Scientists confirm cetacean's presence but cite impact of climate change which has made North-west Passage ice-free in summerScientists have confirmed the presence of a whale off New England that went extinct in the Atlantic Ocean two centuries ago - an exciting discovery, but one they said that illustrates the impact of climate change on sea life.Researchers with the New England Aquarium in Boston found the gray whale while flying 30 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on 1 March. The whale, which can weigh 60,000 pounds (27,215kg), typically lives in the northern Pacific Ocean. Continue reading...

Focus turns to criminal investigation after NSW Environment Protection Authority completes its trawl through the supply chain

The Long Table in Gloucestershire is a not-for-profit that rescues food waste, sources local produce and pays the real living wageA Gloucestershire restaurant is rethinking relationships with customers, suppliers and the entire food economy to fuel an ambitious pay as you can" model that feeds allcomers, regardless of ability to pay.In the past year, The Long Table has fed about 20,000 people at below-cost price - many for no charge at all, no questions asked - while rescuing 3.4 tonnes of food destined for the bin and paying local suppliers fair prices for the rest. Continue reading...

For generations, residents have hauled tiny fishing shacks on to frozen lakes, but milder winters are forcing them to quit earlyNew England fishers are on thin ice this winter as warming temperatures force them to abandon their lake perches months ahead of schedule, an alarming reality that could jeopardize the future of a deeply rooted recreational tradition.Ice fishing is a way of life in places like New Hampshire, where people flock to frozen lakes each winter with their bob-houses in tow. Continue reading...

Nitrate-fouled water from concentrated animal feed operations causes a host of medical problems for nearby residentsFor nearly three decades, Jeff Broberg couldn't drink water from his tap.He lives on a sprawling, 170-acre grain and legume farm in Winona county, a rural part of south-east Minnesota saturated with animal agriculture. Like most properties in the area, Broberg's has a well connected to his faucet. On a whim, when Broberg first moved in in 1986, the now 69-year-old retired geologist started testing his water for nitrate - an invisible, odorless and tasteless compound found in animal manure and commercial fertilizer. Consuming it in high quantities has been linked to a variety of health risks. Continue reading...

Report links rise in birds trapped for human consumption to cuts in anti-poaching resources in area of British military baseMore than 400,000 songbirds were trapped and killed in Cyprus last autumn as part of a recent increase in wildlife crime, according to a new report.Organised crime networks use decoys and speakers playing birdsong to lure these small birds - including garden favourites such as robins and sparrows - to land in bushes or orchards, where they catch them with mist" nets or branches covered in glue. They are then sold via the hidden market to restaurants to be eaten as a local dish called ambelopoulia", which consists of pickled or boiled songbirds. Continue reading...

According to Thai government Srettha Thavisin asked for new standards to be gradually implemented to protect exports

Citi, BofA, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo leave framework that assesses environmental, social and governance (ESG) financingFour of the world's biggest banks have left the Equator Principles, a set of minimum industry standards and safeguards for financial institutions to address environmental and social risks in countries where they finance fossil fuel and mining projects.The Equator Principles have been around for more than two decades, and while not enforceable, they provide a basic framework of environmental standards that banks agreed would underpin financing deals on pollution-causing extractive projects. Continue reading...

We are buying more electric and plug-in hybrid cars - 8.5% of all new sales last year - and no one's weekend has ended. But that's barely half of the global sales proportion

Leaking fuel and thousands of tonnes of fertiliser could harm marine ecosystems and affect coastal fishing communitiesThe sinking of a bulk carrier off the coast of Yemen after a Houthi missile attack poses grave environmental risks as thousands of tonnes of fertiliser threaten to spill into the Red Sea, officials and experts have warned.Leaking fuel and the chemical pollutant could harm marine life, including coral reefs, and affect coastal communities that rely on fishing for their livelihoods, they said. Continue reading...

