The Guardian

Exclusive: experiment uses a modified turbine to spray trillions of nano-sized salt crystals into the air from a barge

Scientists have carried out a trial of prototype cloud brightening equipment on the Great Barrier Reef they hope could be scaled up to shade and cool corals and protect them from bleaching caused by rising global temperatures.

The experiment used a modified turbine with 100 high-pressure nozzles to spray trillions of nano-sized ocean salt crystals into the air from the back of a barge.

Teams of Australian marine scientists have tested a technique they hope may give the Great Barrier Reef respite from coral bleaching caused by global heating. The experiment used a modified turbine with 100 high-pressure nozzles to spray trillions of nano-sized ocean salt crystals into the air from the back of a barge. The researchers hope the tiny salt crystals will mix with low-altitude clouds, making them brighter and reflecting more sunlight away from the ocean surface. Daniel Harrison of Southern Cross University says if the trial can be successfully scaled up it might buy the reef a decade or two, but no technological fix will work unless global heating can be restrained

As farms struggle under Covid-19, NFU says furloughed workers keen to join paid ‘land army’

The leader of the UK’s biggest farming organisation says she is optimistic that British workers will come forward to rescue the harvest and keep the nation fed, instead of having to rely on flying in overseas workers.

“A lot of signs are optimistic and we have really positive news,” said Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union. “We are hearing people are very keen [to work on farms]. There does seem to be a real swell of support from people to do this.”

• New Orleans, Honolulu and Miami expected to be vulnerable
• Research: advancing tides will ‘radically redefine the coastline’

Flooding events that now occur in America once in a lifetime could become a daily occurrence along the vast majority of the US coastline if sea level rise is not curbed, according to a new study that warns the advancing tides will “radically redefine the coastline of the 21st century”.

The research finds major cities such as Honolulu, New Orleans and Miami will become increasingly vulnerable to elevated high tides and stronger storms fueled by the global heating caused by human activity. Beach and cliff erosion will exacerbate this situation.

Our global, profit-driven, meat-centered food system is making us sick. We need a radical rethink

It was bats. Or pangolins. To hear common narratives about the origins of Covid-19, there is a simple causal relationship between China’s consumption of wild animals and the coronavirus ravaging the globe.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top epidemiologist, told Fox: “It boggles my mind how when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface, that we don’t just shut it down.” His opinion echoes a growing chorus across the political spectrum that singles out China’s so-called “wet markets” as the culprit for the pandemic. The Republican senator Lindsey Graham has called the Chinese exotic animal trade “disgusting” and conservationist Jane Goodall has called for “a global ban”.

Public sector pledge said to target removal of 9m kg of meat a year from UK meals

Public sector caterers serving billions of meals a year in schools, universities, hospitals and care homes have pledged to cut the amount of meat they serve by 20%.

The caterers’ meals are eaten by a quarter of the UK population and the groups said their action was aimed at reducing environmental impact and improving the healthiness of meals. Industry experts called the move unprecedented.

Half of real carbon footprint comes from ‘invisible’ cost of goods made overseas – study

The UK’s efforts to cut greenhouse gases are being undermined by a failure to put in place climate policies that cover imported goods, research has found.

The government is committed to cutting the UK’s carbon output to net zero by 2050, and emissions have been falling for the past three decades. But that does not take into account the “invisible” side of Britain’s carbon footprint, which comes from international travel and the carbon produced overseas to make goods that are used here.

Campaigners welcomed Wednesday’s ruling as a victory for tribal rights and environmental protection

The controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has been dealt a major setback, after a judge revoked a key permit issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers without properly assessing the impact on endangered species.

In a legal challenge brought by a coalition of environmental groups, a federal judge in Montana ordered the Army Corps to suspend all filling and dredging activities until it conducts formal consultations compliant with the Endangered Species Act.

• Shark with its own Twitter account disappeared for over a year
• 14ft predator tracked by satellite 200 miles off Virginia coast

Katharine, a 14ft great white shark with a worldwide fan base, has re-emerged on a satellite tracking system researchers used to follow her movements.

The rediscovery comes as surprise to the team, as Katharine disappeared from radar more than a year ago, causing alarm among her many followers.

From coyotes in San Francisco to deer in Romford, animals are taking over streets vacated by people

Few are lucky enough to go wild these days. Under lockdown our horizons have shrunk. Beloved nature reserves and glorious national parks must wait until the quarantine is lifted. Yet the wild is coming to us. In Essex, deer roam a housing estate. In Llandudno, goats charge down the streets. In San Francisco, coyotes prowl the Golden Gate Bridge. Inner-city residents may see a bird of prey overhead for the first time, or notice flashes of colour from butterflies which usually shun their gardens.

