The Guardian
Loss of biodiversity from our gardens | Letters
I feel for readers who have been missing birds and bats in their gardens (Letters, 28 June). I can’t be sure of the reasons – climate change could, of course, be a factor – but I would like to ascribe the continued presence of both in my garden to the fact that I have never used chemical or other means to get rid of insects. My lack of gardening rigour has meant the garden is slightly messy, so various forms of wildlife have been able find places to live. A hedgehog, badger and fox have all been sighted, and we have often heard, although never seen, a tawny owl.
Cherry Weston
Wolverhampton
• Digging patches of my garden over the last few months, I haven’t seen a single worm. Seems odd.
Dr Nigel Mellor
Newcastle upon Tyne
'It's getting warmer, wetter, wilder': the Arctic town heating faster than anywhere
In the world’s northernmost town, temperatures have risen by 4C, devastating homes, wildlife and even the cemetery. Will the rest of the planet heed its warning?
Continue reading...Police use pepper spray on seated climate protesters in Paris – video
Police try to disperse young protesters, who blocked traffic on Paris roads on Friday to call for more government action and media attention on climate change. About 400 demonstrators, many of them students, blocked traffic on Pont de Sully in central Paris. In an effort to stop the sit-in, police dragged and carried away protesters, arresting some of them
Continue reading...French police criticised for using pepper spray on climate protesters
Video showing police removing seated demonstrators in Paris causes outrage on social media
France’s interior minister has asked the Paris police chief to explain a controversial riot police operation to remove climate activists from a bridge, after a video of officers using pepper spray and dragging protesters went viral on social media.
The interior ministry said the police operation to clear the demonstrators was “necessary to restore traffic circulation in the centre of Paris”.
Continue reading...More than a dozen seabird species in decline off south-east Australia, study finds
The findings are ‘worrying’, researchers say, and are likely to be partly because of warming ocean temperatures
More than a dozen species of seabirds are in decline off Australia’s south-east coast – likely because of warming ocean temperatures, new research has found.
The study revealed sightings of almost half of the 30 most abundant seabirds – including the wandering albatross and flesh-footed shearwater – had fallen in the region between 2000 and 2016.
Continue reading...Feed your dog insects and microwave your dinner: a 24-hour guide to going green
From borrowing clothes to switching search engines, there are ways to boost your environmental credentials throughout the day
Britons use 840bn litres of water a year showering, with some power showers using up to 15 litres a minute. Aerator shower heads, such as Lowenergie’s (£12.99), save water by acting as a sieve, reducing space for the water to flow through while maintaining water pressure.
Continue reading...Police search for 9ft escaped python in Cambridge
Police called to north of city after reticulated python spotted at large
A nearly three-metre long python is on the loose in Cambridge, with police asking the public to notify them of any sighting.
Cambridgeshire officers were called to Lovell Road in the north of the city in the early hours of Sunday, after receiving reports that a sizeable snake had been spotted in the area.
Continue reading...Toxic coal waste found to be a 'ticking time bomb' across Australia
Environmental Justice Australia report finds problems at ash dumps in every mainland state
Soon after Sue Wynn moved up the road from the Vales Point coal power station, on the banks of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales’s Hunter Valley, she started to worry about what the plant was releasing into the environment.
Not the carbon dioxide emissions from its smokestacks – it was 1978, and that disquiet came later – but the coal ash mixed with water and piped into a giant unlined dam site nearby.
Continue reading...End onshore windfarm ban, Tories urge
Pressure is mounting within the Conservative party to end its block on new onshore windfarms after evidence that Tory supporters overwhelmingly back their return.
Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, who are battling to become the party’s new leader, are facing internal calls to give the green light to new onshore wind projects that could slash the price of energy. Latest research suggests Tory voters are far more concerned about fracking than they are about onshore windfarms.
Continue reading...Rise of ethical milk: 'Mums ask when cows and their calves are separated' | Tom Levitt
As vegan activism boosts awareness of animal welfare issues, more dairy farms let calves stay with their mothers. But is this really any better for the cows?
A field of cows with suckling calves may sound like a normal rural scene. In fact, the view at David Finlay’s farm on the Dumfries and Galloway coast is a sight you’d be unlikely to see on any other dairy farm in the UK.
Almost all calves are separated from cows within hours or days of birth on dairy farms. This allows farmers to sell the milk that the calves would otherwise drink.
Continue reading...'Are a cow's farts the worst for the planet?' Children's climate questions answered
What are young people most worried about? We put their queries to the experts
Ewoenam Tetteh and Faith Otasowie, both 15, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
Continue reading...Plan to sell 50m meals made from electricity, water and air
Solar Foods hopes wheat flour-like product will hit target in supermarkets within two years
A Finnish company that makes food from electricity, water and air has said it plans to have 50m meals’ worth of its product sold in supermarkets within two years.
