The Guardian

Chemicals called PFAS and PFOS – known as forever chemicals – are in the blood of virtually every person on the planet. And they will only accumulate

Imagine that a small group of people coordinated the intentional manufacture and release of a lethal poison – and imagine they knew this poison had special properties that meant, once released into the world, it would be inevitable that it would make its way into the blood of virtually every person on the planet, even babies in their mother’s womb, and stay there, like a ticking time bomb.

Well, that “ticking time bomb” waiting to explode into serious, even fatal, disease is not a fictional device from some doomsday thriller; it is real, it is inside virtually all of us, right now. Tick, tick, tick.

Sumitomo writes off stake in WA’s Bluewaters due to difficulty in refinancing loans for coal projects

The Japanese part-owner of Australia’s newest coal-fired power plant has written off its investment amid dimming prospects for coal.

The conglomerate Sumitomo and another Japanese company, Kansai, each own half the Bluewaters power plant, which provides about 15% of Western Australia’s electricity, after buying it for a reported $1.2bn in 2011.

Botanists list plants newly discovered or named by scientists in 2020

• RBG Kew selects 10 of 156 species officially named this year
• The ugliest orchid in the world, a toadstool found at Heathrow airport, UK, and a potential food source from Peru, among showstoppers on list
• Orchids account for more than a third of the newly named species
• Concerns that several of these rare species, already threatened by habitat clearance, face extinction

Campaigners urge action after a coroner rules air pollution contributed to her daughter’s death

The mother of Ella Kissi-Debrah called for her legacy to be the passing of a new clean air act to force the government in the UK to clean up the environment for future generations of children.

Rosamund Kissi-Debrah spoke after a coroner ruled that illegal levels of air pollution, predominantly from traffic, had caused the death of her nine year old daughter in south London in February 2013.

Kew Gardens botanists also named a new toadstool found at Heathrow airport and a bizarre scaly shrub from Namibia

The “ugliest orchid in the world”, a toadstool discovered at Heathrow airport, and a bizarre scaly shrub have topped a list of new species named by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and their collaborators in 2020.

The researchers said the 156 new plants and fungi highlighted the amazing diversity of species that remain to be found, with the potential to provide new crops, medicines and gardener’s favourites. One is a morning glory plant, whose sweet purple tubers are already eaten by local people in the high Andes of Peru.

Poisoning birds among allegations after discovery during search of property at Violet Town

A Victorian woman is facing almost 300 animal cruelty charges after wildlife officers allegedly found the carcasses of 140 protected native birds, including 128 wedge-tailed eagles, at her property.

The office of the conservation regulator said police, wildlife officers, and officials from the agriculture department searched the woman’s property in Violet Town in August after a number of dead wedge-tailed eagles were found in the area.

Footage captured by the New South Wales State Emergency Service shows the wide impact of flooding on the region after parts of Australia's east coast were hit by heavy rain. Wild weather has battered NSW and southern Queensland, with severe thunderstorms and flash flooding hitting hard. The SES has attended thousands of jobs since the downpours began on Saturday

• Man killed in Queensland flood waters as wild weather leaves NSW reeling

Walk at dusk reveals murmurations bouncing networks’ electricity cables and switching off the lights

The mystery surrounding a string of unexplained power cuts across a small town in Scotland has been solved after video footage revealed the culprits – starlings dancing on power lines.

The birds’ murmurations are thought to be behind the baffling spate of evening blackouts in Airth, their combined mass bouncing the overhead electricity lines and causing the power to trip.

Analysis: death of Ella Kissi-Debrah means MPs can no longer ignore dangers of dirty air

• Air pollution a cause in girl’s death, coroner rules in landmark case

Air pollution is the invisible killer, unseen but also unacknowledged on the death certificates of the 40,000 people it sends to an early grave in the UK every year. But on Wednesday, for the first time, the lethal impact of toxic air was given a name and a face – Ella Kissi-Debrah, a nine-year-old girl from south London.

Politicians have been told for many years that dirty air kills but have ducked the decisions needed amid the noisy honking of the motoring lobby. The coroner’s conclusion that air pollution was a cause of Ella’s death means those politicians can no longer pretend that illegal levels of pollution are a victimless crime.

