The Guardian

Activists defy injunction to target fuel distribution terminals as held scientist goes on hunger strike

At least a dozen climate protesters have been arrested after defying an injunction to launch synchronised actions targeting three key fuel distribution terminals early on Friday.

Meanwhile, a scientist arrested for taking part in an Extinction Rebellion action at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is on hunger and thirst strike after being held by police for more than 40 hours.

Gasteranthus extinctus had been presumed extinct after extensive deforestation

A South American wildflower long believed to be extinct has been rediscovered.

Gasteranthus extinctus was found by biologists in the foothills of the Andes mountains and in remnant patches of forest in the Centinela region of Ecuador, almost 40 years after its last sighting.

There is so much intelligence on this planet other than ours. Realising that will be key to adapting to climate breakdown

For the past couple of years, I’ve been working with researchers in northern Greece who are farming metal. In a remote, beautiful field, high in the Pindus mountains in Epirus, they are experimenting with a trio of shrubs known to scientists as “hyperaccumulators”: plants which have evolved the capacity to thrive in naturally metal-rich soils that are toxic to most other kinds of life. They do this by drawing the metal out of the ground and storing it in their leaves and stems, where it can be harvested like any other crop. As well as providing a source for rare metals – in this case nickel, although hyperaccumulators have been found for zinc, aluminium, cadmium and many other metals, including gold – these plants actively benefit the earth by remediating the soil, making it suitable for growing other crops, and by sequestering carbon in their roots. One day, they might supplant more destructive and polluting forms of mining.

The three plants being tested in Greece – part of a network of research plots across Europe – are endemic to the region. Alyssum murale, which grows in low bushes topped by bunches of yellow flowers, is native to Albania and northern Greece; Leptoplax emarginata – taller and spindlier, with clusters of green leaves and white petals – is found only in Greece; and Bornmuellera tymphaea, the most efficient of the three, which straggles across the ground in a dense layer of white blossom, is found only on the slopes of the Pindus (its name comes from Mount Tymfi, one of the highest peaks of the range).

James Bridle is a writer and artist, and the author of Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence (Allen Lane), which is available now

Charity launches campaign to stem decline of species including starlings, bumblebees and hedgehogs

Plant sunflowers and lavender in your garden this spring to reverse the decline of previously common garden species, the RSPB has urged the British public.

The bird charity has launched a “nature on your doorstep” campaign to highlight that UK gardens and balconies combined cover 4,000sq km, an area more than twice the size of Greater London. Together these connected habitats could help reverse the fortunes of species including starlings, bumblebees and hedgehogs.

Sunflowers – beautiful and easy to grow from seed, these classic flowers are great for pollinators and are a great food source for birds when they set seed.

Cornfield annuals – for just a couple of pounds you can have the glow of red poppies and blue cornflowers within weeks.

Mini-meadow – just let parts of your lawn grow for a few months, or even better until late summer, and be rewarded with drifts of clovers and other meadow flowers.

Lavender – the familiar lovely-smelling herb that’s brilliant for bees and butterflies.

Foxgloves – tall purple, pink and white flowers that are bee magnets.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including swimming buffalo, a rescued pangolin and swirling reindeer

Government was in possession of a newly-released report that linked large-scale farms and wild salmon to contagious virus

Canada was warned in 2012 by its own scientists that a virus was infecting both farmed and wild salmon, but successive governments ignored the expert advice, saying for years that risks to salmon were low.

Justin Trudeau’s government has said it will phase out open-pen industrial fish farms off the coast of British Columbia by 2025. But both his government and the previous Conservative government were in possession of a newly released report that linked large-scale farms and wild salmon to the highly contagious Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV).

The battle to get countries and companies to sign up to net zero is being won. Now let’s keep pushing for more ambitious targets

The climate crisis is often seen in binary terms. Precise temperature targets – limiting global heating to 1.5C or 2C – imply decisive moments of victory or loss. Headlines warn that we have only “12 years to save the world”. A recent study in the journal Nature showing that countries’ post-Cop26 net-zero pledges, if met, will probably keep global heating to below 2C will be seen in similar terms.

