The Guardian

Bushfires reduced numbers from 500 to 50 but newly discovered populations are cause for optimism, conservationists say

Hopes that Kangaroo Island’s unique mouse-like dunnart can be saved from extinction have been boosted after the tiny marsupial was captured on camera at a new location.

More than 90% of the threatened Kangaroo Island dunnart’s habitat was burned in bushfires in early January.

He got trampled by elephants, swam in crocodile-infested waters and was painted by Francis Bacon – while making images revealing man’s plunder of the natural world

The American writer Bob Colacello once described the young Peter Beard, who has died aged 82, as “half-Tarzan, half-Byron”, neatly encapsulating the larger-than-life charisma of an artist whose reputation for adventure and excess often overshadowed his creative talent. As a 2007 Vanity Fair profile put it: “Whether he’s at a New York nightclub or deep in the African wilderness, world-famous photographer and artist Peter Beard is surrounded by drugs, debts, and beautiful women.”

Related: Peter Beard, photographer, wildlife advocate and socialite, dies at 82

Research shows almost 80% of deaths across four countries were in most polluted regions

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High levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19, according to research.

The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted.

Major pork plant closed after hundreds of workers contract coronavirus, while speeding up of poultry production lines raises concerns over standards

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The US government is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations.

Last week Smithfield shut down one of the largest pork plants in the country after hundreds of employees contracted the coronavirus. The plant in South Dakota – whose output represents 4–5% of US pork production – is reported to be the largest single-source coronavirus hotspot in the US, with more than 600 cases. In response, the company said it was “critical” for the meat industry to “continue to operate unabated”.

Now it has emerged that as a wave of plants announce closures, US meat plants are being granted permission to increase the speed of their production lines. This comes despite warnings that the waivers for higher speeds on slaughter and processing lines will compromise food safety.

The convergence of the climate and coronavirus crisis will be catastrophic. Now is the time to deploy a green stimulus

The Covid-19 epidemic is ravaging our tattered healthcare system and shredding our economy. In the past month, over 22 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits, compounding the fear that unemployment could breach 32% absent massive public action. This is an unmitigated human disaster, recalling the horrors of the Great Depression. And it gets worse. We’re also facing the climate emergency. Immediate relief is necessary – but not sufficient. To tackle all these crises at once, we need a Green Stimulus that creates jobs and lifts up communities in ways that also slash carbon pollution, increase resiliency, and develop a just, modern economy.

No one can predict when Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump will turn their full attention to economic recovery. But behind the scenes, the planning has already begun. It’s not a question of whether we spend big on stimulus, but what kind of stimulus.

Largest number of nests of leatherbacks found in two decades as beaches emptied

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Thailand has discovered the largest number of nests of rare leatherback sea turtles in two decades on beaches bereft of tourists because of the coronavirus pandemic, environmentalists say.

From wild boars strolling through the Israeli city of Haifa to deer venturing into London suburbs, lockdowns are drawing wildlife into many emptied areas.

The ninth circuit court of appeals is being asked to overturn the EPA’s approval of a Monsanto herbicide that is allegedly a threat to farm crops across the US

The US Environmental Protection Agency is due in federal court on Tuesday to answer allegations that it broke the law to support a Monsanto system that has triggered “widespread” crop damage over the last few summers and continues to threaten farms across the country.

As farmers prepare to plant a new season of key American food crops, farmer and consumer groups are asking the ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco to review and overturn the EPA’s approval of a Monsanto herbicide made with a chemical called dicamba.

As the 50th anniversary of Earth Day approaches, we’re partnering with newsrooms around the world to report on solutions to the climate crisis – and drive hope

Even as the coronavirus pandemic terrorizes the world, there’s another global emergency the media can’t afford to stop covering.

Fifty years ago this week, the environmental movement staged the first Earth Day demonstration to call attention to environmental degradation and demand reform. In the half century since, climate change has emerged as an existential global threat.

When a bear starts feeding off garbage and loses its fear of humans it is quickly shot but an unlikely conservation partnership may be setting a different path

In early April, a young grizzly bear swam through the chilly waters off the western coast of Canada in search of food.

Related: Groggy grizzly bear caught emerging from hibernation in viral video

Sixty birds shot at England training facility in St George’s Park, Staffordshire, despite pledge to enrich local biodiversity

About 60 greylag geese were shot and killed at the national training centre for England football teams from 2018 to 2019 to “preserve safety” because they were defecating on the pitches.

