The Guardian

An artist’s images of tiny toys and figurines dumped in the ocean highlight the wasteful ways we have to change

Social media was made for projects like Tracey Williams’s #LegoLostatSea, which anecdotally charts the plastic that has been dumped in the ocean in the past 70 years. Williams began her mission after becoming obsessed with the container of 4.8m Lego pieces that spilled from a cargo ship 20 miles off Land’s End in 1997, and which continue to be washed up on Cornwall’s beaches every day. The fact that many of those Lego sets had a nautical theme – mini plastic octupuses and divers’ flippers are common finds – makes them a perfect metaphor for the 8m tonnes of plastic that end up in the oceans each year. At current rates, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. A special report in the journal Science last week launched a campaign for governments to commit to phase out “virgin” plastic production in the next 20 years. Even if that happens, our age will be known for centuries to come for its detritus: the Happy Meal figurines and plastic bottles and Lego snorkellers that come and go on every tide.

The world’s biodiversity is declining faster than at any other time in human history, and an estimated 1 million species are at risk of extinction

Corporate Australia is familiar with the concept that climate change presents a financial risk to the global economy, but more recently biodiversity loss has emerged as an equally important risk.

In fact, climate change and biodiversity loss are now often referred to as the “twin crises” facing the global financial system and awareness of the role the financial sector plays in this is rising swiftly.

Scientists fear heat domes in North America and Siberia indicate a new dimension to the global crisis

If you were drawing up a list of possible locations for hell on Earth, the small mountain village of Lytton in Canada would probably not have entered your mind until this week.

Few people outside British Columbia had heard of this community of 250 people. Those that had were more likely to think of it as bucolic. Nestled by a confluence of rivers in the forested foothills of the Lillooet and Botanie mountain ranges, the municipal website boasts: “Lytton is the ideal location for nature lovers to connect with incredible natural beauty and fresh air freedom.”

The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including a newborn baby gorilla, a rare giant muntjac and a harpy eagle

Adders and slow worms also among species possibly affected by changes that could help property developers

Legal protections for wildlife and plants in the UK are set for a review that could result in some important species losing their entitlement to special status, ecology experts have told the Guardian.

Adders, slow worms, water voles, mountain hares, pine martens and red squirrels are among the species experts have warned could be affected, after unexpected changes to the government’s review process that will raise the bar on how rare and under threat an animal needs to be to gain legal safeguards.

Experts’ discoveries lie at the heart of two dozen lawsuits that hope to hold the industry accountable for devastating damage

As early as 1958, the oil industry was hiring scientists and engineers to research the role that burning fossil fuels plays in global warming. The goal at the time was to help the major oil conglomerates understand how changes in the earth’s atmosphere may affect the industry – and their bottom line. But what top executives gained was an early preview of the climate crisis, decades before the issue reached public consciousness.

What those scientists discovered – and what the oil companies did with that information – is at the heart of two dozen lawsuits attempting to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for their role in climate change. Many of those cases hinge on the industry’s own internal documents that show how, 40 years ago, researchers predicted the rising global temperatures with stunning accuracy. But looking back, many of those same scientists say they were hardly whistleblowers out to take down big oil.

Citizen Zoo plans to reintroduce animals in Tottenham as part of effort to ‘beaver up’ the capital

Beavers are set to be released in London in the UK’s most significant urban reintroduction, the Guardian can reveal.

It is hoped the rodents, which went extinct in the UK 400 years ago after being hunted for their fur and an oil they produce, will be brought to a site in Tottenham.

Scientists find micro-organisms from the bovine stomach have ability to degrade polyesters in lab setting

Bacteria found in one of the compartments of a cow’s stomach can break down plastic, research suggests.

Since the 1950s, more than 8bn tonnes of plastic have been produced – equivalent in weight to 1 billion elephants – driven predominantly by packaging, single-use containers, wrapping and bottles. As a result, plastic pollution is all-pervasive, in the water and in the air, with people unwittingly consuming and breathing microplastic particles. In recent years, researchers have been working on harnessing the ability of tiny microscopic bugs to break down the stubborn material.

Group of reef and climate scientists say world heritage warning merited and Australia has not ‘pulled its weight on emissions’

Five of the world’s leading reef and climate scientists have thanked Unesco for recommending the Great Barrier Reef be listed as world heritage “in danger”, saying it was the right decision in part because Australia had not “pulled its weight” in reducing emissions.

The group of scientists, including the Australian professors Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and Terry Hughes, wrote to the UN body on Thursday saying the recommendation to downgrade the 2,300-km reef system’s world heritage status was “the right decision”.

