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Shawn Otto’s new book is a must-read

Every so often a book comes along that changes the way you view the world. The War on Science: Who’s Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It by Shawn Otto is one of those rare books. If you care about attacks on climate science and the rise of authoritarianism, if you care about biased media coverage or shake-your-head political tomfoolery, this book is for you.

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Taiwanese firm Formosa Plastics that owns the plant says it will pay $500m towards clean up and compensation

Vietnam’s government has said toxic discharges from a Taiwanese-owned steel plant were responsible for massive fish deaths that have decimated tourism and fishing in four provinces and highlighted the risks of rapid growth in foreign investment.

An estimated 70 tonnes of dead fish washed ashore along more than 200 km (125 miles) of Vietnam’s central coastline in early April, sparking rare protests across the country after the Taiwanese company denied any wrongdoing.

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From exposing environmental crimes to a campaign to save a wildlife reserve, the awards, created by chinadialogue and the Guardian in 2010, recognise journalists making outstanding contributions to the field in China

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Before you head to the polls, here’s one last quick attempt to clear some of the haze of half-truths and complete rubbish surrounding the parties’ reef policies

If the Great Barrier Reef is an election issue for you, then before you head to the polls this weekend, here are a few things worth noting about the major parties’ policies.

Firstly, by way of background, remember that almost a quarter of the reef was killed by warm waters this year, in the worst bleaching event on record. And those water temperatures are expected to be average temperatures within 20 years. To give the reef a fighting chance of surviving that, scientists estimate $10bn needs to be spent to reduce water pollution over the next 10 years.

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Free colour-coded menu is changed daily according to air pollution levels at pop-up scheme that aims to raise awareness of problem

“I see the air is good today,” says the security guard, as he sips his cup of bright green pea soup. “I can tell by the flavour.”

Staff and visitors here at the central London headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) have been treated to daily free soup from the Pea Soup House, a pop-up installation in the lobby that serves colour-coded soup which matches the government’s Daily Air Quality Index (DAQI).

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Scientist on honeymoon in Thailand stumbles on ‘horrific-looking’ creature that is the first one known to swim

Scientists have discovered the world’s first known amphibious centipede, which grows up to 20cm (nearly 8in) long and has an excruciating bite.

Scolopendra cataracta, from the Latin for “waterfall”, has been found in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and was seen scurrying into the water by entomologist George Beccaloni, during his honeymoon to Thailand in 2001.

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Airedale, West Yorkshire I try not to overreact to invasive species. Sometimes, though, it’s difficult to see the bigger picture

The moorhen had tried again. My passing-by startled her out of her nest – a cup at the foot of a stand of fading yellow flag irises, not two metres from the lakeshore. Before I made an apologetic retreat, I took note of a single soft-spotted pale egg resting in the hollow. All being well, another five or six would follow.

All, however, was not well. This clutch, like the four before it, was raided by mink. The next time I came by, the nest contained only a fragment of shell. The moorhen was pottering alone along by the far reedbed. It’s doubtful that she’ll try again this year.

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Although statistically expected, the first auto-pilot fatality will bring into question the safety of the new technology.

Regulator report shows most big price spikes coincided with sudden withdrawal of coal and gas capacity, including when one big generator ran out of coal!

A long and uninspiring election campaign comes to an end. The latest polls suggest that the best renewable energy and the climate can hope for is a hung parliament, given that the Coalition has given no indication it has moved beyond the Abbott era.

Lacerations and scratches on animal found north of Townsville suggest entanglement with fishing net or line, say researchers

A dead dugong, with injuries researchers say are consistent with entanglement in a fishing net or line, has been found near Townsville, raising concerns about lack of oversight over fishing practices in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Found on Wednesday last week near Saunders beach, just north of Townsville, the dugong had scratches on its back and belly, and a deep laceration around its tail.

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Phoenix Energy has nominated local company BGC Contracting as the preferred contractor for its $400 million Kwinana Waste to Energy project.

We all know we need to shut down our brown coal power stations, especially the really old ones, as soon as possible...But how?

The electric road will test the use of electric power as an aid to heavy transport on public roadways.

Prof Sir Tom Kibble is posthumously awarded the highest UK honour for physics.

GOOD NEWS: The ozone hole over Antarctica is finally healing almost 30 years after the world banned the chemicals responsible for its creation, say researchers.

Futurologist Alvin Toffler predicted everything from the rise of the Internet to the decline of the nuclear family, but he wasn't always right

With its flashing, iridescent purple wings, our second largest butterfly is midsummer incarnate

This Monday, a week later than normal, His Imperial Majesty awoke in the woods of Sussex and Surrey. The purple emperor is midsummer incarnate – its flashing, iridescent purple wings the perfect accompaniment to both sunshine and, this year, violent lightning.

When Victorian collectors nicknamed our second-largest butterfly HIM, they were not being sexist but simply referring to the male. The female is even larger but does not flash purple and is a secretive presence, laying eggs in sallow thickets.

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Researchers say they have found the first clear evidence that the thinning in the ozone layer above Antarctica is starting to heal.

Should killing too many fish be dealt with in the same way as war crimes? Bob Williams/Wikimedia Commons

Whether we consider wild weather, unprecedented Arctic melting and global temperatures, or the Great Barrier Reef, the global environment is generating alarming news. Predictions of multi-metre sea level rises, the collapse of marine biodiversity and food chains, and global warming far beyond 2℃ are equally concerning. Is our system of global environmental law and governance adequate to this crisis?

