The Guardian

An investigation finds hundreds of shocking welfare incidents, fuelling concerns about standards in a post-Brexit trade deal

Chickens slowly freezing to death, being boiled alive, drowned or suffocating under piles of other birds are among hundreds of shocking welfare incidents recorded at US slaughterhouses, according to previously unpublished reports.

Among them are “inexcusable” violations, say campaigners, who ask if the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) current system, where inspectors issue reports when they see violations, really works. One inspector, who asked to remain anonymous, questioned the impact of those reports.

With no new infrastructure or funding, questions remain on how to genuinely democratise cycling in a big city

London has a new official plan for cycling. It’s full of bold statements of intent and has some interesting ideas. That’s the good news. Here’s the drawback: within the 59 glossy pages I could detect no new plans for cycling infrastructure.

This all might seem a bit niche, not to say London-centric. But there is a wider lesson here: if cities are to truly move ahead in making cycling everyday and for everyone, good intentions aren’t enough. It involves political boldness, and taking risks.

Dew farm, Peasmarsh, East Sussex: Ben Walgate wants to establish a vineyard that echoes the humus- and microbe-rich soil environment in which wild vines thrive

In a coppiced corner of Dew farm, deep in the rolling Sussex Weald, grows a wild grapevine: ancient, gnarled and bountiful. When Ben Walgate moved here last year, he wild-fermented grapes from the vine and found he had made a wine that, as he put it, “tasted of the place”.

Now Walgate, who comes from a long line of farmers, is creating a vineyard – Tillingham Wines – using that vine as inspiration. Instead of the intensive and chemical-dependent practices of traditional viticulture, Walgate, with the collaboration of the owner of the estate, the environmentalist Lord Devonport, wants to establish a vineyard that echoes as closely as possible the natural, biodiverse, humus- and microbe-rich soil environment in which wild vines thrive.

Extinction Rebellion group call on BBC to tell ‘full truth about ecological emergency’

Climate campaigners are calling on the BBC to declare a climate emergency and make the issue its top editorial priority.

In a letter published in the Guardian, the new civil disobedience group Extinction Rebellion (XR) says the BBC, “as a respected media voice in the UK, needs to play a key role in enabling the transformative change needed”.

This Friday, Extinction Rebellion will hold a peaceful demonstration to call upon the BBC to convey the severity of the climate and ecological emergency we are experiencing, and the urgent action needed to address this. The BBC, as a respected media voice in the UK, needs to play a key role in enabling the transformative change needed. We are requesting:

1. The director general, Tony Hall, agree to a meeting with a delegation from Extinction Rebellion to discuss how the BBC can tell the full truth on the climate and ecological emergency.

Australia’s national parks are under threat due to funding cuts, excess tourism and politics, so we want you to share your favourite park stories

• Under siege: our commitment to Australia’s national parks is waning
  

Australians love our national parks: many of us escape the daily grind by walking, hiking and enjoying these protected areas, from the Daintree in Queensland and Uluru-Kata Tjuta in the Northern Territory to Kosciuszko in New South Wales and Cradle Mountain in Tasmania, and everywhere in between.

But national parks are under attack: funding cuts, the weight of tourism and political double standards are jeopardising their future. Our unique biodiversity is threatened by this lack of protection and we are at risk of not meeting the targets we agreed to as a nation in the International Biological Diversity treaty.

The government has committed to protecting our national parks and biodiversity, yet investment is lower and jobs have been slashed

• Tell us about your favourite national park and why it’s important to you?

National parks are under siege in Australia. There are more than 500 parks in Australia, covering 28 million hectares or almost 4% of the country, but after decades of steadily adding to our national estate and making progress towards honouring our international commitments to protect biodiverse regions, Australia’s commitment has waned.

Funding has been slashed at both the state and federal levels and the creation of new national parks has stalled.

Agreement will fail to halt devastating rise in global temperature, say scientists

The world has been put on notice that its best efforts so far will fail to halt the devastation of climate change, as countries came to a partial agreement at UN talks that failed to match up to the challenges faced.

Leading figures in climate science and economics said much more must be done, and quickly, to stave off the prospect of dangerous levels of global warming.

Friends of the Earth granted judicial review it hopes will help alter planning rules

Ministers face a pair of legal challenges to their planning rules on fracking this week, from a national environmental group and the son of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.

The government used its revamped planning rulebook to tell local authorities in July that they should recognise the benefits of shale gas and facilitate its extraction.

Fractious UN climate change talks ended with a deal on putting the Paris agreement into practice – but much else left unresolved

• ‘We can move forward now’: climate talks take significant step

Countries settled on most of the tricky elements of the “rulebook” for putting the 2015 Paris agreement into practice. This includes how governments will measure, report on and verify their emissions-cutting efforts, a key element because it ensures all countries are held to proper standards and find it harder to wriggle out of their commitments.

Delegates agree ‘rulebook’ for Paris goals, but key questions have been ignored or put off

They lacked the drama, excitement and eventual breakthrough that marked the Paris agreement of 2015, but this year’s UN climate talks produced important steps forward in putting the landmark accord into practice.

