The Guardian

Government’s plan to use ‘blue’ fossil-fuel hydrogen alongside green version raises concern, say campaigners

Opting for hydrogen that is made using fossil fuels rather than renewable electricity could create up to 8m tonnes of carbon emissions every year by 2050, according to an analysis of government data.

The figures show that the use of fossil-fuel hydrogen, or “blue hydrogen”, would create the same carbon emissions each year that more than a million petrol cars would produce, compared with using zero-carbon “green hydrogen”.

Too many British children are deprived of nature. If they can’t recognise a swift, will they care if it doesn’t come back?

When the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was published in early August, it confirmed what was already being made increasingly obvious by 2021’s extreme weather events: the burning of fossil fuels is “choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk”.

While the report’s main headlines weren’t news to many – especially climate scientists, who have been sounding the alarm for decades, and the fossil fuel industry, which has spent billions obscuring the truth about climate change – one cohort in the UK was mostly able to continue with their days unaware of its implications: young children.

A simple breakfast with a friend presented a serious dilemma and pointed to both the need and precedent for action

On Saturday morning I met a friend for breakfast at a local diner. We weren’t sure whether to sit outside because of the surging Delta variant of Covid, or inside because stinging smoke from wildfires consuming northern and western California had spread into the Bay Area.

Related: Our Own Worst Enemy review: a caustic diagnosis of America after Trump

The Wildlife Disaster Network is just one group that patrols burn areas looking for critters that need their help

The emaciated bear cub was trekking along a mountain road through the scorched Sierra Nevada when firefighters spotted it. His paws appeared burned and he seemed alone. There was little the fire crew could do, but call the Wildlife Disaster Network.

The group of volunteer disaster veterinarians treats animals injured in California’s devastating wildfires. The network, and other groups like it, are busier than ever this year as fires tear through the state at an astonishing pace.

Having suffered a 90% drop in population, they still face extinction in Britain – but a new initiative offers a glimmer of hope

A hundred and fifty water voles were last week settling into new homes on the riverbanks of Hertfordshire. The animals had been released from pens the previous week as part of a campaign to halt the devastating drop in Arvicola amphibius number across the British Isles over the past 50 years.

Once widespread in the UK, water voles – whose most known incarnation is Ratty in Wind in the Willows – have suffered a 90% drop in population since the 1970s. Feral mink, which kill young voles in their nests, in combination with major changes in land use, have resulted in the widespread eradication of a species that was once a ubiquitous presence along the banks of Britain’s rivers.

Higher than average rainfall and growth of the bees’ two favourite flowers could account for the larger than usual colony

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Thousands of fluffy native bees are emerging from the clay pans in Western Australia in bumper nesting colonies, after a year of above-average rainfall has wildflowers blooming.

Dawson’s burrowing bees, or Amegilla dawsoni, emerge from the ground from a few weeks every spring to breed and dig new burrows, which they will line with wax and fill with pollen and eggs.

More than 100,000 tonnes of solar panel waste are forecast to enter Australia’s waste stream by 2035

The first time Dr Pablo Diaz set foot in an Australian recycling facility to see how the nation’s e-waste was processed he was struck by disappointment.

Until that moment the now 31-year-old had romanticised Australia. As a young engineering student in Brazil he had been working to develop methods to safely recycle old photovoltaic (PV) solar cells but when he tried to take it outside the lab, he found himself hamstrung.

Government body Natural England is considering move in response to Glover report on protected landscapes

Cities in England could be granted national park status – affording urban areas the same level of environmental protection as natural landscapes – as part of a new review of open spaces.

The government is considering the proposed status, which would also entail management of the areas to maintain their biodiversity, in response to the Glover review of protected landscapes.

Peer at odds with Priti Patel over climate activists on eve of more protests

A government extremism adviser has admitted during a private meeting that it is wrong to label Extinction Rebellion (XR) supporters as “extreme”, despite the home secretary, Priti Patel, condemning the group as “criminals” who threaten the nation’s way of life.

John Woodcock, the former Labour MP who was asked by the Home Office this year to examine disruption and violence by extreme political groups, sought to reassure XR activists that he did not regard the movement as uniformly extreme during a Zoom video conference call last month. “You’re worried that I want to label everyone who supports XR as extremists and that is certainly not the case,” he said.

Rainforest lost 10,476 sq km between August 2020 and July 2021, report says, despite increasing global concern

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has hit the highest annual level in a decade, a new report has shown, despite increasing global concern over the accelerating devastation since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019.

Between August 2020 and July 2021, the rainforest lost 10.476 square kilometers – an area nearly seven times bigger than greater London and 13 times the size of New York City, according to data released by Imazon, a Brazilian research institute that has been tracking the Amazon deforestation since 2008. The figure is 57% higher than in the previous year and is the worst since 2012.

