The Guardian

The prime minister’s ‘build, build, build’ strategy could harm habitats and reduce wildlife protection, critics warn

The British countryside and its wildlife are at serious risk because of Boris Johnson’s pledge to revolutionise the planning system, leading green groups warn today.

In a joint letter to theObserver, the organisations, which include the National Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Wildlife Trusts, say wide-scale deregulation leading to lower environmental standards and less protection would be a betrayal of promises by Johnson and Michael Gove to deliver a “green Brexit”.

Attack happened about 2pm on Saturday afternoon while man was diving off Indian Head

A man has died after being attacked by a shark while spearfishing off Queensland’s Fraser Island.

The attack happened about 2pm on Saturday while the Sunshine Coast man, 36, was diving off Indian Head on the eastern side of the island.

Restoration work and wet winter have led to an explosion of colour and an increase in birds

A well known piece of the British landscape that had become depleted of flora and fauna because of years of intensive farming is alive with wildflowers, butterflies and birds this summer.

Since the National Trust acquired fields on top of the white cliffs of Dover two and half years ago after a £1m national appeal championed by Dame Vera Lynn, it has worked to restore the area to rich grassland.

The American environment and energy commentator’s piece in the Australian has found praise in conservative media

Few things engage a particular subset of conservative media more than an environmentalist having an apparent change of heart and dumping all over the “climate scare”.

Earlier this week, the Australian newspaper ran an opinion piece that fitted this narrative so perfectly that room was found on its front page.

Former reality TV contestants promise ‘instant and long lasting hot water’ in campaign by gas company Jemena

The natural gas giant Jemena has defended paying Instagram influencers, including former contestants of The Block, Married at First Sight and other reality TV shows, to promote the fossil fuel in social media posts.

The #GoNaturalGas campaign from the Chinese and Singaporean-owned Jemena, which manages key natural gas pipelines around and out of Australia, appears to have been running for two years online, and comes amid concern liquified natural gas could be as bad for the environment as coal.

Independent advice body says minister should be given emergency powers to protect habitat after natural disasters

Australia has not updated a register of habitat critical for the protection of threatened species for 15 years, prompting experts to call for it to be strengthened to protect more types of land.

An independent scientific body that advises the government on threatened species also says the environment minister should be given emergency powers to protect habitat after natural disasters.

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including a hatching crocodile and Mexican grey wolf cubs

Company convicted of trying to export used nappies and other contaminated materials illegally

One of the UK’s biggest waste firms has lost a case in the court of appeal to overturn a criminal conviction for exporting dirty waste to China.

The Environment Agency, which brought a successful criminal prosecution a year ago against Biffa Waste Services Ltd, which was convicted of trying to send used nappies and other contaminated materials illegally to China, welcomed Friday’s ruling and said exports of this kind of illegal waste “blighted the lives and environment of people overseas”.

Scottish court rules that environmental group defied court order banning the protest

Greenpeace has been fined £80,000 after a Scottish court found it guilty of the “wilful defiance” of a court order banning it from occupying a North Sea oil rig.

Lady Wolffe, sitting in the court of session in Edinburgh, said Greenpeace UK had deliberately broken an interdict, or injunction, against occupying a platform owned by the US contractor Transocean in June 2019.

Frequency of heatwaves and cumulative intensity has risen through the decades, research finds

Heatwaves have increased in both length and frequency in nearly every part of the world since the 1950s, according to what is described as the first study to look at the issue at a regional level.

The study found the escalation in heatwaves varied around the planet, with the Amazon, north-eastern Brazil, west Asia (including parts of the subcontinent and central Asia) and the Mediterranean all experiencing more rapid change than, for example, southern Australia and north Asia. The only inhabited region where there was not a trend was in the central United States.

Tees Valley mayor hails rental scheme as ‘clean energy, socially distant mode of transport’

Residents of Middlesbrough in north-east England will be the first in the UK to legally ride electric scooters on the open road when the law changes on Saturday, as the government struggles to prevent a recovery from coronavirus based on cars.

Though e-scooters have been whizzing illegally around many UK cities for the past few years, the pandemic has prompted the government to speed up plans to pilot public rental schemes.

Past presidents used the parks to inspire and unite. Trump sees them as backdrops for self-serving, divisive campaign rallies

In the United States, parks have always been used as spaces for public protest, places for commemorating acts of resistance and the struggle for a more perfect union, and stages for presidents to call for national unity or celebrate civic purpose.

