The Guardian

Environment committee report criticises lack of long-term planning and raises doubts whether target of protecting 300,000 homes by 2021 would be met

The government is failing to protect communities at risk of flooding, according to a highly critical report from MPs, who said they were sceptical that the target of protecting 300,000 more homes would be met.

Ministers react after severe flooding rather than planning ahead for the long term, according to the cross-party environmental audit committee (EAC), which said flood defences are not sufficiently maintained.

Dartmoor, Devon The beetle’s forelimb seemed to give a cheery wave to the world as it scooped at thin air then arced forward

Wider than a thumbnail, almost as thick as a thumb, a black beetle with a shell like polished shoe leather was lumbering along a well-trodden path.

Striking out in slow motion for the grassy edge with a six-legged doggy paddle, this bloody-nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa) gave the impression of a wind-up toy winding down. Watching this great tank on sticks was akin to seeing the open workings of a mill – a collection of mechanical parts moving in sequence to drive the greater whole.

Greg Hunt defends conservative government’s actions in torrent of posts to the Finding Dory star

The Australian environment minister, Greg Hunt, has bombarded Ellen DeGeneres with tweets after she appealed to Australia to do more to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Following news of the death of almost a quarter of the coral on the reef this year, DeGeneres, who plays the fish Dory in the 2003 film Finding Nemo and its upcoming sequel, Finding Dory, released a video message as part of a campaign called Remember the Reef.

Policies and rhetoric around the Great Barrier Reef have rarely matched reality as the natural wonder suffers under the stress of pollution

In late November 2015, as corals across the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef started to bleach white, the game was finally up.

For years, Australians had been told the country’s jewel in the ocean’s crown was on the mend. Only months earlier the coalition government had won a two-year fight to keep the reef off a United Nations list of World Heritage sites in danger.

Residents of Makoko, a vast slum of houses on stilts in a Lagos lagoon, say they will rebuild their pyramid-shaped floating school, after it collapsed in a storm on Tuesday. The school, which became a beacon of hope for the nearly 100,000 Nigerians who live in Makoko, was damaged by heavy downpour, despite being built to specifically withstand the storms and floods that are common in the four-month-long rainy season

• Nigerian floating school collapses due to heavy rains seven months after opening
  

In attributing the rise in air pollutants in London to the EU, Nigel Pollitt is being disingenuous (Letters, 6 June). As chairman of the UK Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards for a decade to 2002, I was regularly asked by journalists as to whether diesel or petrol vehicles were better, and always gave the same answer: it depends whether you wish to increase air pollution or to accelerate global climate change, since diesel was more efficient but also more polluting. Thus it would have been Hobson’s choice, were it not for the unasked alternative, which was to get out of the car or, if that was not always possible, to drive the car with the smallest possible engine and to do so with minimal use of accelerator and brake.

Mr Pollitt should also know that all the evidence-based air quality standards that our panel proposed to the UK government were passed into law and then used by the EU for setting pan-European standards, resulting in a general reduction of pollution across Europe and in the UK. The recent rise in pollution in London is related to the selfish behaviour of those who purchase large diesel vehicles and use them for short journeys when efficient electric and hybrid vehicles are now available.
Anthony Seaton
Emeritus professor of environmental medicine, Aberdeen University

Environment committee criticises voluntary action to end the tiny plastic particles that pollute seas, and slam the lack of labelling on microbead products

Voluntary action by the cosmetics industry to phase out the use of microbeads in Europe came under strong attack from MPs on Wednesday, who criticised loopholes in the pledges and slammed the lack of labelling on products containing the plastic particles.

Tiny plastic beads are widely used in toiletries and cosmetics but thousands of tonnes of them wash into the sea every year, where they harm wildlife and can ultimately be eaten by people. The US has banned microbeads and a petition signed by over 300,000 people asking for a ban in the UK was delivered to David Cameron on Wednesday.

This year could be worst ever for melt as data shows average sea ice extent for last month was more than half a million square kilometres smaller than the previous record of May 2012

Arctic sea ice fell to its lowest ever May extent, prompting fears that this year could beat 2012 for the record of worst ever summer sea ice melt.

Data published by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) this week showed average sea ice extent for last month was more than 500,000 sq km (193,000 sq miles) smaller than May 2012.

He may have lost his campaign, but Sanders achieved major wins, making his rival promise more on green policies and climate change, reports Grist

Hillary Clinton is her party’s presumptive nominee. Whether Sanders drops out tomorrow or the day he loses the roll-call vote at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, his campaign is over.

But if ever there were a losing campaign that achieved some major wins, it’s Sanders’. Not only did he force Clinton to talk more about economic inequality, he pushed her to promise stronger action to fight climate change and rein in fossil fuel companies. If Hillary Clinton becomes president and keeps some of her more recent promises to restrict oil drilling and fracking, Sanders will deserve a share of the credit.

