The Guardian
Supermarkets urged to stop stalling over glitter sales ban
It is a familiar adornment of both Mother’s Day and Easter gifts, and brings dustings of sparkle to everything from children’s craft projects to greetings cards and even flowers and pot plants. But campaigners are calling for a ban on glitter, branding it an environmental scourge that contains damaging microplastics.
“Glitter might look lovely but, because it’s plastic, it sticks around long after the sparkle has gone – often in the stomachs of fish and birds,” said David Innes, from the campaign group 38 Degrees, which has launched a petition calling on environment secretary Michael Gove to outlaw the product. Innes cites a recent study showing that up to a third of fish caught in the North Sea contained microplastic particles – including glitter.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A playful polar bear cub in Berlin, a hopaway wallaby in Texas and a roaming vicuna in Ecuador
Continue reading...Diarrhoea kills more children in war zones than war itself – Unicef
Report looks at 16 conflict areas and calls for military to stop targeting water resources
Diarrhoea and other diseases related to poor sanitation are bigger killers of children in areas of conflict than violence and war itself, a report has found, highlighting the need for improved infrastructure as a way of helping civilian populations afflicted by warfare.
Children under five are more than 20 times more likely to die from diarrhoeal diseases than from direct violence, according to Unicef. Henrietta Fore, the organisation’s executive director, said: “The reality is there are more children who die from lack of access to safe water than by bullets.”
Continue reading...UK will miss almost all its 2020 nature targets, says official report
Failure to protect wildlife, cut pollution and increase funding have left nature in ‘deep crisis’
The UK will miss almost all the 2020 nature targets it signed up to a decade ago, according to a report by the government’s official advisers.
The nation is failing to protect threatened species, end the degradation of land, reduce agricultural pollution and increase funding for green schemes, the assessment concludes. It also says the UK is not ending unsustainable fishing, stopping the arrival of invasive alien species nor raising public awareness of the importance of biodiversity.
Continue reading...CSIRO releases Brazilian leaf smut fungus to target and kill invasive weed
Science agency says scourge of wandering trad could be slowed by fungus, which they have called its ‘natural pathogen’
Australia’s national science agency will release a Brazilian leaf smut fungus to target and kill an invasive weed that covers large parts of the continent’s east coast.
Researchers from the CSIRO say the scourge of wandering trad could be slowed by the introduction of the Kordyana brasiliensis fungus, which they have called its “natural pathogen”.
Continue reading...Dirty lies: how the car industry hid the truth about diesel emissions
The ‘Dieselgate’ scandal was suppressed for years – while we should have been driving electric cars. By Beth Gardiner
John German had not been looking to make a splash when he commissioned an examination of pollution from diesel cars back in 2013. The exam compared what came out of their exhausts, during the lab tests that were required by law, with emissions on the road under real driving conditions. German and his colleagues at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) in the US just wanted to tie up the last loose ends in a big report, and thought the research would give them something positive to say about diesel. They might even be able to offer tips to Europe from the US’s experience in getting the dirty fuel to run a little cleaner.
But that was not how it turned out. They chose a Volkswagen Jetta as their first test subject, and a VW Passat next. Regulators in California agreed to do the routine certification test for them, and the council hired researchers from West Virginia University to then drive the same cars through cities, along highways and into the mountains, using equipment that tests emissions straight from the cars’ exhausts.
Continue reading...Night parrot study retracted after experts cast doubt on its credibility
Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s claim of finding traces of rare bird questioned by investigation
The Australian Wildlife Conservancy has had to retract research it published about the endangered night parrot after an investigation into whether sightings of the parrot were staged.
An independent panel investigated evidence that was used to support reports published by the conservation group that claimed to have found traces of the elusive bird at Kalamurina Wildlife Sanctuary in South Australia and Diamantina National Park in Queensland.
Continue reading...Australia's coal bonanza at risk as Chinese import 'ban' spreads
Hold-ups reach southern ports as analysts warn that trade could dry up amid China restructuring and diplomatic tension
The number of Chinese ports restricting or delaying Australian coal imports has continued to rise, threatening to end the export bonanza that is bloating federal coffers and signalling possible painful long-term structural change to the economy.
In an ominous development for Australia’s trade balance and federal budget, traders and buyers in China reported on Thursday that the hold-ups for Australian shipments that began in February have spread from the northern port of Dalian to Fuzhou in the south-eastern Fujian province and Rizhao in Qingdao.
Continue reading...Plastic pollution: can the ocean really be cleaned up?
While the ultimate goal is to stop plastics from entering the water in the first place, cleanup projects play an important role
Somewhere in Hilo, on Hawaii’s Big Island, a team of scientists and engineers are tending to The Ocean Cleanup’s 600-metre-long rubbish-herding device, after its maiden voyage to the Great Pacific garbage patch was cut short in December 2018, because it fractured into two pieces.
The project has had its fair share of problems since it was unveiled in May 2017 and has been criticised by marine scientists and environmental groups for its potential negative environmental impact. However, some still herald The Ocean Cleanup for having a positive effect on plastic pollution.
Continue reading...Climate change could make insurance too expensive for ordinary people – report
Munich Re, world’s largest reinsurance firm, warns premium rises could become social issue
Insurers have warned that climate change could make affordable cover for ordinary people unaffordable after the world’s largest reinsurance firm blamed global warming for $24bn (£18bn) of losses in the Californian wildfires.