Animals are moving into the spaces that humans have vacated, and we are unusually receptive to their arrival. When days seem so indistinct, the appearance of a new bird in a backyard suddenly seizes our attention. A morning walk through a quiet park may have replaced a commute on a packed bus. Birdsong is clearer now that the traffic has hushed.

Australian government to back 43 concepts in ambitious $150m research and development program

Brightening clouds with salt crystals and deploying slicks of coral larvae to try and limit the impacts of global heating on the Great Barrier Reef are among more than 40 concepts being backed by the Australian government in an ambitious $150m research and development program.

A two-year feasibility study released by the government on Thursday has reduced about 160 potential ideas to a list of 43 that will be funded for further investigation under the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP).

Cultural nuance and wider view of supply chain ignored in debate following Covid-19 outbreak, say those proposing regulation over ban

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Attacks and calls to ban “wet markets” because of their potential for spreading diseases such as Covid-19 may be missing the point, say experts.

Earlier this week Sir Paul McCartney, a long-time vegetarian campaigner, called wet markets “medieval” and said that it made sense to ban them. “When you’ve got the obscenity of some of the stuff that’s going on there and what comes out of it, they might as well be letting off atomic bombs. It’s affecting the whole world.”

Wildlife conservation efforts are essential to preventing outbreaks, scientists and advocates say

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For more than five years, wildlife conservationists in the US have been clamoring for the government to provide Endangered Species Act protections to pangolins, a group of imperiled ant-eating mammals that are widely, and often illicitly, trafficked for their scales and meat. The Trump administration, however, has refused to act and that refusal has suddenly taken on grave new implications.

Earlier this year, scientists in China identified pangolins, along with bats, as one of the possible animal hosts involved in the transmission of the deadly coronavirus from wildlife to humans.

WWF has compiled a list of animal species whose social behaviours make them self-isolation experts. Humans are social beings: we rarely go a day without some form of interaction – either in the workplace, at the shops or at home. The coronavirus crisis is forcing people around the world to spend more time than ever alone, prompting many to rely on digital communication to connect to loved ones.

For many species in the animal kingdom, however, self-isolation is not a new concept. It’s in their instinct. From land mammals to ocean species, many choose to live in solitude outside of essential activity: to eat and to breed

Along with up to 30 new marine species, scientists have found a 150-ft example of a siphonophore, a string-like deep-sea predator

Scientists exploring the deep sea off Australia’s coast have discovered as many as 30 new marine species – and what may be the longest animal ever seen.

The discoveries were the result of expeditions into Western Australia’s underwater canyons. One of the biggest discoveries was a siphonophore measuring an estimated 150 feet (46 metres). Siphonophores are deep-sea predators made up of many small clones that act together as one and spread out like a single long string in the water. Researchers think this particular siphonophore may be the longest yet found.

• EPA chief Wheeler: current soot regulations are adequate
• Research shows stricter rules could save thousands of lives

The Trump administration has said it will not tighten rules for soot pollution, despite research showing that doing so could save thousands of lives each year.

Related: Coronavirus US live: Cuomo says Trump cannot order New York to reopen

Global economy could lose out by $600tn by end of century on current emissions targets

Every country in the world would be economically better off if all could agree to strengthen their commitments on the climate crisis through international cooperation, new research has found.

But if countries go no further than their current CO2 pledges – which are too weak to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, and would lead to dangerous levels of global heating – then they face steep economic losses.

Scientists say the rapid change could have negative effects on fisheries and aquaculture, and impact coastal vegetation

Water in estuaries along 1,100km of Australia’s south-east coast warmed by more than 2C between 2007 and 2019, a new study finds.

The rapid change could have negative effects on fisheries and aquaculture, as well as impact coastal vegetation such as mangroves, scientists behind the study said.

Octopus-hunting freedivers, mounds of shark fins, and a close encounter with a leopard seal are among the judges’ selections for Oceanographic Magazine’s ocean photography awards, open for entries until June 30

Survival of five shore plovers – or tūturuatu – was at risk unless operation went ahead to take them to a predator-free island

A rare New Zealand bird has been evacuated to a remote island despite the strict coronavirus lockdown, with the high-risk mission “essential” to the survival of the species, conservationists say.

Despite stringent lockdown orders in place country-wide, as New Zealand battles Covid-19, five juvenile shore plovers – or tūturuatu – were flown from captivity in Christchurch to the remote, predator-free Mana Island off the coast of Wellington on Saturday.