The Guardian

Exclusive: Developers still unwilling to put forward schemes despite change to planning rules in September

No new plans for onshore wind have been accepted in England since the government claimed it had “lifted” the de facto ban, new analysis reveals.

Renewable energy organisations warned at the time that this was likely. Despite the levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, having changed planning rules introduced in 2015 by the then prime minister, David Cameron, to stop onshore wind projects being blocked by a single objection, they still face higher barriers than every other form of infrastructure, including waste incinerators.

Monitoring what comes out of an animal is a vital part of keeping an eye on its health

I thought convincing my husband of the merits of my returning to study just as he had retired would be a tricky sell. So his enthusiasm for the idea caught me by surprise.

He helpfully suggested several interesting topics: sea turtles, dugongs and coral reefs. If it involved a boat in a warm climate, he was behind me 100%.

Successive Australian governments have kicked the can down the road when it comes to the climate crisis – and colourful activism has followed them every step of the way

Switzerland’s KlimaSeniorinnen are taking the government to the European court of human rights for doing too little to tackle the climate crisis

The women, mostly in their 70s, strode up the mountain with dogged grace. Clacking their hiking poles against sun-cooked rocks, they set sure feet on shaky stones and held hands to cross slippery streams. They knew the heat and strain were a threat to their health – they were perhaps uniquely aware of the risks – but they did not plan to let it limit their lives.

“I’m a mountain climber,” said 73-year-old Pia Hollenstein, brushing away the hand I offered to help her down a big rock. “I can manage.”

Countries less able to rebuild or who have contributed least to climate crisis suffer worst, research reveals

A list of the 20 costliest climate disasters of 2023 has revealed a “global postcode lottery stacked against the poor”, according to an analysis.

The research by the charity Christian Aid found that devastating wildfires and floods are hitting those who can least afford to rebuild, and the countries that have contributed least to the climate crisis by burning far fewer fossil fuels than wealthy nations, which have faced fewer climate disasters.

Climate Defiance, trying to make the climate crisis a top issue in 2024 election, isn’t afraid to anger ‘cowards’ and ‘criminals’

A climate protest group backed by a cadre of Hollywood film-makers is preparing to take action against “cowards” and “criminals” of all political stripes as the 2024 election approaches.

Climate Defiance, which disrupted events featuring a string of Biden administration officials this year, and targeted Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, in December, will consider protesting at events staged by both Democrats and Republicans on the campaign trail after concluding that its “very disruptive” action was bearing fruit.

International Ski Federation urged to cut emissions, while activists warn of damage through heavy use of snowmaking

After promising early dumps of snow in some areas of Europe this autumn, the pattern of recent years resumed and rain and sleet took over.

In the ski resorts of Morzine and Les Gets in the French Alps, the heavy rainfall meant that full opening of resorts was delayed until two days before Christmas, leaving the industry and the millions of tourists planning trips to stare at the sky in hope.

Platypuses have not been seen in the Torrens since the 1880s, but now the river may be healthy enough to support the species again

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In May 1872, Adelaide’s doctors were surveyed about the “noxious effluvia” emanating from the River Torrens, the South Australian Advertiser reported. John Burn wrote to the paper to say he endorsed their condemnation of “the filthy state of Adelaide – a city of stenches”.

“If any of our citizens be sceptical, I would suggest his taking a stroll along King William Street on to the Morphett Street Bridge, where he might tarry a wee bit for the inhalation of the horridly pestiferous vapours there to be enjoyed,” Burn wrote.

Amid all the hysteria about ChatGPT and co, one thing is being missed: how energy-intensive the technology is

What to do when surrounded by people who are losing their minds about the Newest New Thing? Answer: reach for the Gartner Hype Cycle, an ingenious diagram that maps the progress of an emerging technology through five phases: the “technology trigger”, which is followed by a rapid rise to the “peak of inflated expectations”; this is succeeded by a rapid decline into the “trough of disillusionment”, after which begins a gentle climb up the “slope of enlightenment” – before eventually (often years or decades later) reaching the “plateau of productivity”.