Our short answer is “no”, but what should be done? We believe new international institutions and laws are needed, with one fundamental purpose: to give a voice to ecosystems and non-human forms of life.

We say this knowing that the current global system is inadequate to respond to many human crises, but with the conviction that environmental justice often overlaps with social justice.

It is tempting to believe that we can muddle through with the existing system, centred on the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biological Diversity. But these are not integrated with each other, and are also kept separate from global economic and trade institutions like the World Trade Organisation, the G20 and the World Bank, and from global security institutions like the UN Security Council. The latter has never passed a resolution about the environment, despite growing warnings from military strategists of the potential for climate-catalysed conflict.

Global trade and security are each governed by global agencies. But there is no comparable global authority to protect the environment.

The climate agreement negotiated at last year’s Paris summit was a great diplomatic achievement, but the euphoria was premature. Current national pledges to cut emissions will fail to keep global warming below 2℃, let alone the 1.5℃ that climate scientists and many nations in Paris have argued is the safer limit.

The Paris deal’s predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, actually saw global emissions rise by 60% to 2014.

Three months before Paris, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals and its mission to “heal and secure our planet”. The gap between ambition and ability could scarcely be greater.

A new manifesto

We and our colleagues have published a “Planet Politics” manifesto, which argues that the current architecture of international society is failing to see and address the global ecological crisis. Our global governance is too focused on interstate bargaining and human interests, and sees the environment as an inert backdrop and resource for human societies. Yet the reality is that the fates of society and nature are inextricably bound together – and the planet is letting us know that.

In response, we propose three key international reforms: a coal convention, an Earth system council, and a new category of “crimes against biodiversity”.

A coal convention

Every year toxic air pollution from coal burning causes death and disease. Coal is responsible for 43% of global greenhouse emissions and 80% of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration since 1870.

We already have UN treaties banning the use of chemical and biological weapons, on the basis of their threats to human health and security. Based on the same principles, we suggest a similar international convention to outlaw the mining and burning of coal.

This would create a common legal framework in which states can transform their energy economies without fear of “free riders”. It would also add to the pressure already being felt by the coal and energy industries to curb their damaging pollution.

An Earth system council

An Earth system council would function much like the UN Security Council – it would, in effect, be an “ecological security council”.

Its mandate would be to preserve, protect and repair global ecosystems. It would respond to immediate crises while also stimulating action on systemic environmental degradation and ecosystem repair. Its resolutions would be binding on all UN member states, although we do not envisage that it would have the same coercive powers (such as sanctions). The council would be able to refer issues to the International Court of Justice, or create ad hoc international criminal tribunals relating to major environmental crimes.

This is significant reform that would require the revision of the UN Charter, but our proposals for membership go even further. Every meeting would be briefed by the head of the UN Environment Program and by Earth system scientists or ecologists.

We suggest it could have 25 voting seats, 13 of which would go to state representatives elected for fixed terms, allocated among the major world regions. The other 12 would be permanent seats held by “eco-regions”: major ecosystems that bind together large human and non-human communities and are crucial to the planetary biosphere, such as the Arctic and Antarctic, the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, or major river systems like the Mekong and Congo. Alternatively, following WWF’s Global 200, eco-regions could be based on major habitat types.

Each eco-region would be represented by a democratic assembly and have a constitution focused solely on the preservation and repair of its ecology. It would appoint a representative to the Earth system council and have the power to make recommendations for ecosystem protection to regional governments. Each state with territory that overlaps that eco-region would have one seat. Other seats would be elected democratically from communities (especially indigenous peoples) within those regions.

Crimes against biodiversity

A “crimes against biodiversity” law would act like a Rome Statute for the environment. It could add much-needed teeth to efforts to preserve global biodiversity and prevent large-scale environmental harms. Ecological damage should be criminalised, not just penalised with fines or lawsuits.

We envisage that this law would outlaw and punish three kinds of activity:

• actions that contribute to the extinction of endangered species, such as poaching, illegal whaling or destruction of habitat;

• actions that involve the unnecessary large-scale killing or death of species groups, as happened in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon drilling disaster;

• activities that destroy ecosystems, such as the dumping of mine tailings or toxic waste into rivers.

It would not criminalise the farming of animals or the catching of fish, but could apply if these practices involve the mistreatment of animals or large-scale collateral damage to biodiversity – for instance, by overly extractive fishing methods. Such global-level regulation will augment enforcement at local levels.

Unlike international laws that punish genocide, our suggested law would not require proof of intent to commit the crime, but merely a strong link between the activity and the destruction of biodiversity or industrial and systemic harm to animals. There are potential legal precedents in the US legal doctrine of “depraved heart murder” in which individuals are liable for deaths caused by wilful indifference, rather than an express desire to harm.

It is easy to see how this kind of legal reasoning could be used to help deter dangerous industrial, mining or agricultural activities.

Readers might ask how the destruction of biodiversity is as morally appalling as genocide or other crimes against humanity. The philosopher Hannah Arendt has argued that the distinct evil of crimes against humanity lies not simply in mass murder but in the destruction of human diversity; an attack on humanity’s peaceful coexistence on our planet.

Now, as we become ever more aware of the complex enmeshment of human and non-human life in the planetary biosphere, the human-caused extinction of species is likewise an attack on our common ecological existence. It is time for this truth to be recognised in international law.

We are aware that these are radical ideas that raise significant political and legal complexities, but the time to start debating them is now. Planet Earth needs unprecedented politics for these unprecedented times.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.