The Guardian

Wildlife and environment groups condemn plan promising renewable energy for 600,000 homes

Plans for a renewable energy tidal barrier linking Norfolk and Lincolnshire have sparked fierce debate between scientists, wildlife charities and a port company CEO who is leading the project.

Entrepreneur James Sutcliffe, who has managed and advised port companies in Sierra Leone and Bangladesh, has now set his sights on the Wash, which is the sea, mudflats and salt marsh between the two counties.

Groundbreaking analysis by One Earth is first to quantify economic burden caused by individual companies

The world’s top fossil fuel companies owe at least $209bn in annual climate reparations to compensate communities most damaged by their polluting business and decades of lies, a new study calculates.

BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company and Chevron are among the largest 21 polluters responsible for $5.4tn (£4.3tn) in drought, wildfires, sea level rise, and melting glaciers among other climate catastrophes expected between 2025 and 2050, according to groundbreaking analysis published in the journal One Earth.

A man has been filmed pushing Just Stop Oil protesters to the ground as they marched down Mansell Street in east London. In the footage shared on social media, the man can be seen shoving protesters, ripping away banners and grabbing one person's phone before throwing it away. The activist group held two slow marches in Cannon Street and Tower Hill on Friday morning. A Met spokesperson said the force was 'aware of an incident in which a member of the public appears to have remonstrated' with protesters before police arrived. A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said: 'The disruption we are seeing on British streets is nothing compared to what's coming if we do not stop licensing new oil, gas and coal'

A shift in supermarkets’ attitudes and a new judicial review could at last make us face up to this blot on our moral conscience

It’s been more than 15 years since my show Hugh’s Chicken Run exposed the treatment of the UK’s most farmed animal. The month after it aired, sales of factory-farmed chickens plummeted and free-range birds flew off the shelves as the public began to contemplate the short and brutal lives of animals they had seen only when headless, plucked and smothered in clingfilm.

The programme was broadcast on Channel 4 to millions of viewers, and I hoped it would spark a nationwide revolt against the “two for a fiver” birds in supermarket fridges, the insultingly low price for which could only be achieved by systematic cruelty. I had hoped that beaming footage of these abused chickens into people’s living rooms might make them think twice about their dinner, and shop differently for ever.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a food and cookery writer, broadcaster and campaigner

The effort to stay below 1.5C needs to be a battle people feel we can win. They must sound the alarm, and make sure politicians listen

The end of the world is nigh, again. And as usual, it’s being greeted largely with a shrug. Perhaps you felt a prick of unease as you scrolled the headlines, or half listened over breakfast to some radio debate about the fact that sometime in the next four years the planet is likely to breach the 1.5C rise in global temperature that we have long been told is the tipping point to avoid. (Although this time the breach should be only temporary, the World Meteorological Organisation report stresses that it still takes us into uncharted waters, and if nothing changes the world is likely to cross this dangerous threshold more and more often in future.)

Perhaps you even felt rage or frustration that it’s taking everyone else so long to wake up. But the chances are that most people will have forgotten it by lunchtime. YouGov’s regular tracker poll finds Britons are still more worried about immigration, which almost a third consider the single most important issue currently facing the country, than about climate and the environment.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a rare monk seal, nesting gannets and lurking alligator

Hosted by our associate news editor for audio and visual, Gabrielle Jackson, this special event at the Seymour Centre in Sydney traces Guardian Australia's history and examines some of the values and goals that will shape the next decade.

The founding editor of Guardian Australia and now editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Katharine Viner, and Guardian Australia's editor, Lenore Taylor, discuss our humble beginnings and growth with our opinion editor, Bridie Jabour, before Guardian Australia's political editor, Katharine Murphy, climate and environment editor, Adam Morton, Full Story host Laura Murphy-Oates, and social affairs and inequality editor, Luke Henriques-Gomes, talk to the features editor, Lucy Clark, about the impact of Guardian journalism. First Dog on the Moon, photographer Mike Bowers and cartoonist Fiona Katauskas also present their own take on the past 10 years

• How the Guardian shaped (and shook) Australian media – Full Story podcast

• Guardian Australia launched in a spirit of hope and determination. Ten years later we’re going from strength to strength

• Ten years of Guardian Australia’s most impactful journalism

The category-5 storm brought 160mph winds and torrential rain to parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar on Sunday, leaving at least five dead and causing half a million people to be evacuated

Lakes and reservoirs have lost 22 gigatonnes a year since 1992, driven by factors including global heating and human consumption

More than half of the world’s large lakes and reservoirs have shrunk since the early 1990s – chiefly because of the climate crisis and human consumption – intensifying concerns about water supply for agriculture, hydropower and human consumption, a study has found.

A team of international researchers reported that some of the world’s most important freshwater sources – from the Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia, to South America’s Lake Titicaca – lost water at a cumulative rate of about 22 gigatonnes a year for nearly three decades, equivalent to the total water use in the US for the entire year of 2015.

