The Guardian

Mandatory reports should be published on how taxpayer’s money is spent on environmental stewardship, says campaigner

Landowners in England have been paid more than £9bn of taxpayer’s money in the past 30 years for environmental benefits, despite the decline in nature that has taken place during that time, data reveals.

Nature campaigner and author Guy Shrubsole, who unearthed the data for his new book The Lie of The Land, said large landowners should be forced to publish regular reports showing how they are stewarding their land for nature and carbon.

The Lie of the Land is published on 12 September by HarperCollins.

Scientists are trying to establish whether global heating caused the deaths of the rare river dolphins last year, before temperatures start to rise again

Set near photographer Benjamin Youd’s home in Sussex, River Story looks at the changing seasons and humans’ relationship with water

• River Story is exhibiting at ONCA Gallery in Brighton, 5 to 14 September

The new government must use its landslide majority to mend the damage to jobs and fish populations caused by neglect

It is a lonely and unglamorous job, being His Majesty’s official opposition, as Labour knows only too well. There were moments when, out of the spotlight, the party’s spokespeople in parliament heroically defended the public interest on some of the most important issues of the day. One example was during the post-Brexit Fisheries Act, where Labour made a formidable case that history has proved right. The question now is whether Labour will use its landslide majority to fix the extraordinary neglect of our marine environment that it previously lacked the votes for.

Back in 2020, when the fisheries bill was making its way through parliament, Labour’s fisheries spokesperson, Luke Pollard, made the case that the prime objective of the bill should be sustainability: there should be a duty on ministers to take the advice of scientists when allocating fishing opportunities so as to avoid overfishing. He also argued that as the right to fish was a public asset, which ministers conceded during the course of the bill, preference should be given to the part of the fleet which had the highest levels of employment and the lowest environmental impact: the smaller boats, whose activities are limited naturally by the weather.

Charles Clover is the co-founder of the Blue Marine Foundation

In an interview from jail in Greenland with the AFP news agency, the anti-whaling activist said Tokyo has a vendetta against him

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson has said that authorities in Tokyo are seeking to make an example of him, as he awaits a possible extradition to Japan, while in detention in a Greenland prison.

Speaking to the AFP news agency, the 73-year-old US-Canadian campaigner said his time behind bars has not prevented him from continuing his fight to save whales.

Advocates against nets say sharks can easily swim underneath and drone surveillance is more effective

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Experts, marine conservation groups and an MP are all urging the New South Wales government to ban anti-shark nets, which kill large numbers of turtles and dolphins, after 51 nets were installed along the state’s coastline.

Last summer more than 90% of marine animals caught in shark nets were not sharks, while more than half of the 208 non-target species caught – such as turtles, dolphins and smaller sharks – were killed, data showed.

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I’ve discovered the perfect way to avoid the stress of travel, the mosquito bites and the overtourism. Plus, I can stay at home and tend my tomatoes while knowing I’m saving the planet

I haven’t been on holiday this summer, but don’t start tuning the tiny violins. I derive an unusual satisfaction from working when others aren’t (burning martyr is my preferred summer fragrance) and I don’t like change, or strange pillows. Plus, what would Susan, the pigeon who lives on our roof, and my bounteous crop of five unripe tomatoes do without me?

A summer holiday just doesn’t appeal. Is that weird? It feels as if the climate crisis is killing the notion of summer as something to look forward to and holiday hotspots (literally) are losing their lustre, with Greek islands reaching fatal temperatures and Sicily stricken with catastrophic drought.

Maria Sibylla Merian’s beautiful and disturbing illustrations, which shaped how we look at the natural world, will be on show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum

More than three centuries after she made a perilous transatlantic voyage to study butterflies, a rare copy of the hand-coloured masterwork by the great naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian is returning to Amsterdam.

The Rijksmuseum, which holds more than half-a-million books on art and history, last week announced it had acquired a rare first-edition copy of Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium), described as a high point of 18th-century book production when the Dutch Republic was “the bookshop of the world”.

