The Guardian

Exclusive: leaked report for government says reducing and predicting risk ‘remains a scientific challenge’

Liz Truss is to lift a ban on fracking despite a leaked government report suggesting little progress has been made in reducing and predicting the risk of earthquakes caused by the practice, the Guardian can reveal.

The first drilling licences in nearly three years are expected to be issued as early as next week, sources said, in a move that will reignite claims of another broken 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge.

Groups urge action during the talks in Egypt to demand climate justice for Africa and the global south

Civil society groups around the world are calling for a global day of action on the climate catastrophe, to urge governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions and shift to a low-carbon economy.

The day of action will take place on Saturday 12 November, at the mid-point of the Cop27 UN climate talks, which run from 6 to 18 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, hosted by the Egyptian government.

Ocean Conservancy apologises for ‘false narrative’ of 2015 study that put blame for bulk of world’s plastic waste on five Asian states

An environmental watchdog has retracted an influential report that blamed five Asian countries for the majority of plastic pollution in the ocean.

The report, Stemming the Tide, from the US-based environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, also included incineration and waste-to-energy as “solutions” to the plastics crisis. Published in 2015, it was decried as “waste colonialism” by hundreds of environmental, health and social justice groups across Asia.

A kookaburra has been filmed pulling a very long earthworm from the ground in Howard, Queensland. 'This particular one likes to be fed,' said the person behind the footage. 'On this occasion I was sitting out the back having a beer and saw her fly down and start pulling at the giant worm. I see this often, but rarely this close up.'

If we’re serious about protecting endangered species, we must protect what’s left of their habitat, not ask the market to set a price for destroying it

Neoliberalism can’t and won’t fix our climate crisis or save our endangered species from extinction.

Market-based policies have failed spectacularly when it comes to aged care, disability care and saving the Murray River. But despite the catalogue of catastrophe, earlier this month Tanya Plibersek said: “Ultimately, I would like to see the market truly valuing nature, so that protecting forests is more valuable than destroying them.”

Transition to blue light radiation across Europe increases suppression of sleep hormone melatonin, say scientists

Blue light from artificial sources is on the rise, which may have negative consequences for human health and the wider environment, according to a study.

Academics at the University of Exeter have identified a shift in the kind of lighting technologies European countries are using at night to brighten streets and buildings. Using images produced by the International Space Station (ISS), they have found that the orange-coloured emissions from older sodium lights are rapidly being replaced by white-coloured emissions produced by LEDs.

Map used to flag red all raw sewage releases into bathing waters – but firm now says it factors in ‘impact’

A water company has changed its pollution alert map for the public to stop issuing automatic red alerts after a discharge.

Southern Water attracted public criticism this summer for releasing raw sewage via storm overflows after heavy rain along coastal Kent. Campaigners used social media to widely share the company’s Beachbuoy map, which marks beaches at risk of pollution from raw sewage discharges with a red cross, often revealing that much of the coast has been affected.

ITM Power, which makes electrolyser machines, says splitting water using renewable energy has become more cost-effective than gas

The war in Ukraine and spike in the price of natural gas have underlined the benefits of switching to “green hydrogen” production as the only “net zero energy gas”, according to the British firm ITM Power.

The Sheffield-based company, which manufactures electrolyser machines that make hydrogen from water, said the energy crisis had shown hydrogen represents a viable alternative to methane gas.

Concern as heart arrhythmias appear to be triggered even when air pollution within quality limits

Healthy teenagers are more prone to irregular heartbeats after breathing in fine particulate air pollution, according to the first major study of its impact on otherwise healthy young individuals.

The findings have raised concern among researchers because heart arrhythmias, which can increase the risk of heart disease and sudden cardiac death, appear to be triggered even when air pollution is within common air quality limits.

Climate campaigners say pollution from multibillion-dollar clothing company’s production is inconsistent with its ethical branding

The company motto is “Be Human, Be Well, and Be Planet”, a harmonious ideal in line with the yoga world where sports clothing mega-brand lululemon got its start.

“We are deeply connected to ourselves, each other and our planet; each part elevating one another,” the Canada-based company says on its sustainability website.