Devastating floods in Emilia-Romagna region have left several dead and thousands homeless after torrential rains triggered landslides and caused rivers to burst their banks

Limits on numbers at Paris summit mean some of those ‘most needing to be heard’ will not be in attendance

Scientists and NGOs have accused the UN’s environment programme (Unep) of locking out those “most needing to be heard” from upcoming negotiations in Paris aimed at halting plastic waste.

Last-minute restrictions to the numbers of NGOs attending what the head of Unep described as the “most important multilateral environmental deal” in a decade will exclude people from communities in developing countries harmed by dumping and burning of plastic waste as well as marginalised waste pickers, who are crucial to recycling, from fully participating, they said.

Biden officials consider whether symbol, created for first Earth Day in 1970, is misleading because of use on non-recyclable material

The triangular loop of arrows that has been the universal symbol of recycling for the past five decades could itself end up being binned in the US, with Joe Biden’s administration mulling whether it is misleading to the public.

The “chasing arrows” logo, designed by a college student for the first Earth Day in 1970, has become ubiquitous on everything from cartons of milk to shampoo bottles as a way to nudge users to recycle packaging rather than discard it.

Surfers, swimmers and consumers have been paying for the water industry’s neglect for too long. We need action, not words

After decades of pollution, chronic underinvestment and presiding over a fundamentally broken water system, water companies in England have finally apologised for the disgraceful state they have left our rivers and seas in and promised to change. But how on earth can we trust them?

Of course, we welcome the industry finally taking responsibility and any additional investment to fix our broken system, but the money may prove too little and the apology too late. These companies have had ample opportunity to put things right and invest in their infrastructure. Meanwhile, surfers, swimmers and paddleboarders, from St Agnes to St Andrews, have been paying the price, risking becoming sick by simply entering the water.

Henry Swithinbank is policy manager for Surfers Against Sewage

Party promises to enshrine in law equal access to benefits of green spaces if it wins next election

• UK politics live – latest updates

The Labour party has pledged to introduce a Scottish-style right to roam law in England if it wins the next general election, with access to green space enshrined in law.

The shadow environment minister, Alex Sobel, made the announcement during a debate secured by the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, who has been campaigning for wider access to the countryside.

Clean water activists say industry’s promise to reduce pollution should not be taken on trust

The water industry’s promise to triple investment in the sewage system in England to reduce pollution and quell public anger should not be taken on trust, campaigners have said.

Clean water activists including surfers, swimmers and anglers criticised water companies for passing the £10bn bill for investment, which should have been carried out years ago, on to customers.

Italian authorities are continuing rescue operations across the flood-hit northern Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Footage recorded by the Italian coastguard showed helicopters rescuing people from their roofs, including a pregnant woman and an elderly couple. At least nine people have been killed by the floods and almost 5,000 evacuated from their homes

• Devastating floods in Italy claim lives and leave thousands homeless

• Lewis Hamilton backs decision to scrap flood-hit Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

• People call for help as extreme floods engulf houses and roads in Italy – video

Activists plan to keep holding firms to account as some suggest it is customers who should be compensated

• English water companies offer apology and £10bn investment for sewage spills

Across the country this weekend campaigners will paddle out on their local rivers or beaches to warn water companies they will not put up with another summer of sewage pollution.

No doubt they will be buoyed up by the high-profile mea culpa trumpeted by privatised water companies on Thursday, along with a promise to treble their existing investment in pipes, water treatment works and water storage to £10bn over the next 10 years.

Founded by Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier and Chase Teron, 100 for the Ocean unites 100 world-class photographers selected for their talents and contributions to conservation. From 1 to 31 May 2023, a sale offers an opportunity to purchase photographs with profits going to under-funded and under-recognised ocean-focused NGOs voted for by photographers. The top-voted NGOs so far include: Whale Guardians, Coast First Nations, and Por el Mar

“The UN is telling us that in order to fulfil the promise of protecting the ocean under Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life Underwater, we need about $170 billion. We hope to shine a spotlight on the ocean and why we need to protect the largest ecosystem on our planet, the one ecosystem that allows life on earth to exist.” Cristina Mittermeier

Ballooning cost of cleaning up toxic PFAS contamination at military sites places service members and civilians at risk

The cost of cleaning up toxic PFAS “forever chemical” contamination around hundreds of US military installations is ballooning, but Congress and the Pentagon are failing to keep pace, a development that is leaving service members and civilians indefinitely at risk, a new analysis finds.

The estimated total cost for remediating about 50 contaminated military sites has soared to $31bn , up by $3.7bn from 2016 to 2021, the last year the Department of Defense provided estimates. But its requested cleanup budget increased just $400m over the same period, according to the new report by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit that tracks the military’s PFAS pollution.