The Guardian

Outgoing special rapporteur David Boyd says ‘there’s something wrong with our brains that we can’t understand how grave this is’

The race to save the planet is being impeded by a global economy that is contingent on the exploitation of people and nature, according to the UN’s outgoing leading environment and human rights expert.

David Boyd, who served as UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment from 2018 to April 2024, told the Guardian that states failing to take meaningful climate action and regulating polluting industries could soon face a slew of lawsuits.

Scientists have returned 18 red handfish to Tasmanian waters months after they were removed to protect them from record high sea temperatures. Marine ecologist Dr Jemina Stuart-Smith said removing the fish had been a difficult decision but was the ‘right approach’ despite the risks. Three of the fish died in captivity. Dr Andrew Trotter, who leads the red handfish conservation project at the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, said the three deaths were disappointing but highlighted the need to better understand disease in the critically endangered species. There are fewer than 100 red handfish estimated to be left in the wild in two patches of rocky reef south-east of Hobart

Exclusive: Mukhtar Babayev says clear accounting crucial to build trust as developing world seeks trillions in support

Poor countries must demonstrate clearer accounting and transparency to back up their calls for trillions of dollars of climate finance, the president of global climate negotiations has said.

Mukhtar Babayev, the ecology minister of Azerbaijan, who will lead the Cop29 UN climate summit in November, urged governments in developing countries to draw up reports showing their progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and their spending on the climate crisis.

Audio collected with underwater microphones suggests numbers at least stable after centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred alive

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Centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred Antarctic blue whales alive, making it almost impossible to find them in the wild.

Now new research suggests the population may be recovering. Australian scientists and international colleagues spent two decades listening for their distinctive songs and calls, and found the whales – the largest animals ever to have lived – swimming across the Southern Ocean with growing regularity.

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We must ask ourselves what it is that we really need. Only then can we stop our endless consumption and save the planet

• Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

From a Buddhist perspective, everyone can learn to live simply and be happy. There’s no great secret to it. Simplicity is not an aesthetic or a lifestyle choice. It’s how your life expresses itself when you are content.

How can this thinking help us navigate the climate crisis?

About 6,000 have been installed this year, a quarter of them rapid chargers that can power up a car in under an hour

The UK has installed a record number of public electric car chargers this year, as companies race to keep up with the increasing number of battery vehicles on British roads.

Nearly 6,000 new chargers were installed during the first three months of 2024, according to quarterly figures from data company Zapmap published by the Department for Transport. About 1,500 of those were rapid chargers, capable of charging a car in less than an hour.

Organisers of this year’s environmental conference hope cooperation on green issues could help ease global tensions

This year’s Cop29 UN climate summit will be the first “Cop of peace”, focusing on the prevention of future climate-fuelled conflicts and using international cooperation on green issues to help heal existing tensions, according to plans being drawn up by organisers.

Nations may be asked to observe a “Cop truce”, suspending hostilities for the fortnight-long duration of the conference, modelled on the Olympic truce, which is observed by most governments during the summer and winter Olympic Games.

Effects of heat are expected to worsen after bill prohibiting municipalities from enacting shade and water protection is passed

For Javier Torres and other workers whose jobs are conducted outdoors in south Florida, the heat is unavoidable. A new law recently signed by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, that prohibits any municipalities in the state from passing heat protections for workers ensures that it is likely to stay that way.

Torres has seen a co-worker die from heatstroke and another rushed to the emergency room in his years of working in construction in south Florida. He has also fallen and injured himself due to heat exhaustion.

More frequent heatwaves mean bees are unable to thermoregulate their hives – further endangering a species already in decline

Bumblebee nests may be overheating, killing off broods and placing one of the Earth’s critical pollinators in decline as temperatures rise, new research has found.

Around the world, many species of Bombus, or bumblebee, have suffered population declines due to global heating, the research said. Bumblebee colonies are known for their ability to thermoregulate: in hot conditions, worker bees gather to beat their wings and fan the hive, cooling it down. But as the climate crisis pushes average temperatures up and generates heatwaves, bumblebees will struggle to keep their homes habitable.

Even products marketed as ‘organic’ may be toxic, say campaigners, with risks for the wider ecosystem

Gardeners are inadvertently killing scores of earthworms with soil conditioners marketed as “organic”, experts fear, as they call for tighter regulation on products that poison the invertebrates.

