The Guardian

UK only in early stages of finding permanent site for underground storage of hazardous spent fuel

As Boris Johnson prepares a new push for nuclear power, the £131bn problem of how to safely dispose of vast volumes of radioactive waste created by the last British atomic energy programme remains unsolved.

The hugely expensive and dangerous legacy of the UK’s 20th-century nuclear revolution amounts to 700,000 cubic metres of toxic waste – roughly the volume of 6,000 doubledecker buses. Much of it is stored at Sellafield in Cumbria, which the Office for Nuclear Regulation says is one of the most complex and hazardous nuclear sites in the world.

Effect of cuts to efficiency subsidies highlighted as government struggles to finalise energy strategy

Millions of households are paying an extra £170 in bills because of cuts to subsidies for measures such as home insulation, according to analysis that comes during an impasse on the government’s energy strategy.

One cabinet source said it was now likely the strategy – designed to tackle rising bills and boost energy security – would not be ready this week, amid cabinet splits over funding for nuclear power and the relaxing of planning rules concerning onshore wind.

Farm workers in UK at risk of destitution and abuse, and should be on family scheme visas, say campaigners

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

Lawyers and campaigners have called on the government to take urgent action to help thousands of Ukrainian seasonal farm workers who were in the UK when the war started and have been left at risk of destitution, abuse and exploitation here.

Ukrainians made up by far the largest proportion of workers in the UK on seasonal worker visas in 2021. Of the 29,631 visas issued under the T5 seasonal work scheme, 19,920 – 67% – were given to Ukrainians. The Scottish Refugee Council estimates that there are up to 6,000 in the UK.

While there are plans to expand airports, railways have been dismantled – so how will the country decarbonise domestic travel?

For a people represented by a unique flightless bird, Kiwis do a lot of flying. While globally, aviation emissions represented just under 3% of carbon dioxide emissions in 2019, for New Zealand the figure was 12%. New Zealand ranks sixth in per capita aviation emissions, at one tonne of carbon dioxide per person, about 10 times the world average. It ranks fourth for per capita emissions in domestic aviation – just ahead of Canada, even though Canada is 40 times the size of New Zealand.

Perhaps this is not surprising. New Zealand is far away from most population centres. It has a large tourist industry and a population with globally dispersed families – 27% of the population was born overseas, and an estimated one million Kiwis live overseas.

Robert McLachlan is a professor in applied mathematics at Massey University

Chris Thorogood had to venture deep into the Luzon rainforest to set eyes on the extraordinary Rafflesia banaoana

It was after travelling 6,600 miles and battling through the tropical assault course of the Luzon rainforest that Chris Thorogood set his eyes upon the rare and extraordinary flower that ignited his childhood imagination 30 years ago.

Thorogood, 38, last month became the first westerner to see the Rafflesia banaoana – an otherworldly-looking red spotted species that spans half a metre across – in an experience that reduced him to tears.

Former employees arrested for ‘extremist activities’, fuelling fears for conservationists’ safety and the future of protected areas

One of the oldest and largest wildlife NGOs in Belarus is being forced to shut down after accusations of “extremist activities”, as conservationists warn of “darkness” engulfing a region known for its rich natural heritage.

Former employees of BirdLife Belarus (APB) were arrested and one has been in jail for six months under suspicion of attempting to destabilise the political situation in the country under the guise of protecting birds. The organisation has been ordered by a court to close next month after 24 years of work.

Complex agreements have done little to reduce emissions in the last 30 years, but a universal tariff could avert catastrophe

In 1994, I wrote an article for Time magazine noting that property and casualty insurers would provide an early warning about the costs of climate change and also serve as a white knight. My white knight turned out to be very timid and the reasons why help explain why it has been so hard for the world to take action on global warming.

The reinsurance side of the industry, the side that underwrites insurance for catastrophic risks, understood early on that climate change could bankrupt the industry and reinsurers produced some of the best reports on the costs climate change will likely impose on society. At the same time, however, the retail side of the industry continued to provide coverage for home and businesses at risk from climate-related fires and wind storms. Indeed, since the climate risks surfaced, millions of people have moved into wildfire zones in the US west and to coastal properties at risk of hurricanes, storm surges and sea level rise. That influx of people continues, even though the Florida coast has eight of the 20 cities in the US most threatened by sea level rise.

Boat dwellers stage demonstration about new moves by the Canal & River Trust to restrict mooring spaces

Hundreds of boaters converged in west London’s Little Venice area on Saturday to protest about what they say is a “cull” of a traditional way of life along the capital’s waterways.

The boat dwellers staged a demonstration about new moves by the Canal & River Trust (CRT), a charity which manages the waterways in England and Wales, to restrict mooring spaces in some parts of the capital and to issue enforcement notices against some who officials say are mooring their boats in the wrong areas. The CRT began issuing enforcement notices in January of this year.

Backyard hives have taken off in Australia. But have we got enough habitat, and what does the boom in honeybees mean for native bees?

Every spring, longtime beekeeper Tony Wilsmore will start getting phone calls. Usually people see his phone number on the side of the cargo bike that he rides around the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds, tending to various backyard hives in the inner north as part of his business Suburban Bees. As their garden starts blooming and thoughts turn to outside, people want to register their interest in keeping hives.

“The first thing I do,” says Wilsmore, “is try to convince them that they should not keep bees.”

Waiting lists of thousands, cars selling out in seconds, welcome to the frustrating world of the Australian EV buyer

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our free news app; get our morning email briefing

Matt Holding set an alarm on his phone so he wouldn’t miss out on a limited release of electric vehicles, but by the time he jumped online to buy one they had sold out.

