The Guardian

World body urges Conservative government to ‘step up and show leadership’ on the air pollution crisis

The UK government is putting the health of millions of its citizens at risk by failing to tackle the country’s air pollution crisis, according the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and the environment.

David Boyd said people’s right to breathe clean air was being violated in the UK and warned the crisis was responsible for up to 50,000 deaths – and devastating the lives of “many millions” more in towns and cities across the country.

A 1,000-metre spider web and a hellbender devouring a snake are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

Close passing and dooring are serious concerns but there is more to be done to make our streets safer and cleaner, from funding boosts to road planning

The announcement of a Highway Code review for walking and cycling is a forward step for active travel and road safety. It may not be the millions of pounds of investment needed, but it’s a start.

The Department for Transport (DfT) review will cover issues such as how to safely overtake cyclists, guidance on preventing car-dooring of cyclists, and giving pedestrians and cyclists the right of way at side roads.

Invisible women | Energy efficiency | Car-free holidays | Flu jab | Welsh drama

Re your article (The invisible women, G2, 17 October), as an ex-architect turned design and technology teacher (childcare issues), I contacted the publishers of our A-level textbook to explain that Ray Eames was not the brother of Charles but his wife. Of course, when the next edition was published the same misconception was repeated.
Pat Makinson
Ramsgate, Kent

• Jo Steranka states: “Get rid of your dishwasher – it wastes energy and water” (Letters, 18 October). In fact, a dishwasher uses much less energy and water (as little as one-sixth, with modern machines) than washing by hand. The belief that anything that makes life easier must be worse for the environment is built on unfortunate moralistic foundations.
Colin Ferguson
London

Uncontrolled imports spark ‘garbage dump of the world’ fears in Turkey and raise fears over how much is ending up in landfill

Itinerant garbage pickers run down the hilly streets of Istanbul, their trolleys packed with plastic and other waste.

Their haul is a boon for the recycling industry in Turkey. “We collect 80% of the waste from the streets,” said Recep Karaman, head of the street waste collectors association.

Exclusive: Watchdog examining claims plastic waste is not being recycled but left to leak into rivers and oceans

The plastics recycling industry is facing an investigation into suspected widespread abuse and fraud within the export system amid warnings the world is about to close the door on UK packaging waste, the Guardian has learned.

The Environment Agency (EA) has set up a team of investigators, including three retired police officers, in an attempt to deal with complaints that organised criminals and firms are abusing the system.

Trio of activists freed from prison after appeal get hero’s welcome at site of anti-fracking protest

On Thursday morning, the day after being released from prison, three environmental activists who became the first people to be jailed for an anti-fracking protest in the UK returned to the Preston New Road fracking site near Blackpool.

Related: I’m out of jail after my fracking protest. But justice has not been done | Simon Roscoe Blevins

Burtynsky’s unsettling large-scale images of industrial-scale extraction, urbanisation and deforestation reveal humanity’s devastating impact on the planet

• The exhibition will run at Flowers Gallery London from 17 Oct - 24 Nov
  

An Italian NGO has published footage taken on intensive fish farms that appears to reveal troubling practices in an industry that so far has largely gone unregulated.

Shocking footage of intensively farmed fish has emerged in Italy which raises questions about working practices on aquaculture farms for supermarket produce, and which has sparked fresh calls for regulation.

Unlike mammals, fish have almost no legal protections in the EU and the images, secretly filmed in 2017 and 2018, represent the first investigation into Europe’s “factory farms” for fish.

Energy minister Claire Perry, who has defended fracking, admits she has ‘not yet had the opportunity’ to visit any site

The minister spearheading the UK’s renewed push for fracking has admitted she has never been to a shale gas well.

In the week that fracking restarted in the UK for the first time in seven years, the energy minister, Claire Perry, revealed to a fellow Conservative MP that she had not yet had the chance to visit a shale site.

