Environment

Activists, including veteran Swampy, barricade themselves inside tunnel at site in Buckinghamshire

A group of environmental activists are facing eviction after barricading themselves inside a tunnel to protest against the HS2 rail project.

The protesters, who include Dan Hooper, the veteran activist also known as Swampy, are involved in a tunnel protest in Buckinghamshire.

Bailiffs began trying to remove the protesters early on Sunday morning but Hooper told the Guardian that the tunnel at the Wendover camp had been robustly constructed over a long period of time.

Polar Zero exhibition in Glasgow features sculpture encasing air extracted from start of Industrial Revolution

An ampoule of Antarctic air from the year 1765 forms the centrepiece of a new exhibition that reveals the hidden histories contained in polar ice to visitors attending the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.

The artist Wayne Binitie has spent the past five years undertaking an extraordinary collaboration with scientists of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), who drill, analyse and preserve cylinders of ice from deep in the ice sheet that record past climate change.

The tax concession scheme specifically excludes ‘prospecting, exploring or drilling activities’ but the company claims new well is clearly for R&D

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The federal government gave a $5m tax incentive to a Liberal-linked gas company exploring the Beetaloo Basin using a scheme that specifically prohibits “prospecting, exploring or drilling activities”.

The Morrison government’s award of a different grant to Empire Energy, a company hoping to frack in the Northern Territory, has been the subject of scrutiny through a Senate inquiry in recent months. Empire received $21m from a $50m grant program that forms part of its gas-led recovery.”

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to scientist Katharine Hayhoe about Google's new tools that help people choose to decrease their carbon footprint when it comes to taking an airplane trip.

The wetlands damaged in southern California's oil spill had been restored decades ago, and are some of the last remaining in the area. Ecologists say damage from the recent spill will be long lasting.

Conservationist delivers petition to Buckingham Palace and urges royals to set example before Cop26

Chris Packham has called on the royal family to “step up” by committing to rewilding their estates before the Cop26 climate summit.

The conservationist and broadcaster delivered a petition signed by more than 100,000 people to the gates of Buckingham Palace on Saturday, accompanied by more than 100 school strikers. Packham said “the time for talking is finished” and urged the royal family to lead by example by improving the ecological condition of their land.

Over the last five years, the 100 top law firms in the US represented fossil fuel clients in 358 legal cases and transactions worth $1.36tn

The world’s biggest corporate law firms have been making millions of dollars representing fossil fuel companies but, as the climate crisis intensifies, this work is coming under increasing scrutiny.

Over the last five years, the 100 top ranked law firms in the US facilitated $1.36tn of fossil fuel transactions, represented fossil fuel clients in 358 legal cases and received $35m in compensation for their work to assist fossil fuel industry lobbying, according to a “climate scorecard” published in August.

The state’s ageing oil infrastructure means more disasters are likely as companies move away from fossil fuels

A gash in an underwater pipeline sent tens of thousands of gallons of oil rushing into the waters near Los Angeles last weekend, blackening beaches and endangering wildlife.

While the US Coast Guard believes a ship’s anchor may have damaged the pipeline months ago, California’s ageing oil infrastructure will also bear increasing scrutiny. Experts say that the devastating spill is unlikely to be the last, especially in a rapidly changing industry where equipment is primed to suffer from underinvestment and lack of attention.

Only ecodesign stoves can be legally sold from 2022 – but experts say the standard is shockingly weak

New wood burning stoves billed as more environmentally friendly still emit 750 times more tiny particle pollution than a modern HGV truck, a report has shown.

Only stoves that meet the ecodesign standard can be legally sold from the start of 2022 in the UK and EU, but experts said the regulation was shockingly weak.

‘My fear is that we will see fewer delegates from some of the most afflicted countries,’ a Cop26 insider from a developing nation says

Cop26 will be a “conference of the parties” like no other, as this is a year like no other. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way Cop26 will operate, and that has many worrying implications.

