Earth, Climate.

The overwhelming consensus amongst scientists is that climate change and global warming is caused by humans; that it’s having a damaging affect on weather patterns, accelerating extinction of wildlife, negatively impacting on agriculture, water supply, sea level, air quality. If we don’t radically change our diets, our fuel supply, the way capitalism recklessly plunders the world’s dwindling resources, we will enter a period of global food shortages, mass migration and conflict.

  • Ministers accused of blocking plans to ban burning of UK peatlands
    Failure to protect fragile moors habitat fans doubts about the government’s green credentials Ministers have been accused of deliberately stalling plans to ban the environmentally damaging process of burning peat bogs, in a further sign of government support for people who enjoy shooting grouse on moorlands.After a week in which it emerged that people who … Read More
  • The tipping points at the heart of the climate crisis
    Many parts of the Earth’s climate system have been destabilised by warming, from ice sheets and ocean currents to the Amazon rainforest – and scientists believe that if one collapses others could followThe warning signs are flashing red. The California wildfires were surely made worse by the impacts of global heating. A study published in … Read More
  • Wild plants of Barbados illustrated on plantation ledgers – in pictures
    Artist Annalee Davis was walking in fields once used for sugarcane in her Barbados homeland when she spotted unfamiliar plants. “I was taught to see them as weeds but now I understand their value offering biodiversity to exhausted land and their historical use in bush medicine.” Davis started pressing and using specially mixed Victorian paint … Read More
  • Greener BP must do more than talk tough on the climate crisis
    A company steeped in oil and gas production may not find it easy to convince investors of its environmental credentials‘This is serious stuff,” said BP’s Bernard Looney. The chief executive, speaking last week at the oil giant’s three-day investor event, was talking tough on the need to tackle the climate crisis. He could just as … Read More
  • America is at war with wildfires. Yet Trump is on the side of the inferno | David Sirota
    Trump long ago made clear that in the with-us-or-against-us climate war, he is against us and has enthusiastically joined the side of the infernoThe fires that continue to incinerate the west coast, pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and blanket the country in smoke are the latest sign that the climate crisis has made landfall … Read More
  • Climate change, Covid – our hearts ache. But a new era is possible. We can do it | Rebecca Solnit
    I understand the temptation to feel that what is wrong now will be wrong forever. But anguish and hope can coexistIf you’re heartsore at the quadruple crisis of the mismanaged pandemic, the resultant financial catastrophe grinding down so many people, the climate chaos dramatically evident in unprecedented fires in the west, hurricanes in the southeast, … Read More
  • Country diary: an ancient forest offers protection from the elements
    Glen Feshie, Cairngorms: These trees are the remnants of a coniferous rainforest that spread across Britain after the last ice ageLight brightens the tent and nudges me out of sleep. Dawn must have arrived. I open my eyes, expecting morning light, but instead see soft silver shapes flickering across the tent fabric – moonbeams, diffused … Read More
  • Just like Australia, disinformation is thriving during the US fire crisis | Jason Wilson
    In both countries, fake news about arson proliferated while the role of climate change was obscuredDisinformation successfully obscured the real causes of Australia’s catastrophic bushfire season. Now the same thing is happening around me, as I report on a disastrous wildfire season in the American west.In both countries, the response to a pandemic is also … Read More
  • Koalagate was all about the Nationals trying to regain their faded political support | Quentin Dempster
    The pressure seems to have taken a personal toll on John Barilaro. But whether or not he remains leader, the problems of the party aren’t going awayKoalagate was a stunt. John Barilaro’s NSW Nationals attempted to breach the party’s 2019 Coalition agreement with the Liberals because they are struggling to retain constituent support in its … Read More
  • 'Shocking': wilderness the size of Mexico lost worldwide in just 13 years, study finds
    Researchers say loss of 1.9m square kilometres of intact ecosystems will have ‘profound implications’ for biodiversityWilderness across the planet is disappearing on a huge scale, according to a new study that found human activities had converted an area the size of Mexico from virtually intact natural landscapes to heavily modified ones in just 13 years.The … Read More
  • Intergalactic memorial carnival for David Graeber
    Sunday 11 October 2020 – everywhere During the recent rebellion we lost an inspirational ally, David Graeber – a man without whom many of us might not be part of XR. You might know him from his books – Debt: The First 5,000 Years, or Bullshit Jobs – or from Occupy Wall Street and the … Read More
  • Activists sue ministers over release of game birds for shooting
    Wild Justice accuses UK government of breaching duty to protect conservation sites Conservationists are suing the UK government over the release of millions of game birds on to land that is home to rare and threatened species.The campaign group Wild Justice has accused ministers of breaching their legal duties to protect sites of high conservation … Read More
  • Don't look away now: are viewers finally ready for the truth about nature?
