Category Archives: Environment

How a Belgian port city inspired Birmingham’s car-free ambitions

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Ghent’s transformation produced shorter journeys, cleaner air and a cycling explosion


Birmingham – once, proudly, the UK’s “motorway city” – has announced plans to entice people out of cars and on to bikes and buses. If officials get their way, the city will be split into zones, and, rather than driving direct, motorists will have to use the ring road for all zone-to-zone journeys.

Those travelling by foot and bicycle in the new Brum won’t be inconvenienced: their journeys will be simple and – with fewer cars – safer. With cars out of the way, bus journeys will become swifter and more reliable.

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Climate refugees can’t be returned home, says landmark UN human rights ruling

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Experts say judgment is ‘tipping point’ that opens the door to climate crisis claims for protection

It is unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis, a landmark ruling by the United Nations human rights committee has found.

The judgment – which is the first of its kind – represents a legal “tipping point” and a moment that “opens the doorway” to future protection claims for people whose lives and wellbeing have been threatened due to global heating, experts say.

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Huge dust storms in Australia hit central New South Wales

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Videos posted to social media show the clouds turning day into night in some areas

Damaging winds produced by thunderstorms across central New South Wales have whipped up dust storms that turned daytime into night in some towns.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a series of severe thunderstorm warnings on Sunday evening for inland NSW with the associated winds generating massive dust clouds.

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Extinction Rebellion listed as ‘key threat’ by counter-terror police

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Awareness training across London led to ‘intelligence’ tip-offs, according to report

A police force in London labelled Extinction Rebellion one of its “key threats” in a counter-terrorism assessment and provided awareness training on the climate crisis group across the capital, resulting in “intelligence” tip-offs.

City of London police grouped the environmental protest movement alongside “far-right organisations” in an assessment of its counter-terrorism operations seen by the Guardian.

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Tanzania to relocate 36 Serengeti lions after attacks on humans and cattle

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The lions, which live on the edge of the national park, will be moved to avoid conflicts with people and livestock

Tanzania will find a new home for 36 lions following a slew of attacks by the big cats on people and cattle.

The lions, an increasingly endangered species, live on the edge of the safari mecca of the Serengeti national park, but have been affected by encroaching human activity.

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‘It’s a monster’: the Skipsea homes falling into the North Sea

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Residents on fastest-eroding coastline in northern Europe told of ‘imminent risk’

For those who long to live by the sea, the thought of gently breaking waves and waking by the beach sums up the irresistible charm of coastal life. But not, perhaps, in the Yorkshire village of Skipsea.

Residents in the tiny seaside parish were warned this week that a large number of homes are at “imminent risk” of tumbling into the North Sea within 12 months because of the rapid erosion of the East Yorkshire coast.

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Hundreds of thousands of fish dead in NSW as bushfire ash washed into river

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Ecologist fears the Macleay River may take decades to recover, with heavy rains likely to affect other waterways

Hundreds of thousands of native fish are estimated to have died in northern New South Wales after rains washed ash and sludge from bushfires into the Macleay River.

Parts of the Macleay River – favoured by recreational fishers – have been turned into what locals described as “runny cake mix” that stank of rotting vegetation and dead fish.

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Greenpeace included with neo-Nazis on UK counter-terror list

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Exclusive: Extinction Rebellion and Peta also named in anti-extremism briefing alongside Combat 18 and National Action

A counter-terrorism police document distributed to medical staff and teachers as part of anti-extremism briefings included Greenpeace, Peta and other non-violent groups as well as neo-Nazis, the Guardian has learned.

The guide, produced by Counter Terrorism Policing, is used across England as part of training for Prevent, the anti-radicalisation scheme designed to catch those at risk of committing terrorist violence.

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Yosemite national park: 170 recent visitors suffer norovirus symptoms

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Two cases of upset stomach and diarrhea confirmed as norovirus, as park says it is undertaking ‘extensive cleaning’ efforts

Roughly 170 people who have visited Yosemite national park in recent weeks have suffered upset stomachs and diarrhea, symptoms that park officials say are consistent with norovirus.

Two of those cases have been confirmed as norovirus, park officials say. The park spokesman Scott Gediman issued a written statement that most of those who fell ill had spent time in Yosemite Valley around the first week of January.

