The Guardian

Claim drove hundreds of thousands of people to search remote corners of US, sometimes with tragic consequences

Antiquities dealer and author Forrest Fenn, who gained fame after claiming to have hidden a treasure chest filled with gold, jewels and other valuables that drove hundreds of thousands of people to search remote corners of the US west for the riches – sometimes with tragic consequences – has died. He was 90.

Police confirmed Fenn died on Monday of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Energy company will provide car, charging station as well as insurance and registration for flat fee, as research points to upfront cost as deterrent

AGL, one of Australia’s largest energy companies, has launched the country’s first subscription service for electric cars in a move that the EV industry hopes may boost the nation’s low uptake rate.

The company announced a pilot phase for the new scheme, which also includes installation of charging stations at customers’ homes, to cover Sydney and Melbourne.

We have a deep connection with this bird, and it is finally shaking off its reputation as a symbol of darkness

Of all the world’s birds, the raven has the deepest connection with humankind. It was the first bird mentioned in the Bible, sent out by Noah to search for land. Ravens are central to Norse and Native American mythologies, as symbols of wisdom as well as agents of prophecy. And they feature prominently in literary works from Chaucer, via Edgar Allen Poe, to Game of Thrones.

Whenever I see a raven flying above my Somerset home, uttering that deep, guttural call, I feel the weight of that long connection between bird and human. But I also feel a sense of hope; for in recent times, the raven has finally begun to shake off its reputation as a symbol of darkness.

A third of government and industry-employed ecologists and conservation scientists had work unduly modified, study finds

Australian scientists say they are prevented from speaking openly about their work and their advice is being suppressed by government and industry when it comes to the impact of logging, mining, land-clearing and the climate crisis, new research suggests.

A study by the Ecological Society of Australia, published in the journal Conservation Letters, surveyed 220 scientists across government, industry and academia on the extent to which their work had been suppressed.

Home secretary tells Police Superintendents’ Association that she will not allow XR to create ‘anarchy’

The home secretary, Priti Patel, has claimed Extinction Rebellion are “so-called eco-crusaders turned criminals” who threaten key planks of national life.

The government’s rhetorical venom against XR was triggered by the blockading of newspaper print works which disrupted the distribution of some newspapers and led to scores of arrests last weekend.

Rise in carbon capture as global warming speeds growth of forests would be negated by earlier deaths, say scientists

Live fast, die young is a truism often applied to rock stars but could just as easily describe trees, according to new research. Trees that grow rapidly have a shorter lifespan, which could spell bad news for tackling the climate crisis.

Trees grow faster in warmer conditions, and this should act as a natural brake on global heating, as they take up and store more carbon dioxide from the air as they grow. But the new study casts doubt on this beneficial cycle, finding that the faster trees grow, the sooner they die – and therefore stop storing carbon.

Covid-19 gave us a glimpse of a less work-driven society, but it will take determination to avoid a return to the old normal

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Coronavirus has been devastating for those who fell sick or lost loved ones. The restrictions imposed on everyday life to check its spread have been particularly difficult for people living in cramped accommodation, those juggling childcare and work, and those who have lost their jobs. But despite these huge losses, the pandemic has allowed us to glimpse what a different economy and pace of life might look like – one that is slower, more sustainable and less fixated on growth and consumption. A YouGov poll at the end of June found 31% of people now want to see “big” changes in the economy, three quarters want the choice to work more at home, and only 6% favour a return to a pre-Covid economy.

At the height of the coronavirus crisis in June, some 7.5 million people were temporarily unemployed – the largest quarterly decrease (18.4%) in total weekly hours since records began in 1971. Through the furlough scheme, the state made the unprecedented decision to pay the wages to those out of work. Those who were lucky worked from home and took mortgage holidays. Of course, this didn’t apply equally: many frontline workers had no other option but to go into their workplaces and put their lives at risk.

With huge numbers of infections in slaughterhouses, workers and environmentalists must join forces for change

To anyone who has breathed country air thick with aerosolised manure or learned how the global expansion of pasture for feed crops drives deforestation, it might seem obvious that capitalism is unable to sustainably manage animal life. Yet the meat industry struggles to handle human life too.

Workers in factories strain to make thousands of cuts of meat every shift, leading frequently to repetitive motion injuries. Processing lines move so quickly that some workers must wear nappies because there are too few toilet breaks. There is not enough time to cover a cough – a potentially deadly indignity during a pandemic. Even before the outbreak, the meat industry pushed limits of animal and human biology.

