senior law officer to prosecute a woman for holding a placard on jury rights outside a climate trial.Mr Justice Saini said there was no basis for a prosecution of Trudi Warner, 69, for criminal contempt for holding a placard outside the trial of climate activists that informed jurors of their right to acquit a defendant based on their conscience. Continue reading...

Embattled water supplier promises to invest up to 3bn more over the next five years

Swallows, cuckoos, curlews - so many species have dwindled or disappeared completely, and people are mourning their lossRead more: World faces deathly silence' of nature as wildlife disappears, warn expertsThe sounds of our natural world are changing dramatically. Earth's wildlife populations have plunged by 69% in fewer than 50 years. Fading along with them are many of the distinctive soundscapes of nature: the night-time calls of mammals, morning chorus of birds and buzz of insects.This global story is stitched together by many local stories of loss. We spoke to readers about how natural sounds are changing where they live. Continue reading...

Four-metre animal found during spotlight searches near Saibai Island on Friday night and humanely euthanised' a day later

Risk of fire ants spreading at another level' after detection in Oakey, Queensland, says chair of NSW Farmers' biosecurity committee

Scheme is part of effort to reduce staggering' quantities of textiles going to landfill or incineratorInstead of throwing stained, ripped and misshapen clothing in the bin, Britons are being asked to stick the dregs of their wardrobe in the post in a trial aimed at tackling the staggering" quantity of textiles sent to landfill or are incinerated each year.A third of consumers do not know what to do with tops, dresses and trousers that can no longer be worn, figures show, with a similar number admitting to putting such items in their household waste bin. Continue reading...

Europeans are dying from hot weather 30% more than they did two decades ago, report findsScorching weather has baked Europe in more days of extreme heat stress" than its scientists have ever seen.Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU's Earth-watching service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Continue reading...

Norway's KLP and the UK's LGIM among those who say they have concerns over energy giant's carbon transition goals

The map app will soon advise users in Sydney and Melbourne on public transport or walking alternatives to their driving plan

Resolution Foundation calls for fourfold increase in renewable power investment to reduce pressure on household billsA permanent shift to higher interest rates could add billions of pounds to the UK's renewable energy transition, a leading thinktank has warned.Borrowing costs have soared since the easing of pandemic lockdowns and Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the world's leading central banks raised interest rates to tackle inflation - pushing up the costs of investment in infrastructure across advanced economies including for green power generation schemes. Continue reading...

Officials urge municipalities to begin emergency planning after major rivers and reservoirs threaten to overflowMajor rivers, waterways and reservoirs in China's Guangdong province are threatening to unleash dangerous floods, forcing the government to enact emergency response plans to protect more than 127 million people.Calling the situation grim", local weather officials said sections of rivers and tributaries at the Xijiang and Beijiang river basins are hitting water levels in a rare spike that only has a one-in-50 chance of happening in any given year, the state broadcaster CCTV news said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Louisiana State University allowed Shell to influence studies after a $25m donation and sought funds from other fossil fuel firms

Restaurants are serving more unusual cuts of meat, with animal heads staring up at diners to teach them about their foodOffal has become a staple on restaurant menus across the UK, with cheaper cuts attracting chefs with sustainability goals and tight budgets, boosted by the influence of nose-to-tail pioneers such as Fergus Henderson at StJohn in London. Now many are going further, creating dishes with animal heads staring at diners from their plates.At Fowl in central London, which describes itself as a beak-to-feet chicken restaurant", the Sunday roast comes complete with chicken claws. At Manteca in Shoreditch, east London, you might find half a pig's head, clearly identifiable, on your table. Newly opened Camille in Borough Market, south London serves a chicken-neck sausage, including the bird's head. Continue reading...

Campaigners call for the whole regulatory system to be replaced after Observer analysis finds watchdog spent more than 25m with consultanciesThe water industry regulator has spent 26.7m on business consultants in the past five years, including several companies that have simultaneously worked for private water firms, the Observer can reveal.The findings prompted environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey to call for Ofwat to be abolished as fellow campaigners said there appeared to be no dividing line between those who are meant to enforce the law and those who routinely break it". Continue reading...

Our climate is influenced not just by Pacific weather patterns but by the Indian and Southern oceans, as well as global heating trends

Chris Stark, head of the Climate Change Committee, says Tories' decision to dilute key green policies has had huge diplomatic impactRishi Sunak has given up Britain's reputation as a world leader in the fight against the climate crisis and has set us back" by failing to prioritise the issue in the way his predecessors in No 10 did, the government's green adviser has warned.Chris Stark, the outgoing head of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said that the prime minister had clearly not" championed the issue following a high-profile speech last year in which he made a significant U-turn on the government's climate commitments. The criticism comes after Sunak was accused of trying to avoid scrutiny of Britain's climate policies by failing to appoint a new chair of the CCC. Continue reading...

