The Guardian

Canterbury Museum says find overturns presumption pelagornithids evolved in northern hemisphere

The discovery of a toothed seabird fossil north of Christchurch is forcing scientists to rethink theories of the bird’s evolution.

A fossil of a protodontopteryx, believed to have lived 62 million years ago, was found at the Waipara Greensand site on New Zealand’s South Island last year.

National maritime charity, the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society, has revealed the eagerly awaited results of its seventh annual photography competition, showcasing images relating to all aspects of the UK’s historic relationship with the sea.

Having reviewed more than 800 fantastic entries, the judges decided to award Laurence Hartwell the prize for overall winner for 2019, with his entry ‘Landing Mackerel’

Fisheries department will no longer be able to use nets and drumlines to control sharks

The Queensland government has lost its battle for the right to use nets and drumlines to catch and kill sharks in a bid to protect swimmers on the Great Barrier Reef.

The state government appeal to maintain its controversial management program was dismissed on Wednesday in the federal court in Sydney.

BP, Shell and Chevron representatives will be at event on sidelines of UN climate summit

Oil and gas executives are holding an exclusive invitation-only forum with environmentalists and government representatives on the sidelines of the UN climate summit, in what critics have condemned as an attempt to influence negotiations in favour of fossil fuel companies.

Senior executives from leading oil companies including BP, Shell and Chevron will be at the event in New York on 22 September, which they describe as a “closed high-level discussion” with key stakeholders.

One million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, yet governments are failing to stem the tide

The number of mammals, insects, amphibians, fish and birds is in steep decline, the world’s forests are on fire and the abundance of life is diminishing at rates unprecedented in human history. The TV screens are full of images of gorgeous wildlife but one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction and governments appear paralysed.

Faced with stark and mounting evidence of nature’s precipitous decline, leading natural and social science researchers, philosophers, anthropologists and conservationists have come together to ask why conservation is failing, and to call for an urgent re-think of how the natural world should be protected.

Greenland’s ice melt has been adopted by the world as a bellwether for climate crisis, but the impact on biodiversity has been overlooked. At an ice station on a remote Arctic glacier, scientists are looking to the smallest of life forms to predict the pace of species extinction

Behind the remote research huts of Sermilik ice station, a vast sheet of ice stretches north for 1,480 miles, spanning an area three times the size of France.

It is holding 10% of the world’s freshwater, water that has been frozen solid for millions of years. It’s glacier calving season in the south-eastern reaches of Greenland, and the adjacent channel is full of the thunderous roars and cracks of a flotilla of icebergs breaking apart.

Photographers hoping to get a shot of Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg had to contend with a young boy who attempted to shield the often shy teenager from the media. The spontaneous act elicited a smile from Thunberg. Thunberg was attending an event on Capitol Hill and had opted not to speak at the event, choosing instead to listen as other teens spoke about their own environmental concerns. Thunberg attended a Senate climate crisis task force on Tuesday, and told lawmakers: 'Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.' 

The broadcasters – often among the most trusted voices in their communities – are connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate science, and shifting public opinion

Local TV weather forecasters have become foot soldiers in the war against climate misinformation. Over the past decade, a growing number of meteorologists and weathercasters have begun addressing the climate crisis either as part of their weather forecasts, or in separate, independent news reports to help their viewers understand what is happening and why it is important.

And the reports are having an impact.

Environmentalists are concerned gas extraction near the Carmichael site will compound the impacts of coalmining on the Galilee Basin

A Queensland gas company plans to begin fracking at two exploratory wells close to the Adani Carmichael mine site later this year, and hopes production can begin “early” to service nearby mining projects.

Gas explorers appear to have increased the pace of their planning and activities in the Galilee Basin during the past year as the Carmichael mine has passed key milestones – in contrast to companies behind other thermal coal proposals.

The Swedish environmentalist was one of several who spoke at a Senate climate crisis task force

At a meeting of the Senate climate crisis task force on Tuesday, lawmakers praised a group of young activists for their leadership, their gumption and their display of wisdom far beyond their years. They then asked the teens for advice on how Congress might combat one of the most urgent and politically contentious threats confronting world leaders: climate change.

