The Guardian

Denis Hayes, who coordinated the first event in 1970, denounces fossil fuel companies that use the event to get positive publicity

Corporate greenwashing should not undermine the message behind Earth Day and has nothing to do with its original aims, one of the founders of the annual environmental event has warned.

Denis Hayes, the American environmental activist who coordinated the first Earth Day in 1970, denounced the “appalling” environmental messaging by oil, gas and other extractive companies and said he hoped it did not distract attention from the threats posed by the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, which he compared to the threat of nuclear conflict during the cold war.

Biodiversity crisis leads horticulturalists to highlight gardeners’ role in conserving wild flora and fauna

In not so distant times, a list of garden wildlife for many horticulturalists could have been a list of deadly enemies, containing aphids, slugs, snails and other creatures previously thought of as irritants.

But as awareness of the biodiversity crisis grows, horticulturalists have become more aware of the importance of wild flora and fauna, and the important role gardeners can play in conserving it.

Lichens

Native ladybirds

Pollinators

Solitary bees (Aculeate hymenoptera)

Sulphur tuft fungi (Hypholoma fasciculare)

Slime moulds

Rose chafer beetle (Cetonia aurata)

Ink cap mushrooms

Hoverflies

Social wasps

I felt his body glide against my back. Why does this whiskery creature want to get so close?

This summer, after a bad run of migraines and perplexing ill-health, I decided to try cold-water immersion. And yes, it’s possible I had listened to a few too many podcasts on the topic but, also, I was looking for an achievable goal.

The property I live on in northern New South Wales is bordered by a creek, which, despite being summer, stays remarkably cool. There is a water hole, and I’m hopeful that if I create the cold-water immersion habit in warmer weather I can move into the cooler months. I’m planning ahead.

Environmentalists decry move but natural resources minister says doubling of Vancouver terminal’s size is needed to meet demand

Canada’s federal government has approved a controversial container terminal expansion in Vancouver that would double the port’s current size but could have damaging effects for maritime species already on the brink of extinction, environmental groups warn.

The country’s natural resources minister announced support for the Port of Vancouver’s plan – which would effectively double the size of the Roberts Bank Terminal – framing the decision as a way of preventing future backlog.

‘To see this at the heart of government planning is an overwhelming relief,’ Energy Council says, while investors warn of impact from US energy package

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

The Albanese government has promised to “grab this opportunity” to become a renewable energy superpower after holding a high-level roundtable with major banks, financiers and investment managers.

The Friday roundtable in Brisbane comes after the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said on Monday that next month’s federal budget would see major investments in “cleaner and cheaper” energy.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker scaled bridge over River Thames, forcing police to stop traffic

Just Stop Oil protesters Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who scaled a bridge on the Dartford Crossing forcing police to close it to traffic, have been sentenced to three years in prison, and two years and seven months in prison respectively for causing a public nuisance.

In sentencing remarks at Southend crown court, the judge stressed he wanted others to be deterred from copying the men.

The film How to Blow Up a Pipeline makes a case for using sabotage, but hope remains that we can build rather than destroy

The new film How to Blow Up a Pipeline raises loudly the question that many protesters are asking quietly: what happens when peaceful climate protest fails? In its sympathetic depiction of a group of climate activists who set out to blow up a huge oil pipeline with homemade explosives, it gives the same answer in fiction that Andreas Malm’s 2021 book of the same name gave in nonfiction: sabotage.

Its UK release could hardly be more timely. As thousands prepare to gather for Extinction Rebellion’s new wave of peaceful protests this weekend, there is a sense of desperation in the air. So much has already been tried – so many marches and choirs, sit-downs and stunts, assemblies and pickets. Yes, we will gather again. Yes, we will paint more placards. Yes, we will sing more songs.

Andreas Malm says he has no hope in ‘dominant classes’, and urges more radical approach to climate activism

International climate diplomacy is hopeless, the author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline has said, as the film adaptation of the radical environmentalist book is released.

As activists around the world take increasingly desperate actions against destructive projects, Andreas Malm told the Guardian he had not “a shred of hope” elites were prepared to take the urgent action needed to avert catastrophic climate change.

Europe’s first new plant in 16 years comes on stream in Finland day after Germany pulls plug on last reactors

When Europe’s first new nuclear reactor in 16 years came online in Finland, it was hailed by its operator as a “significant addition to clean domestic production” that would “play an important role in the green transition”.

The opening last Sunday of the long-delayed Olkiluoto 3 plant, Europe’s largest, means about 40% of Finland’s electricity demand will soon be met by nuclear power, which the government says will boost energy security and help it achieve its carbon neutrality targets.

An important part of parenting is securing children’s future. Too many of us are reading bedtime stories in a house that’s burning down

Parents do a lot. We spend hours reading stories or freezing on the edges of sports pitches. We buy food, clothes, buggies, car seats, bikes, music lessons, gadgets, parties, holidays, not to mention hundreds of toys. But here’s the bad news. While we obsess about our kids as individuals, we’re missing a last-ditch collective chance to save them from environmental catastrophe.