The Football Association said the birds – which it shot after obtaining a licence to kill – also left large amounts of excrement in public areas, and this not only heightened the risk of people slipping over but also raised the possibility of harmful parasites spreading.

Amid lockdown, millions of internet users are tuning in to interactive data-crunching projects

People feeling time hang heavy as they struggle with the restrictions of the lockdown may find an unexpected green uplift in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The restrictions placed on going outside are fuelling a new online surge in citizen science, as internet users tune into data-crunching projects led by academic researchers.

Enforced inactivity for hundreds of millions of people around the world is giving scientists the opportunity to recruit a vast army of online helpers, aiming their collective firepower at some seemingly intractable problems, from the climate crisis to plastic waste, as well as some cute ones - spotting spider monkeys, interpreting baby burblings and snapping blossoms.

While emissions reduction is the only long-term solution, scientists are testing ways to keep the reef going in a warming world

Can the world’s greatest coral reef system be rescued from the rapid march of the climate crisis?

With global temperatures already about 1C higher than pre-industrial levels, Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef has been through three mass bleaching events in only five years.

Nature experts in Lebanon have noticed cleaner and clearer air filled with migratory birds as Beirut remains under lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic.

Migrating pelicans are flying over the city as environmentalists say birds seem to be venturing closer to urban areas 

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The British food system, as well as individuals’ diets, needs to be balanced. Price is not the only factor

One of the many effects of the coronavirus in the UK has been to dramatically raise awareness of our food system – that is, the set of arrangements that determines how we shop and eat. Compared with education, health or housing, food is rarely thought of as an area of public policy in which everyone has an interest. But it is. And one of the consequences of recent shortages, as well as the new and welcome emphasis on the “key” roles performed by food industry workers including fruit pickers and supermarket employees, has been to open more people’s eyes to this.

It is too soon to predict with any confidence that the fragility of supply chains that has been revealed in recent weeks, as well as renewed warnings about the risks to humans from animal viruses, and the light shone on the agricultural labour market, will lead to lasting changes. It is not too soon to assert that, among the many issues raised by the pandemic, questions about the future of food cannot be safely ignored.

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including bald eagles and roaming wild boar

Contract length, farm location and caring duties cited as reasons for turning down work

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Thousands of British workers who responded to a nationwide appeal to help pick fruit and vegetables on farms have rejected job offers, it has emerged.

As hundreds of workers are being flown in from Romania to pick lettuce and asparagus, specialist recruitment firms revealed that fewer than 20% of the applicants were either willing or able to take up roles on the farms.

As deaths in communities of color continue to rise, the EPA has suspended enforcement of anti-pollution regulations – making people more susceptible

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To be a person of color in America often means to be unseen and unheard. It means taking on the burdens of disproportionate impacts from pollution, wealth disparities, lack of healthcare and much more. In many cases these burdens begin at your birth and never fully end until you take your last breath.

For too long our most vulnerable communities have been suffering in silence, putting on a brave face and accepting the trauma and stressors of systemic racism and discriminatory policies. The Covid-19 pandemic has laid this reality bare.

UK wildlife watchdog under fire as conservationists say decision ‘sends wrong message’

Conservationists have condemned the decision to allow falconers to take wild peregrine falcon chicks from nests as “selfish” and “sending the wrong message”.

For the first time ever this year, Natural England, the government’s wildlife watchdog, will allow the taking of six chicks from peregrine nests to help falconers establish a lucrative new “studbook” of British falcons.

Leaders condemn backing of global sectors that disregard green economy goals

• Polluter bailouts and lobbying during Covid-19 pandemic

Polluting industries around the world are using the coronavirus pandemic to gain billions of dollars in bailouts and to weaken and delay environmental protections.

The moves by the fossil fuel, motor, aviation, farming, plastic and timber sectors are described as dangerous and irresponsible by senior figures. Environmental campaigners describe some participants in these industries as “coronavirus profiteers”.

Scores of amateur writers describe the arrival of new season in fields and gardens

Some wrote in praise of the signs of spring glimpsed through windows or from balconies while others focused on the birds, the bees and the unfurling leaves spotted during outings for permitted exercise.

Scores of amateur authors have taken part in a spring nature diary project to document the early days of the new season, with most clearly taking solace and finding some hope in flora and fauna at this most challenging of times.