Around The Web

Shareable online images of chimpanzees, elephants and other animals are threatening their conservation and welfare. Zara Bending, Associate, Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

• New England Aquarium partners with local firm
• Project could help work to save endangered right whales

An aquarium and an engineering firm in Massachusetts are working on a project to better protect whales – by monitoring them from space.

The New England Aquarium, based in Boston, and Draper, a firm based in nearby Cambridge, say new and higher-tech solutions are needed in order to protect whales from extinction. So they are using data from sources such as satellites, sonar and radar to keep a closer eye on how many whales are in the ocean.

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Electric cars and consumer electronics use mineral mined in exploitative conditions in Congo

Followers of Elon Musk are used to big claims on Twitter. The social media habits of the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire have landed him in legal hot water on multiple occasions. But for the battery industry one boast stands out: a tweeted pledge to remove an obscure mineral mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the next generation of Tesla’s electric cars.

Batteries are the key component in the electric car revolution that Tesla kickstarted, and each one contains cobalt. Yet concerns about human rights abuses and child labour have prompted a dual effort to cut the amount of cobalt used in batteries and to clean up complex global supply chains.

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Japan aims to power region, scene of 2011 meltdown, with 100% renewable energy by 2040

Fukushima is planning to transform itself into a renewable energy hub, almost nine years after it became the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident for a quarter of a century.

The prefecture in north-east Japan will forever be associated with the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011, but in an ambitious project the local government has vowed to power the region with 100% renewable energy by 2040, compared with 40% today.

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Research for Oxfam shows inequality between footprints of people in UK and in countries including Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi

The average British person will have emitted more carbon dioxide in the first two weeks of this year than a citizen of any one of seven African nations does in an entire year.

This is the key finding of an Oxfam project, published on Sunday, which discovered that someone in the UK will take just five days to emit the same carbon as someone in Rwanda does in a year.

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Walkers are paying a hidden price for the green revolution, say critics, with cables across pavements and inaudible engines

They are symbols of environmental friendliness, but electric cars could be making environments increasingly unfriendly to pedestrians. Inaudible engines and obstructive charging systems are putting people with disabilities or pushchairs at risk, according to road safety campaigners who say that pedestrians are paying a hidden price for the green revolution.

Dave Taylor, a resident in the London Borough of Ealing, contacted the Observer after reading an article on charging electric vehicles. “My photo of the car with the charging cable across the pavement highlights a very real issue that is not being addressed,” he says.

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The peak time for heatwaves in southern Australia has not yet arrived. Many parts of Australia can expect heavy rains and flooding. And northern Australia's cyclone season is just gearing up. Neville Nicholls, Professor emeritus, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Sending holidaymakers directly into forests and national parks right in the middle of peak bushfire season is madness. David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

The new regulations will see alternatives to gas boilers installed in new homes from 2024.

Researchers are unable to establish whether the Native American planted a mulberry tree in Norfolk.

Toxic formations across the US and the Baltic are part of a worrying trend linked to the climate crisis and farming methods

On 3 August 2014, residents of Toledo, Ohio, woke to the news that overnight their water supply had become toxic. They were advised not only to avoid drinking the water, but also touching it – no showers, no baths, not even hand-washing.

Boiling the water would only increase its toxicity while drinking it could cause “abnormal liver function, diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, numbness or dizziness”, read a statement from the City of Toledo, warning residents to “seek medical attention if you feel you have been exposed”.

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Illegal dumping has surged by 50% since 2012 but powers to issue big fines are going unused

Fly-tipping has increased by 50% in the last six years, prompting councils to call for much bigger penalties for offenders.

More than a million incidents of illegal rubbish dumping were recorded in the financial year 2018-19, which cost councils £58m to clean up. Most incidents involved household waste being jettisoned from cars or vans by the side of a road.

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A biodiversity expert suggests almost half a billion animals might have been affected in Australia.

Millions of animals have been killed in the bushfires, but the impact on flora and fauna is more grim even than individual deaths

Close to the Western River on Kangaroo Island, ecologist Pat Hodgens had set up cameras to snap the island’s rare dunnart – a tiny mouse-like marsupial that exists nowhere else on the planet.

Now, after two fires ripped through the site a few days ago, those cameras – and likely many of the Kangaroo Island dunnarts – are just charred hulks.

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

A Nobel laureate is being praised for retracting a scientific paper that was not reproducible.

Actor Amanda Henderson answered ‘Sharon’ to Thunberg-related question on Celebrity Mastermind – and the teen activist loved it

Greta Thunberg has been mocked and called many names since becoming the world’s most famous climate activist.

Related: Greta Thunberg: 'I wouldn't have wasted my time' speaking to Trump

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California’s snowpack remains slightly off the historic average after storms in November and December, but state officials say it is too early to determine whether the totals could have an impact on the state's hydroelectric generation.

Northeast and Mid-Atlantic US jurisdictions are giving a wide range of feedback early in the design process of a transportation sector carbon market, with Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) members expressing anywhere from steadfast support to outright scepticism.

EUAs climbed to €25 on Friday, reversing a post-Christmas slump as global markets were rocked by concerns that a US air strike in Iraq would spark a Middle East conflict.