Feed aggregator

Exclusive: National Trust concerned at danger to rich mix of ecosystems including lagoon, woodland, salt marsh and reedbed

Oil from the Perenco pipeline leak in Poole harbour has washed up on the shores of Brownsea Island, an internationally important wetland and marine conservation zone.

Nearly 200 barrels of reservoir fluid – a brine mixture that is about 15% oil – leaked into the waters of Ower Bay on Sunday from the pipeline sparking a major incident and urgent clean-up operation.

Bembidion brownorum, named for Jerry Brown, was last seen in 1966, but hadn’t been named until one was collected on his ranch

Scientists are naming a rare species of beetle in honor of the former California governor Jerry Brown after finding one at his ranch.

Bembidion brownorum was last seen in 1966, but it hadn’t been named or described until one was collected near a creek on Brown’s ranch in Colusa county, about an hour’s drive north-west of Sacramento, the University of California, Berkeley announced on Monday.

A lack of swimming skills among young people, especially girls, stops them working in local industries and getting involved in conservation

Azha Abdul Azeez lives in Malé, the capital of the Maldives archipelago, surrounded by the idyllic Indian Ocean. But she “grew up in the house” and the water that makes up so much of Abdul Azeez’s home – a rich habitat including coral reefs, turtles, manta rays and exotic fish – terrifies her because she never learned to swim.

“[My parents] were worried that something might happen to me. I think that’s why they didn’t send me [swimming] when I was little,” she says.

Nasa grants last-minute reprieve to invaluable climate and biodiversity scanner on International Space Station, due to be incinerated in Earth’s atmosphere

Nasa has extended the life of a key climate and biodiversity sensor for scanning the world’s forests which was set to be destroyed in Earth’s atmosphere.

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (Gedi) mission – pronounced like Jedi in Star Wars – was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2018, and has provided the first 3D map of the world’s forests.

Exclusive: Australian company resurrects flesh of lost species to demonstrate potential of meat grown from cells

A mammoth meatball has been created by a cultivated meat company, resurrecting the flesh of the long-extinct animals.

The project aims to demonstrate the potential of meat grown from cells, without the slaughter of animals, and to highlight the link between large-scale livestock production and the destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis.

Pacific nation is sponsoring resolution that will ask ICJ to rule on consequences for climate inaction

Last month, twin cyclones tore through Port Vila, the capital of the Pacific nation of Vanuatu. The category-four storms left corrugated iron roofs crumpled like leftover wrapping paper, flooded the streets with waste-ridden mud, cut residents off from water and electricity for several days, and sent many fleeing to hastily established evacuation centres.

Devastation of this sort is becoming more common throughout the Pacific, where rising sea levels are leaving shorelines increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather made more intense by climate change.

A Canada Pacific train derailed on Sunday night, affecting 31 of its 70 cars, and spilling petroleum used to make asphalt

A train carrying hazardous materials derailed in North Dakota late on Sunday night in the latest toxic railway accident to hit the US.

The incident happened less than two months after a train derailed near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, causing a raging fire and leaking cancerous chemicals near the small town of East Palestine.

Extinction Rebellion leads protest and council leader expresses anger over damage done to protected site

Environmental activists, biodiversity experts, politicians and nature lovers are demanding answers over an oil leak in Poole harbour, a site internationally recognised for its ecological importance.

Nearly 200 barrels of reservoir fluid – a brine mixture that is about 15% oil – leaked into the waters of Owers Bay on Sunday afternoon from a pipeline operated by the energy company Perenco.

Adam Bandt says deal puts ‘significant hurdles’ in the way of new coal and gas but Chris Bowen insists it will not kill off new investment

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The Albanese government’s signature climate bill targeting big polluters is a step closer to passing after a deal with the Greens including an absolute cap on emissions.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, announced the deal on the safeguard mechanism bill on Monday, taking credit for “a big hit on coal and gas” that could effectively block half of 116 proposed new fossil fuel projects.

A sailor in Poole in Dorset posted a video on social media on Sunday showing an oily substance he had noticed leaking into the water in the harbour. He collected some of the 'horrible, oil kind of sludge' in a plastic bottle. The public is being urged to avoid using the water and beaches within Poole after the harbour regulator said a leak occurred at a pipeline operated by gas company Perenco. The incident, which took place at Wytch Farm oilfield, resulted in approximately 200 barrels of 'reservoir fluid' being released from the UK’s largest onshore field

• Poole harbour: major incident declared over leak from oilfield

Residents show skepticism to officials insisting tap water is uncontaminated after chemical spill in the Delaware River

Residents in Philadelphia and nearby areas have been buying bottled water after a chemical spill upstream in the Delaware River in neighboring Bucks county, despite officials’ latest advisory insisting tap water was safe to drink at least up to midnight Monday.

The concerns came after a leak late Friday evening at the Trinseo Altuglas chemical facility in Bristol Township spilled between 8,100 and 12,000 gallons of a water-based latex finishing solution into the river, Bucks county health officials said Sunday.

