Category Archives: Environment

EPA urged to ban spraying of antibiotics on US food crops amid resistance fears

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Use of 8m pounds of antibiotics and antifungals a year leads to superbugs and damages human health, lawsuit claims

A new legal petition filed by a dozen public health and farm worker groups demands the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stop allowing farms to spray antibiotics on food crops in the US because they are probably causing superbugs to flourish and sickening farm workers.

The agricultural industry sprays about 8m pounds of antibiotic and antifungal pesticides on US food crops annually, many of which are banned in other countries.

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Sri Lanka’s capital hit by floods as cyclone death toll nears 200

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Hundreds of people still missing after heavy rain and mudslides in country’s deadliest natural disaster for years

Entire areas of Sri Lanka’s capital are flooded after a powerful cyclone triggered heavy rains and mudslides across the island, with authorities reporting nearly 200 dead and dozens more missing.

Officials said the extent of the damage in the country’s worst-affected central region was slowly becoming clear on Sunday as relief workers cleared roads blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.

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Sri Lanka death toll from floods and landslides reaches 153

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Another 191 missing after heavy rains from Cyclone Ditwah while almost 78,000 evacuated to temporary shelters amid rescue operations

Torrential rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah have killed 153 people across Sri Lanka so far, with another 191 still missing, the country’s Disaster Management Centre (DCM) said on Saturday.

The DMC director general, Sampath Kotuwegoda, said relief operations were under way with 78,000 people moved to nearly 800 state-run welfare centres after their homes were destroyed by the week-long heavy rains.

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UK energy bill payers will hand £2bn a year to EDF for new power stations

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French government-owned company to receive funding for Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C

UK energy bill payers will hand over £2bn a year in subsidies to EDF, the French company building two new nuclear power stations, according to government figures.

EDF, owned by the French government, will be entitled to £1bn in annual payments as soon as Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, comes on to the grid in 2030.

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Africa’s forests transformed from carbon sink to carbon source, study finds

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Alarming shift since 2010 means planet’s three main rainforest regions now contribute to climate breakdown

Africa’s forests have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, according to research that underscores the need for urgent action to save the world’s great natural climate stabilisers.

The alarming shift, which has happened since 2010, means all of the planet’s three main rainforest regions – the South American Amazon, south-east Asia and Africa – have gone from being allies in the fight against climate breakdown to being part of the problem.

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Canada minister resigns from cabinet over Carney’s controversial oil pipeline deal

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Minister Steven Guilbeault says Indigenous nations were not consulted and the pipeline would have ‘major environmental impacts’

Mark Carney has agreed an energy deal with Alberta centred on plans for a new heavy oil pipeline reaching from the province’s oil sands to the Pacific coast, a politically volatile project that is expected to face stiff opposition.

The move proved politically damaging within hours, with the minister of Canadian culture, Steven Guilbeault, who is the former environment minister, announcing he would leave cabinet. Guilbault, a former activist and lifelong environmental advocate, said he strongly opposed the plan.

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John Kerry urges Australia to take ‘hard-nosed’ approach with world’s biggest fossil fuel-producing countries at Cop31

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Exclusive: Former US secretary of state calls for more demanding steps from Australia as it takes over presidency of next year’s UN climate summit

Australia’s government, which will preside over the next UN climate summit, should gather the world’s 25 biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries and push them to draw up a roadmap to end the era of fossil fuels, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.

Only by “hard-nosed” confrontation with fossil fuel producers, and reducing their consumption in major economies, would the world be able to tackle the climate crisis, he said.

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John Kerry urges Australia to take ‘hard-nosed’ approach with world’s biggest fossil fuel-producing countries at Cop31

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Exclusive: Former US secretary of state calls for more demanding steps from Australia as it takes over presidency of next year’s UN climate summit

Australia’s government, which will preside over the next UN climate summit, should gather the world’s 25 biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries and push them to draw up a roadmap to end the era of fossil fuels, former US secretary of state John Kerry has said.

Only by “hard-nosed” confrontation with fossil fuel producers, and reducing their consumption in major economies, would the world be able to tackle the climate crisis, he said.

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Plastic nurdles found at 84% of UK sites of special scientific interest

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Environmental charity Fidra says 168 of 195 SSSIs it surveyed are contaminated with tiny pellets

Plastic nurdles have been found in 84% of important nature sites surveyed in the UK.

Nurdles are tiny pellets that the plastics industry uses to make larger products. They were found in 168 of 195 sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), so named because of the rare wildlife they harbour. They are given extra protections in an effort to protect them from pollution.

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‘Culture cringe’: experts dismiss Coalition claims Chris Bowen cannot remain minister while leading Cop31 negotiations

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Opposition claims key diplomatic role at next year’s conference in Turkey would make Bowen a ‘part-time minister’ while Australians face inflated energy prices

Experts have dismissed claims Chris Bowen cannot remain a senior minister while playing a leading role in international climate negotiations, with one describing the argument as evidence of an Australian “culture cringe”.

Australia failed in its long-running bid to co-host the Cop31 climate summit with Pacific nations next year after Turkey refused to withdraw from the consensus process despite limited support.

