Environment

Reusables have 25% less global heating potential, finds UK government report, but overall picture is mixed

Environmental campaigners are calling on the UK government to take action after new analysis found a significant difference between the carbon footprints of washable and disposable nappies.

Reusable nappies have 25% less global heating potential compared with single-use nappies, according to a report commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Diving to 600m, researchers find reefs full of octopus, lobster and fish, raising hopes for corals’ survival amid rising sea temperatures

Scientists operating a submersible have discovered deep-sea coral reefs in pristine condition in a previously unexplored part of the Galápagos marine reserve.

Diving to depths of 600 metres (1,970ft), to the summit of a previously unmapped seamount in the central part of the archipelago, the scientists witnessed a breathtaking mix of deep marine life. This has raised hopes that healthy reefs can still thrive at a time when coral is in crisis due to record sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification. It also showed the effectiveness of conservation actions and effective management, they said.

The Bristol-based charity Forest of Avon Trust has recently acquired 100 acres of grazed farmland near the village of Pensford in Somerset, to create the Great Avon Wood. Alongside charity partners Avon Needs Trees, the aim is to plant more than 40,000 trees supplied by the Woodland Trust over the next three years, resulting in a green corridor of three linked woodland sites. The first step is an army of volunteers …

Unique ecosystem on the brink of collapse due to climate crisis and mismanagement, says conservation group American Rivers

A 277-mile stretch of the Colorado River that snakes through the iconic Grand Canyon is America’s most endangered waterway, a new report has found.

The unique ecosystem and cultural heritage of the Grand Canyon is on the brink of collapse due to prolonged drought, rising temperatures and outdated river management, according to American Rivers, the conservation group that compiles the annual endangered list.

Exclusive: Conservation group Action for Dolphins has lodged a complaint with police, demanding the meat be removed from sale

Marine conservation campaigners have lodged a complaint with police demanding that “toxic” dolphin meat be removed from sale in Japan, after a test showed a sample contained levels of mercury up to 100 times higher than the government’s recommended safe level.

Action for Dolphins (AFD), a nonprofit based in Australia, filed the complaint with police in central Japan this month, amid expert warnings that regular consumption of dolphin meat could threaten the health of consumers.

Change to bill says opening and licensing of new coalmines by the Coal Authority to be prohibited

An amendment to the energy bill currently going through the House of Lords means that it will not be possible to open a new coalmine in England.

The amendment may still be reversed in the House of Commons, but it marks the growing frustration of politicians as they press the government to move faster and harder on the climate crisis.

• First-round matches held up by graphic powder protest
• Government urged to ‘stop all new UK fossil fuel projects’

The World Snooker Championship is the latest high-profile sporting event to be disrupted by protestors after a Just Stop Oil activist poured a packet of orange powder paint over a table on Monday evening, forcing a 24-hour suspension in the match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry.

Milkins was 11-0 up in the early stages of the opening frame when a man suddenly ran out of the crowd, jumped on to the table and began emptying the powder. It took 12 seconds for two security guards to get down the stairs of the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and bundle the activist away, but the damage had long been done.

Footage released by Catalonia's fire brigade showed firefighters tackling a large wildfire on the French-Spanish border. The blaze spread around the French villages of Cerbère and Banyuls-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast before advancing into Spain, fire services said. Hundreds of firefighters were mobilised on both sides of the border to stem the blaze, which destroyed almost 1,000 hectares of land. An unusually dry winter and spring have raised fears of a repeat of last summer's fires and droughts across Europe. One firefighter was being treated with minor injures.

To get earthworms for fishing, people do a thing called ‘worm grunting’

An article on earthworms published in the New York Times in 1881 – “Habits of earth-worms: The curious work which they accomplish” – describes a helminth British empire. “In England they abound in the fields, in the paved courts of houses, though they are rarer in bog fields,” the author writes. “Worm castings have been found as high as 1,500 feet in the Scotch hills and at great altitudes in south India, and on the Himalaya mountains. Both in the extremes of a climate like England and in very hot weather, worms cease their work.”

Earthworms are hermaphrodites, which the journalist, all the way back in 1881, expresses in a glittering sentence: “Two sexes unite in one individual but two individuals pair”.

Compostable packaging is popular for environmental reasons, but it can be treated with ‘forever chemicals’ linked to health problems

A group of toxic PFAS chemicals that industry has claimed is safe to use in food packaging are concerning and present a health threat because they can break off and end up in food and drinks, a new peer-reviewed study finds.

The subgroup of PFAS, called “fluorotelomers”, have been billed as a safe replacement for a first generation of PFAS compounds now largely phased out of production in the US, Canada and the EU because of their high toxicity.