Organisers say 50,000 turn out to call for limit on tourist numbers, saying model makes life unaffordable and puts strain on resourcesTens of thousands of people are protesting across the Canary Islands to call for an urgent rethink of the Spanish archipelago's tourism strategy and a freeze on visitor numbers, arguing that the decades-old model has made life unaffordable and environmentally unsustainable for residents.The protests, which are taking place under the banner Canarias tiene un limite" - The Canaries have a limit - are backed by environmental groups including Greenpeace, WWF, Ecologists in Action, Friends of the Earth and SEO/Birdlife. Continue reading...

Recordings of healthy fish are being transmitted to attract heat-tolerant larvae back to degraded reefs in the MaldivesAn underwater experiment to restore coral reefs using a combination of coral IVF" and recordings of fish noises could offer a beacon of hope" to scientists who fear the fragile ecosystem is on the brink of collapse.The experiment - a global collaboration between two teams of scientists who developed their innovative coral-saving techniques independently - has the potential to significantly increase the likelihood that coral will repopulate degraded reefs, they claim. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Whistleblowers point to broader sewage scandal, with wastewater systems manipulated to divert sewageWhistleblowers say UK water companies are knowingly failing to treat legally required amounts of sewage, and that some treatment works are manipulating wastewater systems to divert raw sewage away from the works and into rivers and seas.It is well known that water companies are dumping large volumes of raw sewage into rivers and seas from storm overflows but an investigation by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations reveals that the industry's dirty secret" is bigger, broader and deeply systemic. Continue reading...

Plan for 42-turbine Wooroora project withdrawn after minister signals refusal because of threat to spectacled flying-fox habitat

Video shows trees and shrubs along Western Australia's south-west coastline turning brown after Perth recorded it hottest and driest six months since records began. There were similar scenes in the state's south-west eucalypt forests in 2010 and 2011 - a major die-back event that prompted more than a dozen studies. Drought-hit forests were hit by fire years later Continue reading...

Environmental groups say bosses should hang their heads in shame' as firm bows to pressure from shareholders to cut costsUnilever is to scale back its environmental and social aims, provoking critics to say its board should hang their heads in shame".The consumer goods company behind brands ranging from Dove beauty products to Ben & Jerry's ice-cream was seen as perhaps the foremost proponent of corporate ethics - particularly under the tenure of its Dutch former boss Paul Polman. Continue reading...

Environmentalists celebrate new rules but Alaska politicians call it an illegal' attack on state's livelihood and predict lawsuitsThe Biden administration said on Friday it will restrict new oil and gas leasing on 13m acres (5.3m hectares) of a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska to help protect wildlife such as caribou and polar bears as the Arctic continues to warm.The decision - part of an ongoing, years-long fight over whether and how to develop the vast oil resources in the state - finalizes protections first proposed last year as the Biden administration prepared to approve the controversial Willow oil project. Continue reading...

Superfund law requires industries responsible for PFOA and PFOS contamination in water or soil to pay for cleanupThe Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated two forever chemicals that have been used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, an action intended to ensure quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds and require industries and others responsible for contamination to pay for their removal.Designation as a hazardous substance under the Superfund law does not ban the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS. But it requires that release of the chemicals into soil or water be reported to federal, state or tribal officials if it meets or exceeds certain levels. The EPA then may require cleanups to protect public health and recover costs that can reach tens of millions of dollars. Continue reading...

Research into release of forever chemicals' raises concerns about contamination and human exposure along world's coastlinesOcean waves crashing on the world's shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world's industrial polluters, new research has found, raising concerns about environmental contamination and human exposure along coastlines.The study measured levels of PFAS released from the bubbles that burst when waves crash, spraying aerosols into the air. It found sea spray levels were hundreds of thousands times higher than levels in the water. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Study released at Cop28 misused research to underestimate impact of cutting meat eating, say academicsA flagship UN report on livestock emissions is facing calls for retraction from two key experts it cited who say that the paper seriously distorted" their work.The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) misused their research to underestimate the potential of reduced meat intake to cut agricultural emissions, according to a letter sent to the FAO by the two academics, which the Guardian has seen. Continue reading...

Estimated 2,548 barrels of carbon dioxide leaked from Exxon pipeline in Louisiana on 3 April, triggering alarm among residentsA major leak of CO from an ExxonMobil pipeline in Louisiana exposes dangerous safety gaps that should halt the planned multibillion-dollar carbon capture industry, environmental advocates say.An estimated 2,548 barrels of carbon dioxide (CO) leaked from the Exxon pipeline in Sulphur in Calcasieu parish on 3 April, triggering an emergency response and alarm among residents who live in close proximity to scores of polluting pipelines, petrochemical and fossil fuel facilities. Continue reading...

