The Guardian

Health impact is unknown but scientists say particles may cause long-term damage to foetuses

Microplastic particles have been revealed in the placentas of unborn babies for the first time, which the researchers said was “a matter of great concern”.

The health impact of microplastics in the body is as yet unknown. But the scientists said they could carry chemicals that could cause long-term damage or upset the foetus’s developing immune system. The particles are likely to have been consumed or breathed in by the mothers.

The Guardian’s biodiversity editor looks back on a year that put the state of the planet on the agenda in ways no one could have foreseen

• Read more in our series Biodiversity: what happened next?

The year 2020 was always destined to be a crucial one for biodiversity, with the Cop15 conference in Kunming, China scheduled for October, at which the international community was expected to agree a Paris-style agreement for nature. But the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic across the world forced biodiversity on to the agenda in a way previously unseen.

Despite the postponement of Cop15, there was a flurry of activity among the world’s leading figures on the environment as it became clear that the state of our planet has never been more urgent. In March, John Vidal was among the first to report on the link between our destruction of nature and Covid-19 – and the warnings continued.

Campaigners in Ilkley hope River Wharfe designation will ‘trigger a clean-up’ of local sewage system

A stretch of river in Yorkshire will become the first in the UK to be given bathing water status in a major success for campaigners trying to stop releases of untreated sewage into inland waters.

Part of the River Wharfe in Ilkley, which is a popular swimming and paddling spot, is to be added to the list of bathing waters next year, after months of campaigning.

The lemmings didn’t jump – they were pushed

• The Nature of ... is a column dedicated to interesting animals, insects, plants and natural phenomena

A Norwegian lemming looks like a larger, slightly cleverer and much more irate hamster. Their underside fur is biscuit-coloured. On top they wear a mottled calico.

The BBC, in a 2015 documentary episode in which a lemming repeatedly charges a full sized house cat – and then attacks the rock on to which the house cat has leapt in fear – called them “bloodthirsty, hairy berserkers.”

World faces huge wildlife losses by 2050 unless what and how food is produced changes

The global food system is on course to drive rapid and widespread ecological damage with almost 90% of land animals set to lose some of their habitat by 2050, new research has found.

A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability shows that unless the food industry is rapidly transformed, changing what people eat and how it is produced, the world faces widespread biodiversity loss in the coming decades.

Environmentalist groups say the pipeline, intended to funnel gas from Pennsylvania to north Brooklyn, is an example of environmental racism

Pati Rodriguez grew up in Bushwick, a historically industrial, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. She has worked as a community organizer for years, and at 38, she knows the neighborhood inside and out. So she was surprised last year to learn about a natural gas pipeline being built a block away from her daughter’s school, more than two years after its construction had begun.

Rodriguez says she learned about the Metropolitan Reliability Infrastructure (MRI) project – more often referred to as the North Brooklyn pipeline by local activists – from the anti-fracking advocacy group Sane Energy Project, which for the last year has held neighborhood meetings to raise awareness of the construction.

This year was the most challenging and extraordinary year for news. Our journalists worked tirelessly throughout 2020, from the very start of the year with the Australian bushfires, through the struggle for Hong Kong, the Harvey Weinstein verdict to the death of George Floyd, and the dramatic and divisive US presidential election. But of course, the Covid-19 pandemic was the dominant global story of the year. The Guardian's coverage sought to foreground the science and the latest data, hold the government and the scientific establishment to account and expose incompetence, and bring empathy and humanity to the stories of the victims. Here are some of the highlights of our journalism over that time.

• Show your support for the Guardian’s powerful, open, independent journalism in 2020 and the years ahead

A powerful French book punctures the myth that countries in the global south are largely responsible for habitat destruction

To prevent future pandemics, we must stop deforestation and end the illegal wildlife trade. Do you agree? Of course you do, because what’s not to like? The buck stops with the evil other. The question is, will doing those things solve the problem? And the answer is, probably not. They will help, but there’s another, potentially bigger problem closer to home: the global north’s use of natural resources, especially its reliance on livestock.

The story that epidemics are punishment for upsetting the natural order of things is not new. But it’s a peculiarly modern, postcolonial twist on it to imagine that the source of that upset is somewhere far away from most of us – to wit, the parts of the world that were forested, until recently, and that conveniently coincide with the poorer bits. And it turns out that this narrative may be interfering with our attempts to protect ourselves from novel diseases, as well as with efforts to tackle climate change and the erosion of biodiversity.

