Environment news

• ‘It’s pretty gloomy out there’: new NFU chief Tom Bradshaw fights to give food producers a better deal

  30-04-2024 15:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Rishi Sunak claimed to have farmers’ backs but their union’s president is far from convinced, as he spars with the government over floods, falling markets and fraught retailer relations‘This is the first time I’ve had my lawn cut by somebody else,” says Tom Bradshaw, the new president of the National Farmers’ Union. Just over a month after being voted into the role, he admits life has become “hectic”.He is standing outside the idyllic farmhouse in
  
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• Swallow, swift and house martin populations have nearly halved, finds UK bird survey

  16-05-2024 18:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Reduction in insect numbers contributes to drop, and there are declines across more than a third of bird species surveyedSwallows, swifts and house martins were once a common sight over UK towns and cities, dextrously catching insects on the wing. But these spring and summer visitors are becoming increasingly rare, according to the definitive survey of the country’s birds.Populations of these insect-eating birds have dropped by 40% or more in the past decade, according to the latest Breedi
  
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• I’ve seen how deadly floods are devastating Europe – we are not prepared for what’s next

  16-05-2024 17:50 via theguardian.com
  
  In this week’s Down to Earth newsletter: what the Guardian’s Sirin Kale saw when reporting on environmental disasters in Germany, Belgium and the UK• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to get the newsletter in fullThis is an extract of this week’s Down to Earth newsletter, to get more exclusive environmental journalism in your inbox every Thursday sign up hereIt’s common to think about the climate crisis as something that will happen
  
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• Hot sauce and a muster dog: on the ground at Beef2024, the southern hemisphere’s biggest cattle industry expo

  16-05-2024 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Emissions, sustainability and windfarms are front of mind at Rockhampton’s Beef Week celebrationsSign up for the Rural Network email newsletterJoin the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the communityIt’s not your typical industry conference.Sure, there are some people wearing suits, and a lot of lanyards swinging around necks. There are seminars (35 on the 140-page program, with 125 speakers); international guests (617 from 35 countries); long lunches and even longer dinn
  
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• Activists sue Russia over ‘weak’ climate policy

  16-05-2024 16:28 via theguardian.com
  
  Russian constitutional court is considering claim, which activists hope will raise awareness about emissionsA group of activists are fighting for the right to scrutinise Russia’s climate policies, and in particular its enormous methane emissions, in court.Russia’s constitutional court is considering a claim brought by 18 individuals and the NGO Ecodefense that insufficient action by the Russian state to cut national greenhouse gas emissions is violating their rights to life, health a
  
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• The search for the perfect wetsuit: is there one that doesn’t harm the planet?

  16-05-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Neoprene is made from toxic chemicals, hard to recycle and, with 400,000 tonnes made a year, a growing problem. So can surfers and swimmers find green wetsuits?I have been hesitating for months. The wetsuit I swim in every week to keep me toasty warm in the winter and safe from jellyfish stings in the summer is riddled with holes. Yet I can’t bring myself to buy a new one because I’ve learned that comfortable, flexible and insulating neoprene is manufactured using some of the most to
  
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• Net zero U-turns will hit UK infrastructure, say government advisers

  16-05-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sir John Armitt urges ministers to act swiftly or risk impeding growth and jeopardising climate targetsRishi Sunak’s U-turns over net zero have delayed progress on vital infrastructure that is needed for economic growth, the government’s advisers have said.Sir John Armitt, the chair of the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC), said good progress had been made on renewable energy in the past five years, but changes to key policies, including postponing a scheme to boost heat pump
  
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• ‘It’s unbelievable the difference a path has made’: how volunteers are building a cycle network a yard at a time

  16-05-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The Strawberry Line network of paths in Somerset has found a way to speed up planning permission and harness the goodwill of the communityIn the past two years, multiple sections of a hoped-for 76-mile rural cycling and walking route spanning Somerset have sprouted up around the small town of Shepton Mallet, seemingly every few weeks.These new routes are popular. One 300-metre section of path in the heart of the town, for example, uses one of Historic Railway Estates’ bridges for the first
  
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• Hydrogen, solar and batteries – did the 2024 federal budget deliver on clean economy investment? | Tennant Reed

  16-05-2024 07:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Labor’s Future Made in Australia policy has enough money to move the needle. What matters is implementation – and readiness to adjust course if neededGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastBusiness groups such as ours, alongside investors, unions and climate campaigners, have been calling out for a big push on clean economy investment.So what should we make of the 2024-25 budget and have those calls been answered?Sign up for Guardian Australia’
  
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• Climate disruption to UK seasons causes problems for migratory birds

  16-05-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Early springs mean food for young of arrivals from west Africa has already disappeared; this year they face the opposite problemMigratory birds, especially those long-distance travellers that winter in sub-Saharan Africa, are struggling with the effects of climate change. Specifically, the trend towards earlier springs is causing problems, because when they arrive at their usual time – between mid-April and early May – nature’s calendar has shifted forwards and spring is almost
  
