The Guardian

Poll findings released as prominent Australians call on big four to withdraw backing for fossil fuel industry

About half of all Australians would be likely to switch banks if they found out their bank was lending money to projects that contribute to climate change, according to polling commissioned by the financial activist group Market Forces.

The findings came as more than 100 prominent Australian individuals and organisations signed a letter demanding that the big four banks stop supporting projects that expand the fossil fuel industry. Among the signatories are JM Coetzee, Charlotte Wood, James Bradley, Missy Higgins, Peter Singer and Jack Mundey, as well as unions, religious orders and conservation groups.

Report comparing past mass extinction events warns that hunting and killing of ocean’s largest species will disrupt ecosystems for millions of years

Humanity is driving an unprecedented extinction of sealife unlike any in the fossil record, hunting and killing larger species in a way that will disrupt ocean ecosystems for millions of years, scientists have found.

A new analysis of the five mass extinction events millions of years ago discovered there was either no pattern to which marine species were lost, or smaller species were the ones that disappeared.

Some 15,000 people responded to the mayor’s air quality consultation, with 79% backing plans to bring forward restrictions on polluting vehicles, reports BusinessGreen

Londoners are backing Sadiq Khan’s plans to crack down on air pollution in the capital, with more than 70 per cent of residents supporting plans to bring forward measures to restrict polluting vehicles in the city, according to the results of the Mayor’s air quality consultation.

Some 15,000 people responded to the Mayor’s office air quality consultation this summer - the highest number of responses to a City Hall consultation ever. Nearly 80 per cent of respondents said they supported Khan’s plans to bring forward the introduction of the Ultra Low Emission Zone - currently due to enter force in 2020 - to 2019, while 71 per cent said the zone should be expanded to encompass the north and south circular.

Brexit is an opportunity to refine legislation to match UK’s needs, says conservationist, speaking at the launch of a major report that shows Britain is one of the world’s most ‘nature-depleted countries’

David Attenborough has urged the government to use Brexit to better protect the UK’s nature and wildlife.

“Like it or not Brexit has happened. All agriculture and environment treaties for nature and wildlife will have to be rethought. It’s a great opportunity to refine the legislation to match our part of the world,” he told conservationists at the launch of the 2016 State of Nature report.

Life-sustaining sea ice needed for hunting, resting and breeding is declining in all 19 regions of the Arctic inhabited by the species

Polar bears are losing life-sustaining sea ice crucial for hunting, resting and breeding in all 19 regions of the Arctic they inhabit, a study warned on Wednesday.

As climate change pushes up Arctic temperatures, ice is melting earlier in spring and refreezing later in autumn, a team of researchers reported in the Cryosphere, a journal of the European Geosciences Union.

An anonymous note chiding a retired funeral director for hanging her frillies outside has gone viral. But it’s just the latest incident in the global war on drying

In the US, they would call them “freedom panties”, which sounds terrible. In the tiny Devon village of Stokeinteignhead, they are known as Rozamund Perrin’s controversial smalls. The retired funeral director is at odds with her prudish neighbours in the latest skirmish in a global war on washing lines.

“It is totally inappropiate [sic] for this type of garment to be displayed opposite the village primary school,” reads an anonymous note posted through Perrin’s letterbox with the offending knickers. “There are member [sic] of this community that would welcome a halting of this.”

All of the other 51 countries voted in favour of an international ban, including big mining nations China and Russia

Norway and Turkey were the only two of 53 countries to vote against an international ban on the dumping of mining waste at sea, at a major conservation summit in Hawaii last week.

Even big mining nations including China and Russia voted in favour of the resolution at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) congress.

The fossil fuel industry is dictating Republican Party actions on climate change in attorney generals offices, Congress, and for its presidential nominee

The GOP has become the Grand Oil Party. The fossil fuel industry has now managed to dictate Republican Party actions on climate change in attorney generals offices, Congress, and for the party’s presidential nominee.

Satellite data shows ice was close to last year’s record low confirming a long-term downward trend towards ice-free Arctic summers

Arctic sea ice cover could be confirmed within days as the second lowest ever recorded, the latest data suggests.

According to the US national snow and ice data centre (NSIDC) the ice which forms and disperses annually has been close to its minimum extent for the year for several days and has begun to grow again as autumn sets in.

