The Guardian

Groups say expanding access to contraception can improve lives and help save wildlife

A UN-backed campaign has been launched to help tackle the destruction of wildlife by boosting people’s access to contraception.

Growing human populations often underlie the destruction of nature, and barriers to family planning are the “most important ignored environmental challenge”, say the campaigners.

Restricted scheme would have far less benefit to UK economy, government data suggests

A comprehensive deposit return scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles, cans and glass could boost the economy by £2bn, government assessments show, as ministers weigh up which type of system to adopt.

Government data highlighted by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England indicates that a more restricted DRS involving only bottles of 750ml and under would benefit the economy by just £250m.

11 July 1934 There is a custom in England for women to sit outside their cottages in the shade, and haymakers to snatch a quarter of an hour of sleep at dinner time

We never experience in this country sufficient lengths of hot weather for the siesta to become a permanent institution. The midday calm of an English village, for instance, in the middle of summer has not much to do with resting. It is really the time of change-over from morning to afternoon work and the all-important business of the midday meal. In some villages there is a custom for the women to sit outside their cottages in the shade before tidying up for the afternoon, and haymakers always snatch a quarter of an hour for a sleep at dinner-time.

Related: From the Guardian archive, 18 June 1932: Editorial: In praise of sunshine

Coral bleaching, crown-of-thorns starfish and cyclones cause 10% to 30% decline over past five years

Hard coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef remains near record lows in its northern stretch and is in decline in the comparatively healthy south, government scientists have found.

A report card by the government’s Australian Institute of Marine Science says hard coral cover in the northern region above Cooktown is at 14% – a slight increase on last year but close to the lowest since monitoring began in 1985.

By 2050, National Grid predicts, 35m electric cars will supply energy when needed

A fleet of 35m electric vehicles could help the UK reach its net-zero carbon target by forming large battery hubs to store renewable energy, according to the country’s energy system operator.

National Grid predicts that by 2050 millions of electric cars will use wind and solar power to charge up within minutes to act as battery packs for when the grid needs more energy.

John Barilaro wants to remove protection by either de-gazetting the entire park or reducing its size

The NSW deputy premier has vowed to introduce legislation to open up a national park in the state’s Riverina region to logging.

John Barilaro wants to remove protection of the 42,000 hectare Murray Valley national park by either de-gazetting the entire park or reducing its size.

Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggests

Indonesia and other countries rejecting Australian waste will no longer be a problem if governments quickly invest in recycling manufacturing as promised and require public servants to use recycled material, industry and environmental groups say.

Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish.

Nearly 80% of cities to undergo dramatic and potentially disastrous changes, study finds

London will have a similar climate in three decades’ time to that of Barcelona today, according to research – but if that seems enticing, a warning: the change could be accompanied by severe drought.

Madrid will feel like present-day Marrakech by 2050, and Stockholm like Budapest, according to a report on the likely impacts of the climate crisis. Around the world, cities that are currently in temperate or cold zones in the northern hemisphere will resemble cities more than 600 miles (1,000km) closer to the equator, with damaging effects on health and infrastructure.

Nearly 600 arrests in Interpol operation that nets primates, big cats, birds and reptiles

Police across the globe have seized thousands of wild animals, including primates and big cats, and arrested nearly 600 suspects in a crackdown on illegal wildlife smuggling, Interpol has said.

Covering 109 countries, the operation was carried out in coordination with the World Customs Organization (WCO), with investigators homing in on trafficking routes and crime hotspots, the international policing body said.

Grantham Research Institute found half do not factor climate crisis in decision-making

About a quarter of the world’s highest-emitting publicly listed companies fail to report their greenhouse gas emissions and nearly half do not properly consider the risks from the climate crisis in their decision-making, new research has found.

The findings show the distance even the world’s biggest companies still have to cover to meet the goals of the Paris agreement on climate change, according to the group of investors coordinating the report.

The naturalist David Attenborough appears before a parliament select committee to discuss environmental policy with MPs. He says the government’s commitment to net zero carbon emissions for the UK by 2050 is not necessarily the best approach. ‘The question is: what is practically possible? How can we take the electorate with us in dealing with these things?’ he says

• David Attenborough: polluting planet may become as reviled as slavery

Judge says there was no evidence that decision not to re-test for bovine TB was unlawful

An alpaca farmer has lost a high court battle to prevent one of her prized animals from being killed.