Move towards renewable energy and away from coal power helped stall emissions growth last year but slowdown may be temporary, says oil giant

Carbon emissions stopped growing in 2015 for the first time in 10 years as the world turned its back on coal and embraced energy efficiency and renewable power with increased vigour, according to a new set of statistics.

China led the way in driving down emissions but the latest figures from oil company BP come with a warning that the progress may not last.

The Atlas of Ocean Wealth, published ahead of World Oceans Day, brings together data from thousands of sources – from governments to Flickr photos – to provide insight into the economic and social value of our marine life. It is being used to pinpoint areas where even small-scale interventions can make a big difference to benefit local people and improve sustainability

Companies should come clean on the harm plastic microbeads in their products is causing to marine life, says environment committee chair

The UK’s biggest beauty brands have been accused by an influential MP of showing contempt for their customers by refusing to appear in parliament to answer questions on the impact that their products are having on the oceans.

MPs on the environmental audit committee will hear on Wednesday from the UK and European cosmetics trade bodies on the harm caused by plastic ‘microbeads’ in cosmetics, which are mistaken for food by marine life.

Environmentalists are sceptical that plans to quadruple maximum jail terms from five to 20 years will be effective.

Indonesia plans to quadruple maximum jail terms for animal poachers and traffickers in a major overhaul of wildlife crime laws, but environmentalists expressed scepticism on Wednesday that the changes would be effective.

Maximum sentences for poaching and trading protected animals will be increased from five years to 20 under the new legislation proposed by the environment and forestry ministry.

The microbead pollution contaminating our marine life does not respect borders. As UK ministers meet on World Oceans Day they must look to find solutions by working with our neighbours and partners in Europe

From the shallowest coastal waters to the depths of the oceanic trenches some 10,000 meters beneath the sea, our oceans are home to a vast amount of life on earth. Covering over two-thirds of the world’s surface, they provide food and support tourism and leisure in every part of the world.

Our oceans are under pressure from warming and acidification, and on World Oceans Day, the environmental audit committee, which I chair, will be hearing about microplastic pollution.

40% of Americans don’t understand the risks posed by climate change or a President Donald Trump

Currently, about 40% of Americans support Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, and about 40% of Americans are not worried about global warming. While short of a majority, this is a substantial fraction of the American public failing to grasp the risks associated with a Donald Trump presidency and potentially catastrophic climate change impacts.

In Business Insider, Josh Barro recently wrote about the former:

As the vaquita – the world’s smallest porpoise – plunges toward extinction, scientists have a tough decision ahead of them: to attempt a super risky captive breeding programme or not?

Today, there are approximately 7.3 billion people on the planet – and only 60 vaquitas. The vaquita has seen its population drop by 92 percent in less than 20 years in Mexico’s Gulf of California as the tiny porpoises suffocate to death one-by-one in gillnets. Now, scientists with the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA) are cautiously moving forward on a once unthinkable option: captive breeding.

“We have no idea whether it is feasible to find, capture and maintain vaquitas in captivity much less whether they will reproduce,” said Barbara Taylor, one of the world’s foremost experts on the vaquita with NOAA. “The uncertainties are large.”

Nathan McLaren, an electrician, captured the moment a 3.3m long shark breached out of the water behind a surfer on the east coast of Australia

A once-in-a-lifetime photograph has caught the moment a great white shark breached its entire body out of the water behind an oblivious surfer.

The photograph was taken by Nathan McLaren on Tuesday as he watched surfers off Swansea Heads, just south of Newcastle in New South Wales.

Heavy rain hits the capital on Tuesday, leaving cars submerged in flood waters in Wallington, south London. Three people became trapped in their cars. One was rescued by the London Fire Brigade and the two others managed to escape from their vehicles before the firefighters arrived. Almost a month’s rainfall fell in one hour

• Lightning strike injures man and two children as torrential rains hit UK
  

Image met with accusations of fearmongering, but after two fatal shark attacks in five days, Brett McCarthy says risk of mauling is ‘now clearly a public safety issue’

The editor of the West Australian newspaper has defended the paper’s controversial front page, which featured a photoshopped image of children being chased out of the surf by a shark under the headline “Will it take this?”

It followed calls from the paper for the Barnett government to restart its controversial shark cull policy after two fatal shark attacks in five days.

Constitutional expert George Williams says section 51 of the constitution could be used to to halt the coalmine on environmental grounds

Constitutional expert George Williams said the commonwealth could use an “export” power to stop the Shenhua Watermark mine from going ahead on environmental grounds.

The power, contained in section 51 of the constitution, could be used to regulate mining and production in Australia where the product was destined for export.