Environment

Indonesia is sending dozens of containers of waste back to Western nations after finding it was contaminated with used nappies, plastic and other materials, adding to a growing backlash in Southeast Asia against being a dumping ground for the developed world’s rubbish. The country’s directorate general of customs said Tuesday that 49 containers in Batam port near Singapore will be returned to Australia, the US, France, Germany and Hong Kong. Indonesian custom officers show off the front of a foreign...

Nine deer at a famed park in western Japan have died recently after swallowing plastic bags. Nara Park has more than 1,000 deer and tourists can feed them special sugar-free crackers sold in shops nearby. The crackers do not come in plastic bags but people still carry them. A veterinarian said the deer may associate the plastic with food. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation said nine of the 14 deer that have died since March had plastic in their stomachs....

"With only one exception, none of the companies are performing at the level we wish to see, the country expects and the environment needs," said the Environment Agency.

The Government has a “ramshackle, Dad’s Army” approach to making sure England can cope with the impacts of rising temperatures, its climate advisers warn. And UK action to slash the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change is lagging far behind what is needed, even before the Government set a tougher new target to cut pollution to zero overall by 2050. In its annual progress report to Parliament, the advisory Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said the Government had to show...

Experts have warned a “childhood crisis” is on the way as youngsters face unparalleled social pressures amid Government cuts to children’s services. A survey of 5,000 youngsters and adults carried out by leading charity Action for Children and YouGov found that two thirds of parents and grandparents felt childhoods were getting worse, and a third of children agreed. All said bullying – online and offline – was the main problem, followed by pressure to fit in, which has intensified in...

The Queen insisted she was up to a key part of her duties as she took hold of a shovel to plant a tree herself. The 93-year-old, when asked whether she would perform the task on her own, said: “No, no, I’m still perfectly capable of planting a tree.” She made the remarks while on a visit to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) near Cambridge to celebrate its centenary. The Queen said she was still capable of tree...

A failure to tackle climate change will bring great “social unrest” and increased pressure from immigration, Sir David Attenborough has warned. The TV naturalist told MPs that dealing with environmental problems will cost money and will require changes to people’s lifestyles, such as in their diet and with regards to air travel, where the cost of flights will have to go up. But there are “huge opportunities” for making profits and benefiting from new innovations, he said. The veteran broadcaster...

Firefighter Mitch Stafford, 34, spotted the animal in a nest with three other hedgehogs and posted the image online

The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is heading towards an "instability" which once crossed means it could all float out into the sea within 150 years, according to the study