The Guardian

If you had told me I would be doing this three years ago I would have said you’re mad

Wading in to the ocean the cold takes my breath away. Less than an hour ago I was beneath my warm doona in bed, and now the sun is spreading across the winter horizon and I’m wearing two millimeters of neoprene on most surfaces of my body. It’s Sunday, 7am, and I am about to swim out from Coogee beach to Wylie’s Baths and then across the length of the bay and back again with a group of others, some in just their swimsuits, some in full wetsuits, and some (OK – just me) in a full wetsuit with neoprene booties and fins.

If you had told me I would be doing this three years ago I would have said you’re mad; I hate the cold, I’m scared of deep water. But Covid lockdowns brought strange new hobbies to many. And mine – bracingly – is ocean swimming.

Ecologists say discovery of scaly-tailed possum at Bullo River Station is a sign of positive benefit of private land conservation

A rare scaly-tailed possum has been caught in the Northern Territory for the first time in what scientists say is a sign that private land conservation is having a positive effect.

The scaly-tailed possum, also known as the Wyulda, is a rock-dwelling marsupial with stout limbs and a “grippy” tail it uses to hang from branches and rock ledges to reach for seeds, fruits and flowers.

If the future remembers any corporate villain from 2022, it will be Stuart Kirk. The satirically titled head of “responsible investment” at HSBC looks the part: shaven headed, tightly trimmed beard, hard, sharp eyes. Like all the best villains, the banker’s arguments are insidiously appealing. He says out loud what his audience thinks, cutting through polite society’s pious crap to reveal its selfish desires.

“There’s always some nut job telling me about the end of the world,” he told the Financial Times’s Moral Money conference – and I haven’t made that title up either. “Who cares if Miami is six metres underwater in 100 years? Amsterdam has been six metres underwater for ages and that’s a really nice place.”

The then 12-year-old had diplomats squirming in their seats when she berated them at the 1992 gathering

• Thirty years of climate summits: where have they got us?

Fidel Castro was there, along with George Bush, John Major and 100 other heads of state, billionaires and rock stars. But the biggest star of the 1992 Earth Summit was a young girl who delivered what would be known as the speech that “silenced the world”.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki was just 12 years old, and had set up a children’s environment group in Vancouver with her nine-year-old sister Sarika and friends Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler and Michelle Quigg. When they heard about the Rio meeting they pestered family and friends to raise the money to fly south, accompanied by her father, David Suzuki, one of Canada’s leading geneticists. The group hired a small booth at a side event and set about ambushing anyone and everyone (I met them and was knocked out by their enthusiasm and intensity).

If Democrats act, New Yorkers will begin to get the government they deserve. With climate cataclysms here, the political system can’t afford more delays

It has been, for progressives in New York, a trying year.

Major pieces of legislation that were supposed to reshape the state to safeguard the working class have stalled out. A bill to create a statewide single-payer healthcare system is no closer to passage than it was several years ago. A push to guarantee new protections for tenants as rents soar in New York City could not find the votes. And ambitious legislation to combat climate that did have the votes to go through the state legislature was halted by the speaker of the state assembly.

Ross Barkan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of Demolition Night, a novel, and The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York

Their use is linked to the rise in whale strandings on British beaches, but partial bans keeps letting industry off the hook

In the aftermath of 9/11, scientists noticed a curious impact on the stress hormones of North Atlantic right whales. Ships are ubiquitous in our oceans but, for a brief window, immediately after the planes flew into the twin towers, there was a dramatic drop in traffic along the North Atlantic eastern seaboard, reducing underwater noise. While the world above ground was reeling, our underwater neighbours were thriving.

So often we think of the golden age of whaling as being over. Japanese and Icelandic whaling ships are now pariahs in the international community. But too often, out of sight is out of mind, and it remains easy to ignore the impact of our actions above ground on marine life. However, whales are increasingly forcing us to take note, as more of them than ever are beaching on our shores.

Institute of Chartered Foresters says 70% more staff must be recruited to meet current tree planting targets

When Kevin Martin was a child he spent days beneath the canopy of Hampshire woodlands while his father, a tree surgeon, scaled the heights of oak and ash above him.

Twenty years later, with a degree and with research for a master’s under way, Martin is in charge of tending to the 14,000 trees at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. With trees at the forefront of UK strategies to reach net zero by 2050, Martin and others like him are key professionals on the frontline of the fight to mitigate the impact of climate change and adapt to the changing conditions.

Photographer Callie Chee captures the weird and wonderful landscapes that spring to life in the dark

(Please do not pick or eat any mushrooms found growing wild)

Models indicate that there could be between 25 and 30 extreme events a year by mid-century

Millions across the US south-west are bracing for a weekend of sweltering heat as forecasts threaten record-setting high temperatures that will top 100F in several states.

