The Guardian

Exclusive: Scientists hope success of growing carnivorous plants without peat will convince ministers not to water down ban

The proposed ban on using peat on private gardens and allotments is in danger of being weakened as opponents argue it is more difficult to grow carnivorous plants and other flowers without the environmentally damaging compost products.

However, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is hoping a successful experiment in which carnivorous plants grown peat-free outshone those grown in peat will convince ministers not to water down the ban.

Farmers can’t use chlorpyrifos on food because it damages children’s brains but an EPA official questions restrictions under global treaty

• This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden announced that his administration planned to scrutinize a Trump-era decision to allow the continued use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that can damage children’s brains. And with great fanfare, the Environmental Protection Agency went on to ban the use of the chemical on food.

“Ending the use of chlorpyrifos on food will help to ensure children, farmworkers, and all people are protected from the potentially dangerous consequences of this pesticide,” the head of the EPA, Michael Regan, said in his announcement of the decision in August 2021. “EPA will follow the science and put health and safety first.”

ProPublica is a non-profit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive ProPublica’s biggest stories as soon as they’re published

Calls grow for legislation requiring developers to include hollow bricks for endangered nesting species

Conservative MPs are joining calls for a new law to guarantee swift bricks in every new home to help the rapidly declining bird and other endangered roof-nesting species.

Pressure is growing to amend the levelling up bill so that developers are required to include a hollow brick for nesting birds in all new housing, with MPs to debate the issue in parliament on 10 July.

Proposal to improve soil health throughout continent by 2050 criticised for lack of legally binding targets

The European Commission has proposed the continent’s first soil law, intended to undo some of the damage done by intensive farming and mitigate global heating.

Amid intense opposition to proposed laws on nature restoration and curbs on pesticides, the European Commission put forward proposals in Brussels on Wednesday to revive degraded soils. Research indicates that this could help absorb carbon from the atmosphere and ensure sustainable food production.

Ash dieback most expensive, while cost of tackling alien species has more than doubled since 2010, says study

From Japanese knotweed to a fungus that kills ash trees, tackling invasive non-native species now costs the UK economy about £4bn, up from £1.7bn in 2010, research suggests.

There are about 2,000 invasive non-native species (Inns) in the UK, and about 12 new ones establish themselves each year, adding, along with inflation, to the rise in costs.

Reducing carbon emissions is necessary. But the future of ‘mobility’ must involve much more besides private cars

Driving an electric car on a single charge from London to Milan sounds like an impossible dream. Yet Japanese carmaker Toyota claims that by 2027 motorists will be able to buy such a vehicle. Running the air conditioner at full blast might reduce such an impressive range, but Toyota says drivers will be able to recharge in 10 minutes before they are back on the road. If this all sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is.

What Toyota says it has found nothing less than the holy grail of battery technology – the so-called solid state solution – which has long eluded the industry. Instead of a liquid core, the new battery has a solid one between electrodes. This means it is smaller and can store more energy – delivering a bigger range for the same weight. The heavy flammable liquid cores can also overheat and explode. Since 2017, UK emergency services have attended hundreds of electric vehicle fires.

Chief medical officer says move to electric cars can reduce impact of exhausts, but may bring different problem to the fore

Ministers need to start looking seriously at the health risks from vehicle tyre wear as the impact of pollutants from car exhausts gradually reduces, Sir Chris Whitty has told MPs.

Giving evidence to the environmental audit committee, England’s chief medical officer said improvements in emissions from petrol and diesel vehicles, and a shift towards electric cars, were reducing the extent of dangerous pollutants such as nitrogen oxides.

Average global temperature hits 17.18C and experts expect record to be broken again very soon

World temperature records have been broken for a second day in a row, data suggests, as experts issued a warning that this year’s warmest days are still to come – and with them the warmest days ever recorded.

The average global air temperature was 17.18C (62.9F) on Tuesday, according to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), surpassing the record 17.01C reached on Monday.