Solar Foods is also working with the European Space Agency to supply astronauts on a mission to Mars after devising a method it says creates a protein-heavy product that looks and tastes like wheat flour at a cost of €5 (£4.50) per kilo.
Continue reading...Heatwave cooks mussels in their shells on California shore
Temperatures lead to what appears to be largest local die-off in 15 years, raising fears for broader ecosystem
In all her years working at Bodega Bay, the marine reserve research coordinator Jackie Sones had never seen anything like it: scores of dead mussels on the rocks, their shells gaping and scorched, their meats thoroughly cooked.
A record-breaking June heatwave apparently caused the largest die-off of mussels in at least 15 years at Bodega Head, a small headland on the northern California bay. And Sones received reports from other researchers of similar mass mussel deaths at various beaches across roughly 140 miles of coastline.
Continue reading...Butterflywatch: small blue makes waves between downpours
Britain’s smallest butterfly has been spotted more than 25 miles from its nearest known colony
It seems not to have stopped raining since last month’s Butterflywatch but it has been quite warm and in the gaps between the deluges I’ve seen plenty of Britain’s largest butterfly, the swallowtail, in its Norfolk heartland.
I’ve also admired hundreds of migratory painted ladies, blown in on southerly winds, in what is the largest invasion for a decade but still well short of the epic painted lady summer of 2009.
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
A red-eared slider tortoise, wild pigs, and a jaguar cooling off in the heatwave
Continue reading...Anti-fracking activists breached injunction, judge rules
Trio taken to court by Cuadrilla after taking part in ‘lock-on’ at Blackpool site last year
Three anti-fracking protesters have been found to have breached an injunction designed to stop them demonstrating outside a fracking site in Lancashire, which they say has a “chilling effect on the right to peaceful protest”.
The trio were taken to court by Cuadrilla, which last year became the first firm to start large-scale fracking in Britain. The energy firm said it took legal action to prevent “dangerous, disrespectful and illegal activity” at its Preston New Road site near Blackpool.
Continue reading...'I was inspired by Kylie': artists Jeremy Deller, Olafur Eliasson and Helen Cammock on their Guardian climate crisis covers
Three leading artists explain the new works they’ve created for tomorrow’s magazine (click on each artwork’s title to download a copy)
I heard some young activists chanting, “Fuck you, CO2” at the school climate strike on 24 May. It wasn’t the most profane chant I heard that day – there were a lot about politicians. But it worked well: it was short, strong – and kids just like swearing, don’t they? So I didn’t come up with this: I nicked it from the air. But by getting it down on paper, I’m giving it more life. I can imagine people putting it in a window at home, like a party-political poster. In 2017, I did something similar with Theresa May’s words in my poster Strong And Stable My Arse [which was posted around London]. Her repetition of the phrase gave it its power. I just took it and turned it into a poster.
Continue reading...Minister grants woodlands protection after years of delay by predecessors
Sussan Ley adds more plants and animals to Australia’s national list of threatened species
The environment minister, Sussan Ley, has added more plants and animals to Australia’s national list of threatened species, including woodlands that had been eligible for protection for years.
Ley announced on Friday afternoon that the Nabarlek, found in the Northern Territory, had been added to Australia’s list of critically endangered mammals.
Continue reading...Meet generation Greta: young climate activists around the world
They’re too young to vote, but schoolchildren across the globe are taking matters into their own hands
In May, for the second time this year, more than 1.5 million young people in more than 125 countries walked out of schools, colleges and universities in the biggest day of global climate action ever. Young people have protested en masse before – millions marched against the Iraq war in 2003 – but this child-led uprising is happening with unprecedented momentum on a global scale.
The urgency of their protests reflects the very narrow window of opportunity left to make positive change. We are already living outside the climate parameters that first gave rise to humans, and the world’s leading climate scientists agree that we have only 12 years to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C. Still, most governments are not doing enough to stay within these limits as set out by the United Nation’s 2015 Paris agreement.
Continue reading...Build more nuclear reactors to reach net zero carbon target – CBI
Business group says nuclear programme will be key for low carbon economy in UK
The UK should keep building large-scale nuclear plants and “mini-nuke” reactors to help reach a net zero carbon target by 2050, according to Britain’s biggest business group.
In a letter to the business secretary, Greg Clark, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said the UK’s struggling new nuclear programme has “an important role” in a low carbon economy “at the right price”.
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