The Guardian

Giant stingray snagged by local fisher in Mekong River weighs nearly 300kg

The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists.

The stingray, captured on 13 June, measured almost four metres from snout to tail and weighed just under 300kg, according to a statement on Monday by Wonders of the Mekong, a joint Cambodian-US research project.

Guardian given details about next generation of marine nature reserves where all fishing is banned

Five highly protected marine areas (HPMAs) will this week be created by the government to ban all fishing and rewild the sea, the Guardian has learned.

The new generation of marine nature reserves, which are governed by tougher regulations to allow decimated sea life to recover, are being set up close to the coast of Lindisfarne in Northumberland and at Allonby Bay, Cumbria, and at three offshore sites, two in the North Sea and one at Dolphin Head in the Channel.

Campaigners say nature in England faces ‘perfect storm of threats’ with eight promised bills yet to appear

Nature faces a “perfect storm of threats”, campaigners say, after eight wildlife bills promised by Boris Johnson since coming to power have so far failed to see the light of day.

The government has been accused of reneging on commitments by failing to deliver policies on nature-friendly farming, the use of peat and pesticides, reintroducing beavers and other lost species, and protecting rare marine life.

Post-Brexit farming reforms – The government has broken its promise to reform farming post-Brexit. In its national food strategy for England published earlier this month the government’s commitment to provide a third of its farming budget for landscape recovery has been abandoned.

Ban on horticultural peat use – The government has consulted on the ban on the sale of peat and products containing peat in England and Wales after the failure of voluntary targets. Over 12 weeks (the usual time limit for responding) have passed and the government has yet to respond to the consultation. There was also no clear legislative vehicle in the recent Queen’s speech to enact the ban.

Beaver reintroductions – Last year, the government consulted on further reintroductions of beavers in England following the successful River Otter beaver trial. The government has yet to publish its response to the consultation or announce its approach to the reintroduction of beavers in England. This was part of the secretary of state’s announcement at Delamere Forest in May 2021.

Species reintroduction taskforce – Also part of that announcement was the commitment to establish an England species reintroduction taskforce to consider reintroductions of lost species such as wildcats, as well as the release of declining species such as the curlew, into areas from which they have been lost to help populations recover.

National action plan on the sustainable use of pesticides – The UK government consulted on the draft national action plan in December 2020 but has yet to publish the final version of its plan to replace the 2013 version.

Landscapes review – Despite responding to the landscapes review, the government has yet to legislate for the recommendations it accepted, such as amending the statutory purpose to ensure the core function of protected landscapes should be to drive nature recovery in England.

Integrated pest management – The government has yet to confirm whether key components of the new agricultural system, such as integrated pest management, will be included in the new sustainable farming incentive from next year.

Bycatch mitigation initiative – A policy to protect rare marine life from being unintentionally caught by fishers was approved in March but has not come to fruition, after being expected in May.

Forecast models are already hinting at area of significant heat taking hold across Iberia next week

Thankfully, the heatwave is coming to an end this week across western Europe, with temperatures returning nearer to normal. But this may only be a temporary reprieve, as forecast models are already hinting at an area of significant heat taking hold across Iberia by the start of next week.

The extent of the recent heatwave across parts of central and western Europe has been widely reported. Temperature records have been broken and, in France and parts of Spain, it is the earliest point in summer during which a heatwave of this magnitude has been recorded. A temperature of 39.2C (102.6F) observed in Cottbus, Germany, also came within 0.4°C of the June record. Large fires, resulting from parched vegetation, are ravaging parts of Spain. The observed heat is very much in line with the predictions of scientists in that heatwaves in Europe will occur earlier and with greater ferocity due to climate change.

From 2001 to 2021, Nigeria lost 1.14 million hectares of forest, equivalent to a 11% decrease in tree cover and equal to 587 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to Global Forest Watch. Cutting down trees for logging, opening up farmland or to feed energy demand for a growing population is putting pressure on Nigeria’s natural forests

Advice that allowed farmers to spread manures in a way that risked polluting waters has been changed by Defra

Guidance that would have allowed farmers to spread manures and slurry on land in a way that would overload it with nutrients and risk pollution of rivers, lakes and coastal waters has been changed by Defra, after a challenge over its lawfulness.

Manures, which include sewage sludge, abattoir waste and slurries, are a leading source of water pollution. Their application is strictly controlled under what are known as the Farming Rules for Water. But Defra’s guidance had directed the Environment Agency not to enforce a breach of the rules if a farmer produced its own manures or used imported manures that could lead to nutrient overload.

From Somerset to Derby, councils are rewilding rivers, parks and golf courses, despite claims by some that it is only for wealthy landowners

One in five county councils have embraced rewilding on public land in Great Britain, with a growing number setting aside former golf courses, post-industrial scrubland and recovering waterways for nature.

From Rhondda Cynon Taf to Brighton, 43 councils in England, Wales and Scotland have launched rewilding schemes or are planning to do so in rural and urban areas, a joint investigation by the Guardian and the wildlife magazine Inkcap Journal found.

The government pretends that farming and the countryside are synonymous – and our environment suffers as a result

We have a problem. The environment secretary, George Eustice – the highest green authority in the land – is, in a crucial respect, a climate denier. In an interview with the Telegraph, he claimed that “livestock, particularly if you do it with the right pastoral system, has a role to play in tackling climate change”.