‘Potato Plastic’ and a river-cleaning robot are among 20 contenders for this year’s prestigious global prize

Cutlery made from potato peelings and a robotic cleaner that can tackle pollution in rivers, lakes and canals are among the groundbreaking international designs shortlisted for the prestigious annual James Dyson award.

Over half the world’s population currently live in cities, according to the United Nations – a proportion expected to rise to seven in 10 people by 2050 – and the projects share a common theme of aiming to redefine urban living through technology to create a more sustainable future.

Nellie’s Tree - entwined by her husband to form her initial – is among the four winners of this year’s Woodland Trust prize

Lovers in Paris have caused havoc and serious damage in recent years by commemorating their relationships with padlocks attached to the city’s famous Pont Neuf bridge.

But those seeking a more lasting – and environmentally friendly – symbol might instead consider planting a tree. It worked for a romantic young man from Leeds a century ago, whose tree has just been voted the UK’s favourite.

The EPA isn’t rescinding the standard as of yet but has finished deciding to reconsider the analysis for the Obama-era rule

The US Environmental Protection Agency next month will unveil plans to start weakening the economic justification for a rule limiting toxic mercury pollution from coal plants.

The EPA isn’t rescinding the standard as of yet but has finished deciding to reconsider the underlying analysis for the 2011 rule, according to the government’s newly published agenda.

Three protesters jailed for blocking access to a fracking site walked free on Wednesday after the court of appeal quashed their sentences, calling them manifestly excessive. Simon Blevins, 26, Richard Roberts, 36, and Rich Loizou, 31, were greeted by cheering supporters after judges ruled that they should be freed immediately

• Fracking protesters walk free after court quashes 'excessive' sentences

Court of appeal gives Simon Blevins, 26, Richard Roberts, 36, Rich Loizou, 31, conditional discharge

Three protesters jailed for blocking access to a fracking site have had their sentences quashed by the court of appeal, which called them “manifestly excessive”.

Related: I was arrested for direct action against fracking. This is too important to stand aside | Esme North

Reserve to cover 1.8m km will protect penguins, leopard seals, orca and blue whales

The UK government has thrown its weight behind the creation of the world’s biggest environmental sanctuary, covering a huge swathe of the Antarctic ocean.

The massive 1.8m sq km reserve – five times the size of Germany – would ban all fishing in a vast area of the Weddell Sea and parts of the Antarctic peninsula, safeguarding species including penguins, killer whales, leopard seals and blue whales.

Few companies specialize in carbon removal and the tools they produce are currently still expensive

Peter Fiekowsky, a physicist and entrepreneur, hates silver bullets.

But at a climate summit in California last month he found himself pitching one. In partnership with the company Blue Planet, he was demonstrating a low-tech-looking machine that can pull carbon dioxide from the air and store it in construction materials.

Journalists grilled GOP politicians on climate change. It didn’t go well

Major climate science reports usually pass by largely unnoticed, but in the wake of the latest IPCC report a number of journalists laudably grilled Republican lawmakers about its findings. While their responses were predictably terrible, it’s nevertheless crucial for journalists to hold GOP politicians accountable for their climate denial and policy inaction. Donald Trump’s answers were particularly ignorant and nonsensical in his 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl.

Hundreds gather outside high court in London as jailed trio challenge sentences

Several hundred supporters of the three protesters jailed for blocking access to the Preston New Road fracking site have gathered outside the high court in London before their appeal against their sentences.

Simon Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were jailed for 16 months, and Rich Loizou, 31, was jailed for 15 months, after a four-week trial last month led to their convictions for causing a public nuisance.

Oil-rich kingdom says money is needed to protect against water scarcity but request sparks strong criticism and fears over the fitness of the public fund

Bahrain – one of the world’s most oil-rich nations – has applied to the international Green Climate Fund for $9.8m for its National Oil and Gas Authority, raising questions over whether taxpayer-funded assistance for poor countries is reaching its intended targets.

The kingdom has requested the funding to clean up wastewater from the oil and gas industry, which it says is necessary to protect against water scarcity in future – a problem that is likely to grow worse around the world as a consequence of climate change.