Metropolitan police vow to tackle ‘wilful obstruction’ in spite of supreme court’s Ziegler judgment

Police preparing for a new campaign of Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in London have said they will not be deterred by a recent supreme court ruling that obstruction can be a legitimate and lawful form of protest.

The Ziegler judgment, handed down by the supreme court in June, had ruled that the exercising of protest rights could constitute a “lawful excuse” for obstructing the highway, even if the protest is considered disruptive.

Demonstrations shut down Gwadar, where Chinese are blamed for lack of water and electricity and threat to local fishing

Protests have erupted in Pakistan’s port city Gwadar against a severe shortage of water and electricity and threats to livelihoods blamed on the Chinese. It is part of a growing backlash against China’s multibillion-dollar belt and road projects in the country.

This week, demonstrators including fishers and other local workers blocked the roads in Gwadar, a coastal town in Balochistan. They burned tyres, chanted slogans, and shut down the city, to demand water and electricity and a stop to Chinese trawlers illegally fishing in the nearby waters and then taking the fish to China. Two people were injured when the authorities cracked down on the protesters.

We are in an emergency. Wildfires are raging across the world as scorching temperatures and dry conditions fuel the blazes that have cost lives and destroyed livelihoods.

The combination of extreme heat, changes in our ecosystem and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade, and come after the IPCC handed down a damning landmark report on the climate crisis.

But technically, there are fewer wildfires than in the past – the problem now is that they are worse than ever and we are running out of time to act, as the Guardian's global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains

• Heat, drought and fire: how climate dangers combine for a catastrophic ‘perfect storm’

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including wild horses, hungry cats and Wally the walrus

Experts question credibility of environmental claims made by UK restaurant chain

The environmental credentials of Leon’s “carbon-neutral” burgers have been questioned after it emerged the fast-food chain was using controversial carbon offsets to make the claim.

In January, Leon announced it would become the first restaurant chain in the UK to serve carbon-neutral burgers and fries at more than 60 locations by reducing and offsetting the emissions they produce.

Chris Jackson believes companies promoted ‘unsustainable’ fossil gas projects to access billions in taxpayer subsidies

Oil companies have used false claims over the cost of producing fossil fuel hydrogen to win over the Treasury and access billions in taxpayer subsidies, according to the outgoing hydrogen lobby boss.

Chris Jackson quit as the chair of a leading hydrogen industry association earlier this week ahead of a government strategy paper featuring support for “blue hydrogen”, which is derived from fossil gas and produces carbon emissions.

Report launched with youth activists including Greta Thunberg paints ‘unimaginably dire’ picture

Almost half the world’s 2.2 billion children are already at “extremely high risk” from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution, according to a report from Unicef. The UN agency’s head called the situation “unimaginably dire”.

Nearly every child around the world was at risk from at least one of these impacts today, including heatwaves, floods, cyclones, disease, drought, and air pollution, the report said. But 1 billion children live in 33 countries facing three or four impacts simultaneously. The countries include India, Nigeria and the Philippines, and much of sub-Saharan Africa.

Named Muga dhambi by traditional owners, it was uncovered on a marine citizen science course

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At 10.5 metres wide, four centuries old and twice the size of its nearest cousin, an “exceptionally large” coral has been discovered on the Great Barrier Reef – the widest known in the area.

The coral is 5.3 metres tall, “hemispherical in shape” and 2.4 metres wider than the next widest specimen. It is roughly the length and height of a modern double-decker bus.

Protests starting next week aim to highlight the billions poured into fossil fuels by financial sector

The City of London will be the target of a new round of Extinction Rebellion protests aimed at highlighting the role of high finance in the climate crisis, starting next week and carrying on for at least a fortnight.

Thousands of protesters are expected to take part in a series of actions in the City, details of which are under wraps. These will target businesses headquartered in the Square Mile financial district, and will include site occupations. There are no plans to disrupt public transport, as has occurred during some previous actions.

It’s clear to me when I teach that sustainability and the environment should be a thread running through every subject

In August 2018, the then 15-year-old Greta Thunberg started spending her school days outside the Swedish parliament calling for stronger action on climate change. It might sound perverse, a teacher supporting kids taking time off school, but spreading awareness of environmental issues is something I’ve always been passionate about. The challenge is finding a way to give them a meaningful climate education in the classroom.

As a middle school (aged nine to 13) science teacher, I’ve seen pupils react to the climate crisis in a number of ways. I still hear “my dad says it’s not real” every once in a while, but mostly they are interested. Interested in how oil companies obfuscated the truth, interested in the science, and interested in what the future holds now that we’re “running out of time”.