The Guardian

The president said he is protecting companies from liability – but employees are afraid of sick leave and filing for workers’ comp or unemployment

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Thousands of workers stream in single file, at dawn and mid-afternoon, to suit up in masks and chain gloves and put their lives on the line so you can put cheap sausage on your biscuit.

They are accustomed to living in fear – of starvation from drought in Guatemala, or death squads in El Salvador or drug cartels in Mexico. Of being hunted and caged, whether documented or not. And now, of meeting their fate over a pork chop.

Researchers study whether new strain of chronic bee paralysis virus is responsible

A viral disease that causes honey bees to suffer severe trembling, flightlessness and death within a week is spreading exponentially in Britain.

Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) was only recorded in Lincolnshire in 2007. A decade later, it was found in 39 of 47 English counties and six of eight Welsh counties, according to data collected from visits to more than 24,000 beekeepers.

Study shows lit escape holes allow non-target species to get away, protecting populations

A simple technique to “illuminate the exits” in trawl fishing nets can almost halve the numbers of unwanted catch, new research has found, potentially protecting both the environment and fishermen’s livelihoods.

Attaching LED lights to larger holes in nets, intended to allow non-target species to escape, dramatically reduced the numbers killed unnecessarily, a team from Bangor University found.

Green groups fear coronavirus lockdown has weakened environmental protections

An “armada” of more than 100 fishing vessels are illegally plundering south Atlantic waters close to Argentina, environmental groups say, raising concerns that the coronavirus lockdown has weakened already fragile marine protections.

The incursion of the ships, mostly from east Asia, appears to have been carried out by stealth. The vessels waited until nightfall, shut down satellite tracking systems in coordination and then moved into the squid-rich waters of Argentina’s exclusive economic zone, Greenpeace said.

Currents act as conveyor belts that concentrate microplastics in hotspots, study suggests

Scientists have discovered microplastics in greater quantities than ever before on the seabed, and gathered clues as to how ocean currents and deep-sea circulation have carried them there.

Microplastics – tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size – are likely to accumulate most densely on the ocean floor in areas that are also biodiversity hotspots, intensifying the damage they may do to marine ecosystems, according to the research.

More than half of Woodside’s investors support shareholder motion to set targets in line with Paris climate agreement

The increasing pressure on the Australian gas industry to do more to deal with the climate crisis has been underlined by more than 50% of Woodside Petroleum shareholders calling on the company to set science-based greenhouse gas targets.

Slightly more than half of Woodside investors who gave a view supported a motion that it set targets in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement to cut both its own emissions and the “scope 3” emissions released by consumers of its products, many of them in Asia.

Planned sale of land to fossil fuel, mining and and timber concerns mirrors rollback of Obama-era pollution regulations

The Trump administration has ratcheted up its efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic to overhaul and overturn Obama-era environmental regulations and increase industry access to public lands.

The secretary of the interior, David Bernhardt, has sped efforts to drill, mine and cut timber on fragile western landscapes. Meanwhile, the EPA, headed by the former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, has weakened critical environmental laws and announced in March that it would cease oversight of the nation’s polluters during the Covid-19 crisis.

Australian researcher and reef guide Jacinta Shackleton is now one of the few people to have ever seen the rare and endangered ornate eagle ray. Shackleton was conducting research near Lady Elliot Island on the Great Barrier Reef when she saw the ray, something she said was an 'unforgettable and emotional experience'. With little more than 50 sightings recorded worldwide, divers have dubbed the ray ’the unicorn of the sea’

Guardian investigation finds workers stranded on ships without pay, as port closures and travel bans in the Covid-19 pandemic block repatriation

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While most cruise ship passengers have now made it back to land, another crisis has been growing – with no safe haven in sight.

Around the world, more than 100,000 crew workers are still trapped on cruise ships, at least 50 of which have Covid-19 infections, a Guardian investigation has found. They are shut out of ports and banned from air travel that would allow them to return to their homes.

Study into effects of coronavirus curbs also finds less asthma and preterm births

The improvement in air quality over the past month of the coronavirus lockdown has led to 11,000 fewer deaths from pollution in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, a study has revealed.

Sharp falls in road traffic and industrial emissions have also resulted in 1.3m fewer days of work absence, 6,000 fewer children developing asthma, 1,900 avoided emergency room visits and 600 fewer preterm births, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

UK’s cities are surprisingly green, with London and Birmingham having more trees per person than Paris or Berlin. But trying to learn the names of each species has left me puzzled

I left London this week for the first time in more than a month to make a short film for the BBC. For such purposes, believe it or not, I am an essential worker. It felt weird, and not just because of the lack of traffic on the motorways. You get used to what lockdown looks like in your own locale; seeing it elsewhere makes it new and strange all over again.