As his Mount Rushmore event scheduled for Friday makes clear, Donald Trump misunderstands and misuses all these precedents.

Areas with a drier climate have seen greater loss of biodiversity from global warming

Dry tropical forests are more vulnerable to the impacts of global heating than had been thought, according to new research, with wildlife and plants at severe risk of harm from human impacts.

Some tropical forests are very wet, but others thrive in a drier climate and scientists had thought these drier forests would be better adapted to drought, and therefore more able to cope with the effects of the climate crisis.

Nicky Woo has won the Marilyn Stafford award 2020 with her project As the Water Comes, documenting rising sea levels in Saint-Louis

• How the ‘Venice of Africa’ is losing its battle against the rising ocean

Chancellor urged to prioritise plans to realign spending with cuts to carbon emissions

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The chancellor of the exchequer must lay out urgent plans to realign government spending with the target to cut carbon emissions to net zero, or risk missing the target and fuelling high carbon emissions for years to come, Labour has urged.

The warning comes as the Treasury prepares key policy announcements on the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus recession, which Rishi Sunak is expected to set out in his spending review next week.

Warming water temperatures lower water oxygen levels, putting embryos and pregnant fish at risk, researchers say

Sixty per cent of studied fish species will be unable to survive in their current ranges by 2100 if climate warming reaches a worst-case scenario of 4-5C (7.2-9F) above pre-industrial temperatures, researchers have found.

In a study of nearly 700 fresh and saltwater fish species, researchers examined how warming water temperatures lower water oxygen levels, putting embryos and pregnant fish at risk.

Getting into the ocean every morning has been a reminder of what a tiny speck I am on this planet

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little freaked out the first time I saw a shark on my swim out of Sydney’s Manly Beach. Time almost stood still as the sleek figure weaved below me. Disbelieving, I thought: “That looks like a shark.” No one around me in the water even blinked an eye, and the baby grey nurse drifted off into the deep blue.

I have been a swimmer all of my life, but the idea of a shark encounter had pretty much kept me out of anything beyond the surf. That was until the Covid-19 lockdown. I had been covering the pandemic for the Guardian since the virus first emerged in China in January. At times I had found myself overwhelmed by the story’s immensity and the grim reality of how it had taken over our lives.

The march of Europe Ecology is yet another example of how parties of the environment are steadily acquiring power and influence across the continent

Lyon, Strasbourg and Bordeaux; Besançon, Poitiers and Tours: the list of powerful cities that turned green, after France’s municipal elections last weekend, was long and impressive. Marseille has been a conservative fiefdom for decades. But a leftwing alliance propelled Michèle Rubirola, the candidate of Europe Ecology – France’s Green party – to the mayoralty. These were totemic victories, turning the once-peripheral Green party into a significant player in urban France.

Sunday’s polls should have taken place in March but were postponed as France locked down. Perhaps because of that delay, and the lingering presence of Covid-19, turnout was low. That may have disproportionately helped Green candidates, whose voters tend to loyally turn out for local elections, and Europe Ecology is still well down the pecking order in national polls. But these caveats aside, the “green wave” in France offers heartening evidence that environmental priorities are truly beginning to shape and influence politics in Europe.

Extreme weather has contributed to the vast blazes – with the pandemic complicating the emergency response

For residents of Tucson in southern Arizona, the Santa Catalina Mountains in the Coronado national forest are known as a hub for hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor recreation.

But on 5 June lightning ignited a wildfire that has grown to engulf over 118,000 acres. The fires are still only 58% contained. Called the Bighorn fire, it is the eighth-biggest in state history, and it has transformed the Catalinas into a hub for the study of the impacts of climate change. Nasa satellite photos show large scar marks left by the fire.

The PM says counting these protected amphibians is a barrier to economic recovery. But there’s room in the pond for both

First, I should lay down my cards and show my hand. My name is Jules, and I am a card-carrying fan of newts. I have a pond. I once ran an amphibian helpline for people with questions about newts. I have worn a newt costume at family events. I can’t stress this enough: I genuinely like newts.

Earlier this week, newts featured in Johnson’s Build, build, build speech – where plans were announced to revive Britain’s flagging economy with a programme of construction – housing, hospitals, prisons, roads, schools. But this wasn’t a star turn for newts. Far from it.