The Guardian

The California state government passed AJR 43, urging the national government to pass a revenue-neutral carbon tax

Last week, the California state senate passed Assembly Joint Resolution 43, urging the federal government to pass a revenue-neutral carbon tax:

WHEREAS, A national carbon tax would make the United States a leader in mitigating climate change and the advancing clean energy technologies of the 21st Century, and would incentivize other countries to enact similar carbon taxes, thereby reducing global carbon dioxide emissions without the need for complex international agreements; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature hereby urges the United States Congress to enact, without delay, a tax on carbon-based fossil fuels; and be it further Resolved ... That all tax revenue should be returned to middle- and low-income Americans to protect them from the impact of rising prices due to the tax

Conservationists fear this year’s cool spring and slow start to summer have taken their toll on one of UK’s best-loved butterflies

Conservationists are warning of the decline of one of the UK’s best-loved butterflies.

Numbers of the small tortoiseshell – which is one of the most recognisable and widespread in the country – appear to have plummeted this summer.

Paula Kahumbu: Elephant diplomacy is helping to get Japan on board in efforts towards a global ban on ivory trade

The global coalition for a total ban on the trade in ivory is taking shape. In Africa calls for the ban are led by the 29 nation African Elephant Coalition (AEC). In the consumer countries, both the US President Obama and China’s President Xi have made commitments to close the domestic markets which will have a huge impact on demand.

To be sure, progress towards building the coalition is uneven. Key African nations such as Zimbabwe and Namibia are opposed to the ban, and have even petitioned CITES for a relaxation of current restrictions. In Europe, while the French Environment Minister Ségolène Royal has signed a decree banning the trade, in the UK the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it is still “working” on its pledge to implement a total ban on ivory sales.

Former environment minister entitled to find any assessment of resulting carbon pollution on the Great Barrier Reef was ‘speculative’, court says

The federal court has upheld the commonwealth approval of Adani’s Queensland mine, ruling that former environment minister Greg Hunt was entitled to find any assessment of resulting carbon pollution on the Great Barrier Reef was “speculative”.

The court on Monday dismissed a challenge by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), which claimed Hunt failed to consider the impacts of the mine’s 4.6bn tonnes of emissions on the world heritage values of the reef.

More than 120 million of the world’s poorest depend on the coffee economy, a report says, and their livelihoods are already suffering from temperature rises

Climate change is going to halve the area suitable for coffee production and impact the livelihoods of more than 120 million of the world’s poorest people who rely on the coffee economy, according to a new report by the Climate Institute, commissioned by Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand.

The report findings follow stark warnings by some of the world’s biggest coffee producers, including Starbucks and Lavazza, who have said climate change is posing a severe risk to the industry.

Crewe Green, Cheshire This one has had a lucky escape; with more than half of its wings gone, it’s surprising it can fly at all. Butterflies may look ethereal and fragile, but they are survivors

A flock of starlings lift up from the damp grass and swerve in the harebell blue sky as I cycle by. It’s a mellow morning with a hint of a breeze. Ox-eye daisies and buttercups adorn the hedgerows, nodding their heads. There are big clouds of feathery white meadowsweet; I can smell its marzipan scent. To my left and right, jackdaws are flying over open fields drenched in light, the sun buttering their edges. A plaintive, cat-like mewling: a buzzard is circling.

The university grounds are practically deserted. I freewheel across the bridge. Below, the rippling brook glints like tiny pieces of bottle-green glass. Midges skim the surface and an iridescent dragonfly. There is a wasps’ nest in the far bank.

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 4 September 1916

Kew Gardens, September 3
On a sunny day among gorse bushes, when the wind has fallen, you can hear the seed-pods of the gorse bursting all around you. Lying in a hammock near the Alströmerias in the garden you can hear the same sharp snap as the hard covering explodes and the seeds are projected far and wide. This method of distributing seeds is common to a good many plants.

A correspondent from Whalley Range writes of the balsam which was introduced into his garden some two years ago, and which is now “beautifying the gardens along the road” by its energetic method of propagation. “I was,” he writes, “for some time at a loss to understand how the thing spread, and imagined the seeds must he carried on the wind, until, on attempting to remove the pods, the mystery was explained. When the seeds are ripe, the slightest touch causes the pod to burst with a snap and the seeds fly literally for yards. This gives children a most delightful thrill, but the most amusing sight is to see a big bumble-bee blunder against the pod, which immediately snaps off and sends him staggering.”

Cities in the Land of the Long White Cloud suffer from pollution caused by the wood fires, that provide most of the domestic heating in poorly insulated houses

Most images of New Zealand show a pristine environment of great beauty. It therefore comes as a surprise that airborne particle pollution in many towns is above World Health Organisation guidelines. This is not due to the diesel cars that confound efforts to manage air pollution in Europe, or the density of cities and industry that contributes to problems in east Asia, Europe and parts of north America. It is due mainly to home heating.

