The Guardian

Native Americans in New Mexico have held protests to demand that effigies glorifying conquistadors be removed

As a national debate swirls around statues of Confederate officials, a new battle is brewing in the western US over the fate of monuments glorifying the brutal Spanish conquest of the Americas.

They include effigies of Diego De Vargas, who ordered the execution of 70 Pueblo Indians and the enslavement of hundreds of women and children, and conquistador Juan De Oñate, who is known for ordering the massacre of 800 Acoma people and for the right feet of 24 captive Acoma warriors to be amputated.

Taken at face value, Anthony Albanese’s intervention throws a positive challenge to the government

Australia has been in the climate wars since late 2009 when Tony Abbott rolled Malcolm Turnbull and made the pursuit of no climate policy a hallmark of Australian conservative politics. It has been an all-out battle at many points, simmering conflict at others. Investor confidence has been one of the casualties.

Now it appears that the Labor party is offering a truce. The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, offered the PM to “agree on an energy investment framework that will deliver the modernisation of our energy system”. Labor wants a “flexible and enduring” policy model that can adapt to different emissions targets and says it is agnostic about which policy instrument would deliver this.

We need strong campaigns to confront environmental collapse. Instead, we get weakness and complicity

Out of this horror comes hope. In the backwash of the pandemic’s first wave, we see the shingled ruins of the old economy, and the chance to construct a new one. As we rebuild our economic life, we should do it on green principles, averting a crisis many times greater than the coronavirus: climate breakdown and the collapse of our life-support systems.

This means no more fossil fuel-based infrastructure. Even existing infrastructure, according to climate scientists, could push us past crucial thresholds. It means an end to megaprojects whose main purpose is enriching construction companies.

Exclusive: environment groups accuse Queensland authorities of being a ‘toothless tiger’, saying ‘paltry’ fines ‘an insult to communities and farmers’

Environmental groups say “paltry” fines handed to a coalmine in Queensland’s Darling Downs show that state authorities are unwilling to take action over even the most serious and repeated environmental breaches by miners.

Documents obtained under Queensland freedom of information laws by Guardian Australia show the New Acland coalmine in Queensland’s Darling Downs was caught violating noise limits 34 separate times in 10 weeks and was fined $9,461 by state authorities.

‘Restoring nature needs to be given top priority,’ says Craig Bennett, Wildlife Trusts CEO

Restoring the natural environment could absorb as much as a third of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions, making the government’s target of net zero emissions by 2050 much easier to meet, according to green campaigners.

Returning degraded peatland and bog to its natural state, cultivating marine meadows of seagrass, restoring salt marshes and wetlands, and taking some grasslands out of cultivation, as well as planting more trees, all contribute to creating carbon sinks, which absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.

Campaigners say some of the wood is going to companies supplying Ikea, though it and logging firm deny wrongdoing

Laws to protect biodiversity in Ukrainian forests are failing to prevent environmentally unsustainable logging that is harming wildlife, and the resulting timber is being sold to EU consumers as ethical and sustainable, a green campaign group has alleged.

Trees are being felled during silent periods, when forests are supposed to be left intact so that birds and other wildlife can nest and reproduce, according to an investigation by the environmental charity Earthsight.

Letter signed by 29 organisations, including the Church of England, states financial institutions have a duty to tackle climate change

Investors managing trillions of dollars in assets have warned Brazil that escalating deforestation and the “dismantling” of policies to protect the environment and indigenous communities are “creating widespread uncertainty about the conditions for investing”.

Amazon destruction rose to its highest level in more than a decade last year, Brazil’s first under the leadership of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right nationalist who has vowed to develop the region and slash environmental protections.

When it comes to water infrastructure, America’s challenges resemble those of a developing country. It’s time for that to change

How can it be that in the midst of a pandemic, children living in the richest country in world history are being poisoned by tap water? For decades, our government has put corporate profits ahead of guaranteeing its people the right to clean water. We have neglected the most basic public investments to keep Americans healthy and safe. Now, as America battles an unprecedented public health crisis, we can no longer continue along a course in which companies have been allowed to buy up, privatize, and profit off a basic human right. The solution is not more privatization – it is for Congress to end decades of neglect and immediately invest billions into our public water systems so that we can finally guarantee clean drinking water to everybody.

That’s why we joined with Representative Ro Khanna to introduce the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (Water) Act. This comprehensive legislation would provide up to $35bn per year to overhaul our water infrastructure across the nation.

Guardian US commissioned an analysis of the cost and affordability of water and sewage services in 12 diverse American cities

Guardian US commissioned the economist Roger Colton, an authority on the affordability of utilities, to analyse the cost and affordability of water and sewage services in 12 diverse American cities. The objective was to investigate the extent of water poverty in the US over the past decade, and consider what the future may hold.

