The Guardian

Our insatiable appetite for meat is laying waste to the planet. But the alternative is looking (and tasting) better by the day

Do you hate the idea of animal-free meat? Many people do. Unsurprisingly, livestock farmers are often furiously opposed. More surprisingly, so are some vegans: “Why can’t people eat tofu and lentils, like me?” Well, the new products – plant-based, microbial and cell-cultured meat and dairy – are not aimed at vegans, but at the far greater number who like the taste and texture of animals. Many others instinctively recoil from the idea of food that seems familiar, but isn’t.

So here’s a question for all the sceptics. What do you intend to do about the soaring global demand for animal products, and its devastating impacts?

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

European research finds that increasing urban tree coverage to 30% can lower temperatures by 0.4C

Planting more trees could mean fewer people die from increasingly high summer temperatures in cities, a study suggests.

Increasing the level of tree cover from the European average of 14.9% to 30% can lower the temperature in cities by 0.4C, which could reduce heat-related deaths by 39.5%, according to first-of-its-kind modelling of 93 European cities by an international team of researchers.

The lead author, Tamara Iungman, from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, said: “This is becoming increasingly urgent as Europe experiences more extreme temperature fluctuations caused by climate change.

“We already know that high temperatures in urban environments are associated with negative health outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory failure, hospital admission, and premature death.”

Her team wants to influence policymakers to make cities greener, “more sustainable, resilient and healthy” as well as mitigating climate breakdown, she added, since heat-related illness and death are expected to present an even bigger burden to health services over the next decade than cold temperatures.

Eilidh McFadden and Tom Johnson convicted of criminal damage after action at Madame Tussauds and must pay £3,500 compensation

The climate protesters who threw cake into the face of a waxwork of King Charles in Madame Tussauds have been ordered to pay the London tourist attraction £3,500 in compensation.

Eilidh McFadden, 20, and Tom Johnson, 29, were found guilty of criminal damage at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday for each smashing a vegan chocolate cake topped with shaving foam into the waxwork on 24 October last year.

Environment secretary sets lower 10-year objective for cleaner air but researchers say their goal is reachable with stronger action

The government cannot achieve the air quality improvements advised by medical experts, so has set its targets lower for the next 10 years, the environment secretary has admitted as she unveiled a new environmental plan.

Thérèse Coffey said on Tuesday: “We have cleaner air. I want it to be even cleaner. Now, I would have loved to have made our target to achieve 10 micrograms [of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre of air] by 2030, not 2040. Many parts of the country already enjoy this, but the evidence shows us that with the best will in the world we cannot achieve that everywhere by the end of the decade, particularly in London.”

We’ve had encouraging environmental plans before. Time is running out - this one must become a reality

• Beccy Speight is the chief executive of the RSPB

Make no mistake: our natural world is in crisis, and we are far beyond the point where words alone will fix it. For proof, you need only look to the annual Big Garden Birdwatch, which has shown a catastrophic decline over the past 14 years. And if you look for them in late spring, you’ll see that nightingales, turtle doves and swifts have almost vanished from our skies.

The government’s announcement this week of commitments to improve wildlife habitats could provide the platform for nature’s recovery. And the recent £3bn pledged to protect and restore nature, while not enough, demonstrates that the government recognises the scale of the task when it comes to delivering the targets agreed under the Environment Act and the global biodiversity framework set at Cop15. Defra has, on paper at least, attempted to rise to the challenge.

Researchers identify 31 genes associated with social organisation and longevity

Mammals that live in groups generally have longer lifespans than solitary species, new research into nearly 1,000 different animals suggests.

Scientists from China and Australia compared 974 mammal species, analysing longevity and how they tended to be socially organised.

People tell us about their sightings as part of RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, with many species flourishing

The Big Garden Birdwatch, a citizen survey organised by the RSPB, has returned for its 44th year. The survey took place between 27-29 January 2023 and the deadline for submitting results is on 19 February.

Hundreds of readers got in touch to share their experiences of taking part in this year’s survey. Here, five people tell us about their sightings.

About a dozen Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted a speech in the House of Lords as peers debated a bill on protest crackdowns. Footage filmed by one of the demonstrators shows staff escorting protesters as they stand to speak during proceedings, with one of them repeatedly telling the demonstrator speaking to 'shut up'

• Peers deliver several blows to government’s anti-protest bill
• UK politics live – latest news updates

Exclusive: Misguided policies have hurt small-scale farms while enriching agribusinesses and corporate lobbyists, analysis shows

Two decades of misguided US dairy policies centered around boosting milk production and export markets have hurt family-scale farms and the environment while enriching agribusinesses and corporate lobbyists, new research has found.

The average American dairy turned a profit only twice in the past two decades despite milk production rising by almost 40%, according to analysis by Food and Water Watch (FWW) shared exclusively with the Guardian.

