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Constitutional expert says Tory leader’s break from political consensus over target for greenhouse gasses will require monarch to choose his words carefully
King Charles will have to temper his public support for net zero after Kemi Badenoch broke the political consensus over the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Senior royal sources have conceded that the 76-year-old monarch, who has spent more than half a century highlighting environmental challenges, will have to choose his words more carefully now that the Conservatives under Badenoch have said it will be impossible for the UK to hit net zero by 2050.
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Many of the suburbs and cities hit hardest in recent years were caught off-guard, and key stakeholders are racing to understand the dynamics that drive these fires
Communities across the US that were once considered beyond the reach of wildfires are now vulnerable to disaster. As fires increasingly spread deep into neighborhoods, researchers estimate roughly 115 million people – more than a third of the US population – live in areas that could host the next fire catastrophe.
The understanding that many more Americans are at risk of losing their homes to wildfires comes as the climate crisis turns up the dial on extreme weather, drought and heat. But it’s also the result of new research that has exposed deep and dangerous gaps in our understanding of the threat.
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Anglers who campaigned for protected area off Oban and Mull are providing key data on critically endangered species
Sea anglers will tell you that catching and landing a large flapper skate is the equivalent of running a four-minute mile. The fish can weigh 100kg and stretch the length of a dinner table.
The first thing anglers will reach for when they land one is their camera or mobile phone, to capture the unique pattern of white spots ranged across each skate’s mottled brown back.
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‘Groundbreaking’ tool aims to help tree-planting efforts and identify areas to create nature-rich habitats
England’s non-woodland trees have been mapped for the first time, using cutting-edge methods of laser detection and satellite imagery.
Tree scientists at the UK’s Forest Research agency have built a comprehensive picture of trees in urban and rural areas in a “groundbreaking” map that goes live on Saturday.
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After three years, thousands of arrests and a state crackdown on protests, the group is ending direct action after a polarising campaign
On the morning of Valentine’s Day 2022, Hannah Hunt stood at the gates of Downing Street to announce the start of a new kind of climate campaign, one that would eschew mere protest and instead move into “civil resistance”.
Last week, three years and thousands of arrests later, in a neat tie-up exemplary of Just Stop Oil’s (JSO) love of media-savvy stunts, Hunt went to the same spot again – this time to announce the group would be “hanging up the hi-vis”.
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Government also considering blocking more profitable farmers from a revised future scheme
Farmers fear they will no longer be able to afford to restore nature in England and reduce their carbon footprint after government funding for doing this was frozen.
The environment secretary, Steve Reed, recently announced that the sustainable farming incentive (SFI), which pays farmers for making space for nature on their land, would be paused and overhauled before June’s spending review. The scope of the scheme – and its budget – are being reassessed.
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Guardian Australia is highlighting the plight of our endangered native species during an election campaign that is ignoring broken environment laws and rapidly declining ecosystems
Less than a lifetime ago, great flocks of Carnaby’s cockatoos cast large shadows over Perth. Now, the long-term clearing of eucalypt forests and banksia woodlands, combined with southern Western Australia’s driest and hottest period on record, is pushing the species towards extinction. Scientists say little is being done to reverse the decline.
Peter Mawson, a research associate at Western Australia’s biodiversity department, is old enough to remember a time when the birds were a common sight. “Sometimes, I see people make comments on social media that they’ve seen a flock of 100 Carnaby’s cockatoos and they’re really chuffed at that, because normally you see them in 10s or 20s,” he said. “But when I was a small boy collecting firewood with my father not far from where I grew up it was not uncommon to see flocks of 3,000 to 5,000 birds fly overhead.
Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email
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Some of the country’s most loved native species, including the koala and the hairy-nosed wombat, are on the brink. Is this their last chance at survival?
Most parliamentarians might be surprised to learn it, but Australians care about nature. Late last year, the not-for-profit Biodiversity Council commissioned a survey of 3,500 Australians – three times the size of the oft-cited Newspoll and representative of the entire population – to gauge what they thought about the environment. The results tell a striking story at odds with the prevailing political and media debate.
A vast majority of people – 96% – said more action was needed to look after Australia’s natural environment. Nearly two-thirds were between moderately and extremely concerned about the loss of plants and animals around where they live.
Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as an email
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A wildlife crossing across the 101 freeway will connect two parts of the Santa Monica mountains for animals
Above the whirring of 300,000 cars each day on Los Angeles’s 101 freeway, an ambitious project is taking shape. The Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing is the largest wildlife bridge in the world at 210ft long and 174ft wide, and this week it’s had help taking shape: soil.
“This is the soul of the project,” says Beth Pratt, the regional executive director, California, at the National Wildlife Federation, who has worked on making the crossing become a reality over the last 13 years. She says she’s seen many milestones, like the 26m pounds of concrete poured to create the structure, but this one is special.
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The Guardian joins a pest controller on the city’s streets as residents fear a rise in rodents during bin workers’ strikes
“They’re not fussy,” said Martin Curry, describing the far from epicurean appetites of the scurrying rodents that the residents of Birmingham fear could flood the streets of their city.
“Rats all have their own personal tastes but if food is scarce they’ll eat anything,” he said. Curry, who has been called the “rat king” locally, runs MC Environmental Pest Control. He has been on the frontline of stamping out the rodent threat amid a weeks-long bin strike that has caused bins to pile up on Birmingham’s streets.
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