The Guardian

Urgent action needed as DNA tests show their genetic diversity is so low they could vanish from the country in 30 years

Conservationists warn that a big cat population in Europe is destined to collapse unless immediate efforts are made to protect the animals.

Researchers estimate there are 120 to 150 adult lynxes in France. Tests on the animals show that the cats’ genetic diversity is so low they will become locally extinct within the next 30 years unless there is urgent intervention.

With no clear commitments, the gap between community expectations and actions of state MPs will be a major election flashpoint

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In early January, activist Susie Russell was arrested on a road that runs through the Bulga State Forest on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

She and about 30 protesters – NSW Greens upper house MP Sue Higginson among them – were there to support a young local woman who was sitting atop a tripod used to block trucks and logging crews from entering the forest.

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The elusive giant willow aphid goes into hiding in spring. Now the Royal Horticultural Society wants volunteers to help find out why

Gardeners have been urged by scientists to help find a mysterious bug which disappears in spring and reappears at the end of summer.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is asking people to send in sightings of the giant willow aphid (Tuberolachnus salignus) so that they can find out where it goes and how it interacts with garden plants.

Agricultural businesses risk closure as figures show government paid only tiny fraction of slashed EU farming subsidies

Cuts to post-Brexit farming payments mean farms risk “going out of business” as new figures reveal only a tiny fraction of slashed EU subsidies went to agriculture businesses last year.

The government is replacing the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which paid subsidies to farmers to keep them in business, with “payments for public goods”, meaning land managers get paid for improving nature.

The health benefits of green or blue prescriptions are many and there are calls to integrate them more into routine care

In my mid-20s, I undertook the quintessentially Australian rite of passage of moving to London for a few years. Months into my first English winter, I started having dreams about the Australian wilderness.

The images were so vivid and specific that I jotted them down. I had a recurring dream about looking at the sea from a high vantage point, somewhere along the south-east Queensland coast that I had always taken for granted. There was “all manner of ocean life”, I noted: dolphins jumping in the shallows; two whales, a mother and calf, out in deeper water.

Black Mountains College in Wales aims to prepare students for life during a planetary emergency

The lecture theatre was once a cowshed, the study centre is an old farmhouse living room and the classrooms are mostly outdoors: welcome to the newest higher educational college in Britain.

The former farm that is Black Mountains College campus is a core part of an insurgent institution that is the first entirely dedicated to adapting to the climate emergency.

Japan’s Fuji and New Zealand gala could replace pippin and russet as rising temperatures threaten homegrown species

Classic British apples may die out and be swapped for varieties from New Zealand and Japan, as climate breakdown means traditional fruits are no longer viable.

Apples such as pippin or the the ancient nonpareil, grown in Britain since the 1500s, are struggling in the changed climate because there are not enough “chilling hours” for the trees to lie dormant in winter and conserve energy for growing fruit.

Oxford University-led study detects 26 types of PFAS compounds in ice around Svalbard, threatening downstream ecosystems

Norwegian Arctic ice is contaminated with alarming levels of toxic PFAS, and the chemicals may represent a major environmental stressor to the region’s wildlife, new research finds.

The Oxford University-led study’s measurements of ice around Svalbard, Norway, detected 26 types of PFAS compounds, and found when ice melts, the chemicals can move from glaciers into downstream ecosystems like Arctic fjords and tundra.

Judge says protesters who ran on to track during British Grand Prix last year posed ‘risk of serious harm’

Six Just Stop Oil protesters who ran on to the track during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last year have been convicted of causing a public nuisance.

David Baldwin, 47, Emily Brocklebank, 24, Alasdair Gibson, 22, Louis McKechnie, 22, Bethany Mogie, 40, and Joshua Smith, 29, were convicted on Friday at Northampton crown court, after the jury deliberated for eight hours and 40 minutes.

Secret international court system enables fossil fuel firms to sue governments for lost future profits

Experts have urged the UK to leave the controversial energy charter treaty (ECT), a secret court system that enables fossil fuel companies to sue governments for huge sums over policies that could affect future profits.

The European Commission said this week that remaining part of the treaty would “clearly undermine” climate targets and that an exit by EU countries appeared “inevitable”. Seven EU countries, including France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, have already said they will quit the ECT.

Invasive species proliferating in Valais is encroaching on natural reserves and posing a biodiversity threat

The residents of the Swiss canton of Valais are used to seeing their mountainsides covered with snow in winter and edelweiss flowers in summer. But as global heating intensifies, they are increasingly finding an invasive species colonising the slopes: cacti.