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• Country diary: Cherry blossom has given way to apple blossom | Virginia Spiers

  16-05-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  St Dominic, Tamar Valley: Few insects are about, but we hope the variable and staggered blossoming times will help pollinationIn this cool, damp May, greenery washes across the land, clouding memories of wintry mud and rain. Along the lanes near home, fresh leaves of woody growth on flailed hedge banks merge with bluebells, stitchwort and an array of unfurling ferns – lady, male, buckler and scaly male. These are succeeded by soft shield, hart’s-tongue, and the latest to emerge
  
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• ‘Someone is going to die’: MPs warned of E coli risk to swimmers in English waters

  15-05-2024 18:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Clean river campaigner says pollution poses threat as Labour MP calls for water industry to be taken into public ownershipA clean river campaigner has warned of a serious risk someone will die from swimming in English rivers and seas because of the level of E coli from water pollution.Charles Watson of River Action, speaking on Wednesday as the bathing water season officially opened, said that with warm weather approaching and half-term in a week, thousands of children and families would be taki
  
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• Canada wildfires: huge queues on highway as thousands evacuate oil town – video

  15-05-2024 17:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Footage on social media showed roads full of cars evacuating the suburbs of Fort Mcmurray in the western Canadian province of Alberta. A growing blaze threatened the city and its surroundings, which experienced devastating fires in 2016. Local officials have ordered thousands to evacuate as the fire grows in size and strength, with winds fanning the flames. 'We’re seeing extreme fire behaviour. Smoke columns are developing and the skies are covered in smoke. Firefighters have been pulled f
  
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• Serious risk a swimmer will die from pollution in English waters, MPs told

  15-05-2024 17:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Clean river campaigner says level of E coli poses a threat as bathing water season officially opensA clean river campaigner has warned of a serious risk someone will die from swimming in English rivers and seas because of the level of E coli from water pollution.Charles Watson of River Action, speaking on Wednesday as the bathing water season officially opened, said that with warm weather approaching and half-term in a week, thousands of children and families would be taking to rivers, lakes and
  
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• Devon residents told to boil tap water over risk of parasitic disease

  15-05-2024 16:12 via theguardian.com
  
  South West Water has detected ‘small traces’ of parasite in drinking supply that can cause diarrhoea-type diseaseBoil your tap water before you drink it, residents in Devon have been told, after 22 cases of a parasitic disease were confirmed.South West Water has detected what it calls “small traces” of a parasite that can cause a diarrhoea-type disease in the drinking supply around the town of Brixham. Continue reading...
  
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• The village that fell into a river: Sim Chi Yin’s best photograph

  15-05-2024 16:11 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘One woman heard tree branches snapping and jumped out of bed – just in time to see her mattress float away as the back half of her house melted into the darkness’I started my Shifting Sands series seven years ago to look at how the world is running out of usable sand. It’s the next big resource crisis. I’m from Singapore, the world’s biggest importer of sand per capita, due to the scale of its land reclamation. That was the starting point of what I had initia
  
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• I swapped my south LA lawn for a verdant microfarm - now I feed the neighborhood

  15-05-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Read more from the DIY Climate Changers, a new series on everyday people’s creative solutions to the climate crisisBeverly Lofton’s home in south Los Angeles used to have a water-guzzling grass lawn. Today, it’s a verdant microfarm that uses solar power and recycled water to grow carrots, beets, potatoes and more, with the bounty distributed to her neighbors. The 67-year-old’s switch was a bold move in a city ruled by cars and concrete, and where the impact of extreme hea
  
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• The 1.5C global heating target was always a dream, but its demise doesn't signal doom for climate action | Bill McKibben

  15-05-2024 14:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Missing a target doesn’t mean the sense of emergency should fade. What it must do is stop politicians dithering – and fastI remember the first time I heard the 1.5C target. It was in a room at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009. With the expectation of a binding agreement slipping away and negotiations failing, some of us activists joined delegates from vulnerable African and island nations in chanting “1.5 to stay alive”. It was a frank recognition that the 2C goal the
  
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• Water industry should be brought into public ownership, says MP Clive Lewis

  15-05-2024 13:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Labour MP says privatisation is a failure and industry incapable of building infrastructure to deal with effects of climate breakdownThe privatisation of the water industry has failed and it should be brought into public ownership, the Labour MP Clive Lewis has said.In an early day motion laid before parliament, Lewis said the industry had proved it was not capable of building the infrastructure required to deal with the impact of climate breakdown, including increased flooding and droughts. Con
  
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• Four kids left: The Thai school swallowed by the sea – video

  15-05-2024 12:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Ban Khun Samut Chin, a coastal village in Samut Prakan province, Thailand, has been slowly swallowed by the sea over the past few decades. This has led to the relocation of the school and many homes, resulting in a dwindling population. Currently, there are only four students attending the school, often leaving just one in each classroom. The village has experienced severe coastal erosion, causing 1.1-2km (0.5-1.2 miles) of shoreline to disappear since the mid-1950s Continue reading...
  
