The Guardian

These beady-eyed, bulletproof birds are an adaptive species – and their lift and lilt is like a flight path that takes me safely home

• The Australian bird of the year poll launches on 25 September 2023
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One year I built myself a little nest in a green tent, surrounded by moonahs and gumtrees. Inside, I had an old embroidered tablecloth, its coloured threads stitched in swirls. I had crocheted rugs, a bean bag, a small seat and a floor covering.

From the tent I felt and heard the beauty in many small things: the way the light came through the fabric walls; the birds, so close to me, feeding in the wet soil; the magpies singing all morning from high up in the dry branches of the gumtree; tiny wrens of yellow and grey, a mass of them flitting in the tea tree; wattlebirds clacking; and the lift and lilt of the currawongs carolling.

Report says climate change made rainfall heavier but human factors turned extreme weather into humanitarian disaster

Carbon pollution led to heavier rains and stronger floods in Greece and Libya this month but other human factors were responsible for “turning the extreme weather into a humanitarian disaster”, scientists have said.

Global heating made the levels of rainfall that devastated the Mediterranean in early September up to 50 times more likely in Libya and up to 10 times more likely in Greece, according to a study from World Weather Attribution that used established methods but had not yet been peer-reviewed.

Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are urgent but people care more about the floods, wildfires and droughts that are here now, New York summit hears

Floods, wildfires, drought and the onslaught of extreme weather are driving a global health crisis that must be put at the centre of climate action, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

“The climate crisis is a health crisis; it drives extreme weather and is taking lives around the world,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, said. “Melting ice caps and rising sea levels are, of course, crucial issues, but for most people they are distant threats in both time and place. The threats of our changing climate are right here and right now.”

Forecasting our fiery future

Action came as world leaders begin arriving in New York for the UN general assembly and after Sunday’s march to end fossil fuels

One day after the largest climate march since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of climate activists blockaded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to call for an end to funding for coal, oil and gas, with police making scores of arrests.

“Fossil fuel companies … wouldn’t be able to operate without money, and that money is coming primarily from Wall Street,” Alicé Nascimento, environmental campaigns director at New York Communities for Change, said hours before she was arrested.

Study in US shows one day a week of remote working cuts emissions by just 2% but two or four days lowers them by up to 29%

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People who work remotely all the time produce less than half the greenhouse gas emissions of office workers, according to a new study.

Employees in the US who worked from home all the time were predicted to reduce their emissions by 54%, compared with workers in an office, the study found. But hybrid workers did not reduce their emissions so dramatically, according to the research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It’s not like energy comes free from the sky – ahaha imagine that

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The spider in my office is constantly web-building, fly-wrapping, fly-eating and darting around. Her industry is highly motivating

Before I left X (Twitter’s branding change achieved what years of time-wasting couldn’t), there was a phase when people posted their most cancellable opinions. As September cools, I am realising that mine might be that I love spider season. Social media is full of hysterical teens with great makeup threatening to set fire to stuff, leave the country or never sleep again as their homes become “the spider-verse”, but that first faceful of web in the garden in autumn is my pumpkin spice latte moment. Webs glistening with dew in the dawn sun, industrious architects crouched at their heart, are as Instagrammable for me as russet and golden leaves. Mmm #autumnvibes.

It is not just webs; I think spiders are really great guys. I love that moment, as we are watching TV in the early autumn, when the first gerbil-sized specimen scuttles across the rug in front of me, chunky and heavy enough to startle the dog. I love the way there is always one squatting in the shower in the mornings, delivering a wake-up more effective than a ristretto. I love how they are suddenly absolutely everywhere: my son found one in his noodle salad this week. I hurt my neck recently, so have spent lots of time lying on the floor watching scuttlefest 2023, and the spectacle is even more majestic down at pedipalp (that’s the feely bit on the front of the spider) level.

Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist

Declaration signed by more than 20 Indigenous groups says dingoes are a ‘cultural icon’ and killing them is ‘killing family’

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First Nations people around the country have called for the immediate end of lethal dingo control, following an inaugural national dingo forum held in Cairns on Friday and Saturday.

A national dingo declaration signed by representatives from more than 20 First Nations groups says “lethal control should never be an option”.

New research finds evidence that exposure to PFAS and phenols increases odds of certain ‘hormonally driven’ cancers for women

Women exposed to several widely used chemicals appear to face increased odds for ovarian and other certain types of cancers, including a doubling of odds for melanoma, according to new research funded by the US government.

Using data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a team of academic researchers found evidence that women diagnosed with some “hormonally driven” cancers had exposures to certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are used in thousands of household and industrial products, including in stain- and heat-resistant items.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the crowd must become ‘too big and too radical to ignore’ as Biden came under fire for oil projects

Tens of thousands of climate activists took to the streets of New York City on Sunday in a “march to end fossil fuels”, with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez telling the crowd that the movement must become “too big and too radical to ignore”.

To cheers from the crowd, the progressive Democrat criticized the US continuing to approve fossil fuel projects, something which the Biden administration did earlier this year with the controversial Willow project in Alaska.

Demonstration falls days before the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, at which Joe Biden is expected to be a no-show

Actor and climate activist Susan Sarandon opened her speech by congratulating the students of New York University on the news of their university divesting from fossil fuels after years of pressure, as the Guardian first reported last week.