Though such claims are often made, there is no evidence to support them. A wide-ranging review of the data by the Oxford Martin School found no case of a livestock operation sequestering more greenhouse gases than the animals produce. Moreover, because of the very large land area required for grazing livestock, pastoral systems carry a massive carbon opportunity cost (this means the carbon that would be captured if the land were returned to wild ecosystems). According to the government’s Climate Change Committee, “transitioning from grassland to forestland would increase the soil carbon stock by 25 tonnes of carbon per hectare (on average across England) … This is additional to the large amounts of carbon that would be stored in the biomass of the trees themselves.”

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Exclusive: state budget funds to go towards boosting number of charging points in apartment blocks and on streets

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The New South Wales government will invest $38m to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles by building more charging sites, including for apartment buildings and roadsides.

The extra funds, to be unveiled in Tuesday’s budget, will bring to $633m the money being spent on NSW’s strategy aimed at ensuring half of all car sales by 2030-31 are electric.

Solar Victoria fielded 50% higher than usual number of inquiries into power storage amid cold snap across eastern states

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Demand for batteries linked to rooftop solar panels has soared in the past month amid energy price rices and the coldest start to winter in decades.

According to Solar Victoria chief executive, Stan Krpan, inquiries into battery rebates in Victoria have spiked in the past two weeks.

Commercial accommodation in parks promotes advocacy for the land, say tour companies, but critics argue it puts wilderness at risk

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Mick Ripon has fished from the rugged coastline of NSW’s Ben Boyd national park for the past 45 years. Off the remote rocks of Green Cape, Ripon reeled in his biggest catch, a 68kg (150lb) yellowfin tuna, and even proposed to his wife.

Now he’s racing to stop the construction of multiple huts at Mowarry Point and Hegartys Bay that he says will rob the park of its wilderness appeal.

The conservative commentariat could not be more wrong in dismissing global heating as a concern of only the ‘woke elite’

“What do you mean, ‘why am I working in this heat?’ If I don’t work, we will die of hunger.”

That was how Shiv Kumar Mandal, a Delhi rickshaw driver, explained why he continued to transport passengers during a prolonged and horrific temperature spike that experts attribute to global heating.

There’s a growing crisis everywhere Anthony Albanese looks, but they may enable a more ambitious agenda

When public servants in Sydney were told to rug up if they planned to work in the office this week, the reality of the country’s energy crisis hit hard.

Experts have warned for years the federal government’s multiple failures to properly manage the transition in the national energy market would have consequences. Now they are plain for all to see.

Buildings, materials, habits: everything will have to change because of the climate emergency

The UK is facing its first heatwave of the summer, and while many will be basking in the hot weather it is also a warning of challenges to come, particularly for those who live and work in our biggest cities.

Extended periods of high temperatures are becoming more frequent and intense all over the world because of climate change, and we are learning just how much our metropolitan areas struggle to cope with heat.

Bob Ward is deputy chair of the London Climate Change Partnership

António Guterres compares climate inaction to tobacco firms dismissing links between smoking and cancer

Fossil fuel companies and the banks that finance them “have humanity by the throat”, the UN secretary general has said, in a “blistering” attack on the industry and its backers, who are pulling in record profits amid energy prices sent soaring by the Ukraine war.

António Guterres compared fossil fuel companies to the tobacco companies that continued to push their addictive products while concealing or attacking health advice that showed clear links between smoking and cancer, the first time he has drawn such a parallel.

The 10-day search in the Amazon for Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips came to an end on Wednesday. Their deaths have horrified Brazil and underline the dangers faced by those defending the country's environment and Indigenous communities.  Jonathan Watts, the Guardian's environment editor and Phillips' friend, provides insight into their lives, their work and their legacy

• Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: Brazil police find two bodies in search for missing men
  
• The writer and the activist: how Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira bonded over the Amazon
  
• The Guardian view on Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: justice for them, safety for others | Editorial

Adviser says European nations are sourcing fossil fuels abroad but failing to help developing countries

European governments have been accused of seeking to exploit the fossil fuel reserves of the developing world, while failing to help them tackle the climate crisis.

Campaigners made the charge as the latest round of UN climate negotiations ended in stalemate on Thursday night in Bonn, Germany.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a poisonous frog, an alligator lizard and a walrus called Stan

Pushed northwards by global heating, exotic birds like the rainbow bee-eater seen nesting in Norfolk will likely become established summer visitors

Rainbow-hued bee-eaters breeding on the Norfolk coast this summer and three rare black-winged stilts fledglings in Yorkshire are an “unmissable sign” that the nature and climate emergency has reached Britain, according to conservationists.

Birdwatchers are flocking to north-east Norfolk to see the bee-eaters, a colourful rare visitor from Africa and southern Europe, after seven birds were spotted close to Cromer by a local birder.

Spending watchdog warns existing policies not enough to meet most targets by 2030

The government is not on track to cut air pollution and is not effectively informing the public about the issue, the spending watchdog has warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) warned that existing policy measures will not be enough to meet most of the government’s air quality targets by 2030.