After last-minute wrangling over wording, late on Saturday night delegates in Poland finally agreed a text that contains most of the “rulebook” needed to guide countries’ implementation of the Paris goals.

Hopes were high for the interior secretary’s tenure. But profiteers and climate deniers quickly changed that

When President Trump’s new secretary of the interior Ryan Zinke rode a horse across the National Mall to the steps of his new office, there was cautious optimism, as a western congressman who professed to idolize Teddy Roosevelt seemed like a solid choice to govern 20% of the land base of the United States.

In the unforgiving milieu of Washington DC, Zinke and the “horse he rode in on” were subjected to withering ridicule. As the 18th director of the National Park Service (NPS), where I oversaw over 400 national parks and the equestrian patrol of the National Mall who accompanied the new secretary, I chalked it up to a publicity stunt.

Falling revenues from waste reprocessing have led to a financial black hole for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

The government body given the job of cleaning up Britain’s old nuclear power stations has warned that taxpayers will have to help plug a looming multimillion-pound gap in its finances left by shrinking revenues.

David Peattie, chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, said revenues would fall more than 10% annually in coming years due to the end of an era of nuclear waste reprocessing. One plant ceased operations in November and another will stop in two years.

It was once a simple choice of stilton or cheddar with a few grapes on the side and the pleasure of assembling a course that requires no cooking.

But for many households the Christmas cheeseboard has become an elaborate affair – often resulting in a vast amount of waste. Now, as a new survey estimates that 2.2 million kilograms of cheese from the festive dining table will be chucked in the bin this year, specialists are urging shoppers to aim for a “zero waste” cheeseboard. “If you buy cheese that tastes amazing you’re far less likely to waste it,” said Dominic Coyte of Borough Cheese Company. “In my house I tend to end up with lots of small bits left, so I grate and freeze it. Freezing can affect the texture so it loses its rigidity, but it’s still good to use for cheese on toast or in sauces or gratins. The remainders of a boxed soft cheese can also be baked in the oven with garlic, rosemary and white wine – day-old bread with a bit of bite is ideal for dipping in it.”

Discovery of 1,026 tusks at Phnom Penh port follows a tip from the US embassy

Cambodia seized more than 3.2 tonnes of elephant tusks hidden in a storage container sent from Mozambique, a customs official said on Sunday, marking the country’s largest ivory bust.

The discovery of 1,026 tusks at the Phnom Penh port followed a tip from the US embassy, the official said, and highlights Cambodia’s emergence as a key regional transit point for the multibillion dollar trade in illicit wildlife.

Nations agree on implementing 2015 Paris agreement, but put trickiest issues on back burner

The UN climate change talks ended late on Saturday night in Poland with a deal agreed on how to put the 2015 Paris agreement into action, but with other contentious problems left to be resolved next year.

Countries thrashed out the complex details of how to account for and record their greenhouse gas emissions, which will form the basis of a “rulebook” on putting the Paris goals into action. But difficult questions such as how to scale up existing commitments on cutting emissions, in line with stark scientific advice, and how to provide finance for poor countries to do the same, were put off for future years.

Struggles remain on enacting 2015 Paris accord despite more clarity on emissions

The UN met on Saturday in Poland to discuss a draft agreement on climate change, which sources said was likely to pass, as exhausted delegates made compromises on some key issues but left other contentious problems to be resolved next year.

The result will not be the breakthrough campaigners and some countries were hoping for, but will keep discussions alive on formulating key aspects of the implementation rules for the 2015 Paris accord.

Small bits of plastic packaging from waste food make their way into animal feed as part of the UK’s permitted recycling process

Plastic traces in animal feed could pose a risk to human health and urgently need to be the subject of more research, experts have told the Guardian.

Their comments came after British farmer Alex Rock contacted the Guardian, having noticed plastic shreds in his animal feed. Rock was told by the suppliers that this was a legal part of the recycling process that turns waste food, still packaged, into animal feed.

Report finds more than 95% chance of hydrological changes to Belyando River Basin from mines including Carmichael

Coalmines planned in the Galilee Basin – including Adani’s Carmichael mine – understated the likely impacts on surrounding water resources, a federal government scientific report has found.

The bioregional assessment report into the cumulative impact of coalmine proposals was published quietly last week. It was compiled by experts from the CSIRO, Geosciences Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology and the federal environment department.

The report modelled information from seven of 17 proposed coalmines in the Galilee and found there was a greater than 95% chance that they would cause hydrological changes to the Belyando River Basin.

Slow progress on 2015 Paris agreement comes as scientists warn of need to get on track

Negotiators at the climate conference in Poland have inched closer to an outcome, as the official deadline for finishing a deal ran out.

The conference was meant to approve a rulebook which would govern how nations put into action the goals set in the landmark Paris agreement of 2015, when the world resolved to hold global warming to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration to limit temperature rises to no more than 1.5C.