In six and a half minutes, all 109 of Hyundai’s electric SUVs had sold – 18,000 Australians had registered their interest.

Proposed theme park the size of 136 Wembleys will threaten protected species and local jobs, say campaigners

It promises to be one of Britain’s most unusual planning battles. On one side is an array of endangered wildlife that includes a species of jumping spider. On the other are backers of a theme park that they claim will rival Disneyland in its size and ambition.

The park, called the London Resort, would be built on the Swanscombe peninsula on the Thames, near Gravesend, where it would cover land equivalent to 136 Wembley stadiums and would include themed rides, a water park, conference venues, hotels and a shopping centre.

Exclusive: Charity says big four chains offer scores of deals every week, despite pledging to promote meat-free eating

Britain’s biggest supermarkets stand accused of “bombarding” shoppers with offers of cheap meat, despite pledging to promote more meat-free diets to improve health and tackle global heating.

They are using money-saving promotions, such as two for the price of one, as a way of “pushing” meat, at odds with moves in the UK and globally for consumers to eat less of it, research found.

While Morrisons and Asda ran 1,490 and 1,352 promotions respectively, Tesco (948) and Sainsbury’s (933) ran many fewer.

Asda and Morrisons run a lot of multi-buy offers for animal products, such as three for £10, three for the price of two and buy one get one free.

Sainsbury’s uses discounts on meat products to persuade people to buy them.

Craig Clouatre, 40, had been missing since Wednesday after leaving for a hiking trip

A Montana man who went missing while hiking earlier this week was killed in a suspected encounter with a grizzly bear north of Yellowstone national park, authorities said Friday.

The victim was identified as Craig Clouatre, 40, of Livingston. No details were provided on where he was found or why a grizzly bear was believed responsible for his death.

A heatwave at the north pole and collapsed Antarctic ice shelf are reminders to redouble our efforts, and focus on climate

A heatwave in the Arctic and the collapse of the Conger ice shelf in East Antarctica bring warnings that climate breakdown could be accelerating. There are signs of melting at weather stations near the north pole, with temperatures 30C above normal. In Antarctica, temperatures are 40C up. While the Conger ice shelf is too small to cause significant sea-level rises, its collapse points to growing instability. These weather events do more than offer proof of the dangers of global heating. They also risk triggering changes that could accelerate the disruption.

When policymakers and the public are focused on war in Ukraine and the rising cost of living, it is hard to be reminded of the existential threat posed by rising temperatures. But the extent to which climate has faded from consciousness in the months since the UN conference in Glasgow is frightening. If we are to avoid the worst effects of global heating, with around half the world’s population said by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be highly vulnerable, it is imperative to make drastic changes to our global energy system.

The beliefs embodied in his love for Kelmscott Manor – his socialism and care for the environment – are as urgent now as they were in the late 19th century

“I am writing among the gables and rook-haunted trees, with a sense of the place being almost too beautiful to live in,” wrote William Morris in 1872, the year after he co-signed the lease on Kelmscott Manor in Oxfordshire, which next week reopens to the public after a three-year, multimillion-pound refurbishment. Anyone who has seen designs by Morris will have seen motifs inspired by Kelmscott: Strawberry Thief, for instance, or Willow Bough.

Morris, as his biographer Fiona MacCarthy put it, “had a sense of place so acute as to be almost a disability”; physical surroundings were so foundational to his thinking that MacCarthy listed locations as primary sources. Kelmscott, in particular, was central to his most deeply held beliefs – beliefs that were not only influential then, but are arguably even more important now.

The deal is intended to decrease reliance on Russia but will entrench reliance on fossil fuels, environmentalists say

A major deal that will see the US ramp up its supply of gas to Europe in an attempt to shift away from Russian fossil fuel imports risks “disaster” for the climate crisis, environmental groups have warned.

Under the agreement, unveiled on Friday, the US will provide an extra 15bn cubic meters of liquified natural gas (LNG) to the European Union this year. This represents about a tenth of the gas the EU now gets from Russia, which provides 40% of the bloc’s total gas supply.

Milk production is starting to fall as sharp rises in cost of fuel, feed, and fertiliser outstrip increases in farm-gate prices

“Something has to give and if the milk price doesn’t give, then the producers will,” says Oxfordshire dairy farmer David Christensen in a stark assessment of the peril his industry is facing as soaring costs push farm finances into the red.

Christensen, whose family business manages a herd of about 1,000 cows, says costs were already going up as a result of the upheaval caused by the pandemic and Brexit, but the war in Ukraine has “turbocharged inflation to levels the like of which I’ve never seen in 30 years of farming”.

Hundreds of protests happen across seven continents in first action since Cop26 climate summit

Children and young people across the world have begun a wave of school strikes for the climate, in the first Fridays For Future action since the Cop26 climate summit.

Hundreds of actions were slated to take place in communities on all seven continents, with actions kicking off in New Zealand on Friday morning and heading west with the rising sun.

Exclusive: Over-exploitation of fish stocks was supposed to end in 2020 under common fisheries policy

Legal action is to be brought against all 27 EU countries over the setting of unsustainable fishing quotas for 2022, two years after a deadline to end overfishing.

Under the EU’s common fisheries policy, over-exploitation of fish stocks was supposed to end in 2020 but more than 40% of all commercial stocks in EU waters were unsustainably fished last year according to official monitoring data.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including mating frogs, vervet monkeys and a rehabilitated bald eagle