    For decades David Attenborough delighted millions with tales of life on Earth. But now the broadcaster wants us to face up to the state of the planetSir David Attenborough’s soothing, matter-of-fact narrations have brought the natural world to our living rooms for nearly seven decades and counting. From Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the jungles … Read More
  • A 12-storey pig farm: has China found the way to tackle animal disease?
    Biosecure farms complete with staff quarantine and chutes for dead pigs are seen as progress, but may carry their own risksThe buildings do not even look like farms. They are huge grey concrete blocks, many storeys high, which stand side by side in the middle of what might look like a quarry, a “hole” of … Read More
  • Australia's stinging trees: if the snakes and spiders don't get you, the plants might | Irina Vetter, Edward Kalani Gilding and Thomas Durek
    Noxious nettles with venom similar to that of scorpions are helping scientists understand pain and how to control itAustralia is home to some of the world’s most dangerous wildlife. Anyone who spends time outdoors in eastern Australia is wise to keep an eye out for snakes, spiders, swooping birds, crocodiles, deadly cone snails and tiny … Read More
  • The Guardian view on animal welfare: keep it up | Editorial
    Hard-won protections for both humans and livestock are under threat – and worth fighting for Hunting, scientific experimentation, entertainment, the keeping of pets, farming, fishing, habitat destruction: there is no one story about the way that humans use animals – and cause them to suffer. So far, the UN reported this week, our collective efforts … Read More
  • Dear America, we too have seen red skies in Australia and we can tell you what happens next | Brigid Delaney
    We also faced the gross insult to our intelligence, told it was not man-made climate change that was to blame for the firesDear America,We too have seen the orange afternoon sky, and felt the soft, strange sensation of soot falling like rain, and watched the edges of the curtains glow in an amber haze long … Read More
  • At a Senate reef inquiry, we saw politicians flaunt arrogance and ignorance | Ian Chubb, Geoff Garrett and Ove Hoegh-Gulberg
    It is beyond regrettable when scientific evidence is ignored or diminished because it doesn’t fit apparently predetermined views We were recently invited to attend a Senate inquiry into the impact of water quality on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).The inquiry was established in September 2019 to report in October 2020, and was tasked with inquiring … Read More
  • Chinese fishing armada plundered waters around Galápagos, data shows
    Hundreds of vessels caught logging 73,000 hours of fishing in just one month in new analysisA vast fishing armada of Chinese vessels just off the Galápagos Islands logged an astounding 73,000 hours of fishing during just one month as it pulled up thousands of tonnes of squid and fish, a new report based on data … Read More
  • Shocking state of English rivers revealed as all of them fail pollution tests
    Data reveals just 14% of good ecological standard and none of good chemical standardAll English rivers have failed to meet quality tests for pollution amid concerns over the scale of sewage discharges and agricultural and industrial chemicals entering the water system.Data published on Thursday reveals just 14% of English rivers are of good ecological standard, … Read More
  • Shoots and leaves: the shotgun scientist who hunts moving trees
    As forests evolve in the face of climate crisis, some surprising methods are being used to track how species migrate Angelica Patterson is on the lookout, shotgun in hand, as she hikes through New York state’s Black Rock Forest. She focuses on her target high up in the canopy, then bang – a branch falls … Read More
  • The Guardian view on politics and the environment: we demand better | Editorial
    The British public are way ahead of the government in their ideas for a fairer, greener country. Time for Downing Street to listen Earlier this month, a dance troupe on an ITV light entertainment show created one of the most complained-about television moments of the past decade. In their performance, the dancers of Diversity reflected … Read More
  • The megafires and pandemic expose the lies that frustrate action on climate change | Tim Flannery
    If there was a moment of true emergency in the fight to preserve our climate, it is nowThis is part of a series of essays by Australian writers responding to the challenges of 2020I was in Melbourne in late January, watching as more and more people donned face masks to protect themselves against the bushfire … Read More
  • The Green Recovery: can I still eat meat if I care about the environment? – video
    The average Australian eats half a kilogram of meat every week. But meat production has a huge impact on the environment – it’s responsible for almost 10% of Australia’s carbon emissions. So can we still eat meat if we care about the environment? Experts say yes, but with some caveats. And there are things that … Read More