The Guardian

Polyester fibres that injure marine life were found in sea water across region

The Arctic is “pervasively” polluted by microplastic fibres that most likely come from the washing of synthetic clothes by people in Europe and North America, research has found.

The most comprehensive study to date found the microplastics in 96 of 97 sea water samples taken from across the polar region. More than 92% of the microplastics were fibres, and 73% of these were made of polyester and were the same width and colours as those used in clothes. Most of the samples were taken from 3-8 metres below the surface, where much marine life feeds.

The Dalai Lama met climate activist Greta Thunberg virtually on Saturday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader said: 'I heard this young girl from Sweden. I really felt: Oh, there is real hope from our younger generation who really thinking this environment and these things.'

During their conversation, Thunberg said she had heard a call to action and urged people to educate themselves on climate issues.

'If I could have ask one thing of you, it would be to educate yourself, to try to learn as much as you possibly can. There's unlimited amount of information, and spread that knowledge, spread that awareness to others' she said

The Rio Grande used to flow freely, but now in Las Cruces, humans, fish and plants are vying for water in the arid landscape

Imagine the world without its most famous rivers: Egypt without the Nile, or London without the Thames. In Las Cruces, New Mexico, residents don’t have to envision the American west without the Rio Grande – it runs dry in their city almost every single year.

Related: Hope grows that Biden will restore US national monuments shrunk by Trump

Weaker sharks are less effective hunters, which can upset the balance of the ecosystem, say authors of study into impacts of hotter oceans

Baby sharks will emerge from their egg cases earlier and weaker as water temperatures rise, according to a new study that examined the impact of warming oceans on embryos.

About 40% of all shark species lay eggs, and the researchers found that one species unique to the Great Barrier Reef spent up to 25 days less in their egg cases under temperatures expected by the end of the century.

Post-Brexit regulation doesn’t match new EU rules to tackle ocean pollution, despite UK being Europe’s largest plastic waste producer

The UK has been accused of failing to honour its promise to curb shipments of plastic waste to developing countries, after it emerged Britain’s new post-Brexit regulations are less stringent than those imposed by the EU.

From 1 January, shipments of unsorted plastic waste from the EU to non-OECD countries were banned.

‘Frightening’ global decline is ‘tearing apart tapestry of life’, with climate crisis a critical concern

Insect populations are suffering “death by a thousand cuts”, with many falling at “frightening” rates that are “tearing apart the tapestry of life”, according to scientists behind a new volume of studies.

The insects face multiple, overlapping threats including the destruction of wild habitats for farming, urbanisation, pesticides and light pollution. Population collapses have been recorded in places where human activities dominate, such as in Germany, but there is little data from outside Europe and North America and in particular from wild, tropical regions where most insects live.

Disposal of radioactive waste is one of six issues to be addressed before plant in Essex can go ahead

The Environment Agency has told the Chinese nuclear developer behind plans to build a new reactor in Essex that it must resolve at least six safety issues before it can move forward.

The issues identified by the environment watchdog in its early assessments of the plans for the site in Bradwell include concerns over how China General Nuclear Group (CGN) will dispose of radioactive waste.

• Mutilated aquatic mammal spotted at spring in Florida
• US Fish and Wildlife Service appeals for public’s help

Federal wildlife officials in Florida are reportedly seeking information on the perpetrators of an attack on a manatee, which apparently had the word “Trump” scraped into its back.

Related: Florida manatee deaths up 20% as Covid-19 threatens recovery

French president vows to overhaul France-Africa event to help mobilise Africa’s young people

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has pledged to invite young Africans rather than their political leaders to a key France-Africa summit in a video call with the actor Idris Elba.

The Élysée Palace said Elba, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ international fund for agricultural development, had asked to speak to the French leader. The Guardian was the only newspaper invited to attend the discussion at the Élysée, which marked the start of the One Planet biodiversity summit in Paris.

Coalition says promise is key to preventing mass extinctions and ensuring clean air and water

A coalition of 50 countries has committed to protect almost a third of the planet by 2030 to halt the destruction of the natural world and slow extinctions of wildlife.

