The Guardian

City council approves scheme in attempt to tackle illegal levels of air pollution

Bristol has become the first UK city to ban diesel cars from its streets as part of action to tackle illegal levels of air pollution.

The city council voted on Tuesday, following a public consultation, to impose a total ban on all privately owned diesel vehicles during the day in the city centre. The scheme, which still needs government approval, is due to start in 2021.

Their rich and often comical personalities are just one reason to adore sulphur-crested cockies

• Vote for your favourite bird in the poll

There are many reasons why we love cockies. In my experience, a key behaviour that sets this bird apart from the majority is that they sit back and look you in the eye. They appear to consider who you are, what you are doing and whether they want to be “friends”.

I am specifically talking about the sulphur-crested cockatoo. I wouldn’t want you to vote for the wrong cockie.

US and Brazil unlikely to meet Paris agreement pledges - while Russia has not even made one

The world is on a path to climate disaster, with three-quarters of the commitments made by countries under the Paris agreement “totally inadequate”, according to a comprehensive expert analysis.

Four nations produce half of all carbon emissions but the US has gone into reverse in tackling the climate emergency under Donald Trump while Russia has failed to make any commitment at all.

Antique dealers fail in high court bid to overturn world-leading blanket ban on trading

Antique dealers have failed in an attempt to overturn a total ban on ivory trading being introduced by the government after the high court ruled that the legislation did not breach European law.

Conservation groups, who argued that any dilution of the ban would revitalise illegal elephant poaching, welcomed the decision, which they said would preserve the UK’s position as a world leader in the fight against the ivory trade.

Statement sets out ‘vital signs’ as indicators of magnitude of the climate emergency

The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.

“We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.”

Aim is to save £1bn a year on industrial energy bills and cut emissions equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road

The British government has launched a £315m hunt to find new technologies that can shrink the carbon footprint of the most polluting factories to help meet the UK’s climate targets.

The scheme will offer funds over the next five years to energy-intensive firms, such as manufacturers, to invest in new technology which can reduce their energy use.

Study claims police tactics have left women feeling ‘violated and frightened’

Police have been accused of groping and manhandling female anti-fracking protesters, including pulling their clothes to reveal their breasts.

A team of academics, who have been studying anti-fracking demonstrations for three years, alleged that police had treated female protesters more physically than male protesters.

What started as innocuous good fun has evolved into a national obsession, complete with voter fraud, skulduggery and high passions

The data team picked up on them first – 310 “dubious” votes from an IP address in Australia, sending one trend line suddenly, suspiciously skyward above the others. Something funny was going on with the shag.

Of course, by then – the 13th year of the competition – organisers knew to expect dodgy dealings in New Zealand’s bird of the year poll.

Parks one of many government resources Trump has sought to privatize, including the US postal service, airports and freeways

A team of Trump administration advisers – consisting mostly of appointees from private industry – are urging “modernization” of national park campgrounds, with a vision of food trucks, wifi and even Amazon deliveries.

“Our recommendations would allow people to opt for additional costs if they want, for example, Amazon deliveries at a particular campsite,” Derrick Crandall, vice chairman of the “Made in America” Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee, told the Los Angeles Times. “We want to let Americans make their own decisions in the marketplace.”

Activists take government back to court, saying plans violate people’s environmental rights

Climate campaigners are taking Norway’s government back to court to oppose its plans to open the Arctic for oil drilling despite a public commitment to tackle the environmental crisis.

Greenpeace Nordic and Norway’s Nature and Youth organisation will appeal on Tuesday against the government’s decision to allow oil exploration in parts of the Arctic Ocean on the grounds that it violates people’s rights to a safe and healthy environment.

EU’s agriculture policy needs urgent reform, organisations tell incoming commission president

The EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) should be overhauled urgently to stop the intensification of farming practices that is leading to a steep decline in wildlife, scientists from across the bloc have urged.

Five organisations representing more than 2,500 experts have written to Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the European commission, and the European parliament, to demand major changes to the way the CAP operates.

Firm says it will work with Oil and Gas Authority to allay communities’ concerns

The UK’s leading shale gas company hopes to overturn a government moratorium on fracking by proving that it can be safe despite triggering earthquakes.

Cuadrilla has said it would provide the oil and gas regulator with new data to address the concerns of communities near active fracking sites so the suspension of its operations can be lifted.

