The Guardian

Members of Sunrise Movement say House Speaker is ‘playing political games with our futures’ and must avert shutdown

Scores of young activists with the youth-led climate organization Sunrise Movement are protesting in the office of the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, on Thursday morning, demanding he avert a complete government shutdown.

“As storms rage stronger, fires grow hotter, and heatwaves grow more deadly, Kevin McCarthy is playing political games with our futures,” said Adah Crandall, a 17-year-old Sunrise Movement organizer, in an emailed statement.

Hundreds of Brecon households sign up for scheme in which they get money for every container they recycle

It is best known as a picturesque base for mountain walks but over the last three months a small Welsh market town has been taking part in a world-first environmental scheme that it is hoped may help revolutionise recycling.

People in Brecon (Aberhonddu) have been given manifold ways of returning drinks containers in exchange for a small financial reward. Uptake for the project, a digital deposit return scheme (DDRS) in which citizens get 10p for every container they recycle, has been good with 1,300 of the 4,300 households eligible signing up and 25,000 containers set to be processed.

Lloyd’s of London, Zurich and Swiss Re among top 10 insurers of largest US coalmines, study finds

Lloyd’s of London and other big European insurers are underwriting almost a third of US coal production despite their net zero pledges, according to research, with the Lloyd’s insurance market emerging as the second-biggest player.

A report from the Insure Our Future campaign group found that Lloyd’s, Zurich and Swiss Re are among the top 10 insurers of the 25 biggest US coalmines, which produced more than 60% of the country’s output last year. They underwrite 13 mines producing 30.7% of US coal.

Police investigating after former tree of the year winner thought to have been deliberately felled

A police investigation has been launched into the felling of one of the most photographed trees in the country, the Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland, which was found cut down on Thursday morning.

The world famous tree, voted tree of the year in a Woodland Trust competition in 2016 and featured in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, is thought to have been deliberately felled.

Volume lost during hot summers of 2022 and 2023 equal to total depletion between 1960 and 1990, says report

Swiss glaciers have lost 10% of their volume in just two years, a report has found.

Scientists have said climate breakdown caused by the burning of fossil fuels is the cause of unusually hot summers and winters with very low snow volume, which have caused the accelerating melts. The volume lost during the hot summers of 2022 and 2023 is the same as that lost between 1960 and 1990.

Researchers see political risks to decarbonisation plan across forthcoming elections, but also suggest steps to win support

The EU faces a “make or break moment” for decarbonisation if it is to stick to the European Green Deal, a new report warns, amid the cost of living crisis, multiple elections and a growing political “greenlash”.

In research published on Thursday, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said European policymakers must convince voters that sticking to the green transition is in their interests – especially with European parliament elections and several national elections coming next year.

Rising risk of heatwaves and bushfires means politicians will be put to the test about the effect of the climate crisis. Already, some have roundly failed

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As Australia stares down the barrel of a hot summer and a rising risk of heatwaves and bushfires, politicians are going to have to get to grips with answering the obvious question. What is climate change doing to our weather extremes?

The Coalition’s shadow social services minister, Michael Sukkar, was given an early test last week and he roundly failed.

Clean Air Fund says despite increased spending on air pollution, projects still receive less than 1% of funding

Governments, agencies and development banks have spent more aid money on clean air than fossil fuels for the first time on record, a report has found.

However, such projects still receive less than 1% of international development funding, according to the Clean Air Fund, an environmental charity.

Sweet Briar Marshes has been created in heart of city with fewer public footpaths than any other in England and Wales

Hidden between a hectic ring road, a chemicals factory and housing estates are 36 hectares (90 acres) of “a green beating heart, pumping nature” into the surrounding city.

Traffic noise and sirens are muffled by ancient oaks, while late-season dragonflies sweep over hawthorns laden with blood-red haws as a kestrel hovers, head down, searching for field voles hiding in the tufty grasses.

The PM continues to play politics with the climate emergency. The dismal consequences will long outlast his time in office

On Tuesday, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) pleaded with governments to up the pace in reducing the world’s dependence on oil and gas. A “strong signal to energy markets” was needed, said Fatih Birol – one which indicated that governments are taking the climate seriously. Wealthy countries, he added, having disproportionately contributed to historical carbon emissions, bear a special responsibility as the climate begins to change at “frightening speed”.