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How to make sustainable seafood choices this Christmas to ease the pressure on Australia’s oceans

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Australian Marine Conservation Society’s GoodFish guide aims to showcase the most environmentally friendly seafood sources

As a challenging year for marine life heads into its final weeks, GoodFish has shared its list of sustainable choices for the festive season to help take the pressure off Australia’s oceans.

“It’s a time to be more careful than ever,” said Adrian Meder, sustainable seafood program manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, which produces the GoodFish guide.

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A lot of axolotls: the amphibian-themed banknote Mexicans don’t want to spend

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Nearly 13m people are hoarding millions of dollars’ worth of the stylish 50 peso note, featuring Mexico’s cutest critter

For most of her life, Gorda was just an axolotl who lived in a museum in Mexico City – that is, until she became the star of the country’s favourite banknote.

The note, which features a depiction of Gorda as the model for Mexico’s iconic species of salamander, went into circulation in 2021, dazzling the judges of the International Bank Notes Society, who declared it the Note of the Year.

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Three-metre giant oarfish, ‘palace messenger’ of doom, washes up on Tasmanian beach

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The enormous, serpentine fish, regarded in Japanese folklore as a herald of disaster, usually live deep below the surface and are only sighted when sick or dying

It was a beautiful warm day in north-west Tasmania when a fish with a reputation as a harbinger of doom washed ashore.

Tony Cheesman, who lives in the seaside town of Penguin, was walking his two dogs, Ronan and Custard, along the beach at Preservation Bay on Friday morning when something silvery and surrounded by gulls grabbed his attention.

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Pelosi calls Trump ‘the biggest con job in American history’ in reply to climate comment

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US speaker emerita criticizes Trump’s anti-climate stance and his remarks to the UN general assembly

“President Trump is the biggest con job in American history,” said Nancy Pelosi, the US speaker emerita, to reporters on Thursday while criticizing his anti-climate agenda.

Donald Trump told the UN general assembly in September that the climate crisis was “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”. But he was “projecting”, Pelosi said at a press conference. The meeting was convened by Democrats on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to comment on the US’s official absence from the United Nations Cop30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, where 195 countries are represented.

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Ottawa officials to cull ‘mindblowing’ influx of thousands of goldfish in pond

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Scourge of goldfish has become growing problem as fish are released by pet owners into increasingly warm waters

City officials in Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, plan to cull thousands of feral goldfish from a stormwater pond, a decision that reflects the pervasive spread of the species throughout the region.

Earlier in the year, city staff removed 5,000 fish from the city’s Celebration Park. But as many as 1,000 more are believed to still be living in the water.

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Papua New Guinea ‘not happy’ as Australia walks away from bid to host Cop31

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Australia had been pushing to host climate conference next year with south Pacific nations, which are increasingly threatened by rising seas and climate-fuelled disasters

Papua New Guinea has voiced frustration after Australia ditched a bid to co-host next year’s UN climate talks with its Pacific island neighbours.

“We are all not happy. And disappointed it’s ended up like this,” foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko told Agence France-Presse after Australia ceded hosting rights to Turkey.

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Tropical cyclone Fina intensifies to category two and could hit NT coast on Friday

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If it makes impact on Friday, it would be the earliest cyclone of the season to make landfall in Australia since 1973

If tropical cyclone Fina crosses the Northern Territory coast on Friday, it could equal the earliest cyclone to make landfall in Australia.

Fina intensified to category two storm on Wednesday night, the Bureau of Meteorology said, and was moving east about 370km north-east of Darwin before making an expected turn south on Thursday.

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Researchers say real impact of deforestation being hidden in Australia’s official figures by ‘sleight of hand’

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Report commissioned by conservationists suggests some recorded new growth is misclassified or otherwise not equivalent to losses in species-heavy forests

At face value, the amount of forest in Australia is officially increasing, and has been since 2008.

But if an old-growth tree is felled in a forest and seedlings grow elsewhere, is the official account ecologically sound? Not according to new analysis, which suggests that the way Australia calculates forest cover obfuscates the impacts of ongoing deforestation.

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Bhutan PM on leading the first carbon-negative nation: ‘The wellbeing of our people is at the centre of our agenda’

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Exclusive: Tshering Tobgay says his country is doing ‘a lot more than our fair share’ on climate and west must cut emissions ‘for the happiness of your people’

The wealthy western countries most responsible for the climate crisis would improve the health and happiness of their citizens by prioritising environmental conservation and sustainable economic growth, according to the prime minister of Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative nation.

Bhutan, a Buddhist democratic monarchy and biodiversity hotspot situated high in the eastern Himalayas, is among the world’s most ambitious climate leaders thanks to its people’s connection with nature and a strong political focus on improving gross national happiness rather than just GDP, Tshering Tobgay told the Guardian.

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Cop30: UN accused of crackdown on Indigenous people – as it happened

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As the summit entered its second week, complex issues remain with anxiety growing over conference outcomes

Colombia will host a first international conference on the phase out of fossil fuels in April next year, according to advocates of more ambitious action to eliminate the main source of the gases that are heating the planet.

The South American country, which has demonstrated strong climate leadership in recent years, is among a group of 17 nations that have joined the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative which held a press conference on its plans at Cop30 on Monday.

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