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This forest is our home, our existence and our children’s future. Politicians who can’t resist selling it for oil cash will feel the strength of the Waorani people

In 2019 I helped lead a movement that defeated the Ecuadorian government’s plans to auction half a million acres of Waorani territory in the Amazon to oil companies. We showed in court that the government had violated its legal obligation to obtain free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous communities. We won a moral and legal victory on behalf of our ancestral home in that moment – or so we thought. Now, however, Ecuador’s president plans to plough through that legal judgment and recommence oil drilling on nearby Indigenous lands. He obviously hasn’t reckoned with the strength and tenacity of the Waorani people.

In winning that landmark legal case, we protected pristine rainforest lands, Indigenous autonomy and our planet’s climate from further deforestation. We protected our homes, our children’s future and the forests where I grew up playing with my siblings and pet monkeys, learning to garden and make fresh chicha, and where my people still live today. No more destroying our lives, homes and forests to pump the blood of our ancestors from beneath the soil.

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Guardian investigation reveals vast gap in outdoor space and lists the top 10 schools with the most of all

• Revealed: private schools have 10 times more green space than state schools
• Analysis: Green space better for young brains than we realised
• How England’s top private schools came to own 38,000 acres of land

A handful of schools, the Guardian’s analysis has found, have campuses that stretch over hundreds of acres. So what, exactly, do the 10 largest schools (by area) offer their lucky students?, and how do they go about sharing their grounds with other children?

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Guardian investigation finds pupils at England’s wealthiest schools have much greater access to land, with implications for mental health

• Analysis: Green space better for young brains than we realised
• How England’s top private schools came to own 38,000 acres of land
• Beagling, golf and jolly hockey sticks: outdoor life at England’s largest private schools

Children at the top 250 English private schools have more than 10 times as much outdoor space as those who go to state schools, an exclusive Guardian analysis can reveal.

A schoolboy at fee-charging Eton has access to 140 times more green space than the average English state school pupil, the analysis found. Experts condemned the “staggering” and “gross” inequalities.

The average student at one of England’s top private schools has access to approximately 322 sq metres of green space, whereas the average state school student has access to about 32 sq metres of green space: a ratio of 10:1.

Eton students enjoy the largest area of land of all the schools in the country, with its schoolboys having access to 4,445 sq metres per pupil an area, 140 times larger than that available to the average state school student. Some of that land is also accessible to the public.

The private school campuses include tennis courts, golf courses, rowing lakes, swimming pools, equestrian centres, wilderness areas, and remote camping lodges.

In contrast, some state schools have little or no green space at all for their students.

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Scottish Highlands campaign has raised two-thirds of £300,000 target for footpaths on An Teallach. But more is needed to protect people and environment

One of Scotland’s most impressive and recognisable mountains will have its walking paths restored after hillwalkers and charities clubbed together to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mountaineering Scotland and the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (Oats) launched a campaign last May to raise £300,000 for essential path repairs on An Teallach in Wester Ross, in the north-west Highlands, asking walkers and climbers to “give the hill a few quid”. The It’s Up to Us campaign has announced that £218,000 has already been donated.

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State government fast-tracks approval for a 150 MW solar project, the first of up to 3 gigawatts (GW) of wind, solar and storage projects proposed by indigenous land owners.

The post Approval fast tracked for first of huge solar and wind projects to power giant iron ore mines appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australia's biggest solar farm enjoyed a highly profitable first quarter of the year.

The post Australia’s biggest solar farm has a highly profitable first quarter after construction delays appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A BBC investigation finds England's clean air zones raised more than £150m last year.

A series of experiments have led a number of scientists to say animals may be conscious.

From Peter Garrett to Prof Lesley Hughes there is frustration, despair and ‘a towering sense of anger’ over the opposition leader’s shift on the 2030 target

Any sense of a ceasefire in Australia’s fractious climate wars was blown away this week after the Coalition said it would not back the country’s 2030 emissions reduction target at the next election.

Peter Dutton’s declaration would mean that, if elected, a Coalition government will seek to breach a central tenet of the global Paris climate accord that countries should not “backslide” on their climate ambition.

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An ocean carbon removal project developer has shut down and abruptly laid off all remaining staff on Friday, local media reported, as the firm said it has suffered from a collapse in voluntary carbon prices.

Campaigners find PFAS, which can contaminate the soil and water supply, in more than 80% of 27 companies’ products

Hikers may be inadvertently damaging the environment and risking their own health by wearing clothes made waterproof with “forever chemicals”, according to research by Ethical Consumer.

The campaigning magazine examined 27 companies that make outdoor clothing such as fleeces, waterproof jackets, walking boots and rucksacks, and found 82% were still using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

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Juneau agrees deal with industry body to curtail visits but critics say it does not go far enough to protect quality of life

Alaska’s capital city is to limit the numbers of cruise ship passengers arriving at the port amid concerns over tourism’s growing impact, but a leading critic of the industry has said further measures to protect Alaskans’ quality of life are needed.

Located on the Gastineau Channel in southern Alaska, Juneau has a population of 32,000 and last year received a record 1.65 million cruise ship passengers – a 23% increase from the previous high.

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A new offshore wind farm zone will be just two-thirds of its original proposed size and further off the coast to protect little penguins, rocky reefs and the southern right whale.

The post Offshore wind zone shrunk and pushed further out to sea to protect penguins, reefs and whales appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Aerial footage of humpback whales shows how efficiently they can twist and turn their huge bodies.

Emitters and speculators added to longer dated California Carbon Allowance (CCAs) holdings, while slashing length for the most part in current vintages across the WCI, RGGI, and Washington carbon markets, according to weekly data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The California Legislature passed its 2024 budget in the form of Assembly Bill 107 (AB 107) on Thursday, and now awaits the approval of Governor Gavin Newsom (D) to conduct a total of $293 billion in spending, including $40 million for carbon removal research and development.

The California-Quebec joint WCI auction in August will offer the lowest volume of allowances so far this year, according to a notice from California regulator ARB published Friday. 

Both Canada’s emissions and GDP would be higher in 2030 without carbon pricing, according to data made public Thursday by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

A long quest for legislation to restore ecosystems across land in Europe may reach the end of the line on Monday when the EU's 27 environment ministers gather in Luxembourg for what could be a decisive meeting, although negotiators are still unsure about how things will play out exactly.

Heightened regulatory scrutiny could encourage investment in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), but market players need a long-term strategy for the relatively nascent industry, panellists told conference attendees this week.