Earthworms may appear humble, but Charles Darwin thought their work in improving soil structure and fertility was so important he devoted his final book to them and said: “It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organised creatures.”

Science Advances report also finds people of color and low-income residents in US disproportionately affected

Using a gas stove increases nitrogen dioxide exposure to levels that exceed public health recommendations, a new study shows. The report, published Friday in Science Advances, found that people of color and low-income residents in the US were disproportionately affected.

Indoor gas and propane appliances raise average concentrations of the harmful pollutant, also known as NO2, to 75% of the World Health Organization’s standard for indoor and outdoor exposure.

Environmental campaign groups took joint action against decision to approve carbon budget delivery plan

The UK government’s climate action plan is unlawful, the high court has ruled, as there is not enough evidence that there are sufficient policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, will now be expected to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet.

Researchers find many countries unprepared for influx of new species and will be vulnerable to bites

Climate breakdown is likely to lead to the large-scale migration of venomous snake species into new regions and unprepared countries, according to a study.

The researchers forecast that Nepal, Niger, Namibia, China, and Myanmar will gain the most venomous snake species from neighbouring countries under a heating climate.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

A pocket-sized city terrace extension and a multigenerational riverside property inspired by a country shed are among the innovative dwellings shortlisted in the sustainability category of the Houses awards, Australia’s premier residential design prize. This year’s five-panel jury noted a number of new sustainable design trends, including a move towards net-zero housing, abodes that accommodate adult children, innovative multi-use spaces for working from home, a growing appreciation for restoring dated dwellings and inspired designs for downsizers and elderly occupants.

• From Spanish mission extravaganzas to art deco curves: other people’s homes – in pictures
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Unesco joint research dating back 15 years found violence and intimidation against about 750 reporters and 44 murders

More than 70% of environmental journalists have been attacked for their work since 2009, according to a Unesco report, which warns of rising threats against those covering the climate crisis.

At least 749 environmental journalists have faced violence and intimidation in the last 15 years, the UN body found. It said that 44 reporters were murdered between 2009 and 2023 but that resulted in just five convictions.

Exclusive: decision to grant licences condemned by critics as a stunt that shows Tories are ‘playing politics with climate’

Fossil fuel companies will be allowed to explore for oil and gas under offshore wind-power sites for the first time, the government will announce on Friday, in a move which campaigners say is further proof that ministers are abandoning the climate agenda.

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which regulates North Sea oil and gas production, will confirm that it is granting licences to about 30 companies to look for hydrocarbons on sites earmarked for future offshore windfarms.

Rivers Trust is asking citizen scientists to record observations of local waterways on free app

People in Britain and Ireland are being asked to monitor their local rivers for pollution so a leading water charity can measure the scale of the sewage crisis.

The Rivers Trust is this week launching the Big River Watch, asking people to record observations of their local rivers on a free app. The results will be made available through an interactive dashboard, and will help the organisation, as well as individuals and communities who can all access the data, to take action to improve rivers.

Use of enclosed combustors leaves regulators heavily reliant on oil and gas companies’ own flaring data

Oil and gas equipment intended to cut methane emissions is preventing scientists from accurately detecting greenhouse gases and pollutants, a satellite image investigation has revealed.

Energy companies operating in countries such as the US, UK, Germany and Norway appear to have installed technology that could stop researchers from identifying methane, carbon dioxide emissions and pollutants at industrial facilities involved in the disposal of unprofitable natural gas, known in the industry as flaring.

To protect our local river we had to prove it was being used for swimming. But that, bizarrely, is the reason we were rejected

The state of Britain’s rivers is incredibly depressing: the water companies dump too much sewage, the farmers dump too much muck, and the regulators are too cowed and underfunded to do their job and stop them.

It wasn’t always this way. As a child I used to swim in the River Wye and I remember the clouds of mayflies in the summer, as well as huge leaping salmon. It was thanks to this wealth of wildlife that the Wye was classified as a special area of conservation along its whole length. Sadly, however, thanks to the failure of the Welsh and British governments to protect the river, much of this abundance is gone, and the Wye’s official status is now “unfavourable – declining”, thanks to pollution from manure and sewage.

Oliver Bullough is the author of Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals