Category Archives: Environmental activism

Jailed UK climate protesters facing conditions reserved for extremists on release

Posted on by

Exclusive: Just Stop Oil activist was banned from attending gatherings, including meeting a friend in a cafe, without permission

Environmental protesters are being given licence conditions on release from jail that are supposed to be limited to extremism cases.

Ella Ward, 22, was banned from going to any meetings or gatherings, except for worship, without permission from her probation officer, although the Ministry of Justice dropped the condition after she brought a legal challenge.

Continue reading...

Climate activists gather in New York for ‘Sun Day’ solar energy and anti-billionaire rallies

Posted on by

Sun Day national action supported renewable energy, day after ‘Make Billionaires Pay’ march ahead of Climate Week

Hundreds of environmentalists gathered in New York City’s Stuyvesant Square Park and a nearby Quaker meeting house on Sunday to rally in support of solar power and other forms of renewable energy. The event was part of a national “day of action” billed Sun Day, founded by veteran environmental activist Bill McKibben and first Earth Day coordinator Denis Hayes.

“It’s so sad to watch the sun going to waste,” McKibben said at a press conference, standing beside environmentalists and their children. “Every single day, energy from heaven going to waste while we drill down to hell for another dose of the stuff that is wrecking this planet.”

Continue reading...

Murray Watt advised by own department to declare protection order over ‘significant Aboriginal area’ in WA

Posted on by

Exclusive: Environment department document states that Burrup peninsula site near Woodside gas plant ‘under threat of injury or desecration’

The environment minister, Murray Watt, has been advised by his department to declare a protection order over part of the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia due to its significance as an Aboriginal site, a government affidavit filed in the federal court shows.

A Murujuga traditional custodian, Raelene Cooper, applied in 2022 to protect the area’s cultural heritage from nearby industrial activities, including Woodside’s planned extension of its North West Shelf processing plant.

Continue reading...

Wreckers, money woes and mutirão: 10 things we learned about Cop30 from Bonn climate talks

Posted on by

Key takeaways from two weeks of negotiations aimed at setting out stall for November’s Cop30 in Brazil

Two weeks of negotiations on the climate crisis have just concluded in Bonn in preparation for the Cop30 summit taking place in Brazil this November. What did we learn?

Continue reading...

Glossy black cockatoos could be pushed towards extinction in Victoria if burns go ahead, experts warn

Posted on by

Fire in black sheoak forest of East Gippsland would destroy the birds’ food supply, conservationist says

Glossy black cockatoos could be pushed towards extinction in Victoria if planned burns of 13,000 hectares of forest go ahead, ecologists and conservationists warn.

The Victorian government is being urged to abandon the burn, which is intended to reduce bushfire risk.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Green party must choose again between election-focused or activist leaders

Posted on by

Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns will be up against Zack Polanski, who is calling for ‘eco-populism’ mass movement

So here we are again. Much as was the case in 2021, the last time the Greens picked their leaders, members have a choice that could be broadly presented as the more sober, election-focused professionals versus insurgent activists.

On one side of the equation are Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, both MPs, and in the case of Ramsay, already a co-leader. Four years ago, he and Carla Denyer saw off Amelia Womack and Tamsin Omond with a self-stated mission to change the party and win elections.

Continue reading...

Lifesize herd of puppet animals begins climate action journey from Africa to Arctic Circle

Posted on by

The Herds project from the team behind Little Amal will travel 20,000km taking its message on environmental crisis across the world

Hundreds of life-size animal puppets have begun a 20,000km (12,400 mile) journey from central Africa to the Arctic Circle as part of an ambitious project created by the team behind Little Amal, the giant puppet of a Syrian girl that travelled across the world.

The public art initiative called The Herds, which has already visited Kinshasa and Lagos, will travel to 20 cities over four months to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

Continue reading...

Indigenous river campaigner from Peru wins prestigious Goldman prize

Posted on by

Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari led a successful legal battle to protect the Marañon River in the Peruvian Amazon

An Indigenous campaigner and women’s leader from the Peruvian Amazon has been awarded the prestigious Goldman prize for environmental activists, after leading a successful legal campaign that led to the river where her people, the Kukama, live being granted legal personhood.

Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, 57, from the village of Shapajila on the Marañon River, led the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (HKK) women’s association, supported by lawyers from Peru’s Legal Defence Institute, in a campaign to protect the river. After three years, judges in Loreto, Peru’s largest Amazon region, ruled in March 2024 that the Marañon had the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination, respecting an Indigenous worldview that regards a river as a living entity.

Continue reading...

Grassroots activists who took on corruption and corporate power share 2025 Goldman prize

Posted on by

Seven winners of environmental prize include Amazonian river campaigner and Tunisian who fought against organised waste trafficking

Grassroots activists who helped jail corrupt officials and obtain personhood rights for a sacred Amazonian river are among this year’s winners of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize.

The community campaigns led by the seven 2025 Goldman prize winners underscore the courage and tenacity of local activists willing to confront the toxic mix of corporate power, regulatory failures and political corruption that is fuelling biodiversity collapse, water shortages, deadly air pollution and the climate emergency.

Continue reading...