Critics say plan for third runway runs counter to UK’s legally binding target of net zero emissions by 2050

The government is facing a legal challenge over its plan to expand Heathrow airport, with lawyers and environmentalists demanding it review its policy in line with its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

The Good Law Project, a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on public interest cases including environmentalism and tackling poverty, is arguing that the government must update its plan for a third runway to take into account the emissions pledge it made following the airport expansion’s approval in June 2018.

The best of the week’s wildlife pictures from around the world, including devil-eyed frogs, bats and pangolins

Coalition funding for gas exploration in Northern Territory labelled a costly plan ‘for a climate catastrophe’

The Morrison government has been accused of embarking on an “expensive plan for a climate catastrophe” after it announced it would pay the gas industry up to $50m to speed up exploration in the Northern Territory.

The commitment, revealed on Thursday, also prompted warnings that taxpayers’ money could flow offshore to companies linked to tax havens and a Russian oligarch.

Friends of the Earth calls for end to such excavation in England after unanimous decision on Dewley Hill site

A decision by planners to block a new opencast coal mine in north-east England should “bring down the curtain” on such sites, Friends of the Earth have said.

After a three-hour hearing on Friday, Newcastle city council’s planning committee unanimously rejected Banks Mining’s application to extract 800,000 tonnes of coal from a site at Dewley Hill near Throckley.

Exclusive: Burners should be sold with health warnings, say scientists who found tiny particles flooding into rooms

Wood burners triple the level of harmful pollution particles inside homes and should be sold with a health warning, says scientists, who also advise that they should not be used around elderly people or children.

The tiny particles flood into the room when the burner doors are opened for refuelling, a study found. Furthermore, people who load in wood twice or more in an evening are exposed to pollution spikes two to four times higher than those who refuel once or not at all.

Pandemic cuts funding and volunteer numbers but rising awareness means more people are rescuing injured animals

Wildlife hospitals across the UK are reporting their busiest year ever, with hedgehogs, pigeons, bats and birds of prey among a growing number of animals brought into centres for treatment.

The rise in admissions is part of a wider trend of increasing awareness of habitat loss and the threats to the natural world, but experts also point to the Covid-19 lockdown as a significant factor in this year’s increase. The number of people venturing out to nature spots has surged during the pandemic, with almost half of the population spending more time outside than before coronavirus. A third of people reported noticing nature and wildlife more.

It’s the Seabirds for Climate Justice end of year review!

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A flatback sea turtle has been filmed defending itself from a tiger shark attack off the Western Australia coast. A team of researchers at Murdoch University’s Harry Butler Institute and Western Australia’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation & Attractions captured the vision after mounting a camera on the turtle’s shell during a project at Roebuck Bay. Despite the mismatch in size, the turtle uses aggressive biting lunges at the shark before making a hasty escape to safety

Australia’s leaders are playing with climate policy, pitching a nationalist and populist message to their base

Australia ends the year as one of the only developed countries not committed to net zero emissions by 2050.

To this, prime minister Scott Morrison is adding another distinction. Australia is about to become the only developed country with a parliamentary committee charged with persuading corporates not to move beyond carbon.

Local authorities deferring schemes to reduce toxic emissions as calls rise to put WHO targets into UK law

Measures to tackle illegal air pollution, which kills tens of thousands of people a year in the UK, are being delayed or shelved despite growing evidence of the health risks.

Several local authorities have deferred or put a hold on the introduction of clean air zones, which are designed to reduce toxic air from traffic in town and city centres.

Danish company plans to fit ships with small nuclear reactors to send energy to developing countries

Floating barges fitted with advanced nuclear reactors could begin powering developing nations by the mid-2020s, according to a Danish startup company.

Seaborg Technologies believes it can make cheap nuclear electricity a viable alternative to fossil fuels across the developing world as soon as 2025.

Member states blame uncertainty over Brexit as reason for breach of next year’s limits

Fish populations will continue to be over-exploited in EU waters, partly as a result of Brexit, after a decision on next year’s fishing quotas among EU countries fell well short of scientific advice.

Fishing limits are set to exceed scientific advice for about a third of EU fish stocks, after EU ministers met on Thursday morning, with EU member states citing the uncertainty regarding fishing rights after Brexit as a reason for breaching limits on sustainable catches.