The Guardian

European Chemicals Agency draft law aims to cut 400,000 tonnes of plastic pollution

A wide-ranging ban on microplastics covering about 90% of pollutants has been proposed by the EU in an attempt to cut 400,000 tonnes of plastic pollution in 20 years.

Every year, Europe releases a bulk amount of microplastics six times bigger than the “Great Pacific garbage patch” into the environment – the equivalent of 10bn plastic bottles.

Senate committee urges government to create policies to encourage use or risk missing out on a transport revolution

Australia is “on the cusp” of a transport revolution but the country will miss out if it doesn’t end the policy vacuum that has so far kept the electric vehicle industry from growing, according to a Senate committee report released on Wednesday.

“[Electric vehicle] uptake in Australia lags behind that of other comparable countries due to a relative absence of overarching policy direction from Australian governments,” the report said.

Supersonic aircraft would bring noise and greater CO2 emissions, report says

Heathrow airport could be hit by a sonic boom every five minutes as a new class of supersonic aircraft come into service, research suggests.

It is predicted that by 2035 there could be demand for up to 2,000 supersonic passenger jets, which could knock hours off long-haul trips.

Take a first line of defence against the cold with these coats and accessories to keep you feeling toasty

Researchers say effects will be felt beyond molluscs as reefs shelter other marine life

Mussels start to lose their grip when exposed to microplastics, research has found, in the latest example of the damaging effects of plastic pollution on marine life.

When blue mussels were exposed to doses of non-biodegradable microplastics over 52 days, they lost about half their power to stick to surfaces. The weakening of their attachment appears to be the result of producing many fewer byssal threads, the thin fibres produced by mussels that enable them to attach to rocks, ropes and other undersea environments.

Young people more likely to have depression at 18 if exposed to dirtier air at age 12

Children who lived in areas with higher air pollution when younger are significantly more likely to have developed major depression by the age of 18, according to research.

In the first analysis of how common air pollutants affect teenage mental health, researchers found young people were three to four times more likely to have depression at 18 if they had been exposed to dirtier air at age 12. Comparison with earlier work indicates that air pollution is a greater risk factor than physical abuse in raising the risk of teenage depression.

Paris agreement target will not be met without changes to policy and threatened species at risk unless funding increased

Australia is not on track to meet its 2030 emissions targets under the Paris agreement and needs to bring its environment policies into line with the “scale of the challenge” the country is facing, one of the world’s pre-eminent economic institutions says.

In a major report on Australia’s environmental performance, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development also finds the status of Australia’s biodiversity is “poor and worsening” and the government’s national threatened species strategy will fail unless it is expanded and funding increased.

Many of Britain’s native species tackle the cold as caterpillars, but one heads to the African tropics

I’ve disturbed several pristine peacocks hibernating in my log pile in this deep midwinter, but butterflies that endure winter in their adult form are a minority. We may see species including the brimstone, red admiral, small tortoiseshell and comma on a sunny winter’s day.

Most British butterflies tackle winter as caterpillars, superbly camouflaged on bare branches (purple emperor), encased in elegant hibernacula (winter quarters) of withered leaves (white admiral) or even submerged in bogs (swallowtail).

Anne Taylor is impressed by 16-year-old’s Greta Thunberg’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Geneva

Jeremy Corbyn considered it wasting time at a “billionaires’ jamboree”, referring to a quarter of the cabinet flying to Davos in the middle of the Brexit impasse (The week that was, Environment, 26 January).

Greta Thunberg (Mountain mover, 26 January) clearly didn’t think it was a waste of time. Taking 32 hours to get there by train, the 16-year-old activist practised what she preaches. What could be more important than the future of our planet? As she said in her speech: “Either we choose to go on as a civilisation or we don’t.”

Of 775 projects overlapping bird’s habitat that government assessed over two decades, only one was refused, study reveals

Environmental laws that formally protect the endangered black-throated finch have also sanctioned the broadscale destruction of its natural habitat, leaving the species at risk of extinction, a new study says.