Civil servants warn bold action needed to meet target – but painful decisions need to be made

Rishi Sunak risks damaging trust in the UK among developing countries and reducing the country’s standing in negotiations, because of a failure to meet climate spending pledges, civil servants have warned ministers.

They said that under current policies the only way to meet the £11.6bn international climate funding target agreed at Cop26 was to take a drastic combination of “hugely reputationally damaging” measures including delaying meeting the target, redefining already committed spending as climate funding, and cutting money for research and development, biodiversity and plastic pollution mitigation.

Delay the target. Officials said they could move it to the end of the 2026 calendar year instead of the financial year 2025/26, giving another three-quarters of a year to spend money. They warned this would “be hugely reputationally damaging at a time when the Global South mistrusts wealthy countries”. They added: “The geopolitical ramifications are likely to extend beyond climate, damaging our standing with a wide range of developing countries, SIDs, Commonwealth and middle-ground nations, further undermining trust in the UK as a donor.”

Count other already-committed amounts to climate payments as part of the £11.6bn. Civil servants warned: “This would be seen as the UK ‘moving the goalposts’ and would be seen as a backwards step, reducing UK standing and influence in climate negotiations.”

Eat into Defra and net zero department budgets. Currently half of the international funding paid by these departments is part of the £11.6bn commitment. Civil servants said it would be helpful for this to be closer to 75%, but this would eat into research and development funding as well as non-climate biodiversity protection programmes and other areas such as preventing plastic pollution.

Obtain a one-off sum from the Treasury. Officials admitted this would be “strongly resisted” by the chancellor but said if the Treasury directly funded loss and damage options, it “would be a strong signal of climate leadership by the UK”.

Listing would allow the market to be admirably brutal – inflicting pain on the owners and forcing management changes

• Henley regatta complains of sewage pollution from Thames Water
• Water firms discharged raw sewage 300,000 times last year, court hears

As we wait for Thames Water’s crew of international investors to decide if they want to inject more capital into their ailing and over-borrowed asset, it is hard to escape the thought that a recapitalisation – if it’s doable – would have happened by now if only the company were listed on the stock market. In essence, what’s needed at Thames, if the owners wish to save it, is a large rights issue or debt-for-equity swap. The stock market tends to be good at such exercises. It cuts to the chase.

Recall the crisis in the outsourcing sector a decade ago, which has parallels with water in terms of scandal (with overcharging, rather than the sewage) and loss of confidence on the part of government and the outside world. The stock market was admirably brutal with companies such as Serco: it whacked the share price down 90%, thereby inflicting necessary pain on owners; it forced management change; then it became possible to raise funds.

Exclusive: Disclosure provokes fury as Rishi Sunak accused of betraying populations vulnerable to global heating

The government is drawing up plans to drop the UK’s flagship £11.6bn climate and nature funding pledge, the Guardian can reveal, with the prime minster accused of betraying populations most vulnerable to global heating.

The disclosure provoked fury from former ministers and representatives of vulnerable countries, who accused Rishi Sunak of making false promises.

My teenage years were spent under the twin threats of drought and bushfire. But on this high cold plateau it never dries out

• Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter
• Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community

There is something about growing up in drought that makes having too much water unfathomable. That’s the excuse I’m using for being so unprepared, two winters in a row, for the stinking, ankle-deep mud that has taken over our property.

It should not be a surprise. It was so muddy when we first saw this place that we swung past Bunnings before the second viewing and bought $15 gumboots. We were slipping through the cattle yards and sinking into the back paddock. But central Victoria had just been hit by the worst storm in years, so we figured it was a particularly wet month.

Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter

Our leaders’ addiction to economic growth and its consumption of environmental resources has me paralysed with fear and solastalgia

• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Many of us have experienced grieving after the death of a family member or a long-time friend. We regard it as a form of suffering which we hope will be alleviated with time. Advice from love ones, doctors and therapists may help us to cope by offering the solution that time will heal.

In some, like Queen Victoria, the loss of a partner may cause lifelong grief with self-imposed withdrawal and solitude.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Team hope sale of block of rare ambergris, used by perfumers, will help victims of 2021 volcano

When a sperm whale washed up dead on a beach in the Canary Island of La Palma no one imagined a valuable treasure was hidden in its entrails.

Heavy seas and a rising tide made it difficult to carry out a postmortem, but Antonio Fernández Rodríguez, head of the institute of animal health and food security at the University of Las Palmas, was determined to find out why the whale had died.

Judge says firm tried to mislead regulator over incident involving millions of litres of undiluted waste polluting water near Gatwick

Thames Water has been fined £3.3m for a “reckless” incident in which millions of litres of undiluted sewage was pumped into rivers near Gatwick, killing 1,700 fish.

Politicians have said this is more proof that the beleaguered company, which was recently revealed to be facing financial collapse, should be reformed.

Better farming techniques across the world could lead to storage of 31 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide a year, data shows

Marginal improvements to agricultural soils around the world would store enough carbon to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating, new research suggests.

Farming techniques that improve long-term fertility and yields can also help to store more carbon in soils but are often ignored in favour of intensive techniques using large amounts of artificial fertiliser, much of it wasted, that can increase greenhouse gas emissions.

World Meteorological Organization warns of record temperatures and extreme heat in environmental ‘double whammy’

The arrival of a climate-heating El Niño event has been declared by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with officials warning that preparation for extreme weather events is vital to save lives and livelihoods.

The last major El Niño was in 2016, which remains the hottest year on record. The new El Niño comes on top of the increasing global heating driven by human-caused carbon emissions, an effect the WMO called a “double whammy”. This can supercharge extreme weather, and temperature records are already being broken on land and at sea across the globe.

We are not helpless: we need to do big things quickly, though, to halt the disturbance of nature. And I fear that’s not happening

• John Vidal is a former Guardian environment editor

When he bought the pretty little striped field mouse on the internet for $8 to give to his daughter for her sixth birthday, the businessman from São Paulo was told it was free of infection and had been bred by a registered dealer. In fact, it had been sourced from the vast sugar cane fields planted in Brazil to grow biofuels to reduce the use of fossil fuels – and which were swarming with rodents after yet another heatwave.

It nipped his daughter on the finger, but no one thought much of it – and six days later, he left on a trip to Europe. By the time he reached Amsterdam, she had started suffering fevers, muscle aches and breathing problems and had been rushed to hospital, and he too felt unwell. It was the start of one of the worst pandemics in human history, killing more people than Covid-19, Sars or the 1918 flu pandemic put together.

John Vidal is the Guardian’s former environment editor and author of Fevered Planet: How Diseases Emerge When We Harm Nature (Bloomsbury, £20). To support The Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Cane toads first crossed into WA from the Northern Territory 15 years ago and have slowly spread through the Kimberley

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Motion sensor cameras have revealed the confronting spread of cane toads across Western Australia’s eastern Kimberley region.

Supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia, the Nyaliga Rangers deployed cameras at 141 locations between August 2020 and October 2022.

Thames Water’s woes are a clear sign that basic oversight of our critical industries simply isn’t happening

The potential collapse of Thames Water, sinking under £14bn of debt, is just the latest evidence that the regulatory regimes that oversee large parts of the British economy are failing.

It comes on the heels of Ofgem, the gas and electricity regulator, failing to notice that companies supplying power to consumers were undercapitalised and vulnerable to global price volatility. The rail regulator, Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), has failed to protect the users of northern rail services or of commuter services around London from the incompetence of franchise operators. Ofcom, once the most respected regulator, has failed to prevent egregious telecom double-digit price increases – one of the worst recent examples of corporate exploitation which has helped to push up the cost of living.