Wildlife group puts up wooden shapes to remind drivers to slow down as hedgehog declared vulnerable to extinction

“Ghost hedgehogs” are starting to appear on roadsides in Dorset to highlight the plight of hedgehogs killed by fast-moving vehicles.

The hedgehogs, made of white-painted wood, are being put up by the Dorset Mammal Group after one small village, Pimperne, reported more than 20 squashed hedgehogs on its roads in just one year.

European Environment Agency calls for strong action to protect most vulnerable in society

Cutting air pollution and improving green spaces in cities would immediately improve the health of the poorest people in society, a report from Europe’s environmental watchdog has found.

Environmental factors inflict greater damage on the health of those in poverty, who already suffer a disproportionately greater burden of disease, than on the better-off, according to the European Environment Agency. Measures that reduce air pollution and give people greater access to parks and similar amenities are well within the reach of governments.

Sussan Ley says conditions of export licence for shark fins and other products have not been met

Environment minister Sussan Ley has moved to revoke the export of shark fins and other seafood products from a Queensland government fishery over inaction on reforms to protect threatened species.

Ley has written to Queensland’s fisheries minister, Mark Furner, saying the state had not met the conditions of its export licence for the East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery, which would be revoked from 30 September.

Report calls for more support if plan to plant 100m hectares of vegetation is to be realised

The world’s most ambitious reforestation project, the Great Green Wall of Africa, has covered only 4% of its target area but is more than halfway towards its 2030 completion date, according to a status report.

More funds, greater technical support and tighter oversight will be needed if the plan to plant 100m hectares of trees and other vegetation is to be realised, say the authors of the study, which was unveiled on Monday at a meeting of regional ministers.

Campaigners say expansion is a betrayal as government had pledged to phase out cull

The government’s badger cull is being expanded to 11 new areas of England including parts of Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire so that more than 60,000 badgers can be killed.

Conservation groups said the expansion was a betrayal of trust after the government this year pledged to phase out the badger cull, intended to reduce bovine TB in cattle, after a scientific review cast doubt on its efficacy.

The brown bear, a master escapologist, is now back in its north Italian wildlife enclosure

A brown bear nicknamed Papillon for its propensity for escaping from its enclosure has been captured by rangers in the Italian province of Trento after 42 days of freedom.

Codenamed M49, the 149kg (23st) bear fled from the Casteller centre on 27 July after climbing over its enclosure, which had been reinforced following previous escapes.

Discovery of early bony fish casts doubt on accepted ideas about evolutionary history of vertebrates

The partial skull of an armoured fish that swam in the oceans over 400m years ago could turn the evolutionary history of sharks on its head, researchers have said.

Bony fish, such as salmon and tuna, as well as almost all terrestrial vertebrates, from birds to humans, have skeletons that end up made of bone. However, the skeletons of sharks are made from a softer material called cartilage – even in adults.

From blockading printers to meditating outside Barclays, the climate crisis campaign has drawn a variety of participants

Thousands of Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists and supporters have been staging “die-ins”, preventing copies of newspapers from being distributed and meditating outside banks over the past week in a series of actions aimed at highlighting the worsening ecological crisis.

At printing plants in Merseyside and in Hertfordshire on Friday evening, many trucks carrying newspapers were unable to deliver to shops. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, accused XR of seeking to limit the public’s access to news amid suggestions that the environmental group could subsequently be treated like an organised crime group by the authorities.

Researchers estimate the new calf, which was seen ‘swimming vigorously alongside its mother’, was born last week

An orca who became famous around the world in 2018 when she carried her stillborn calf aloft in the water for 17 days has given birth to a healthy baby.

The not-for-profit Center for Whale Research spotted the baby, dubbed J-57, “swimming vigorously alongside its mother”, named Tahlequah, on Saturday in waters near the border between the US state of Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia. They estimate that the calf was born on Friday.

Conservation groups warn Australia’s natural world heritage sites are ‘under more pressure than ever before’

Australian conservation groups have written to the UN’s peak environmental heritage body urging it to oppose the Coalition’s bid to devolve the approval process for projects to state and territory governments.

In a letter to the director general of Unesco, the 13 groups warn of the “alarming moves … to weaken legal protection for Australia’s 20 world heritage listed properties” through changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

Exclusive: John Dargavel says his professional body ‘damaged and demeaned’ all foresters by dismissing links between logging and bushfire risks

A veteran Australian forestry scientist has launched a blistering attack on his professional association after it used the retraction of a scientific paper to dismiss links between logging and increased bushfire risks.

In an open letter to the Institute of Foresters Australia seen by Guardian Australia, Dr John Dargavel said the institute’s reaction “damages our standing” and “demeans all foresters in the public eye”.