On Wednesday Britain certainly sent out a signal. But it was hardly the one the IEA would have hoped for. Instead, the green light was given for the exploitation of the United Kingdom’s largest untapped oilfield. The Rosebank project in the North Sea has the potential to deliver 500m barrels of oil, which, when burned, would emit the same amount of carbon dioxide as the running of 56 coal-fired power stations for a year. Tax incentives offered to the Norwegian energy company Equinor will effectively subsidise a development certain to undermine the country’s credibility in future climate negotiations.

Labor heavyweight also warns of the danger of environment movement fading as he throws support behind new alliance

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The former New South Wales premier Bob Carr has backed an alliance of conservation groups calling for tougher environmental protections and an overhaul of the state’s land-clearing laws.

A report from the new alliance – called the Stand Up for Nature alliance – calls for forests and native vegetation to be protected by “ending habitat destruction, run away land clearing and industrial native forest logging”.

These globe-trotting shorebirds travel nonstop from the Arctic but urbanisation is leading to their dramatic decline

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From GJ Walter Park, just north of Toondah Harbour on the shores of Moreton Bay, Judith Hoyle gazes across the dappled water towards Cassim Island, a resilient stand of mangroves emerging from the mudflats several hundred metres offshore. Ferries from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) cruise past, barely causing a ripple.

From a spit of mud on the island’s southern end, a group of 100 or so bar-tailed godwits appear undisturbed. But the rising tide is rapidly consuming their roost. As roosts disappear beneath the waves, the godwits reluctantly move to higher ground, deeper into the mangroves. By high tide, they’ll be forced further inshore, where dogs are allowed off-leash.

Reliance on oil won’t slash our bills: this is a climate crime that will leave our economy more vulnerable

“This is just the start,” said Rishi Sunak last week in his climate-wrecking speech from Downing Street. It certainly was just the start, because today, the government has sanctioned drilling in Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea.

This just 14 months after the UK’s hottest day, in July 2022. In that same month, the high court ruled the government’s net zero strategy unlawful, and ministers were ordered to redo their homework.

Caroline Lucas is the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion

Victorian ombudsman says drivers have been hit with unfair charges as well as potentially unlawful penalties, which should now be repaid

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Victorians who drive electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are being slugged with unfair charges under a tax scheme the Greens say has been a “dog’s breakfast” from the start.

The Victorian government in 2021 introduced the Australian-first zero and low emission vehicle charge.

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A rambunctious bowerbird youth has been constructing his bower a metre from where Guardian Australia data and interactive editor Nick Evershed's kids jump on the trampoline. The kids have been rapt, watching the bowerbird between the fence slats as he builds and practises dance moves, singing and occasionally bringing in a blue bottle cap or yellow flower. The Evershed family went full David Attenborough and set up a few cameras to record this randy bowerbird

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There’s a bowerbird building a bower in my backyard, so this year I’m on Team Bowerbird

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It has been a warm start to spring, and my neighbourhood has been absolutely overrun by a mob of rowdy, horny, young satin bowerbirds. I’m assuming they’re mostly juvenile males from the behaviour (hanging out in parks, acting moody, vaping …) but I’m no ornithologist, so take my observations with a grain of salt.

One of these rambunctious bowerbird youths has been constructing his bower a metre from where my kids jump on the trampoline.

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Tiny crustaceans described as ‘the bioequivalent of a Dyson vacuum cleaner for wastewater’

Tiny water fleas could play a big role in filtering out drugs, pesticides and industrial chemicals from wastewater to make it safe, according to scientists.

“We’ve developed our bioequivalent of a Dyson vacuum cleaner for wastewater, which is very, very exciting,” said study co-author Karl Dearn, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Birmingham.

In the mythology of birds, some can bring luck, others rain. But when that famous laugh portends a snake in the grass, it’s hard to deny

Kookaburras don’t usually laugh in the daytime. Their calls ring out at dawn and dusk, a raucous chorus that can provoke homesickness in any Australian unfortunate enough to be stuck in country with less interesting birds.

But at midday on a clear day in January, a kookaburra’s laugh gives you pause. Enough to notice the brown snake moving quietly through the grass a few feet away, intent on business that does not concern you but might if you carried on unawares and accidentally trod on it.

Thinktank Create Streets calls for people to be allowed to grow plants and trees in barren urban areas

A right to plant and grow trees and other greenery in public spaces should be given to people across Britain, an adviser to Michael Gove has said.

Nicholas Boys Smith, who heads the Office for Place in Gove’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), also chairs the thinktank Create Streets, which has released a report calling for more greening of cities.