The Guardian

Vets say plastic caused orphan mammal’s infection and should serve as warning about pollution

An orphaned dugong named Marium, who became an internet star after being rescued in Thailand in April, has died.

Veterinarians caring for the dugong off the island of Koh Libong, in south Thailand’s Trang province, said an infection caused by ingesting plastic contributed to her death. They added that the loss of the animal, named “the nation’s sweetheart” by Thailand’s department of marine and coastal resources (DMCR), should serve as a warning about the effects of plastic waste on wildlife.

Things are not under control when it comes to Australia meeting our Paris target, even if Scott Morrison wants us to believe that

We’ll get to climate, and the rumble in the Pacific, but I want to begin closer to home. It’s been a busy news week, so you might have missed an excellent story from my colleague Adam Morton on Tuesday revealing that a coalmine in Queensland has nearly doubled its greenhouse gas emissions in two years without penalty under a Morrison government mechanism that is supposed to impose limits on industrial pollution.

According to documents released under freedom of information laws, mining company Anglo American was given the green light under the safeguards mechanism to increase its emissions by about 1m tonnes at its Moranbah North mine, in central Queensland. The case study matters, because it helps us separate spin from substance.

Activists vow to keep on after council votes to authorise only one day’s school absence

Young activists have vowed to keep protesting in Edinburgh despite the city council saying it will only authorise pupils to miss school once a year to attend climate strikes.

Pupils have been attending protests on Fridays outside the Scottish parliament on an ad hoc basis after the council granted permission in March.

London’s Smithfield Market part of next wave of Extinction Rebellion climate protests

Thousands of animal rights and environment activists are planning to blockade Smithfield Market – the largest wholesale meat market in the UK – in the next wave of Extinction Rebellion climate protests.

A new group calling itself Animal Rebellion says it has almost 2,000 volunteers signed up to take part in a two-week blockade of the central London market from 7 October.

Endangered bonobo, migrating storks and one of the world’s biggest raptors

High up in the French Alps, the climbers who spend their days on the rocks and glaciers have come to a grim conclusion: the mountains are crumbling around them

As UK rents rise and online retailers eat into their margins, shops struggle to survive

In the early 1930s a young William Laker would cycle the 50-odd miles from his home in Kent to Crystal Palace in south London to visit the woman who would, half a century later, become my grandmother.

There is every chance Grandpa would have popped into the small bike shop at 3&5 Central Hill in Crystal Palace. That very shop remained open for about 97 years, serving generations of cyclists, but in July the current custodian of what is now called Blue Door Bicycles, David Hibbs, announced it is to close its door for good.

Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison came under fire from Tuvalu’s leader Enele Sopoaga

Critical talks at the Pacific Islands Forum almost collapsed twice amid “fierce” clashes between the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Tuvalu’s prime minister, Enele Sopoaga, over Australia’s “red lines” on climate change.

Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s foreign minister, who was part of the drafting committee of the forum communique and observed the leaders’ retreat, said there was heated discussion over the Australian delegation’s insistence on the removal of references to coal, setting a target of limiting global warming to below 1.5C and announcing a strategy for zero emissions by 2050.

The poison-filled traps are used by the federal government to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals for farmers and ranchers

After sustained public outcry, the Trump administration has voided its decision to reauthorize controversial cyanide traps for killing wildlife.

The traps, which are known as M-44s and dubbed “cyanide bombs” by critics, are spring-loaded devices that emit a spray of sodium cyanide to kill their targets. The traps are most frequently used by Wildlife Services, a little-known federal agency inside the United States Department of Agriculture, to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals at the behest of private agriculture operators.

Environment groups fear possibly ‘weakened’ earthquake risk rules after report on Cuadrilla drilling

Environmental groups have voiced fears that the government is preparing to row back on fracking regulations after officials said they were considering reviewing earthquake safeguard rules.

The limits affecting shale gas fracking are strongly contested by the industry because they bring an immediate halt to fracking if even a minor tremor of 0.5 on the Richter scale is recorded.

A video showing a cannon shooting fish over a dam went viral – but how does it work? CEO and inventor of cannon has answers

Earlier this week, a video shot through the Twitter feed fray with the velocity of a fish hurtling through a pneumatic tube.

The short video (set to house music, strangely) is a compilation of clips showing variations of the fish-shooting technology that Washington-based company Whooshh first developed five years ago. Not only has the video given the internet an ideal subject of absurdist fascination to dethrone last week’s 30-50 feral hogs, it’s also raised a lot of questions, like, “Wait, what?”, and “How does the fish feel about this?” and, “Can they potentially do this with humans?” (I can’t be the only person who was wondering this.)