The study, led by University of Queensland research fellow April Reside, and published on Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science and Policy, charts the exile of the black-throated finch from more than 80% of its former range.

Humane Society will argue shark control measures conflict with authority’s responsibility to protect reef

Environmentalists will on Wednesday launch a legal challenge aiming to stop the legal killing of sharks, including several protected species, in the world-heritage listed Great Barrier Reef marine park.

The Queensland government runs a shark control program that uses drum lines – baited hooks to lure and kill sharks – near popular swimming spots along the state’s coast.

Coalition worth $6.5tn challenge fast food chains over lack of low-carbon plan

McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King have been urged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains by a coalition of global investors, with the animal agriculture industry criticised for being one of the world’s highest-emitting sectors without a low-carbon plan.

Increasing concern that the industry is neglecting climate change and has failed to set emissions targets – unlike other sectors – prompted more than 80 investors representing $6.5tn (£4.94tn) to challenge fast food chain owners to put robust targets in place for their meat and dairy suppliers, in what could prove a landmark demand.

Rescue workers in Brazil waded through treacherous mud looking for bodies as pressure mounted on the mining company responsible for a dam that burst and spilled a flood of iron-ore waste

• Brazil dam collapse: five arrested including three mining firm staff
  

The threat of poaching by foreign trawlers has eased for the nation’s 33,000 local fishermen, who are hauling in the rewards of a coastguard crackdown

Photographs: Nicole Schafer/Sea Shepherd

Exclusive: Natural England struggling to protect important sites after suffering budget cuts

Thousands of environmentally important sites across England are coming under threat as the government body charged with their care struggles with understaffing, slashed budgets and an increasing workload.

Natural England has wide-ranging responsibilities protecting and monitoring sensitive sites, including sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) and nature reserves, and advising on the environmental impact of new homes and other developments in the planning stages. Its work includes overseeing national parks, paying farmers to protect biodiversity, and areas of huge public concern such as air quality and marine plastic waste.

By driving such extreme distances, Wiebe Wakker hopes to bust Australian anxieties about electric vehicles

A Dutch man who has driven 89,000km from Amsterdam to Adelaide in a small electric car says he is proving to Australians that electric vehicles are a viable alternative.

Since March 2016, adventurer Wiebe Wakker has driven across 33 countries from Europe to the Middle East to south-east Asia and finally to Australia in a 2009 Volkswagen Golf, converted to electric.

As Sydney turns on its desalination plant for the first time in seven years, the way Australia manages its water resources has come into stark focus.

Adam Lovell, the executive director of the Water Services Association of Australia, discusses the challenges of climate change and population growth to the country's water supply – and how these are being met through a combination of techniques, including desalination, dams, water recycling and improved efficiency

National park saw ‘irreparable’ damage including vandalism, ruined trails and trees cut down, says former superintendent

The former superintendent of Joshua Tree national park has said it could take hundreds of years to recover from damage caused by visitors during the longest-ever government shutdown.

“What’s happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years,” Curt Sauer said at a rally over the weekend, according to a report from the Desert Sun. Sauer retired in 2010 after running the park for seven years.

Store to sell pasta and granola bars made from ground buffalo worm and cricket flour

Pasta, protein bars and granola bars made from insect flour are to go on sale in Selfridges to highlight alternative proteins for inclusion in mainstream diets.

Amid growing awareness of the environmental impact of livestock farming – and the benefits of reducing meat consumption – the British department store is the latest retailer to tap into the rising recognition of the benefits of eating insects on both nutritional and environmental grounds.

Councils say lack of funding and rock-bottom recycling prices is hampering efforts to build better infrastructure and reinvigorate dying market

Recycling is being stockpiled and council authorities fear it will soon head to landfill, as Australia’s recycling crisis continues to take its toll on the industry.

More than a year after China refused to accept 99% of the world’s recycling, halting the export of more than one million tonnes of Australian waste each year, the heads of local government warn the recycling market is still in trouble.