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Huge ‘hot blob’ in Pacific Ocean killed nearly a million seabirds

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  • Thousands of bodies washed up on North America’s Pacific coast
  • Study finds common murres probably died of starvation

A million seabirds died in less than a year as a result of a giant “blob” of hot ocean, according to new research.

A study released by the University of Washington found the birds, called common murres, probably died of starvation between the summer of 2015 and the spring of 2016.

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YouTube ads of 100 top brands fund climate misinformation – study

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Avaaz says firms are unaware commercials being played alongside misleading videos

Some of the biggest companies in the world are funding climate misinformation by advertising on YouTube, according to a study from activist group Avaaz.

The group found that more than 100 brands had adverts running on YouTube videos on the site that were actively promoting climate misinformation. The brands, including Samsung, L’Oreal and Decathlon, were unaware that their adverts were being played before and during the videos.

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Climate emergency: 2019 was second hottest year on record

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Last decade was also hottest yet in 150 years of measurements, say scientists

The year 2019 was the second hottest on record for the planet’s surface, according to latest research. The analyses reveal the scale of the climate crisis: both the past five years and the past decade are the hottest in 150 years.

The succession of records being broken year after year is “the drumbeat of the Anthropocene”, said one scientist, and is bringing increasingly severe storms, floods, droughts and wildfires.

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‘The dates are drying’: profits shrivel for farmers as the heat rises in Tunisia

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Irrigation systems and oases in the arid south are failing to keep up with the demands of thirsty palm plantations

Mansour Rajeb is wrapping a plastic protective sheet around the branch of a date palm in his oasis near the village of Bchelli, in southern Tunisia. Tying it up, he lingers.

“I’m worried,” he says. “The quality is getting worse. The dates are getting drier.”

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More than 300 human rights activists were killed in 2019, report reveals

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Colombia was the bloodiest nation with 103 murders and the Philippines was second, followed by Brazil, Honduras and Mexico

More than 300 human rights defenders working to protect the environment, free speech, LGBTQ rights and indigenous lands in 31 countries were killed in 2019, a new report reveals.

Two thirds of the total killings took place in Latin America where impunity from prosecution is the norm.

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Australia bushfires are harbinger of planet’s future, say scientists

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Apocalyptic scenes give glimpse of what would be normal conditions in 3C world

The bushfires ravaging Australia are a clear sign of what is to come around the world if temperatures are allowed to rise to dangerous levels, according to scientists.

“This is what you can expect to happen … at an average of 3C [above pre-industrial levels],” said Richard Betts, professor of geography at Exeter University. “We are seeing a sign of what would be normal conditions in a 3C world. It tells us what the future world might look like. This really brings home what climate change means.”

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Climate activist turns down Siemens’ offer of seat on energy board

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Protest group leader Luisa Neubauer says she would lose right to criticise the company

The leader of Germany’s Friday for Future climate protests has said she turned down a seat on the board of Siemens’ new energy business amid growing anger over its role in a controversial coal mining project in Australia as she feared she would lose the right to criticise the company.

Luisa Neubauer, 23, the German face of the campaign group inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who has campaigned alongside her, said on Monday the position would jeopardise her independence if she had taken up the offer from its chief executive, Joe Kaeser, made at a meeting in Berlin on Friday.

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Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating accelerates

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Oceans are clearest measure of climate crisis as they absorb 90% of heat trapped by greenhouse gases

The heat in the world’s oceans reached a new record level in 2019, showing “irrefutable and accelerating” heating of the planet.

The world’s oceans are the clearest measure of the climate emergency because they absorb more than 90% of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuel burning, forest destruction and other human activities.

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A billion animals: the Australian species most at risk from the bushfire crisis

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Fires take an enormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects killed

Australia’s continuing bushfire crisis has taken an enormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and other species killed.

The ecologist Chris Dickman has estimated more than a billion animals have died around the country – a figure that excludes fish, frogs, bats and insects.

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Sex machine: prolific Galápagos tortoise saves his species

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Only 15 giant Española tortoises were left in the wild before one male sired 800 offspring in a wildly successful breeding program

The Galápagos National Park has announced it is ending a captive breeding program for giant Española tortoises, after one tortoise produced more than 800 offspring, helping save the species.

Related: Giant tortoise believed extinct for 100 years found in Galápagos

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