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global-development-professionals-network/2015/apr/10/rate-my-aid-and-other-ways-that-tripadvisor-could-revolutionise-development-work | 'Rate my aid' and other ways that TripAdvisor could revolutionise development work | I’ve been thinking about TripAdvisor recently, as a model of fast, crowdsourced feedback which highlights rubbish hotels and restaurants, and creates pressure for them to shape up. There’s plenty of rubbish performance in the aid and development sector, but our feedback loops are mainly limited to conversations in corridors and the occasional email. So what would be your top candidates for a developmental TripAdvisor? Let’s start with aid organisations themselves. My colleague James Whitehead asks: “Is there space for ‘Rate My Aid’? In a humanitarian crisis the affected populations are often over-surveyed yet have very little voice in the services they receive. Feedback from communities could be cross-referenced against data on previous donors to create a leaderboard of best UN agencies, best INGOs, best local NGOs, and worst… If I was a donor, I might look to the leaderboard before I looked to the project report – to what beneficiaries say about the service rather than what the service deliverer says about it.” Aid organisations could rate each other too. Imagine a system where grant recipients could feed back anonymously on the behaviour of their donors; do they listen to you? Make unfeasible reporting demands? And vice versa – did money go missing? How big were the over-runs? Which ones really delivered exciting programmes? Another topic could be the corporations who are looking for NGO/official aid agency partners – some of this is a genuine interest in development, some is PR spin. It would be great if you could just click on the feedback for any given company and find out who is serious, and which ones are just Uber/UN Women PR disasters in the making. But why stop at organisations? What about individuals? What about rude aid workers? When humanitarian agencies and their partners are filling in a gap in state provision, a government could easily insist that all aid workers wear a unique identifying number like police officers. Combined with clear crowdsourcing you could easily see which agencies treated people with dignity and which staff might need further training. The days of humanitarian agencies acting as unaccountable non-state actors could be numbered… Consultants: they charge the earth, often for substandard work. How do we find out in advance which ones are good, and which ones just endlessly cutting and pasting the conclusions from their last report? Journalists: they phone you up, suck your brains dry in search of new ideas for their next piece. Which of them actually write anything as a result, or credit you or your organisation when they do so? Peer reviewers for research proposals: half of them don’t deliver, or use the opportunity for cathartic venting about their hobby horses, rather than actually reviewing the proposal. Civil servants: which ones really listen and interact, which go through the motions? Campaigners and advocates: Do government or World Bank staff get to comment on how they feel about the work of different aid agency lobbyists? There might be some design issues, for example, there is likely to be a huge difference between feedback from targets and from peers – any way to differentiate? And everyone will try and game the system (“Sure I’ll take that meeting, but you have to give me a good review”). I wonder what TripAdviser does to avoid that? The dangers of blacklists: at the very least you would need an appeal procedure against unfair reviews. Would that make it unfeasibly expensive and bureaucratic? What do you think? Duncan Green writes Oxfam’s Poverty to Power blog where this was originally published. Follow @fp2p on Twitter. Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow @GuardianGDP on Twitter. | ['working-in-development/working-in-development', 'global-development/development-data', 'media/media', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/duncan-green'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-04-10T07:05:10Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2005/aug/27/oilandpetrol.news | Hurricane keeps oil price near high | The world's energy markets suffered a fresh bout of jitters yesterday as fears of damage to oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico from Hurricane Katrina kept the price of crude well above $67 a barrel. Amid fears that damage to rigs could send oil prices spiralling above $70 a barrel over the next few days, futures contracts for oil were close to the record levels of $68 reached on Thursday. A terrorist attack on a well in Iraq's northern Kirkuk oilfield added to concerns that supplies of oil might not be able to keep up with strong global demand, particularly from the United States and China. Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, said yesterday that the world's biggest economy had so far emerged relatively unscathed from oil prices more than doubling since 2003. In remarks to a gathering of central bankers, Mr Greenspan said the "flexibility of our market-driven economy has allowed us, thus far, to weather reasonably well the steep rise in spot and futures prices for crude oil and natural gas that we have experienced over the past two years". Evidence that higher motoring costs are starting to affect the US economy emerged yesterday with news of a sharp and unexpected drop in consumer confidence. The Michigan University index of sentiment dropped from 96.5 in July to 89.1 in August, prompting analysts to predict slower spending in the second half of the year. The economic data was published as oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico were braced for rough weather. Hurricane Katrina's projected course runs east of the heart of oil and gas production but at least five companies were battening down the hatches. The 11th-named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season forced at least four firms to evacuate workers from the Gulf of Mexico, the source of 25% of US oil and gas output. Tetsu Emori, the chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo, said: "The impact of Katrina is a bit limited now. But there will be more to come." Oil dealers also focused on Nigeria, an Opec producer where fuel price rises of 40% to 50% yesterday could lead to general strikes, as has happened previously. The blue-collar union NUPENG said on Thursday it would not halt oil sales from the world's eighth-biggest exporter if it joined any general strike called to protest against the price increase. | ['business/business', 'business/oil', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/larryelliott'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-08-26T23:05:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
food/2018/dec/29/homemade-sweet-vermouth-from-leftover-wine-waste-not | How to make your own vermouth from leftover wine | Waste Not | Whether you drink a little or a lot, you’ll likely have some leftover wine at some point, especially after the Christmas indulgences. An open bottle will keep and stay drinkable for three to five days, but if it gets any older, use it up in all manner of dishes, from bourguignon to bolognese. Alternatively, be more adventurous, save up your old wine until you’ve got 500ml, and make a bottle of your very own vermouth, a fortified wine full of aromatic botanicals. It’s delicious served neat over ice or made into my favourite New Year’s Eve cocktail, negroni (to make that, just pour a shot each of your very own vermouth, gin and Campari into a glass, and serve on ice with a slice of orange). Homemade sweet vermouth Vermouth is a complex and bittersweet fortified wine, full of aromatic botanicals. This recipe is quick and simple to make. Try adding or removing different herbs and spices, depending on what you have available, to make your own distinct recipe. Mugwort is a key ingredient for its bitter flavours and grows prolifically in the wild, but dandelion leaves (which are easy to identify) make a great replacement if you can’t forage any yourself. 500ml red or white wine 2 sprigs mugwort or 3 dandelion leaves 1 sprig wild fennel or ½ tsp fennel seeds 1 tsp camomile tea flowers 8 cardamom pods 3 cloves 1 star anise 1 shard cinnamon bark 1 bay leaf 1 slice orange peel 150g caster sugar 150ml cider brandy Pour 100ml wine into a small saucepan, and add the spices, herbs and orange peel. Bring to a boil, turn the heat right down down, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve or muslin, discard the bits and return the liquid to the pan. Next make a caramel. Warm a small saucepan over a medium heat, pour in the sugar and leave it untouched until it begins to melt around the edges. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the sugar crystals turn into a golden liquid, then continue cooking gently until the caramel turns a rich golden brown, similar in colour to pale ale. Take off the heat and leave to cool a little. Reheat the infused wine to just below boiling point, then pour carefully over the caramel, stirring until dissolved. Add the rest of the wine and cider brandy, and stir well. Leave to cool, then pour into a sterilised bottle, seal and store in the fridge for up to two months. Serve neat over ice or use to make your own cocktails. | ['food/series/waste-not', 'food/food', 'environment/food-waste', 'food/wine', 'environment/environment', 'tone/recipes', 'tone/features', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/tom-hunt', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/feast', 'theguardian/feast/feast', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/feast'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-12-29T06:00:14Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/2016/jan/27/circular-economy-healthcare-sector-business-waste-management-live-chat | How can the circular economy work in the healthcare sector? - live chat | Last year in England alone there were almost 10m operations, 22m visits to A&E and 16m hospital admissions. Due to changing demographics such as an ageing population, the pressure on healthcare systems will only intensify. The circular economy is the concept of keeping resources in use for as long as possible through their recovery and re-use. Proponents believe applying these principles to healthcare could help ease the pressure on the sector by saving money and serving patients better. Take medical equipment such as MRI and CT scanners. Marketplaces such as Warp It in the UK and Cohealo in the US provide marketplace platforms where hospitals can identify surplus equipment elsewhere. Refurbishing rather than replacing medical equipment is another important part of a circular economy. By extending the useful life of existing equipment rather than buying new, health systems can reduce procurement costs and waste. There are challenges. The transition towards a more circular economy can only happen with the concerted backing of businesses and policymakers. But a fragmented healthcare market where health goods providers compete on different deals and prices can make this kind of collaboration difficult. Join the live chat Join a panel of experts on Wednesday 3 February 1-2pm GMT in the comments section on this page to discuss the opportunities and challenges for a circular economy in healthcare. Who is putting circular economy ideas into practice in the healthcare industry and what can we learn from them? Is there a stigma associated with remanufactured hospital machinery? Some healthcare equipment is only used for a short amount of time. How can manufacturers move to a lease rather than ownership business model? How can technology facilitate a sharing economy within healthcare? What is the role of public sector procurement? Do we have to accept that there will always be some waste streams in healthcare that we won’t be able to eliminate completely? On the panel Seigo Robinson, senior consultant and circular economy lead at research and consultancy company Oakdene Hollins. Alexandra Hammond, associate director, sustainability, Essentia, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Néstor Coronado Palma, circular economy program director, Philips Healthcare. Daniel O’Connor, chief executive at Warp It, a re-use network where organisations can give away or loan office furniture, equipment and other resources. Brett Reed, chief executive officer, Cohealo, a technology company based in the US that helps health systems share medical equipment across facilities. Lieke van Kerkhoven, business development, FLOOW2 Healthcare, a sharing marketplace for healthcare organisations to share medical equipment, services and facilities. Leave a question now You can submit questions for the panel in advance using the form below or tweeting them to @GuardianSustBiz using #askGSB. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'business/healthcare', 'business/business', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/resource', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'profile/hannah-gould'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-01-27T16:54:43Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/jul/29/record-funding-for-flood-defences-in-england-as-climate-crisis-worsens-risks | Record funding for flood defences in England as climate crisis worsens risks | The government will spend a record £5.2bn on reducing flooding in England over the next six years, as the climate crisis increases the risk to homes and businesses. The Environment Agency will spend £860m next year to support more than 1,000 schemes, with significant funds for Yorkshire and the Humber and the north-west, regions that have been hit hard in recent years. Ministers also announced tighter guidance to deter the building of new homes in flood-prone areas and changes to a government-backed insurance scheme to allow flooded homeowners to be paid to better protect their homes. The government said 336,000 properties would be better protected by 2027, helping to avoid £32bn in damage to the economy and reducing the national flood risk by up to 11%. The EA said, however, that not all flooding would be prevented and that people should check their flood risk. The moves were broadly welcomed, but some experts said maintenance budgets for flood defences would also need to rise and that local authorities still needed more resources. Events such as the flash floods in London this week will get more common as a result of global heating because warmer air can hold more water. The UK Met Office has already observed an increase in intense downpours. Scientists said earlier in July that the catastrophic floods that struck Europe recently could become much more frequent because of global heating. The UK government has been repeatedly told in recent years that its preparations to protect people from increased extreme weather were failing. Parliament’s public accounts committee said in February that the government was not doing enough on flooding and that local authorities needed much more help, including more cash. Announcing the flood spending, the environment secretary, George Eustice, said: “The tragic recent events in Germany and Belgium serve as a sobering reminder of how devastating flooding can be. We are standing by communities and will bolster defences against flooding across England with many thousands more properties better protected by 2027.” Emma Howard Boyd, the EA’s chair, said: “No one can prevent all flooding and climate change means the risk is increasing, but we can reduce the risks. [However], no one should have a false sense of security. I strongly urge people to sign up for flood warnings and regularly check flood risk online.” Neil Parish MP, the chair of the Commons environment select committee, said: “The new investment plan is a welcome step toward greater flood resilience as we adjust our homes and our lives to cope with the changing climate. However [the investment in defences] must be matched by a long-term budget for maintenance.” He said local authorities also needed the resources to factor the impacts of the climate crisis into development decisions. Changes to Flood Re, the insurance scheme for homes at high risk of flooding, will allow insurers to help flooded households make their homes more resilient. This could include installing air brick covers, flood doors and flood-resistant plasterboard, and homeowners could then benefit from lower premiums. “The government is finally waking up and smelling the floodwater,” said Mary Dhonau, a flood resilience consultant. “Repairing flooded homes on a ‘like-for-like basis’ is money ill spent. Giving financial support to help those newly flooded to ‘build back better’ is a win for both the homeowner and the insurance industry.” Paul Cobbing, the chief executive of the National Flood Forum, a charity that supports people at risk of flooding, said the announcements were “a really positive message for communities” but added: “The detail will be important, including how this all considers the impacts of future climate change.” He said proposals to improve planning decisions in areas at risk of surface water flooding were of particular note. “Thousands of people currently suffer from development proposals that are inappropriate and we need to rapidly rectify the situation,” he said. A recent government review of residential property planning decisions found that while 97% were made in line with EA advice in 2019-20, 866 homes were granted permission contrary to it. New guidance will reaffirm that planning authorities must refer decisions to ministers when the EA objects to a proposal on flood risk grounds. “Flooding has a devastating impact on people’s lives and that’s why we’re strengthening our guidance,” said the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick. | ['environment/flooding', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/england', 'society/localgovernment', 'politics/planning', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-07-29T05:00:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/oct/08/worlds-oceans-facing-biggest-coral-die-off-in-history-scientists-warn | World's oceans facing biggest coral die-off in history, scientists warn | Scientists have confirmed the third-ever global bleaching of coral reefs is under way and warned it could see the biggest coral die-off in history. Since 2014, a massive underwater heatwave, driven by climate change, has caused corals to lose their brilliance and die in every ocean. By the end of this year 38% of the world’s reefs will have been affected. About 5% will have died forever. But with a very strong El Niño driving record global temperatures and a huge patch of hot water, known as “the Blob”, hanging obstinately in the north-western Pacific, things look far worse again for 2016. For coral scientists such as Dr Mark Eakin, the coordinator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Watch programme, this is the cataclysm that has been feared since the first global bleaching occurred in 1998 . “The fact that 2016’s bleaching will be added on top of the bleaching that has occurred since June 2014 makes me really worried about what the cumulative impact may be. It very well may be the worst period of coral bleaching we’ve seen,” he told the Guardian. The only two previous such global events were in 1998 and 2010, when every major ocean basin experienced bleaching. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, Australia, said the ocean was now primed for “the worst coral bleaching event in history”. “The development of conditions in the Pacific looks exactly like what happened in 1997. And of course following 1997 we had this extremely warm year, with damage occurring in 50 countries at least and 16% of corals dying by the end of it,” he said. “Many of us think this will exceed the damage that was done in 1998.” After widespread devastation was confirmed in the Caribbean this month, a worldwide consortium of coral scientists joined on Thursday to sombrely announce the third-ever global bleaching event – and warn of a tenuous future for the precious habitat unless sharp cuts were made to carbon emissions. Since the early 1980s the world has lost roughly a fifth of its coral reefs. Hoegh-Guldberg said the current event was directly in line with predictions he made in 1999 that continued global temperature rise would lead to the complete loss of coral reefs by the middle of this century. “It’s certainly on that road to a point about 2030 when every year is a bleaching year … So unfortunately I got it right,” he said. Hoegh-Guldberg said he had personally observed the first signs of bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in the past fortnight, months before the warm season begins. He said the warming pattern indicated bleaching this summer would likely affect 50% of the reef, leaving 5-10% of corals dead. Eakin said seeing bleaching on the reef at this time of year was “disturbing”. “We are going to have to double our efforts to reduce the other threats to the reef,” said Hoegh-Guldberg of the icon that Unesco has considered listing as World Heritage in Danger, due to the threats of a mooted coal port expansion, agricultural run-off and climate change. “It’s like a hospital patient. If you’ve got a chronic disease then you are more sensitive to a lot of other things and if you want a recovery then you need to take all those other stresses off.” The difference between this bleaching event and others before it is not just the extremity of sea temperatures, but how long they have persisted for. Corals can recover from bleaching if the temperature relents. But after a month or more the organisms that build these brilliantly coloured underwater cities die. “This is not only a big event, but it’s more persistent than any of our past ones, including 1998,” said Eakin. In many areas the bleaching has now lasted far longer than the threshold month and in Hawaii, Guam, Kiribati and Florida there has been back-to-back bleaching events across the past two years. Like rainforests on land, coral reefs are home to a riot of biodiversity. On just 0.1% of the ocean’s floor they nurture 25% of the world’s marine species. The impact of losing this would be devastating for the 500 million people who rely on coral ecosystems for their food and livelihood. These effects would not be felt immediately, but over the coming years as fish species move on or die off. “It really does affect things like tourism and fishing,” said Hoegh-Guldberg. However, he said there was still hope, if governments acted immediately to relieve both global and local pressures on reefs. “If we were to take strong action on the emission issue and we were to take strong action on the non-climate issues such as overfishing and pollution, reefs would rebound by mid to late century,” he said. Note: The article was changed to say that one fifth of the world’s reefs had been lost. The original said one half. | ['environment/coral', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'world/world', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karl-mathiesen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-10-08T06:04:24Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2015/aug/20/killer-whales-not-suitable-captivity-seaworld | My film Blackfish plunged Seaworld into crisis – but it’s not only killer whales we must protect | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | When I started work on Blackfish, I could not possibly have imagined the effect it would have on SeaWorld. Let’s be honest. Not a lot of people see documentaries. And not a lot of people want to see a movie that sucker punches a beloved cultural icon. But it seems as though the movie has indeed changed how many view the park. Over the past couple of years, SeaWorld’s visitor numbers have fallen, its stock has plummeted, lawsuits have confronted their business practices, legislation has challenged what goes on at Shamu Stadium, and reported profits were down 84% on the previous year. People ask me whether this is a win. I can only say that it was inevitable, and that I hope it’s only the beginning. Today’s kids are increasingly becoming part of the “I can’t believe we used to do that” generation. They know that killer whales are not suitable for captivity. Instead of acknowledging this, SeaWorld has decided to spend its way out of the crisis. With its glossy, protracted PR fight, it continues to claim it is battling an image problem. Yet I see no meaningful change. I guess this is what happens when a corporation operates essentially ungoverned for 45 years. But I know many of us still hold out hope that SeaWorld, in one final Hail Mary pass, will do something drastically progressive – like stopping their breeding programme. This would mean no more baby Shamus for SeaWorld. It would mean that the whales currently at SeaWorld would be the last it will ever have in captivity. After this, SeaWorld could almost singlehandedly pioneer a sea sanctuary where it could retire the remaining whales. Seaworld’s whales are unlikely to know how to hunt for their own food. They’re given antibiotics and might die if they’re not in human care. They can’t simply be tossed back into the ocean. But a killer whale sanctuary would provide these animals with a massive, cordoned off, ocean cove where they could live out their lives in a healthier and more dignified way. In a sea sanctuary they could echolocate on new and novel objects every day. They could experience the natural rhythms of the ocean. They would have more control over their lives and their choices. And this could be a profit-making endeavour for SeaWorld, with admission fees, a visitor centre, an underwater viewing area, etc. It’s hard to imagine people not showing up in droves to see these magnificent animals actually doing what they were meant to do. It’s infinitely more satisfying than seeing ailing, grieving, surface-resting animals performing tricks at a park. There are sanctuaries for many animals, such as chimpanzees, elephants and tigers. Placing them in a setting that approximates to their natural habitat as closely as possible is, in some ways, the best we humans can offer animals that can’t be returned to the wild. But so far, there is no killer whale sanctuary. Such a move by SeaWorld would not only be seminal, it would be culture-shaping. Without evolving alongside public opinion though, without showing a desire to shake up its antiquated business model, I can’t imagine SeaWorld bouncing back. It now risks becoming an artefact; an embarrassing relic from a less informed time. People have stopped going to SeaWorld not simply because of a movie but because, it seems, we’re recalibrating how we feel ethically about animal welfare. Faced with uncomfortable truths about animal welfare, we’re clarifying what it means to be humane. We see it in discussions about factory farming and dolphin hunts. We see it reflected in the outcry about the last white rhino and Cecil the lion. We feel a collective empathy, and I think we’re at our best and our most principled when we’re exercising that empathy. I hope this movement grows beyond the SeaWorld discussion. Maybe if we continue to consider how someone else is experiencing our footprint, we’ll walk more softly in general. And that’d be a win for the planet. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'travel/theme-parks', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'environment/whales', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/gabriela-cowperthwaite'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-08-20T08:25:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
film/2022/jul/26/lion-spy-review-undercover-expose-of-trophy-hunters-paying-to-kill-big-cats-in-africa | Lion Spy review – undercover exposé of trophy hunters paying to kill big cats in Africa | The courageous, covert work of Rogue Rubin behind the camera gives us a rare glimpse into the world of trophy hunting: rich folk – mostly men, mostly Americans and Europeans, some with Hemingway beards – paying to kill on safari. In a film subtitled “The Hunt for Justice”, Rubin, a liberal vegetarian from Melbourne, first creates fake social media accounts under a false name, reinventing herself as pro-hunting enthusiast and budding photographer Joni Kiser. Rubin then goes undercover as an intern with a big game hunter in Africa. There is a particularly horrible hunt in which Bob, an American on safari with his college-age daughter, kills a wild lion. Like all the hunters he uses a high-powered rifle – it’s a long way from a fair fight. What’s disturbing is the narrative Bob creates to justify the kill: in his head this lion is a “problem cat” and he’s the hero protecting local people. As Rubin sarkily asks: “Do they need the help of an American dad?” Bob poses for photographs with his kill, then it’s off to the taxidermist. In one or two places Rubin’s commentary is a bit overcooked and she makes one or two sweeping generalisations about Africa. But lions are classified as vulnerable to extinction, and half of Africa’s lions have disappeared since Disney released The Lion King in 1994. Trophy hunting isn’t the biggest threat; it ranks below loss of habitat due to human encroachment, the bushmeat trade and farmers killing lions to protect livestock. Rubin does explore the debate around trophy hunting, and not all conservationists oppose it. But really her film is an exposé of the minds and mentalities of trophy hunters, best summed up by a clip of talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel talking after a Minnesota dentist killed one of Zimbabwe’s most beloved lions in 2015. “Is it that difficult for you to get an erection that you need to kill things?” • Lion Spy is released on 1 August on digital platforms. | ['film/film', 'film/documentary', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/southafrica', 'environment/hunting', 'world/africa', 'culture/culture', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/cathclarke', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-07-26T10:00:46Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2014/jan/02/arctic-30-activist-colin-russell-due-to-land-in-tasmania | Arctic 30 activist Colin Russell due to land in Tasmania | The Australian Greenpeace activist held in a Russian prison for two months is due to land in his home state of Tasmania on Thursday night. Colin Russell was one of the so-called Arctic 30, who were arrested in September by armed Russian coastguards as they tried to board the Prirazlomnaya offshore oil rig in the Pechora Sea from the ship Arctic Sunrise. He had faced charges of piracy and hooliganism. Russell was freed on 29 November on bail of about $61,000 paid for by Greenpeace, and then granted amnesty in December. He was due to return to his Tasmanian home with his wife and daughter late on Thursday. He planned to hold a brief press conference at Hobart airport and asked for privacy after his arrival. His return home has been welcomed by the Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson. “The Greens want to extend our thanks to Colin for his admirable work protecting the Arctic’s pristine environment from oil drilling,” he said. “This has been an incredibly difficult time for the members of the Arctic 30 and their families, as they faced disproportionate and ludicrous charges in Russia and were detained in harsh conditions for months. “The Greens called many times for the Abbott government to step in and intervene on Colin’s behalf, in line with the actions of other governments.” Russell was the last of the activists to be granted bail in Russia and had previously written about the conditions in the jail to his wife, Christine. "I got some sudokus and I have done them, then because I am old and forgetful I can then copy the numbers into a hand-drawn grid and do them over again – still manage to stuff it up," he wrote. Russell was initially detained in Murmansk before making the day-long train trip to Saint Petersburg as he was transferred to another jail. "I read your messages all the time honey and they do wrap my heart with warmth and hope," he wrote. "I love you honey as always and it won't be long and I will be beside you again together and one. "I have got myself into a bit of a routine now and it's sure strange how the time seems to move on." | ['environment/arctic-30-protesters', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'world/russia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/bridie-jabour'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-01-02T02:22:27Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2015/dec/08/britain-flood-defences-storm-desmond | Britain's flood defences: five key questions answered | What are Britain’s flood defences? In England the Environment Agency is responsible for managing the two kinds of flood defences: hard and soft. Hard defences are designed to prevent water breaching a river bank, and may include dams, barriers, walls, weirs, sluices and pumping stations. An example of this is the 520-metre (1,700ft) wide Thames barrier, which protects London and low-lying areas of the south-east from tidal streams moving up the river. Soft flood defences use environmental planning to minimise the risk of flooding to properties, for example leaving low level areas next to a river undeveloped. Clearing uplands for grazing and growing crops such as maize contribute to flooding by increasing rapid runoff after rainfall, so reversing these policies is a means to protect against floods. How do they work? Hard defences work simply by keeping the water out and diverting it downstream. In Cockermouth, one of the Cumbrian towns currently affected, the UK’s first self-closing barrier opened in 2012. Stretching 120 metres, the £4.4m project was launched after hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their homes in the floods of 2005 and 2009. In Keswick, also flooded in Storm Desmond, the primary defence is a reinforced concrete wall made out of local