Related: UN hosts drive to suck back carbon and reverse climate change

Brazilian meat company which has supplied McDonald’s and Burger King bought cattle from farm using deforested land earlier this year, investigation shows

The world’s biggest supplier of burgers sourced meat from a farmer in the Amazon who had been found guilty of using deforested land, say reports, even as new figures reveal the beef industry’s deforestation risks.

Marfrig, a Brazilian meat company that has supplied McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food chains around the world, bought cattle from a farm that had been using deforested land earlier this year, according to a joint investigation by Repórter Brasil and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Research finds black carbon breathed by mothers can cross into unborn children

Air pollution particles have been found on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon produced by motor traffic and fuel burning.

The research is the first study to show the placental barrier can be penetrated by particles breathed in by the mother. It found thousands of the tiny particles per cubic millimetre of tissue in every placenta analysed.

UK government says it expects disease to arrive within a year as China ditches pork tariffs

South Korea is the latest country to confirm an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), as the UK government has said it expects the disease to arrive within a year.

In the midst of what has been described as the “largest ever animal disease outbreak”, China announced this week that it was ditching its pork tariffs. China, the largest pork consuming and producing country in the world, has been hit particularly hard by ASF, a disease that is fatal for pigs and extremely contagious.

Asset management companies BlackRock Inc and Vanguard have failed to live up to pledge to support climate action at energy firms

Some of Wall Street’s largest asset management companies are failing to live up to commitments to use their voting power to fight the climate crisis, according to a new report.

The report, published on Tuesday by the Washington DC-based Majority Action and the Climate Majority Project, claims that BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $6tn under management, and Vanguard, with assets of $5.2tn, have voted overwhelmingly against the key climate resolutions at energy companies, including a resolution at ExxonMobil’s annual shareholder meeting, and at Duke Energy.

Animal is paraded through town before being chopped up as part of cookery event

Conservationists have criticised an event during a seafood festival in which a shark was paraded through a British port city before being chopped up, cooked and served to onlookers.

The blue shark, a near-threatened species, was hoisted in the air by two men and carried through Plymouth, Devon, before being deposited on a stage where it formed part of a cookery demonstration.

Greens and conservationists warn it will be used by the Liberal National party to attack state Labor environment rules

The Senate has approved a Liberal-backed inquiry into whether farming and poor water quality harm the Great Barrier Reef, interpreted as a bid to debate the claims of the controversial scientist Peter Ridd and discredit Queensland laws to protect the reef.

The Greens and marine conservationists have warned the inquiry – due to report in October 2020 – will be used by the Queensland Liberal National party to attack the state Labor government, which is seeking land management changes and will be up for re-election in the same month.

New website asks Australians to record sightings of insect that is main food source of the mountain pygmy possum

Every spring, 4.4 billion bogong moths migrate up to 1,000km to the alpine regions of Victoria and New South Wales ahead of the summer heat.

But for the past two years, the number of moths that have made the journey to those areas from breeding grounds in Queensland, NSW and western Victoria has crashed to almost undetectable levels and scientists are turning to the community for help.

Committee calls for ministers to spell out how supplies can be protected from climate crisis

About a fifth of the fresh food the UK imports comes from areas threatened with climate chaos, putting people’s health and diets at risk, MPs have found.

The environmental audit committee called on ministers to set out a clear plan for how the UK’s food supplies could be protected from the climate emergency and to publish information on how food may be affected by Brexit.

'Even though it is slow, the pace is picking up and the debate is shifting,' 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg tells a rapturous audience at George Washington University. Thunberg pioneered the Fridays for Future school climate strikes in August last year by staging a solo protest outside the Swedish parliament. The movement has since grown around the world. The next mass protest is on 20 September. 'Activism works', she says, before concluding: 'See you on the street!'

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17 September 1957: As well as commercial poachers, the crofter who wants ‘one for the pot’ is just as likely to be the victim

“Wha’ll gang a poachin’ tae Kergord wi’ me?” is the challenging refrain of a comic song, sung to the tune of Waltzing Matilda, popular at village hall concerts in Shetland. Hear an audience of young Shetlanders taking up this refrain and you may assume that they are no less willing than their forebears to encroach on a laird’s preserves. But times have changed and, like the Cornish pastime of shipwrecking, the Shetland sport of netting the burns joins the list of anti-social nocturnal activities.

Related: Eerie silence falls on Shetland cliffs that once echoed to seabirds’ cries