During many fine days at home this past month, I have yearned for the countryside. But now I was in the sticks, the weather had changed from glorious to horrendous. The view cleared for me by the windscreen wipers was monochrome. Monochrome, that is, apart from the trees. Even through clouds of grey spray, they burned so bright and green that I fancied my eyes were starting to hurt.

Environment department’s three-year inquiry found Jam Land illegally used herbicide on critically endangered grasslands in 2016

Jam Land, the company part-owned by the energy minister Angus Taylor and his brother Richard, illegally poisoned critically endangered grasslands in the New South Wales Monaro region, the federal environment department has concluded.

The department has ordered the company to restore 103 hectares of native grassland but Jam Land has avoided a fine and criminal finding.

As the coronavirus lockdown makes wildlife more visible in our cities, biodiversity reporter Patrick Greenfield speaks to ecologist Dr Rana El-Sabaawi and evolutionary biologist Prof Menno Schilthuizen about what this means for the future of cities and how urban dwellers can become more involved with nature

The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) has selected its Nature Photographer of the Year 2020.

The winning image is part of a series of photographs taken in Dortmund’s north by Peter Lindel. Compared with many international nature photography hot spots, this region has little to offer. Lindel spent a lot of time and blood, sweat and tears working on this project on his doorstep. It is a beautiful statement about the long-term exploration of a single species and region.

Fears pollution affecting cognition as crabs exposed to polyethylene struggle to select good homes

When it comes to moving home, hermit crabs are experts, often swapping shells for the optimal abode.

But now researchers have found that exposure to microplastics disrupts this key behaviour. The finds are the latest to suggest such pollution could be having an impact on the world’s marine creatures.

This crisis is a chance to rebuild our economy for the good of humanity. Let’s bail out the living world, not its destroyers

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Do Not Resuscitate. This tag should be attached to the oil, airline and car industries. Governments should provide financial support to company workers while refashioning the economy to provide new jobs in different sectors. They should prop up only those sectors that will help secure the survival of humanity and the rest of the living world.

They should either buy up the dirty industries and turn them towards clean technologies, or do what they often call for but never really want: let the market decide. In other words, allow these companies to fail.

António Guterres calls for coronavirus aid to be directed at firms with green credentials

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Governments should not use taxpayer cash to rescue fossil fuel companies and carbon-intensive industries, but should devote economic rescue packages for the coronavirus crisis to businesses that cut greenhouse gas emissions and create green jobs, the UN secretary general has urged.

“Where taxpayers’ money is used to rescue businesses, it must be creating green jobs and sustainable and inclusive growth,” said António Guterres, speaking at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, a virtual meeting of more than 30 governments on the climate crisis, which concluded on Tuesday. “It must not be bailing out outdated, polluting, carbon-intensive industries.”

Planet of the Humans, which takes aim at the green movement, is ‘full of misinformation’ says one distributor

A new Michael Moore-produced documentary that takes aim at the supposed hypocrisy of the green movement is “dangerous, misleading and destructive” and should be removed from public viewing, according to an assortment of climate scientists and environmental campaigners.

The film, Planet of the Humans, was released on the eve of Earth Day last week by its producer, Michael Moore, the baseball cap-wearing documentarian known for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Describing itself as a “full-frontal assault on our sacred cows”, the film argues that electric cars and solar energy are unreliable and rely upon fossil fuels to function. It also attacks figures including Al Gore for bolstering corporations that push flawed technologies over real solutions to the climate crisis.

Waverley council in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has reopened Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama beaches to swimmers and surfers between 7am and 5pm on weekdays. The beaches were closed as Australia’s coronavirus restrictions came into force. They are to remain closed on weekends, and only the water is ‘open’, with sunbathing, walking and jogging on the beach not allowed

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In 2013, just three adult females remained in the wild, now a much larger group will leave Tasmania to fly north for the winter

There has been little good to say about the recent history of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot. Numbers of the small migratory bird, which makes a return trip from Tasmania’s south-west wilderness to the mainland’s coastal scrubland each year, have fallen so sharply scientists consider it at risk of extinction within five years.

Just 23 birds arrived at the species’ breeding site at Melaleuca, deep in the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness Area, last spring.