The Guardian

Biden promised no more drilling on federal lands, ‘period, period’. This week he approved the massive Willow project

The Willow project is an act of terrorism against the climate, and the Biden administration has just approved it. This massive oil-drilling project in the wilderness of northern Alaska goes against science and the administration’s many assurances that it cares about climate and agrees that we must make a swift transition away from fossil fuel. Like the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden seems to think that if we do some good things for the climate we can also do some very bad things and somehow it will all even out.

To make that magical thinking more obvious and to try to smooth over broad opposition, the US federal government also just coughed up some protections against drilling in the Arctic Ocean and elsewhere in the National Petroleum Reserve (and only approved three of the five drilling sites for ConocoPhillips’ invasion of this wilderness). Of course, this is like saying, “We’re going to kill your mother but we’re sending guards to protect your grandmother.” It doesn’t make your mom less dead. With climate you’re dealing with physics and math before you’re dealing with morality. All the carbon and methane emissions count, and they need to decrease rapidly in this decade. As Bill McKibben likes to say, you can’t bargain with physics.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. Her most recent books are Recollections of My Nonexistence and Orwell’s Roses

Jacinda Ardern called climate change the ‘nuclear-free moment’ of her generation. Her replacement doesn’t seem so sure

Chris Hipkins loves to cycle.

New Zealand’s newish prime minister, who stepped into the job after Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation earlier this year, has been pedalling the 30km from his home in Upper Hutt to parliament for years. It’s not a particularly safe route, with many sections where Hipkins would be riding right alongside 100kmh traffic. It’s this kind of danger that stops cycle commuting from being particularly mainstream – just 2% commuted by bike at the last census – but this is far from a political priority for Hipkins. He loves to cycle, but the main thing he wants to do is win.

Environmental campaigners furious Alister Jack intends to deny trade exemption for bottle recycling proposals

Blocking the Scottish deposit return scheme for bottles would be an environmental travesty, campaigners have said, in a growing backlash to the UK government plans to undermine the project.

The charity City to Sea, which has been pushing for a deposit return scheme (DRS) to tackle plastic pollution, said the UK government could have avoided the clash with Scotland by working with the devolved countries to deliver a unified deposit scheme years ago. Instead Westminster had repeatedly delayed its own deposit scheme, which was only coming into force in 2025 – seven years after it was first promised by ministers.

Campaigners warn that government and water companies have not done enough to conserve water supplies

River levels across the UK have been at record lows and are likely to be “devastated”, as new data forecasts broadly dry weather until at least May.

Campaigners have warned that the government and water companies have not done enough to conserve water supplies by building reservoirs and fixing leaks, as months of low rainfall could cause some areas to run out of water.

The great flood of late 2022 changed the ecology of the basin’s rivers, and not in a good way

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

As a fish ecologist who lives on the northern shoreline of Lake Cargelligo in western New South Wales, I’ve been fortunate to have had a front-row seat to the ever-changing drama of all aspects of the Murray-Darling Basin over the last 30 years.

It’s never been more dramatic than this past spring and summer.

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

Conservationists are confident invasive predator is dead allowing native creatures to flourish again in NSW’s Pilliga Scrub once more

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

He was the fantastic fox that derailed a multi-million dollar plan to reintroduce endangered native species into one of Australia’s largest forests. But after a five-year hunt that involved 10,400 traps, 3,500 baits, 73 stakeouts, 55 days of scent-tracking dogs and 97 infrared cameras filming 40-hours a week, the red fox nicknamed “Rambo” is officially “no longer”.

It means, for the first time in a century, greater bilbies are running wild in north-west New South Wales.

PM says energy security strategy will launch shortly after plans reworked to meet net zero commitments

An energy security strategy will be launched “shortly”, Rishi Sunak has promised, with a focus on ramping up carbon capture and small modular reactors to develop homegrown energy and meet net zero commitments.

Ministers have been forced to rework their plans after a ruling by the high court last July. It found that the government’s net zero strategy was unlawful due to a breach of the 2008 Climate Change Act, given the document did not outline how climate policies would meet legally binding carbon budgets.

Stephen Pritchard tells judge before sentencing that peaceful resistance is ‘most responsible thing I can do’

A judge has jailed an Insulate Britain protester for five weeks after he vowed to return to the streets to carry out more disruptive protests if he was not sent to prison.

Stephen Pritchard, 63, was one of the first four Insulate Britain defendants to be sentenced for causing public nuisance over their campaign of disruptive “civil resistance” protests on major roads in 2021.

If approved in full, the Willow project would mean the construction of 219 wells and hundreds of miles of pipelines

President Biden faces a legacy-making – or legacy-breaking – decision in arctic Alaska with the $8bn Willow project, the largest oil and gas project currently proposed on US public lands.

If Biden remembers his visionary pledge – forged in the hard truth of human-caused climate change – that the US will expand into clean energy and approve no new oil drilling on federal lands, then his decision should be straightforward.

