Around The Web

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

California regulator ARB issued nearly 589,000 new California Carbon Offsets (CCOs) over the past two weeks across three WCI protocols, according to data published Wednesday.

Plants can store mercury and keep it from contaminating waterways, air and soils. Unfortunately, that mercury is released when plants burn. Larissa Schneider, DECRA fellow, Australian National University Colin Cooke, University of Alberta Nathan D Stansell, Associate Professor, Northern Illinois University Simon Haberle, Professor, Australian National University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Climate activist also applied to register name of climate movement Fridays for Future

The climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she has applied to register her name and that of the Fridays For Future movement she founded in 2018, which has gone global and catapulted her to international fame.

The move would allow legal action against persons or companies trying to use her name which are not in line with her values or that of her movement, she said.

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Scientists should stop using the very worst predictions for carbon emissions, a study suggests.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) urged a federal court to keep WCI board members in a lawsuit challenging the California-Quebec ETS linkage, claiming those defendants were acting as representatives for the jurisdictions.

Experts call for controversial measures to control numbers, estimated at up to 1 million

An expert report has called for hundreds of thousands of deer to be culled in Scotland to cope with an unsustainable surge in numbers.

The report estimates that up to 1 million wild deer could be roaming Scotland, nearly double some previous estimates, causing significant damage to the landscape and hampering calls to increase tree cover to tackle the climate crisis.

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The American start-up Capella says it's now ready to deploy its fleet of all-weather Earth observers.

Scientists find increasing levels of harmful chemicals, causing health issues and links to mass mortality events

Harmful levels of long-banned chemicals, including the pesticide DDT, have been found in the tissues of two vulnerable dolphin species swimming in waters flowing into the Great Barrier Reef.

Scientists found levels of the chemicals in the tissues of snubfin dolphins and humpback dolphins had tripled and, in some cases, risen even higher between 2010 and 2015.

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EUAs tumbled 2% to a two-week low early on Wednesday as the market struggled to absorb a bumper Polish auction while digesting confirmation of Germany's drawn-out exit from coal-fired power.

The German government on Wednesday released a final version of its long-awaited coal phaseout bill, providing no new details surrounding how many carbon allowances will be cancelled to offset the impact of the programme on the EU ETS.

Exclusive: attempts to tackle crisis fail because gender issues are not addressed, report finds

Climate breakdown and the global crisis of environmental degradation are increasing violence against women and girls, while gender-based exploitation is in turn hampering our ability to tackle the crises, a major report has concluded.

Attempts to repair environmental degradation and adapt to climate breakdown, particularly in poorer countries, are failing, and resources are being wasted because they do not take gender inequality and the effects on women and girls into account.

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Greenpeace investigator Sophie Cooke spent a month at sea observing the hidden practices behind many of the deaths of 100 million sharks every year

On the end of a hook is a shark much larger than me. Its white belly gleams clean and sleek against the rusty hull of the ship as it is hauled out of the ocean, thrashing about trying to escape. They kill it by severing its spine with a knife.

For a generation, the film Jaws was the source of an irrational fear of sharks, which has probably made it harder for many to connect to their plight. People see it almost as a kill or be killed response. On the high seas, however, it’s clear who the real predators are.

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Scientists say lions and rhinos among species at risk from breeding of trophy animals

Lions, rhinos and cheetahs are among the wild species at risk of irreversible “genetic pollution” from breeding experiments, scientists have warned.

South African game farmers have increasingly been breeding novel trophy animals, including some freakishly-coloured varieties such as the black impala, golden wildebeest or pure-white springboks.

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The owl probably overindulged during a mild spell that left it with lots of prey, bird experts say.

From washing out plastic bags to repackaging tissues, Guardian readers offer some more unusual tips for cutting down on waste

Could your garden be the key to your zero-waste ambitions? Gardeners at the National Trust’s Knightshayes estate in Devon have grown luffa plants to produce their own sponges in an attempt to cut down on waste. They are as easy to cultivate as courgettes, according to the kitchen garden supervisor, Bev Todd. Just sow the seeds in April or May in a warm and sunny spot, and give the plant a support to scramble up. Once the fruit matures and withers, squeeze it to loosen, and peel off the skin. Wash and remove the seeds and flesh, hang to dry and voilà – your own sustainable sponge.

If you find that inspiring, Zoë Morrison, a blogger and the author of Eco Thrifty Living, has another green-fingered suggestion: “I like to regrow vegetables from their bottoms, so that they can be saved from the bin or the compost heap.” She has successfully regrown lettuce, celery and leeks this way.

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Carl Lis OBE, chair of National Parks England, warns young people being priced out of scenic areas

More affordable housing should be built in England’s national parks to help communities excluded by spiralling prices driven by second homes, the new chair for the authorities has said.

Carl Lis OBE, chair of National Parks England, has warned that young people and national parks staff are being forced out of some of the most scenic parts of the country by high prices, driven in part by exclusive holiday homes.

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The Australian Government has lodged a submission for Murujuga Cultural Landscape in north-west WA to be included on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List.

The Australian Government has lodged a submission for Murujuga Cultural Landscape in north-west WA to be included on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List.

A glass of dairy milk produces almost three times more greenhouse gas than any plant-based milk. But vegan options have drawbacks of their own

• ‘Like sending bees to war’: the deadly truth behind your almond milk obsession

For environmentally minded consumers, the news is hard to swallow: almond milk is not healthy for the planet and the popular milk substitute is especially hard on bees. Our recent investigation into the connection between California’s industrialized almond industry and a record 50bn commercial bee deaths created quite a buzz. The widely read story prompted one primary response from readers: “What should we be drinking instead?”

This is a thorny question, and food sustainability experts are reluctant to single out any one plant milk as best because all have pros and cons.

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