The Guardian

Mystery of north-east coast deaths takes new turn, as panel says they are unlikely to have been caused by algal blooms or pollutant

The mystery behind the deaths of thousands of crabs and lobsters along England’s north-east coast has developed a further twist, with experts saying it could be down to a new disease.

The die-offs, which began in autumn 2021 and recurred at various points in 2022, affected at least 70km (43 miles) of the coastline, with some of the crustaceans showing an unusual twitching while dying.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including an injured kite, baby seal pups and a rescued joey

Jerome Powell and Mervyn King reject taking on climate policy, while Mark Carney and Christine Lagarde say action is vital

The climate crisis has come to represent a major challenge for central banks. How much should their monetary policy and approach to banking supervision be influenced by it?

On one hand, there is growing evidence that global heating, particularly through its effect on agriculture, may create inflationary pressures. And there is even stronger evidence that the physical and transition risks created by the climate crisis are having, and will continue to have, a major impact on the value of financial assets and financial firms, which those responsible for the stability of the financial system cannot ignore.

In an attempt to gain popular support, Extinction Rebellion has promised to 'quit' public disruption as a primary tactic of its protests, focusing instead on the 'perpetrators' of climate destruction. The Guardian environment correspondent Damien Gayle joins the group in its first targeted action against Michael Gove's Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the UK government's decision to approve a new coalmine in Cumbria

Small interventions on electric cars and plant-based meat could unlock rapid emissions cuts, say experts

Three “super-tipping points” for climate action could trigger a cascade of decarbonisation across the global economy, according to a report.

Relatively small policy interventions on electric cars, plant-based alternatives to meat and green fertilisers would lead to unstoppable growth in those sectors, the experts said.

For a couple of days this month, wind power supplied over half the UK’s electricity. You wouldn’t know it from our bills – or our politicians

I remember the first time wind energy emerged as a serious contender in the UK’s energy provision. It was 6 November 2012, and the country’s electricity use from wind hit an all-time high in the middle of the afternoon, at 9.3%. The casual observer wouldn’t have noticed, and the expert wouldn’t have been surprised, but for people between those poles, it was astonishing. Windfarms were then perceived as a nascent technology, so infant and speculative they needed endless subsidy, intervention, special pleading.

To this day, it remains a mystery how a reputation for well-meant inadequacy clings to renewable energy sources: it can’t all be the result of lobbying by the fossil fuel industry. Sometimes, it feels like we just don’t want good news.

The animal weighed in at a possible new world record of 2.7kg and was discovered by park rangers on a walk in Queenland

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She’s toxic, weighs as much as some newborn babies and was found in the wilds of Australia’s far north.

A giant cane toad, dubbed “Toadzilla”, that was found by rangers in Queensland’s Conway national park on Thursday, is believed to be the largest of her species ever found.

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Colony of about 500 birds seen in remote region where they face existential threat due to global heating

A newly discovered emperor penguin colony has been seen using satellite images of one the most remote and inaccessible regions of Antarctica.

The colony, home to about 500 birds, makes a total of 66 known emperor penguin colonies around the coastline of Antarctica, half of which were discovered by space satellites. The climate crisis is posing an existential threat to these colonies, as sea ice is rapidly melting.

Research suggests if trend continues, view of Orion’s belt will disappear due to glow from artificial lighting

“There is no light in earth or heaven / But the cold light of stars,” wrote the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

But for myriad writers and artists, that source of inspiration could be fading as research has revealed light pollution is rapidly reducing the number of stars visible to the naked eye. The study, published in the journal Science, suggests locations with 250 visible stars at present will have just 100 visible stars in 18 years.

A monarchy ‘gift’ to the Treasury should not detract from the anachronistic convention of crown estate rights over land and sea

• King Charles redirects £1bn windfarm profits towards ‘public good’

So the new king has reversed a thousand years of feudal convention and accepted that the value of the seabed rightfully belongs to his “subjects” rather than himself. That is the implication of the decision announced today saying King Charles will support handing over more of the crown’s share of revenues from the offshore wind boom to the Treasury, so the money can be spent in the public interest rather than for his private interest.

Given his green reputation and his coming to power in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis in living memory, the new king was perhaps embarrassed that the expansion of windfarms would bring a large £1bn a year windfall to the crown estate, 25% of which would, under the current arrangements, have gone directly to the royal household as part of the annual sovereign grant.

Molly Scott Cato is professor of green economics at Roehampton University, and a former Green MEP

Right to camp in park without permission was lost last week after court challenge by wealthy landowner

Dartmoor landowners will be paid for allowing wild camping on their land under a new agreement with the national park.

Last week, the right to wild camp in the park without permission from the landowner was lost after a wealthy landowner took the park authority to court. Dartmoor was the last place in England or Wales where there was a right to wild camp.

Greta Thunberg joined a panel of climate activists in Davos, to debate the environmental crisis with the executive director of the International Energy Agency. To open the discussion, Thunberg told the audience it is 'absurd' that in Davos 'we are listening to the people who are mainly causing the climate crisis, rather than those on the frontline'. She explained: 'We are being bombarded by messages by these people, those responsible for the destruction of the planet.' Thursday is the penultimate day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

• Davos day three live: Greta Thunberg says it is ‘absurd’ to be listening to those ‘responsible for causing climate crisis’
• Riot police carry Greta Thunberg away from German coalmine protest – video

Campaigners say long delay is adding to pollution and government would be betraying manifesto promise if glass is not included

The launch of a long awaited deposit return scheme for plastic bottles is expected to be announced by the government.

