The Guardian

Stoves that produce pollutants known to make people sick can be donated to tribes and Appalachian communities

Wood heaters that US regulators have deemed too dirty to sell can now be donated to tribal nations and Appalachian communities, under a program organized by a trade group and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Public health experts warn the donations could force more pollution on already vulnerable populations amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Wood-burning devices emit pollutants known to make people sick, including fine particle pollution and chemicals like benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Scottish parliament votes to give mountain hares special protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act

Gamekeepers and grouse moor managers will be banned from mass culling mountain hares after Scottish ministers bowed to intense pressure from conservationists.

The Scottish parliament voted on Wednesday night to give mountain hares special protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which will make it an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill or injure the hare without a licence.

Farmers report devastating losses as poor control measures are blamed for spread of infection across the country

Hundreds of thousands of pigs have been culled by Nigerian farmers in response to an explosion of African swine fever (ASF). The outbreak began around Lagos and parts of neighbouring Ogun state earlier this year, pig farmers say, but has now spread to many other parts of the country.

In the absence of official data, farmers who spoke to the Guardian estimated that nearly a million pigs had been put down so far. Mrs Bello, a farmer at Lagos-based Oke-Aro, the largest pig co-operative in west Africa, who preferred not to give her first name, said the co-operative alone had culled around 500,000 pigs. So far the virus has spread to more than a quarter of Nigeria’s 36 states.

Exclusive: project will store renewable energy and reduce climate-heating emissions

Construction is beginning on the world’s largest liquid air battery, which will store renewable electricity and reduce carbon emissions from fossil-fuel power plants.

The project near Manchester, UK, will use spare green energy to compress air into a liquid and store it. When demand is higher, the liquid air is released back into a gas, powering a turbine that puts the green energy back into the grid.

Ed Davey says there is a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ to reshape economy

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled proposals to invest £150bn in green projects over three years as a way to transform the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, warning that the government must act soon on the issue.

Ed Davey, the party’s interim leader, said there was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to both tackle potential mass unemployment due to Covid-19, and reshape the economy on more environmental lines.

International Energy Agency chief warns of need to prevent post-lockdown surge in emissions

The world has only six months in which to change the course of the climate crisis and prevent a post-lockdown rebound in greenhouse gas emissions that would overwhelm efforts to stave off climate catastrophe, one of the world’s foremost energy experts has warned.

“This year is the last time we have, if we are not to see a carbon rebound,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

• 750m insects to be released with second trial planned for Texas
• Critics say risks of ‘Jurassic Park experiment’ not assessed

A plan to release a horde of 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida and Texas is a step closer to fruition after a state regulator approved the idea, over the objections of many environmentalists.

Related: People v mosquitos: what to do about our biggest killer

Unusually high temperatures in region linked to wildfires, oil spill and moth swarms

A prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths.

On a global scale, the Siberian heat is helping push the world towards its hottest year on record in 2020, despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Government acquired just 10% of the land needed for one of the protected areas and none of the land required for the second

The Victorian government has failed to protect critically endangered grasslands as promised under a deal with the federal government for the urban expansion of Melbourne, the state’s auditor has found.

The Victorian auditor general’s report, published on Wednesday, investigated whether the state government delivered two reserves that were promised by 2020 as offsets for the development of new suburbs to support the city’s population growth.

The world must embrace a recovery that involves sustainable farming and clean energy. Anything else is a false economy

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In 1997, a large area of rainforest in south-east Asia was burned to the ground to make way for palm oil plantations. A combination of deforestation, forest fires and drought are believed to have forced hundreds of fruit bats away from their natural habitats towards fruit orchards planted in close proximity to intensive pig farms. These conditions led to the emergence of the Nipah virus, which spilled over from infected bats to pigs, and from pigs to pig farmers. Over the next two years, the disease would kill more than 100 people. This should have served as a warning.

Now, 20 years later, we are facing a health crisis of an altogether different scale, with Covid-19 causing the most tragic health, social and economic crisis in living memory.

A group of divers in Thailand tried to save a whale shark whose tail was tied by rope. Video filmed on Saturday shows the whale shark swimming with a nylon rope tied around its tail. 