Tim Crosland faces investigation after breaking embargo on airport expansion judgment

The UK’s supreme court will refer a lawyer who broke the embargo on its ruling on Heathrow airport to the attorney general and the Bar Standards Board for investigation.

Tim Crosland, the director of environmental charity Plan B Earth, received the ruling in advance as one of the parties involved in the case, and published his reaction on Tuesday, the day before the judgment was delivered.

Investigation launched into alleged donation to close ally of Japanese PM after resistance to ending use of cramped cages for egg-laying hens

Japan’s decision to resist international pressure to improve conditions for egg-laying chickens is under scrutiny after allegations of bribery involving a former agriculture minister.

Takamori Yoshikawa, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) who served as agriculture minister from October 2018 to September 2019, is alleged to have accepted ¥5m (£36,000) in undeclared donations from a former representative of a leading egg producer in Hiroshima prefecture, western Japan.

Earlier ruling said expansion plan was illegal as government had not considered its climate commitments

The supreme court has overturned a February judgment that a third runway at Heathrow airport was illegal. It means the project can now seek planning permission, but the ultimate completion of the runway remains uncertain.

The supreme court ruling marks the latest twist in years of legal and political wrangling over the climate impact and economic benefits of expanding the airport. The decision in February was seen as historic by environmental campaigners, as it was the first significant ruling in the world to be based on the Paris climate agreement, and related cases were subsequently brought against plans to build more roads and gas-fired power plants in the UK.

Conservationists allege company has breached its environmental licence 52 times at its NSW Bayswater power station site in the past five years

Australia’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, AGL, will pay a $1m penalty for a coal ash spill at a creek in the Hunter region of New South Wales, but environmentalists say the company should have faced criminal prosecution.

The incident occurred at the Bayswater power station near Muswellbrook in September 2019 when a pipeline transporting fly ash – a waste product from burning coal – burst, causing 1,440 cubic metres of hazardous slurry to leak into the dry bed of Bayswater Creek.

Mountain hares in Scotland failing to adapt to climate change, leaving them more vulnerable to predators

When snow begins to fall, mountain hares melt into the landscape by shedding their dark fur and becoming a brilliant – but camouflaged – white.

But mountain hares in Scotland are failing to adapt to a dramatic increase in snowless days, with their white fur on dark mountainsides leaving them newly visible to potential predators.

Environmentalists question why waste washing up on Maine coast was being imported from Northern Ireland for energy production

Brightly coloured plastic debris from the UK has been washing up along the coast of Maine in the US after a shipment bound for incineration fell into the sea.

The plastic debris, part of a 10,000-tonne consignment from Re-Gen Waste, a company based in Newry, Northern Ireland, has infuriated environmentalists and locals surprised to learn that the north-eastern state of Maine is importing plastic from almost 3,000 miles away.

Northern NSW and south-east Queensland hit by heavy rain, strong winds and king tides.

Critics say ‘incredibly disappointing’ discussion paper contains no proposals to make EVs cheaper and reduces choices for Australian consumers

The Australian government has been accused of working for 18 months on a “nothing” electric vehicle strategy after a leaked draft policy paper included no policies that would make it more affordable to buy clean cars.

A discussion paper, first reported by the ABC and seen by Guardian Australia, does not propose direct financial help to encourage people to buy electric vehicles (EVs) or a phase-out date for the sale of new fossil fuel cars, as is planned in some countries including Britain, Japan and Norway.

Conservationists hope the presence of Maremma dogs will stop feral foxes from attacking eastern barred bandicoots when they return to the wild

For about a year, McKinnon and Quinta have been watching a flock of sheep in a nature reserve in western Victoria.

But the two Maremma dogs aren’t really there to look after 146 sheep.

Insect-destroying fungi ‘may represent the next frontier for drug discovery’

Two new fungi species that infect flies and eject spores out of a large hole in the insect’s abdomen “like small rockets” have been discovered in Denmark.

The new species, Strongwellsea tigrinae and Strongwellsea acerosa, are host-specific and rely on two species of Danish fly – Coenosia tigrina and Coenosia testacea, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen.

Environment Agency urges people in flood zones to plan ahead as Met Office forecasts wet January and February

The next couple of months are likely to be wetter than normal in the UK, experts have warned, raising the prospect of flooding.

The Environment Agency’s executive director of operations, John Curtin, said teams around the country were prepared for dealing with floods this winter in a Covid-safe way.