The Guardian

Edinburgh declaration calls on leaders to work far more closely with communities

The worldwide effort to combat critical levels of biodiversity loss will fail without far greater involvement from local communities, according to an international declaration.

The “Edinburgh declaration”, published on Monday, urges leaders to work more closely with sub-national governments, indigenous peoples, national parks, local councils and wider society in meeting 20 biodiversity goals set out in the Aichi accord, signed in Nagoya, Japan, 10 years ago.

Birmingham and Liverpool among local authorities with lowest rates, analysis shows

Recycling rates for household waste are significantly lower in the most deprived areas of England, a Guardian analysis has found.

A breakdown of data from 303 local authorities in England has found that for 2018-19 85% of local authorities that are among the top 20% most deprived have household recycling rates below the overall average of 42%.

About half of staff at poultry plant in Norfolk have had to self-isolate after 75 tested positive for coronavirus

At least 400,000 chickens are being culled in the UK as Covid-19 infections disrupt slaughterhouse routines. About 300,000 birds are due to be culled in England and 110,000 have been culled in Scotland.

Chickens that cannot be slaughtered for food are usually gassed with CO2 and their bodies rendered for fat and other animal byproducts. They do not enter the food chain.

Exemption for smaller shops to end, and campaigners say ‘bags for life’ are next target

The government is to double the charge for single-use plastic carrier bags in England from 5p to 10p and end the exemption for smaller shops from April 2021, as it steps up efforts to tackle plastic pollution.

Since the introduction of the charge in October 2015, shoppers have used billions fewer thin-gauge plastic shopping bags.

Analysis shows state and federal governments not exercising their powers to require companies to increase offsets

Only 1.2% of the greenhouse gas emissions released by Australia’s top 65 emitting companies had to be offset under federal and state laws last financial year, an analysis has found.

The analysis by Footprint, a sustainability news site, examined both regulatory constraints imposed on businesses with emissions greater than 1m tonnes and any voluntary offsetting commitments they made.

Giantess is one of the biggest geysers in the national park, and typically explodes between twice and six times a year

In these troubled times there comes a point where we all need to let off steam.

For this huge geyser in Yellowstone park, the moment was now and the eruption was spectacular, after a six-year wait.

One of the largest geysers at the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has erupted for the first time in more than six years. The Giantess Geyser shot a column of steam up to 60m in the air on 25 August as it ‘roared back into life’, the National Park Service said. The six-year gap was the longest since at least the 1980s

Seeing a wild, swooping kestrel hunt its prey near my Melbourne home was exhilarating. I could taste its freedom

The nankeen kestrel hovered over a patch of saltmarsh, eyes down, wings slowly flapping. After a minute or so, it flew off, displaying gorgeous black and brown plumage, before returning to hover and watch. It dropped suddenly, like a stone flung by a god, then took its prize – a cricket or grasshopper – to a fence post to be eaten in seconds.

The sight of this bird of prey, late in my second week of Melbourne’s hard lockdown, opened something inside me. Like millions of others, I was stuck in the city under curfew, unable to venture more than five kilometres from my home. I yearned for the bush, to be in a place free of cars or houses, where I didn’t have to hear other people’s conversations as we marched up and down the same few paths on our measly hour of daily allotted exercise. That wild, swooping kestrel was exhilarating. I could taste its freedom.

Peak employer body warns Australia faces ‘costly increase in climate-related impacts and risks’ even in best-case scenario

The Morrison government should spend $3.3bn over 10 years on renewable energy and $500m over two years on capital grants to improve energy efficiency and management, according to the Australian Industry Group.

The peak employer body made the calls in its pre-budget submission, released on Monday, which also proposes it bring forward income tax cuts, cut business tax, extend the coronavirus supplement on jobseeker and make a further round of $750 payments to households.

Energy minister Angus Taylor says emissions have reduced as expected but restrictions are unsustainable

Coronavirus restrictions have caused Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to fall to their lowest level since 1998, the latest official data shows.

National emissions in the June quarter 2020 were estimated to be 8% – or about 10m tonnes of carbon dioxide – lower than a year earlier.

