The Guardian

The Japanese have known for years that spending mindful time in the woods is beneficial for body and soul. Now western doctors – and royals – agree

Every day, apart from when it’s raining heavily, Dr Qing Li heads to a leafy park near the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo where he works. It’s not just a pleasant place to eat his lunch; he believes the time spent under the trees’ canopy is a critical factor in the fight against diseases, of the mind and body.

Once a month Li spends three days in forests near Tokyo, using all five senses to connect with the environment and clear his mind. This practice of shinrin-yoku – literally, forest bath – has the power to counter illnesses including cancer, strokes, gastric ulcers, depression, anxiety and stress, he says. It boosts the immune system, lowers blood pressure and aids sleep. And soon it could be prescribed by British doctors.

The big dry has sent dam storage levels plunging and council measures could turn more drastic if the rain stays away

Lawns are turning brown, playing fields are becoming dustbowls and residents are cutting back on household water use as water restrictions prompted by the continuing drought intensify.

Parched front and backyards in regional towns across central and western parts of New South Wales are particularly under strain from the big dry, and could be pushed to the brink as councils clamp down on sprinkler use, ban the watering of lawns or mandate the use of only grey water for this purpose.

The mayor of Okuma, home of the damaged nuclear power plant, has been in exile for eight years – here he writes about finally returning

The residents of Okuma were among more than 150,000 people who were forced to flee their homes after the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As one of the wrecked plant’s two host towns, Okuma was abandoned for eight years before authorities declared that radiation levels had fallen to safe levels, allowing residents to return. Even now, 60% of Okuma remains off limits, and only a tiny fraction of the pre-disaster population of 11,500 has returned since their former neighbourhoods were given the all clear in April. A month later, Okuma’s mayor, Toshitsuna Watanabe, and his colleagues returned to work at a new town hall. In the second of a three-part diary for the Guardian, Watanabe recalls the search for a temporary home for Okuma’s nuclear evacuees.

It’s about the very survival of people, nations and cultures. If action isn’t taken there are islanders who may have nowhere to go

Scott Morrison flew to the Solomon Islands last weekend to “show our Pacific step-up in action” but this policy will fail if his government doesn’t take meaningful action on climate change. A successful step-up must include stopping our own pollution, defending the sovereignty of our friends in the Pacific and offering a safety net to those who may need it.

Over the past five years Australia’s standing in the Pacific has declined dramatically because of an unwillingness to take strong action on climate change. It’s not as if the Pacific hasn’t been clear. From female fishers to the Fijian prime minister, to remote communities in the Solomon Islands, climate change is a top-order issue. It’s about the very survival of people, nations and cultures. If action isn’t taken, in 40 years there are people in Pacific island states who may have nowhere to go.

White tiger cubs, urban deer and many millions of ladybirds

The Arctic Sunrise and the Esperanza, two Greenpeace vessels, are in Svalbard, Norway, on the first leg of a voyage from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Their mission is to highlight the threats facing the oceans and to campaign for a global treaty covering all international waters.

The Protect the Oceans expedition is teaming up scientists and campaigners to research the threats of climate change, overfishing, plastic pollution, deep sea mining and oil drilling.

Less oxygen and ice, more acid and heat. Jonathan Watts joins an expedition studying what this means for the planet

The demise of an entire ocean is almost too enormous to grasp, but as the expedition sails deeper into the Arctic, the colossal processes of breakdown are increasingly evident.

The first fragment of ice appears off the starboard bow a few miles before the 79th parallel in the Fram strait, which lies between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. The solitary floe is soon followed by another, then another, then clusters, then swarms, then entire fields of white crazy paving that stretch to the horizon.

From sperm whales to dolphins, marine mammals in the eastern Mediterranean face a lethal threat from oil and gas exploration

Before the giants of oil and gas joined the litany of threats facing Greek sperm whales, the plight of the world’s largest-toothed animal was little known.

Like the Hellenic trench, which was discovered only two decades ago and is the habitat most associated with the species, the mammals were once the preserve of dedicated oceanographers. Now international eco-warriors, bent on stopping oil companies drilling for underwater reserves, are determined to put both the region and its unique species on the map.

Bill Hare says claim by emissions reduction minister is ‘grossly exaggerated’

Claims by the energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, that Australia’s liquefied natural gas exports are reducing global emissions are “grossly exaggerated”, one of Australia’s most renowned climate scientists has said.

Bill Hare, who has worked in climate science for 30 years, including on UN negotiations, has questioned Taylor’s statement that Australia’s LNG exports cut global emissions by up to 148m tonnes because they replace higher-emission alternatives such as coal.

Photographer Tom Skipp visited Chernobyl and nearby Pripyat, its replacement town Slavutych, and the abandoned sites of the region – meeting the people behind the disaster: from the liquidators who worked at the fallout site, to the resettlers and the community who live and work in the area now

I arrived in Ukraine on the eve of the 32nd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. I had not intended for it to be the focus of my time in Kyiv, but leading up to my departure it became an obsession. My arrival in Kyiv on 25 April 2018 was maybe happenstance of planning but I was impelled to head straight from the airport to Slavutych. This was the town built to replace Pripyat and host the evacuated personnel of the Chernobyl power plant, after the decision was made to continue power production following the disaster. All of the Soviet republics were called upon to hurriedly help with the construction of what would eventually be the last atomic town.