Cop26 should have taken place in November 2020, but the decision was taken in May 2020 to delay it by a year, because of Covid. However, the extra time has not meant that the negotiations have advanced more. The negotiators have not been able to meet in person, which has been difficult. We had online discussions and pre-meetings but these were very different from the formal negotiations that would normally have taken place to prepare the ground for Cop26.

Every week we’ll hear from negotiators from a developing country that is involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and will be attending the Cop26 climate conference.

Big business says accelerating emissions cuts would leave Australians better off by an average of $5,000 per person each year by 2050

Big business has thrown its weight behind a 50% emissions reduction by 2030 to avoid a “costly and damaging” game of climate catch-up.

The Business Council of Australia believes a cut of between 46% and 50% on 2005 levels within the decade is pragmatic, ambitious and will drive investment.

Coast Guard investigators say an underwater Southern California oil pipeline was likely struck by an anchor as long as a year before a major leak spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude.

(Image credit: Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)

Human rights council also appoints special rapporteur to monitor impact of climate crisis on rights

The UN’s main human rights body has overwhelmingly voted to recognise the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right, and to appoint an expert to monitor human rights in the context of the climate emergency.

The human rights council passed the clean-environment resolution, which also calls on countries to boost their abilities to improve the environment, by 43-0 while four member states – China, India, Japan and Russia – abstained.

Residents of LaPlace in Louisiana have stayed hurricane after hurricane due to their deep ties to their community. State and federal officials are trying to deal with the area's repeated devastation.

Restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante represents victory for advocates after protections were slashed

Joe Biden restored environmental protections on Friday to three national monuments and their vast expanse of vital ecosystems and sacred Indigenous spaces, reversing cuts made by Donald Trump.

“These protections provide a bridge to our past, but they also build a bridge to a safer and more sustainable future,” said Biden. “One where we strengthen our economy and pass on a healthy planet to our children and our grandchildren.”

Boris Johnson accused of ‘being optimistic and leaving it up to businesses to pick up the slack’

Tory ministers have privately expressed fear that government inaction on the emerging cost of living crisis could leave the country facing “a nightmare” by Christmas.

Boris Johnson was accused by one frontbencher of trying to resolve struggling supply chains by “being optimistic and leaving it up to businesses to pick up the slack”, while a second called the response so far “suboptimal”.

Of all new passenger cars sold so far in 2021 in Norway, less than 5% are powered by gasoline. The numbers push the country closer to meeting its goal of a zero-emission fleet of new cars by 2025.

(Image credit: Sigrid Harms/picture alliance via Getty Images)

It appeared that two groves — including one with 5,000 trees — were seared by high-intensity fire that can send up 100-foot flames capable of burning the canopies of the towering trees.

(Image credit: Noah Berger/AP)

A century ago, women activists planted an arboretum outside Bath. Only one tree survived – now it’s generating seeds for a new woodland and a new cause

In a sunny back garden north-east of Bath stands a 30-metre pine tree. Its widespread branches are home to squirrels, magpies and nuthatches, and in late summer it sheds its needles to thatch the lawn below. The tree has seen enormous political and social change over its 100-year lifespan and, if the women who come to visit it have a say, has yet to see a lot more.

When midwife Eileen Paddock moved to Batheaston village 43 years ago, her two young boys wasted no time climbing the tree in their new home. But she knew nothing about its history until a Canadian professor of art history got in touch three decades later.

UK firm says windfarm project that could help power British homes could be completed by 2030

The prospect of an energy island in the North Sea surrounded by windfarms with the ability to power British homes has taken a step closer after National Grid, the UK energy company, revealed that it is in talks about helping to build the project – and claimed it could be done before 2030.

“We are in tripartite discussions over an energy island that the UK would likely connect to,” Nicola Medalova, the company’s managing director of interconnectors, told New Scientist. She declined to name the two other parties in the talks.