Water companies warn of the likelihood of more shortages due to climate change and lack of investment in infrastructure

Londoners face a one in five probability of queuing in the street at standpipes for their water for days or weeks during a sweltering summer in the coming 25 years, owing to drought brought about by climate change and a lack of water infrastructure, new data suggests.

As the UK basked in unaccustomed September heat, with temperatures topping 30C on Tuesday, a report commissioned by water companies found that the likelihood of droughts was increasing, while investment in water supplies failed to keep up with likely demand.

Plastic wrapping, mobile phones and disposable coffee cups top the list of items people are uncertain about, poll finds

British consumers admit that they are confused about exactly what household waste they can recycle, a new poll reveals, with plastic wrapping, mobile phones and disposable coffee cups at the top of their list.

Frustrated by what they can and can’t recycle, 63% of householders are puzzled that different councils collect waste in different ways - for example, using different colour bins - while 43% say they are not sure which days to put their bins out.

State of Nature reveals the destructive impact of intensive farming, urbanisation and climate change on plants, animals and habitats

More than one in 10 of the UK’s wildlife species are threatened with extinction and the numbers of the nation’s most endangered creatures have plummeted by two-thirds since 1970, according to a major report.

The abundance of all wildlife has also fallen, with one in six animals, birds, fish and plants having been lost, the State of Nature report found.

The UK is among the most nature-depleted countries in the world, according to a major report from more than 50 conservation groups. More than one in 10 species is threatened with extinction - but some are making a comeback

Wenlock Edge What determines that moment when they can stay no longer, when, come hell or high water, it’s time to go?

Like clothes pegs on a washing line the swallows are still, perching on the electricity cables. For once, since they arrived in spring, they have to stop, even in daylight. What they are pegging on the line between them is an invisible sheet, a map of their endless journey, north and south.

They pause. Seconds ago they were skimming at breakneck speed inches above the grass, the slightest error likely to be their last. Yet the excitement seems to embolden them, to give them heart.

A coalition of 25 prominent members of US national security community warn that higher temperatures and rising seas will inundate bases and fuel conflict

A coalition of 25 military and national security experts, including former advisers to Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, has warned that climate change poses a “significant risk to US national security and international security” that requires more attention from the US federal government.

The prominent members of the US national security community warned that warming temperatures and rising seas will increasingly inundate military bases and fuel international conflict and mass migration, leading to “significant and direct risks to US military readiness, operations and strategy”.

Alice Springs is the capital of Australia’s Red Centre, and the perfect base for exploring the vast, rich expanse at the heart of this country. The town sits at the foot of a long mountain range, along the edge of the - usually dry - Todd River. Keep an eye on it if there’s rain - as the tale goes, you’re a local once you’ve seen it flow three times. Self-driving is the best way to visit this region

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Australia’s northernmost capital city is closer to Singapore than Sydney, and a visit to Darwin is a heady mix of Southeast Asia and quintessential Australia. Steamy tropical weather, fascinating military and colonial history, and the friendly, multicultural community make this a holiday far from home

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The One Nation senator dismisses the conventional scientific view of climate change. Here are the holes in his most commonly deployed arguments

The election of Malcolm Roberts as a One Nation senator has put Australia’s media in a difficult spot.

In his first speech to Parliament on Tuesday, Roberts made many false claims about climate change. He said that climate change was a “scam” and implied that it was some sort of conspiracy between all the major international research agencies. “ ... there is no data proving human use of hydro-carbon fuels affects climate,” he said.

Impetus for the new survey came from analysis that could not find clear link between reef health and human impacts

Scientists working on a Nasa-led project are scanning large swathes of the Great Barrier Reef as part of the biggest assessment of the world’s coral reefs ever undertaken.

My friend Hugh Boyd, who has died aged 91, made a massive contribution to wetland and waterbird conservation at world level over six decades.

Hugh was recruited to Peter Scott’s groundbreaking team as the first research biologist at the Severn Wildfowl Trust (now the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, in 1949. Over the next 20 years, Hugh and the team exerted an immense influence encouraging younger ornithologists and developing “citizen science” networks of volunteer counters for annual monitoring of waterbird population sizes.