Heat advisories and excessive heat warnings have been issued across portions of roughly half a dozen states and daily records could be broken in more than 75 cities.

Labour says leaked white paper suggesting more fish farming and venison ‘borders on preposterous’

• Analysis: Strategy shows no stomach for bold action

Boris Johnson’s new food strategy for England contains virtually no new measures to tackle the soaring cost of food, childhood hunger, obesity or the climate emergency, a leaked version of the white paper shows.

The strategy, seen by the Guardian and due to be published on Monday, was supposed to be a groundbreaking response to recommendations from the restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, who wrote two government-commissioned reports on obesity and the environment.

Renewable heating incentive was set up to help business, public sector and non-profit organisations

A minister, MPs and several aristocratic landowners have received thousands in public funds from a government subsidy intended to stimulate the green transition.

The renewable heating incentive was set up in 2014 to help businesses, public sector and non-profit organisations meet the cost of installing renewable heat systems by paying them a tariff for each unit of heat produced from renewable sources. A parallel system was set up for homes.

The Wye is being killed by toxic industrial chicken factories along its banks. Such disasters are happening all over the UK

The longer this goes on, the deeper the mystery becomes. It’s as if the public authorities had set out to destroy an entire region’s economy. Last year, a group of us tried to raise the profile of an astonishing scandal: the impending collapse of one of the most treasured and “protected” rivers in Europe, the Wye, which flows through Wales and England. We showed how chicken factories in the catchment are turning this beautiful river and its tributaries into open sewers.

The two county councils through which the river mostly flows, Powys and Herefordshire, have between them granted planning permission for giant steel barns (factories, in reality) that contain an estimated 20m birds. Many were approved on the grounds that they would probably have no significant environmental impact. Amazingly, at no point was the cumulative impact considered: every decision was taken as if in isolation.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Governments not listening to people with disabilities despite them being at high risk, say researchers

People with disabilities are being “systematically ignored” by governments around the world when it comes to the climate crisis, even though they are particularly at risk from the impacts of extreme weather, research has shown.

Few countries make provisions for the needs of people with disabilities when they make plans for adapting to the effects of climate breakdown, and none mention disabled people in their programmes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the first comprehensive review of the issue.

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a new iguana, a nesting weaver and a rare albino giant tortoise

Extracting the chemical used in fertilisers from waste rather than mining it could also help reduce pollution

Sewage could provide a novel way of helping consumers with soaring food bills and reducing pollution in our waterways – if sewage plants separated out phosphorus, a vital ingredient of fertiliser, according to a new report.

Phosphorus, found naturally in all plants, is essential for growing plants but its use as a fertiliser is creating widespread pollution in developed countries, because much of it is wasted. Phosphorus is a leading cause of water pollution, as the runoff from fertiliser use in fields produces an excess of nutrients that upset the natural balance of rivers and ponds, leading to algae blooms that harm fish and plants.

US wildlife agency agrees to review protection for habitats after conservationists sue over mass die-offs from poor water quality

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed to update critical habitat protections for manatees after legal pressure from environmental groups, as the animals continue to die in record numbers.

More than 1,000 manatees died in Florida last year, wiping out more than 10% of the state’s population, the deadliest year on record. The unusually high mortality rate for the threatened mammals has continued into 2022, with 562 deaths in the first five months.

Exclusive: Study finds people have ‘astonishing’ levels of compounds thought to disrupt hormones

A cocktail of chemical pollutants measured in people’s bodies has been linked to falling semen quality by new research.

Chemicals such as bisphenols and dioxins are thought to interfere with hormones and damage sperm quality, and the study found combinations of these compounds are present at “astonishing” levels, up to 100 times those considered safe.

New research shows the gut of the Zophobas morio beetle larvae contains enzymes capable of breaking down the plastic, which is difficult to recycle

Beetle larvae that can shred and eat polystyrene may provide alternative methods of breaking down and upcycling plastic waste, new research suggests.

The larvae of Zophobas morio, a species of beetle, are commonly known as superworms and contain several gut enzymes that are capable of digesting polystyrene, Australian scientists have found.

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Scientists are watching an area in Pacific Ocean that has been unusually cool – a signal current La Niña could linger

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Australia’s east coast could be hit by a rare “triple La Niña” that brings flooding rains and cooler weather for the third summer in a row, a senior US government scientist says.

Experts say the prospect of a triple La Niña is real, but there is disagreement between different computer models and Australia could yet avoid a return of summer floods.

Energy crisis has made Kent scheme aimed at unobtrusively building up solar output more timely

Tennis fans tucking into strawberries at Wimbledon this month may find their fruit has an unusual origin – a solar-powered greenhouse.

Transparent panels have been attached to the sides of glasshouses in Kent as part of a trial to build up solar power supplies without using more land.