With limited availability of natural gas and expensive electricity many New Zealanders, especially those in the South Island, rely on wood burning to heat their homes. National standards for particle pollution allow for one polluted day per year but Christchurch measured eight in 2015 and the city of Timaru breached standards on 26 days.

Yellowstone and other major parks grappling with illegal camping, vandalism, theft of resources, wildlife harassment and other misbehavior from visitors

On the edge of a meadow in Yellowstone National Park, tourist John Gleason crept through the grass, four small children close behind, inching toward a bull elk with antlers like small trees.

“They’re going to give me a heart attack,” said Gleason’s mother-in-law, Barbara Henry, as the group came within about a dozen yards of the massive animal.

Data released by food watchdog reveals incidences of chickens being boiled alive and animals suffocating or freezing to death in trucks

There were more than 4,000 severe breaches of animal welfare regulations over the past two years at British slaughterhouses, according to data released by the government’s food watchdog under freedom of information laws.

The data, comprising reports by vets and hygiene inspectors, details instances of needless pain and distress that include chickens being boiled alive and trucks of animals suffocating or freezing to death.

• ‘We’ve never seen two together,’ says co-founder of marine conservation
  
• The whales are the largest creatures on earth

Two blue whales have been seen off the New England coast, in a rare sighting of the largest creatures on earth.

Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conversation cofounder Dianna Schulte told WMUR-TV she was working aboard the Granite State off the coast of Rye Harbor, New Hampshire, on Friday when she spotted the whales.

More nuggets of info on the stuff our Olympics medals were made of

Perhaps it’s all those Olympic medals, but our small preview of Fairtrade gold wedding bands from Argos several weeks ago has led to a rush of queries about clean gold. So here are some further nuggets.

Be led by the UK’s pioneer jewellery activists. Greg Valerio and cred- jewellery.com have fought to make the supply chain transparent. Critically, they have also put ethical gold into jewellery so we can buy it. Meanwhile, small-scale independent jewellers such as annaloucah.com and yumejewellery.com are part of Fairgold’s goldsmiths’ registration scheme.

As the National Park Service turns 100, longtime rangers reflect on tasks ranging from teaching rescue missions – and the sexism many female rangers face

Andrea “Andy” Lankford often came close to death during her twelve years as a ranger for the National Park Service. But there was nothing quite as horrific as the time she ended up with parts of a human brain in her hand.

The UK is putting elephants at risk of extinction through its broken promises on the ivory trade, according to campaigners. Before the last election, the Conservative party pledged to shut down the UK’s domestic ivory market: at the time 30,000 elephants a year were being slaughtered for their tusks. But no action has been taken.

While bans on the international trade in ivory exist, a failure to observe similar measures at a national level is being exploited by criminal gangs who smuggle ivory into the UK, where it can be passed off as antique. Now, in the run-up to a major conference, more than 1.6 million people have signed a petition on the Avaaz activist website calling for the world’s domestic ivory markets to be closed down for good.

From underwater military tanks to Spanish wildfires, the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week

Numbers of the endangered butterfly, once pronounced extinct in the UK, have reached their highest level in 80 years, according to conservationists

A butterfly once pronounced extinct in the UK has been seen in record numbers this year, according to conservationists.

There were over 10,000 adult large blue butterflies in Gloucestershire and Somerset – the largest concentration of the species known in the world.

Strathnairn, Highlands Its rich chocolate fur looked luxuriant, and it was easy to see why it was so much prized in the middle ages as a trimming for robes of state

Mid-afternoon, and I watched the pine marten hunting a woodland bank, sniffing and listening for prey such as voles. Above it was ripening the rich crop of rowan berries that would augment its diet in late autumn.

It must have been hungry to be out hunting at this time of day, as pine martens are normally nocturnal. No doubt the poor weather of late had not helped. However, this one – a female, judging from its size – was in good condition, graceful and agile, with its slender body and long, bushy tail. Its rich chocolate fur looked luxuriant and it was easy to see why it was prized in the middle ages as a trimming for robes of state.

But farmers are concerned they will not be able to protect crops from insects if they cannot use neonicotinoids

Minnesota’s governor on Friday ordered the broadest restrictions yet in a US state on the use of agricultural pesticides that have been blamed for hurting bees, fuelling concerns that farmers there will not be able to protect crops from insects.

Governor Mark Dayton issued an executive order that requires farmers to verify they face “an imminent threat of significant crop loss” before using the chemicals, called neonicotinoids.

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

Soldier crabs, a family of brown bears and spotted hyenas are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world