Authorities notified of dead right whale stranded off Georgia on Sunday while North Atlantic species totals less than 360The first confirmed baby right whale of the year has been found dead from a collision with a ship, a devastating blow for the vanishing species.North Atlantic right whales number less than 360 and they are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. Federal authorities were notified of a dead right whale stranded off Georgia on Sunday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said. Continue reading...

Irrigation for grazing and evaporation due to global heating is draining Oregon's Lake Abert. Now environmentalists and ranchers are looking for common ground on how to save itThe water level in Oregon's remote, salty Lake Abert fell to unusually low levels in July 2013. As it did, the salt concentrations became too high even for the few species adapted to its saline waters. Tiny brine shrimp and alkali flies died en masse. By September, so much water had been lost that the salts precipitated into a shimmering white crust of triangular crystals.Daily counts of shorebirds had reached 350,000 in July - a higher density than is found even at the Great Salt Lake - but after the lake dried out and remained empty the following summer, bird counts dropped by 90%. Continue reading...

Mass die-off in Klamath River caused by extreme changes in water pressure amid largest dam removal project in US historyAs many as hundreds of thousands of newly hatched Chinook salmon released into the Klamath River have died due to gas bubble disease" caused by extreme changes in water pressure.The young salmon fry were released amid the largest dam removal project in US history along the 257-mile-long river, which flows across Oregon and California. Four hydropower dams are being removed, reconnecting the lower and upper portions of the Klamath River for the first time in a century and allowing fish free passage along the river. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Electric car company says Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is running a concerted public campaign' by suggesting plan would push up price of popular cars

Research finds almost all land cleared in the state between 2016 and 2021 in areas where threatened species habitat likely to occur'

Exclusive: Wildlife groups welcome promise to ban pesticides approved by government against scientists' advice

Rural households led by women lose about 8% more income to heat stress than male-led families, data showsWomen in rural areas suffer substantially greater economic losses from the impacts of climate breakdown than men in developing countries, research has shown, and the gap is likely to widen further.Households headed by women in rural areas lost about 8% more of their income to heat stress than male-headed households, and their reduction in income when floods struck was about 3% greater than the loss to men, according to data released by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Britain spent about 26bn in three years on low-carbon measures, less than Italy, Germany, France and Spain, Greenpeace findsThe UK spends less on low-carbon energy policy than any other major European economy, analysis has shown, despite evidence that such spending could lower household bills and increase economic growth more than the tax cuts the government has planned.Spending on low-carbon measures for the three years from April 2020 to the end of April 2023 was about $33.3bn (26.2bn) in total for the UK, the lowest out of the top five European economies, according to an analysis by Greenpeace of data from the International Energy Agency. Continue reading...

Dedicated groups called Bantay Dagat aim to conserve the abundant marine life surrounding their thousands of islands, which has been under pressure for years from intensive overfishing

Homeowners in wealthy towns watching anxiously in face of heavy storms that have caused flash floods and coastal erosionThe torrents of water coming from the sky are having ripple effects on the cliffs that hold up some of California's most expensive real estate. In the first two months of the year, nearly 18in of rain has fallen in the southern California area, about 8in above normal to date - and more is on the way this week.The California governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency in eight counties covering more than 20 million people, and flash-flood warnings were issued for parts of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Continue reading...

Long delays after Extinction Rebellion members parked truck across three city-bound lanes

BBC presenter defends climate activists' right to target MPs' homes amid debate over politicians' safety

Invasive species could be worse than rabbits, cane toads, foxes, camels, wild dogs and feral cats combined, committee hears

Permission granted for judicial review after Planning Inspectorate overturned local council's decision to reject planCampaigners have been given permission to challenge plans for a new oilfield in an area of outstanding natural beauty - which they say threatens one of England's hidden rural treasures".The proposed oil-drilling operation is in Biscathorpe in the Lincolnshire Wolds, an important habitat for nature and wildlife that has been officially designated an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB). Continue reading...

