The Guardian

Wild Justice plans legal action over environmental impact of shooting industry’s release of 50m non-native birds each year

The legality of releasing 50 million non-native pheasants and partridges into the British countryside each year is to be challenged in the courts by a new crowdfunded campaign.

The government should be forced to carry out environmental assessments of the impact of the shooting industry’s release of game birds into the wild each year, according to Wild Justice, a campaign group led by environmentalists Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham.

Work starts on first wave of 100 fountains to be installed in drive to cut single-use plastics

The locations of the first 50 of a £5m wave of public water fountains earmarked for the capital have been announced.

The first of the new fountains – which people are encouraged to use to refill their own bottles – are being installed from this week, predominantly in tube and mainline train stations, shopping centres, markets and recreation grounds. Designed to withstand outdoor temperatures and all weathers, the fountains are attached to the mains water supply and feature a distinctive design with a giant blue “waterdrop” to make them easy to spot.

Inquiry to address problems including aviation emissions and traffic in UK and abroad

Holidaymakers’ responsibility for foul beaches, overcrowding, traffic, aeroplane emissions and other environmental impacts will come under parliamentary scrutiny.

The inquiry into the environmental cost of tourism and transport will consider whether the UK government should play a greater role in offsetting the waste and damage caused by the tens of millions of Britons who go on holiday overseas each year.

Experts believe false readings occurred because radar interpreted insects as raindrops

Huge swarms of flying ants that hit England’s south coast were mistaken by weather satellites in space for clouds of rain.

The Met Office’s radar captured what it described as “insect clutter” over the counties of Hampshire, West Sussex and Dorset on Wednesday morning. They were also spotted in East Sussex and Kent.

Blowing trillions of tonnes of snow on to ice sheet could halt its collapse, researchers say

Spraying trillions of tons of snow over west Antarctica could halt the ice sheet’s collapse and save coastal cities across the world from sea level rise, according to a new study.

The colossal geoengineering project would need energy from at least 12,000 wind turbines to power giant seawater pumps and snow cannons, and would destroy a unique natural reserve. The scientists are not advocating for such a project, but said its apparent “absurdity” reflects the extraordinary scale of threat from rising sea level.

The birds, whose numbers once dropped to just 22 in the wild in the early 1980s, have two new chicks: Nos 1,000 and 1,001

Nestled among the red-rock cliffs of Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon, California condor chicks No 1,000 and 1,001 blinked into this world. Their birth signalled success for a decades-long program to bring North America’s largest bird back from the brink of extinction.

As a result of hunting, diminishing food and dwindling territory, the number of birds in the wild numbered just 22 in the early 1980s. Lead poisoning was also a major killer, caused by inadvertently ingesting bullets that hunters left inside dead animals that the enormous birds, which have a wingspan of 9.5 feet and weigh up to 25lbs, scavenged for food.

Crown Estate holds rights to seabeds around British Isles for wind and wave power

The Queen’s property managers will this week set out terms for the world’s biggest offshore wind auction in a decade.

Industry experts expect the complex bidding process to raise record sums, which could increase energy bills and hand a windfall to the crown – potentially generating hundreds of millions for the Queen.

US has offered close to 378m acres of public lands and waters for oil and gas leasing since Trump took office through April 2019

Donald Trump’s leases of public lands and waters for oil and gas drilling could lead to the production of more climate-warming pollution than the entire European Union contributes in a year, according to a new report.

The Wilderness Society estimates heat-trapping emissions from extracting and burning those fossil fuels could range between 854m and 4.7bn metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, depending on how much development companies pursue.

Exclusive: ‘Sneaky’ rezoning exercise now under way to address timber shortfall

The New South Wales government is considering reclassifying old growth forest to open up some protected reserves in the state’s north-east to the timber industry.

The Natural Resources Commission of NSW has been asked to remap and rezone old growth forest in state forest informal reserves that were previously off limits to logging. Environment groups are concerned the move is an attempt to unpick forest protections that have been in place for decades.

Visitors were unhappy when a changeover in services prompted the national park to change the names of hotels and attractions

Some of Yosemite’s most well-known and beloved attractions will get their original names back, following a settlement in an intellectual property dispute that briefly changed the monikers of the national park’s hotels and landmarks.

