The Guardian

Positive effects were stronger among those reporting the lowest annual household income, says Finnish study

Visits to parks, community gardens and other urban green spaces may lower city dwellers’ use of drugs for anxiety, insomnia, depression, high blood pressure, and asthma, research has found.

Researchers in Finland found that visiting such areas three to four times a week cuts people’s chances of turning to drugs for mental health problems or high blood pressure by a third, and for asthma by about a quarter.

‘Cease and desist’ letter signed by over 650,000 people sent to oil and gas CEOs follows removal of Greta Thunberg from coal protest

Hundreds of thousands of young climate activists have said they will continue “protesting in the streets in huge numbers” against fossil fuels, a day after Greta Thunberg was removed by German police from a condemned village atop a massive coal deposit.

In a cease-and-desist letter to the CEOs of fossil fuel companies, youth campaigners accuse them of a “direct violation of our human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, your duties of care, as well as the rights of Indigenous people”.

Scientists say phenomenon coupled with growing climate crisis likely to push global temperatures ‘off the chart’

The return of the El Niño climate phenomenon later this year will cause global temperatures to rise “off the chart” and deliver unprecedented heatwaves, scientists have warned.

Early forecasts suggest El Niño will return later in 2023, exacerbating extreme weather around the globe and making it “very likely” the world will exceed 1.5C of warming. The hottest year in recorded history, 2016, was driven by a major El Niño.

US climate envoy says pick is a ‘terrific choice’ but activists equate pick to asking ‘arms dealers to lead peace talks’

US climate envoy John Kerry backs the United Arab Emirates’ decision to appoint the CEO of a state-run oil company to preside over the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Dubai, citing his work on renewable energy projects.

In an interview Sunday with the Associated Press, the former US secretary of state acknowledged that the Emirates and other countries relying on fossil fuels to fund their state coffers face finding “some balance” ahead.

The UK government plans to give police even more power to lock us up. But it won’t stop us: this is about humanity’s future

• Indigo Rumbelow is a supporter of Just Stop Oil and co-founder of Insulate Britain

On a day when swans were seen swimming through Worcester town centre after the latest flooding, the government has announced new measures to silence those of us pushing for more climate action.

The latest restriction on your freedoms involve the police in England and Wales having the power to shut down protests before disruption begins. The proposals will be part of an amendment to the public order bill, which already includes new stop and search powers and creates an offence of “locking on” to things.

Indigo Rumbelow is a supporter of Just Stop Oil and co-founder of Insulate Britain

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‘It covers most of Australia but lots of locations only have one or two chargers,’ BP Pulse boss says, as others call for greater public spending to reduce queues

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Electric vehicle charging stations are located right across Australia but in many locations there are only one or two outlets, experts say, and that needs to change if people are to avoid lengthy queues next summer.

Significant government investment in regional EV infrastructure is the key to ending the frustrations many holidaymakers have experienced over the past few weeks, a number of charging companies have said.

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Recent research suggests plants may be able to learn and communicate. This really put me off my baked potato

If you were starting to polish your Veganuary halo, sorry, I have upsetting news, gleaned from a Radio 4 programme called Is Eating Plants Wrong?. Spoiler alert: maybe.

Plants, it explained, “can sense the world around them, learn, remember and engage in complex communication with the species around them”. Research suggests that pea seedlings can learn to associate a sound with the light they need and choose to grow in a particular direction as a result. They can also eavesdrop on each other and protect themselves based on what they “hear”. Sagebrush plants communicate to each other the risk of being chomped by insects and trees share nutrients through what Prof Suzanne Simard pleasingly calls the “wood wide web”; they do so more with trees they are related to than with “strangers”.

A pair of the semi-aquatic mammals will be released on to Ewhurst Park estate

Beavers are set to be reintroduced into an enclosure in Hampshire, marking the first time in 400 years that they have lived in the county in south-west England.

A pair of the semi-aquatic mammals will be released on to Ewhurst Park estate, which is being restored for nature and sustainable food production.

One sample taken close to the plant contained 80,000 times the safe level of banned substance TBT

A large marine paint-making company has been fined £650,000 after a highly toxic banned chemical was washed out from a holding tank into a “pristine” river in south-west England.

International Paint Ltd “utterly failed” to control a substance called TBT that it had stored at its mothballed plant on the banks of the Yealm in Devon, a judge concluded.

Marine farmers point finger at jellyfish swarms but campaigners call for boycott to curb ‘ever-worsening problem’ of overcrowding

Salmon deaths on fish farms in Scotland nearly doubled last year, official figures show, owing to growing levels of disease, parasites and jellyfish blooms. Campaigners have blamed overcrowding and called for a boycott.

Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) data shows that nearly 15m salmon mortalities were reported by farms in Scotland from January to November 2022, the latest data available, compared with 8.58m in all of 2021 and 5.81m in 2020.

A review panel on the 2021 Teesside eco-disaster is due to send its findings to ministers this week, but evidence from academics may not be given full weight

Scientists who led research into the mystery deaths of thousands of crabs and lobsters along England’s north-east coast say they have been asked no questions by the panel investigating the disaster.

The expert review panel has also been excluded from examining government processes as part of its inquiry, despite widespread scrutiny of the official explanation for the deaths, the Observer understands.

A judge’s decision making it unlawful to pitch a tent on the moors without the landowner’s permission is set to spark a wave of right-to-roam protests

Standing at the summit of Hound Tor, wind whistling, ponies grazing nearby and the greens and browns of Dartmoor visible through the filter of the wet mist, the imposing facade of the high court could not feel more distant.

But on Saturday morning, carrying his backpack containing his tent, a rubbish bin, trowel and cooking equipment, Mark Hayhurst, 43, came here to mourn a ruling by the court on Friday that made it unlawful to wild camp on the land without permission.

‘I am not minimising the frustration … but this will allow us to do congestion modelling with real-life data to tell us where we should upgrade,’ Evie Networks boss says

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Australians are familiar with holiday frustrations: queues at theme parks, traffic jams at the beach, competition for Boxing Day bargains. But this year, some discovered a new source of stress: delays when charging their electric cars.

Queues at some charging stations in the week after Christmas saw drivers forced to wait up to 90 minutes to get back on the road.

December 2022 was third-busiest month on record for solar panel installation partly driven by spiking electricity prices

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When record rainfall caused flooding in south-east Queensland last February, Steve McLean’s solar installers were kept off roofs, blowing a $60,000 hole in his firm’s budget and setting back what might have been another record year for his business.

“If we didn’t do a system for five weeks, you can imagine that no one else did … We got absolutely smashed in February and March,” McLean, the owner of Gold Coast Solar Systems, said. “If you take that number out of the marketplace, well, that was disastrous.”

The government wrote to the then Prince of Wales in 2019, seeking approval for legislation that had implications for his estates

The government asked King Charles for permission to pass its post-Brexit “world-leading” Environment Act because laws requiring landowners to enhance conservation could affect his business interests.

Environment minister Rebecca Pow wrote to the then Prince of Wales in 2019 to ask if he would accept section seven of the environment bill, which became law in November 2021.

Climate activist also denounced ‘police violence’ against campaigners at the abandoned village of Lützerath

Greta Thunberg is calling for people to join her in a protest against the expansion of a coalmine that will demolish a small German village, denouncing “police violence” against environmental campaigners resisting the demolition.

“Germany is really embarrassing itself right now,” the climate activist said during her visit to the abandoned village of Lützerath, ahead of a planned protest on Saturday.

Photographer Tracey Nearmy spotted this koala climbing down a tree in South Australia's Adelaide Hills on a hot Saturday when temperatures reached 35-40C. After giving the thirsty marsupial a drink, Nearmy and her friend alerted staff at the nearby Carrick Hill historic house who often leave water at the base of the trees for the local koala colony. They said they would take a bucket of water up to this one in case it needed more to drink

• Firefighters battle blaze in Adelaide Hills as residents of Montacute advised to take shelter

Bill payers stand to collectively save billions if minimum standard raised to a C rating, research suggests

Raising the minimum standard of energy efficiency to a C rating for privately rented homes would save bill payers about £570 a year, research has found.

This would amount to annual savings totalling £1.75bn across the UK, according to the thinktank E3G in a report called Cutting Energy Bills and Raising Standards for Private Renters.

Sale by retailers and food outlets in England of single-use plastic tableware to be banned but not ‘shelf-ready pre-packaged food’ containers

Single-use plastic plates, cutlery and a range of other items will be banned in England from October, to curb their “devastating” impact on the environment, the government has confirmed.

The Department for the Environment said the ban will also cover single-use plastic bowls, trays and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers.

The safeguard mechanism has been largely pointless – it’s unclear whether the changes will be a strong deterrent for fossil fuel companies

There are three issues that will determine whether the major climate announcement the Albanese government made this week can deliver the transformational change Australia needs.

The details can be mind-numbing, but a quick summary for those still enjoying a summer break: on Monday the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, released a review into Australia’s carbon credit system. It followed expert allegations the scheme is “largely a sham” as it has failed to deliver real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.