The agreement delivers important changes to the safeguard mechanism. But there is still a lot of work to do

• Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The safeguard mechanism is a better policy to deal with major industrial greenhouse gas emissions after a deal between the Albanese government and the Greens.

It is not perfect, it is needlessly complicated and there are still things to be ironed out about how some of the headline changes will work. But it is an improvement.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

I’m proud to be part of Third Act, a climate activist organization for people over the age of 60

The brutal truth is that last week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report didn’t have the effect it should have had, or that its authors clearly intended. Produced by thousands of scientists who synthesized the work of tens of thousands of their peers over the last decade, and meticulously drafted by teams of careful communicators, it landed in the world with a gentle plop, not the resounding thud that’s required.

In China, the world’s biggest emitter, official attention was focused instead on Moscow, where Xi Jinping was off to do a little male bonding with fellow autocrat Vladimir Putin, incidentally the world’s second largest producer of hydrocarbons. In America, the historical emissions champ, we were riveted by the possibility that would-be autocrat Donald Trump might be indicted. In the New York Times, our planet’s closest thing to a paper of record, the IPCC report was the fourth story on the website.

Students at Princeton describe unease that Exxon employee had an office on campus, while dozens of universities have big oil links

The lecturer looked, and sounded, the part. Sporting a pale blue shirt and Princeton University ID badge, he had his own office on campus, a short stroll from the room where several dozen students were gathered to hear him confidently talk about the challenges in moving away from fossil fuels.

Tim Barckholtz is not a Princeton professor, however. He is a senior scientific adviser at ExxonMobil, the oil giant that has done so much to both perpetuate and downplay the climate crisis. Barckholtz, an affable figure who has fronted adverts for Exxon touting its emissions reduction research, spent around six months sitting in and contributing to lectures and research groups, based in his own office space at the elite university.

Follow today’s news live

• Labor agrees to absolute cap on emissions to secure Greens backing for safeguard mechanism climate bill
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

Fletcher won’t offer ‘gratuitous advice’ on Moira Deeming move

The vote on whether or not first term Victorian upper house Liberal Moira Deeming will remain in the Liberal party is to be held today (there is a party room meeting in just under two hours).

What I support is that the leader in Victoria and the party room in Victoria.

My Victorian state colleagues will make the decision that they determine is in the best interests of the Liberal party but, more importantly, of the people of Victoria who they seek to serve.

I’m not going to be offering commentary on these matters.

I’m not going to be commenting on hypotheticals.

My view is that we are a party with a diverse range of views. And what’s very important is that we can have a vigorous exchange of views within our party room. We take our internal party democracy, democratic process very seriously. And that is how it should be. And look, I’m not going to get into ruling in or ruling out particular viewpoints on this or any other issue in an abstract, hypothetical way.

About 200 barrels of reservoir fluid leak into the Dorset harbour, a site of special scientific interest

The public is being urged to avoid using the water and beaches within Poole harbour in Dorset, south-west England, after an oil leak caused a major incident to be declared.

Poole Harbour Commissioners (PHC), the harbour regulator, said a leak occurred at a pipeline operated by gas company Perenco, under Owers Bay on Sunday.

In his series Fulu Act, Brussels-based documentary photographer Colin Delfosse captures street artists in Kinshasa, who craft striking costumes out of everyday objects found littering the streets, such as discarded wigs, wires, soda cans and bottle lids, to raise awareness of environmental issues facing the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “The statement behind their costumes is to condemn and inform about overconsumption and its side effects, namely pollution, poverty, lack of reliable investments and so on,” says Delfosse. “By capturing these images, I’m giving an echo to their crucial work.”

• Colin Delfosse is shortlisted in the Sony world photography awards 2023. An exhibition of the photographs is at Somerset House, London, 14 April-1 May

Giles Perritt says ‘change is difficult’ as campaigners obtain court order to extend injunction against future felling

An official behind the controversial felling of 110 trees by Plymouth council has said their removal will be “really good for the city”.

Giles Perritt, the council’s assistant chief executive, was speaking after campaigners got a high court order to extend an injunction to stop future felling.

Tensions between residents and revellers have reached boiling point after loosening of serving restrictions during Covid

The sun has barely set when the music starts thumping on Madrid’s Calle Ponzano. As queues start to form outside the already heaving bars, the party spills out on to the pavement, leaving customers jostling for space with an ever-growing cacophony of smokers and passersby.

Lost in the fray is the brightly lettered message – pleading with punters to keep the noise down – from banners that flap from balconies above. It is a last ditch effort by those who have found themselves living on the frontline of a battle playing out across Spain as exhausted neighbours face off against raucous drinkers.

Farming Simulator lets customers test out new trailers, balers and other machinery before buying the real thing

Tractors are commonly sold to farmers at agricultural fairs and announced in the trade press. But machinery makers are falling over themselves to get a slice of a much more unlikely advertising vehicle: the Farming Simulator video game.

The developers, Giants Software, now receive hundreds of queries a year from manufacturers of equipment – from tractors and combine harvesters to trailers, balers and seed drills – about how they can feature in the game, where players create their own virtual farm.