Five years after Michael Gove first promised the scheme, it is understood ministers will on Friday give the go-ahead for a deposit return scheme (DRS) which will not include glass, according to a report in the Grocer magazine.

British multinational to spend huge sums on schemes that do not bring genuine carbon reductions, analysis shows

• More than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are ‘worthless’
• Greenwashing or a net zero necessity? Scientists on carbon offsetting
• Carbon offsets flawed but we are in a climate emergency

The fossil fuel firm Shell has set aside more than $450m (£367m) to invest in carbon offsetting projects, and plans to buy the equivalent of half the current market for nature offsets every year, the Guardian can reveal.

But a joint investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Source Material into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn voluntary offsets market, has found, based on analysis of a significant percentage of the projects, that more than 90% of their rainforest offset credits – among the most commonly used by companies – are likely to be “phantom credits” and do not represent genuine carbon reductions.

Coca-Cola claimed juice was healthy despite toxic ‘forever chemicals’ levels ‘hundreds of times’ above federal limits, suit says

A new class-action lawsuit in the US alleges Coca-Cola and Simply Orange Juice deceived customers with claims of an all-natural, healthy product when the juice has been found to be contaminated with toxic PFAS at levels “hundreds of times” above federal advisory limits for drinking water.

PFAS are a class of about 12,000 chemicals typically used to make thousands of consumer products resist water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and they are linked to cancer, fetal complications, liver disease, kidney disease, autoimmune disorders and other serious health issues.

UK government’s piecemeal response to harmful practice attacked as too slow to stop ‘industrial fishing frenzy’

The UK government has proposed “feeble” new restrictions on harmful bottom trawling within 13 marine parks in England that would only actually ban it in three, campaigners say.

Under the proposals put forward by Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, three out of the 13 marine protected areas (MPAs) would introduce whole-site bans on the environmentally destructive practice of bottom trawling. The other 10 would introduce partial bans in certain areas, mostly reefs and rocks where trawling is unlikely to occur anyway. England has 40 offshore marine protected areas in total.

‘Subvertisers’ hijack 400 posters in Belgium, France, Germany and the UK to satirise what they claim are misleading ads by carmakers

Guerrilla “subvertisers” have taken aim at BMW and Toyota with a campaign of spoof adverts that they say reveals the truth behind the carmakers’ claims to be going green.

As the European Motor Show opened its doors in Brussels for its 100th anniversary over the weekend, climate activists hijacked more than 400 advertising billboards and bus stops in Belgium, France, Germany and England, calling out the companies.

No progress found on 23 targets from 25-year green plan for England as wildlife declines at ‘eye-watering’ rate

The UK government is failing to keep its promises to improve England’s environment as wildlife declines at an “eye-watering” rate, according to its own watchdog.

In 2018 ministers pledged a 25-year plan to protect the UK’s natural environment and leave it in a better state than when the government found it. They set out a range of priorities, including the abundance of wildlife species and habitats, air and water quality, access to the natural world, the treatment of waste, managing resource use and cutting pollution.

Species abundance is in “inexorable” decline, despite a pledge to halt the decline of wildlife by 2030.

Of 23 environmental targets examined, the government was demonstrably on track on none of them.

On 14 of the targets,it was judged to be clearly off-track.

The government is failing even to collect data on many key areas.

Only 38% of sites of special scientific interest are in “favourable condition”, with “negligible” progress on this over the past decade.

Farming policy has failed to focus on the environment.

No joined-up approach across government.

Only limited progress in improving air quality, and moves to reduce emissions, partly in response to the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Concerns over plans to scrap EU laws that could reduce environmental protections.

Plan unveiled at Davos to find fair limits on impact of climate and other crises, which most affect poorer countries

Countries, companies and cities need to establish environmental justice targets to counter the impact of the climate and other crises on global inequality, according to the authors of the most comprehensive study of the issue to date.

From floods in Pakistan to air pollution in India, the Earth Commission researchers say the poorest parts of the world are being disproportionately harmed by environmental problems, which is adding to global injustice and threatening social stability.

Extinction Rebellion activists have chained themselves together at the entrance of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in London to protest against a new coalmine in Cumbria approved by the department's secretary, Michael Gove.

'I find it completely unacceptable that at a time like this the government is still making these decisions, so we are here to say cut the ties to fossil fuels,' said Sarah Hart, from Farnborough, Hampshire, one of the protesters who lay on the ground outside the main entrance.

The estimated £165m project is expected to produce 2.8m tonnes of coking coal a year, largely for steelmaking.

The protest comes weeks after Extinction Rebellion issued a press release declaring: 'We quit', which some interpreted as an admission of defeat. Activists clarified the message applied only to actions disrupting the public, and only temporarily, as the group tries to build support beyond its radical base for mass protests in April

• Extinction Rebellion activists pour black paint outside Gove’s office
  
• Extinction Rebellion announces move away from disruptive tactics