Given the current hysteria about AI, I thought I’d check to see where it is on the chart. It shows that generative AI (the polite term for ChatGPT and co) has just reached the peak of inflated expectations. That squares with the fevered predictions of the tech industry (not to mention governments) that AI will be transformative and will soon be ubiquitous. This hype has given rise to much anguished fretting about its impact on employment, misinformation, politics etc, and also to a deal of anxious extrapolations about an existential risk to humanity.

Horticulture charity says climate breakdown is influencing trends, based on inquiries from gardeners

Fruits that thrive in hot weather and can now be grown in the ever-hotter UK summers, and weeds such as cow parsley to decorate borders, are among the 2024 garden trends predicted by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Climate breakdown has influenced most of the trends predicted by the horticulture charity, which seeks insights from its more than 600,000 members to forecast which plants may be in fashion in the coming year. While its trends list used to be based on simply which blooms were in vogue, now it highlights the quirks of gardening in a changing climate amid collapsing biodiversity.

Greening grey spaces Creative ways to green up grey urban spaces has become a major new trend as city gardeners are growing successfully in pots, growing up instead of out and using innovative ways of colonising indoor space, including terrariums.

Grow your own The RHS gardening advice service and website continues to see growth in “grow your own”. The most popular plants are tomatoes, followed by cucumbers, courgettes, chillies and runner beans.

Purple power Purple vegetables have traditionally been difficult for the home gardener but now breeders have begun introducing purple varieties that are easier to grow than traditional ones and avoid previous drawbacks, such as non-fruiting and limited purple colour, especially after cooking. Gardeners and chefs can anticipate purple carrots, cauliflowers, broccoli, tomatoes, peas, radish, French beans and lettuces.

Climate change fruits Recent hot dry summers are ideal for certain fruits, grape vines being an outstanding example – but others include figs, almonds, apricots, melons, peaches/nectarines and watermelons.

Local seed provenances and survivalist gardens After the temporary hiccup to the vegetable supply chain last spring, some gardeners now favour growing with more independence, including where they source their seeds.

Going wild Plants traditionally seen as unwanted weeds such as herb robert and plantain are becoming popular. Cow parsley is now a desirable border plant and dandelions are recognised as being key to providing food for bees early in springtime.

Gardening with nature The move away from classical, formal layouts towards naturalistic landscapes will continue to grow, with gardens making people feel that they are in a wild place and providing benefits to wellbeing, wildlife and ease of maintenance.

Planet-friendly gardening Gardeners will be increasingly in tune with nature: inquiries to the RHS about wildlife gardening increased by more than 28% in 2023.

Houseplants reach the next level – Tropical-looking plants and orchids which create a “jungle vibe” have become popular, as has growing up instead of out. Favourites will include epipremnum, sedum morganianum, and old favourites such as string of hearts and spider plants.

Succulents Driven by houseplants and sourcing drought-resistant bedding, interest in succulents is increasing, with commercial landscapers introducing the hardier ones into landscapes. New cultivars are also being released, including aeonium, cotyledon and crassula.

Lib Dem analysis finds 4,574 hours of sewage has been spilled in festive swimming spots in the last year

Long-established Christmas seaside swimming locations have been flooded with sewage over the last year, prompting concern that swimmers could fall ill.

They would not be able to claim compensation, as Tory MPs earlier this month blocked a Lib Dem amendment that would have allowed anyone who got sick as a result of illegal sewage dumping to claim from water companies.

Exemption under federal environment law to allow scientists to collect 25 of the critically endangered ‘walking fish’

Scientists in Tasmania will remove up to half of the island’s “emblematic” red handfish from the wild ahead of expected marine heatwaves deemed an existential threat to their survival.