The Guardian – in partnership with Consumer Reports and others – is launching a one-year series of investigations highlighting the US water crisis

Almost exactly 10 years ago, on 28 July 2010, the United Nations declared water a human right under international law. And not just any water, but clean water – and sufficient water for “drinking, personal sanitation, washing of clothes, food preparation, personal and household hygiene”.

Imagine a country where, 10 years years on, over two million people are denied access to running water and basic indoor plumbing.

The winning shots of the 2020 Hamdan International Photography Award capture both ethereal underwater scenes and our human relationship to the sea

As we emerge from coronavirus lockdown with more questions to ask, we can’t let the news vacuum in Australia be filled by shrill voices

No one was ready for 2020. None of us was really prepared for the bushfires, or coronavirus, or the fear and uncertainty about what these crises mean for our families and our lives.

At Guardian Australia, we weren’t either. Along with the ongoing climate emergency, these have been the biggest stories and the greatest reporting responsibilities of our generation. They hit as we were already under pressure, from the digital platforms eating away at our advertising revenue, and from the populist forces – all the way up to the president of the United States – who want to undermine facts and truthfulness as the parameters of a civic conversation, eroding the very foundations of what we do.

Blue warehou, eastern gemfish and scalloped hammerhead categorised as ‘conservation dependent’ and commercially fished

Endangered fish species are being routinely sold to Australian and international consumers thanks to a little-known feature of environmental laws that allows for the species to be commercially fished.

Under Australian environmental laws, marine species that are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered are classified as “no take” species, meaning they cannot be sold or exported.

Report will look at suspected lack of welfare regulation enforcement, as growth in exports sees livestock journeys increase

The European Parliament has voted to establish an inquiry committee to investigate the transport of live animals across and out of the European Union.

The committee will address whether the European Commission has failed to act upon evidence of “serious and systematic” infringements of EU regulations for the protection of exported live animals.

Sector faces calls for action after report reveals scale of infections among workers

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The coronavirus outbreaks that have struck workers in meat plants around the world are due to poor working conditions and living quarters in a sector that is in a “disastrous race to the bottom” in the quest for cheap meat, trade union representatives have said.

Meat plants have persistently been centres for outbreaks, with some of the biggest clusters in the US and Canada focused on slaughterhouses. According to the Food and Environment Reporting Network (Fern), which has been tracking the outbreaks, nearly 30,000 meat plant workers across the US and Europe have been infected with the virus and more than 100 have died.

Push is inadvertently causing long-term environmental damage to the traditional hunting grounds on Inuit public lands

In a subarctic fjard estuary just a few miles from frozen tundra, Inuit hunter Karl Michelin says he owes his life to the thousands of barking ringed seals that congregate year-round in local waters.

The seals’ jet-black, heavily fatted meat is a staple for Michelin, his wife, and their toddler. With food insecurity rampant among the region’s Inuit, neighbors are similarly dependent on seals and other wild-caught food. The town’s isolation makes regular employment opportunities scarce, and food prohibitively expensive to import.

Climate groups’ reaction to mining body’s climate change plan ranges from qualified acceptance to ‘greenwashing’

Australia’s peak mining body representing the coal industry has released a plan to tackle climate change across the industry, endorsing a goal of reaching net-zero emissions “as fast as possible” but without setting a target date.

The Minerals Council of Australia’s chief executive, Tania Constable, claimed it was “possible and plausible for the coal industry to achieve near zero or net-zero emissions” by using carbon offsets and carbon capture and storage technologies.

Scientists seek to reassure public as campaigners fear battle to reduce single-use plastic waste is losing ground

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More than 100 scientists will publish a signed statement on Monday to reassure the public that reusable containers are safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amid fears that the environmental battle to reduce single-use plastic waste is losing ground over fears of virus contamination, the 119 scientists from 18 countries say reuseable containers do not increase the chance of virus transmission.

Exclusive: Coalition asks chancellor to fund nationwide environmental projects

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, must “seize the day” and create a national nature service to restore wildlife and habitats in England, say a coalition of the country’s biggest green groups. It said the move would create thousands of jobs, a more resilient country and tackle the wildlife and climate crises.

The coalition has drawn up a list of 330 projects that are ready to go, including flower meadows, “tiny forests” in cities and hillside schemes to cut flooding. It said a service to fund the projects and train workers would create 10,000 jobs and be part of a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Exclusive: Sir Mark Rylance, Neil Tennant, Brian Eno and heads of Tate and BBC arts sign letter to government

The chiefs of scores of the UK’s foremost arts and culture organisations have joined the call for a green recovery from the coronavirus crisis, even as their own sector faces the biggest threat to its existence in modern times.

Sir Mark Rylance, Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys, Brian Eno and the leaders of the Tate, National Youth Theatre and the director of BBC arts are among those signing a letter asking the government to adopt green and carbon-cutting targets alongside its economic rescue plans. Close to 400 arts leaders and prominent individuals have now signed the letter, which will be presented to the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, this week.