Helen Macdonald took legal action against the government in a last-ditch attempt to save her stud alpaca, Geronimo, who was earmarked for slaughter after twice testing positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB).

Indonesian officials say containers of paper contaminated by electronic waste, used cans and plastic bottles

Indonesia says it will immediately send eight containers of household rubbish back to Australia after inspectors declared the material too contaminated to be recycled.

It is the latest in a series of announcements by south-east Asian nations that they will not be dumping grounds for overseas waste.

MPs must stop prioritising cars over people if we are to stand a chance of meeting climate goals

The UK is among the worst countries in Europe for cycling participation, and the government is predicted to achieve just a third of the 800m extra cycling trips by 2025 it had aimed for. What’s more, much of the growth so far has been restricted to London.

This is why Tuesday’s debate among MPs on government support for cycling and walking – or rather, the lack thereof – is so important.

Across the Gulf of Tunis, domestic and industrial waste is pouring into the sea, rendering stretches of coastline ‘unusable’

Samir Sdiri is insistent. “There are hardly any fish left. Those that they do catch are dirty. If you open up their gills, you can see that the inside is black.”

Against the cafe’s chatter, Lobna Ben Ali Bouazza nods in agreement. “When I was a child, my parents would let us play on the beach here all day, swimming in the sea – everything. These used to be the best beaches around. Now I take my children elsewhere.”

Global heating is threatening supplies of water needed in large volumes to cool reactors

Enthusiasts describe nuclear power as an essential tool to combat the climate emergency because, unlike renewables, it is a reliable source of base load power.

This is a spurious claim because power stations are uniquely vulnerable to global heating. They need large quantities of cooling water to function, however the increasing number of heatwaves are threatening this supply.

Exclusive: Democrats to introduce resolution in House on Tuesday in recognition of extreme threat from global heating

A group of US lawmakers including 2020 Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders are proposing to declare the climate crisis an official emergency – a significant recognition of the threat taken after considerable pressure from environment groups.

Related: Donald Trump's five most dangerous attacks on the environment

CO2 in bedrooms and offices may affect cognition and cause kidney and bone problems

Indoor levels of carbon dioxide could be clouding our thinking and may even pose a wider danger to human health, researchers say.

While air pollutants such as tiny particles and nitrogen oxides have been the subject of much research, there have been far fewer studies looking into the health impact of CO2.

We could use a global carbon tax to give developing countries incentives to phase out coal

Although much derided by climate-change deniers, not least Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal hits the nail on the head with its urgent call for the US to lead by example on global warming. But the sad truth is that, for all the needless waste produced by Americans’ gluttonous culture, emerging Asia is by far the main driver of the world’s growing carbon dioxide emissions. No amount of handwringing will solve the problem. The way to do that is to establish the right incentives for countries such as China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

It is hard to see how to do this within the framework of existing multilateral aid institutions, which have limited expertise on climate issues and are pulled in different directions by their various constituencies. For example, to the dismay of many energy experts, the World Bank recently rather capriciously decided to stop funding virtually all new fossil-fuel plants, including natural gas. But replacing dirty coal plants with relatively clean natural gas is how the US has managed to reduce emissions growth dramatically over the past decade (despite Trump’s best efforts), and is a centrepiece of the famous “Princeton wedges” pragmatic options for minimising climate risk. One cannot let the perfect become the enemy of good in the transition to a carbon-neutral future.

Cyclists: Scourge of the Roads? isn’t just as bad as the title indicates – it’s irresponsible

On Wednesday morning, I’ll be a little bit more wary when I cycle into work. I’m always hugely careful, anyway – the trip involves sharing space with tonne-plus lumps of speeding metal – but this time I’ll be particularly on my guard. Why? Because Channel 5 are putting me, and others, at risk.

At 9.15pm on Tuesday, a reasonably sizeable number of people, the majority of whom probably drive motor vehicles, will sit down to watch what is undoubtedly the worst, most scaremongering, inaccurate, downright irresponsible programme on cycling I’ve ever seen.