Governments and companies will claim we should be reassured by their decisive actions to reduce emissions. They will say we finally have a real agreement to keep heating below 2C. We should be sceptical. As activists and scientists have said over and over again, targets are easy to set but hard to meet. And they are being promised by the same leaders who are already failing to meet existing commitments to reduce emissions.

Laurie Laybourn is an environmental policy researcher and author. He leads the Cohort 2040 project, which explores how emerging leaders can be prepared for a future of deepening environmental crisis

Environmental campaigners have caused rush-hour chaos in west London by clambering on to an oil tanker and forcing the closure of a major roundabout leading to the start of the M4 motorway

Researchers say Brexit politicians now pushing against net zero amid cost-of-living crisis

Rightwing populist parties have a detrimental impact on climate policy, researchers have found for the first time, amid growing fears of a similar movement in the UK.

The study, by the universities of Sussex and Warwick, looked at the policy of more than 25 countries over a period of more than a decade. Researchers created a climate policy index and compared it with a baseline of a centre-right government. They found the combined effect of the presence of a rightwing populist party in parliament and in government was associated with a reduction in the index of about 25% on average.

The Netherlands 2010 – the populist and climate-sceptic PVV party got its best ever electoral result and came in as a junior coalition partner in a centre-right led government. The scale and ambition of greenhouse gas emissions reduction and renewable energy targets set by the previous government were reduced, and a coal phaseout remained off the agenda.

Norway 2013 – the populist Progress party entered a minority government. Previous centre-left coalition governments had had ambitious climate policy, but again targets for emissions reduction and renewables were reduced. The Progress party took over the ministry of petroleum and energy and issued new drilling licences for oil, including in the Arctic for the first time.

Denmark 2015 – the centre-right Venstre party formed a minority government that had informal support from the populist Danish Peoples’ party, which got 21% of the vote, its best ever share. There was backsliding on emissions reduction and renewables targets, and the goal of phasing out coal set by the previous government was dropped.

Poland 2015 – the populist PiS took power as the largest party in a coalition government. In its first term it was hostile to renewables, blocking onshore wind and opposing expansion of renewable energy targets at the EU level. It also blocked the 2050 carbon neutrality goal in the European Council. However, from 2019 the party changed position on renewables.

Austria 2017 – the populist FPÖ came in as a junior partner in a centre-right led government. The FPÖ had little impact in the end but voted against Austria joining the Paris Agreement and against parliament declaring a climate emergency in 2019.

Rush hour chaos at Chiswick roundabout as environmental activists vow to ‘stop the flow of oil in London’

Environmental campaigners have caused rush-hour chaos in west London by clambering on to an oil tanker and forcing the closure of a major roundabout leading to the start of the M4 motorway.

“Road closures are currently in place at the Chiswick roundabout,” Hounslow police tweeted on Thursday morning. “Diversions are in place. Please avoid the area if possible.”

Dogger Bank saved from destructive practice along with three other areas, after campaigning by activists

The UK’s largest sandbank has been protected from bottom trawling, an environmentally destructive fishing technique.

Activists have been calling on the government for years to stop bottom trawling at Dogger Bank, an important site off the east coast of England for species including sand eels, hermit crabs, flatfish and starfish.

I’ve been travelling the country, making films for the BBC’s Countryfile, and marvelling every mile at the changing landscape

We live in a wonderful country peopled by many kind and fascinating souls. Just saying. It’s not said often enough. Over the past month, I’ve been all over the place making films for the BBC’s Countryfile programme. I’ve travelled by train and motorbike, marvelling every mile at the changing landscape. The train to Penzance, a long haul wherever you start from, was further delayed, but I cared not a jot with my nose pressed to the window all the way. When I finally arrived, I went to check something at the ticket office. “Alright Ade,” said the lady, in the strongest Black Country accent. I asked her what had brought her there. “I came here 20 years ago and I loved it, so I stayed,” she said.