‘Occasionally a big male would wake the echoes of the mountains with his tremendous voice’

It is difficult to take yourself seriously in the presence of a baboon, but I have tried. The university I attended is at the foot of Cape Town’s Table Mountain and every now and then a chacma baboon or several would clamber down to our world.

There they were: on the avenue that bisected the campus, where a highly evolved professor parked his vintage sports car. Where film students arranged themselves on windowsills. There were people trying to take themselves seriously all over the place. It was like every university. Only here, we had baboons.

Governments urged to ramp up efforts to tackle climate emergency as temperature records smashed

Climate scientists have said nowhere is safe from the kind of extreme heat events that have hit the western US and Canada in recent days and urged governments to dramatically ramp up their efforts to tackle the escalating climate emergency.

The devastating “heat dome” has caused temperatures to rise to almost 50C in Canada and has been linked to hundreds of deaths, melted power lines, buckled roads and wildfires.

Neighborhood streets have become ghost towns. Stepping outside feels like stepping into a sauna. A 10-minute stroll feels like a 20-minute run

The city with the best summers in the nation just hit 108F (42.2C) degrees.

As a lifelong Seattle-area resident and so-called geriatric millennial, I can attest to the fact that, until recently, Seattle summers truly were second to none in the comfortability department. Highs in the 70s? Check. Bluebird skies after morning clouds? Check. Pleasant sea breezes in the evening to take the edge off the day’s warmth? Check.

Nation scores just 10 out of 100 on tackling fossil fuel emissions in new report on sustainable development goals

Australia has been ranked last for climate action out of nearly 200 countries in a report assessing progress towards global sustainable development goals.

The Sustainable Development Report 2021, first reported by Renew Economy, scored Australia last out of 193 United Nations member countries for action taken to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Paul Crawford’s crops are dying. Salmon sacred to Frankie Myers’ Native American tribe are slipping away. Along the California-Oregon border, the climate crisis is worsening a water crisis decades in the making – leaving farmers and indigenous communities scrambling to keep their traditions alive.

Conservationists say Pembroke Resources mine will increase carbon emissions and wouldn’t need public money if financially viable

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The Morrison government has announced a $175m loan to help build a large new metallurgical coalmine in central Queensland, in a move conservationists have labelled “deeply irresponsible”.

Climate campaigners have said the loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif) to develop the $900m Olive Downs mine in the Bowen Basin was “a bad idea”. They argued the Pembroke Resources project would increase global carbon emissions by contributing to “dirty” steelmaking and would not need public backing if it was financially viable.

Team behind project at United Downs site near Redruth say power plant will be producing electricity and heat by next year

It has taken a decade of hard graft – and some bold, imaginative thinking – but a plume of steam finally exploded into the clear Cornish air, a signal of what is being heralded as a breakthrough for an energy project that taps into the hot rocks of the far south-west of Britain.

The blast of steam at the United Downs site near Redruth, once a global mining capital, is being billed as proof that deep geothermal power can be part of the solution to the UK’s search for alternative sources of energy.

Adopting insect protein in pig and poultry feed could reduce UK soya consumption by a fifth by 2050, says WWF study

Insect protein in animal feed could replace 20% of the UK’s soya consumption by 2050, according to a report by WWF.

The study, which sets out a plan for the UK to accelerate the adoption of insect protein in animal feed, also found that just under half of the demand for the protein could be met by British producers.

The US president blamed the climate crisis for a record-breaking heatwave when he met governors from western states as fierce wildfires burn in northern California. 'Climate change is driving a dangerous confluence of extreme heat and prolonged drought,' Biden said. 'Wildfires are not a partisan phenomenon. They don't stop at a county or a state line or country line for that matter.'

• Heatwave: Biden and Harris meet western governors as region in emergency
• Joe Biden blames climate crisis for deadly heatwave in western US and Canada

Campaigners criticise appointment of Michael Gill as ICAO’s director of legal affairs and external relations

Environmental groups have criticised the UN body tasked with cutting global aircraft emissions for hiring a former senior airline industry lobbyist to a senior role.

Campaigners say the recruitment of Michael Gill to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) reflects its flaws and bias toward the industry.

Without an immediate global effort to combat the climate emergency, the Earth’s uninhabitable areas will keep growing

The climate crisis means that summer is a time of increasingly dangerous heat. This week in the Pacific north-west, temperature records are not just being broken, they are being obliterated. Temperatures reached a shocking 47.9C in British Columbia, Canada. Amid temperatures more typically found in the Sahara desert, dozens have died of heat stress, with “roads buckling and power cables melting”.

Related: How did a small town in Canada become one of the hottest places on Earth?