The south-east of the country is taking a battering and there is more to come as a ‘very strong cold front’ moves through on Sunday

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Tasmanian emergency services were urging residents and businesses along the Derwent River to prepare to evacuate on Sunday, while Victorians have been warned of destructive winds as wild weather batters the south-east of the country.

The Tasmanian state emergency service urged communities in Meadowbank, Glenora, Bushy Park, Gretna and Macquarie Plains to prepare for flooding, with authorities suggesting they could become isolated for several days. An evacuation centre has opened in New Norfolk.

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Several cases have been confirmed and cattle are being kept in restricted zones

The movement of sheep and cattle has been restricted in Norfolk and Suffolk after several confirmed cases of bluetongue disease.

A restricted zone has been put in place to “mitigate the risk of further cases of disease occurring”, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

Exclusive: Figures reveal just 16% of company-controlled sites of special scientific interest are in good condition

Water companies are allowing important natural landscapes they own to fall into disrepair, data shows, with only 16% of sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) under their control in good condition.

The companies have been accused of “polluting for profit” by not investing to improve the status of their SSSIs.

Photographer Paul Hilton shadowed Captain Robert Bergholz on his boat Restless to see how a local prawn trawler’s day unfolds

Environment minister’s cultural site declaration draws accusations of torpedoing a $1bn NSW project but she insists it was vital to protect Aboriginal heritage

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A goldmine in the central-west of New South Wales attracted plenty of heated headlines this week.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, expressed disappointment over a decision by the federal environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, that has put the future of the proposed project in doubt.

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Australian scientists hail finding as a step in unlocking secrets of planet’s protective magnetic field

By travelling to the centre of the Earth via seismic waves scientists have discovered a ring-like structure within the swirling pool of molten metal known as the outer core.

Research published in the journal Science Advances has identified a doughnut-shaped region within the outer core, parallel to the equator.

More electricity demand and lower than usual generation from two renewable sources raises questions about climate targets

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Greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s ageing coal-fired power plants rose slightly in the first half of the year, reversing years of declining pollution from the power section and raising questions about the country’s ability to meet its climate targets.

An increase in electricity consumption across the country and lower than usual wind and hydro output led to an increase in coal generation. It pushed up emissions from the electricity grid between January and June.

Defra sources say some licensed culls will continue until 2026 but it is highly unlikely any new ones will be granted

Badger culling will end in England by 2029, the government has said.

Some culls under existing licences will continue until 2026, according to sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), but it is highly unlikely any new ones will be granted.

Etienne Stott among Extinction Rebellion protesters to call for citizens’ assembly to tackle climate crisis

An Olympic gold medal-winning canoeist will be among climate activists protesting in Windsor this weekend to demand the Labour government takes climate action seriously.

Extinction Rebellion, which is organising the three-day event, which began on Friday, said it had been disappointed by the new administration’s lack of action on reducing fossil fuel emissions.

Discovery of Apis florea in Malta raises fears of devastating impact on native bee populations

The red dwarf honeybee has established a colony in Europe for the first time, scientists have found.

The bee, Apis florea, is native to Asia and its discovery has raised alarm among local beekeepers and conservationists, who fear the potentially devastating impact on native bee populations.

It’s expected to reach 29C in Sydney’s CBD on Friday and be even hotter in the west while Brisbane’s temperature is forecast to reach mid-30s over the weekend

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Parts of Australia are bracing for a warm and windy end to winter, continuing a trend that is almost certain to make this month the country’s hottest August on record.

Hot conditions are forecast for Sydney on Friday with a maximum temperature of 29C in the CBD and higher in the city’s west. Temperatures in the mid-20s are forecast for the weekend.

Meteorologists predict scorching temperatures for the weekend before weather cools just in time for Labor Day

Millions of Americans will continue to swelter as Labor Day weekend approaches, with much of the country under some kind of excessive heat watch.

The brutal heatwave the US midwest suffered earlier this week has spread to the eastern half of the country, with more than 20 million people under some kind of a heat alert.