‘It’s definitely not birds, and it’s not bats. But we’re still not sure if it’s ladybugs,’ National Weather Service meteorologist says

The internet is abuzz with talk of ladybugs.

On Tuesday, the San Diego office of the National Weather Service tweeted that it had picked up an odd radar echo that evening.

It is not fair to ask people to adapt their lives to dirty air. We need to solve the problem at source

Can telling people about air pollution lessen the impact? A new air quality index was launched in Hong Kong at the end of 2013. This included forecasts and information for vulnerable people; doctors were enlisted to advise their patients too. A new analysis of seven years of data showed that the start of the index was followed by a 16% reduction in the number of children treated in hospital with respiratory infections and pneumonia. This was attributed to parents following official advice to keep their children indoors during smogs. However, the benefit was short-lived and lasted for only about a year. Other studies have also found that people are willing to adapt their lives for short periods to protect themselves but not in the longer term. No effect was seen in elderly people. This was thought to be due to low literacy rates and difficulties in reaching them with information.

Others have criticised indices for focusing on smogs rather than the more harmful exposure to low levels of air pollution every day. Asking people to adapt to poor air pollution may help but we need to solve the problem at source. Our lives should not be further compromised by adapting what we do because of the quality of our air.

The chancellor has warned against cutting UK emissions to net zero. But failing to act will have dire consequences

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has written to the prime minister to warn against adopting the strict targets on greenhouse gas emissions recommended by the government’s advisers.

His intervention, first reported by the Financial Times (£), raises the important question of whether or not it makes economic sense to save the planet.

US attraction Fair Oaks Farms Dairy Adventure accused of animal rights violations

Undercover footage showing young dairy calves being kicked, violently thrown, having their heads stamped into the ground and suffering from heat exposure at a US farm known as the “Disneyland of agricultural tourism” was published this week.

“Calves can be seen struggling to breathe and are observed suffering by themselves within their hutches,” according to a report by Animal Recovery Mission (ARM), the campaigners behind the footage. “With temperatures reaching to as high as 110F [43C] in summer, dehydration and malnutrition are also possible factors leading to calves suffering and slowly dying at Fair Oaks Farms.”

Just 63% of Britain’s beaches meet most stringent water quality standard

The UK has one of the lowest proportions of top quality bathing waters in Europe, according to research by the European Environment Agency.

Just 63.2% of Britain’s beaches met the most stringent water quality standards needed to be ranked as excellent.

‘Brood management’ trial criticised for failing to tackle persecution of bird of prey

Hen harrier chicks will be removed from their parents and reared in captivity this summer in a controversial “brood management” scheme to placate grouse moor owners.

Removing young hen harriers is designed to prevent concentrations of the bird of prey on grouse moors, where hen harriers feed on young grouse, and reduce the illegal killing of species, which is on the brink of extinction as a breeding bird in England.

Quantity of particles hundreds of meters underwater off California is on par with Great Pacific Garbage Patch, study finds

Anela Choy, a biological oceanographer, had been noticing something odd while studying the diets of tuna and other deep-diving fish. Though they lived at average depths of 1,000ft, their stomachs routinely contained bottle caps, trash bags, and light sticks. “It was so strange,” says Choy, who works at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. “We were seeing recognizable pieces of human society.”

Her concerns about plastic pollution inspired a study of waters off the coast of northern California, conducted by Choy and a team of other scientists. The findings, released today in Nature Scientific Reports, reveal a proliferation of microplastic particles, the tiny fragments left over when larger plastics break down. Most remarkably, the highest concentrations of microplastics were found about 200-300 meters (650-1,000ft) down – four times more plastic than was found in samples at the surface. That’s on par, or higher, with quantities found at the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage patch.

Chancellor says target would mean less money available for schools and hospitals

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has warned Theresa May that reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero could cost the country £1tn and lead to industries becoming “economically uncompetitive” without government subsidies.

In a letter to the prime minister, he said the 2050 net zero target – one of the most far-reaching proposed in the world – would mean less money for schools, the NHS and police forces, the Financial Times reported. The target has the backing of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the government’s advisory panel.

Data showing 0.7% rise in 2018 published a week late and only after minister discloses it to the Australian

Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing, according to a government report that was withheld for a week in defiance of a Senate order.

The environment department published its emissions data for the December 2018 quarter on Thursday morning, but only after the energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, first disclosed information from the report in an interview with the Australian.

Council wants NSW government to work with banks on financial products to make divestment easier

Sydney’s Inner West council says it has 100% divested from fossil fuels after a three-year process that began before the amalgamation of Leichhardt, Marrickville and Ashfield councils.

The council is now calling on the New South Wales government to work with the big four banks “to develop financial products that will allow more organisations to follow our lead”.