At the heart of a new climate emergency bill lies a simple idea to cut through Westminster groupthink: a citizens’ assembly

The timing is impeccable. In the midst of political ferment across the world, and with anxiety about the coming winter hardening into dread, Extinction Rebellion is back. Over the weekend it has made its presence felt in towns and cities around the country; now, in the wake of several of its organisers being arrested, its activists and supporters are preparing to arrive on Tuesday at Parliament Square, outside the Welsh parliament in Cardiff, and in the centre of Manchester.

As usual, those involved will presumably be portrayed as eccentric and dangerous merchants of despair. But whatever the sense of millenarian doom that sometimes hangs over its actions, plenty of the people at the heart of the movement are admirably practical, and focused on overcoming the daunting political challenges that climate change still presents. And in among the protests, there will be an example of what this means in practice: the climate and ecological emergency bill, partly conceived by people with close links to XR, and due to be formally launched on Wednesday.

Species decline is being reversed in UK forests, highlands and rivers. But rewilding should start in our houses and gardens

This summer beavers have been granted “permanent right to remain” in their river home in east Devon, the first legalised reintroduction of an extinct British mammal. White storks reintroduced on the Knepp estate in West Sussex as part of another rewilding initiative have raised chicks and taken to the skies. Meanwhile, a major grant will bring European bison to woodland in Kent.

All this is exciting news for rewilding. But if we stand any chance of saving nature, maybe we also need to reverse species decline on our own doorsteps as much as we do in the countryside. Charity begins at home, they say. And perhaps rewilding does too. Ecocide isn’t just being committed in the countryside but also in our own homes, the result of our irrational hostility towards nature in domestic spaces.

Researchers to tell UN that loss of biodiversity enables rapid spread of new diseases from animals to humans

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Scientists are to warn world leaders that increasing numbers of deadly new pandemics will afflict the planet if levels of deforestation and biodiversity loss continue at their current catastrophic rates.

A UN summit on biodiversity, scheduled to be held in New York next month, will be told by conservationists and biologists there is now clear evidence of a strong link between environmental destruction and the increased emergence of deadly new diseases such as Covid-19.

As sunny weather brings snakes out of hibernation, Melbourne snake-catcher warns, ‘If you see a snake, don’t go near it’

While the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the national economy and plunged many into unemployment, there’s one little industry expecting to boom – snake catching.

Melbourne’s Raymond Hoser has been catching snakes professionally since the 1970s and says he’s about to be busier than ever.

Climate protests including ‘funeral march’ due to take place across UK, with focus on airports

Climate demonstrations are due to take place across the UK this weekend, as the environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion launches its latest “uprising”.

This weekend’s events will include a “funeral march” in Lewes, East Sussex, to “mark the death and destruction wrought by humans on our natural world”. The march, described as a Procession for the Planet, will include mourners dressed in black and a jazz band.

Coalition accused of ‘breach of faith’ as it seeks to introduce almost exact replica of failed Abbott government legislation

Conservation groups will launch an advertising campaign aimed at building support for stronger national environment laws in response to what they say is a “breach of faith” by the Morrison government.

Groups including Birdlife Australia, WWF and the Australian Conservation Foundation will begin a “Before it’s gone” campaign on Sunday with radio, print, TV and billboard advertisements featuring high-profile species including the koala and greater glider.

The pick of the world’s best flora and fauna photos, including red wasps and giant redwoods

XR plans protests next week as activists call on MPs to back a climate emergency bill

Extinction Rebellion plann to block streets in London, Manchester and Cardiff next week as they call on MPs to back a climate emergency bill and hold a national citizens’ assembly on the crisis.

On Tuesday, five XR groups will block roads leading to parliament as they descend on Westminster to demand MPs back what they call the climate and ecological emergency bill, which they say would speed up the UK’s progress on reducing its carbon emissions.

We don’t want them in our parks and nice places because they behave like the wild animals they are

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Exclusive: Queensland supreme court says company engaged in ‘unconscionable conduct’

Adani has quietly begun planning to rebrand its Abbot Point coal terminal – removing all reference to Adani in its company name and branding – as financiers continue to abandon the business and a Queensland court orders it to pay $106.8m in damages.

The Queensland supreme court this week ordered Adani to pay four terminal users damages for “unconscionable conduct” in a judgement that was scathing of Adani’s actions to advantage its own financial interests over other coal companies.