The last five rainy seasons since the end of 2020 have failed, triggering the worst drought in four decades in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. The next rainy season, from March to May, is expected to be below average. According to the UN, drought has plunged 12 million people into ‘acute food insecurity’ in Ethiopia, where a deadly conflict has also ravaged the north of the country

Report finds ‘relatively small group’ of rich people contribute disproportionately to emissions

The difference between the carbon emissions of the rich and the poor within a country is now greater than the differences in emissions between countries, data shows.

The finding is further evidence of the growing divide between the “polluting elite” of rich people around the world, and the relatively low responsibility for emissions among the rest of the population.

Major environmental plan includes tackling sewage spills and restoring wildlife habitats but critics question lack of funding

• Farmers will be key to plan to restore England’s green spaces and wildlife

Every household will be within a 15-minute walk of a green space or water, under a major environmental improvement plan for England set out by the government on Tuesday.

The long-awaited measures will include commitments to restore at least 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of wildlife habitat, and 400 miles of river. This will include 25 new or expanded national nature reserves and 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of new woodland along England’s rivers. A new species survival fund will target some of the most threatened wildlife, including hedgehogs and red squirrels.

Researchers found that exceeding the 2C increase has a 50% chance of happening by mid-century

The world is on the brink of breaching a critical climate threshold, according to a new study published on Monday, signifying time is running exceedingly short to spare the world the most catastrophic effects of global heating.

Using artificial intelligence to predict warming timelines, researchers at Stanford University and Colorado State University found that 1.5C of warming over industrial levels will probably be crossed in the next decade. The study also shows the Earth is on track to exceed 2C warming,which international scientists identified as a tipping point, with a 50% chance the grave benchmark would be met by mid-century.

In Newark, hundreds of environmental protesters marched towards Robert Jenrick's office, the local MP, calling on him to vote against the EU retain law bill that put thousands of environmental protection laws at risk. The bill gives ministers the power to abolish an estimated 4,000 laws derived from Brussels by the end of 2023. The deadline has been put in place by Rishi Sunak, who pledged to scrap thousands of EU laws to 'protect Brexit' during his leadership campaign. Cross-party MPs are concerned the deadline is impractical, as hundreds of civil servants would be required to review each piece of legislation. As well as environmental regulations, the EU-derived laws include employment protection and transport regulations

• Cross-party MPs launch fightback against bill to tear up 4,000 EU laws

Modibodi and Bonds say they avoid using PFAS chemicals, which break down slowly over time and have unclear health impacts

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Australian manufacturers of period underwear have denied using “forever chemicals” in their products following a class-action lawsuit in the US, while experts say more research is needed into the compounds and their potential health impacts.

Thinx, a US manufacturer of menstrual hygiene products, announced last week that it had reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit over allegations “regarding the presence of short chain per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (‘PFAS’)” in its underwear.

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Gorne Wood is a rare surviving fragment of an old forest and provides habitat for wildlife such as slow worms and endangered hedgehogs

Schools had cake sales and staged protests, supporters did sponsored bike rides and walks, musicians held fundraising concerts, and a theatre group wove the story into a performance piece. Children even sent in their pocket money.

And on Friday, they saw the results when the residents of Brockley, south-east London, proudly announced they had won a race against time to raise the £100,000 to buy Gorne Wood, the closest surviving patch of ancient woodland to the City of London, from developers.

Residents of New Zealand's largest city assess the damage on Saturday as emergency workers go house to house to carry out welfare checks. Auckland was deluged on Friday, with three people confirmed dead and a fourth missing. More heavy weather is expected on Sunday, forecasters have said.

• New Zealand flooding: three dead and one missing as Auckland hit by record rainfall 

Adam McKay also selling walk-on role in next film, vintage Marvel comics and basketball cards

It may smell like pure gasoline, but it could now help Just Stop Oil. The director of Anchorman is selling the film’s original Sex Panther cologne (“Yep, it’s made with bits of real panther, so you know it’s good”) to raise money for climate protesters.

The prop is just one memento being auctioned from the personal collection of Adam McKay, who was also behind the climate satire Don’t Look Up, to raise money for the Climate Emergency Fund.

Lawyers argue judgment to end wild camping without landowner’s permission may be flawed

A landowner who successfully overturned the right to wild camp on Dartmoor may have to return to court after the national park announced it was seeking permission to appeal against the decision.

Alexander Darwall, who bought 1,620 hectares (4,000 acres) of the national park in 2013, took the park authority to the high court, arguing that the right to wild camp without a landowner’s permission never existed. Earlier this month, a judge ruled in his favour, ending the decades-long assumption that the activity was allowed.

A competition to deplete the invasive, warty amphibian has attracted plenty of contestants – who take it deadly seriously

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The sun has set south-west of Brisbane and Linda Kimber marches off into a paddock dragging a shopping trolley lined with plastic behind her and shining a head-torch in front.

Metres to her left, Jo Davies walks a parallel trajectory into the gathering gloom, also carrying a customised carrier – hers a large dog-biscuit bag slung on rope with a downpipe offcut protruding from its sealed top.

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