The Guardian

Report finds a third of young adults buy new festive sweater every year

Britons’ love of novelty Christmas jumpers is helping to fuel the world’s plastic pollution crisis, a report has warned.

Whether emblazoned with flashing lights or alpine motifs, 12m jumpers are set to be snapped up this year, despite 65m already languishing in UK wardrobes.

Asthma and heart attacks fall rapidly and babies born healthier, review finds

Cutting air pollution can prevent deaths within weeks, according to scientists. They found the health benefits of clean air were “almost immediate and substantial” and stretched into the long term, saving billions of dollars.

The review examined the evidence for the reduction of illness after levels of toxic air were reduced. It showed dramatic reductions in asthma and children missing school, heart attacks and the number of small and premature babies.

Campaigners say regulations are overlooking the health impacts of these tiny toxic materials

More than 30 of Europe’s air pollution and health experts have teamed up with clean air campaigners to highlight a pollutant that is being overlooked in environmental regulations.

The health impacts of air pollution have been linked to the mass of particles in the air around the world, but by only weighing them we miss the tiny, ultrafine particles, less than 100 nanometres across. They have little mass but are very numerous.

Caroline Lucas (Journal, 5 December) is right to say that nature and wildlife should be issues for voters and points to the need for a national policy. Our statutory conservation agencies are not mentioned.

For many years after the creation of the Nature Conservancy in 1949, Britain led the world in its nature conservation policy. Our 334 reserves were a model for other countries and our experts were held in high esteem.

Report also recommends protections for front gardens and rewilding hospital grounds

An hour a day of outdoor learning for primary school children and tighter restrictions on paving over front gardens are two of 80 nature policies proposed in a report commissioned by the Green party.

The recommendations set out in A New Deal for Nature are designed to protect wildlife and put biodiversity at the centre of government policy. Other suggestions include turning 20% of Britain into national parks and helping farmers devote 15% of their land to nature.

Pontiff calls on COP 25 leaders to show political will to safeguard healthy planet

The climate emergency is a “challenge of civilisation” requiring sweeping changes to economic systems, but political leaders have not done enough, the pope has said in a message to governments meeting at the annual climate summit in Madrid.

“We must seriously ask ourselves if there is the political will to allocate with honesty, responsibility and courage, more human, financial and technological resources [to the climate crisis],” he said, in the pontifical message, which was welcomed by activists.

Scientists and conservation professionals predict mosquito-killing fungi and a kelp crisis could be among the trends affecting living things next year

What are the biggest emerging opportunities and threats the coming year holds for efforts to conserve biodiversity? Nearly two dozen scientists, conservation professionals and future scanners recently came together to answer that question as part of an annual “horizon scan” led by Cambridge University conservation biologist William Sutherland.

The group narrowed a list of 89 issues to 15 emerging or anticipated trends that have a strong potential to benefit or harm living things but are not yet on the radar for most conservationists. Here are their top picks, published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

Dwindling numbers of the fish have led indigenous people to sue the Alaskan government for failing to protect the fishery

• Photographs by Pieter Ten Hoopen

Every spring, the herring arrive in the cold Alaskan waters of Sitka Sound to spawn. But as those waters have warmed, their numbers have fallen drastically.

Tribal leaders in Sitka have long called for better protection of herring, a fish that holds cultural as well as economic significance for the people here. To demand protection of the sac roe herring fishery on which their way of life depends, they are taking the Alaskan government to court.

Australia Climate Roundtable says climate goals require ‘deep global emissions reductions’

Groups representing business, unions, farmers, investors, the environment and social policy advocates say Australia should adopt climate change policies that can put it on a stable path to net zero national greenhouse gas emissions if it is to play its part in the Paris agreement.

Launched to coincide with UN climate talks in Madrid, a joint statement by 10 groups under the Australian Climate Roundtable banner warns that unconstrained climate change would have serious economic, environmental and social impacts in Australia, and avoiding it would bring benefits and opportunities.

Experts fear species decline after huge number of deaths on Henderson and Cocos

More than half a million hermit crabs have been killed after becoming trapped in plastic debris on two remote island groups, prompting concern that the deaths could be part of a global species decline.

The pioneering study found that 508,000 crabs died on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands archipelago in the Indian Ocean, along with 61,000 on Henderson Island in the South Pacific. Previous studies have found high levels of plastic pollution at both sites.