At times, with war raging despicably elsewhere, and the cost of living crisis biting, the places I’ve been to have felt quite indecently tranquil. Floating but barely moving in a coracle on the River Teifi in Pembrokeshire, time and space lost all meaning for too short a while.

Angus Taylor claims that to be the opposition’s aim but Chris Bowen says it’s a target ‘more than two-thirds of these companies already have’

• Temperature Check is a weekly column examining claims about climate change made by governments, politicians, business and the media. See the latest column and follow the series here

There’s an election on, so it’s time to get right into some details about climate and energy policy. Right? In a Facebook post this week, the emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, claimed that Labor “plans to force the nation’s top 200 largest energy users and producers to cut their aggregate emissions by 25% by 2030”.

Taylor was referring to Labor’s plan to modify the Morrison government’s safeguard mechanism – a policy that was supposed to cap emissions from industrial facilities that emit more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent a year by requiring them to purchase carbon credits if they exceeded an emissions baseline.

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I wanted to sound the alarm about oil exploration and the climate crisis, but Good Morning Britain just didn’t want to hear

I hadn’t seen the 2021 satirical film Don’t Look Up when I went on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday. I was there on behalf of Just Stop Oil – a group that has been engaging in direct action by blockading oil terminals. We’re demanding that the UK government ends all new oil licences, exploration and consent in the North Sea. It’s a simple message that’s in line with science.

But the simplicity of our demands seemed to annoy my interviewer, Richard Madeley. “But you’d accept, wouldn’t you, that it’s a very complicated discussion to be had, it’s a very complicated thing,” he said. “And this ‘Just Stop Oil’ slogan is very playground-ish isn’t it? It’s very Vicky Pollard, quite childish.” I then proceeded to talk about the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which confirmed that it is “now or never” to avoid climate catastrophe. But they didn’t seem to care.

But goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C will fail without immediate action, scientists warn

For the first time the world is in a position to limit global heating to under 2C, according to the first in-depth analysis of the net zero pledges made by nations at the UN Cop26 climate summit in December.

Before these pledges it was more than likely that at the peak of the climate crisis there would be a temperature rise above 2C, bringing more severe impacts for billions of people. Now it is more likely that the peak temperature rise will be about 1.9C.

Scientists from Extinction Rebellion have pasted pages of scientific papers to the windows of the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and glued their hands to the glass, to highlight the climate science they say the government is ignoring

Pygmy marmosets, tiger cubs and African grey parrots among endangered species for sale, investigation by Avaaz reveals

Facebook remains a thriving marketplace for online wildlife trafficking despite the tech giant’s pledge to help combat the illegal trade, according to a new investigation.

Tiger cubs, leopards, ocelots, African grey parrots and the world’s smallest monkey, the pygmy marmoset, were among the endangered animals that researchers from the global campaign group Avaaz found on Facebook pages and public groups.

Affiliates of Scientists for Extinction Rebellion highlight climate science they say government is ignoring

Twenty-five scientists have pasted pages of scientific papers to the windows of the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, and glued their hands to the glass to highlight the climate science they said the government was ignoring.

The scientists, affiliated with Scientists for Extinction Rebellion, swooped on the department’s building at 1 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, just after 11am. Doctors and health professionals staged a decoy action to give them space to get into position.

Guidelines to mitigate effect of avian flu lockdowns fail to take into account chicken-meat farming

A loophole in government regulations means that chickens can still be called free-range even though they are no longer allowed outside because of the outbreak of avian flu.

The UK has been affected by what government officials have called the “largest ever outbreak of avian flu” over the winter, with almost 100 reported highly pathogenic outbreaks in England, Scotland and Wales.

Judge says environmental activists ‘inspired me personally’ after impassioned speeches in court

Insulate Britain protesters have been praised by a judge, who said he was “inspired” by their commitment to greener living, as he fined 12 of them over a demonstration that disrupted the journeys of drivers on the M25.

The protesters blocked traffic at junction 3 of the motorway. Some glued themselves to the tarmac, while another glued himself to a police car.