The High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People, which includes the UK and countries from six continents, made the pledge to protect at least 30% of the planet’s land and oceans before the One Planet summit in Paris on Monday, hosted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Magna Carta-style project aims to raise £7bn to ‘bring prosperity into harmony with nature’

Prince Charles is urging businesses to invest in the health of the planet and people at the launch of a sustainable finance charter backed by several international institutions.

Evoking the history of Magna Carta, the Prince of Wales is launching the Terra Carta – the Earth charter – that will ask signatories to agree to almost 100 actions to become more sustainable by 2030.

Up to 400,000 seafarers have been trapped on board cargo ships during the Covid pandemic, some for more than 18 months

• Chosen from among 3,000 images submitted to a photography competition run by ITF Seafarers’ Trust

Creatures that patrolled the oceans 3m years ago were about two metres long at birth, researchers find

Enormous megatooth sharks, or megalodons, which patrolled the world’s oceans more than three million years ago, gave birth to babies larger than most adult humans, scientists say.

Researchers made the unsettling discovery when they X-rayed the vertebra of a fossilised megalodon and found that it must have been about two metres (6.5 ft) long when it was born.

These birds have adapted to be guided by conditions, not season. It is wonderful to witness

Many people think that budgerigars are only found in cages. More people think that they are blue. The truth couldn’t be farther away on both accounts. These flamboyant but diminutive lime-green parrots are the quintessential example of having freedom to roam, which is exactly what they do in the vast island continent of Australia. They occur naturally nowhere else in the world. And if you live in New South Wales and want to see them for yourself without having to venture into the central deserts, now is the time.

The Australian environment is known for its “boom-bust” cycle of nature, largely based on the vagaries of inland rainfall. Whereas other continents experience more predictable climate and rainfall patterns, Australia’s climate is far more irregular. Hence when the rains do come at the end of a prolonged dry (bust) period, the boom starts.

Europe’s second-largest financier of fossil fuels faces a vote to ramp up its climate commitments

HSBC could be forced to slash its exposure to fossil fuels – starting with coal – from next year, after an influential group of investors filed a shareholder vote urging the bank to ramp up its climate commitments.

Fifteen pension and investment funds are pushing HSBC to reduce the loans and underwriting services offered to clients which rely heavily on fossil fuels within a timeline consistent with Paris climate goals.

Unmanaged animals from Britain’s largest herds for 1,000 years are no longer needed with restaurants in lockdown

Unmanaged wild deer herds could soon pose a threat to woodlands and important wildlife habitats in Britain because the commercial market for venison has collapsed during the pandemic.

Many in the game industry as well as conservationists fear too few deer are being culled to keep the estimated two-million-strong wild herd, the largest for 1,000 years, at a sustainable size.

Farmers ‘relieved’ as country joins 10 others in allowing emergency use of chemical banned in EU

A pesticide believed to kill bees has been authorised for use in England despite an European Union-wide ban two years ago, the government has announced.

Following lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and British Sugar, a product containing neonicotinoid thiamethoxam was sanctioned for emergency use on sugar beet seeds this year because of the threat posed by a virus.

Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers have threatened federal employees and institutions that steward public lands

When the full story of the 6 January storming of the US Capitol building is told, historians will have to make sense of what might seem an odd footnote. The two most prominent rightwing militia groups that participated in the mob onslaught on Congress – the Three Percenters, based in Idaho, and the Oath Keepers, based in Nevada – cut their teeth in obscure corners of the American west, where for close to a decade they have threatened violence against federal employees and institutions that steward the nation’s public lands.

Related: 'It was just a free-for-all': my day photographing the Capitol attack

Private member’s bill seeks to ensure water firms do more to clean up their act on untreated waste

More than 100 MPs from across different parties are supporting a parliamentary bid to stop water companies discharging untreated sewage into rivers.

Philip Dunne, the Conservative chair of the environmental audit committee, is seeking in a private member’s bill to place a duty on water companies to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged into rivers and inland waterways.

Scientists say the risk of local extinctions is rising due to damaged waterways, land clearing and climate change

It is dusk beside a creek and we are instructed to look for a trail of bubbles, under which could be one of the world’s weirdest mammals.

When you’re desperate to see a platypus in the fading light, everything looks like one.