The Guardian

The deaths of the reporter and the Indigenous expert in Brazil come amid growing violence against environmental defenders and journalists

The killing of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira in the Amazon is devastating for their families and friends. It is also the embodiment of a wider assault on environmental defenders and those who work with them, and of the dangers faced by journalists. The relentless targeting of those who seek to protect an ever more fragile world is increasing as the climate crisis grows more intense. In 2020, more than four defenders a week died globally. A disproportionate number are Indigenous people or, like Mr Pereira, those who work closely with and for them. Mr Phillips, though passionate about the environment, was not an activist but a reporter – one of many who have died in Latin America because of their work.

The discovery of their bodies, and the police announcement that one of the suspects arrested in connection with their disappearance has said that he killed them, brings an end to the families’ anguish of not knowing their whereabouts. “Now we can bring them home and say goodbye with love. Today, we also begin our quest for justice,” Mr Phillips’ widow, Alessandra Sampaio, wrote in a statement.

The usual trade-off between maximising revenue while protecting industry’s long-term future no longer applies

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After dealing with multiple natural disasters, and facing the need for huge investment in an overloaded electricity system, it’s not surprising the Queensland government is in search of extra revenue ahead of next week’s budget. The obvious source, already flagged by the treasurer, Cameron Dick, is an increase in royalty rates for coal.

These rates, set on a sliding scale according to the price of coal, have been frozen for the last 10 years, as promised by the Newman LNP government after a small increase in 2012. With the 10-year freeze now expired, resources groups are lobbying intensely for no changes to the existing regime. But there is a logical case for increasing royalties on coal, which is currently trading at spectacularly high prices.

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No 10 official’s name for an insulation plan was nixed for unoriginality – but the campaigning group is OK with it

The well-known campaigning group Insulate Britain is happy to let the government borrow its name if officials can’t come up with a different label for their insulation scheme, it has told the Guardian.

According to a report in the Times on government plans for insulating homes, during one meeting to thrash out the policy, a No 10 official suggested calling it “Insulate Britain” – a proposal quickly nixed when someone else pointed out that it was already the name of the disruptive direct action group.

A petition calls on the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions under the Toxic Substances Control Act

Greenhouse gas emissions should be subject to legal controls in the US and phased out under the Toxic Substances Control Act, according to a group of scientists and former public officials, in a novel approach to the climate crisis.

“Using the TSCA would be one small step for [the US president] Joe Biden, but potentially a giant leap for humankind – as a first step towards making the polluters pay,” said James Hansen, a former Nasa scientist, who is a member of the group alongside Donn Viviani, a retired 35-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

They wanted to warn the world about the ravaging of the rainforest and abuse of human rights. We should honour them

Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have been killed in an undeclared global war against nature and the people who defend it. Their work mattered because our planet, the threats to it and the activities of those who threaten it matter. That work must be continued.

The frontlines of this war are the Earth’s remaining biodiverse regions – the forests, wetlands and oceans that are essential for the stability of our climate and planetary life-support system.

Researchers have now calculated how many people could be saved from heat-related death if the US takes meaningful action

The rapidly shrinking window of opportunity for the US to pass significant climate legislation will have mortal, as well as political, stakes. Millions of lives around the world will be saved, or lost, depending on whether America manages to propel itself towards a future without planet-heating emissions.

For the first time, researchers have calculated exactly how many people the US could save by acting on the climate crisis. A total of 7.4 million lives around the world will be saved over this century if the US manages to cut its emissions to net zero by 2050, according to the analysis.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese has committed to a more ambitious emissions reduction target. On the looming energy crisis, he criticised the previous government for its inaction over almost a decade, saying: 'Scott Morrison went to the Glasgow conference last year and gave an empty speech to an empty room with no changed position. We saw a pamphlet released by a former government rather than a policy framework and we continued to see arguments even during the election campaign about the science of climate change, let alone the need to act.'

• Unclear when electricity market suspension will end as Chris Bowen backs ‘extreme’ intervention
• Australia’s energy crisis explained

A cold start to winter has the News Corp newspaper and Sky News telling ‘alarmists’ to chill, but what is really going on with snowfall?

It’s felt cold in parts of eastern Australia in recent weeks and with heavy snow falling over ski resorts, it has to mean this whole global heating thing is a dud, right?

Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph said an early start to the snow season had come “despite dire global warming predictions of vanishing snow” with a headline declaring “Alarmists given big chill”.

EPA administrator Michael Regan announces ‘aggressive action’ but new PFAS limits are advisory and critics call them ‘baby steps’

The US Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced new advisory limits for four kinds of PFAS “forever chemicals”, warning that the compounds, which most Americans are exposed to daily, are far more toxic than previously thought.