According to another report we are well on our way to 1.5 degrees. Exciting stuff

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Determined fishers are testing their stretches of river for pollution as citizen scientists take on the water companies

If you go down to quiet stretches of river in the UK at the right time of year, you are likely to find people peacefully standing there with a fishing rod, gazing into the sparkling, steady flow, hoping to get a nibble.

Anglers, of which there are at least 2 million in England, go down to their treasured slices of waterway whenever they can to tend them, trimming vegetation, creating wetland spawning habitats, and even painstakingly cleaning the gravel. It sounds like a pretty peaceful pursuit, but when the Guardian went to visit some Angling Trust members at their clubs around Reading, there was palpable anger in the air.

Scheme gets under way as data suggests Environment Agency’s own monitoring leaves rivers unprotected

Citizen scientists are being trained as the best hope to protect rivers from pollution and over-abstraction as data suggests the Environment Agency’s new monitoring programme leaves waterways unprotected.

A £7m programme to set up citizen science testing in 10 river catchments across England is under way in an attempt to standardise the way volunteers carry out the monitoring.

WHO and almost 200 other health associations urge governments around world to halt ‘environmental vandalism’

The World Health Organization (WHO) and almost 200 other health associations have made an unprecedented call for a global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.

A call to action published on Wednesday, urges governments to agree a legally binding plan to phase out fossil fuel exploration and production, similar to the framework convention on tobacco, which was negotiated under the WHO’s auspices in 2003.

Albanese government appoints three women with environmental backgrounds to board

The Albanese government has appointed three women with environmental backgrounds to the board of the Climate Change Authority in a bid to counter concerns the advisory body was taken over by business leaders under the Coalition.

The authority was given expanded responsibilities under climate change legislation that passed parliament last week, including advising the government on future emissions reduction targets and an annual statement to parliament by the climate change minister. The advice must be made public, and the minister must explain why if he rejects it.

Government investment should be targeted at cutting bills by cutting waste. Until then we will remain dependent

With every new premiership comes new trials and tribulations. No one will be more aware of this than Liz Truss and her fresh cabinet, who have little choice but to hit the ground running with a plan to relieve the British public from the clutches of extortionate gas prices that have caused energy bills to spiral.

The cost of living crisis is due almost entirely to Putin’s war in Ukraine and his unrivalled chokehold on Europe’s gas supply. Soaring energy bills in the UK are being driven by international markets. Not, as some seem to think, by our inability to source more gas and increase its supply. Expanding drilling in the North Sea and fracking the English countryside would have negligible impact on the global shortfall and gas prices.

Helena Bennett is head of climate policy at Green Alliance

Exclusive: Leaked documents reveal water firms are considering drastic measures to combat drought

Bans on filling public swimming pools, maintaining ponds, washing cars and cleaning offices and shops could be put in place as England continues to run out of water, the Guardian can reveal.

Despite recent showery periods, the country, particularly in the south and east, has not received enough rain to refill depleted rivers and reservoirs.

NSW EPA investigating third coal pollution incident this year involving Peabody Energy’s Metropolitan mine

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A creek running through the Royal national park, south of Sydney, has been hit by a coal wastewater spill that turned its water into thick, black sludge.

It is the third coal pollution incident investigated by the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority this year involving Peabody Energy’s Metropolitan mine at Helensburg.

New report explains benefits of adopting more efficient technology and warns failure to do so could mean climate chaos

Adopting more efficient and low-carbon technology could create 29m new jobs and double the turnover of the chemicals industry, one of the world’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, according to a new report.

Failure to do so could condemn the world to climate chaos, however, as the climbing emissions from the manufacture of chemicals could result in a global temperature rise of as much as 4C above pre-industrial levels, which would bring catastrophe.

The goal of 1.5C by 2030 is arbitrary and now unachievable – yet working to prevent every 0.1C rise can still give us hope

• Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL

Keeping the global average temperature rise (since pre-industrial times) below 1.5C is widely regarded as critical if we are to sidestep dangerous, all-pervasive climate change.

This idea of a 1.5C temperature threshold is in the news again because just-published research has revealed that several catastrophic climate tipping points are in danger of being crossed at around this level of warming, including collapse of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets, which would lock in about 12 metres of sea-level rise.

Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, and the author of Hothouse Earth: an Inhabitant’s Guide