Ernst Rauch, Munich Re’s chief climatologist, told the Guardian that the costs could soon be widely felt, with premium rises already under discussion with clients holding asset concentrations in vulnerable parts of the state.
Continue reading...Lord Howe Island: bleaching revealed on world's most southern coral reef – video
Marine biologist Dave Harasti has posted shocking footage of coral bleaching off Lord Howe Island, which lies in the Tasman Sea between Australian and New Zealand. Its location approximately 600km north-east of Sydney makes it the world's most southern coral reef
Continue reading...US judge halts hundreds of drilling projects in groundbreaking climate change ruling
In a rebuke of the Trump administration’s ‘energy-first’ agenda, a judge rules greenhouse gas emissions must be considered
In the first significant check on the Trump administration’s “energy-first” agenda, a US judge has temporarily halted hundreds of drilling projects for failing to take climate change into account.
Drilling had been stalled on more than 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming after it was ruled the Trump administration violated environmental laws by failing to consider greenhouse gas emissions. The federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages US public lands and issues leases to the energy industry, to redo its analysis.
The decision stems from an environmental lawsuit. WildEarth Guardians, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Western Environmental Law Center sued the BLM in 2016 for failing to calculate and limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from future oil and gas projects.
Continue reading...Searching for Australia's most elusive marsupial – Look at me podcast
If you’ve ever travelled to an Australian desert, you may have been in the presence of one of Australia’s most elusive marsupials. The Anangu people call it the itjaritjari but it is more commonly known as the marsupial mole – even though it is not actually a mole. Living entirely underground, this eye-less creature with pincer-like limbs has mostly defied scientific study until one scientist decided to bury some microphones ... Benjamin Law talks to Chris McCormack about his trip to Uluru in pursuit of this remarkable animal
Continue reading...'No clue': environment department doesn't know if threatened species plans implemented
Australia has highest rate of mammal extinction in the world but government admits it ‘does not have data’ on plans
The federal environment department has admitted it does not know whether recovery plans meant to prevent extinctions of threatened species are actually being implemented.
Related: Wombats, sharks, possums, frogs: Australia's animals at risk of extinction – interactive
Continue reading...Tim Flannery: people are shocked about climate change but they should be angry
The author and scientist, who has returned to his roots at the Australian Museum, says the world is about to see a major shift towards climate action
Tim Flannery laments that young Australians today will never be able to experience in the same way the natural wonders he enjoyed in his youth.
He grew up in Melbourne on remnants of the sandplain flora, “one of the great floristic gems of Australia,” he says. Once smothered in flowers in springtime, it has now largely been lost through development and altered burning regimes. Flannery, 63, spent his youth swimming and scuba diving in northern Port Phillip bay, which he says is now also gravely deteriorated.
Continue reading...Stags in the city: how deer found their way into our town centres and back gardens
As the UK’s deer population explodes, more of the animals are heading into urban areas. Why – and will they be welcome there?
If you head out to the shops today, or a churchyard, or a school, or a playground, and you live in a town or city, you might be in for a surprise. Cats, dogs, squirrels, even foxes are part and parcel of our urban landscapes now but increasingly, it’s not out of the question that you might just as easily meet a deer.
The deer population in the UK is at the highest it has been for at least 1,000 years, at around two million. Over the past few decades, does and stags have been spotted in urban areas and villages around the UK, from Glasgow, to Sheffield and London. This week, the Royal Horticultural Society released guidance on how gardeners can deer-proof their outdoor spaces. Replace tulips with daffodils and red hot pokers, it suggests, because deer don’t like the taste and it will stop them rummaging through your flowerbeds.
Continue reading...Dutch government to investigate food safety body after 'sick cow' cases
Allegations that animals not fit for consumption are entering food chain raise doubts over Netherlands’ inspection regime
An investigation into the Dutch food safety authority has been ordered by the minister of agriculture, Carola Schouten, following repeated allegations that sick cows are being slaughtered in the north of the Netherlands.
A number of cases have been brought against cattle traders and slaughterhouses for transporting and offering sick cattle for slaughter in recent years, with several consequent convictions. Now the government is to review the Dutch food safety authority (Nederlandse Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit, NVWA). The NVWA is responsible for monitoring the slaughterhouses, but questions have been raised about its effectiveness since it was established in 2012.
Continue reading...The last of Africa's big tusker elephants – in pictures
Like living relics from a bygone era, the last of Africa’s big tusker elephants roam in a vast, remote wilderness in Kenya. In partnership with the Tsavo Trust NGO and the Kenya Wildlife Service, Will Burrard-Lucas spent months photographing these rare animals. His series of intimate portraits are captured in his book, Land of Giants
Continue reading...Chinese fishmeal plants leave fishermen in the Gambia all at sea | Hannah Summers
Scientists and campaigners warn that factories in coastal villages are wreaking environmental and economic havoc
Before the arrival of fishmeal factories in the Gambia, Musa Duboe would catch red snapper and barracuda to be sold at the local market. But his income had begun to dwindle due to depleted stocks.
Then in 2016 the Chinese-owned fishmeal plant Golden Lead began operating out of the coastal town of Gunjur, increasing demand for fish to export for overseas aquaculture.
Continue reading...Giant sunfish washes up on Australian beach: 'I thought it was a shipwreck'
Rare creature found at the mouth of Murray River in South Australia
A rare giant sunfish has washed ashore at the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia.
Linette Grzelak posted a picture on Facebook of the sunfish, which was spotted by a couple of fishers on the beach at the weekend.
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