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• How do you follow My Octopus Teacher? With crocodiles, otters and a new book

  15-05-2024 12:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Oscar-winning film-maker Craig Foster on his first octopus encounter, the price of fame and his new video book about the power of connecting with animalsWhen the film My Octopus Teacher aired on Netflix in 2020 it was a huge overnight success, going on to win an Oscar the following year for best documentary. The simple but touching tale of the tender bond between film-maker Craig Foster and his young undersea companion had audiences spellbound worldwide. Some, like Sir Richard Branson, even gave
  
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• Herd of 170 bison could help store CO2 equivalent of almost 2m cars, researchers say

  15-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Free-roaming animals reintroduced in Romania’s Țarcu mountains are stimulating plant growth and securing carbon stored in the soil while grazingA herd of 170 bison reintroduced to Romania’s Țarcu mountains could help store CO2 emissions equivalent to removing almost 2m cars from the road for a year, research has found, demonstrating how the animals help mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis.European bison disappeared from Romania more than 200 years ago, but Rewi
  
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• Herd of 170 bison could help store CO2 equivalent of 43,000 cars, researchers say

  15-05-2024 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Free-roaming animals reintroduced in Romania’s Țarcu mountains are stimulating plant growth and securing carbon stored in the soil while grazingA herd of 170 bison reintroduced to Romania’s Țarcu mountains could help store CO2 emissions equivalent to removing 43,000 US cars from the road for a year, research has found, demonstrating how the animals can help mitigate some effects of the climate crisis.European bison disappeared from Romania more than 200 years ago, but Rewil
  
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• Plantwatch: Britain’s volunteer naturalists provide vital knowledge

  15-05-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The practice of recording firsthand observations about nature goes back centuries and provides an invaluable resourceBritain has a long tradition of volunteer naturalists dating back 250 years to the Rev Gilbert White in Selborne, Hampshire, best known for his classic book The Natural History of Selborne (1789).In recent times, Rosemary Parslow has detailed the plants of the Isles of Scilly, many found nowhere else in Britain thanks to the sub-tropical climate of the islands. Continue reading...
  
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• MPs and peers urge Sunak to U-turn on oil and gas extraction plans

  15-05-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Cross-party group of 50 calls on prime minister to appoint climate envoy and back Beyond Oil and Gas AllianceA cross-party group of MPs and peers has urged Rishi Sunak to make a U-turn on his oil and gas extraction plans as part of a broader plea to increase efforts to address the climate crisis.The 50 politicians, including three Conservatives, wrote to the prime minister calling for the UK to regain its international leadership on the crisis by ending the licensing of new oil and gas fields, a
  
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• Country diary: Explosive but elusive, what a bird the Cetti’s warbler is | Derek Niemann

  15-05-2024 06:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Sandy, Bedfordshire: These notorious skulkers have something to shout about – they’re thriving when so many others are in declineSo many woods have had feet of drowned clay for so long. Even now, some Wildlife Trust reserves are closed to visitors, spring flowering with no one to see it. Every sticky wood is a little quag, a lot of mire.In our nearest woodland, the six-month flood has largely sunk into the more permeable alluvial silt, leaving a puddled floor. It looks secure enough
  
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• The China-linked EV battery mega factory dividing a US township

  15-05-2024 02:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Plans for a sprawling factory in rural Michigan making batteries for electric cars offer an economic lifeline, but for some residents there is a big problem: the parent company is in ChinaSet among green rolling hills and tall pines, Lori Brock’s storybook farm encapsulates northern Michigan. A five-day-old mare bucks around a pen, while small black pigs roam through a barn and donkeys graze in fields bordered by white fences.It is a bucolic way of life in Green Township, but one that Broc
  
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• Untreated sewage illegally pumped into Windermere

  15-05-2024 01:06
  
  Millions of litres of raw sewage was pumped into one of the UK's most famous lakes after a fault.
  
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• UK has competitive edge on a third of green products, thinktank finds

  15-05-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  With companies well placed to build the most crucial goods, such as electric trains, the UK has a head start in achieving net zero, it claimsThe UK has a competitive advantage over the rest of the world in a third of green products and services, giving it a head start in the race to achieve net zero, according to an upbeat report by a left of centre thinktank.Firms are well placed to manufacture many of the most crucial green products – from electric trains to heat pump components –
  
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• ‘Impossible’ heatwave struck Philippines in April, scientists find

  14-05-2024 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to ManilaThe record-breaking heatwave that scorched the Philippines in April would have been impossible without the climate crisis, scientists have found. Searing heat above 40C (104F) struck across Asia in April, causing deaths, water shortages, crop losses and widespread school closures.The extreme heat was made 45 times more likely in India and five times more likely in Israel and Palestine, the study fou
  
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