State revealed as America's overwhelming emitter of sulfuryl fluoride, used by $4.2bn pest-control industry to kill termitesLevels of a potent greenhouse gas are quietly spiking in the atmosphere and increasingly worrying environmental groups that say its use needs to be reined in if the US is to avoid climate catastrophe.Furthermore, recent research has found the vast majority of the little-known gas, known as sulfuryl fluoride, is attributable to a state typically known for its climate-forward policies: California. Continue reading...

The best of this week's wildlife photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Exclusive: India seeking to use approach of UK election as bargaining chip and any exemption would be controversialIndia is demanding an exemption from the UK's planned carbon tax as part of negotiations aiming to finalise a free trade deal before the UK election.India's negotiating team have spent this week in London in a surprise set of talks to try to overcome the remaining hurdles to an agreement. Continue reading...

More than 50% of the planet's species live in the earth below our feet, but only a fraction have been identified - so farRead more: No birdsong, no water in the creek, no beating wings: how a haven for nature fell silentThe sound of an earthworm is a distinctive rasping and scrunching. Ants sound like the soothing patter of rain. A passing, tunnelling vole makes a noise like a squeaky dog's toy repeatedly being chewed.On a spring day at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research institution in Hertfordshire, singing skylarks and the M1 motorway are competing for the airways. But the attention here is on the soundscapes underfoot: a rich ecosystem with its own alien sounds. More than half of the planet's species live in the soil, and we are just starting to tune into what they are up to. Beetle larvae, millipedes, centipedes and woodlice have other sound signatures, and scientists are trying to decipher which sounds come from which creatures. Continue reading...

Analysis of 60o gardens shows wilder lawns feed caterpillars and create breeding habitatGood news for lazy gardeners: one labour-saving tweak could almost double the number of butterflies in your garden, according to a new scientific study - let the grass grow long.In recent years nature lovers have been extolling the benefits of relaxed lawn maintenance with the growing popularity of the #NoMowMay campaign. Now an analysis of six years of butterfly sightings across 600 British gardens has provided the first scientific evidence that wilder lawns boost butterfly numbers. Continue reading...

Exclusive: 80% of Welsh dairy farms inspected, 69% of English ones, 60% in Scotland and 50% in Northern Ireland breaching regulationsThe majority of UK dairy farms are breaking pollution rules, with vast amounts of cow manure being spilled into rivers.When animal waste enters the river, it causes a buildup of the nutrients found in the effluent, such as nitrates and phosphates. These cause algal blooms, which deplete the waterway of oxygen and block sunlight, choking fish and other aquatic life. Continue reading...

Body of 16-year-old boy discovered with injuries consistent with a crocodile attack' as wildlife officers search for animal

Climate campaigners complain of short-termism as country abandons target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030Climate campaigners have accused Scottish ministers of being inept" and short-termist" after they scrapped Scotland's target to cut carbon emissions by 75% by 2030.Mairi McAllan, the Scottish net zero secretary, confirmed her government had abandoned that target and would also drop legally binding annual targets on reducing carbon emissions, after damning criticism from a UK advisory committee. Continue reading...

Bill would stop private investors, including hedge funds, farmers and municipalities, from profiting off water scarcityWith private investors poised to profit from water scarcity in the west, US senator Elizabeth Warren and representative Ro Khanna are pursuing a bill to prohibit the trading of water as a commodity.The lawmakers will introduce the bill on Thursday afternoon, the Guardian has learned. Water is not a commodity for the rich and powerful to profit off of," said Warren, the progressive Democrat from Massachusetts. Representative Khanna and I are standing up to protect water from Wall Street speculation and ensure one of our most essential resources isn't auctioned off to the highest bidder." Continue reading...

Exclusive: By the middle of the century, pollution from plastic industry could undermine world's effort' to control climate crisisBy the middle of the century, global emissions from plastic production could triple to account for one-fifth of the Earth's remaining carbon budget, an analysis has found.The stunning new estimates from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, published on Wednesday, provide yet more evidence that the plastic industry is undermining the world's efforts to address climate change", said Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, which helped fund the new report. Continue reading...

Passengers report being stranded in the desert city as the international hub struggles in the wake of unusually heavy rain

Consumer Reports recently conducted its most comprehensive review of pesticides in 59 US fruits and vegetables. Here the organization shares what it found

From green beans to kale, here are some foods considered to be healthy yet which test poorly for pesticidesPesticides pose a serious risk in conventionally grown versions of the produce shown below, according to a new analysis by Consumer Reports. Here's why these fruits and vegetables are so problematic, plus how to safely fit them into your diet or make smart substitutions.Read more from this pesticide investigation:We found unhealthy pesticide levels in 20% of US produce - here's what you need to knowCan you wash pesticides off your food? A guide to eating fewer toxic chemicalsKale, watermelon and even some organic foods pose high pesticide risk, analysis findsWhat's safe to eat? Here is the pesticide risk level for each fruit and vegetableThis story was amended on 18 April 2024 to correct the name of the illustrator, whose name is Israel Vargas. Continue reading...