The Guardian

NGOs argue priority list was drawn up without consideration of methane emissions

An EU plan to fast-track funding and permits for 30 gas projects is facing a legal challenge from NGOs including ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth Europe.

The European Commission has been asked to review its backing for infrastructure projects such as the EastMed pipeline, a 1,180-mile (1,900km) gas pipeline to connect offshore gas fields in Israel and Cyprus to Italy.

Global La Niña-like conditions could result in more flooding rains in east Australia and bushfires in south-west US

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Climate change is slowing down the conveyor belt of ocean currents that brings warm water from the tropics up to the north Atlantic. Our research, published today in Nature Climate Change, looks at the profound consequences to global climate if this Atlantic conveyor collapses entirely.

We found the collapse of this system – called the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation – would shift the Earth’s climate to a more La Niña-like state. This would mean more flooding rains over eastern Australia and worse droughts and bushfire seasons over south-west US.

CO2 has not been so high since before hominids walked upright – and are not dropping fast enough to avert catastrophe

The level of carbon dioxide in the world’s atmosphere is now more than 50% higher than during the pre-industrial era, further pushing the planet into conditions not experienced for millions of years, well before the emergence of humans, US government data shows.

The latest measurements showing the relentless upward march of CO2 follows scientists’ new warning that the world may still barrel into disastrous climate change even if planet-heating emissions are drastically cut, which governments are still failing to achieve.

World risks ‘sleepwalking to disaster’ officials told as climate summit kicks off in Bonn

Governments cannot use geopolitical tensions and soaring energy prices as an excuse for falling behind on their climate commitments, experts and diplomats warned as officials from around the world gathered for talks on the climate crisis in Bonn on Monday.

These are the first UN climate negotiations since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the first since the Cop26 summit in Glasgow in November ended with countries pledging to reconvene this year with strengthened commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Coalition of lawyers, journalists and campaigners challenge climate-busting mega projects exposed in Guardian investigation

• Revealed: the ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger climate breakdown

A coalition of environmental lawyers, investigative journalists and campaigners has launched a group to challenge the “carbon bomb” fossil fuel projects revealed in a Guardian investigation.

After a meeting in May, more than 70 NGOs and activist groups from around the world have formed a “carbon bomb defusal” network to share expertise and resources in the fight to halt the projects and prevent the catastrophic climate breakdown they would cause.

ACT is the only jurisdiction bucking the trend of soaring power bills now plaguing the rest of Australia

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The ACT will cut electricity prices this year, bucking a trend of soaring power bills for the rest of Australia, as the territory benefits from long-term contracts that locked in low-cost renewable energy.

Basic tariffs will fall by a minimum of at least 1.25% from 1 July, the ACT’s independent competition and regulatory commission said on Monday. “This is equivalent to a real decrease of 4.93% after excluding inflation,” it said.

Exclusive: invasive red-billed leiothrix could threaten native bird populations such as robins and blackbirds, researchers warn

A brightly coloured subtropical songbird from Asia could colonise Britain’s gardens and change the dawn chorus for ever, a new paper warns.

The highly invasive red-billed leiothrix could threaten native bird populations, particularly competing with garden birds such as the robin and blackbird, researchers say. Early signs suggest this little bird – olive green with a bright red beak and yellow throat – may already be establishing itself in gardens and woodlands in southern parts of the country.

Environmentalists fear a toxic disaster is occurring on the seabed, and government denials seem less and less plausible

With every passing week, it looks more like a cover-up. The repeated mass strandings of crabs and lobsters on the coast of north-east England, and the ever less plausible explanations provided by the government, are the outward signs of an undersea disaster and a grim new politics.

Last October, beaches around the Tees estuary and along the coast of North Yorkshire were suddenly covered in dead and dying crabs and lobsters. The government launched what it called an “investigation”. In January, hundreds of dogs reportedly fell ill after being walked on the same beaches. In February, a government press release announced that the mass death of sea creatures was caused by an “algal bloom” – a rapid increase in the population of algae that can release toxins into the water and affect other wildlife.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

There is a long history of nuclear energy being used as a delaying tactic for acting on climate change in Australia

• Peter Dutton says he’s ‘not afraid’ of nuclear debate after advocate named shadow energy minister
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Last week, the Nationals’ new leader, David Littleproud, said it was time for Australia to have a “mature” conversation about nuclear energy while his predecessor, Barnaby Joyce, called for a national moratorium to be lifted and argued nuclear power would be “really important” if the country was serious about reaching net zero emissions.

On Sunday, the nuclear power advocate Ted O’Brien was appointed as the Coalition’s climate change and energy spokesperson. In an interview with ABC Radio National, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said he was “not afraid to have a discussion on nuclear” as the country should not be afraid to “talk about any technology that’s going to have the ability to reduce emissions and electricity prices”.

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Extinction, a new book by Marc Schlossman, explores endangered and extinct species and the factors threatening them through a rare behind the scenes look at one of the most important sets of natural history collections in the world at the Field Museum in Chicago

Conservation status chart:

Vulnerable

Endangered

Critically endangered

Extinct

Controversial asphyxiation method used in 73% of culls this year despite vets urging its use to be limited

The US poultry industry has increasingly switched to “the most inhumane method available” to cull tens of millions of birds during the latest outbreak of avian influenza, according to government data.

Outbreaks of the disease, also known as bird flu, have wreaked havoc across Europe and the US this year, with 38 million birds killed in the US so far.