Former Greens leader and four other life members express ‘profound concern’ for 43-year-old organisation after staff sacked

A group of Wilderness Society life members led by the former Greens leader Bob Brown are calling for an independent review into the conservation group after it recorded a $1.7m deficit last financial year, forcing it to sack campaign and other staff.

In a letter to the organisation’s directors, Brown and four other life members expressed “profound concern” for the 43-year-old organisation, which they say is “one of the world’s most important defenders of wild and natural country”.

Findings confirm reliability of projections of temperature changes over last 50 years

Climate models have accurately predicted global heating for the past 50 years, a study has found.

The findings confirm that since as early as 1970, climate scientists have had a solid fundamental understanding of the Earth’s climate system and the ability to project how it will respond to continued increases in the greenhouse effect. Since climate models have accurately anticipated global temperature changes so far, we can expect projections of future warming to be reliable as well.

A group of Extinction Rebellion activists dressed as bees ‘swarmed’ the electric-powered Lib Dem battlebus in south London and quizzed the Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, about her party’s approach to the climate crisis.

The said they were ‘buzzing around’ political parties’ campaign battlebuses ‘demanding the climate and ecological emergency is top of the agenda this election’

• Extinction Rebellion protester glues himself to Lib Dem battlebus

Scotland court ruling comes after climate protesters boarded two oil rigs in October

Greenpeace has been banned from carrying out climate protests on North Sea oil rigs after the oil giant Shell won a Scottish court order.

A judge in Edinburgh granted Shell an interim interdict, similar to an injunction, banning Greenpeace from occupying four of its rigs in the Brent field 85 miles north-east of Shetland, after its activists boarded two decommissioned rigs in October.

Activist dressed as insect targets battlebus as XR tries to push environment up agenda

An Extinction Rebellion protester dressed as a bee has glued himself to the Liberal Democrats’ battlebus, as the environmental group intervenes in the general election.

The group said it was “buzzing around” political parties’ campaign battlebuses on Wednesday “demanding the climate and ecological emergency is top of the agenda this election”.

Cleveland magistrates court decision described as ‘a Queensland first’ and out of step with other similar cases

Three Extinction Rebellion members will remain in custody for more than two weeks, after they were denied bail by a Queensland magistrate.

Members of the activist group said they believed the decision in the Cleveland magistrates court to refuse bail was “a Queensland first” and out of step with other similar cases.

Fans of wildlife photographs can pick their favourite for the Lumix-sponsored award from 25 images pre-selected by the Natural History Museum in London. The institution whittled down its shortlist from more than 48,000 submissions from 100 countries. Voting ends on 4 February

Members of WeShutDown stand trial for blockading the Weisweiler plant. Some call it ‘ecoterrorism’, while others label it a masterstroke in the art of protest

A group of climate activists who shut down a lignite coal power plant in Germany said they had no regrets and were prepared to repeat the action, as they awaited the conclusion of their trial.

The activists from the group WeShutDown blockaded the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen for several hours on 15 November 2017, by halting its coal-carrying conveyor belts and diggers. The energy company RWE, which owns the plant, claims the shutdown cost it €2m.

Europe’s environmental watchdog gives warning as climate crisis continues

Pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment is no longer an option as Europe faces “unprecedented” challenges from climate chaos, pollution, biodiversity loss and the overconsumption of natural resources, according to a report from Europe’s environmental watchdog.

Europe was reaching the limits of what could be achieved by gradual means, by making efficiencies and small cuts to greenhouse gas emissions, with “transformational” change now necessary to stave off the impacts of global heating and environmental collapse, warned Hans Bruyninckx, executive director of the European Environment Agency.

Greenpeace says efforts to restore seas’ ecosystems would boost their capacity to absorb heat and store carbon

Halting overfishing and the plastic pollution of the oceans could help tackle the climate emergency by improving the degraded state of the world’s biggest carbon sink, a report has found.

The oceans absorb both the excess heat generated by our greenhouse gas emissions, and absorb carbon dioxide itself, helping to reduce the impacts of climate chaos. But we are rapidly reaching the limits of the oceans’ absorptive capacity as our pillage of marine life is disrupting vital ecosystems and the natural carbon cycle.