The critically endangered Tasmanian red handfish population has fallen to between 50 and 100 in the wild, due to the degradation of the seaweed habitat it needs to breed.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

Sales surge as cities and states look to cut pollution from cars and improve options for Americans to get around

After several years of false starts, electric bikes are finally entering the American mainstream, amid booming sales of a multiplying number of models on offer and as more states offer incentives for people to ditch their cars and shift to two, motor-assisted, wheels.

This year could be considered “the year of the ebike”, according to John MacArthur, a transport researcher at Portland State University. Ebike sales in the United States leaped by 269% between 2019 and 2022, with the market size expected to have grown further in 2023, to be worth $2.59bn.

Despite a typical suburban upbringing – and two PhDs – Jonathan Cornford and his family decided to restrain their consumption

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When my wife, Kim, and I got married in 1995 we decided, in our youthful idealism, that we would try to “live simply so that others might simply live”. It turns out that living simply can sometimes be quite complicated. Nevertheless, from the outset it was clear to us that living simply should involve living on a lower income than the Australian norm. We were sort of downshifters, except we had never shifted up in the first place.

The bulk of our married life has been spent living at an income level that put us in the bottom 20% of Australian households. We now have two older teenagers, and for most of their lives our family technically hovered around the Australian household poverty line. But “poverty” has been very far from our experience.

EVs made up just 2% of new car sales in May 2022, but now 8.3% of new car sales in 2023 are battery powered

The climate change minister, Chris Bowen, has welcomed a boom in electric vehicle sales, revealing the number of fast-charging sites has nearly doubled in the last year.

National strategies on electric vehicles are expected to more than double the number of charger stations again within three years, as the federal government seeks to incentivise the use of cleaner cars. New fuel efficiency standards, expected to be outlined in early 2024, are likely to further discourage the sale of higher-emitting vehicles, making electric cars more attractive.

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Around the world, the people fighting for the survival of our planet are being shamefully silenced and villified

Injustice is easy to oppose after it has receded into the past, and there is no cost to imagining yourself as a hero long after the event. Everyone celebrates the suffragettes now, but at the time they were vilified as hateful spinsters and terrorists. McCarthyism is a pejorative political label on right and left alike now, but at his peak, more Americans approved of Senator Joseph McCarthy than frowned on his witch-hunt. Most people would like to believe they’d have stood up against the homophobia of 1980s Britain – yet, by 1987, only 11% of the British public believed same-sex relations to be “not wrong at all”.

Which takes us to climate activism. This year has seen a global onslaught against people agitating for more action to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis. Courts can issue stern judgments, but so can history, and you have to wonder its future verdict on how the persecution and silencing of those raising the alarm only escalated when the scientific evidence had become so cast-iron, and when extreme weather events hammered home the imminent danger facing the human species. Here in Britain, a government which is reneging on its climate commitments – not least by expanding oil and gas licences – is simultaneously introducing repressive legislation to silence those holding them to account.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Fishing nets abandoned or lost in the sea – known as ‘ghost nets’ or ‘ghost gear’ – have been called ‘the most deadly form of marine plastic debris’. Dolphins, fish, whales, seabirds and turtles become entangled and die slow, painful deaths. But divers in Dakar are working to remove the threat

Exclusive: ‘We need to listen to the scientists. Excessive pesticide use is killing our bees,’ say company heads in letter to minister

The UK government should stop ignoring the science and block a bee-killing pesticide from being used, business leaders have said.

The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB is used on sugar beet and is highly toxic to bees. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. In 2017, the then environment secretary, Michael Gove, promised to use Brexit to ban all neonicotinoids.

Conservationists call for more action after reptiles, fish and birds added to list, including 10 species deemed critically endangered

Seventeen species, including two birds, two fish, several reptiles and the Lord Howe earthworm, have been added to Australia’s list of threatened species.

The sooty shearwater, known for its long-distance journeys, has been listed as vulnerable, while the red-tailed tropicbird, which breeds on Christmas Island, has been listed as endangered.