Research finds waste flushed down toilets and sent to sewage plants likely responsible for significant source of water pollution

All toilet paper from across the globe checked for toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” contained the compounds, and the waste flushed down toilets and sent to sewage treatment plants likely creates a significant source of water pollution, new research has found.

Once in the wastewater plant, the chemicals can be packed in sewage sludge that is eventually spread on cropland as fertilizer, or spit into waterways.

Plan would provide fresh locally grown food, promote sustainable agriculture and cut carbon emissions

Plans have been submitted to create a first-of-its-kind urban farm on top of a multi-storey car park in Birmingham as part of a vision to “turn grey space to green productive space”.

Slow Food Birmingham, a grassroots organisation that promotes hyperlocal food production, has sent proposals to the council to build a farm, glasshouses, community space and garden, as well as an education hub and cafe on the site.

Residents were airlifted after their Queensland town was affected by its worst ever flood and authorities said the flood waters were likely infested with crocodiles.

About 70 people remained in Burketown, as the swollen Albert River to the town’s east continues to rise.

At least 37 properties were inundated by flood waters. Authorities say it will not be safe to return for days, and the community still there could be isolated for up to two weeks

• Queensland floods: Burketown residents warned of crocodile-infested waters before expected peak

Wealthy Australians – and by global standards that’s most of us – are a significant part of the climate problem and therefore, the solution

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

Tony Abbott. Donald Trump. Adani. Scott Morrison. Jair Bolsonaro. Shell. George W Bush. George HW Bush. Saudi Aramco.

These are just some of the names rightly called out by media in recent years for their contribution to, or stalling of action to prevent, climate change.

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

Excessive use of phosphorus is depleting reserves vital to global food production, while also adding to the climate crisis

Our planet faces “phosphogeddon”, scientists have warned. They fear our misuse of phosphorus could lead to deadly shortages of fertilisers that would disrupt global food production.

At the same time, phosphate fertiliser washed from fields – together with sewage inputs into rivers, lakes and seas – is giving rise to widespread algal blooms and creating aquatic dead zones that threaten fish stocks.

National wealth fund is intended to pull in private investment and create thousands of new jobs in areas beyond the south-east

The Labour party is planning to put the UK at the head of a worldwide green industrial revolution, with a massive US-style, public-private investment scheme targeted at the most deprived regions.

In an interview with the Observer, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, who will travel to Washington in May to meet senior Democrats, says a Labour government will follow the model of US president Joe Biden’s hugely ambitious regional recovery plan, using the climate crisis as the catalyst for economic revival.

Ridding country of the shrub will take 250 years at the current rate of progress, despise posing ‘a mortal threat’ to Britain’s temperate rainforest, say campaigners

It will take 250 years to eradicate rhododendron from England at the current rate of removal, according to new figures, despite the invasive woodland shrub posing “a mortal threat” to Britain’s temperate rainforest, campaigners warn.

Rhododendron, introduced from Asia and widely planted by the Victorians, covers at least 37,600 hectares (93,000 acres) in England, much of it in the west of the country, which is also home to the remaining fragments of temperate rainforest.

For years the great presenter was criticised for not speaking out. Now he has his voice, fear and politics can’t get in the way

• Report: BBC will not broadcast Attenborough episode over fear of rightwing backlash

Is there no limit to the timidity of the BBC? Bang in the middle of the row over tweeting by the widely respected Gary Lineker, it now seems to be muzzling the most trusted Briton of them all – David Attenborough.

As the Guardian reports today, it has decided not to broadcast the sixth and last programme of the veteran broadcaster’s widely hailed new series on Britain’s wildlife, in which he exposes its dramatic decline, and what has caused it. While the other five episodes of Wild Isles will go out in prime time, amid enormous hype, it will be available only to those who look for it on the BBC’s iPlayer service.

Geoffrey Lean is a specialist environment correspondent and author

Appointment of Dame Caroline Spelman to nature watchdog’s board sparks cronyism allegations

• UK politics live – latest news updates

A former Tory minister who tried to sell off England’s forests has been appointed to the board of Natural England, leading Labour to accuse the government of “cronyism”.

Dame Caroline Spelman has been given a senior role with the government’s nature watchdog and will set its strategy and policy, as well as overseeing the use of public money. Other trustees announced on Friday include Mel Austen, a professor of ocean and society at the University of Plymouth, and Lynn Dicks, who leads a research group working on sustainable agriculture and insect conservation.

Verra will phase out programme by mid-2025 after Guardian investigation found it was flawed

• As carbon offsetting faces ‘credibility revolution’, shoppers should be wary

The world’s leading carbon credit certifier – used by Disney, Shell, Gucci and other big corporations for climate claims – has said it will phase out and replace its rainforest offsets programme by mid-2025 after a Guardian investigation found it was flawed.

Verra, the main guarantee of credibility for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has committed to scrapping its rainforest protection programme by July 2025 and introducing new rules, which it is developing. A senior Verra figure said this week it was time to move on from the current system.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including a resting cheetah, banana stalk flies and snowy rooks