But the knife was too small and could not cut through the rope. Injured and with a rope still tied to its tail, the whale shark eventually swam away

Dry conditions following low spring rainfall have contributed to a rise in fires

The National Trust is urging people not to take a barbecue or light a campfire when they visit the coast and countryside following a spate of wildfires that have damaged flora and fauna.

Despite recent rainfall, a record-breaking spring of sunshine has left many landscapes dry and created the perfect conditions for fires to ignite and quickly spread.

Letter cites growing evidence of link between dirty air and Covid-19 infections and deaths

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Growing evidence of a link between air pollution and the impact of coronavirus means the government has a legal obligation to urgently review its air quality strategy, according to lawyers.

In a letter to ministers, the lawyers argue that refusing to order a review would breach UK law, the precautionary principle and the European convention on human rights.

We created a world-first atlas to help secure Australia’s wine future. It shows that all 71 wine regions in Australia must adapt to hotter conditions

Many Australians enjoy a glass of homegrown wine, and $2.78bn worth is exported each year. But hotter, drier conditions under climate change means there are big changes ahead for our wine producers.

As climate scientists and science communicators, we’ve been working closely with the wine industry to understand the changing conditions for producing quality wine in Australia.

Guardian Australia and others report on the issue with the seriousness it deserves – but it’s not enough to preach to the converted

An international survey of people’s news habits around the world reveals that Australians’ opinions on climate change are determined mostly by age and news source but that, overall, we are more likely to deny climate change than most other nations. And it is clear from the results of the 2020 Digital Media Report that a major reason for this denial is the influence of News Corp.

This year’s Digital News Report in Australia, which is produced by the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra (disclosure, I am also employed by the university and wrote a commentary for this year’s report), covers a wide range of topics that investigate how people access news and what interests them.

With or without a new GCSE, pupils must be taught to think about life on Earth

The lockdown edition of the BBC’s Springwatch ended on Friday, with a series of clips sent in by viewers to illustrate their wildlife enthusiasms. But the latest stage in a campaign to extend the reach of natural history beyond television schedules has only just begun. The idea for a new GCSE in the subject came from the author Mary Colwell. A public consultation on the proposals now being developed by an English exam board runs until July.

Helping children to connect with nature is prominent among the campaign’s aims. In recent years, a number of concerns have coalesced around the view that young people do not spend enough time outdoors. Health is one source of anxiety, particularly the rise in obesity and mental distress. Increased reliance on technology for entertainment is another. Evidence shows that the danger from road traffic, and fear of crime, have contributed to reducing children’s freedom, particularly the opportunity to play outside or travel to school unsupervised.

Morrison’s announcement in wake of bushfires is ‘distressing’ and puts threatened species at risk, ecologists say

Scientists have expressed dismay and frustration at Scott Morrison’s latest push to deregulate the environmental approval process for major developments, noting it comes just months after an unprecedented bushfire crisis and during a review of national conservation laws.

In a speech on Monday, the prime minister said he wanted to slash approval times for major projects by moving to a streamlined “single touch” system for state and federal environmental assessments.

Lise Kingo says social equality issues must be part of sustainable development agenda

The coronavirus pandemic is “just a fire drill” for what is likely to follow from the climate crisis, and the protests over racial injustice around the world show the need to tie together social equality, environmental sustainability and health, the UN’s sustainable business chief has said.

“The overall problem is that we are not sustainable in the ways we are living and producing on the planet today,” said Lise Kingo, the executive director of the UN Global Compact, under which businesses sign up to principles of environmental protection and social justice. “The only way forward is to create a world that leaves no one behind.”

Court backs judgement that watchdog failed to establish the company’s claim on product was false or misleading

Australia’s consumer watchdog has lost its appeal over a ruling that Kimberly-Clark had not misled customers when it said its wipes were flushable.

In its 2019 federal court lawsuit, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission contended the wipes were not suitable to be flushed because they caused harm to sewerage.

Exclusive: Milk giants’ climate impact rising and production caps needed, say researchers

The biggest dairy companies in the world have the same combined greenhouse gas emissions as the UK, the sixth biggest economy in the world, according to a new report.

The analysis shows the impact of the 13 firms on the climate crisis is growing, with an 11% increase in emissions in the two years after the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, largely due to consolidation in the sector. Scientific reports have shown that consumption of dairy, as well as meat, must be reduced significantly in rich nations to tackle the climate emergency.