But how these birds are killed has generated controversy, with veterinarians and animal welfare campaigners urging an end to the use of the ventilation shutdown method, which kills animals by sealing off the airflow to the poultry sheds and increasing temperatures to lethal levels.

Workers have described the method as like “roasting animals alive”. European officials have said it should not be used in the European Union.

Ideas shouldn’t be ruled out ‘simply because it’s unfashionable to talk about them’, Liberal leader says

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Peter Dutton has confirmed that his frontbench pick for the opposition’s climate and energy portfolio signals he is up for a debate about nuclear power in Australia.

In Sunday’s reshuffle the Liberal MP and nuclear power advocate Ted O’Brien was appointed to the shadow cabinet in the crucial portfolio.

For years Australia was a roadblock to global climate action. It’s time we returned to the right side of history

The Australian election was, above all, a climate election. It has attracted a lot of international attention on that basis – and for very good reason. Now the government has changed, all eyes will be on the new prime minister, the energy and climate minister and our foreign minister.

The climate inaction of the Morrison government attracted high profile criticism from governments such Fiji, the United Kingdom, the United States, and indeed the UN secretary general – along with many international commentators and scientists.

Not long ago, the humpback was almost wiped out, now its numbers are booming in what conservationists say is a ‘wonderful success story’

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People across Australia’s east coast are catching an earlier than expected first glimpse of breaching humpback whales as they migrate north, and scientists say the reason why is a conservation success story.

Whale watchers were treated to a spectacular show in Sydney on Monday as two humpback whales surged from the water metres from their boat. Dr Wally Franklin, director of the Oceania Project, said sightings have also been reported off the coast of Merimbula, Byron Bay, Tweed Heads, the Gold Coast and Hervey Bay, as the whales journey north from the Antarctic to the Great Barrier Reef.

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Australia’s new minister faces difficult challenges fixing laws, creating an EPA and curbing an extinction crisis

There was surprise last week when Tanya Plibersek was announced as Australia’s new environment and water minister. The portfolio, which had been held by Terri Butler in opposition before she lost her seat, comes with a long list of unaddressed challenges.

Here are five that Plibersek will face as she gets up to speed in her new role.

Our values of decency and tolerance, and confidence in a secure green future, make Labour the party of patriotism now

As we come together as a nation to celebrate the Queen’s remarkable platinum jubilee, we also unite around our bunting and flags in a moment of pure British patriotism. Being patriotic isn’t something that Labour has always looked comfortable with, but progressive politics has been at its most successful and transformational when it captures the best of British values, nurtures our world-famous institutions and instils a belief that our best days lie ahead of us, not just in the past.

A quick survey across British politics today tells us that it’s not the Conservatives that enshrine these patriotic principles but Labour.

US farmers’ struggles for the right to fix their own, now highly computer-controlled equipment, have implications for us all

It was one of the few pieces of cheery news to emerge from the war in Ukraine. Russian looters, no doubt with the assistance of Russian troops, stole 27 pieces of John Deere farm equipment, worth about $5m, from a dealership in Melitopol. The kit was shipped to Chechnya, where a nasty surprise awaited the crooks. Their shiny new vehicles had, overnight, become the world’s heaviest paperweights: the dealership from which they had been stolen had “bricked” them remotely, using an inbuilt “kill-switch”.

This news item no doubt warmed the cockles of many a western heart. But it would have raised only hollow laughs from farmers in US states who are customers of John Deere and are mightily pissed off, because although they have paid small fortunes (up to $800,000 apparently) for the firm’s machinery, they are unable to service or repair them when they go wrong. These gigantic vehicles are no longer purely mechanical devices, but depend on lots of electronic control units (ECUs) to operate everything from the air conditioning to the driver’s seat to the engine. The ICUs run software that is essential to the operation, maintenance and repair of the machine. But only John Deere has access to that computer code and without employing a company technician the tractor’s software won’t even recognise (let alone allow) replacement parts from another manufacturer.

Wasps are ecologically and economically important – and they don’t want to sting you, they just want your sugar and sausages

Every summer, with the predictability of hay fever and impromptu barbecues, I am asked by friends, family, strangers and the media: “What’s the point of wasps?”

Although some people will be starting to worry about wasps as they set out their jubilee picnics this bank holiday weekend, wasp complaint season usually kicks off in mid-August in the UK. It’s my summer holiday calibrator, and generally peaks just about the time when I’ve started to unwind from the busy chaos of my life as an academic. I’m not grumbling (my family does that for me); I never turn down the chance to evangelise about wasps. But I am beginning to sound like a stuck record.

Last year the government asked for ‘big ideas’ on access to green space. Now it is refusing to publish the responses

When countryside campaigners were invited to meet government ministers and share “big, creative ideas” for “structural and systemic changes” around access to green spaces, they thought it could be too good to be true. Was the government listening, and were England’s archaic laws on countryside access about to change?

Last summer, groups representing more than 20 million people who are active outdoors, including ramblers, canoeists and mountaineers, were asked to speak to officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Treasury to explain how people are shut off from accessing green space because of trespass laws and other barriers.

Toxic particles from tyre wear almost 2,000 times worse than from exhausts as weight of cars increases

Almost 2,000 times more particle pollution is produced by tyre wear than is pumped out of the exhausts of modern cars, tests have shown.

The tyre particles pollute air, water and soil and contain a wide range of toxic organic compounds, including known carcinogens, the analysts say, suggesting tyre pollution could rapidly become a major issue for regulators.