South32's project was fast-tracked by the Biden administration, but residents are worried about its impact on a fragile ecosystemGrowing up on both sides of the Arizona-Mexico border, Denise Moreno Ramirez got respite from the border town bustle by hiking through sycamore and juniper trees in the mountains near her home. These isolated mountains - known as the Sky Islands - provide a crucial habitat for native plants and animals, but also played a special role in Moreno Ramirez's family history: like many in the area with Indigenous Yaqui or Mayo origins, her ancestors once mined the mountains for precious metals.Moreno Ramirez's great-grandfather, Alberto Moreno, dug for copper when he first came to Arizona from Mexico in the early 1900s. He found that the mining industry powered the state economy and put food on his table; eventually his son - Moreno Ramirez's grandfather - followed suit and worked in the mines, too. Continue reading...

Darren Woods tells Fortune consumers not willing to pay for clean-energy transition, prompting backlash from climate expertsThe world is off track to meet its climate goals and the public is to blame, Darren Woods, chief executive of oil giant ExxonMobil, has claimed - prompting a backlash from climate experts.As the world's largest investor-owned oil company, Exxon is among the top contributors to global planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions. But in an interview, published on Tuesday, Woods argued that big oil is not primarily responsible for the climate crisis. Continue reading...

Outgoing climate chief says he is not ready' to give up on 1.5C target he helped negotiate in Paris agreementThe US continues to be a force for good in tackling the climate crisis, despite its soaring fossil fuel production, the John Kerry has insisted.The outgoing US climate chief acknowledged, however, that strong safeguards were needed to dismantle oil and gas infrastructure before the switch to renewables could become permanent, as he prepared to leave his post as special presidential envoy. Continue reading...

Sixty years after fatal floods and subsidence halted gas extraction in the Po delta region, politicians are once again eyeing methane reserves. But at what cost to one of the Mediterranean's largest wetlands and the people who live there?To a visitor driving through Polesine in north-east Italy on a winter morning, the area might seem blessed with an abundance of wildlife. The biodiversity is among the richest in Italy, with 400 species of bird, lagoons, marshes and reed beds that have created a true natural labyrinth. Yet, it soon becomes obvious that something is not right: houses and fields are all lower than the road, visibly sunken, protected by embankments about four metres high. The reason? Without those barriers, they would be under water.The entire area of Polesine, a strip of land between the Po delta and the Adriatic Sea, has long suffered the consequences of subsidence, but it was aggravated by gas extraction, which is why the practice was banned by the government in 1961. Continue reading...

Four-metre shark euthanised after becoming beached on shore at Kingscliff on Tweed Coast

As part of the state-sponsored programme to restore arctic fox populations, Norway has been feeding the animals for nearly 20 years, helping boost numbers from as few as 40 in Norway, Finland, and Sweden, to about 550 across Scandinavia today. Without these conservation measures, the arctic fox would surely have become extinct in Norway,' said Bjorn Rangbru, a senior adviser on threatened species with the country's environment agency Continue reading...

Exclusive: Ex-employees of Australian Agribusiness Group allege dozens of injuries occurred as blue gums cleared for agricultural use, claims which the company rejectsWARNING: contains images some viewers may find distressing

City of Sydney lord mayor reveals testing of potentially contaminated mulch has cost $200,000 with remediation costs likely to be substantial'

Some farmers have turned from livestock to crops to avoid the financial pitfalls and thorny ethics of industrial agricultureFarmer Tom Lim had been raising poultry for 20 years when the company he worked for as a contractor terminated him without warning, leaving him saddled with debt and unsure of where to turn. My heart just dropped," he said. I didn't know where to make money to pay off our loans."Lim was born in rural Cambodia, where his parents tended rice fields with water buffalos, raised a smattering of chickens and grew vegetables around their home. That lifestyle shaped his love of farming, but was a far cry from what he found himself doing as an adult, raising 540,000 chickens a year in North Carolina for Pilgrim's Pride, one of the largest meat producers in the US that supplies chicken to Walmart, Costco and KFC. Continue reading...