slate and a 122-metre glass panel. Further floodgates have been installed across roads in Cumbria, rising to 1.8 metres in the most vulnerable areas. But across large swaths of the UK is the traditional way to protect low-lying communities against flooding: a combination of floodwalls and embankments stretching for thousands of miles alongside rivers and streams. How much do flood defences cost? The government has pledged £2.3bn for flood defences over the next six years. Individual schemes can range from tens of thousands of pounds to hundreds of millions or more. The Thames barrier cost £500m when it was built in 1984. How do they go wrong? Flood defences fail when water levels are simply too high and water spills over the top. But even then the defences usually prevent the worst of the flooding and provide more time for people to evacuate. This happened in some of the areas struck by Storm Desmond, when flood defences in place could not cope with the unprecedented amount of rainfall. Who decides where they should be built? Assessments on managing flood risk are taken using various evaluations, chiefly by the national flood risk assessment (NaFRA), which allows Environment Agency analysts to spot trends, determine the effect of climate change, track development on floodplains and keep abreast of the condition of flood defences across the UK. | ['environment/flooding', 'uk-news/storm-desmond', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/environment-agency', 'society/emergencyplanning', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/resource', 'profile/nadia-khomami', 'profile/josh-halliday'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-08T15:01:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2024/mar/21/avatar-way-of-water-stars-portraits-photographer-christy-lee-rogers-oceans-charity-kate-winslet-zoe-saldana-sigourney-weaver | Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldana do underwater photoshoot for ocean conservation charity | Photographs of the actors Kate Winslet, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver seemingly floating underwater in elaborate blue dresses, with eyes shut and arms outstretched, are to be sold to raise money for ocean conservation. The images are the work of one of the world’s most celebrated underwater photographers, Christy Lee Rogers, who teamed up with the stars of the 2022 film Avatar: The Way of Water and its director, James Cameron, a longtime proponent of ocean conservation, who commissioned the photoshoot. All of the profits will go to The Nature Conservancy, which is working to protect marine wildlife, and has set itself the aim of conserving 10% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Cameron has been a keen collector of work by Rogers, who has photographed the three women in her trademark baroque style. “Her unique style of shooting her subjects underwater naturally inspired me to suggest she do a special shoot with our cast,” he said. The prices of the prints range from $65 (£50) to $35,000, and are being sold by A Gallery Artists, through Rogers’ website. Fraser Scott, who runs the gallery, said: “The shoot took about eight hours in total, but was greatly aided by how much underwater training the actresses had already undergone.” The first shoot took place in an indoor pool in the UK, where Rogers photographed Winslet underwater. Winslet had learned to freedive before filming the Avatar sequels, when she had held her breath for seven minutes – beating Tom Cruise’s record for underwater breathing on a film set. The resulting images showcase Rogers’ love of 16th and 17th-century art. “When I shoot from outside of the water in pitch-black night, there is a refraction of light taking place,” she said. “Light is travelling slower in the water than it is in the air, and so I’m able to get this softness, this painterly feel, if I capture the image precisely in tune with the movements.” Water was not just a medium for her, but a passion, said Rogers. “Water is life-giving, nurturing, rejuvenating and without it we could not survive. “It is freedom, purity and pure lifeblood, and the most cherished element for me on our planet. Shooting with water is like being in the most magical place, where nothing is bound by this reality and everything’s possible.” She recalled swimming in lava tubes under the rocks in her native Hawaii and swimming out to the tiny islands off O’ahu, one of Hawaii’s main islands. “I learned from my father a deep respect for the water and ocean while growing up,” she said. “My hope is that we find a quick solution to keep our water clean, fresh and alive, so that all life can thrive here on this planet. That’s what this project is for me: a part of that solution.” | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/oceans', 'film/katewinslet', 'film/zoe-saldana', 'film/sigourney-weaver', 'film/avatar--the-way-of-water', 'film/film', 'environment/environment', 'culture/culture', 'artanddesign/photography', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'global-development/global-development', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/davidbarnett', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-03-21T08:00:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/dec/20/nsw-approves-morrison-governments-600m-kurri-kurri-gas-fired-power-plant | NSW approves Morrison government’s $600m Kurri Kurri gas-fired power plant | The NSW government has approved the construction of a $600m gas-fired power station backed by the Morrison government in the state’s Hunter region. Snowy Hydro’s application to build the 660-megawatt power station in Kurri Kurri was approved by Rob Stokes in one of his final decisions as the state’s planning minister before Anthony Roberts takes over the portfolio. The Morrison government announced in May it would spend up to $600m on the project after warning it would step in if the private sector did not commit to building 1,000MW to replace the Liddell coal-fired generator in 2023. The NSW government declared the project critical state significant infrastructure and fast-tracked its environmental assessment. The government confirmed on Monday night it had approved the project after the NSW planning department earlier emailed stakeholders – apparently in error – to notify them of the approval. A spokesperson for the NSW department of planning, industry and environment said the plant was approved “following rigorous assessment and consideration of community feedback”. The power station will be built on part of the site of the former Kurri Kurri aluminium smelter, which ceased operations in 2012 and has since been demolished. According to the environmental impact statement lodged with the NSW government, the plant is expected to run at just 2% of its full capacity across the year, filling gaps at times of peak demand. “This project will improve energy reliability and security in the national energy market as it brings on renewable energy from wind and solar farms, and transitions away from coal-fired power generation over the next 10-15 years,” the department’s spokesperson said. “The project will provide on-demand energy when the grid needs it and will only operate on average 2% over a year.” The project is subject to environmental conditions. The department’s spokesperson said Snowy Hydro was required to prepare a net zero power generation plan to support the transition toward net zero emissions. “This may include using hydrogen gas, which would be subject to further planning assessment,” they said. The federal energy minister, Angus Taylor, said the approval was an “important next step” for the project which aimed “to keep prices low and the lights on while creating jobs in the Hunter region”. “The Morrison government will continue to take the necessary steps to safeguard the delivery of affordable and reliable power and ensure Australian households and businesses get a fair deal on energy,” Taylor said on Monday. The project still requires environmental approval under commonwealth laws from the federal environment minister Sussan Ley. Nic Clyde, a spokesperson for the Lock the Gate Alliance, said the project was a waste of public funds and a white elephant that Australia did not need. “It’s disappointing that as the world shifts towards renewable energy and zero carbon technology, the Perrottet and Morrison governments are spending more than half a billion in public money propping up this polluting gas plant, and many more millions on the fossil fuel industry as a whole,” he said. The Gas Free Hunter Alliance said the approval showed “total disregard to the hundreds of locals who oppose the development”. “It is particularly disturbing that this project has received the green light from the NSW state government after it has made commitments to net zero emissions by 2050,” alliance representative Fiona Lee said. Earlier this year, the federal Labor opposition called for the Morrison government to release its business case for spending taxpayer funds on the project. The former chair of the Energy Security Board, Kerry Schott, has said the project makes little commercial sense and an analysis by Victoria University’s energy policy centre found the project had no prospect of generating enough revenue to justify its cost. Snowy Hydro declined to comment. With additional reporting by Elias Visontay | ['environment/fossil-fuels', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2021-12-20T08:17:49Z | true | EMISSIONS |
politics/2022/sep/28/will-labours-energy-plans-work | Will Labour’s energy plans work? | Labour’s ambitious plan for zero-carbon power by 2030 raises legitimate questions – which we’ll come to shortly – but the commentary in rightwing newspapers is bizarrely wide of the mark. Perhaps the strangest was a Daily Telegraph editorial that claimed Labour’s plan “would make the country more dependent on imported gas, not less”. As should be obvious, the opposite is true. The UK used 254 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas last year to generate 123TWh of electricity, 40% of the national total. Under Labour’s plan, gas demand for electricity would be 97% lower by 2030. (Why does it take 254TWh of gas to make 123TWh of electricity? Simply because burning fossil fuels is inefficient and half of the energy in the gas is wasted at the power station.) The UK’s low-carbon electricity sources are already saving huge amounts of gas: In 2022 to date, nuclear and renewables have generated 129TWh, more than the 95TWh we got from gas. The Daily Telegraph editorial echoed comments made by the likes of Darren Grimes and Julia Hartley-Brewer, who complained that we “can’t rely on solar or wind to keep our lights on”. Similarly, while interviewing the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg asked if fossil fuels would still be needed as backup in 2030, pointing to low wind output last Friday. Elsewhere, the Daily Mail said Starmer had been “forced to backtrack” by “admit[ting]” fossil fuels might still be used as backup under his 2030 plan. This was not so much an admission as a reiteration: Labour’s own press release had said it would “maintain … a strategic reserve of backup gas power”, as well as a range of other sources. Indeed, Labour’s plan does not rely on wind and solar alone. The hour-by-hour electricity system modelling behind Labour’s plans shows what would fill the gaps when the wind does not blow. In line with the clear consensus that cheap renewables will make up the bulk of electricity supplies in the future, Labour sees wind and solar making up about 70% of the electricity mix in 2030. Almost all of the remaining 30% of the nation’s electricity would come from a mixture of other low-carbon sources including additional new nuclear plants, other renewables and hydrogen. The modelling then leaves a very small share – about 0.7% of annual electricity in 2030 – coming from gas power. A further 0.5% would come from gas plants fitted with carbon capture equipment that prevents their carbon dioxide emissions from reaching the atmosphere. It’s clear that it would be possible to run a reliable UK electricity system on virtually 100% clean power, even during so-called “kalte dunkelflaute” with cold weather and little wind or sun. It’s also worth noting that Labour is not alone in imagining a fully decarbonised UK electricity system will soon be possible. The current government ambition, which is also backed by detailed modelling, is for 95% clean power by 2030 and close to 100% by 2035. Similarly, the National Grid Electricity System Operator has set out a range of “credible ways” to meet the UK’s net zero 2050 target, including one which reaches 98% clean power by 2030. Nevertheless, there are legitimate questions about the pace of Labour’s ambition, which would imply going from the current level of about 55% clean power to 99% in less than a decade. This rate of change would be historically unprecedented, at the same time as electricity demand increases to meet growing demand from electric vehicles and heat pumps. Until the 1960s, fossil fuels supplied more than 95% of the UK’s electricity. The development of nuclear power pushed the low-carbon share of electricity towards 25% by the late 1980s, where it remained into the early part of this century. More recently, the rapid growth of wind, solar and other renewables has seen the UK transform its electricity supply in a decade. Yet despite clean sources growing their share of UK electricity by 2.9 percentage points every year since 2010, fossil fuels still make up 45% of the total. Reaching Labour’s ambition for 99% by 2030 would mean increasing the rate of growth from 2.9 percentage points a year up to 4.9, starting this year. If this sprint only begins after the next election in 2024, the pace would need to be faster, at more than 7 percentage points a year. These are not only mathematical challenges – and it is not only a matter of doubling onshore wind, tripling solar and quadrupling offshore wind, as Starmer has pledged. (Meeting these renewable targets is likely to require planning reform to speed up the process of approvals.) If Labour’s goal is to be met, the UK must also build new nuclear plants, gas plants with carbon capture and storage, hydrogen turbines with clean hydrogen to fuel them, along with huge increases in electricity network capacity, energy storage and “demand-side response”. While the UK need not follow the precise pathway set out in the modelling behind Labour’s proposals, it would need an equivalent set of alternatives to reach close to 100% clean power. And even if Labour’s 2030 target proves too ambitious to meet, the government’s goal of a fully decarbonised electricity system by 2035 is not exactly far behind. Regardless of these question marks, one thing is for sure – whatever the editorial pages of the Daily Telegraph suggests: Whether the UK reaches 100% clean power by 2030 or 2035, the shift towards wind, solar and other low-carbon sources is 100% guaranteed to cut our demand for gas. | ['politics/labour', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/simon-evans', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-09-28T07:00:01Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2020/feb/15/alok-sharma-cop26-success-climate-change | Alok Sharma can make Cop26 a success – but does he have the will? | Chaitanya Kumar | The wait is over for the new president of the all-important United Nations climate conference (Cop26) in Glasgow in November. Alok Sharma is set to take on this high-octane diplomatic role while also juggling the immensely powerful job of leading the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Some may see this as a herculean task, but the BEIS secretary is in a unique position to lead the charge in tackling the climate emergency. His portfolio now includes not just delivering net-zero carbon in the UK but also convincing the world to follow suit. Reportedly turned down by former Conservative heavyweights David Cameron and William Hague, the Cop26 presidency had been in a state of limbo. The sacked president, Claire O’Neill, warned of a serious leadership gap in her departing missive to Boris Johnson. Having a cabinet minister now leading the charge is welcome, but the new minister’s voting record on climate does not instil confidence. He has voted against support for carbon-capture projects and taxing polluting vehicles and dirty power stations, among other things. Cop26 is a different kettle of fish, and making it a success is vital to tackling climate change. In 2019, Cop25 ended in disappointment, as rich nations failed to enhance their carbon-cutting commitments or raise more money for countries struggling to cope with climate impacts. A similar outcome in Glasgow will mean inaction until 2025, and we simply cannot afford that. The new Cop26 president and the UK government face a major diplomatic task over the next few months to persuade high carbon-emitting nations, such as China and India, to commit to greater cuts, while getting the EU, US and other rich countries to meet the pledge made a decade ago to raise $100bn a year in climate finance. Existing contributions from all the nations combined put us on a path to increasing average global temperatures by 3.2C by 2100, while the Paris accord commits nations to a pathway of well below 2C. This will be the ultimate test of the conference in November. Every tenth of a degree makes a huge difference to the lives and livelihoods of millions at the frontline of climate change. The success of this conference will rely heavily on manoeuvring the full force of the UK’s diplomats and climate attaches from around the world, who will work with negotiators of key countries to secure necessary commitments and concessions. Working closely with the EU and other high-ambition partners will be vital to shift the position of China and India, in particular, as long as the diplomacy respects their need for greater finance and technology to bring millions of their citizens out of poverty and pursue a clean development strategy. Both nations made clear at the UN climate summit last year that any request for further emission cuts from them needs to be backed by substantially greater finance. The new Cop26 president has his work cut out. As the former secretary of state for international development, Sharma hosted environment ministers from around the world to gear up for Cop26 and focused his department’s attention on climate-change adaptation overseas, indicating perhaps his and his party’s growing interest in this issue. But Whitehall may have bitten off more than it can chew as it tries to secure post-Brexit trade deals by the end of the year while also striving to make a success of the climate conference. The two goals aren’t incompatible, as the UK’s climate targets are set in domestic law and a trade deal will not affect that. However, if the past three years have taught us anything, it’s that the government has a very limited capacity to deal with policy questions unrelated to Brexit. The BEIS department itself is responsible for making sure British businesses adjust to the post-Brexit trade regime, as well as emissions targets. The only way to achieve that now is to centre climate change in trade negotiations and support businesses in their low-carbon transition. Leadership at home is also vital if we are to inspire the major economies of the world to cut carbon emissions. The recent announcement to end the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035 was important, but it was relatively low-hanging fruit. Tougher decisions will have to be taken on cutting carbon from our homes and our large industries such as steel, and getting the UK on track to net-zero. As BEIS secretary, it’s within Sharma’s gift to take these difficult, but necessary, decisions. For now, however, to be taken seriously as a credible host, Sharma needs to put forward a bold, revised carbon target for 2030 (as required by the UN, with advice from the Committee on Climate Change) with a clear policy pathway to meeting it. The next 10 years of action are what matters to make or break our chances of avoiding a climate catastrophe. How the minister uses the full power of his combined roles to achieve this green transformation at home while urging the same overseas is yet to be seen. Any outcome of a Cop conference reflects largely on the host, and Sharma has a massive responsibility to make a success of it. • Chaitanya Kumar is head of energy and climate policy at Green Alliance | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'politics/alok-sharma', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/chaitanya-kumar', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-02-15T09:00:01Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/article/2024/may/19/ships-pollute-port-cities-more-than-all-cars-in-the-region-analysis-shows | Ships in some UK port cities create more air pollution than cars | Ships calling at the UK’s most-polluted ports produce more nitrogen oxides than all the cars registered in the same cities or regions, analysis has shown. A report from Transport & Environment (T&E) said that ships were continuing to discharge huge quantities of air pollutants at ports, with Milford Haven, Southampton and Immingham topping the list for emissions of harmful sulphur oxides and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as well as nitrogen oxides (NOx). The NGO said the data underlined the urgent need for government action to ensure ships used cleaner fuels and that ports enforce more zero-emission technology such as shore-side electricity. Shipping and ports representatives said the report used “flawed methodology” and disputed the comparisons, but said they supported moves to reduce pollution. The report found that in the top 10 NOx-polluted ports, about 4,000 ships produced an estimated 1.75 times as much NOx as almost one million cars registered to the same areas. Ships calling at Southampton, a major cruise ship port, produced four times more NOx than cars in the city, T&E said. Southampton was also the worst for PM2.5, with cruise ships responsible for more than half the particulate pollution. Jonathan Hood, the UK sustainable shipping manager at T&E, said: “The awful levels of pollution revealed in this analysis demonstrate how the UK’s port cities are being choked by the harmful fumes caused by a shipping industry that, thanks to years of government inaction, has no impetus to change. “The government has its last chance to chart a better course for the industry with the updated clean maritime plan and it must not waste this opportunity. We need to see a rapid switch away from filthy fossil fuels, and ports must set binding targets to implement zero-emission technologies. These must include shore side electricity, which would ensure ships can plug in at port and switch off their polluting engines.” A UK Chamber of Shipping spokesperson said the report did not take account of shore-side power now being used in Southampton by cruise ships, improving the air quality, but admitted that the UK was “behind the curve” and that more facilities should be installed. The spokesperson added: “The industry supports the ambition to reduce emissions and is investing billions worldwide to do so. A long-term plan, codesigned by industry and government, is the way to set out the clear roadmap for emissions reduction [and] unlock future investment.” Mark Simmonds, director of policy at the British Ports Association, said the industry’s net zero targets would also improve air quality. But he said the report was “irresponsible” and “discredited” by not examining how emissions dispersed before affecting population centres. “Air pollutant emissions have a very localised impact and comparing emissions from ships, which deliver 450m tonnes of goods a year including half our of food and energy, to local car journeys is absurd. Emissions from ships are limited while at-berth when the main engines are turned off,” Simmonds said. Lord Deben, the former chairman of the government’s Climate Change Committee, said it was “disheartening to see the staggering levels of emissions from ships around UK ports” and said the government should prioritise stricter emissions control measures. He said: “Without decisive action, the health impacts for residents and workers in port towns, not to mention economic costs, will continue to soar.” A Department for Transport spokesperson said the UK would be publishing an updated clean maritime plan for shipping as part of its 2050 net zero targets. The spokesperson said: “We’ve already invested over £200m to develop innovative technology that will decarbonise the industry [and] are currently looking at extending emission restrictions across our waters after their success in the North Sea.” | ['environment/shipping-emissions', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'uk-news/southampton', 'business/shipping-industry', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-05-19T15:33:51Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2020/oct/08/thinning-forests-doesnt-reduce-bushfire-risk-and-could-make-some-blazes-worse-study-finds | Thinning forests doesn't reduce bushfire risk and could make some blazes worse, study finds | Removing trees to thin out forests is unlikely to cut the risk of severe bushfires despite the claims of forest industry groups, according to the authors of a new study. Analysis of forests that burned in Victoria’s Black Saturday fires in 2009 found in most cases areas that had been thinned did not see less severe burning and, depending on the type of trees, such intervention sometimes made fires more intense. Several forestry groups earlier this year told the royal commission into Australia’s unprecedented summer of bushfires that wide-scale thinning of forests in the future should be carried out to cut the risk of bushfires. But the authors of the study, from the Australian National University, say their findings suggest there is little evidence to support such moves, and “in some cases, it may exacerbate fire risks”. Appearing in the journal Conservation Letters, the study analysed two types of forest burned in the Black Saturday fires in Victoria’s central highlands – ones dominated by mountain and alpine ash, and others with a mix of eucalypts. Thinning made burns more severe in forests with a mix of species that were 70 years or older, the findings suggest. Thinning only reduced the chance of crown burns – where all the leaves of a tree are burned – in younger mixed-species forests. Dr Chris Taylor, the study’s lead author, said across most forest types and ages, thinning appeared to have little impact on the severity of fires. Taylor told Guardian Australia that thinning tended to leave fuel on the forest floor and the machinery used could also crush vegetation. “What you have left is an abundance of fuel that dries out and becomes a fire risk,” he said. The study also says thinning can make a forest drier as well as increase air flow “potentially facilitating the spread of fire through the forest”. Its co-author, Prof David Lindenmayer, said the study “basically says that the solution that the industry is suggesting to help solve the problem is not going to help”. Lindenmayer said most thinning operations involved removing younger trees up to 40 years old that are then chipped for paper pulp. Studies on the impacts of thinning on fire severity are conflicting. But Lindenmayer said studies that found support for thinning tended to be based on models. “The only place where thinning has had a positive effect [on fire severity] is in models,” he said. In submissions to the royal commission earlier this year, at least three forest industry groups advocated for widespread thinning to cut the risk of bushfires. The Australian Forest Products Association told the commission that thinning – where half of the trees in a forest were removed – could reduce fire risks. An AFPA spokesperson declined to comment on the findings of the study but pointed to a report from the organisation advocating for mechanical fuel reduction to be used more widely. Prof Rodney Keenan, of the University of Melbourne and a forestry scientist, has written publicly supporting the use of thinning to cut the risk of fire. He told Guardian Australia he disagreed with the authors and said the study had covered only a relatively small area. He said: “I wouldn’t be dismissing more widespread thinning as a fire management option on the basis of this study.” Studies in Australia and the United States, he said, showed a combination of thinning and reduction of fuel on the ground gave the best protection against severe fire. “The other important message from the study is that very little thinning has been done, so we can’t really judge the widespread effects. “If we want to see if thinning works, we have to try it at scale, monitor the outcomes, and work out where it can be of most benefit.” A spokesperson for the Victorian Association of Forest Industries said in a statement the group had not advocated for indiscriminate thinning at a landscape scale, but as part of a suite of land management options as part of a national bushfire strategy. The statement said: “The submission outlined the numerous benefits, in terms of bushfire risk management and response, that arise from active and appropriate silvicultural approaches delivered by a secure forest and timber industry. Landscape-scale management should feature a range of approaches, considered in the context of the entire forest landscape and employed as locally appropriate.” | ['australia-news/bushfires', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-10-07T16:30:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2020/jul/08/weatherwatch-soggy-end-to-june-across-the-uk-and-ireland | Weatherwatch: soggy end to June across the UK and Ireland | There was plenty of heavy rain across the UK and Ireland at the end of June, with parts of north-west England receiving around three times more rainfall than the seasonal average. Northern areas of Ireland also had high rainfall totals, especially towards the end of the month. Days of heavy rain from 26 to 28 June, preceded by drier conditions earlier in the summer, led to multiple landslides as tonnes of peat slid down the Shass mountain in the county of Leitrim. Storm Päviö, on 30 June, brought heavy rain and thunderstorms across Finland, causing power outages to more than 60,000 homes as power lines were torn down by gusts of up to 60mph. Storms of this severity can be particularly detrimental at this time of year as the expanse of leaves on trees can act as a sail, increasing the likelihood of fallen trees compared with a similar storm in the winter months. Across the other side of the world, a rapidly developing extratropical cyclone brought extreme conditions to southern parts of Brazil. The storm took at least 10 lives, as well as affecting around 1 million people. Winds of up to 68mph were recorded and caused significant damage, including ripping roofs from houses. | ['uk/weather', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'news/series/world-weatherwatch', 'weather/ireland', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-07-08T20:30:41Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/pda/2009/may/29/youtube-google | YouTube looking at standalone 'SafeTube' site for families | YouTube is exploring the introduction of a family-friendly 'SafeTube' version of the site as part of its programme of improving safety and content standards, it said today. Launching a new safety centre that gives advice on bullying, links to support organisations, dealing with abusive commenters and inappropriate content, YouTube policy head Victoria Grand said that once the popularity of the new features had been determined, the safety team would look to make give the safety features a higher profile on the site. The new safety centre appears in the site links at the bottom of every YouTube page, and has yet to be integrated more fully throughout the site. But one option could be 'SafeTube', a fully opt-in family version of the site that would automatically exclude age-restricted videos and delete or disguise expletives. "One of the things we're looking at is whether it is possible to create a separate YouTube site, an opt-in 'SafeTube' site for families," said Grand. "If they are selecting to be in that experience then safety information should be front and centre because these people have self selected that this is the YouTube they want to see. "We'd use a lot of the signals [from the YouTube community] like filter words, which would be on by default, and we have things like porn filters so would figure out a way to have those on more aggressively - and a way that age restricted videos for over 18s would not appear. It would be rearranged so safety resources would be front and centre." A troll. Photograph: Benimoto/Some rights reserved As well as the safety centre, YouTube has introduced more granular controls for users that allow them to mask expletives and delete comments or block certain users they feel are offensive. User flagging remains an important part of the site's moderation process but this has evolved some way since the basic 'report abuse' icon, and there are now multiple options for detailing why a comment is offensive. It's interesting to note international and cultural differences; alcohol-fuelled nonsense attracts high numbers of complaints in the Middle East, for example, so YouTube policy is to put up a country-specific warning in such cases. Grand added that despite Google's inherent bias towards clever algorithms for moderation (engineers have suggested Swastika-detecting tools for videos, for example) the best solution is still a combination of automation with human moderation, which is far better at assessing the context of footage. Leicester NHS had its shock-tactic teen pregnancy video removed, for example, because the version red-flagged by YouTube had been edited without the public service message at the end, posted with a random username and with the title 'Teenage Kicks' instead of 'Teenage Pregnancy Video'. The