Take that seriously, and being a “good” mum or dad is about much more than what you do with your child or the opportunities you buy them. It becomes political.

Forecasts suggest highs of 35-38C and even 39C in Seville, easily surpassing the peak of 37.4C set in 2011

For much of Europe, April so far has been rather cold and reasonably wet in places. However, Spain has remained very dry and very warm, retaining the subtropical air that has led to forest fires and a widespread drought. Plumes of heat from the tropics are expected to continue to affect the country throughout the coming days, threatening the April maximum temperature record.

The highest temperature ever recorded in Spain for the month is 37.4C (99.3F) in Murcia on 9 April 2011. Forecasts suggest that on 26 April temperatures will widely reach 35-38C, and Seville may even hit a maximum of 39C. For comparison, the April high in Seville stands at 35.4C. It is possible that records for the month will not only be broken next week, but smashed.

John Price jailed after admitting ‘wanton’ destruction of one of UK’s most unspoiled rivers

A farmer has been jailed for “the worst case of riverside destruction” seen by environmental authorities after ripping up 1.5km of the River Lugg in Herefordshire, wrecking the habitats of otters, kingfishers, trout and salmon.

Following the first prosecution under the farming rules for water legislation, John Price was jailed for 12 months, ordered to pay prosecution costs of £600,000 and disqualified from being a director of a limited company for three years after admitting seven charges related to his “wanton” destruction of one of the country’s most unspoiled rivers.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a sleepy sloth, a black-backed jackal and a breaching whale

Why does a wealthy, powerful nation struggle so badly while a small, much poorer one succeeds?

One of the world’s greatest environmental heroes doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. Though he has done more to protect the living planet than almost anyone alive, his name is scarcely known. It’s partly because he’s quiet and self-effacing and partly because of a general ignorance about Central America that so few of us have heard of Alvaro Umaña.

This might be about to change. He stars in a fascinating film, now released in the Netherlands and negotiating global sales, called Paved Paradise (disclosure: I was also interviewed). It’s the first feature-length documentary I’ve watched that engages intelligently with the most critical environmental issue: land use. By contrast with popular but misguided films such as Kiss the Ground or The Biggest Little Farm, it recognises that sprawling extractive land uses are a lethal threat to the living world. It makes the case that, unless we count the hectares and decide together how best they should be used, we will lose the struggle to defend the habitable planet.

Plans to create green space cancelled because soil contamination levels pose risk to human health

Plans to plant a new woodland have been cancelled after local councillors discovered a field was so saturated with sewage the soil could be too toxic for the trees.

The woodland was to have been planted in a council-owned field located by Otterspool Road in Romiley, Greater Manchester. Officials hoped the woodland would improve the environment, provide green space and encourage wildlife habitats.

Government to give $6,000 rebate to drivers switching to EVs worth up to $68,000

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

Queensland has doubled incentives for drivers to get behind the wheel of electric cars, making it the most generous state in Australia for switching to EVs.

Drivers will now be eligible for a $6,000 subsidy under the Zero Emission Vehicle Rebate Scheme when they buy an electric vehicle worth up to $68,000.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Four activists, who sat in the road at Bishopsgate in London in October 2021, were found guilty of causing a public nuisance

One protester has been jailed for five weeks and three others given fines and community service for their part in a protest to demand government action on insulation.

Daphne Jackson, 72, Beatrice Pooley, 65, and two protesters who have outstanding court cases sat in the road at the Bishopsgate junction in London during an Insulate Britain protest on 25 October 2021. The four were convicted of causing a public nuisance earlier this year and sentenced on Thursday.

Coalition of groups behind Big One demonstration intend focus on collective expression, with disobedience on hold

People do not need to glue themselves to anything in order to protest about the climate crisis this weekend, say the organisers of a large-scale planned climate emergency action.

The Big One, planned by a coalition of groups brought together by Extinction Rebellion to coincide with Earth Day on Saturday, will be four days of protest and events that they say will be “family friendly” and “engaging”.

The Chevron development off the Pilbara coast was approved on the condition the company store about 4m tonnes of CO2 a year

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

Emissions from Chevron’s Gorgon gas development off Western Australia have increased by more than 50%, despite it being home to the world’s largest industrial carbon capture and storage system.

There has been a sharp drop in the amount of CO2 stored underground at the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant over the last three years, data released by Chevron showed.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

The logic is simple. Australia has world class wind and solar resources, and an abundance of minerals and land needed in the transition to renewables

If Australia seizes the opportunity offered by the world’s transition to zero net emissions it can repeat the experience of the China resources boom that peaked about 10 years ago. But this time the opportunity can be sustained for some decades – rather than boom and bust – and we can manage it better for productivity and broadly based development.

The logic is simple.