Addressing the crowd, she said, “You guys give me hope,” adding: “What we have to do is take responsibility and press those that are at the top to finally step up.”

Covering Climate Now cites Damian Carrington for investigating ‘carbon bombs’ and super-emitting methane leaks

Covering Climate Now, the global journalism collaboration, is announcing its media awards this week at a time when audiences need to know how and why “the planet is on fire” and what can be done, judges said.

CCN’s climate journalists of the year for 2023 are Damian Carrington of the Guardian, Manka Behl of the Times of India and Amy Westervelt, the founder of the Critical Frequency podcast network.

Behl of the Times of India was praised by judges for reports “from the frontlines of the crisis in one of the world’s most climate-important countries” and for her interviews with leaders.

Carrington of the Guardian was credited for science-based reporting that “explains that politics and corporate power, not a lack of green technologies, are what block climate progress”, and cited for leading a reporting team on investigating “carbon bombs” and super-emitting methane leaks.

Westervelt was described as a prolific, multiplatform reporter for Critical Frequency whose work exposes how fossil fuel companies continue to mislead the public and policymakers alike.

The tech giant has bowed to European legislation with a USB-C connector on its new iPhone but the UK government has failed to make messaging services toe the line on encryption

Sometimes, when Apple launches a new device (or even an upgrade of an existing one), it’s tempting to think that the accompanying blurb is a satirical spoof. On Tuesday, the day the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus were launched in California, for example, it burbled that both phones featured “industry-first colour-infused back glass with a stunning, textured matt finish and a new contoured edge on the aluminium enclosure. Both models feature the dynamic island [which displays outputs and alerts] and an advanced camera system designed to help users take fantastic photos of everyday moments in their lives. A powerful 48MP [megapixel] main camera enables super-high-resolution photos and a new 2x telephoto option to give users a total of three optical zoom levels – like having a third camera. The iPhone 15 lineup also introduces the next generation of portraits, making it easier to capture portraits with great detail and low-light performance.”

Oh, and by the way, it also has a USB-C charging port. This information, which comes towards the end of the blurb, is both interesting and symbolic: interesting because it signals that Apple is finally bowing to the EU’s requirement that all electronic devices should use the USB-C standard by 2024; and symbolic because it demonstrates that regulators can clip the wings of even the most powerful companies if they are resolute and clear about the consequences of noncompliance.

Three years after unprecedented inquest ruling, absence of other cases has left a gap for pollution sceptics to exploit

• Drivers ‘likely to benefit from London Ulez’

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah reserves a withering eye roll for people who question the impact that air pollution has on the health of children living in London. It helps her to shrug off the increasingly politicised debate over what needs to be done to improve the capital’s air quality.

Adoo-Kissi-Debrah fought a calm and determined campaign for seven years to make sure air pollution was included on her daughter Ella’s death certificate, and in December 2020 a second inquest ruled that air pollution contributed to Ella’s death from asthma in 2013.

Car users can be exposed to more damaging pollution than cyclists, bus passengers or pedestrians, research claims

Drivers in London are likely to be among the biggest beneficiaries of moves to penalise highly polluting vehicles in the capital, London’s mayor is to say, because at present many drivers are likely to experience more pollution than other road users.

Though they may have the illusion of being insulated in their vehicles from the effects of exhaust fumes, drivers can be more exposed to pollutants including the highly dangerous small particles known as PM2.5, which can damage lungs and lodge deep within the body.

This beautiful bird’s former name represented colonial dominance – and told us nothing about the species

• This year’s Guardian/BirdLife Australia bird of the year poll runs from 25 September to 6 October. Nominate your favourite for the shortlist
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The pink cockatoo has had a few names over the years. The father of Australian ornithology, John Gould, knew it as Leadbeater’s cockatoo, following the scientific name given to it in 1831, Cacatua leadbeateri. This was named after Benjamin Leadbeater, the London naturalist and taxidermist whose name also commemorates Victoria’s faunal emblem, Leadbeater’s possum.

Sir Thomas Mitchell, the surveyor general of New South Wales from 1828 to 1855, called it the red-top cockatoo. He was awestruck by its beauty. “Few birds more enliven the monotonous hues of the Australian forest than this beautiful species whose pink-coloured wings and flowing crest might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region,” he gushed.

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Malaysia trial shows quicker recovery compared with areas replanted with four or just a single native species

Replanting logged tropical forests with a diverse mixture of seedlings can help them regrow more quickly than allowing trees to regenerate naturally, a study has shown.

Satellite observations of one of the largest ecological experiments in the world in the Malaysian state of Sabah have revealed how lowland rainforest recovered over a decade.

The loud bloke in a hat’s pro-nuclear, anything-but-renewables stance is out of touch with his NSW electorate

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Let’s play a game. What’s the biggest myth in Australian politics?

There are certainly lots of candidates, but for me, it is that Barnaby Joyce enjoys widespread support in New England.

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Government hopes companies including Shell will be able to store up to 10% of the UK’s annual carbon emissions

Oil companies have been granted licences by the government that it hopes will enable them to store up to 10% of the UK’s carbon emissions in old oil and gasfields beneath the seabed.

The government awarded more than 20 North Sea licences covering an area the size of Yorkshire to 14 companies that plan to store carbon dioxide trapped from heavy industry in depleted oil and gasfields.