Revealed: nearly 2m hectares of koala habitat bulldozed since 2011 – despite political promises to protect species

Posted on by

Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems

Nearly 2m hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.

The scale of habitat destruction in Queensland and New South Wales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email

Continue reading...

Victoria police pay $90,000 to climate protester who claimed head was slammed into wall, door and ground

Posted on by

Exclusive: State makes no admissions as it settles case with activist who alleged police misconduct during 2019 arrest at Melbourne mining conference

A climate protester who alleged their head was repeatedly slammed by members of Victoria police’s riot squad in 2019 has reached a settlement with the state.

Timothy Buchanan, 39, alleged their head was slammed into a metal wall, the ground and a glass door that their head was then used to open, during their arrest at a protest at an international mining conference in Melbourne.

Continue reading...

Philippines storm survivors join climate protest outside Shell HQ in London

Posted on by

Greenpeace protest draws attention to worsening typhoons and demands accountability from major polluters

For two days and two nights, Ronalyn Carbonel and her four children clung to the roof of their home as a huge storm raged around them. With the wind battering her village of Rizal, about 10 miles east of Manila in the Philippines, and water swirling through the rooms below them, they had no choice but to wait, hoping that someone would come to rescue them and hundreds of their neighbours.

“We did not have shelter, we did not have food … we just had to wait for the government for two days,” Carbonel said. “It is not easy, no electricity, no light, we just wait for the sun to rise. The children were scared, we had never experienced anything like this.”

Continue reading...

Environmental groups in UK ‘still very white – especially at the top’

Posted on by

Greenpeace co-director responds to report finding fewer than one in 20 working in sector identifies as non-white

Environmental organisations “are still very white, especially at the top”, the co-director of Greenpeace has said as research showed little to no improvement in the ethnic diversity of their workforces.

Areeba Hamid’s comments came as the third annual racial action on the climate emergency (Race) report into diversity among environmental charities found fewer than one in 20 of those working in the sector identified as people of colour or as other racial or ethnic minority groups.

Continue reading...

Rosebank oilfield go-ahead decision ruled unlawful by Edinburgh court

Posted on by

Court says UK government green light for Rosebank and Jackdaw permits does not take into account CO2 emissions

The decision to greenlight a giant new oilfield off Shetland has been ruled unlawful by the courts in a major win for environmental campaigners.

The proposed Rosebank development – the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield – had been given the go-ahead in 2023 under the previous government.

Continue reading...

Climate activists ‘did what they did out of sacrifice’, appeal court told

Posted on by

Lawyers invoke philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau in bid to have long sentences of 16 protesters quashed

The philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Henry David Thoreau were aired in the court of appeal on Wednesday as 16 climate activists sought to convince England’s most-senior judge to quash their long sentences for disruptive acts of civil disobedience.

The appellants, prosecuted in four separate trials last year, appeared at a mass appeal in London before a panel led by Lady Justice Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, where they argued judges defied decades of precedent by ignoring their conscientious motives.

Continue reading...

Climate activist who graffitied Tanya Plibersek’s office says he stands by his actions

Posted on by

Environment minister said vandalism and intimidation were ‘completely unacceptable’

A climate activist who graffitied the word “liar” on the federal environment minister’s office has stood by his highly publicised actions, urging the public to stand up for their beliefs.

Zachary “Zack” Edward Jaworowski Schofield took a can of red spray paint to Tanya Plibersek’s Sydney electorate office in December.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

More than three-quarters of UK universities join fossil fuel pledge, say activists

Posted on by

Move to exclude fossil fuel firms from investment portfolios follows years of campaigning by staff and students

More than three-quarters of UK universities have pledged to exclude fossil fuel companies from their investment portfolios, according to campaigners.

The move, which is part of a wider drive to limit investment in fossil fuels, follows years of campaigning by staff and students across the higher education sector.

Continue reading...

Greens say leaked pokies reform report ‘a huge concern’ – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.

Continue reading...

Stop punishing doctors who take part in climate protests, regulator told

Posted on by

Hundreds of health workers sign letter to General Medical Council calling for halt to suspensions as GP faces jail for activism

Hundreds of health workers have called on the General Medical Council to stop suspending doctors imprisoned for peaceful climate activism ahead of a trial which could see the first jailing of a working GP for a non-violent climate protest in the UK.

Two retired GPs have been suspended by GMC-convened tribunals this year after receiving short sentences for non-violent offences during Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain protests in 2021 and 2022. The medical regulator did not express concerns about the doctors’ clinical capabilities but said their actions undermined public confidence in the profession.

Continue reading...

Frederick McCubbin descendant backs WA Museum acquisition of perspex vandalised by climate protesters

Posted on by

Protective cover on acclaimed artist’s famous painting ‘an effective palette for this radical protest’, great-granddaughter says

A close descendant of the acclaimed artist Frederick McCubbin has come out in support of the Western Australian Museum after it came under fire over an unusual acquisition.

The museum confirmed this week it had acquired the perspex glass protecting one of McCubbin’s most famous paintings, Down on His Luck, from the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The perspex was spray painted with the Woodside logo by protesters in January last year.

Continue reading...