The name change came about in a legal battle with Delaware North, a company that lost a $2bn bid to run concessions for the California park’s hotels, restaurants and outdoor activities. After Yosemite awarded a contract to Aramark, the park service learned that Delaware North had applied for trademarks for the names when it prepared to open bids.

If global trends continue for another fortnight, it will beat previous two-year-old record

Record temperatures across much of the world over the past two weeks could make July the hottest month ever measured on Earth, according to climate scientists.

The past fortnight has seen freak heat in the Canadian Arctic, crippling droughts in Chennai and Harare and forest fires that forced thousands of holidaymakers to abandon campsites in southern France and prompted the air force in Indonesia to fly cloud-busting missions in the hope of inducing rain.

Climate emergency protesters have begun a second day of action by blocking and chaining themselves to the entrance of a concrete factory in east London. About 50 activists blocked the gates at London Concrete in Bow to stop workers or vehicles from entering the site on Tuesday morning. The disruption is planned to halt the expansion of the site, which is intended to support the construction of the Silvertown Tunnel

• Extinction Rebellion activists target east London concrete plant

Activists block gates of London Concrete as part of week-long programme of protests

Extinction Rebellion activists have begun a second day of protest by blocking and chaining themselves to the entrance of a concrete factory.

Throughout the country, the environmental activist movement is staging five days of non-violent disruption in five cities to urge the government to take immediate action to address the climate crisis.

Implementation of ban ‘inadequate’ and has resulted in more waste, says Lord Teverson

The ban on the wasteful discards of healthy and edible fish at sea has failed, according to a Lords report. Despite its enormous popularity with the British public, the measure has been poorly implemented in the UK and the result is more fish being needlessly wasted.

The implementation of the discards ban has been “inadequate” according to Lord Teverson, speaking to the Guardian after a report on the issue that he co-wrote. A committee of the House of Lords criticised the government in a report for failing to put the ban into proper effect.

Charity accuses government agencies of ignoring ‘rampant’ rule-breaking in industry, and encourages whistleblowers

A website for whistleblowers to expose illegal or unethical practices in the fishing industry has been launched by a charity campaigning to end overfishing in European Union waters.

“Fishyleaks” has been set up by Our Fish to provide an anonymous and secure way for people working in the industry, enforcement bodies and others to shine a light on bad practice.

Radical change needed to make UK food and farming system sustainable within 10 years

The true cost of cheap, unhealthy food is a spiralling public health crisis and environmental destruction, according to a high-level commission. It said the UK’s food and farming system must be radically transformed and become sustainable within 10 years.

The commission’s report, which was welcomed by the environment secretary, Michael Gove, concluded that farmers must be enabled to shift from intensive farming to more organic and wildlife friendly production, raising livestock on grass and growing more nuts and pulses. It also said a National Nature Service should be created to give opportunities for young people to work in the countryside and, for example, tackle the climate crisis by planting trees or restoring peatlands.

Millions displaced in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, with Assam and Bihar among the worst-hit regions

Floods have forced millions of people from their homes across India, Nepal and Bangladesh and killed more than 100 people as torrential rains in the initial days of monsoons wreaked havoc.

The poor Indian states of Assam and Bihar have been among the worst hit. Some 4.3 million people have been displaced from their homes in Assam in the last 10 days due to rising waters across the mostly rural northeastern region, according to a government release on Monday.

Committee urges action over flame retardants found in breast milk and umbilical cords

Britons are being exposed to a “cocktail of chemicals” from the womb onwards, with potentially life-threatening consequences, MPs have warned.

Ministers were accused of “sitting on their hands” while “unnecessary and potentially toxic” chemicals continued to enter people’s homes.

If you’re planning on taking part in the week-long demonstrations, we’d like to hear from you

The environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion are planning week-long demonstrations by targeting five UK cities; London, Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow and Cardiff. The coalition are calling on the government to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse emissions to zero by 2025.

As part of what the group are calling a “summer uprising”, activists are blocking roads in several city centres. In London people gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice and set up a blue boat, Bristol bridge has been closed after a pink boat has been installed there and a major road has been blocked by a purple boat in the centre of Glasgow.

Group brings boats with slogan ‘Act Now!’ to London, Cardiff, Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow

The environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion has carried out protests in five UK cities, marking the start of what it describes as a “summer uprising”.

Monday’s demonstrations – targeting London, Cardiff, Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow – caused disruption to traffic in parts of the cities. The group is calling for greater government action on the climate crisis.