A groundbreaking analysis reveals how Portland, Oregon, was blanketed with toxic chemicals, raising concerns about global teargas use: ‘This was a disaster’

Fewer than 2,000 rhino remain in Kenya, and the country’s wildlife service needs to keep tabs on them to make sure they thrive. It’s a major undertaking, involving a helicopter, 4x4s and a lot of rangers

Words and photographs by Peter Muiruri

Kenya has the world’s third largest rhinoceros population: a total of 1,890 including 966 black rhinos, 922 southern white and two northern white. But how to keep track of them and ensure the species are thriving? Every two or three years, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) carries out an ear-notching exercise in all rhino sanctuaries in the country to ensure that at least 60% of the animals are uniquely identifiable.

An ear-notch is a pattern unique to an individual rhino within a specific ecosystem that helps rangers and researchers keep accurate records and monitor the rhino’s health.

Here comes a chopper … a helicopter is used to dart the highly aggressive black rhino

Living in the twilight zone, cockeye squid float between two worlds and have adapted to keep an eye on both

Cockeye squid face a conundrum. Living hundreds of metres underwater, they float in between two worlds. Above them is the surface ocean, where a dim blue fraction of sunlight filters down. Below them is the deep sea, sunless and black. Which way to look?

Their mismatched eyes solve the problem – by letting them gaze into both worlds at once.

Chris Bowen is expected to introduce an EV and vehicle fuel efficiency standards policy this week

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Australia’s long-awaited national electric vehicle strategy is expected to be released this week, finally detailing the introduction of pollution standards that should accelerate the uptake of electric cars.

Industry sources say the federal climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, will release the strategy ahead of an event in western Sydney on Wednesday.

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East Atlantic Flyway in England takes first step to becoming world heritage site alongside global wonders including the Galápagos and Kilimanjaro

High over the Essex coast, an ancient battle of life and death is playing out: a peregrine falcon scans the ground at Old Hall Marshes nature reserve where lapwings guard their nests. A “deceit” (the collective noun for lapwings), bolts into the air to chase away the bird of prey. The furious group of expecting parents nip at the falcon’s feathers until it loses interest.

“This is probably the wildest part of Essex,” says Kieren Alexander, the RSPB site manager, scanning the wetlands with his binoculars for more skirmishes after the lapwings settle.

Climate Change Committee says little hope of getting on track if Stormont power sharing not restored soon

The prolonged lack of devolved government in Northern Ireland threatens to seriously hamper the country’s ability to hit the ambitious emissions reduction targets enshrined by law in its climate act, the chief executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) has said.

There has been no power-sharing government in place to advance work on meeting these commitments since Northern Ireland’s Climate Change Act, which includes a 2050 net zero target, was passed last spring.

The 55-year-old businessman appeared via video link at Parramatta magistrates court. This blog is now closed

• Australian man who allegedly sold information to foreign spies faces court
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‘Really disturbing footage’: David Pocock responds to gas seep video

Senator David Pocock has called the video showing large methane gas bubbles active on the surface of Queensland’s Condamine River “really disturbing footage”.

In the first of a two-part report, we look at the successes – and the costs – of what once was Australia’s largest power station

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Jackson Channon, an electrician at the Liddell power station, counts “three generations of generation” who worked at the Hunter Valley site, including a grandad who drove cement trucks used to build it and parents who first met while on staff.

Come 29 April, Channon will attend the closure of the AGL Energy coal-fired facility, joining hundreds of current and former staff, community members and even artists marking the end of what was Australia’s biggest power plant when it was built 52 years ago.

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Exclusive: Origin Energy says it has monitored the bubbling water since 2015, along with other seep locations

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New video showing Queensland’s Condamine River “bubbling like a boiling broth” has raised alarm that methane seeps into the waterway are more widespread than previously revealed, amid the continued ramp-up of coal-seam gas drilling in the Darling Downs.

The footage, released on Saturday by environmental group Lock the Gate, shows large methane gas bubbles active on the surface of the river. The group says the phenomenon was filmed at a section of river more than 1km from where similar bubbles have been observed since 2012, prompting a decade of scientific investigation.

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Energy department gives green light to exports from liquefied natural gas program, after Willow project approved last month

The Biden administration on Thursday approved exports of liquefied natural gas from the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, a document showed, prompting criticism from environmental groups over the approval of another “carbon bomb”.

The US energy department approved Alaska Gasline Development Corp’s (AGDC) project to export LNG to countries with which the United States does not have a free trade agreement, mainly in Asia. Backers of the roughly $39bn project expect it to be operational by 2030 if it receives the required permits.