If ever there were a country in a prime position to be able to invest in protecting its precious wildlife, it was us.

• Vote for your favourite in the 2019 bird of the year poll

The last time Australia experienced a quarter of national negative economic growth, the Soviet Union still existed, Nirvana were on the cusp of releasing Nevermind, and the first serious attempt to analyse and catalogue our threatened birds – The action plan for Australian birds – was about to be published.

In the 28 years since, the lucky country has recorded the longest period of continual economic growth of any modern nation. Whether this was due to 1991 being “the recession we had to have”, the fundamentals of a strong, modern economy having been put in place, or the sheer dumb luck of being a beneficiary of the China boom, if ever there were a country in a prime position to be able to invest in protecting its precious wildlife, it was us.

If you lived near a planned or active shale gas site and protested against it, we want to hear from you

On Saturday, in a watershed moment for environmentalists and community activists, the government halted fracking in England and told shale gas companies it would not support future fracking projects.

The decision, which drew a line under years of bitter opposition to the controversial extraction process, was taken after a new scientific study from the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) warned it was not possible to rule out “unacceptable” consequences for those living near fracking sites.

Pollution in Delhi has reached its worst levels so far this year, at almost 400 times the amount deemed healthy. A week on from Diwali, the thick brown smog that shrouded the city after the festival has shown no sign of shifting. One local said the pollution was so bad it burned his nose and throat, making simple activities such as jogging difficult

• Flights diverted in Delhi as toxic smog hits worst levels of 2019

Groups including Greenpeace, WI and Oxfam call for faster action in letter to all parties

The next government must bring forward the target for reaching net-zero carbon emissions by five years to 2045, phase out diesel and petrol cars by 2030 instead of 2040, and start devoting at least 5% of all government spending to the climate and the restoration of the UK’s natural environment, a broad coalition of civil society groups has demanded.

They have written to the leaders of all the UK’s main political parties, citing the UK’s hosting of next year’s UN conference on the climate, known as COP26, as the catalyst for strengthening existing goals in line with scientific advice.

After a series of natural and manmade disasters in the 1980s and 1990s, Jamaica lost 85% of its coral reefs and fish catches hugely declined. Many scientists thought the reefs had been permanently lost but today the corals and tropical fish are slowly reappearing, thanks to the work of local ‘gardeners’

Everton Simpson squints at the Caribbean from his motorboat, scanning the dazzling bands of colour for hints of what lies beneath. Emerald green indicates sandy bottoms. Sapphire blue lies above seagrass meadows. And deep indigo marks coral reefs. That is where he is heading. He steers the boat to an unmarked spot he knows as the “coral nursery”. Simpson started working as a “coral gardener” two years ago as part of grassroots efforts to bring Jamaica’s coral reefs back from the brink.

On the ocean floor, small coral fragments dangle from suspended ropes. Simpson and other divers tend to this underwater nursery as gardeners look after a flower bed, painstakingly plucking off snails and fireworms that feast on immature coral. When each stub grows to about the size of a human hand, Simpson collects them in his crate to individually transplant on to a reef. Even fast-growing coral species add just a few inches a year.

Lavazza launch comes amid rising concern over where 20bn single-serve plastic pods end up

The first compostable one-cup coffee pods from a major manufacturer will go on sale this week in a battle to stop the 20bn pods used every year around the world from ending up in landfill.

Italian espresso giant Lavazza is aiming to replace its entire range of home use capsules with new eco-friendly ones – at the same retail price – by the end of the year.

The price of grain is rising, dam levels have fallen, there's no more feed. Everywhere is dust, crops have been wiped. Australia is in the grip of the worst drought in 100 years, worse than many can remember.  On these once fertile farmlands cattle farmers, grain growers and others living through the drought are carrying the weight of the emotional, economic and psychological effects. New South Wales farmer Jason Maloney shares his deeply personal experience of trying to survive during the 'one in a hundred'

Fossil records suggest the species could be relocated from alpine areas to lowland rainforests

Researchers studying fossil records say they have come up with an innovative approach to try to save the mountain pygmy possum, an Australian species under serious threat due to global heating.

Scientists from the University of New South Wales have used a new paper to argue for the translocation of the species from its current habitat in the alpine regions of Victoria and New South Wales into lowland rainforests.