proper version was reinstated. As well as YouTube's wider corporate responsibility to help prevent bullying and provide support for victims, the new features are also trying to begin to tackle the site's rather spectacular problem with aggressive commenters. It might be that the site attracts so many millions of users that the volume of trolls is inevitably higher, or it could be that the diversity of the site works against it because there's little community or consistency in the people who comment on videos. (When users start to know each other, the level of debate is invariably higher and more constructive, which is a big part of the reason Twitter has few problems with trolls. There's an ongoing conversation there among people who get to know each other.) Either way, YouTube has a very long way to go in trying to improve the quality of much of the comment streams on the site, so anything will help. Grand's team are not yet looking at troll traps like serving persistent offenders slow versions of the site or making their offensive comments appear only to them, but there is a discussion to be had about whether that kind of technical duplicity is more ethical in the long term - or whether it would be more worthwhile trying to educate trolls out of their trollish ways. But it seems like educating YouTube's trolls might be a mission too big even for Google, which sees 20 hours of video uploaded every minute. Organising the world's information, maybe - but organising the world's trolls? | ['media/pda', 'technology/youtube', 'technology/google', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/jemimakiss'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-05-29T15:50:11Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2011/jan/13/mark-kennedy-undercover-police-acpo | Rein in undercover police units, says former DPP | Police chiefs are being called on to review the way long-term undercover operations are handled amid growing concerns about the secretive unit at the heart of their spying operation. The lawyer and former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald said the handling of undercover officers appeared to be "alarming" and "opaque" after Mark Kennedy was unmasked as an undercover police officer spying on the environmental movement. "There should be published guidelines," said Macdonald. "It is particularly important that the public understands what the principles and what the rules are. The fact this operation is so opaque, nobody knows how it was run, what the objectives were, why it ran for so long, I think that's quite alarming." Claims made against police include that during his seven years as a spy Kennedy acted as an agent provocateur and had a string of sexual relationships with fellow activists. But the case has also highlighted the role of the secretive police intelligence units overseen by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) to which both Kennedy and a second undercover officer known as Officer A had been seconded. "There is this whole issue of what Acpo is," said Macdonald. "It's a limited company. It's an odd sort of organisation. There should be published guidelines, there should be a debate about it. The police should invite comment and discussion ... The whole purpose is to maintain public confidence." The furtive apparatus that oversees the police fight against "domestic extremists" dates back to the late 1990s animal rights militants were its focus. Many were prepared to resort to violence, intimidating scientists, sending letter bombs and, most notoriously, digging up a grandmother's grave. The police took an aggressive stance that led to the jailing of many of key animal rights figures. But according to critics, once this threat had subsided the officers who had built up the infiltration units sought new targets to justify their budgets and existence. Environmentalists say the burgeoning green movement fitted the bill. They say police were given licence to carry out widespread and intrusive surveillance of entire legitimate organisations. In the late 1990s the remit was extended to "include all forms of domestic extremism, criminality and public disorder associated with cause-led groups". Police dismiss the claims, insisting they only monitor the minority on the far left and right who might commit crimes such as damaging property or trespass to promote their political aims. There are three little-known "domestic extremism" units working under the direction of Detective Chief Superintendent Adrian Tudway. Concerns have been growing about their accountability and subject to agreement they will be taken over by the Met under a "lead force" agreement – the same way the Met has overall command of national counter-terrorism operations. Tudway, the "national co-ordinator for domestic extremism", commands about 100 staff and has a budget of about £9m a year. By far the biggest segment of this "domestic extremism" apparatus is the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), which has been compiling a database of protesters and campaign groups across the country since 1999. It is believed several undercover police officers – including Kennedy and Officer A – had been living long-term in the environmental movement, feeding intelligence back to NPOIU. With around 60 to 70 staff, NPOIU costs £5m a year to run, according to the latest official figures. Its budget has doubled in the last five years. Housed at a secret location in London, its official remit is "to gather, assess, analyse and disseminate intelligence and information relating to criminal activities in the United Kingdom where there is a threat of crime or to public order which arises from domestic extremism or protest activity". Essentially it is pooling intelligence from special branch officers, uniformed surveillance teams and undercover officers that can be shared with police forces around the country. Sensitive information from undercover officers, other informants in protest groups and covert intercepts are handled by a section of the NPOIU called the Confidential Intelligence Unit. The database contains descriptions of people, their nicknames or pseudonyms, reports of their activities and photographs of them. The only activists so far confirmed to be on the database are 85-year-old John Catt and his daughter Linda, two peaceful campaigners from Brighton. John Catt often goes to demonstrations, where he likes to take out his sketch pad and draw the scene. Police files revealed how the NPOIU had logged their presence at more than 80 lawful demonstrations over four years, recording details such as their appearance and slogans on their T-shirts. The files recorded, for instance, how on the morning of 25 September 2005 John Catt was "clean shaven" when he attended a demonstration by Sussex Action for Peace. Another read: "John Catt sat on a folding chair [at the demonstration] and appeared to be sketching." Catt and his daughter deny any involvement in criminal activity and neither of them have criminal records. Anton Setchell, the police chief who was previously in charge of "domestic extremism", told the Guardian in 2009 that it was possible that protesters with no criminal record were on the database but police would have to justify their inclusion. "Just because you have no criminal record does not mean that you are not of interest to the police," he said. "Everyone who has got a criminal record did not have one once." The second organisation is known as the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (Netcu). It gives out advice to police forces, companies, universities and other organisations to cope with protests that it believes will be unlawful. The Cambridgeshire-based unit, set up in 2004, liaises with thousands of companies in aviation, energy, research, farming and retail. The third unit, the National Domestic Extremism Team, was set up in 2005 and consists of detectives who assist police forces around the UK. | ['uk/mark-kennedy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'uk/police', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'type/article', 'profile/robevans', 'profile/afuahirsch', 'profile/paullewis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-13T19:42:39Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2021/jun/27/strawberry-fields-forever-new-variety-tastes-great-and-grows-all-summer | Strawberry fields forever? New variety tastes great … and grows all summer | It would be easy to dismiss it as a marketing gimmick. A strawberry called Ace, announced on the eve of Wimbledon – surely, you cannot be serious? But the academics and strawberry breeders of the East Malling research institute are not given to cheap slogans. Malling Ace is a super strawberry that is creating more excitement in the world of horticulture than even the possibility of another Andy Murray title. “The Ace name sort of indicates what we felt about it – it really, really does excel,” said Adam Whitehouse, who led the Malling Ace project. “It’s a new variety that has been fast-tracked through our system because it really did stand out and it caused a lot of excitement at such an early stage.” Growers are falling over themselves to sign up to the new variety, and commercial nurseries are doing their best to get as many Malling Ace plants available as soon as possible. The excitement is there because Whitehouse and his colleagues at NIAB EMR in East Malling, Kent – Britain’s pre-eminent horticultural research centre – have cracked a conundrum that should mean that shoppers can find tasty, plump strawberries for most of the year, not just around Wimbledon time. Strawberries come in two varieties. June-bearers are the classic berries found at the All England Club that come from plants which fruit in the early summer and are the tastiest, reddest and juiciest. But the short six- to eight-week cropping season of June-bearers has spurred horticulturalists to find ways to extend the season. In the 1970s, Californian researchers discovered an alternative that bore fruit twice a season or more and, for the last 50 years, these ever-bearers have been the strawberries most commonly found in supermarkets from July onwards: reliable, solid – and often disappointingly dull. The Malling Ace promises to be the first ever-bearer with the tastiness of its June counterparts – “the stuff of dreams” and “not a step change, but a leap change,” according to the research institute’s operations director, Ross Newham. The process of creating the Malling Ace began more than 250 years ago. As befits the queen of summer fruits, modern strawberries originated in the gardens of Versailles. Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, botanist to Louis XV, experimented with wild strawberries and discovered he could cross-pollinate plants to breed new varieties, sparking a revolution in horticulture that informed Darwin’s discovery of natural selection. Whitehouse and his colleagues in East Malling use a method derived from Duchesne’s experiments, brushing pollen from one plant on to another and making painstaking observations about the results. The process usually takes about eight years but the Ace has been brought forward because of its success. “I selected it in 2015,” Whitehouse said. “It was one of about 13,000 seedlings we were looking at that year. We normally try to whittle it down to about 1% – the elite. But this one really stood out. We trialled it and it really caught the attention of everyone who saw it.” Taste and colour are very important but there are other less obvious criteria – disease resistance, glossiness and yield are among the dozens of factors that East Malling’s researchers examine. Another is “plant architecture” – how the branches grow – which makes a big difference to how easy it is to pick the fruit. That remains a significant issue for strawberry growers focusing on this year’s crop. They are concerned that they will again not have enough fruitpickers, according to Nick Marston, the chairman of British Summer Fruits. “I think there will be a greater level of shortages. I don’t think that we’re going to see large-scale crops rotting in the fields but I think we will see some crop losses where growers just can’t get enough people.” Growers rely on eastern European workers to pick their crops, and many have been put off by stricter post-Brexit visa rules. Last year, the government allowed 10,000 seasonal worker visas, a figure which has risen to 30,000 this year – still far short of the 70,000 required. Farms with early crops are less likely to be affected, Marston said, because foreign workers often prefer to earn up to their income tax personal allowance of £10,500 then return home rather than stay and deal with the red tape of tax. “There is a nervousness because as the summer goes on, people start to go home,” he said. It’s more acute in Scotland because it’s further to travel and their season starts later.” Getting punnets of Malling Ace on to supermarket shelves will have to wait until next year, because nurseries need to grow more plants to make a large-scale crop. Will Roberts, who oversees intellectual property issues for NIAB EMR, said 90% of growers and plant nurseries working with East Malling have applied for licences to grow Malling Ace – an unprecedented number. “We’re now at the final stage of development and the plants are now being multiplied at plant nurseries,” he said. “So I think the average consumer will be able to see Malling Ace in small quantities available early next summer.” For Whitehouse, even though Malling Ace is a major advance, there is still plenty of work left to do. At the moment, one punnet of strawberries can seem much like another. Shoppers may eventually distinguish between varieties and debate their merits, as aficionados of mangoes have done with the Kesar and Alphonso in India. “The holy grail of ever-bearers is continuous production,” Whitehouse said. “Even though ever-bearers do have perpetual flowering, they can go into dips and troughs, and that can change from season to season. For me as a breeder, the next step is to give people the chance to buy a strawberry, and if they like it, they can buy it again next week.” | ['environment/farming', 'food/food', 'sport/wimbledon', 'sport/tennis', 'environment/environment', 'business/supermarkets', 'food/fruit', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/james-tapper', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-06-27T06:15:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2017/sep/19/dominicas-prime-minister-charts-merciless-hurricane-maria-on-social-media | Dominica's prime minister charts 'merciless' Hurricane Maria on social media | The prime minister of Dominica has used Facebook to describe in harrowing detail – and in real time – his own rescue from the destruction of Hurricane Maria. The category five storm passed directly over the island nation of Dominica on Monday night local time. Amid gusts of wind up to 260kmh (160mph) the country’s long-serving leader, Roosevelt Skerrit, rode out the storm from his home. “The winds are merciless!” wrote 45-year-old Skerrit on Facebook. “We shall survive by the grace of God!” An hour later as the winds increased he wrote: “We do not know what is happening outside. We not dare look out. All we are hearing is the sound of galvanize [roofing] flying. The sound of the fury of the wind. As we pray for its end!” Skerrit said he believed his house had sustained damaged, exclaiming: “Rough! Rough! Rough!” He then confirmed it. “My roof is gone. I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding.” Roosevelt later told his friends and followers: “I have been rescued.” In a subsequent post he said he feared news of death and injury from the storm and possible land slides. “So far the winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with,” he said. “The roof to my own official residence was among the first to go and apparently this triggered an avalanche of torn away roofs in the city and in the countryside.” He said while the physical damage in Dominica was devastating and “mind boggling” he was focused on rescuing people trapped in the rubble and securing medical care for the injured. He intended to tour the region by helicopter in coming days, and indicated he was seeking assistance to do so from foreign governments. He suspected air and sea ports were inoperable. Hundreds posted their good wishes. “We pray for God’s blessings on you and your family and your country,” said Suruj Rambachan, former foreign affairs minister for Trinidad & Tobago. Some feared for the homes of others if the prime minister’s residence could be destroyed. Anthony Astaphan, a lawyer based in the former British colony, told the Observer Media Group the wind was “savage”. “We lost the roof. My total upstairs, the ceiling and everything collapsed. I have two inches of water downstairs,” he said. “My god, I can only feel the pain of those who don’t have the house that I have. It was terrible and I just hope people didn’t die.” Skerrit told Telesur TV he had been rescued by police. He said his country had been “devastated”. “We do not know how many dead if any. We were brutalized by the Hurricane Maria.” Police official, inspector Pellam Jno Baptiste, told Associated Press he had no immediate reports of casualties but it was still too dangerous for officers to go outside. “Where we are, we can’t move,” he said. Maria, which intensified from a category one storm in less than a day, is the strongest storm on record to hit Dominica. Category four hurricane David hit the island in 1979, killing 56 people and rendering three-quarters of the population homeless. Two years ago 31 people were killed and more than 360 homes destroyed by tropical storm Erika. In the aftermath of Erika, Skerrit said the damage could set the country back by decades. A young woman who appeared to also be in Dominica, tweeted she had never experienced anything like the sounds of Maria. When Hurricane Irma decimated Caribbean islands two weeks ago communication lines were knocked out and it was some time before news of the damage and destruction reached the outside world. A number of overseas territories controlled by the UK, US, France, and the Netherlands were among the countries hit, and the initial response from those countries - and the wider international community - was criticised. With Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St Kitts & Nevis, US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra and Vieques subject to the latest hurricane warning, many are already urging people to get behind the Caribbean region and assist with the task of recovery. | ['world/hurricane-maria', 'world/hurricane-irma', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/caribbean', 'profile/helen-davidson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | world/hurricane-irma | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-19T04:27:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2014/sep/20/un-climate-change-suummit-vital-leaders-act-reverse-carbon-emissions | The UN climate change summit is a vital chance for the world to avoid catastrophe | Bob Ward | This week, I will witness a key test of whether we will betray our children, grandchildren and future generations through a lack of ambition and will. I will be at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York on Thursday to listen to David Cameron, Barack Obama and more than 120 other political leaders outline how they intend to tackle the growing risks from climate change. The summit has been called by the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to try to build high-level support for efforts to reach an international agreement to avoid dangerous levels of global warming, which is due to be signed in Paris in December 2015. The ambition is that countries will outline how they intend to stop and reverse, within the next 10 years, the growth in annual emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and put us on a path towards zero emissions by the second half of this century. Without a treaty, it will be hard for the world to avoid the potentially catastrophic impacts of the global average temperature rising by more than 2C degrees above its pre-industrial level. The consequences of creating a climate not seen on Earth for millions of years will not be suffered primarily by us but by those who will be here next century. By then, if the climate has warmed by three degrees or more, the Earth is likely to have passed a number of tipping points, such as irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet, leading to gradually accelerating and potentially irreversible disruption of lives and livelihoods. Even though nearly all of us will be gone by the start of the next century, it is we who have to determine in the next 15 months whether our descendants in the 22nd century will have to cope with the risks created by a climate that modern Homo sapiens, less than 250,000 years old, has never experienced. This choice is shockingly clear from the scientific evidence for climate change that has now been assembled. But we have constructed an economic and political system that leads us to disregard this threat to the prosperity and wellbeing of our children and grandchildren. We make decisions about our economy based on models that discount the future such that the further in the future someone is born, the less they are worth. This means the impacts of climate change on them are simply dismissed. Yet a major report published last week, The New Climate Economy, showed that many of the actions we have to take to prevent future generations from facing huge risks from climate change would also have other more immediate economic benefits, such as reducing local air pollution. We hold public discussions about climate change that are mediated by newspapers and broadcasters, many of whom are obsessed with perpetuating controversy about whether there is a problem, instead of focusing attention on what should be done. Yet few of the editors of our national media bother to cover the mounting evidence that the UK is already experiencing climate change. Our seven warmest years and four of our five wettest years on record have all occurred from 2000 onwards. This year has so far been both the warmest and wettest since records began in 1910, and has included the rainiest winter we have seen. But worst of all, we have constructed a political process that focuses on narrow, near-sighted concerns rather than on the profound long-term challenges that we face. In doing so, we have undermined the legitimacy of our democratic elections by alienating many young people who are turning their backs on traditional party politics, not out of apathy, but out of sheer disgust and disillusionment. It is a symptom of how little politics has to offer the young that none of the leaders of the three biggest political parties in parliament has made a major speech on climate change since the last election more than four years ago. Meanwhile, Ukip has surged in popularity, mainly among older voters, while embracing outright denial of climate change as part of its laughable energy policy that pledges a revival of coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels. It is little wonder then that there could be a record low turn-out of young voters in the general election next May, even though whichever party wins will help to decide whether there should be a strong international agreement on climate change. Our best hope is for young voters to express their despair about our dismal politics, not by boycotting the general election as some have advocated, but instead by speaking out loudly and fiercely, and forcing potential MPs to confront long-term issues such as climate change in the run-up to the next general election. In doing so, they would ensure that their best interests, and the best interests of future generations, are not betrayed by those political leaders who will decide in Paris next year whether the world will avoid dangerous climate change. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'world/unitednations', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/bob-ward', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2014-09-20T20:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
society/2023/sep/27/policy-must-tackle-root-causes-of-englands-record-mental-ill-health-says-report | Policy must tackle root causes of England’s record mental ill-health, says report | Ministers must tackle poverty, poor housing and air pollution to improve England’s worsening mental health, a coalition of charities, thinktanks and staff groups has urged ministers. Their blueprint for better mental health also includes a crackdown on racism, reforms to the benefits system and action to end the stark inequality whereby people with severe psychiatric conditions die up to 20 years sooner than the general population. Their ideas are contained in a report, published on Wednesday by the Centre for Mental Health, that draws on policy proposals put forward by 35 key organisations. They include the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the counselling service Place2Be and children’s charities including the Children’s Society. Sustained action is needed because Covid-19, austerity and the cost of living crisis have led to a rise in recent years in the numbers of people in England suffering mental ill-health, the coalition says. “An unprecedented number of people are struggling with their mental health, and support services in England are on their knees,” said Dr Sarah Hughes, Mind’s chief executive. “Record numbers of people are waiting for the treatment they need.” The report warns ministers that the increased number of people struggling with their mental health – 8.2 million live with at least one condition such as anxiety or depression – is causing “preventable misery, death, demand on stretched services, lost economic productivity and costs of tens of billions of pounds”. It sets out other measures that should be included in a 10-year plan to improve mental heath. They include: A new Child Poverty Act to banish child poverty by 2030. The creation of a minimum income guarantee and reforming sick pay. Action against junk food, smoking, alcohol and gambling. The end of “hostile environment” immigration policies. In April last year the health secretary, Steve Barclay, called for evidence to help guide the development of what he said would be a 10-year “health and wellbeing plan”, as well as a separate suicide prevention plan. However, in January this year the former was scrapped and instead subsumed into a much wider-ranging major conditions strategy, which is still being developed and also covers cancer, heart disease and other major killers. A future government should start applying a “mental health test” to every policy it plans to implement, to ensure that it helps tackle mental ill-health, the 35 groups add. Sean Duggan, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation’s mental health network of specialist NHS trusts, said the NHS must respond to the growing need for care and “transform mental health services for people of all ages and backgrounds”, including through new access targets. But, stressing the importance of tackling the social determinants of ill-health, he added: “By reducing the number of people developing mental health issues in the first place we can ensure those who require help receive the mental health support they need. On the flip side, a continued lack of investment in mental health services means a crisis for the whole NHS.” A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We’re going further and faster to transform our country’s mental health services, with up to an additional £2.3bn being invested annually until 2024 to expand services, so an extra 2 million people can get the support they need.” The major conditions strategy will be “informed” by evidence submitted by mental health organisations last year for the now-scrapped dedicated strategy, they added. | ['society/mental-health', 'society/society', 'society/health', 'uk/uk', 'society/poverty', 'society/housing', 'environment/pollution', 'inequality/inequality', 'society/nhs', 'uk-news/england', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/deniscampbell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-09-26T23:01:42Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2019/sep/24/weatherwatch-storm-season-blows-wading-birds-ashore | Weatherwatch: storm season blows wading birds ashore | The east coast of North America does not run north to south, as you might expect, but in a south-westerly direction. This means that for birds migrating from their breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic to spend the winter in South America, the quickest and most direct route lies over the sea: specifically, the western part of the north Atlantic Ocean. If the weather conditions are fine, then these birds will navigate their way successfully. But the autumn migration coincides with the peak season for tropical storms and hurricanes, which often progress along the eastern seaboard of the US, then sweep across the Atlantic towards Europe. When these occur in late September, this coincides with the peak numbers of waders – or as Americans call them, shorebirds – heading south. Birders on the European side of the Atlantic then look out for a whole range of these charismatic birds, especially at west-coast hotspots such as the counties of Kerry and Cork in Ireland, and Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in Britain. The most frequent species is the pectoral sandpiper, a common and familiar bird in the US. But another regular visitor, the buff-breasted sandpiper, is something of a rarity there. It breeds only in the high Arctic, so is rarely seen on its journey south – even though it regularly occurs in small numbers in Britain. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/birds', 'weather/usa', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-09-24T06:00:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/primark-label-cry-help-bangladesh-women-factories | Primark 'cry for help' labels have painted Bangladeshi women as helpless | Several weeks ago a story appeared in the South Wales Evening Post about a shopper who found a label stitched into her Primark dress: "Forced to work exhausting hours". While it may have been a hoax, the horror felt by the shopper spread, more labels were found, and the story became a national concern that has tied the Primark PR department up in knots. So what is to be made of these labels that Primark assert were sewn onto its clothes in the UK? Why have they been interpreted as the long lost voice of Bangladeshi garment workers? And what is wrong with seeing them as a cry for help to which we must urgently respond? The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) is the largest trade union federation in Bangladesh's garment sector. It is currently campaigning to end inhumanely long hours and overtime. The label correctly states that workers in garment factories in Bangladesh work exhaustingly long hours. While by law there is a limit of eight hours plus two hours of overtime, workers routinely work 14 hours a day. Other campaigns being fought are for safe working conditions, maternity leave, child care centres in factories, adequate housing and for a living wage (workers currently get €53 a month, or €68 for more skilled workers). The overarching priority for the NGWF is, however, the organisation and unionisation of workers. President of the NGWF, Amir-ul-Haque Amin says: "We believe that trade unions in factories are the main tool for workers to bargain with management for better working conditions, better wages and to ensure safe workplaces." Unionising the Bangladeshi garment industry is a tough job. Out of four million garment workers only about 7% are currently unionised. It is also particularly tough to unionise an 85% female workforce in a heavily male dominated society where women remain marginalised and often uneducated and where intimidation techniques by factory bosses include sexual harassment, violence and sackings. Because of this the NGWF is running special leadership development programmes for women so that they can lead the organising process themselves. "Day by day the participation of young women inside trade unions is growing," says Amirul Haque Amin. "At present many young women are in leadership roles – at the factory level and at the federation level." But where is this narrative in the furore sparked by Labelgate? Why instead have there just been numerous hand-wringing articles focusing on consumerism, blaming low income shoppers for the evils of multinational corporations, and the victimhood of garment workers? The mystery Primark labels are a far more acceptable narrative than trade unionism because they fit the tedious stereotype of Asian women – helpless, passive and in need of saving by western people. A label sewn into a dress is like a message in a bottle – it has the prerequisite eastern mysticism, voices from a distant land and a quest to save mysterious, helpless women. Bangladeshi garment workers are neither mysterious nor in need of saving. Journalists and consumer organisations should call up the NGWF offices in Dhaka and get the organisation's opinion on the Bangladeshi garment industry. On Tuesday no one other than I had contacted the NGWF about the Primark labels. Their opinion is that poor pay and conditions are not unique to one brand (Primark) but rather "applicable to almost all the brands that are sourcing from Bangladesh." The NGWF is also clear that it does not want to see the destruction of the industry through consumer boycotts as there are no other job opportunities for the four million women working in those factories. They do however want people to work with them to pressure corporations into raising pay and conditions. "People in the UK should ask brands like Primark, Marks & Spencer, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, or New Look – about the reality of their supply chain," says Amin. "They should pressure brands to disclose their suppliers and to sign the Bangladesh accord, and to ensure a fair price of Bangladeshi garments and pay a living wage to garment workers." Pressure groups like War on Want and Labour Behind the Label are helping workers. But other consumer groups should also contact NGWF to discuss how they could help. In the 1990's, to guard against patronising or victimising garment workers, the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) adopted as its motto a few lines taken from Lilla Watson of the Aboriginal Activists Group in Queensland, Australia in the 1970's: "If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you've come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together." Progressive change in Bangladesh depends on millions of young women taking on some of the world's most repressive institutions and corporations. They are already engaged in this fight and we can work with them. What we must not do is silence their agency and their role in history by reducing them to a passive cry for help. The fashion hub is funded by H&M. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/fashion', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog', 'fashion/fashion', 'fashion/fashion-industry', 'world/bangladesh', 'business/primark', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/corporate-governance', 'world/unions', 'lifeandstyle/women', 'tone/blog', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/sustainable-fashion', 'global-development/garment-workers', 'profile/tansy-hoskins'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-02T12:29:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