The tree will be exhibited at the Sill in Hexham, close to where it once stoodThe largest section of the Sycamore Gap tree unlawfully cut down last September is to go on public display, Northumberland national park has announced.The tree, which stood in a dip next to Hadrian's Wall, will be exhibited at the Sill, a tourist attraction in Hexham, not far from where it once stood. Continue reading...

The wildlife charity allegedly dropped a study highlighting farm pollution linked to the supply chain of its former supermarket partnerThe wildlife charity WWF-UK shelved a report that warned how intensive chicken production is devastating the River Wye, the Observer can reveal.Since 2018, the charity has received more than 6m in donations from the supermarket chain Tesco, which has faced action from campaigners over the decline of the Wye because many of the intensive poultry farms in the river's catchment area are in its supply chain. Continue reading...

US ski industry is losing billions as average season has become five to seven days shorter in past half centuryIf you have been enjoying lushly covered mountains by skiing or snowboarding this winter then such an experience could soon become a receding memory, with a new study finding that an era of reliably bountiful snow has already passed due to the climate crisis.The US ski industry has lost more than $5bn over the past two decades due to human-caused global heating, the new research has calculated, due to the increasingly sparse nature of snowfall on mountain ranges. Previous studies have shown that in many locations precipitation is now coming in the form of rain, rather than snow, due to warming temperatures. Continue reading...

Kanchha Sherpa, 91, says more respect should be shown to sacred peak that has been climbed thousands of times since 1953 ascentThe only surviving member of the mountaineering expedition that first reached the summit of Mount Everest has said the world's highest peak is too crowded and dirty, and the mountain is a god that needs to be respected.Kanchha Sherpa, 91, was one of the 35 members of the team that helped the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay to the top of the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) peak on 29 May 1953. Continue reading...

Michael Gove said UK needed coal to make steel, but business department papers drafted around same time say it will notPreviously unseen documents have emerged that appear to contradict the government's case for a new coalmine in Cumbria.When Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, approved plans to build the Woodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven in December 2022, he said the UK would need the coal in order to carry on making steel. Continue reading...

Higher temperatures and winds forecast in the coming days could make firefighting conditions more difficultAs the largest wildfire in Texas history engulfed his town, Danny Phillips was left helpless.We had to watch from a few miles away as our neighborhood burned," he said, his voice trembling with emotion. Continue reading...

Campaigners say decision against Danish Crown, Europe's largest pork producer, sends resounding messageEurope's largest pork producer misled customers with its climate-controlled pork" campaign, Denmark's high court has ruled in the country's first climate lawsuit.Campaigners argued that Danish Crown greenwashed its meat with round, pink stickers on its packaging that said pigs were climate-controlled", along with a marketing campaign that claimed its pork was more climate-friendly than you think". Continue reading...

Authorities asked to step in to protect Black-a-Tor Copse, an ancient temperate rainforest in Devon at risk from overgrazingThere are acorns galore and tiny oaks sprouting from tussocky grass beside the gnarled ancient trees of Black-a-Tor Copse on the northern slopes of Dartmoor national park.But each tiny sapling grows no higher than a sheep's chin and there it stays, its new shoots and tender leaves repeatedly shorn each spring by the livestock roaming through this national nature reserve. Continue reading...

The first documented sex between two male humpback whales is just the latest challenge to our presumptions about sexualityWhales are extraordinarily sensuous creatures. Those blubbery bodies are highly sensitive, and sensitised. At social meetings, pods of sperm, humpback and right whales will roll around one another's bodies for hours at a time. I've seen a group of right whales engaged in foreplay and penetration lasting an entire morning.I have also watched a male-female couple so blissfully conjoined that they appeared unbothered by our little fishing boat as they passed underneath it. And in what may sound like a career of cetacean voyeurism, I have also been caught up in a fast-moving superpod of dusky dolphins continually penetrating each other at speed, regardless of the gender of their partner. Continue reading...