The Australian designers and environmental activists Alex Wadelton and Tom Whitty have recreated scenes from The Lion King using Woolworths plastic ooshies figures set in landfill plastic trash settings. Their Future Landfill project is a protest against the major Australian supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths, which they say are ‘running reckless promotions that encourage the mass production of tiny plastic toys with a short-term mindset’. ⁣

Woolworths shoppers are being given Lion King plastic figures if they spend over $20 in store. Environmentalists worry the majority of these plastic toys will spend most of their time on this planet buried in the earth.

Woolworths says its Lion King ooshies can be recycled in store, but in the fine print the recycling scheme lasts for about two months after the promotion ends. Coles, however, only gives an option to recycle the packaging of its Little Shop plastic figures.

• Why did two farmers destroy a rare ooshie live on the Today show?

Theory linking seismic activity and appearance of rare oarfish fails to hold water

People in Japan hoping to predict the next big earthquake should ignore mysterious deep-sea fish after experts said rare sightings of the creatures on the country’s beaches did not, as some had believed, foretell a seismic calamity.

University researchers said they had debunked the theory of oarfish as a harbinger of doom by comparing sightings of deep-sea fish, including those caught in fishermen’s nets, with earthquake records going back more than 90 years.

Discovery of pollution in snowfall from the Arctic to the Alps leads to call for urgent research on potential human health impacts

Abundant levels of microplastic pollution have been found in snow from the Arctic to the Alps, according to a study that has prompted scientists to warn of significant contamination of the atmosphere and demand urgent research into the potential health impacts on people.

Snow captures particles from the air as it falls and samples from ice floes on the ocean between Greenland and Svalbard contained an average of 1,760 microplastic particles per litre, the research found. Even more – 24,600 per litre on average – were found at European locations. The work shows transport by winds is a key factor in microplastics contamination across the globe.

Climate activist begins voyage from Plymouth to Trump’s US with father and two-man crew

On white-crested swells under leaden skies, the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has set sail from Plymouth on arguably her most daunting challenge yet.

A two-week crossing of the Atlantic during hurricane season in a solar-powered yacht is the first obstacle, but it is unlikely to be the toughest in an odyssey through the Americas over many months.

Bristol Museum to highlight biodiversity crisis after children demand true stories of exhibits

One of Britain’s largest natural history collections is to shroud its exhibits of extinct and endangered species in black mourning veils to highlight the global biodiversity crisis.

Related: Trump officials weaken protections for animals near extinction

Researchers say boom in shale oil and gas major contributor to climate emergency

The boom in the US shale gas and oil may have ignited a significant global spike in methane emissions blamed for accelerating the pace of the climate crisis, according to research.

Scientists at Cornell University have found the “chemical fingerprints” of the rising global methane levels point to shale oil and shale gas as the probable source.

As England’s pheasant egg imports double in three years, campaigners condemn lack of laws regulating rearing and breeding for shooting industry

Pheasants whose chicks are destined to be shot in the UK are having their septums pierced in order to attach plastic masks to their beaks, according to an undercover film released by activists this week. The method of restraint is illegal in the UK.

The video, shot on a farm in Poland, also appears to show the birds being fitted with “breeding aids” and confined in small boxes to repetitively mate. The farm exports ready-to-hatch eggs to the UK for eventual shooting. Animal rights campaigners renewed calls for an end to the “factory farming” of game birds.

Fish stocks are stable and reef health improving, in part thanks to Belize’s substantial ‘no-take’ zones. Now greater legislation is needed to secure progress

Across the turquoise water by the mangrove, forest ranger Allan Halliday spots a fishing skiff. “We’re going over to say hello,” he says, before abruptly changing the boat’s direction. But his real task is to check the couple on board have the licence to fish in this part of the Port Honduras Marine Reserve, one of nine designated zones in Belize.

“We aren’t complaining but others do,” says Alonzo Reymundo, of the rules that now restrict Belize’s 3,000 commercial fishers to two geographic areas each. He and his wife Anselma have been fishing off southern Toledo for 30 years and their boat is laden with 50 or so pounds of shrimp – more than enough, he says, flashing his licence. Today’s catch will be sold as bait and fetch around 330BZ$ (£135), he says.

New government analysis on electric vehicles suggests Labor’s election policy was not out of step with path country is already on

Half the new cars sold in Australia in 2035 will be electric vehicles even if there is no policy support to drive change, a new government analysis forecasts.

It will reinforce the expert view that Labor’s election pledge to set a target of 50% new car sales being electric by 2030 would not have been that significant a shift from a path the country is already on.