The dangerous chemicals are estimated to be contaminating drinking water for more than 200 million people, and the new limits could have significant financial consequences for PFAS polluters, including the US military and producers like 3M, DuPont and Chemours.

‘Net zero’ global alliance of financial institutions, begun at Cop26, can still invest in coal and other fossil fuels

Banks that have signed up to a global climate pledge, led by Mark Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, can still invest unlimited amounts in coal mining and coal power, despite promises to tighten the rules on their lending.

Green campaigners have slammed the loopholes, uncovered by the Guardian, as “greenwashing”, after updated criteria for banks involved in the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) were unveiled on Wednesday.

Researchers believe the Amphylaeus morosusis bee only recently made the switch from solitary to colony living

The unusual social life of a native species of Australian bee has shed light on how cooperative behaviours in bees evolved, new research suggests.

Flinders University scientists have analysed the behaviour of Amphylaeus morosus, a forest-dwelling bee that lives in small nests of rarely more than two females.

Transition to renewables, not new gas developments, will help avoid future power crises, environment groups say

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Climate and environment groups have criticised comments by the new resources minister, Madeleine King, in support of new gas development, saying it is inconsistent with what climate science says is required to limit global heating.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, King said new gas fields such as Santos’ Narrabri development in northern New South Wales would help avoid a future power crisis.

Guardian analysis reveals toll of heat stress, cold and trauma amid rise in long-distance and more frequent journeys

Tens of millions of farm animals in the US are dying before they can be slaughtered, according to a Guardian investigation exposing the deadly conditions under which animals are transported around the country.

Approximately 20 million chickens, 330,000 pigs and 166,000 cattle are dead on arrival, or soon after, at abattoirs in the US every year, analysis of publicly available data shows. A further 800,000 pigs are calculated to be unable to walk on arrival.

Due to the climate crisis, within 30 years these coastal properties will not be salvageable, researchers say

Sea level rise will force the abandonment of about 200,000 coastal properties in England within 30 years, new data suggests, as the climate crisis takes hold.

These are the homes that cannot be saved, or which it would be too expensive to try to save, by measures such as seawalls and other coastal defences. Some of the areas most at risk include North Somerset, Sedgemoor, Wyre, North East Lincolnshire and Swale.

Report shows Policy Exchange, which called for criminalisation of environmental group, received money from oil company

A thinktank that received money from an oil company later published a report that advised the government to criminalise Extinction Rebellion in its tough new crime laws.

Several Conservative MPs and peers cited the 2019 report by Policy Exchange in parliament and the home secretary, Priti Patel, repeated its claims about the climate campaigners being “extremists”.

Photographer Craig Loechel hones his macro lenses on nature’s beauty to reveal details not normally seen by the naked eye

University of Chicago reports little change in global average particulate pollution in 2020, with increases in areas such as India

Lockdowns imposed to stop the spread of Covid led to “virtually no change” in global average particulate pollution levels during 2020, and in some of the most populous countries pollution increased, according to a study.

Analysis of revised satellite-derived data on PM2.5 levels, which measure minuscule and dangerous airborne particles, suggests that the economic lockdowns imposed across many parts of the world brought clear skies to some areas only temporarily.

According to the research by the Air Quality Life Index, based at the University of Chicago, the global population weighted-average PM2.5 level declined from 27.7 to just 27.5 μg/m3 between 2019 and 2020, remaining more than five times the WHO’s guideline, which was revised last year to 5 μg/m 3.

Merle Liivand swam in choppy waters off Miami coast to raise awareness about importance of clean oceans

In the Little Mermaid, Ariel sings a whole song about wishing to be part of a world where people get to walk. Merle Liivand, on the other hand, wanted to do the opposite – and now holds the world record for the farthest swim as a mermaid.

Liivand swam 26.22 miles wearing a silicone monofin, in just over 11 hours in choppy waters off the coast of Miami on 7 May.

Mark McGowan says state’s two remaining coal-fired power stations are becoming less viable due to rise of renewable energy

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Western Australia will shut its last coal-fired power unit before the end of the decade and spend an extra half a billion dollars to foster new jobs for displayed workers, the state government said.

Later this year, the first of the 854-megawatt Muja power station’s units near Collie, south of Perth, will close, with the entire plant to be shut by 2029. The nearby 340MW Collie plant will exit the market by the end of 2027, the premier, Mark McGowan, said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Call comes after former UN climate envoy urged African countries to exploit their natural gas reserves

Africa must embrace renewable energy, and forgo exploration of its potentially lucrative gas deposits to stave off climate disaster and bring access to clean energy to the hundreds of millions who lack it, leading experts on the continent have said.

Their call came as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned that exploring for gas and oil anywhere in the world would be “delusional”.