Two ranches also allege biosolids with forever chemicals' ruined crops, polluted drinking water and left their properties worthlessA Texas county has launched a first-of-its-kind criminal investigation into waste management giant Synagro over PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge it is selling to Texas farmers as a cheap alternative to fertilizer.Two small Texas ranches at the center of that case have also filed a federal lawsuit against Synagro, alleging the company knew its sludge was contaminated but still sold it. Sludge spread on a nearby field sickened the farmers, killed livestock, polluted drinking water, contaminated beef later sold to the public and left their properties worthless, the complaint alleges.This story was amended on 1 March 2024. The previous version stated that testing of drinking water in two properties' wells found levels as high as 268,000 parts per trillion. That number has been corrected to 268 ppt. Continue reading...

First-year vehicle excise duty is a fraction of that in countries such as France and the NetherlandsLow taxation on petrol SUVs in the UK compared with much of Europe is inviting a glut of large, polluting luxury cars, according to an analysis by a green thinktank.The tax paid when buying a new petrol or diesel SUV in the UK is only a fraction of the levies in neighbouring countries, including France and the Netherlands, and lower than many others in Europe, making it a tax haven" for the bigger, less environmentally friendly vehicles, the report from Transport & Environment (T&E) found. Continue reading...

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

Health campaigners are voicing concerns that the issue is being neglected - despite the devastating death toll around the worldSeven million people die each year from illnesses attributable to air pollution, yet it has never had global recognition in the same way as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, and now there are growing calls from the health sector for that to change.Relative to other health issues that have access to billion-dollar global funds, air pollution has a far greater health impact, said Christa Hasenkopf, the director of clean air programmes at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (Epic). Continue reading...

Campaigners and human rights experts point to crackdown on climate and Gaza protestsThe Conservatives have been accused by human rights experts of hypocrisy after cracking down on climate and Gaza protests while celebrating and endorsing farmers' protests in Wales.Rishi Sunak joined a protest of farmers in Wales last Friday, after they had obstructed a road while campaigning against the Labour government's new farming subsidies scheme. But this week he vowed to crack down on protests, referring to them as mob rule". On Wednesday, the Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew Davies, along with many of his colleagues greeted and posed for photographs with farmers who formed a large group outside the Senedd and blocked a main road with tractors. Continue reading...

Two groups are striking for better working conditions and investment in Germany's underfunded public transportAt first sight, the gathering in an office complex in east Berlin resembles a self-help group. But the public transport workers and climate protesters sitting in a semi-circle introducing themselves have been thrown together, they say, to fight for a common cause.Hello, my name is Erdogan. I'm a bus driver in the northern zone of Berlin and have been in the job for 32 years. I'm glad someone is finally taking our profession seriously," says one. Continue reading...

Group claims oil firms transferred depleted wells to another company which then conspired to avoid clean-up through fraudCindy McCormick and her husband bought a new property in Hudson, Colorado, in 2020. It was expansive, close to friends and had a stunning mountain view.There was just one problem: an aging, abandoned oil well sat on one far edge of the land. The couple was a bit concerned, but the realtor and the well's owner, Painted Pegasus Petroleum, assured them that it would be cleaned up. Continue reading...

Coastal areas facing enormous and urgent climate crisis' as event supercharges human-caused global heating, scientists sayThe current climate event known as El Nino is likely to supercharge global heating and deliver record-breaking temperatures from the Amazon to Alaska in 2024, analysis has found.Coastal areas of India by the Bay of Bengal and by the South China Sea, as well as the Philippines and the Caribbean, are also likely to experience unprecedented heat in the period to June, the scientists said, after which El Nino may weaken. Continue reading...