The Guardian

MeaTech 3D created the 4oz steak using 3D printing with real bovine cells that mature into muscle and fat

The largest lab-grown steak yet produced has been unveiled by the Israeli company MeaTech 3D, weighing in at nearly 4oz (110 grams).

The steak is composed of real muscle and fat cells, derived from tissue samples taken from a cow. Living bovine stem cells were incorporated into “bio-inks” that were then placed in the company’s 3D printer to produce the steak. It was then matured in an incubator, in which the stem cells differentiated into fat and muscle cells.

Firm illegally discharged about 360,000 litres of raw sewage from Worcestershire treatment plants in 2018

Water company Severn Trent has been fined £1.5m by a court for illegal sewage discharges from its wastewater treatment plants.

The firm was fined for discharges from four sewage treatment works in Worcestershire between February and August 2018, the Environment Agency said.

Outages hit Ireland and parts of UK after severe winds, rain and snow sweep in from Atlantic

Almost 60,000 homes in Ireland and 1,000 properties in Scotland have been left without power after Storm Barra swept in from the Atlantic bringing severe winds, rain and snow.

The latest outages came days after the final homes in Britain were reconnected after Storm Arwen, which caused “catastrophic damage” to electricity networks mainly in north-east Scotland, affecting 135,000 properties.

Charity warns of ‘catastrophic’ increase in tree and plant disease because of climate breakdown

At least 30,000 ash trees are due to be felled by the National Trust this year at a cost of £3m due to dieback, as the charity warns of a “catastrophic” increase in tree and plant disease because of climate breakdown.

Changing weather patterns are expected to cause pests and diseases that destroy trees to thrive, which could bring dramatic change to British landscapes.

WE GOT RID OF ONE SNAKE LAST YEAR AND NOW HERE IS ANOTHER WHAT IS GOING ON?!

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They are Britain’s largest bird and, flying overhead, Theroux described them as sounding like ‘a couple making love in a hammock’

The mute swan is not so much a bird, more of a national treasure: the avian equivalent of Sir David Attenborough or the Queen. And just like them, swans are widely loved and admired.

Yet people also sometimes fear swans: when a territorial male chases after you, hissing and spreading his wings, he can be a fearsome adversary. And at times, people wilfully seek to harm them. Perhaps because they present such huge and obvious targets, swans are regularly shot and killed.

From whoops to purrs, snaps to grunts, and foghorns to laughs, a cacophony of bizarre fish songs have shown that a coral reef in Indonesia has returned rapidly to health.

Many of the noises had never been recorded before and the fish making these calls remain mysterious, despite the use of underwater speakers to try to “talk” to some of them

Vibrant soundscape shows Indonesian reef devastated by blast fishing is returning to health

From whoops to purrs, snaps to grunts, and foghorns to laughs, a cacophony of bizarre fish songs have shown that a coral reef in Indonesia has returned rapidly to health.

Many of the noises had never been recorded before and the fish making these calls remain mysterious, despite the use of underwater speakers to try to “talk” to some.

Activist investor Elliott Management is right – if SSE wants to be the UK renewables champion it needs green heavyweights on board

Elliott Management’s open letters are improving. When the US activist hedge fund tried to take a pop at GlaxoSmithKline in the summer, it produced 17 pages of waffle that could have been condensed to a few sentences of substance. Tuesday’s 10-page blast at energy group SSE was tighter, scored a couple of solid hits and should make the newish chairman, Sir John Manzoni, realise the Perth-based firm is in a scrap.

That is not to say Elliott is right on every score, or even on its main demand that SSE should be split in two. Indeed, one of the activist’s points was plainly exaggerated – the idea that an “unequivocal message” was sent by the 4% fall in SSE’s share price on the day last month when the company unveiled its energy transition strategy alongside a delayed dividend cut.

From whoops to purrs, snaps to grunts, and foghorns to laughs, a cacophony of bizarre fish songs have shown that a coral reef in Indonesia has returned rapidly to health.

Many of the noises had never been recorded before and the fish making these calls remain mysterious, despite the use of underwater speakers to try to “talk” to some of them

In 1479 beetles were put on trial for ‘creeping secretly in the earth’

If you hold a Christmas beetle – small, brown, mechanical – in the palm of your hand, it moves as though under a spell. The spell commands it to keep walking, to burrow its surprisingly strong legs endlessly forwards, like the end of the year growing steadily nearer and just as steadily receding.

In Europe, Christmas beetles are called “cockchafers”. In the year 1478, they appeared in a French court to stand trial on the charge of having been sent by witches to destroy the laity’s crops (and jeopardise the church’s tithes).