Authorities say cactus species belonging to the genus Opuntia, or prickly pears, are proliferating in parts of Valais, encroaching on natural reserves and posing a biodiversity threat.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including rescued flamingoes, fighting gulls and a huge crocodile

The obliteration of 50,000 buildings a year is crass vandalism – and cost-effective, low-carbon alternatives are being ignored

Last month, residents of the Wyndford estate in Glasgow barricaded themselves in their flats in a last-ditch attempt to save their homes from demolition. The 600 socially rented dwellings, designed by Ernest Buteux and sitting next to the River Kelvin, were denied listed building status in January, and will now make way for a development of half as many homes – and triple the rental value.

Wheatley, formerly called Glasgow Housing Association, has been demolishing social homes in Scotland for decades. In 2014, Wheatley even planned to “wow the world” by dynamiting 1,326 social homes during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Footage of the dwellings being reduced to rubble was to be beamed on to a giant screen in Celtic Park Stadium and broadcast live on TV. The idea was dropped , having provoked international ridicule, but the estate was razed to the ground shortly after the games, and a decade later remains a fenced-off heap of rubble.

Renewable project on edge of Bristol has overcome planning hurdles and will empower local housing estate

A muddy, forgotten patch of land, sandwiched between a gas power station and a car breakage plant, will be home to England’s tallest wind turbine by the end of next week.

The turbine, which will stand 150 meters tall from its base to the tip of its blade, is owned by a group of residents from nearby Lawrence Weston, a deprived housing estate on the fringes of Bristol, and some of the income it generates will be used to help the local community.

Many people warming homes with wood from construction sites unaware of health risks, say experts

Arsenic particles are being spotted by scientists in London’s air, as concerns grow that people are increasingly burning waste wood from construction sites while being unaware of the serious health risks.

Dr Anja Tremper at Imperial College London’s air research station in south London tracked January’s data and found arsenic particles in London’s air, especially around the weekend of 2223 when air pollution reached the top index value of 10 on the UK government’s scale.

Campaigners and experts say holiday park in ancient woodland would have been ‘disastrous’ for wildlife

Center Parcs has scrapped plans for a new holiday park in an ancient woodland that is home to rare birds after outcry from wildlife campaigners.

The holiday company said that it had decided the 550-acre Oldhouse Warren site in Worth Forest was “not suitable” for the development, due to not being able to meet targets to improve biodiversity at the site. The plans included 900 lodges, indoor and outdoor leisure facilities, a variety of restaurants, a spa, and a “subtropical swimming paradise”.

Labour’s bowing to business contrasts with the boldness of the US president’s green industrial policies. There is an opportunity to be grasped

The severe crises humanity faces will not be solved by the outdated rules of the global economy. Keir Starmer came close to recognising this in his new year’s speech, when he spoke of his plans for “mission-driven” government. The phrase – borrowed from Mariana Mazzucato – implies governments setting economic goals (say, 100% renewable energy) and single-mindedly driving that goal forward through investment and regulation.

In essence, this is an acceptance that government planning, state intervention and public ownership, so derided over 40 years of neoliberalism, are necessary tools of government today, and it’s what makes Labour’s industrial strategy central to any progressive offer to the country.

Nick Dearden is director of Global Justice Now (formerly World Development Movement)

Claimants ClientEarth say the oil company’s plan puts the company at financial risk as the world transitions to clean energy

The directors of oil major Shell are being personally sued over their climate strategy, which the claimants say is inadequate to meet climate targets and puts the company at risk as the world switches to clean energy.

Environmental lawyers ClientEarth have filed the lawsuit against the 11 directors at the high court in England. It is the first case in the world seeking to hold corporate directors liable for failing to properly prepare their company for the net zero transition, ClientEarth said.

The fallout when the industry fails to act is still smaller than the rewards for pumping out more pollution

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We have an early contender for the least surprising newsflash of the year: fossil fuel companies will not, of their own volition, save us from climate breakdown. The oil and gas multinational BP revealed on Tuesday that it set a record annual profit last year, reaching a staggering US$27.7bn thanks to Vladimir Putin’s murderous ego pushing global fossil fuel prices into the stratosphere. It more than doubled its 2021 profit.

The company that once rebranded itself as “Beyond Petroleum” celebrated this news by announcing it would scale back its climate change plans. It had expected its carbon dioxide emissions would fall by 35% to 40% by 2030 compared with 2019. The chief executive, Bernard Looney, says it has now scaled that back to a 20% to 30% reduction.

England’s chief medical officer and colleagues call for push to understand health impacts of indoor pollutants

Offices, schools, supermarkets and hospitals should be monitored for indoor air pollutants, according to England’s chief medical officer, amid concerns that dirty air in buildings may contribute to nearly as many deaths as outdoor air pollution.

Prof Chris Whitty said monitoring indoor air quality should become standard practice in public spaces and called for urgent investment to help establish records of pollutants that accumulate in homes, offices and public buildings.