Helen Sullivan’s Calcium-Magnesium, a collection of essays about science and the natural world, will be published in 2023.

Blockade Australia says 26-year-old climate activist had been living in the car when she was arrested in Newcastle

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New South Wales police have sought to confiscate and auction a station wagon belonging to a young climate activist after it was seized during her arrest last month.

Activist group Blockade Australia says the car is the property of 26-year-old Sasha, who was arrested in the vehicle on 17 November. She was on a public road near the Port of Newcastle.

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The travel photography blog Capture the Atlas has published its annual northern lights photographer of the year collection with stunning images from 25 photographers. Coinciding with the northern lights season at the end of the year, it aims to share the beauty of this natural phenomenon

Food and Agriculture Organization says most plastics are burned, buried or lost after use

The “disastrous” way in which plastic is used in farming across the world is threatening food safety and potentially human health, according to a report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

It says soils contain more microplastic pollution than the oceans and that there is “irrefutable” evidence of the need for better management of the millions of tonnes of plastics used in the food and farming system each year.

Leaders say Adani Group, a major operator of coal mines, is responsible for land destruction

Indigenous leaders on the frontline of the climate crisis are calling on the Science Museum to cancel its sponsorship deal with a company they say is responsible for widespread destruction in their homelands.

Leaders from communities in Australia, India and Indonesia warned that the museum’s new agreement with Adani Green Energy, whose parent company Adani Group is a major operator of coal mines and coal-fired power stations, is legitimising its “destructive coal expansion activities”.

This is not simply a rich versus poor countries divide: there are huge emitters in poor countries, and low emitters in rich countries

Let’s face it: our chances of staying under a 2C increase in global temperature are not looking good. If we continue business as usual, the world is on track to heat up by 3C at least by the end of this century. At current global emissions rates, the carbon budget that we have left if we are to stay under 1.5C will be depleted in six years. The paradox is that, globally, popular support for climate action has never been so strong. According to a recent United Nations poll, the vast majority of people around the world sees climate change as a global emergency. So, what have we got wrong so far?

There is a fundamental problem in contemporary discussion of climate policy: it rarely acknowledges inequality. Poorer households, which are low CO2 emitters, rightly anticipate that climate policies will limit their purchasing power. In return, policymakers fear a political backlash should they demand faster climate action. The problem with this vicious circle is that it has lost us a lot of time. The good news is that we can end it.

Lucas Chancel is co-director of the World Inequality Lab, an affiliate professor at Sciences Po, and the author of Unsustainable Inequalities: Social Justice and the Environment

Department sources say emergency authorisation of neonicotinoid Cruiser SB likely to be announced

The UK government may be about to approve the use of a controversial bee-killing pesticide, wildlife groups fear.

Sources inside the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) say that, after pressure from the sugar beet industry, an emergency authorisation of the neonicotinoid Cruiser SB is likely to be announced in the coming weeks.

Climate Change Committee says Holyrood administration cannot show how it will cut CO2 by 75%

There is an “acute risk” that Scotland will miss its targets to heavily cut carbon emissions because government policies are too vague and weak, an influential advisory body has warned.

The Climate Change Committee, which advises all the UK’s governments on climate policies, said the Scottish government was currently unable to prove how it would hit its ambitious promise to cut CO2 emissions by 75% by the end of the decade.

Businesses, unions and green groups say ministers must ensure all policies are compatible with climate targets

Boris Johnson should set up a new cross-government initiative on reaching net-zero emissions, and subject all government policies to tests to ensure they are compatible with the climate target, businesses, unions and green campaigners have said.

Ministers should review current policies in the next few months and use the result to present a new national plan on the climate crisis before the next UN climate meeting in November 2022, the leaders urged. The UK retains the presidency of the UN climate talks until then, having hosted the Cop26 climate summit last month.

I will always be grateful to have benefited from his sage advice and example of standing up for what you believe in

Peter Cundall is known to most Australians as a lovable gardening guru but to those of us who have fought for decades for the protection of Tasmania’s environment, he was so much more. He had a deep love of nature and was not only a champion of Tasmania’s wilderness, magnificent native forests, rivers and farmlands, he was also an outspoken champion of local people fighting for the places they love against what he saw as the state’s endemic crony capitalism.

I first heard him speak at the Crotty Road protest in 1983 during the campaign against the Franklin Dam, and again at the protests against the logging of the Lemonthyme. He was a great communicator: passionate, direct, warm, funny and fierce – leaving people inspired and ready to take action. Unlike many in the public eye, he had the courage of his convictions and was prepared to use his TV celebrity status to boost environmental campaigns.