us-news/2017/jan/24/keystone-xl-dakota-access-pipeline-explainer | How Keystone XL and Dakota Access went from opposition to resurrection | Both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects – revived by Donald Trump by executive order on Tuesday – ran up against grassroots opposition fortified by support from the Barack Obama administration. The Keystone XL project was rejected by the president himself in November 2015 after the state department concluded that the pipeline promised no major benefit for energy security or pricing. The Dakota Access pipeline project stalled out more recently, in December 2016, when the US army corps of engineers announced it would not grant a permit for the line to run under the Missouri river at a proposed site in North Dakota. “The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all of Indian Country will be forever grateful to the Obama administration for this historic decision,” tribal chairman Dave Archambault said in a statement at the time. But a tribe attorney warned that future president Trump could try to overturn the Army corps decision – an effort that now appears to be under way.” Both pipeline projects have also been mired in court battles. The company behind the Keystone pipeline, TransCanada Corporation, filed two legal challenges in January 2016 accusing accusing Obama of overstepping his authority and violating the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta). The company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, asked a federal judge in December to allow it to drill under the Missouri river immediately, despite its failure to win a permit from the army corps. While both pipelines have produced high-profile clashes between environmentalists and energy interests, the conflict over the Keystone pipeline has run for much longer, since Obama first blocked it in early 2012. The plan for the Dakota Access pipeline, which is mostly completed, was presented to the public in 2014. Opposition to the Keystone project was driven by grassroots environmental activism. Campaigners from 350.org and other environmental groups made it a test case of Obama’s promise to act on climate change – elevating a little-noticed infrastructure project into a national issue. Opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline was identified with the Native American protesters who began to set up protest camps in April 2016, warning that a portion of the proposed pipeline route crossed sacred tribal grounds and that the line threatened to contaminate sources of drinking water. The local Standing Rock Sioux tribe and thousands of Native American supporters from across North America eventually set up camps in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to try and block the oil project. The Dakota Access pipeline is a $3.7bn project that would transport crude oil from the Bakken oil field in North Dakota to a refinery to Patoka, Illinois, near Chicago. The Keystone project was projected to cost about twice as much. The finished Keystone pipeline would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast. Defenders of the Keystone project argued that it would create as many as 50,000 construction jobs. The state department estimated the project would create 5,000 to 6,000 construction jobs, while the Obama White House put the figure even lower, at 2,000 construction jobs, and then just 50 to 100 jobs a year. The Canadian government lobbied on behalf of the Keystone project. However, a planned trip by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, a top aide, to meet with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday was shelved due to “logistical problems”, Reuters quoted an unnamed Canadian government source as saying. | ['us-news/dakota-access-pipeline', 'environment/keystone-xl-pipeline', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'environment/oil', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/tommccarthy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2017-01-24T18:12:32Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2023/sep/05/england-sarah-glenn-surprised-by-huge-disparity-in-women-umpire-fees-cricket | England’s Sarah Glenn ‘surprised’ by huge disparity in women umpires’ fees | The England cricketer Sarah Glenn has called on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to introduce equal pay for women’s cricket umpires and said she was “surprised” by the huge disparity in fees between the men’s and women’s game revealed by the Guardian on Monday. Speaking in the buildup to England’s third T20 international against Sri Lanka at Derby, the leg-spinner Glenn said that, following the recent decision to equalise the match fees for the England women’s and men’s teams with immediate effect, the right to equal pay should be extended to the officials in charge. “It [unequal pay for women’s umpires] does surprise me a little bit, but also we know that we’re trying to work towards getting equal pay,” Glenn said. “From an umpiring position, it’s a similar job and you do have the same pressures, so hopefully that changes quite soon and they get that equal pay, like we are getting now.” The Guardian disclosed that umpires were paid about three times as much to officiate in the 2023 edition of the men’s Hundred as in the women’s Hundred. On-field and TV umpires in the women’s tournament were paid a fee of £300 to officiate in each group stage match, while those tasked with officiating in men’s group stage matches were paid £1,000 per game. For the finals, the fees were £1,000 and £2,500 respectively. One women’s cricket umpire, speaking to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, concurred with Glenn: “We’re all doing the same tournament. The women’s matches are televised, the same as the men’s, so there’s nothing different. We all have full DRS. I’m not sure there’s enough difference to justify that much difference in pay.” In a statement issued to the Guardian on Monday, an ECB spokesperson committed to “increasing pay for umpires who officiate in women’s professional cricket ahead of the 2024 season”. The problem for the ECB is that the women’s professional game has grown at such a fast rate that the existing umpiring structures have not kept pace with the rate of change. In 2020, domestic women’s cricket was restructured into eight new regions, with each offering annual contracts to domestic players; alongside this, the launch of the Hundred competition in 2021 has vastly expanded professional opportunities in women’s cricket. However, from an umpiring perspective, the men’s and women’s structures remain worlds apart. As revealed by the Guardian, umpires in elite domestic women’s cricket are on part-time retainer contracts and continue to be required to hold down other jobs, or study, alongside their officiating duties. England next take to the field in their series decider against Sri Lanka at Derby on Wednesday, and will have to again manage without Lauren Bell. The seam bowler is still recovering from the illness which ruled her out of the first two T20 internationals. | ['sport/womenscricket', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-spin', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/sport-politics', 'sport/the-hundred', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/raf-nicholson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-09-05T15:13:25Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
media/2006/jun/14/overnights | TV ratings: June 13 | Brazil's first outing in the 2006 World Cup brought nearly 10 million viewers to BBC1 last night for a 1-0 victory over Croatia. Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and the gang proved their pulling power, with live coverage of the match attracting 9.5 million viewers and a 40% share on BBC1 between 8pm and 10pm, according to unofficial overnights. Brazil v Croatia comfortably drew the best World Cup ratings so far for any match not involving England, with the audience hitting a 15-minute peak of 10 million viewers from 8.30pm. With all three of yesterday's matches broadcast on BBC1, the network enjoyed a hefty World Cup ratings boost. Six hours of live football helped propel its audience share for the day to 30.7%, compared with a three-month Tuesday average of 24.9%. France's 0-0 draw with Switzerland drew 5.2 million viewers and a 36% share to BBC1 over two hours from 5pm. Earlier in the afternoon, South Korea's 2-1 win over Togo was watched by 2.2 million - a 35% share - from 2pm. BBC1's football-inspired ratings bonanza yesterday came at the expense of BBC2, Channel Five and multichannel television, which were all down on their three-month averages for Tuesday. ITV1 came out evens, with an 18% share, matching its Tuesday average for the past three months. This was largely due to Coronation Street which, on a rare Tuesday night outing, attracted 7 million viewers and a 36% share between 7.30pm and 8pm. Against Brazil v Croatia, ITV1 ran a Midsomer Murders repeat, which attracted 3.7 million viewers and a 16% share over two hours from 8pm. Then from 10pm, Emmerdale, displaced from its normal 7pm slot, drew 4.7 million viewers and a 23% share. Channel 4's Big Brother is holding up pretty well against live World Cup action, with last night's edition attracting 4.6 million viewers and a 19% share from 9pm - the same audience as a week ago, though a drop of three share points. However, Five's CSI seems to have been squeezed, with the popular US crime drama's audience down by a million, week-on-week, to 3 million viewers. CSI's share last night was 8% - down from 14% the previous Tuesday. On BBC2 from 9pm, new documentary series China opened with 1.7 million viewers and a 7% share over 60 minutes. Deal or No Deal is also doing a job for Channel 4 in its peak time slot of 8-9pm during the opening week of the World Cup. Last night, the Noel Edmonds' fronted gameshow attracted 2.8 million viewers and a 12% share. A week ago, Location, Location, Location drew the same share in the half hour to 8.30pm, while in the back half of the hour Turn Back Your Body Clock attracted 9% of the audience. Deal or No Deal also got the better of BBC2's Springwatch yesterday, which drew 2.4 million viewers and an 11% share. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/tvratings', 'media/media', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'media/bbc1', 'type/article', 'profile/jasondeans'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2006-06-14T11:27:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2014/aug/19/cutting-ret-bankrupt-wind-farms-energy-companies | Cutting RET could bankrupt wind farms, energy companies warn | Cutting the renewable energy target could bankrupt existing wind farms and lead to legal action against the commonwealth government, energy companies have warned. The government has long been divided over whether to pare back the scheme or close it down to all new entrants – the two options being considered by its review, headed by the businessman and self-professed climate sceptic Dick Warburton. The review delivered its report on Friday. Supporters of the “paring back” plan, understood to include environment minister Greg Hunt, have presented the “paring back” option as a compromise plan, which would allow some new investment and existing projects to continue, and would also have a better chance of passing the senate because it could be argued that it was in line with the original intent of the RET policy. The plan is also supported by fossil fuel energy companies whose profits would be boosted by at least $10bn by the policy, according to new research. But some parts of the renewable industry says paring back the RET would be almost as devastating to their existing investments – made at a time of clear bipartisan support for a RET targeting 41,000 gigawatt hours of renewable energy by 2020. The “paring back” option would also devastate the solar PV and solar hot water industries, according to the Solar Council, which has begun a marginal seat campaign to rally support. The campaign begins with a public meeting in the Liberal’s most marginal seat of Petrie on Thursday night, but local MP Luke Howarth, who was consulted before the meeting date was set, is now not attending. Guardian Australia understands the government has taken a decision that local members should not attend the rallies. Howarth told the Courier Mail “we’re not slashing the RET at all it’s just plain false” and told Guardian Australia last month he was a big supporter of solar power and renewable energy. “There are obviously mixed feelings about it, but I think renewable energy is a good thing,” he said. But the Solar Council says even the “paring back” option would cost 8,000 jobs. And according to Miles George, the chief executive of Infigen, which has invested $1.2bn in Australian renewable projects, even the “mild” option of paring back the RET would drastically reduce the value of the renewable energy certificates that are traded on the market created by the renewable energy target. “If you lower the target the value of renewable energy certificates will remain very depressed. Investments have been made on price assumptions based on what was bipartisan policy. If you lower the target their value will be enormously depressed. Without some specific policy to protect existing investments, that means it will only take a short time before our debt covenants kick in and we will go bankrupt,” George said. “Of course we would look at our legal options if that happened, we have a responsibility to our shareholders. That is exactly what happened in Spain when they retrospectively changed policy.” Pacific Hydro spokesman Andrew Richards said reducing the RET would but renewable businesses “under duress”. “Reducing the RET will reduce renewable energy certificate prices by between 50% and 60%. Investments have been based on the previous bipartisan policy, so existing assets that have not got long term contracts will be under extreme duress and other assets will be under duress when they have to refinance – that is almost the dictionary definition of sovereign risk.” Andrew Thomas, chief executive of Acciona, said the impact would depend on the policy detail, but if companies did not have long term power supply contracts “some existing assets could come under extreme pressure and whether companies can withstand that or not is the question”. The option of closing the scheme to new entrants was widely seen as having the most support in government, including long standing and strong support from the prime minister, but Hunt, is understood to have favoured paring back the RET. After the Palmer United party said in June that it would not pass any changes to the RET in this term of government, the “paring back” option gained ground as more politically realistic, because it could be argued the original intent of the policy was to deliver 20% of energy from renewables by 2020. Because of falling electricity demand, the RET’s designated 41,000 gigawatt hours will represent closer to 28% if the policy is left unchanged. Palmer reiterated on Monday that he would not support any changes to the scheme during this parliament. As well, several modelling exercises – including one done for the review itself – showed that closing the RET to new entrants would not reduce electricity prices, which was the reason given by the prime minister for reviewing the program in the first place. “We have to accept that in the changed circumstances of today, the renewable energy target is causing pretty significant price pressure in the system and we ought to be an affordable energy superpower … cheap energy ought to be one of our comparative advantages,” Abbott said last year. But according to sources, as the review process reached its conclusion and began providing briefings to the prime minister’s office, with the “paring back” option appearing to be the most likely, the office intervened to insist on more work on the policy of closing the RET to new entrants. If it was reduced to a “real 20%” under the “paring back” option it would deliver around 25,000 gigawatt hours. If it was closed to new entrants it would deliver 17,000 gigawatt hours. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2014-08-19T20:10:02Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2010/aug/03/bp-oil-spill-final-test-static-kill | BP oil spill: final tests due before 'static kill' | BP hopes to carry out a crucial test later today in final preparation for sealing the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico, which scientists agreed last night has been responsible for the worst accidental oil spill in history. Nearly 5m barrels of oil have gushed into the ocean since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank in April, according to federal scientists. That makes the spill larger than the 3.3m barrels released into Mexico's Bay of Campeche when the Ixtoc I oil rig suffered a catastrophic blowout in 1979. At its peak, the BP well was spewing 62,000 barrels a day, according to the federal team, which is higher than the original worst-case scenario of 60,000. But by the time that BP was able to cap the well last month that figure had dropped to 53,000 a day. The new estimate of the size of the spill – of a total of 4.9m barrels – means the potential penalty that BP faces under US law has ballooned. Under the Clean Water Act, BP faces a fine of $1,100 (£691) a barrel, or $4,300 a barrel if it is found that the spill was the result of gross negligence. As a result, BP could be fined either $5.4bn or $21bn. The federal team reckon BP's own containment efforts saved about 800,000 barrels which could be taken into account as a mitigating factor, reducing the fine to either $4.5bn or $17.6bn. The largest oil spill in history came at the end of the first Gulf war in 1991 when retreating Iraqi forces destroyed countless Kuwaiti wells, which resulted in an estimated 1.4m to 1.5m tonnes of oil being released into the Persian Gulf. That spill is not, of course, counted as accidental. In an attempt to finally close the Macondo well, BP engineers will today carry out a pressure test to see whether they can begin the so-called 'static kill' procedure, which involves pumping heavy drilling mud into the well. If tests go to plan, BP will begin pumping mud into the well from a nearby ship loaded with 8,000 barrels of it. The plan is to slowly force the oil back down into the reservoir by steadily pumping in the heavier mud. If successful, BP will be able to either cement the well from the top, or wait until the relief wells – which are due to be completed later this month – have reached the correct depth and cement the well from the bottom. Preparations for the "injectivity" test – which was delayed on Monday because of a small leak of hydraulic fluid in a control panel – come as it emerged BP has sent a bill for $480m to one of its partners in the well. Japan's Mitsui, which has a 10% stake in the well through its unit Mitsui Oil Exploration, said overnight that it has received a bill for $480m from BP which it will "carefully" study but has yet to decide if it will pay any clean-up costs. Last month it emerged that BP was looking to recoup some of the costs of the clean-up from Mitsui and Canada's Anadarko Petroleum, which has a 25% share in the well. Anadarko has flatly refused to accept any blame for the disaster. In June its chairman and chief executive, Jim Hackett, said BP's actions probably amounted to "gross negligence or wilful misconduct". Last month, BP announced that it had set aside $32.2bn to pay for the spill as embattled chief executive Tony Hayward announced plans to quit his job. | ['environment/bp-oil-spill', 'business/bp', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil-spills', 'tone/news', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/richardwray'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-08-03T08:05:36Z | true | ENERGY |
books/2019/nov/29/waterstones-books-of-the-year-better-kinder-world-greta-thunberg | Waterstones chooses books of the year 'for a better, kinder world' | With the UK in the throes of a divisive election campaign and scientists warning that we are in a “planetary emergency”, Waterstones has chosen two titles that “call for a better and kinder world” as its books of the year. After nominations from staff, a panel at the country’s largest book chain picked Charlie Mackesy’s illustrated call for love, friendship and kindness, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, as book of the year, and Greta Thunberg, author of No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, as author of the year. Both choices, said bookseller Kate McHale, are “testament to the extraordinary power of books to move and shape us”. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse follows the titular characters as they explore the meaning of the important things in life. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” asks the mole. “Kind,” replies the boy. “What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever said?” asks the boy. “Help,” says the horse. Mackesy’s publishers originally planned to print 10,000 copies but increased the print run to more than 200,000 within two weeks when it became a surprise Christmas hit. Kurde, a bookseller at Waterstones Horsham, called it “beautiful in sentiment and look, the type of book you buy, then think who to give it to and end up keeping yourself”, while Nia at Waterstones Cardiff said that it “shows that love towards yourself and others is the only thing that truly matters in our hectic world”. Thunberg’s collection of speeches was called a “rallying cry for the protection of our planet” and “one of the most influential books of 2019” by the chain. Bookseller Anna, from the Putney branch, said she didn’t think “there is a more important or powerful book than this one this year”, while Dave at Exeter felt it was “inspiring young people to change the world for the better”. The shortlisted titles also included Candice Carty-Williams’s Costa-shortlisted debut novel Queenie, Margaret Atwood’s Booker-winning The Testaments, and Robert Macfarlane’s Underland. Waterstones said that nominations for both winners had been “singularly passionate, reflecting the strength of feeling towards two quite different books that have together defined 2019”. “On the one hand we have the urgent message of No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, from an author who has encapsulated and magnified the immense public concern over the climate crisis. On the other, the consoling beauty of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, an exquisite book that captures a yearning for a kinder world,” said the bookseller. | ['books/books', 'books/waterstones', 'books/booksellers', 'culture/culture', 'uk/uk', 'books/booksforchildrenandteenagers', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alisonflood', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-11-29T00:01:52Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2018/dec/14/reforesting-world-australian-farmer-240m-trees | Reforesting the world: the Australian farmer with 240m trees to his name | Through the cacophony of the UN’s global climate talks, an Australian farmer is quietly spreading his plan to reforest the world. Over more than 30 years in west Africa, Tony Rinaudo has regenerated more than 6m hectares – an area nearly as large as Tasmania. His farmer-managed natural regeneration technique is responsible for 240m trees regrowing across that parched continent. But it very nearly never happened. Having grown up in Myrtleford, in country Victoria, Rinaudo moved to Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, in 1981, inspired by his Christian faith and a desire “somewhere, somehow to make a difference”. But after two years of intense tree-planting and trying to coax some life from the arid landscape regularly devastated by severe drought, he despaired. “I was in charge of a reforestation project that was failing miserably, it wasn’t that I was particularly dumb, it was the same story all over west Africa. And I remember the frustration that just hit me: north, south, east, west, was a barren landscape, and I knew perfectly well that 80 or 90% of the trees I was carrying [in my car] for planting would die.” But this day, crouching in the sand to reduce his tyres’ air pressure, he looked more closely at the few low desert bushes scattered around the landscape, the only thing that would grow there. Rinaudo knew they were not small bushes, but trees that had been hacked down. Looking more closely, he realised that, if pruned and allowed to grow, they stood a chance of flourishing. “In that moment, everything changed. We didn’t need to plant trees, it wasn’t a question of having a multi-million dollar budget and years to do it, everything you needed was in the ground.” The root system of the chopped down trees remained alive under the ground – Rinaudo describes it as an “underground forest” – it just needed to be pruned and allowed to grow. “Nature would heal itself, you just needed to stop hammering it.” Thirty years on, his technique – he describes it as akin to pruning a grape vine back to just one or two stems each season – has a name, farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR). It is, Rinaudo says, an “embarrassingly simple solution” to what appeared to be an intractable problem. But it involved overturning generations of accepted wisdom, and a resistance to giving some land back to nature. “When you’ve got people who are on the edge of starvation every year, not just in famine years, you’ve got this perception that you need every square inch of farmland to grow food crops. And here’s this nut telling people they should sacrifice some of their land for trees.” Rinaudo – known then as “the crazy white farmer” – managed to convince 10 farmers in as many villages to back his plan, to allow trees to regrow across the land they’d been intensively farming for decades. A drought was the catalyst for a work-for-food program, which brought reluctant farmers into the fold, but when the farming yields were, at first, no worse, then better, then dramatically so, the new technique took off. Thirty years on, 6m hectares of land have been regenerated under FMNR, totalling 240m trees. The reforestation of the landscape can be seen on satellite images from space. At the UN’s global climate talks in Katowice, Poland, this week – as thousands of delegates from all over the world debated the minutiae of a complex worldwide rulebook for climate change – Rinaudo quietly took his farming message from meeting room to meeting room, delegation to delegation. The trees, Rinaudo says, improve farming yields, reduce ground temperatures and hold water in the soil. They provide firewood and make farming, in places where the temperature regularly reaches 40C, more comfortable. But the trees also act, Rinaudo says, as a powerful carbon sink, and with the potential to draw in billions more tonnes of carbon. For his work on regeneration, Rinaudo was recognised this year in the Right Livelihood Awards, often described as the alternative Nobel, and focused on fields such as environmental protection, human rights, sustainability and peace. Working with World Vision, Rinaudo has taken his technique across the world, from arid Somaliland to tropical East Timor. There are 2bn hectares of degraded land in the world, he argues, and much of that land can be restored to help pull carbon from the atmosphere. Regeneration is not the silver bullet for climate change – no such thing exists – but it could be a powerful tool to assist. “We can do this very cheaply, we can do this very quickly, and we can do this at scale.” | ['environment/forests', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/africa', 'world/niger', 'australia-news/victoria', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/ben-doherty', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-12-13T23:17:44Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2018/nov/02/2018-among-hottest-and-driest-years-so-far-in-parts-of-australia | 2018 among hottest and driest years so far in parts of Australia | As a bushfire burned out of control south-west of Canberra and temperatures in Sydney climbed towards the high 30s, new data showed 2018 had so far been among the hottest and driest years on record for parts of Australia. The months from January to October were some of the driest on record for New South Wales, Victoria and the Murray Darling basin regions, despite the recent rainfall. The monthly drought statement from the Bureau of Meteorology (Bom) also says Australia’s maximum temperatures so far this year have been the second warmest on record – 1.41C above average. New South Wales had its hottest January to October period on record at 2.2C above average, and Victoria equalled its 2014 record of 1.48C above average. The capital cities experienced more warm conditions this week – Sydney was expected to reach 38C on Friday and Canberra and Melbourne recorded temperatures in the low and mid-30s during the week. A large mass of hot air moving across NSW on Friday was responsible for driving temperatures up, prompting the rural fire service to raise the fire danger to severe for the Southern Ranges, Illawarra, Greater Sydney and Hunter regions at lunchtime on Friday. Total fire bans are in place across those regions. Further south, authorities were warning about a bushfire burning in Canberra’s southern suburbs. The bureau said the year to date had been exceptionally dry over mainland southeast Australia and “significant rainfall deficiencies” continued to affect large parts of east Australia. “Compared to other January to October periods since 1900, year-to-date rainfall has been the third-lowest on record for the Murray–Darling Basin, fourth-lowest for New South Wales, and eighth-lowest for Victoria,” the Bom statement said. It noted that October had been wetter than average for much of Australia but this had had little impact for areas affected by drought since the start of the year. South-east Australia recorded below-average rainfall during October. “Meteorological drought is rarely broken in a single event or month; typically regular rainfall over a period of several months is required to remove rainfall deficiencies of the magnitude of those currently in place,” the bureau said. On Friday afternoon it published a special climate statement on the abnormally dry period eastern Australia has experienced since the start of 2017. Blair Trewin, a senior climatologist at the Bom, said that for the Murray Darling basin regions, in particular, it had been “one of the most significant dry periods on record”. Through the Murray Darling basin, rainfall for January to September this year was the second lowest for that period since 1902. January 2017 to the end of September 2018 was the third lowest rainfall on record for that 21 month period after 1902 and 2006-07. In eastern Victoria, parts of the Gippsland region had their driest January to September on record this year. Finally, Trewin said the Illawarra region of NSW, and parts of Sydney and the southern highlands, had recorded their lowest rainfall on record for the 15 month period from July last year to September 2018. “This drought has been accompanied by very high temperatures,” Trewin said. “NSW, during the first 10 months of this year, has had its hottest January to October on record. “The fact that you’ve got the warmer temperatures increases the impact of the dry conditions.” | ['australia-news/australia-weather', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/drought', 'weather/sydney', 'weather/canberra', 'weather/melbourne', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-11-02T02:16:35Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2020/mar/01/hybrid-carmakers-accused-of-con-over-zero-emissions-claims | Hybrid carmakers accused of 'con' over zero-emissions claims | Drivers hoping their new plug-in hybrid car will help cut down their carbon footprint may have an unlikely enemy: cold weather. Zero-emissions driving can be impossible for some of the UK’s bestselling plug-in hybrid models when the air is chilly or if passengers do as little as switching on the heating – even if the battery is fully charged. Plug-hybrids allow drivers to switch between battery electric power and an internal combustion engine, delivering significant emissions improvements over conventional cars. However, environmental campaigners have long harboured concerns that plug-in hybrids do not offer the environmental benefits suggested by carmakers’ advertising or regulators’ laboratory tests. All of the UK’s top 11 bestselling plug-in hybrids have limitations on pure electric driving ability. Cold temperatures can trigger the internal combustion engine in Volvo’s XC90 SUV, the Mercedes-Benz E Class executive car, and Kia’s Niro crossover. The Mitsubishi Outlander SUV, the UK’s bestselling plug-in last year, has an “EV” button that switches on “EV priority” mode. However, the internal combustion engine will kick in if the driver switches on the adaptive cruise control, to automatically maintain a safe distance from the car in front, or if the battery gets too hot or too cold in more extreme conditions. Jaguar Land Rover’s Range Rover and Range Rover Sport plug-ins will start their internal combustion engines if more power is required than the electric engine can provide alone, as will Porsche’s Cayenne. There are also speed limits on all-electric driving for BMW’s 2, 3 and 5 Series cars as well its Mini Countryman plug-in. The carmakers all carefully avoid making any incorrect claims on their products’ green credentials in their marketing materials. However, campaigners have criticised the emphasis in many brochures and advertisements on zero-emissions driving capabilities, when these may be difficult to achieve in normal use. Greg Archer, UK director at campaign group Transport & Environment, said one leading carmaker “is conning its customers”, after it was approached by an unhappy owner of a plug-in hybrid. The group, which passed the correspondence to the Guardian, has been highly critical of plug-in hybrids, some of which it labels “fake EVs” because of their continued use of internal combustion engines. “A [plug-in hybrid] is not driving with zero emissions if it switches on its engine when the driver de-mists the windscreen,” Archer said. “This is another example of carmakers attempting to mislead their customers about the real emissions from their car.” Separate data from the Miles Consultancy, which tracks fuel use by companies, found that in real life almost all plug-in hybrid cars failed to achieve the mileage found in lab tests, suggesting that many users do not charge them sufficiently. Updated analysis for the Guardian of 1,388 plug-ins used over eight months found they achieved an average of more than 40 miles per gallon when using a mixture of petrol and electric power, only a third of the 127 miles per gallon advertised by their manufacturers. Last month the government said it plans to ban all hybrids from sale in the UK from 2035 or earlier, signalling that promoting battery electric cars with zero exhaust emissions was its priority. Buyers of plug-in hybrids could also risk being caught by tightening emissions limits in British cities. The prospect of a hybrid ban infuriated carmakers, who say the technology is the only way to cut emissions quickly. The carbon dioxide emissions of cars sold in the UK rose for the third consecutive year in 2019. Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: “Plug-in hybrids are an important and attractive stepping stone for people not yet suited or able to invest in a fully electric vehicle, giving the flexibility of zero-emission miles on urban commutes and extended range for longer, out-of-town journeys. “Drivers also have the peace of mind that the engine will kick in to provide the necessary boost if the battery level falls too low to deliver sufficient power for energy-intensive operations such as high-speed overtaking or windscreen de-icing, thus guaranteeing safety and the most efficient use of energy at all times.” Selling thousands of plug-in hybrids is also a key part of carmakers’ plans to meet tightening emissions limits and avoid heavy fines, and industry analysts expect a hybrid “price war” over the coming year as companies try to shift the cars in large volumes. Companies including Toyota, BMW and Daimler have bet heavily on hybrid technologies. “The vast majority of owners we surveyed use their Outlander [plug-in hybrid] as it was engineered and are enjoying a lower carbon footprint and lower running costs as a result,” a spokeswoman for Mitsubishi said. | ['business/automotive-industry', 'environment/electric-cars', 'business/business', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/ethical-living', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-03-01T13:33:50Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2018/mar/27/labor-and-greens-fail-in-first-attempt-to-disallow-coalitions-marine-park-plans | Labor and Greens fail in first attempt to disallow Coalition's marine park plans | A first attempt by Labor and the Greens to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government last week has failed in the Senate after the government flipped the order of business and brought on the chamber debate. The Turnbull government on Tuesday night pulled its proposal to lower the tax rate for big business to 25% and abruptly changed the order of business in the Senate to force consideration of Labor’s disallowance motion on the marine parks. Labor proposed the disallowance last week as soon as the government unveiled its marine park management plans, but the Greens did not come on board with the motion until this week. The government moved to bring on debate about the disallowance motion on Tuesday night knowing that Labor and the Greens did not yet have the numbers to scuttle the management plans. Labor and the Greens in the Senate are a bloc of 35, so another four votes are required for the majority required for a successful disallowance. Given Labor and the Greens lacked the numbers to land the disallowance, and had planned to build momentum between now and the budget session to help gather the requisite number of votes in the Senate, the government pulled a procedural tactic to bring on the vote. It was a highly unusual move by the Coalition, effectively triggering a parliamentary process to disallow its own regulations. Despite the motion being defeated in the Senate on Tuesday night, Labor and the Greens have the option of redrafting the disallowance and resubmitting it for consideration, which is likely to happen as soon as Wednesday. The Greens had hesitated when Labor first proposed the disallowance motion on the basis that if the marine park management plans were scuttled by the Senate, there would be no settled protection plans in place for the foreseeable future. But the Greens’ healthy oceans spokesman, Peter Whish-Wilson, locked in behind the disallowance early this week, branding the government plans “woefully inadequate”. He told the Senate on Tuesday night the management plans proposed by the Turnbull government were “nothing short of a disgrace”. Whish-Wilson said the government’s stated rationale for bringing on the disallowance motion was providing “certainty” for commercial fishing and for the oil and gas industry, but he branded that rationale “absolutely ridiculous”. He noted the environment movement was currently divided about how to proceed, with some campaigners inclined to support the Coalition’s management plans because, “as inadequate as they are, they view them as better than the status quo and better than the alternative of uncertainty” – and others of a view that the management plans needed to be blocked. Whish-Wilson said the debate presented an opportunity to galvanise a national community campaign about healthy oceans, and he said the Greens and Labor would persist with efforts to disallow the government proposal. “We are not going away – and we’ve got plenty of time,” he said. “If you think the fight is over tonight, it’s not, we are coming back.” The shadow environment minister, Tony Burke, declared the only way to boost protections for oceans was to “change the government”. One Nation supports the Turnbull government’s management plans. The NXT senator Rex Patrick told the Senate on Tuesday night their bloc of two would back the government’s plans because if the disallowance proceeded there would be no protections, and the perfect could not become the enemy of the good. The remainder of the crossbench voted with the government. The disallowance vote was lost 28 to 34. The marine parks issue has a vexed political history. Labor, before it lost office in 2013, unveiled a network of 42 marine reserves that was largely welcomed by environmental groups but was designed to have a minimal impact on commercial activities, which led to some criticism from conservationists and scientists. When Tony Abbott came to government in 2013, Labor’s proposal was suspended. Abbott said he did not want to “lock up our oceans” and that more consultation was needed. The Turnbull government has taken the process through to its conclusion. Following a scientific review, the Coalition released draft management plans for consultation in September last year and the final boundaries appeared last Tuesday. The environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, has described the new regime as “a world-leading management regime” for Australia’s marine parks. Frydenberg said the new management plans would mean Australia had 36% of its waters included in marine parks, and the new plans would be beneficial for recreational fishers. | ['environment/marine-life', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australian-greens', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/liberal-party', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-03-27T09:02:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/dec/09/tropical-forests-can-regenerate-in-just-20-years-without-human-interference | Tropical forests can partially regenerate in just 20 years without human interference | Tropical forests can bounce back with surprising rapidity, a new study published today suggests. An international group of researchers looking at a number of aspects of tropical forests has found that the potential for regrowth is substantial if they are left untouched by humans for about 20 years. For example, soil takes an average of 10 years to recover its previous status, plant community and animal biodiversity take 60 years, and overall biomass takes a total of 120, according to their calculations.” This is due in part to a multidimensional mechanism whereby old forest flora and fauna help a new generation of forest grow – a natural process known as “secondary succession”. These new findings, published in Science, could play an important role in climate-breakdown mitigation and provide actionable advice on how to act next. They also suggest that it is not too late to undo the damage that humanity has done through catastrophic climate change over the last few decades. “That’s good news, because the implication is that, 20 years … that’s a realistic time that I can think of, and that my daughter can think of, and that the policymakers can think of,” said Lourens Poorter, professor in functional ecology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and lead author of the paper. This idea of natural regeneration is frequently disregarded in favour of tree plantations, but according to Poorter, the former yields better results than restoration plantings. “Compared to planting new trees, it performs way better in terms of biodiversity, climate change mitigation and recovering nutrients.” The takeaway message is that we don’t necessarily need to plant more trees when nature is doing it by itself, Poorter said. For this study, more than 90 researchers from all over the world came together to analyse exactly how tropical forest regrowth takes place. They pored over data about forest recovery from three continents, 77 sites and 2,275 plots of land in the Americas and West Africa. From there, they evaluated 12 specific criteria, such as the soil, plant functioning, ecosystem structure and biodiversity, and more. They then modelled this data – without which they would have had to wait for over 100 years to see this happen in the real world – with a technique called chronosequencing, allowing them to infer long-term trends in forest recovery. The researchers looked in particular at what happens to tropical forest land that has been used for agriculture or farming and is then abandoned after a couple of seasons. They found that the old forest portion – including some fertile soil, any residual trees, seed banks and maybe stumps that can resprout – created a nourishing, interconnected ecosystem for new forest to start to grow. The researchers found that different aspects take, respectively, more or less time to recover to the levels of “old forest” before it was used. But overall, tropical forests can get back to roughly 78% of their old-growth status in just 20 years. “That’s tremendously fast – surprisingly fast,” Poorter said. Of course, these are just calculations, and one of the constraints of chronosequence-based analyses is that every location analysed is assumed to have the same history and successional dynamics, said Eric Salas, a researcher in geospatial sciences at Central State University who was not involved in this study. So there can be some misinterpretation. “But understanding how secondary forests emerge naturally on abandoned agricultural lands is critical for ensuring biodiversity conservation,” Salas said, “particularly in tropical settings, where forests have complex structure and flora and fauna species are diverse.” The findings could be crucial for climate mitigation action in the future. “For example, the secondary forests are like teenagers. They soak up carbon like crazy and they empty your fridge,” Poorter said. “If you look at old people, they consume very little, and it’s the same as the old growth forest.” “What we want to advocate is: ‘Please value those secondary forests, and in areas where you can, please let those forests regrow back again naturally,” Poorter said. He mentions that a lot of the promises that have been made about planting trees in order to restore forests across the world are unrealistic. Most of the time, 30%-50% of those trees die, and they only pertain to a couple of species that cannot mimic the natural biodiversity of forests, according to Poorter. “My plea is to use natural regrowth where you can and plant actively and restore actively where you need to. There’s a case-by-case approach, and this all depends on the local conditions and also on the local needs of the people because they live in these landscapes.” • The headline and text of this article were amended on 13 December 2021 to correctly state that tropical forests can partially recover if left untouched by humans, not that they can almost fully regrow as an earlier version stated. | ['environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sofia-quaglia', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-12-09T19:00:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/cif-green/2010/jun/08/rewards-for-recycling-create-waste | Rewards for recycling may encourage people to create waste | James Garvey | What is the best way to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfills: the carrot or the stick? The Labour government considered both, taking some heat just for proposing the stick. Under pay as you throw schemes, electronic chips fitted to bins monitor and fine households which throw away too much. There was talk of Big Brother sifting through your rubbish and an unfair tax on large families. Unsurprisingly, the scheme was never taken forward. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, says that the new government will not go ahead with penalties for overstuffed bins. Instead, individuals can earn points for putting out more recyclable waste – points worth up to £130 in local shops. It's the same chip and bin technology, but now you earn points rather than pay fines. In a reward scheme piloted in Windsor and Maidenhead, 70% of the families offered the chance to take part did so. With every kilo of recycled waste worth 5.5 reward points, almost 6m points have been racked up so far. Instead of protests over sinister, automated bin inspectors, the good people of Windsor and Maidenhead voluntarily and possibly happily increased their recycling by 35% in six months. By January 2011 the scheme will be up and running for all households in the community – 60,000 people will get the chance to join in. There's not much to choose between these two forms of behaviour modification. We've known for a while about reinforcing desired behaviour with rewards and extinguishing unwanted behaviour with punishments. A painful stimulus (a penalty charge) accompanying waste will lead to less wasteful behaviour. A pleasant stimulus (free stuff) accompanying recycling will lead to more recycling behaviour. There's almost no limit to what you can do with rewards and punishments. You could make a rat recycle the paper in its cage – it's just a matter of voltage. What you can't do with this method is convey an understanding of the importance of recycling to your subject and change behaviour based on reasons rather than reactions. That's precisely the trouble with the carrot and stick approach to dealing with waste, and that's precisely why aspects of this scheme are a little suspect. It rewards people to produce more recyclable waste, rather than take steps to reduce the amount they produce in the first place. It rewards individuals for recycling disposable stuff by giving them the chance to buy yet more disposable stuff. It does nothing at all about the behaviour of the source of most of our household waste: the unnecessary packaging used by shops and suppliers. What's needed from the government isn't behaviour modification with a system of rewards and punishments. What's needed is an understanding of the problem and some help to solve it. The point of recycling has to do with understanding the importance of reducing waste in a finite world. It costs energy and resources to make a plastic bottle, fill it with water, package it and ship it to your local shop. We currently get almost all of that energy by burning fossil fuels and doing damage to our climate. The resources which go into the bottle's production, distribution and disposal might have been used in other, better ways. Once empty, the bottle might take up space in a landfill or end up in the ocean. If you understand the value of reducing waste in a finite world – if you want to avoid a hand in wasting energy, causing climate change, squandering resources, poisoning oceans – you might think twice about buying a bottle of water. If you recycle because you earn reward points for doing so, you might just buy a lot of plastic bottles. What is the best way to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfills? Something more subtle than carrots and sticks is needed. Recall that old bit of hippy wisdom: reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling is third on the list. It's our last resort, the worst option. It's what we do if we can't help but use recyclable stuff in the first place. But there's a very great deal we can do instead. If the government is serious about meeting EU targets and cutting the waste we send to landfills by two thirds by 2020, it knows that it must do better than reward points for plastic bottles. It has to do something about the source of plastic bottles and the vast amount of waste produced by supermarkets each day. That's not to say it can ignore us. It also has to do something about the ordinary person's thought that buying a cabbage wrapped in plastic is a reasonable thing to do. | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'type/article', 'profile/james-garvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2010-06-08T15:30:09Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2012/jun/25/florida-emergency-tropical-storm-debby | Florida declares state of emergency as Tropical Storm Debby moves closer | Florida's governor has declared a state of emergency in anticipation of flooding caused by Tropical Storm Debby, which is drifting languorously towards the state's Gulf coast. The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for the Tampa Bay area of Florida, as the storm's main threat comes from heavy rainfall rather than high winds. A storm warning from the National Hurricane Center applies to most of Florida's Gulf coast, from Destin to Englewood. Florida's governor, Rick Scott, advised state residents to be "very cautious". One person has been killed in Florida so far. Between 10 and 20 inches of rainfall is expected across northern and central Florida over the next couple of days, while some areas could see accumulations of up to 25in. Tornadoes are also possible across eastern Florida and southern Georgia, according to the NHC. Scott declared a level 1 state of emergency – the lowest level – in Tallahassee on Monday afternoon. "I think the most important thing is, one, just use common sense. Be careful," Scott said, according to the Bradenton Herald. "If you're close to a beach, be very cautious. Look at all the beach advisories. If there's any standing water, if there's any flooding, don't drive into it. Be very, very, very cautious." On Monday afternoon the NHC said Debby was "moving slowly northeastward" from its position around 50 miles south of Apalachicola, in northwest Florida. The storm's top sustained winds were around 45mph, with little change in strength expected over the next day or so. State officials estimated at least 35,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday, as authorities in the Tampa Bay area were asking residents and tourists to stay away from flooded streets. Some streets were still under water early Monday, while others were blocked with debris. The constant barrage of wind and rain triggered fears of the widespread flooding that occurred across the Florida panhandle during hurricane Dennis in 2005. Officials on Monday said the main bridge to St George Island was closed as the storm loomed. Power was already out on the island and authorities said it could be out for days. On Sunday the storm spawned several tornadoes which moved through Highlands County, around 100 miles southeast of Tampa, claiming one life, according to the local sheriff's office. Spokeswoman Nell Hays said a woman was found dead in a house in Venus that was destroyed in the storm. A child found in the same house was taken to the hospital. No further information was available on the child's condition or either person's age. A 32-year-old man disappeared off the Alabama coast in rough surf kicked up by Debby, with crews continuing to search for him on Monday morning. The man, from South Carolina, was vacationing with his family when he "disappeared into the rough surf", according to the local Press-Register newspaper. | ['world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-weather', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-gabbatt'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-06-25T19:45:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/mar/07/government-throws-its-weight-behind-offshore-wind-power-expansion | Government throws its weight behind offshore wind power expansion | The government will throw its weight behind an expansion in the use of offshore wind power in the hope the renewable energy source will provide a third of the UK’s electricity by 2030. In a deal between the government and the offshore wind sector, industry players have agreed to invest £250m over the next 11 years in exchange for participation in £557m of state subsidies for renewable energy. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said the deal could result in the number of jobs in offshore wind tripling to 27,000 by 2030, boosting the economies of coastal communities near major projects. The government also hopes the deal will cement Britain’s leading position in the technology and has set a target of boosting exports in the sector fivefold to £2.6bn a year. The UK already hosts the world’s largest offshore windfarm, off the coast of Yorkshire, which began powering the grid a month ago. Reaching a target of more than 30% of electricity coming from offshore wind would also mean that 70% of Britain’s energy would be from renewable sources by the end of the period. The energy and clean growth minister, Claire Perry, said: “This new sector deal will drive a surge in the clean, green offshore wind revolution that is powering homes and businesses across the UK, bringing investment into coastal communities and ensuring we maintain our position as global leaders in this growing sector. “By 2030 a third of our electricity will come from offshore wind, generating thousands of high-quality jobs across the UK, a strong UK supply chain and a fivefold increase in exports.” However, Greenpeace said the offshore wind deal did not go far enough and warned that renewables needed to be scaled up even more. John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “The government’s plans for a fleet of new nuclear reactors has collapsed. This leaves Britain with a big energy gap in the future. It means the government’s latest offshore wind target of 30 gigawatts by 2030 is woefully inadequate. “Renewable power now presents the best opportunity for cheaper, cleaner and faster decarbonisation. Wind and solar must be tripled between now and 2030, with offshore wind the future backbone of the UK’s energy system.” The deal will involve the release of seabed land owned by the Crown Estate, which manages the Queen’s property and assets. The government will also provide £4m for a programme to help countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan invest in offshore wind projects using British technology. BEIS said the deal would involve increasing the amount of participation by UK companies in offshore wind projects to 60% to ensure that the benefits of the investment go to communities “from Fife to the Isle of Wight”. Benj Sykes, UK country manager for Danish offshore wind power company Ørsted, said: “This relentlessly innovative sector is revitalising parts of the country which have never seen opportunities like this for years, especially coastal communities from Wick in the northern Scotland to the Isle of Wight, and from Barrow-in-Furness to the Humber. Companies are burgeoning in clusters, creating new centres of excellence in this clean growth boom.” | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rob-davies', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-03-07T00:01:07Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2022/jan/25/cyberpartisans-hack-belarusian-railway-to-disrupt-russian-buildup | ‘Cyberpartisans’ hack Belarusian railway to disrupt Russian buildup | Cyber-activists opposed to the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, say they have penetrated the state-run railway’s computer system and threatened to paralyse trains moving Russian troops and artillery to the country for a potential attack on Ukraine. Their goals include freeing political prisoners, removing Russian soldiers from Belarus and preventing Belarusians from “dying for this meaningless war”, a person involved in the attack told the Guardian. A member of the “Cyberpartisans” said the hacktivist group had so far encrypted or destroyed internal databases that the Belarusian railways use to control traffic, customs and stations, an action that could cause delays to commercial and non-commercial trains and “indirectly affect Russia troops movement”. They had so far avoided taking more drastic steps to paralyse trains by downing the signalling and emergency control systems, but said they “might do that in the future if we’re confident innocent people won’t get injured as a result”. The group has demanded that Belarus cease serving as a staging ground for a buildup of Russian troops and military weaponry, some of it just miles from the Ukrainian border. “We don’t want Russian soldiers in Belarus since it compromises the sovereignty of the country and puts it in danger of occupation,” the member of the Cyberpartisans told the Guardian. “It also pulls Belarus into a war with Ukraine. And probably Belarusian soldiers would have to participate in it and die for this meaningless war.” An unverified local report had said that the buildup may include nearly 200 trains with Russian troops and equipment (military exercises in 2021 involved just 29 trains), although the Cyberpartisans said they had not sought or found confirmation of that number in the hacked databases yet. To relinquish control over the Belarusian railways’ computer system, the group has also demanded the release of more than 50 political prisoners from Belarusian jails requiring medical assistance. The domestic human rights group Viasna has counted more than 995 political prisoners in Belarus following Lukashenko’s bloody crackdown on protests after elections marred by fraud in 2020. The latest hack highlights the prominent role that cyber-operations against infrastructure could play in an upcoming conflict in the region, and shows how Lukashenko’s domestic battles may follow him into his tightening alliance with the Kremlin. One key factor in the anti-Lukashenko protests that began in 2020 was opposition to plans for greater economic and political integration of Russia and Belarus under a “Union State”. Among Lukashenko’s staunchest opponents are the Cyberpartisans, a group of about 25 anonymous IT experts and other activists who have pulled off an impressive and embarrassing series of hacks against the government since they first appeared after the protests of 2020. That has included a daring raid on the servers of the Belarus Ministry of Interior Affairs, giving them access to data on thousands of serving police officers in a country where many had sought to hide their identities while brutally cracking down on civil protests. They have also obtained access to passport databases, secret files belonging to Belarusian KGB spies and security officials, police databases of informants, and prison CCTV networks confirming police brutality and torture. They have released hundreds of thousands of hours of wiretapped telephone conversations, including those of top officials. Recently, the group has expanded into targeting state companies and firms that serve as sources of cash for Lukashenko, using ransomware attacks to demand the release of political prisoners rather than money. “Since it became very dangerous for people to openly protest against the regime, we now became the only force capable of operating in Belarus,” said a member of the group, identified by the Cyrillic letter Ж (Zh). “We show real results of our work both by hacking and attacking government institutions and conducting physical impact operations.” To confirm access to a recent database of hacked records of border crossings, Zh sent a Guardian correspondent a full list of his travel records to Belarus going back to 2016. “We have it for sure,’ wrote Zh. “Just a sec.” That data would also allow the group to identify Belarusian and Russian spies crossing the country’s borders, Zh said, as well as “trips made by Lukashenko and his cronies and close circle, and would help reveal illegal activities and put sanctions on them. “We know now more about his assets, his lovers, and secret criminal schemes” because of the hacks, Zh said. “We think he only now realises how much information we were able to gather and how harmful it is for him.” The series of hacks has clearly shaken the government. The Cyberpartisans and two other pro-democracy groups were named as extremists this summer, and Lukashenko addressed the series of leaks by telling his top officials to write down information by hand instead. “If you cannot … protect information on your computers, then go back to using paper,” Lukashenko told his ministers at a meeting in mid-August. “Write by hand and put it in your desk.” Although members of the group remain anonymous (even to one another), their operations are still dangerous, they say, because they sometimes require insiders on the ground to take risks. To access the Interior Ministry network, “our people entered a regime’s facility and installed bridges that allowed us to connect to the MIA network remotely,” Zh said. Threatening to disrupt Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine is likely to force the government to redouble its efforts to track down the group. We are “concerned for our safety and to be honest, our lives,” wrote Zh. “The Belarusian government tries to infiltrate us but has not succeeded as of yet.” | ['world/belarus', 'world/russia', 'world/ukraine', 'world/alexander-lukashenko', 'world/europe-news', 'technology/cyberwar', 'world/espionage', 'technology/hacking', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/roth-andrew', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-01-25T17:54:46Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2024/nov/05/tropical-storm-rafael-caribbean | Tropical Storm Rafael gains intensity in Caribbean as it nears Cuba | Tropical Storm Rafael has grown more powerful in the Caribbean Sea and is poised to reach hurricane strength on Wednesday, carrying the risk of damaging wind and rainfall. But it should weaken as it approaches the US Gulf coast, where several states have not been hit by a hurricane in November, according to records maintained since the early months of the US civil war. Portions of the Florida Keys could see tropical storm conditions starting on Wednesday night, according to the National Hurricane Center. If Rafael approaches that area around high tide, Dry Tortugas could see 1-3ft of storm surge, which is a wall of water pushed inland by a storm’s winds. And the Lower Keys could see 1-2ft of storm surge, which are manageable levels. The National Hurricane Center said that several tornadoes are possible over the Keys, as well as Florida’s southernmost mainland, on Wednesday. Rafael traveled north-west on Tuesday morning, bringing heavy rain to Jamaica, the Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore said on Tuesday on X. “Jamaica and the Cayman Islands should have a nasty day and night with western Cuba getting it tomorrow,” Cantore wrote. “Depending on how fast it can intensify conditions will transition from [tropical storm] to hurricane over The Cayman Islands tonight.” The National Hurricane Service (NHS) said that Rafael could bring “damaging hurricane-force winds, a dangerous storm surge, and destructive waves” as it nears the Cayman Islands on Tuesday evening. The storm is expected to reach hurricane status near the Caymans and strengthen further before making landfall in Cuba. Rafael’s threat to Cuba comes just weeks after Hurricane Oscar dumped heavy rains on the island, leading to a nationwide blackout and killing at least seven people. Cuba is facing a lengthy recovery period, made all the more perilous by its worsening economic crisis, according to the Associated Press. Meteorologists have also warned warn that the higher areas of Cuba – as well as Jamaica – are at risk of flash flooding and mudslides. Forecasters believe that Rafael might also cause heavy rainfall in other US Gulf states, though dry air and lower water temperatures are expected to strip the storm of its hurricane intensity. Some projections posit that the Louisiana coast, including New Orleans, and Mississippi could possibly see effects from the storm. Records dating to 1861 indicate that neither Louisiana, Mississippi, nor Texas have seen a hurricane make landfall in November, according to the New Orleans outlet WDSU. The news outlet notes how a landfall-making hurricane at this time of year would be anomalous overall. Over that same period, records indicate that just eight hurricanes have made landfall on the Gulf coast in November. Hurricane Etna was the last such storm to do so. The 2020 hurricane made landfall in Nicaragua, Cuba, Lower Matecumbe Key and Cedar Key, Florida, WDSU reported. Rafael is the 17th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, according to NBC News. Rafael will become the 11th hurricane if it grows in strength; the Atlantic hurricane season typically sees 14 named storms, with seven hurricanes, three among those considered major. While the Atlantic hurricane season ends on 30 November, it is usually most active around 10 September, NBC News said. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season had 10 named storms from 24 September to 4 November, which is the “most on record for this time span”. Meteorologists had expected an unusually active hurricane season due to record-high sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. Rising sea temperatures are widely attributed to global warming primarily driven by humans’ burning of fossil fuels. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has wreaked extensive destruction in the US. Hurricane Milton, which made landfall in Florida on 9 October, resulted in dozens of deaths and cost a whopping $50bn in damage. Just two weeks earlier, Hurricane Helene’s rains razed entire towns in western North Carolina, killing hundreds. Before striking North Carolina, Hurricane Helene’s deadly storm surge flooded large portions of Florida, destroying homes and businesses. It also devastated several other south-eastern US states. | ['world/hurricanes', 'world/caribbean', 'world/jamaica', 'world/cuba', 'us-news/caymanislands', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/louisiana', 'us-news/mississippi', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'campaign/email/today-us', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/victoria-bekiempis', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-11-05T15:52:23Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2023/jun/23/microclimates-can-turn-deadly-climate-crisis-deepens | Urban microclimates can turn deadly as climate crisis deepens | Microclimates are best known to gardeners, for example semi-tropical collections on the west coast of Britain where the warm Gulf Stream waters keep certain favoured spots frost-free and allow cultivation of Mediterranean and some tropical plants. But as the climate crisis progresses, other less benign microclimates can become killers. Tall buildings and other dense housing being built in British towns can trap the heat and raise temperatures more than 2C at night, pushing them into a danger zone. This is not some theoretical future hazard: 20,000 people died as a result of last summer’s heatwave in western Europe, mostly in cities. The same is true of winds. A gale in the countryside can be amplified in towns to dangerous, sometimes life-threatening gusts. Pedestrians and cyclists are vulnerable to being knocked over as the wind speed is amplified, squeezed between tall buildings. Local observations were the way of measuring these adverse effects of microclimates, defined as areas less than 2km across, but now powerful computers have been harnessed by scientists to show where the most potentially dangerous microclimates have been created. They also show how urban lawns and trees can help mitigate the effects, reducing heat by more than 2C, and where urban wind turbines could be usefully sited. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-06-23T05:00:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2019/sep/12/angus-taylor-taken-to-task-over-sudden-drop-in-renewable-energy-investment | Angus Taylor taken to task over sudden drop in renewable energy investment | Angus Taylor has defended the government’s record on renewable energy as Labor and the Greens ambushed the minister over a sudden drop in investment in clean energy. Labor’s climate spokesman, Mark Butler, told a Clean Energy Council gathering in Canberra the sector had withstood a “full frontal assault” from the Coalition and “some in the media”, while the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said the current investment cliff was “no accident” but a deliberate policy of the government. On Wednesday Guardian Australia revealed that lack of policy certainty beyond 2020, when the renewable energy target would be phased out, had resulted in new investment committed to the clean energy sector falling in the first half of 2019 back to 2016 levels when Tony Abbott invited an investment strike by trying to abolish the RET. Taylor, the energy and emissions reduction minister, who has presided over steadily increasing greenhouse gas emissions, said that when “people tell me there is not enough investment happening, I tell them ‘that is not right’”. “In fact we invested more per person than any other major country in the world – almost double most, nearly all, other countries,” he told the CEC. “In fact in total it was more than the UK, Germany and France combined on a per capita basis in 2018 – an extraordinary number.” Taylor said that integrating renewables was creating “real challenges”, warning that when dispatchable power falls below peak demand poor reliability results. Taylor said Australia needed a “balance between dispatchability and intermittency; a balance between the past and the future … [that] will get us through what is going to be a continuing series of tough years”. Butler said there was “a lot to celebrate” in achieving the RET of 33,000 GWh despite “quite a lot of adversity”. In a thinly veiled jab at Taylor, Butler said that some in the right wing of the Coalition, “one of who you might’ve seen recently”, had sought to abolish the RET, while some in the left suggested Labor not do a deal with the Coalition to cut the target and instead let “the cards fall where they will”.’ Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Butler said the success of renewable energy was a bright spot in what is otherwise the worst energy crisis since the 1970s. “Your industry has been subject to the most full frontal attack by a political party and by some in the media we’ve seen in recent years, yet the community support for your industry is unbent: it’s broad, it’s deep … [and] if anything, it’s growing.” Butler said that given investment was “dropping sharply” Labor would persist in search of bipartisanship on energy policy, although the prospect was “not bright” and urged industry to force the Coalition back to the bargaining table. Di Natale said Taylor was “determined to destroy” the wind sector, citing praise for the minister from the anti-wind group Stop These Things as evidence. The Greens leader called on the renewable energy industry to “start playing hardball” because they were fighting the fossil fuels industry that was “supported no end by this government”. He suggested when blackouts occur over summer due to “old, unreliable coal power generators” breaking down, the clean energy industry should have its voice heard, and blame lack of certainty for the difficulty in getting finance to replace fossil fuels with renewables. “We can’t afford another decade like the last decade, this is the last decade before irrevocable environmental breakdown.” Energy policy in Australia has been in a state of profound uncertainty since the dumping of the national energy guarantee (Neg) last August, when conservatives moved against then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. The renewable energy sector supports reviving the Neg, as do the Liberal governments in New South Wales and South Australia. If the Neg cannot be revived, the industry is calling on the Morrison government to extend the RET beyond 2020, implement a clean energy target, or revisit carbon pricing. Earlier on Wednesday the shadow agriculture minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, called for renewed debate on the need for a carbon price – the opposite tack to former environment spokesman Tony Burke, who has suggested Labor pursue a Green New Deal instead of a market mechanism to reduce emissions. In a speech to parliament Fitzgibbon noted Australia was not on track to meet its 2030 Paris targets and pollution reduction auctions, the centrepiece of the Coalition’s policy, could cost up to $80 per tonne of greenhouse gas abatement. “I know some members will be thinking: ‘Do we have to talk about the carbon price again’?,” he said. “Of course we do. It has to be part of the mix if we are to meet our Paris targets. “We do need to start talking more about the elephant in the room.” | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/angus-taylor', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/australian-greens', 'australia-news/richard-di-natale', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-09-11T18:00:25Z | true | ENERGY |
uk/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans/2011/oct/28/undercover-police-officers-latest | Undercover police officers - the latest | Rob Evans | Quite a lot has been happening since we last posted a blog here, so we thought that it would be useful to have a quick round-up. Firstly there has been the story of Bob Lambert, the former undercover officer who controlled a network of police spies in political groups. He was unmasked by activists from London Greenpeace. They challenged him at a conference and afterwards published a statement on Indymedia. The Guardian then published a story which described how Lambert had been unmasked, his career as an undercover officer and his current work as an academic and supporter of the campaign against Islamophobia. A week later came a second story reporting how Lambert had confessed to being a police spy and to tricking an innocent woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an elaborate attempt to lend "credbility" to his alter ego. Lambert also made a statement to the Spinwatch transparency campaign, which had challenged him about his undercover work. He has also written a comment piece. The Guardian also published a letter from London Greenpeace who argued that "repressive tactics will ultimately fail to prevent people seeking change". Secondly the Guardian and BBC Newsnight published evidence alleging that police chiefs had authorised undercover officers embedded in protest groups to give false evidence in court in order to protect their secret identities. This centred on the case of Jim Boyling who infiltrated the environmental group Reclaim the Streets in the 1990s. He concealed his true identity from a court when he was prosecuted alongside a group of Reclaim the Streets activists, according to a set of documents. The story last week about Boyling had been pieced together by activists and their lawyer, Mike Schwarz of the Bindmans law firm. The disclosure of these documents forced police chiefs to cancel a major report into undercover policing, hours before it was due to be published. Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said police chiefs had made a "monumental misjudgment" that could result in a host of miscarriages of justice. A day later, the Scotland Yard said it was "reviewing" allegations that a second undercover officer, Bob Lambert, had also used a false identity in a criminal trial. Yesterday, Britain's most senior police officer, Bernard Hogan-Howe, defended the practice of undercover officers using fake identities in court, claiming there was no specific law forbidding it. There have been a lot of allegations and disclosures about police spies in the protest movement since Mark Kennedy, the policeman who infiltrated the environment movement for seven years, was unmasked about a year ago. Here's what we think (and hope) is a useful recap of what has come out. | ['uk/undercover-with-paul-lewis-and-rob-evans', 'tone/blog', 'law/law', 'uk/ukcrime', 'uk/mark-kennedy', 'environment/activism', 'world/surveillance', 'type/article', 'profile/robevans'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-10-28T15:26:13Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
us-news/2015/nov/12/hillary-clinton-coal-country-economy-infrastructure | Hillary Clinton proposes $30bn lifeline for hard-hit coal communities | Hillary Clinton on Thursday unveiled a $30bn plan to help America’s coal communities adjust to a climate agenda increasingly driven by renewable energy sources. After setting ambitious goals to combat climate change in recent months, the Democratic presidential frontrunner’s latest proposals detail how a Clinton administration would seek to alleviate the impact on mining communities of a transition away from coal-fired power plants. Her proposals include new federal investments in public health and education, job training and infrastructure, targeted toward coal-dependent communities that have seen dramatic job losses at the expense of growth in wind, solar and natural gas industries. Republicans immediately hit back, framing a climate change versus jobs argument which will run all the way to the 2016 election. The Republican National Committee wasted no time dubbing Clinton “Public Enemy No 1 for coal miners and their communities”, given her support for the president’s agenda. “If Hillary Clinton were truly on the side of coal country, she would stand up to extreme anti-energy environmentalists that run the Democrat party instead of embracing their agenda that is killing jobs and driving up costs,” Michael Short, an RNC spokesman, said in a statement. With the UN climate change summit looming in Paris later this month, “Clinton is committed to meeting the climate change challenge as president and making the United States a clean energy superpower”, a release from her campaign said. At the same time, she gave a personal commitment not to leave coal communities behind. “As president, I will make sure our country honors our commitments to coal miners and their families, who gave their careers, their health, and in some cases their lives to powering America’s economy,” Clinton said in a statement. “And I will invest for the future, by increasing federal investment to revitalize coal communities and partnering with the private sector to promote locally driven business development and job creation.” The plan counters one of the main arguments employed by Republicans against the Clean Power Plan, which is the cornerstone of Barack Obama’s climate change agenda. In pushing back on Obama’s new rules to cut carbon pollution, Republicans often dub the president’s policy as a “war on coal”. The Republican presidential candidates are uniformly opposed to the Obama administration’s climate rules and have vowed to repeal his regulations on coal-fired power plans. In this week’s Republican presidential debate, US senator Rand Paul said the Clean Power Plan had “devastated” his home state of Kentucky. Coal production in eastern Kentucky has fallen sharply in recent years and has prompted the shuttering of mines and thousands of job losses in the region – although that trend began well before Obama announced his regulations on coal-fired power plans. To mitigate the decline, Clinton’s plan would look to repurpose mine lands and power plant sites in coal-heavy areas for new investments in agriculture, manufacturing and forestry. Her campaign cited the example of a recently closed coal plant in Alabama that will soon be the site of a data center by Google. Clinton’s plan would also expand broadband access in coal communities that fall far behind the rest of the country in terms of access to the internet. And it would invest in the building of new bridges, roads, airports and water systems, including the completion of the Appalachian Development Highway System – a project that was established to boost economic development in previously isolated areas. In 2008, Clinton ran a campaign that positioned her as more of a blue-collar, pro-coal Democrat. In her second bid for president, she has adopted a more progressive stance on environmental issues that includes her recently stated opposition against the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. But throughout her campaign, Clinton has maintained a commitment to coal miners and ensured their families and communities aren’t left behind. Her latest plan includes a vow to advocate on behalf of sick miners who have been wrongfully denied coverage under the federal black lung benefit program, and emphasizes the need to ensure that retired coal workers receive pension benefits from mining companies that in some cases have sought to abstain from those obligations after declaring bankruptcy. A string of coal companies have been pushed to the brink of insolvency over the past few years amid a steep decline in demand and coal prices electric grid shifts to cleaner energy sources. The historic shift in the electric power sector toward natural gas, coupled with stricter rules against pollution, prompted at least four major coal companies to seek bankruptcy protection in the past 15 months alone. | ['us-news/hillary-clinton', 'us-news/us-elections-2016', 'us-news/us-politics', 'environment/coal', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sabrina-siddiqui'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2015-11-12T18:14:18Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2020/feb/19/pressure-of-womens-t20-world-cup-favouritism-looms-as-australias-fiercest-foe | Pressure of Women’s T20 World Cup favouritism looms as Australia's fiercest foe | Melinda Farrell | Pressure does the strangest things. It melts the coolest of heads, obscures the most obvious move or turns the ball to liquid as hands close around it. Players say they thrive on it, that it brings out the best in them and sometimes they are right. And often wrong. Pressure is hard to quantify and unknown pressure is difficult to prepare for. And it is the pressure of being the overwhelming favourites in a home World Cup, the biggest of its kind, that provides the unknown opponent for Australia in the month ahead. They have never been to this party. Put simply, Australia have the strongest team with the greatest depth and easily the most abundant resources and investment. In the past two years they have won 26 out of the 31 Twenty20 internationals they have played; only England and India have surpassed them. And yet, the fact two of those losses came in the tri-series that preceded this T20 World Cup will give others hope that cracks can be exploited, perhaps widened, by the weight of expectation. Reports have zeroed in on the opener Alyssa Healy’s meagre returns from the tri-series – she made scores of 9, 1, 0, 1 and 4 – but her partner at the top, Beth Mooney, generally ensured Australia’s good starts. The pair sometimes seem to trade form and it is worth remembering that before Australia’s victorious 2018 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, Mooney was piling up runs while Healy struggled. Mooney went on to have a modest competition while Healy flayed her way through attacks, made 225 at an average of 56.25 and was named player of the tournament. That kind of record sums up why Australia feel licensed to attack and take risks with their batting. There is nearly always someone else to grab the baton. Meg Lanning, Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry provide experience and stability when consolidation is required, without sacrificing scoring rates, and the explosive power of Ash Gardner can blow an innings open. Even the least experienced player in the squad, Annabel Sutherland, displayed a clear mind and clean striking as she recently plundered 22 runs from 11 balls to take Australia into a super-over against England. It’s no surprise Australia’s aggressive, front-foot approach calls to mind the England men’s World Cup winning ODI side; the coach Matthew Mott has worked extensively with the former England coach, Trevor Bayliss, at New South Wales and shares some of his white ball philosophies. If the batting fails to fire as it ought, Australia’s bowling attack in home conditions has the depth and variety to threaten, contain and run through any side. Megan Schutt’s canny swing has made her the No 1 ranked T20 bowler in the world and Tayla Vlaeminck’s raw pace and bounce brings serious excitement. Her fastest bouncers – not often seen in women’s cricket – can surprise even the best batters and force a top edge; if the pitches are pace friendly she will undoubtedly bang them in hard. But perhaps the most encouraging sign for Australia lies in the form of their left-arm spinning allrounder, Jess Jonassen. A knee knee injury kept her on the sidelines during the last T20 World Cup but she has been a mainstay of the attack since returning for last year’s Ashes campaign and took a career-best five for 12 in the tri-series final against India, bowling at the death against a side who are easily one of the best against spin. Mott and Lanning have other options, depending on conditions and even specific match-ups. Georgia Wareham has emerged as Australia’s leading attacking leg-spinner while Nicola Carey and Delissa Kimmince offer medium pace and lower-order flair with the bat. Erin Burns offers off-spin to back up her batting but it is hard to see her forcing her way into such a formidable side early on in the tournament. And then there is Perry. It is hard to find new ways to describe a player who has already worn all the superlatives and whose extravagant talent makes the extraordinary seem everyday. Here, indeed, is a player who has always risen in the face of pressure. But you cannot say it transforms her into a diamond; that would assume she was once a lump of coal instead of the supreme athlete she has always been, a frankly ridiculous notion. Perry’s T20 batting skills, particularly her power-hitting and strike rate, have flourished in recent years but it is worth remembering what was arguably her finest bowling spell during the 2013 World Cup final against West Indies in Mumbai. An ankle injury had kept her out of the Super Six stage and she had not fully recovered when Australia gambled on her selection in the final. After a key contribution with the bat, Perry, clearly in pain, pulled out of her run-up twice and hobbled back to her mark before taking three vital wickets and conceding eight runs in six overs. Australia lifted the trophy. If Mott could bottle what drove Perry on that day, it would be passed around the players for pre-match swigs, starting on Friday against India. Each World Cup starts with a fresh slate, ready for new tales of sporting heroism. And, of all the formats, T20 is the most unpredictable; one brilliant innings, one scything spell, one dazzling moment of athleticism in the field can turn the game against even the best team. Not to mention that intangible, elusive, unquantifiable notion of pressure. | ['sport/australia-women-s-cricket-team', 'sport/womens-world-t20-2020', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/twenty20', 'sport/womenscricket', 'sport/australia-sport', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/melinda-farrell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-sport'] | sport/womens-world-t20-2020 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-02-18T16:30:32Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2010/feb/23/vermont-yankee-nuclear-reactor-to-close | Obama's nuclear vision suffers setback as Vermont plant faces shutdown | Barack Obama's new dream of a nuclear renaissance faces a major reality check tomorrow when the state of Vermont is expected to shut down an ageing nuclear reactor with a history of leaks. It would be the first time a state has moved to shut down such a reactor, and follows Obama's announcement last week of $8.3bn (£5.4bn) in loan guarantees for the construction of two new reactors in Georgia. White House officials said the money would help spur a burst of new construction – the first since the Three Mile Island meltdown. The Vermont Yankee, one of America's oldest reactors, has had several leaks of radioactive tritium dating back to 2005, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday. The state senate is set to deny a request to extend its 40-year life span by an additional 20 years condemning the plant to close in 2012, said Peter Shumlin, the highest ranking member of the Vermont senate. "It is not in Vermont's best interest to run this plant beyond its scheduled closing date in 2012. It is falling apart," said Shumlin. The 30-member senate, which is controlled by Democrats, is due to vote tomorrow morning. The battle over the so-called Vermont Yankee reactor has attracted an increasingly national audience amid growing disaffection among liberals and environmentalists with Obama's support for the nuclear industry. Shumlin and other opponents of the plant argue that America has yet to plan for the safe retirement of its existing 104 reactors, which are beginning to approach the end of their original life spans. Some 27 of those reactors have had leaks of tritium, according to the nuclear regulatory commission. "The debate here isn't whether or not we build new nuclear power plants. The question for America is how can we be so irresponsible and so negligent in expecting our old tired plants to run past their scheduled closing dates," Shumlin said. The 38-year-old Vermont Yankee plant, which is owned by the New Orleans based Entergy Corp, is among the first of that older generation of reactors, and over the last few years has sustained a series of accidents and leaks. A cooling tower collapsed in 2007 and again in 2008. In 2009, the plant had three separate leaks of radioactive tritium, which has been linked to cancer. An investigation later established that the plant's owners had lied about the extent of contamination to the local water supply, claiming the facility did not have underground pipes that could carry tritium when it did. In a statement to the Associated Press, the company said it was committed to safe operations. "Our focus has always been safely, securely and reliably operating our power plants. We take any concerns about the safe operation of our facilities very seriously and therefore finding the source of tritium in Vermont and correcting it is a top priority for our company," Entergy spokesman Mike Burns said in an email. Arnie Gundersen, a former industry engineer turned nuclear watchdog, said such leaks were indicators that the Vermont Yankee was nearing the end of its life span. "It seems like the plants that came on line before the Three Mile Island accident in the 1970s are predominantly the ones that are spring the leaks," he said. "In the case of the Vermont Yankee the problems of an ageing reactor were compounded by the pressures of trying to generate a 20% increase in power. Nobody else has ever tried for a power increase of 20%." Vermont has a reputation for environmental awareness – and for independence. The state has sent a socialist to the US Senate. However, the plant is a major source of employment, with jobs for about 600. But recent revelations about the leaks have consolidated public opinion in the state against the reactor. Last week, two conservation groups called for a criminal investigation into nuclear plant officials for misleading state officials when they testified under oath that the plant did not have the kind of underground pipes that carry tritium. On Sunday, the Burlington Free Press, the largest paper in the state, said it was time for the plant to go. "Events such as a radioactive leak unresolved more than six weeks after it was first revealed to the public and misinformation provided by Entergy officials under oath raise serious questions about whether Vermont Yankee serves Vermont's long-term interests," the editorial said. Elsewhere, activists are hoping that the showdown over the Vermont Yankee will help mobilise protests against other reactors when their licences come up for review. Unlike in Vermont, however, most states require only that the federal government's nuclear regulatory commission sign off on extending the life of reactors. But James Moore of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said he detected signs of a backlash against both the ageing reactors and Obama's plans for the birth of a third generation of nuclear plants. "A lot of folks on the left and right are waking up to the reality that it is a bad idea to give hard earned tax dollars to a new generation of reactors when we can't manage the old reactors," he said. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'business/energy-industry', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/vermont', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2010-02-23T16:06:26Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/jan/11/air-pollution-as-bad-as-smoking-in-increasing-risk-of-miscarriage | Air pollution 'as bad as smoking in increasing risk of miscarriage' | Air pollution is as bad for pregnant women as smoking in raising the risk of miscarriage, according to a scientific study. They said the finding was upsetting and that toxic air must be cut to protect the health of the next generation. Air pollution is already known to harm foetuses by increasing the risk of premature birth and low birth weight. Recent research has also found pollution particles in placentas. The effect of long-term exposure to dirty air on the risk of miscarriage has been analysed previously. Studies from Brazil to Italy to Mongolia found a link, but others failed to do so. However, the latest study is the first to assess the impact of short-term exposure to air pollution. It found that raised levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution that are commonplace around the world increased the risk of losing a pregnancy by 16%. “It’s pretty profound,” said Dr Matthew Fuller, at the University of Utah’s department of emergency medicine and one of the research team. “If you compare that increase in risk to other studies on environmental effects on the foetus, it’s akin to tobacco smoke in first trimester pregnancy loss.” NO2 is produced by fuel burning, particularly in diesel vehicles. The research, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, was conducted in Salt Lake City in the US, and surrounding urban areas. But Fuller said the results were applicable elsewhere: “There are many places in the world that suffer from pollution that is far greater, so this is not a problem unique to Utah. This is a problem we are all facing.” NO2 levels in Salt Lake City are similar to those in cities such as London and Paris. Fuller was initially alerted to the issue when a family member miscarried during a particularly poor period of air quality in 2016. He said: “That triggered the question in my mind and then I started noticing anecdotally that I was seeing spikes in miscarriage numbers in the emergency department during and after [pollution spikes].” Fuller teamed up with the population health scientist Claire Leiser and others to see if the effect was real. They analysed the records of more than 1,300 women who attended the emergency department after miscarriages from 2007 and 2015. A woman’s exposure to air pollution at the time of the miscarriage was compared with similar times when she did not miscarry, meaning that age, weight, income and other personal factors were accounted for. The strongest link with a lost pregnancy was the level of NO2 in the seven days before the miscarriage. The average seven-day NO2 level across the whole period was 34 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m3), but peaked at 145μg/m3. The researchers found an increase in NO2 pollution of 20μg/m3 was associated with a 16% rise in the risk of miscarriage. “Many of us think there is an effect [of air pollution] on our health, but to find out there are actual effects on unborn children is very upsetting,” said Fuller. Higher levels of particle pollution were also linked to a greater risk of miscarriage, as found in a previous study, but the association in the new work was not statistically significant. However, other recent studies on long-term exposure to particle pollution in Iran, Italy, Mongolia and the US found significant links. Other air pollutants, including ozone and sulphur dioxide have also been implicated in these analyses. The mechanism by which air pollution could harm a foetus has not yet been established but a likely hypothesis is that the pollutants cause oxidative stress and inflammation. Dr Sarah Stock, at the University of Edinburgh and not part of the research team, said: “Air pollution is clearly detrimental to the health of millions of mothers, babies and children worldwide. Measures to reduce the impact of air pollution are crucial to ensure the health of future generations.” But she noted that the risk of miscarriage varied substantially with the number of weeks of pregnancy and that the study had not been able to record this information, potentially introducing a bias into the result. Leiser said: “If we were able to get the gestation stage that would be a real benefit, to get a sense of when the woman is most at risk. There really needs to be more studies done on this specific issue. But we know enough about air pollution and birth outcomes to say, if you are pregnant, talk to your doctor.” The best action is to cut overall levels of pollution in urban areas, said Fuller. However he said women could choose to time their pregnancies to avoid the most polluted times of year. This is winter in Utah and many other places, but will vary depending on local conditions. Fuller also said pregnant women could avoid exertion on polluted days and consider buying indoor air filters. “But in the developing world these are luxuries many people can’t afford,” he said. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'lifeandstyle/pregnancy', 'lifeandstyle/women', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'environment/pollution', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'society/miscarriage', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-01-11T19:00:17Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2013/mar/02/amazon-rainforest-tribe-yanomami-anthropologists | Amazon tribe at centre of new cultural storm | It became one of the fiercest scientific arguments in recent times: are the Yanomami Indians of the Amazon rainforest a symbol of how to live in peace and harmony with nature or remnants of humanity's brutal early history? Now a debate that has divided anthropologists, journalists, human rights campaigners and even governments has been given a fresh burst of life by the publication of a lengthy memoir by outspoken US anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon. Chagnon has spent decades studying and living with the Yanomami (also known as the Yanomamö) and wrote the best-selling – and hugely controversial – Yanomamö: The Fierce People. In that book, which came out in 1968, he portrayed the 20,000-strong tribe, who live in isolated jungle homelands in Venezuela and Brazil, as a warlike group whose members fought and battled each other in near-constant duels and raids. He described Yanomami communities as prone to violence, with warriors who killed rivals far more likely to win wives and produce children. His analysis was criticised as a reductive presentation of human behaviour, seen as primarily driven by a desire to mate and eliminate rivals. Opponents of that view believed the Yanomami were still pursuing a lifestyle dating from mankind's early past, when people lived mostly peacefully in smaller communities, free from modern sources of stress and far more in equilibrium with their surroundings. Chagnon's new 500-page book, Noble Savages, is set to reignite the argument. In it he launches an impassioned defence both of his work and life among the Yanomami and an equally spirited attack on his critics and fellow scientists. The book's subtitle perhaps sums up his attitude to both groups: "My life among two dangerous tribes – the Yanomamö and the anthropologists." Chagnon describes life in the rainforest spent constructing villages, hunting for food, and, as shamans take powerful hallucinogens, bloody raids on rival groups. "The most inexplicable thing to me in all of this was that they were fighting over women... I anticipated scepticism when I reported this after I returned to my university," he wrote. He was not wrong. His research created a huge storm and accusations that it allowed Amazonian tribes to be depicted by governments and outside interests as bloodthirsty savages who deserved to lose their land to the developers. Chagnon defends himself from that charge, using much of the book to attack fellow scientists' conclusions and saying that too many anthropologists are ignoring the pursuit of pure research in favour of becoming activists for the civil rights of their subjects. "In the past 20 or so years the field of cultural anthropology in the United States has come precipitously close to abandoning the very notion of science," he writes. But Noble Savages has prompted a fresh wave of attacks on Chagnon. Last week a group of prominent anthropologists who have worked with the Yanomami issued a joint statement. "We absolutely disagree with Napoleon Chagnon's public characterisation of the Yanomamö as a fierce, violent and archaic people," they said. "We also deplore how Chagnon's work has been used throughout the years – and could still be used – by governments to deny the Yanomamö their land and cultural rights." One of the signatories, Professor Gale Goodwin Gomez of Rhode Island College, who has also spent several decades studying the tribe, told the Observer she was dismayed that Chagnon had published a new book. "This is just another attempt to grab attention. I have lived in Yanomamö villages and have never needed a weapon," she said. Human rights organisation Survival International, which campaigns on behalf of indigenous peoples, has also attacked Chagnon. "Chagnon's work is frequently used by writers... who want to portray tribal peoples as 'brutal savages' far more violent than 'us'," said Survival's director, Stephen Corry. The group also published a statement from Davi Kopenawa, spokesman for a Yanomami group in Brazil, that was critical of Chagnon's core conclusions. "For us, we Yanomamö who live in the forest, the anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon is not our friend. He does not say good things, he doesn't transmit good words. He talks about the Yanomamö but his words are only hostile," he said. But Chagnon, who declined to be interviewed by the Observer, has stood by his lifetime of work and study. In an emailed conversation with the Inside Higher Ed website, he repeated his beliefs that anthropology had abandoned science in favour of political activism but said that the situation would one day reverse itself. "Those departments of anthropology whose members adhere to the scientific method will endure and again come to be the 'standard approach' to the study of Homo sapiens, while those that are non-scientific will become less and less numerous or eventually be absorbed into disciplines that are non-anthropological, like comparative literature, gender studies, philosophy and others," he wrote. | ['world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'science/anthropology', 'science/evolution', 'science/science', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/paulharris', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-03-02T11:52:23Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/oct/16/whaling-activist-paul-watson-sea-shepherd-greenland | Anti-whaling activist held in Greenland appeals for political asylum in France | Paul Watson, the anti-whaling activist detained in Greenland and awaiting possible extradition to Japan, has appealed to Emmanuel Macron for political asylum in France. Watson was detained in July after a Japanese request to Interpol over his confrontational tactics aimed at disrupting whaling operations in the Antarctic, and could face up to 15 years in prison if he is extradited and convicted. His request to the French president was made in a letter several days ago, said Lamya Essemlali, the head of Sea Shepherd France, at a press conference in Paris. Macron has previously expressed his support for Watson and emphasised the importance of the case for environmental advocacy and human rights. There was no immediate comment from Macron’s office on Wednesday. Essemlali said: “Paul is very attached to France, and it is also the second largest marine territory in the world, which means a lot for ocean conservation. Paul is currently living in France with his family.” She said Watson was “down” and “isolated” but “resilient”. Jean Tamalet, a lawyer associated with Sea Shepherd France, part of the US-based non-profit conservation activist organisation, emphasised that the call for political asylum was largely symbolic and aimed at securing Watson’s release. Critics of Watson’s arrest in Greenland have asserted that it stemmed from longstanding political motivations tied to Japan’s whaling practices. Japan considers the practices part of its cultural heritage. For decades, Watson has led high-profile confrontations with whaling ships in the Southern Ocean. The Greenland arrest occurred when Watson’s ship docked in Nuuk for refuelling on its way to intercept a Japanese whaling ship. Danish authorities are reviewing Japan’s request for his extradition. More than a decade ago, Japan issued a red notice through Interpol. This is not an international arrest warrant but a request for cooperation between member states to locate and detain individuals pending extradition. In the past, international authorities had paid little attention to the red notice, allowing Watson to travel freely, according to Tamalet, who said: “That has obviously changed.” In September 2022, Watson announced that he was leaving the Sea Shepherd group he had founded and setting up a new organisation, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation. | ['environment/whaling', 'world/sea-shepherd-conservation-society', 'world/greenland', 'world/france', 'world/japan', 'environment/activism', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2024-10-16T17:58:39Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
global-development/2024/mar/26/dhaka-bangladesh-cars-before-people-failing-elderly-acc | Cars before people: how chaotic, polluted Dhaka is failing its elderly citizens | The door of Rehana Khan’s sixth-floor flat is as far as she ventures during the day. On most days, she barely leaves her bed. The city outside is too chaotic and overwhelming for her. Khan, 57, moved to Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, a year ago, after her husband died. She lives with her only son and his wife, who were worried about her being alone in a village in the north-eastern district of Sylhet. Many of Bangladesh’s emerging middle class face the same problem: tied to Dhaka for work, they struggle to balance city lives with caring for parents, who then end up having to follow their children to the metropolis, a place they can find inhospitable and strange. Doctors recommended that Khan walks for 45 minutes a day to manage her diabetes and high cholesterol but she is scared to venture out. In common with many of the city’s elderly people who live with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart conditions and asthma, she finds Dhaka’s dangerous roads and lack of green spaces intimidating. “The traffic, the pollution, the noise … it disturbs me. So I don’t go out alone. The whole day is spent inside,” says Khan. “I don’t like it here. There’s nothing here for me. My son and his wife leave for the office early in the morning and it’s just me. I have no friends, no husband. I don’t have much connection with the neighbours like I do in the village. But I’m forced to stay here because I have no other option.” She waits for the weekend, when her son tries to make time to take her out. Dhaka’s population grows by an estimated half a million people every year and has struggled to expand in a way that caters for all. Younger generations come for the jobs, bringing their parents to ensure they are cared for but day-to-day life can be a challenge in a country where 70% of deaths were caused by NCDs in 2019. For elderly and less mobile people, uneven or nonexistent sidewalks make navigating the city difficult. The situation is not helped by traders setting up businesses on the sides of busy roads, a lack of pedestrian crossings and buses which rarely stop long enough for older people to board. Traffic rules are flouted, including by rickshaws that cut through pedestrian areas and race the wrong way down certain streets. “I used to walk around by myself but now I don’t feel safe any more,” says Mohammed Bodi-Uz Zaman, 85. “To stay in the house is safer than outside because of the pollution. There is no footpath, there are hawkers blocking the way and rickshaws everywhere.” Zaman spent decades working at the Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh but settled in Dhaka after retiring on the insistence of his family, who did not want him to stay alone in his village, about seven miles from Dhaka. Zaman occasionally goes to the village to visit his relatives but much of his day is spent in his son’s flat and the balcony where he sits reading the newspaper. “I feel stressed when I go outside, all the cars and the rickshaws. All the traffic – it feels like any time it can hit me,” says Zaman. He lives with high blood pressure, chronic breathing problems and allergies that mean that he would benefit from regular walks. But the pollution and dangerous streets keep him indoors. “It’s more comfortable in the village, I feel better there, I feel joy when I see my relatives, but I’m bound to the city.” Most neighbourhoods have very little access to green spaces, which covered 47% of the city in 1992 but that fell to 16% in 2022, according to a study by researchers at Dhaka’s Jahangirnagar University. Debra Efroymson, who runs the Institute of Wellbeing, a Bangladeshi NGO, says the city needs to be rethought, with the priority taken away from cars to improve residents’ quality of life. She says she has seen elderly people choose to go for walks in car parks even when a public park is nearby because they fear crossing the road. “The main concern of policymakers seems to be to accommodate the cars, so there’s a lot of talk about where the car is going to park and how the car is going to move through the city. What is lacking is any concern about people,” says Efroymson. Efroymson spent the past winter in Dhaka during a period of heavy air pollution, including a day when it was declared the most polluted city in the world. She suggests a state of emergency should be imposed in Dhaka because of pollution, and recommends the city has car free days, as well as better planning “so people aren’t dying from breathing”. “If you want a dignified life for all people – the elderly, people with mobility limitations or other disabilities – you have to have a quality environment where people can walk, move about safely and access the existing public spaces.” | ['global-development/series/a-common-condition', 'global-development/global-development', 'society/older-people', 'world/bangladesh', 'environment/pollution', 'society/diabetes', 'society/high-blood-pressure', 'society/society', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kaamil-ahmed', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-03-26T05:00:20Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2012/sep/29/flash-floods-spain-torrential-rain | Flash floods kill 10 in Spain as torrential rain causes havoc | At least 10 people, three of them children, died after torrential rain triggered flash floods across a swath of southern Spain and another 35 were injured when a tornado swept through a fairground, knocking down a ferris wheel. The strength of the torrents washed away cars, turned roads to rivers, damaged houses, brought down a motorway bridge and forced thousands to abandon their homes. Many people had to be rescued by the emergency services using inflatable rafts to ferry them to safety. Among those reported missing in the stricken area in Almería was a 52-year-old British woman. The worst hit areas were in the provinces of Málaga and Almería, and the Murcia region. Further north, a tornado hit the town of Gandia, causing severe damage to the fairground in the town square, knocking down the ferris wheel and cutting the electricity supply. Of those injured, 15 were said to be in a serious condition and were treated at the scene before being taken to hospital. The fair had been closed to the public, and local reports said the injured were all fairground workers. Spain's weather agency said that 9.6 inches of rain fell on Friday morning alone and torrential rainfall and violent thunderstorms were set to continue over the weekend, causing more flooding. An elderly woman died when a river broke its banks and floodwater hit her home in Alora, north of Málaga. Three adults and a nine-year-old girl were killed in Murcia and another three lost their lives in Almería. Spanish national radio also reported that a young boy and a girl were found drowned in a car in the south-eastern town of Puerto Lumbreras. Caroline Zartash-Lloyd, who runs a small hotel in Alora, said that her neighbours had lost livestock, including pigs, hens, horses and donkeys, which could be seen floating in the flood waters. Local people would be hit particularly hard, she said, because it was a poor part of Spain with unemployment at 30% and few people could afford insurance. "Cars were washed away and we lost a large bridge in Alora and another sizeable bridge in [the village of] El Valle de Abadeljais," she said. "The farmland was completely washed away, just after the farmers had stopped ploughing. Thankfully, they had not started seeding. Many people have been left without electricity or phone lines." A regional government spokesman said: "In Málaga province there are 800 staff working to return things to normal as quickly as possible." The heavy rains in parts of the south follow months of drought and high temperatures across Spain which triggered dozens of wildfires. The flooding disrupted high-speed train service between Madrid and Valencia and regional lines, while bridges and roads became impassible. Two motorways were closed and a plane heading for Málaga was diverted to Seville. Heavy rains are expected to continue throughout the weekend, with the front moving north toward Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, according to a regional government spokesman in Málaga. | ['world/spain', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-09-29T19:31:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2015/sep/17/illegal-timber-myanmar-china-forests | Surge in illegal logging by Chinese in Myanmar alarms activists | A torrent of illegal timber worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year is pouring across Myanmar’s border into China as loggers reach deeper into the country’s forests in search of profits, activists have claimed. In a report released in Beijing on Thursday, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency said there had been an alarming escalation of timber flowing into China over the last three years. “Within Myanmar we are being told that Chinese operations are going deeper into the country as they seek valuable hardwoods, mainly teak and rosewood,” said Faith Doherty, one of the report’s authors. “New investments in infrastructure in the country, including dams, ensure roads are built, leading timber bosses from China straight to Myanmar’s valuable forests. If this continues, the impacts on both the communities that rely on the forest and the country’s forest itself will be irreversible.” Myanmar’s forests, among the most biodiversity-rich on earth, have been a target for loggers, often working illegally, since the late 1980s. Deforestation spiked during the 1990s as huge amounts of timber were transported across the border into China’s Yunnan province, but Beijing was forced to crack down in 2006 after environmental groups exposed the extent of the destruction. The devastation slowed after China temporarily suspended imports and banned its citizens from crossing into Myanmar to cut down trees, activists said. However, as Myanmar began its political opening to the world in 2012 there were fears that this would open the floodgates for a new wave of deforestation. Those fears now appear to be coming true, with the quantity of illegal timber flowing into China now coming close to the peak level hit a decade ago, according to the EIA report. “The bad days are back,” said Jago Wadley, a senior forest campaigner. Wadley said 978,000 cubic metres of logs had been imported into China from Myanmar last year, the bulk of it illegal under Myanmar’s laws. While the US, EU and Australia were all complicit in the illegal logging trade, China bore the overwhelming responsibility for the plundering of rosewood from Myanmar, he said. Wadley said those trees were being cut down on behalf of “very rich people in China consuming luxury products as a status symbol”. “This is not sustainable or moral. China needs to act,” he said Two of the species most targeted by loggers – padauk and a rosewood called tamalan – could be “completely logged out” in 10 years, he warned. “It is a completely unsustainable trade.” EIA investigators travelled from China’s southern factory boomtowns – where the logs are processed – to the remote jungles of Myanmar, uncovering a sprawling criminal network that allows the illicit industry to prosper. Julian Newman, EIA’s campaigns director, said that in some areas of Myanmar’s Kachin state, Chinese businesspeople used gold bars to purchase the right to denude entire mountains of trees. “You go in there and you cut as much as you can, as fast as you can and you take everything and that is highly destructive,” he said. “The scale of it is quite alarming.” Investigators posing as buyers visited sawmills and wood factories in China’s Guangdong province. “We don’t care what channels the materials come from, so long as they bring it over to China and declare the taxes,” one factory owner said. The campaigners also exposed the perilous conditions facing impoverished Chinese loggers sent to work in Myanmar. One Chinese driver working in Myanmar said he had been with a group of loggers from China’s Hunan province when they strayed into a minefield and were “blown up into pieces”. The plight of these loggers made headlines this year when Myanmar sentenced 153 Chinese nationals to life imprisonment for illegal logging. Chinese state media attacked the treatment of the loggers and claimed the international media were trying to “foment discord between China and Myanmar [by] claiming China is looting local resources”. The jailed loggers were released in July after receiving a presidential pardon. Doherty said China, which is the world’s biggest importer of illegal timber, had until recently been in “complete and utter denial” about its role in the destruction of Myanmar’s forests. That was now slowly changing, with the State Forestry Administration drawing up voluntary guidelines for Chinese forestry companies operating overseas, but huge resistance remained, she said. | ['world/myanmar', 'world/china', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tomphillips'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-09-17T09:19:10Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2007/may/15/brazil.international | Brazilian man denies ordering death of nun, 73 | A rancher accused of ordering the killing of an American nun pleaded not guilty yesterday in a trial that human rights activists say will test Brazil's commitment to fighting land-related violence in the Amazon rainforest. Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, 36, is one of two ranchers accused of ordering the murder in 2005 of 73-year-old Dorothy Stang in a conflict over forest land he wanted to clear for development. "I had no participation whatsoever," Moura told judge Raymond Moises Alves Flexa. He said he did not know Stang, who had been organising poor settlers around the jungle town of Anapu for 23 years. A gunman, his accomplice and a go-between have been convicted. The men, who are expected to testify, alleged Moura and rancher Regivaldo Galvao offered them 50,000 reals (£13,000) to kill Stang. The nun, a naturalised Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, was shot six times at close range on a muddy patch of road deep in Para state. Wearing a black shirt and jeans, Moura stood and defiantly addressed prosecutors, saying he had learned of the murder only after gunmen fled to his ranch. Rather than call the police, he told the men to leave because involvement would only bring him trouble, he said. He fled shortly after and stayed away for 45 days because police did not give him a chance to explain without being arrested, he said. Over the past 30 years, 1,237 rural workers, union leaders and activists have been killed in Brazilian land disputes. Of those killings, 772 took place in Para, though only four "mandantes," or masterminds, have stood trial. All four were convicted, but none remains behind bars. | ['world/world', 'world/brazil', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2007-05-15T22:48:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/apr/29/our-plastics-are-designed-to-degrade-in-the-right-conditions | Our plastics are designed to degrade in the right conditions | Letter | If the researchers from the University of Plymouth’s International Marine Litter Research Unit (Biodegradable plastic bags still intact after three years, 29 April) had been polymer scientists who understood the process of abiotic degradation, they would have understood that an oxo-biodegradable shopping bag contains stabilisers to give the product a useful service life and which could therefore delay the onset of degradation for two years or more depending on how the particular bag was designed. They would also have understood that oxo-biodegradable bags are not intended to degrade in special conditions such as landfill or when buried deep in soil, but are intended to degrade if they become litter in the open environment on the surface of land or sea with an abundance of oxygen and usually exposed to sunlight. The experiments performed at Plymouth were not, therefore, a fair test of the product, because they had folded it tightly so as to exclude most of the oxygen, and placed it in a dark environment under a pontoon. Even then it would eventually have degraded, and biodegraded until there was nothing left, much more quickly than ordinary plastic. Michael Stephen Chairman, Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['environment/plastic', 'tone/letters', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-04-29T16:52:30Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2023/feb/20/how-does-the-nsw-governments-renewable-energy-plan-stack-up-against-labors-we-asked-the-experts | How does the NSW government’s renewable energy plan stack up against Labor’s? We asked the experts | The New South Wales Coalition and Labor each presented plans for clean energy investment over the weekend. Here’s a breakdown of the differences between the two promises. What has the Coalition announced? On Saturday, the incumbents promised a $1.5bn clean energy superpower fund, which includes $1.2bn already announced to upgrade transmission networks in the transmission acceleration fund. The additional $300m is marked to pay for grants to storage and grid security projects, including pumped hydro and batteries. A further $23m was promised to expand the electricity infrastructure roadmap to include rooftop solar and smaller batteries. What is Labor offering? On Sunday, Labor pledged to create a $1bn state-owned energy security corporation to drive investment in renewable energy projects. Under this plan, the government would partner with companies working on medium- to long-term renewable storage solutions and technologies that provide grid stability and community batteries, funding it with cash from the existing Restart NSW fund. The NSW Labor leader, Chris Minns, said the plan would enable the government to fund projects that “ensure reliability in the system and keeps the lights on and creates new jobs”. If Labor forms government after 25 March, it would maintain the Coalition’s $1.2bn transmission acceleration fund. How do these promises differ? Both of these plans are focused on dealing with gaps in the market where private investment is more challenging, but they are attacking the problems in slightly different ways and with different amounts of funding. Labor has put more money on the table while seeking to partner with private companies developing renewable energy projects rather than offering grants from a fund like the Coalition is planning. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup The policy director of the Nature Conservation Council, Brad Smith, said the main difference between the two is the scale of investment. “Labor’s is larger,” he said. “Both of them are looking at using public funds to invest but also leverage private funding. There’s more similarities than either party wants to admit.” The acting chief executive of the Smart Energy Council, Wayne Smith, said both parties were offering “pretty comprehensive plans”. “The NSW government’s been particularly focusing on specific renewable energy zones and getting investment in those areas,” he said. “What Labor’s announcement does is to specifically focus on renewable energy storage and that’s still the missing piece of the puzzle. That’s an area where probably the NSW government hasn’t had as strong a position so far.” Why are these investments needed? According to the experts, some renewable projects can be risky and incredibly costly, which makes them less attractive investment projects. Wayne Smith describes renewable energy storage as “not quite bankable yet”, which makes it harder to attract funds. “We just need that extra bit of support and innovative financing to get those projects over the line,” he said. Brad Smith said larger projects had also struggled. “That’s why these funds are a really large intervention to make sure these projects that are so important for energy security get built and get built on time,” he said. “The market needs a lot of certainty in order to access capital. Having the public funds available is one of the most important things to de-risk a project.” Which will be more effective? That depends who you ask. Most experts say it depends on how these programs are implemented and they all said more work was still needed. The executive director of the Australia Institute, Richard Denniss, said Labor’s plan would get things happening more quickly. “If you want to drive big change in a hurry, it’s better to do it through the public sector. What’s different here is who’s driving the bus. “There is a government saying to the market: ‘There’s money here, who would like to build things?’ Whereas there’s Labor saying: ‘These are the things we want to build, who’d like to help us build them?’” Wayne Smith said Labor’s focus on storage and its model – based on the federal Clean Energy Finance Corporation – was beneficial. “That’s a great model and we’re really pleased that they’ve adopted that point,” he said. “The focus on renewable energy storage … that puts them ahead of the game.” Why are both parties investing in this sector? The promises were welcomed by a sector that has been calling out for government intervention to plug the gaps where private markets are failing. Denniss said it is good to see governments throwing money into decarbonising the economy. Brad Smith described the efforts as “heartening”. “Both major parties [are] recognising that the public wants action on climate change,” he said. | ['australia-news/nsw-election-2023', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'tone/explainers', 'type/article', 'profile/tamsin-rose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-02-19T14:00:11Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2024/feb/07/danish-windfarm-firm-orsted-jobs-dividend-north-sea | Danish windfarm firm Ørsted to axe up to 800 jobs and pause dividend | The Danish company developing the world’s largest offshore windfarm in the North Sea is to cut hundreds of jobs and pause its dividend in an attempt to recover from a chaotic 12 months. Ørsted, which is behind the £8bn Hornsea 3 project off the Yorkshire coast, said on Wednesday it planned to axe up to 800 jobs, pull back from markets in Spain, Portugal and Norway, and suspend dividend payments to shareholders covering the 2023-25 financial years. The company said it would cut its target for developing renewable energy capacity by 2030, reducing it from 50 gigawatts to 35-38GW. Its chair, Thomas Thune Andersen, will step down after almost a decade in the role, after the two senior executives who left the business in November. The company, which is majority owned by the Danish government, said the “reset plan” was designed to make it a “leaner and more efficient company”. Ørsted has struggled in the face of high inflation, supply-chain disruption and rising interest rates, which have hit the windfarm industry. The company has also experienced problems in the US in attempting to secure tax credits. Last year, Ørsted cancelled two big offshore windfarm projects in the US, the Ocean Wind I and II schemes, blaming a sharp rise in costs. It took a 28.4bn Danish kroner (£3.3bn) hit as a result of the decision. The company had also raised doubts over the cost of the Hornsea 3 project early last year. However, in December it reaffirmed its commitment to 2.9GW development, which is expected to supply power to 3.3m homes. The RBC analyst Alexander Wheeler said financial markets had been expecting Ørsted to tap investors for funds, “which would have resolved the issues quicker and removed future risk in this regard”. He added: “However, we now have a period where Ørsted needs to execute on various components of its plan to improve its balance sheet metrics over the medium term.” Ørsted has 12 existing windfarms in the UK producing enough energy to power 6m UK homes. It is also working on a floating offshore wind project in Scotland. Separately on Wednesday, the turbine maker Siemens Energy, which was forced to strike a €15bn (£12.8bn) rescue deal with the German government last year, reported a €1.58bn first-quarter profit after selling a stake in its Indian unit. It said orders remained lower than forecast in its turbine division, where newer models have suffered technical faults, but it hoped to break even in that business in 2026. The problems affecting the windfarm industry caused the Swedish energy firm Vattenfall to stop work on the multibillion-pound Norfolk Boreas windfarm last year because it was no longer profitable. The Norwegian oil and gas producer Equinor posted quarterly profits of $8.68bn – down from $17bn a year earlier but ahead of City forecasts – due to lower energy prices. Meanwhile, the British Gas owner Centrica signed an agreement to buy a million metric tonnes of liquified natural gas (LNG) from Spain’s Repsol. The cargoes will be delivered to the Isle of Grain terminal in Kent between 2025 and 2027. Britain has a collection of gas terminals, providing fuel for domestic use and to be re-exported. Germany has raced to bolster its ability to import shipped LNG since piped Russian gas supplies dropped after the invasion of Ukraine, while the US last month moved to curb gas exports by pausing all pending export permits amid climate concerns. The new chief executive of BP said on Tuesday the oil and gas company would take a “more pragmatic” approach to reaching its green targets. Shell faced calls to speed up its investment in renewable energy last week, as it announced bumper profits and shareholder payouts and increased oil and gas production. In January, gas-fired power stations provided the largest share of Great Britain’s electricity supply, at 35.7%, ahead of wind power at 33.5%, National Grid said this week. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/windpower', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'business/job-losses', 'uk/uk', 'world/denmark', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2024-02-07T15:26:17Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2015/may/25/china-nuclear-power-plants-expansion-he-zuoxiu | China warned over 'insane' plans for new nuclear power plants | China’s plans for a rapid expansion of nuclear power plants are “insane” because the country is not investing enough in safety controls, a leading Chinese scientist has warned. Proposals to build plants inland, as China ends a moratorium on new generators imposed after the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, are particularly risky, the physicist He Zuoxiu said, because if there was an accident it could contaminate rivers that hundreds of millions of people rely on for water and taint groundwater supplies to vast swathes of important farmlands. China halted the approval of new reactors in 2011 in order to review its safety standards, but gave the go-ahead in March for two units, part of an attempt to surpass Japan’s nuclear-generating capacity by 2020 and become the world’s biggest user of nuclear power a decade later. Barack Obama recently announced plans to renew a nuclear cooperation deal with Beijing that would allow it to buy more US-designed reactors, and potentially pursue the technology to reprocess plutonium from spent fuel. The government is keen to expand nuclear generation as part of a wider effort to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and cut dependence on imported oil and gas. He, who worked on China’s nuclear weapons programme, said the planned rollout was going too fast to ensure it had the safety and monitoring expertise needed to avert an accident. “There are currently two voices on nuclear energy in China. One prioritises safety while the other prioritises development,” He told the Guardian in an interview at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He spoke of risks including “corruption, poor management abilities and decision-making capabilities”. He said: “They want to build 58 (gigawatts of nuclear generating capacity) by 2020 and eventually 120 to 200. This is insane.” He’s challenge to the nuclear plans is particularly powerful because of his scientific credentials and a long history of taking a pro-government stance on controversial issues, from the 1950s destruction of Beijing’s city walls to the crackdown in the 1990s on the religious group Falun Gong. He would like to see China stop its expansion once the plants that have been approved or are now under construction are finished, and then gain a few decades experience of running them safely before expanding again. Almost all the country’s working reactors started up after 2000. “China currently does not have enough experience to make sound judgments on whether there could be accidents,” he said. “The number of reactors and the amount of time they have been operating safely both matter. “The safety reviews after Fukushima found some problems, but only minor ones, and the final conclusion is that China’s nuclear power is safe. But the safety checks were carried out under the old standards and the standards themselves clearly need big improvements.” Chinese government officials argue that nuclear technology has improved since the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents, He said, but that ignores the role human error and flawed safety regimes played in both cases. The operator of Japan’s Fukushima plant has admitted that the company failed to take stronger disaster prevention measures ahead of the earthquake and tsunami, for fear of lawsuits and protests. “Japan has better technology and better management, and yet it couldn’t avoid an accident despite the fact that it tried very hard to learn from the US and USSR,” He said, adding that China’s nuclear monitor has sparser staffing than Japan’s, and offers low salaries that will not attract the best young scientists. China had considered and then rejected stronger standards, He said, because of the huge pressure for a rapid expansion and companies powerful enough to put corporate profits ahead of national security. “There were internal discussions on upgrading standards in the past four years, but doing so would require a lot more investment which would affect the competitiveness and profitability of nuclear power,” He said. “Nuclear energy costs are cheap because we lower our standards.” Rather than encouraging debate to expose weaknesses, the government tries to stamp it out, and in a country where challenging officials is risky, there is no mechanism to encourage or protect whistleblowers. He said: “At the moment, the ministry of environmental protection is considering a new watchdog. When they invited me over for a discussion, I told them: ‘Your safety watchdog is not independent. It listens to the national nuclear corporation and hence the scrutiny is fake’.” One of He’s biggest concerns is the proposal to meet the aggressive expansion plans by building nuclear plants inland. Three provinces have already chosen locations for plants and started preliminary work, and several more have been proposed. China is short of water, and areas with enough water to cool a plant in daily operations or an emergency are densely populated. He said: “They say they could build the plants in deserts, but the problem is there isn’t any water in the deserts.” If plants are built near cities and farmland, any accident would put millions of people at risk from immediate fallout and long-term contamination similar to the radioactive leaks at Fukushima. “If they build plants in places with a lot of water, the consequences of a nuclear leakage would be extremely grave,” He said. “I wouldn’t oppose it if they can guarantee it is 100% safe, but no one can guarantee this. “To be honest, as I’m already 88, it won’t affect me much whether or not nuclear plants are safe. But I am concerned about the welfare of our children and think we shouldn’t just evaluate the profitability of new projects.” Luna Lin contributed research | ['world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/fukushima', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/japan', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/emma-graham-harrison', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2015-05-25T13:41:57Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2009/jun/11/eu-electricity-grids-solar-wind | EU power lines 'too old to deliver 2020 renewables target' | Europe's electricity grid needs a radical overhaul if it is to distribute the renewable energy capacity that governments have committed to building by 2020, according to Europe's leading science academies. They argue that the continent's ageing grid infrastructure is incapable of transferring energy over the long distances demanded by renewable power stations, which are often built in remote locations, far from population centres. In a report for the European Commission, published today by the the European Academies Science Advisory Council (Easac), experts called on national governments to co-ordinate their grids and invest in new technologies such as high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines to better prepare Europe for a future of green electricity. "The whole transmission and distribution system needs redesigning," said Mike Sterling, an electrical engineer and fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK, who chaired the electricity grid working group on behalf of Easac. The EU has committed to sourcing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 but experts said this generating capacity will be wasted unless it can be distributed properly. "The change in the generating sources is well known and, unless we can get clean coal or nuclear back up again, there will be a dramatic change in the distribution of the energy sources," said Sterling. Renewable energy for the UK, he said, might come from remote locations in the North Sea or off the west coast of Scotland and the power sector needs to work out how to bring that power to the places it is needed. "We must make major changes to the current delivery systems in the EU and become more co-ordinated if we are to meet these targets," said John Holmes, secretary to the Easac working group, "This report gives the EU Directorate General a blueprint for a brighter, greener future in Europe." Upgrading the grids in individual countries should be done to common standards, said the report, and eventually the movement of electricity across Europe might even be managed centrally. Any extensions to the grid could incorporate HVDC transmission lines so that electricity could be moved from, say, solar plants in the Sahara to northern Europe whenever there is no wind. These lines are preferred because they lose less of their energy during long-distance transmission compared to standard AC cables, but they are also more expensive to build. Scandinavian countries potentially have excess capacity in hydroelectric plants that could, ideally, be sold to places such as Germany. If agreements can be made with north African countries, solar power collected in the Sahara desert could be transported up into southern Europe. "In order to do that, you need to design the transmission system so it can cope with the large power flows through existing countries' networks [but] Italy's transmission system is not designed for that, nor is Spain's." Electricity companies warned a committee of MPs in April that the government was in danger of missing its target on renewables without substantial investment in a new national energy grid. Last year, EU scientists also proposed a plan for a Europe-wide supergrid that could share Europe's renewable energy resources across the continent. They said the grid could allow countries such as the UK and Denmark ultimately to export wind energy at times of surplus supply, as well as import from other green sources such as geothermal power in Iceland. The scientists working on the project envisaged that, by 2050, solar power plants in north Africa could produce 100 GW, more than the combined electricity output from all sources in the UK, with an investment of around €450bn. But they also said this could not be transferred to northern Europe without a major restructuring of grid infrastructure in the transfer countries such as Italy and Spain or Greece or Turkey. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/alokjha'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2009-06-11T10:45:25Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2020/feb/15/the-milkman-gets-an-eco-makover-as-refill-service-knocks-on-door | The milkman gets an eco-makeover as refill service knocks on door | The home delivery model pioneered by milkmen is getting a 21st century makeover as part of the war on plastic. A major new online service backed by the world’s biggest brands will deliver products ranging from soft drinks to washing powder and shampoo in refillable containers to your front door. The Loop, which launches next month, is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to eliminate plastic waste from the weekly shop. It is backed by major consumer goods companies Unilever and PepsiCo, who have created eco-versions of popular brands including Tropicana, Persil and Hellmann’s, to sell via the website. The service will also include products such as refillable Sure and Dove deodorant sticks, and pots of Signal toothpaste pellets, which do away with the need for plastic tubes. The delivery service, which bills itself as the “milkman reimagined” aims to change the way households shop and consume amid growing concern about the global plastic binge. At first shoppers will only be able to buy from the Loop website but a partnership with Tesco aims to put dedicated aisles in its stores later this year. It operates in the same way as other online supermarkets except, when the shopping arrives, the groceries are in durable metal, glass or plastic containers that can be returned and reused. Afterwards the empties, like milk bottles, are collected from the doorstep, cleaned and reused up to 100 times. Supermarkets have already begun to gauge whether shoppers are willing to put in the extra effort required to make refill schemes economical in their stores. Last year Waitrose created dedicated areas in a handful of supermarkets where customers can replenish products ranging from wine and beer to rice and cleaning materials. Sainsbury’s is to sell milk and fizzy drinks in returnable glass bottles this year as part of its plastic reduction drive. Tesco is eager to shrink its massive plastic footprint and has announced a series of initiatives – including the recent decision to banish shrink-wrapped multipacks of baked beans and soup from its shelves. Giles Bolton, its responsible sourcing director, thinks re-use schemes could have a big impact. “Loop has the potential to fundamentally change the shopping basket and how customers shop,” he said in a recent blog. There are also signs, spurred on by television programmes such as Blue Planet which exposed the detrimental effect plastic is having on the oceans, that people are trying to live more sustainably. Milk & More, the UK’s biggest doorstep delivery company, said that last year 70,000 new customers signed up to have their milk delivered in reusable glass bottles. Similarly this week Abel & Cole, the organic box delivery firm, said it was rolling out a “club zero” refill scheme, in which store cupboard foods such as lentils and porridge oats are delivered in reusable plastic pots alongside its vegetables and fruit. It said it had been inundated with requests from shoppers to take part in a small trial. Hannah Shipton, its managing director, said: “Club Zero helps anyone looking to cut down on single-use packaging, particularly those without the ability to get to a zero-waste refill shop or those not wanting to jump in the car to get to one.” Services such as the Loop are piggybacking on the growth of online food shopping in UK, where sales are expected to increase by 45% between now and 2024 to create a £16.7bn market, according to IGD, the grocery industry trade body. The online model obviously means people do not need to return their old containers to the supermarket, but Loop customers are required to pay refundable deposits linked to the size of each container. In France, where the Loop service has already started with the Carrefour supermarket chain, the fee starts at €0.01 but rises to €19 for large plastic tubs containing a bundle of nappies, wipes and sanitary towels. The pricing and full details of the Loop’s UK service will not be announced until nearer its 26 March launch date. The product range will be similar to France – where it launched last year with around 200 products – and prices are promised to be “competitive”. Mike Barry, a sustainability expert who spent 14 years at Marks & Spencer latterly as head of its ethical scheme Plan A, is hopeful refill schemes such as the Loop will succeed but says the sheer volume of consumption on the planet presented a huge challenge. Plastic packaging is a £540bn industry and demand is still rising, particularly in Asia. “The new sustainable future has to cope with 7.7 billion people who are consuming trillions of items a year,” Barry explained. “Loop is an exciting alternative to today’s approach to consumption but the big question is can it be scaled quick enough to stop the ocean pollution crisis?” Barry said reuse systems like the Loop represented the “gold standard” but there was also an urgent need to reduce the overall plastic usage, for fewer types of plastic be used (so waste can be recycled more easily) and for low recycling rates to improve. | ['business/fooddrinks', 'business/couriers-delivery', 'business/business', 'business/packaging', 'uk/uk', 'business/unilever', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'money/online-shopping', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'business/tesco', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'food/milk--drink-', 'food/food', 'business/retail', 'business/supermarkets', 'world/series/the-upside', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/zoewood', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-02-15T08:00:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2019/apr/17/climate-change-extinction-rebellion-mark-carney-bank-of-england-protests | What unites naked protesters and Mark Carney? Climate change | Martha Gill | This morning two very different kinds of harbingers brought us a message of climate doom. One was a colourful crowd of climate activists called Extinction Rebellion, who have been blocking traffic in London for the last two days, and who are today planning further “economic disruption” aimed directly at the city’s jugular: the tube and rail networks. The other was less expected. Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, along with the governor of France’s central bank, Villeroy de Galhau, has written an article for the Guardian warning banks and insurers that climate change threatens them too. In the wallet. Insurance claims from droughts and floods are bad for business. Then there’s the fact that governments are now taking carbon emissions seriously, which means companies that don’t adjust will likely be adjusted out of existence. And at a certain point, when climate catastrophe deepens, there will be a “Minsky moment” – a sudden collapse in asset prices, true economic disruption. It feels like an important moment, this joining together of the solemn and besuited with the members of a group last seen supergluing their arses to the gallery glass in the House of Commons. It amplifies the message. Tackling climate change is, after all, about psychology. How should one talk about catastrophe? Make a problem too big and people will simply ignore it (just look at Brexit). Tell them it is too late, and the human instinct is to give up, rather than make vast efforts to save the scraps. And guilt doesn’t work on most people either – they are too wrapped up in their daily concerns. This is true of institutions too: David Cameron’s government was keen on green measures for a while, but only until something more important came along. But there are certain milestones movements can hit, when it feels as if they are on their way. One is that they become cool. This happened to the modern feminist movement around the time Caitlin Moran’s book How to Be a Woman hit the shelves in 2011. It has gradually happened to climate activism too. Veganism is no longer something to sneer at. Celebrities who might have once tried to avoid looking too “hempy” now fall over themselves to burnish their climate credentials. But an even more important milestone – when you know the movement has really picked up speed – comes when it directly threatens those in power. For feminism, again, this was #MeToo: the fear it has inspired among powerful men has done more for equality than decades of gentle awareness raising and women-friendly schemes. And now Carney is framing climate change in a language banks understand: as a threat to profits. It will add to other messages reaching the city. Five Volkswagen executives face up to a decade in prison for their role in faked diesel emission tests – a scandal that has also taken a chunk out of car sales. The investor Legal and General is cutting out companies they judge bad for the climate. For the planet, a turning point might just be at hand. • Martha Gill is a political journalist and former lobby correspondent | ['commentisfree/series/first-thoughts', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'business/mark-carney', 'business/business', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'type/article', 'profile/martha-gill', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-04-17T11:30:30Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2014/jul/05/dark-snow-speeding-glacier-melting-rising-sea-levels | Dark snow: from the Arctic to the Himalayas, the phenomenon that is accelerating glacier melting | When American geologist Ulyana Horodyskyj set up a mini weather station at 5,800m on Mount Himlung, on the Nepal-Tibet border, she looked east towards Everest and was shocked. The world's highest glacier, Khumbu, was turning visibly darker as particles of fine dust, blown by fierce winds, settled on the bright, fresh snow. "One-week-old snow was turning black and brown before my eyes," she said. The problem was even worse on the nearby Ngozumpa glacier, which snakes down from Cho Oyu – the world's sixth highest mountain. There, Horodyskyj found that so much dust had been blown on to the surface that the ability of the ice to reflect sunlight, a process known as albedo, dropped 20% in a single month. The dust that was darkening the brilliant whiteness of the snow was heating up in the strong sun and melting the snow and ice, she said. The phenomenon of "dark snow" is being recorded from the Himalayas to the Arctic as increasing amounts of dust from bare soil, soot from fires and ultra-fine particles of "black carbon" from industry and diesel engines are being whipped up and deposited sometimes thousands of miles away. The result, say scientists, is a significant dimming of the brightness of the world's snow and icefields, leading to a longer melt season, which in turn creates feedback where more solar heat is absorbed and the melting accelerates. In a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of French government meteorologists has reported that the Arctic ice cap, which is thought to have lost an average of 12.9bn tonnes of ice a year between 1992 and 2010 due to general warming, may be losing an extra 27bn tonnes a year just because of dust, potentially adding several centimetres of sea-level rise by 2100. Satellite measurements, say the authors, show that in the last 10 years the surface of Greenland's ice sheet has considerably darkened during the melt season, which in some areas is now between six and 11 days longer per decade than it was 40 years ago. As glaciers retreat and the snow cover disappears earlier in the year, so larger areas of bare soil are uncovered, which increases the dust erosion, scientists suggest. Research indicates that the Arctic's albedo may be declining much faster than was estimated only a few years ago. Earlier this year a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that declining Arctic albedo between 1979 and 2011 constituted 25% of the heating effect from carbon dioxide over the same time. According to Danish glaciologist Jason Box, who heads the Dark Snow project to measure the effect of dust and other darkening agents on Greenland's ice sheet, Arctic ice sheet reflectivity has been at a near record low for much of 2014. Even a minor decrease in the brightness of the ice sheet can double the average yearly rate of ice loss, seen from 1992 to 2010. "Low reflectivity heats the snow more than normal. A dark snow cover will thus melt earlier and more intensely. A positive feedback exists for snow in which, once melting begins, the surface gets yet darker due to increased water content," says Box on his blog. Both human-created and natural air pollutants are darkening the ice, say other scientists. Nearly invisible particles of "black carbon" resulting from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels from diesel engines are being swept thousands of miles from industrial centres in the US, Europe and south-east Asia, as is dust from Africa and the Middle East, where dust storms are becoming bigger as the land dries out, with increasingly long and deep droughts. Earlier this year dust from the Sahara was swept north for several thousands miles, smothered Britain and reached Norway. According to Kaitlin Keegan, a researcher at Dartmouth College in the US state of New Hampshire, the record melting in 2012 of Greenland's northeastern ice-sheet was largely a result of forest fires in Siberia and the US. Any reduction in albedo is a disaster, says Peter Wadhams, head of the Polar Oceans Physics Group at Cambridge University. He said: "Replacing an ice-covered surface, where the albedo may be 70% in summer, by an open-water surface with albedo less than 10%, causes more radiation to be absorbed by the Earth, causing an acceleration of warming. "I have calculated that the albedo change from the disappearance of the last of the summer ice in 2012 was the equivalent to the effect of all the extra carbon dioxide that we have added to the atmosphere in the last 25 years," he says. UlyanaHorodyskyj, who is planning to return to the Himalayas to continue monitoring dust pollution at altitude, said she had been surprised by how bad it was. "This is mostly manmade pollution," she said. "Governments must act, and people must become more aware of what is happening. It needs to be looked at properly." | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/glaciers', 'world/arctic', 'environment/mountains', 'environment/poles', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/sea-level', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-07-05T13:50:08Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2013/aug/25/specieswatch-insects-wood-ant-forests | Specieswatch: Wood ant | Colonies of wood ants, which inhabit Britain's ancient woods and pine forests, are at their most active at this time of year. Workers are surprisingly large, more than a centimetre long, and will be aggressive if disturbed. Colonies up to 500,000 build nests up to two metres high. These need to be approached with care if you want to avoid being bitten and have the wounds sprayed with formic acid. Those who intend to get close are advised to wear trousers with cycle clips. The most common wood ant, Formica rufa, is widespread in older woods in England and Wales. There are three related but much rarer species in Scotland. It takes an expert to tell the difference but they all have a vital role in nature. The Forestry Commission regard them as an ally in controlling pests and are trying to understand them better and encourage their spread. Columns of ants patrol the woods hunting insects, sometimes to the top of tall trees, and dragging their prey back to their nest. They work in teams, subduing insects by spraying them with acid. It is this role in controlling insects and caterpillars that damage trees that endears them to the Forestry Commission. But they are fascinating creatures for other reasons, having mastered the art of thatching and harnessing solar power. The top of their anthills are thatched with pine needles to keep out the rain and angled towards the sun to help heat the interior. In order to get the nest to the desired 30C for incubating the eggs and raising young, teams of workers sunbathe in shifts. As soon as the ants get hot they run inside the nest to be replaced by cool ants. This is kept up until the heavily insulated nest reaches the required heat. The heat is maintained by carefully stopping up entrance and exit holes. To provide extra central heating the nest is often built up over a rotting tree stump that releases warmth into the nest as organic matter decomposes. The ants are nearly all female. There can more than 100 queens producing eggs in a nest. The queens are bigger than the female workers. A few puny males are reared in the spring. Their role is to mate once with a queen and then die. The ants do not attack everything, allowing some species of worms and beetles to live in their nest because they help clean it by eating fungi and debris that the ants would otherwise have to remove. One surprising use of wood ants by birds has been observed. Rooks, starlings and thrushes have all been seen deliberately disturbing the nest surface, inviting attack by the ants. The birds spread their wings out and are sprayed with formic acid from close range by the infuriated teams of workers, effectively killing off all the bird's tics and mites. The birds will often go for a bathe afterwards to wash off the acid and the dead parasites. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/insects', 'tone/features', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-08-25T20:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2022/jul/29/fulu-miziki-congolese-band-music | ‘We like the sound of PVC tubing’: Fulu Miziki, the band who make music out of trash | A Congolese band that makes music from rubbish are making their UK debut at Womad Festival at the weekend after a four-month wait for visas. Meaning “music from the garbage” in Lingala, Fulu Miziki use items others have thrown away, from jerry cans to flip-flops, car parts to plastic tubing, as percussion instruments for their energetic “Afrofuturist” sound. The band began making their own instruments in 2016, out of necessity in Ngwaka, an area singer and drummer Sekelembele describes as “a bad neighbourhood in the middle of Kinshasa with a big dumpster in it”. Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has a tradition of performance artists (such as the Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle collective) upcycling found objects. Tche Tche, singer and percussionist in the band, says the group was inspired by “street performers from Kinshasa and superhero movies,” to use the materials around them to create their own distinct music and costumes. “We like the sound of PVC tubing and metal boxes, but we are always searching for new materials and new sounds,” adds Tche Tche. Fulu Miziki’s work, which fuses music, performance art and fashion, has the environment at its core. “We hope our collective can put a spotlight on this pollution problem in Kinshasa and other parts of Africa,” says Sekelembele, adding that “finding solutions is what Afrofuturism is about”. “In nature there is no trash because life reuses everything. Trash is toxic if it has no other use, so we give a second life to what we pick up,” he says. “But this problem is a global one. And if Africa is the dumpster of the entire world, it is already facing difficulties that everywhere else will face very soon.” For decades, environmental activists from across the continent have warned that Africa is becoming a dumping ground for the world’s waste, from plastics and electronics to clothing. Touring Europe, Fulu Miziki have adapted instruments and costumes along the way. “As we can’t travel with some materials because they’re too big, we have to improvise and find what we need before every show,” says Tche Tche. Earlier this year two of their suitcases were lost in Rome, leaving them 24 hours to search the festival site for tubing and wood for new instruments, and shoes to use as drumsticks. Their UK debut at Womad Festival on Saturday will be special for the group, whose four-month wait for visas cost them eight UK gigs. Womad founder Peter Gabriel has spoken out about the impact the UK’s “hostile environment” is having on Britain’s creative industries – and global reputation. “A lot of other artists from Africa have been discouraged to come to the UK but with patience and hope we finally got our visa today,” says Sekelembele, speaking to the Guardian before their gig. “The UK is a very important place for us to play. There is a real ‘public of connoisseurs’. This is where pop music was born!” Fulu Miziki Kollektiv play at Womad festival in Wiltshire on 30 July. Sign up for a different view with our Global Dispatch newsletter – a roundup of our top stories from around the world, recommended reads, and thoughts from our team on key development and human rights issues, delivered to your inbox every two weeks: | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/congo', 'music/music', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'world/africa', 'culture/womad', 'culture/culture', 'culture/festivals', 'music/music-festivals', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/alice-mccool', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-07-29T06:45:49Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2014/mar/03/morwell-coalmine-fire-doctors-warn-residents | Morwell coalmine fire: doctors warn residents face serious health risks | Doctors have warned of serious health risks to people living around the Morwell coalmine fire, due to a carcinogenic air pollutant reaching levels up to 20 times the average level. The Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) group, which spoke to a rally of Morwell residents on Sunday, is also renewing calls for federally regulated monitoring and reporting requirements to warn people of increasing risks as they occur. Thousands of Victorians are being affected by smoke from the coal which has been burning for three weeks and looks to continue for many months to come. The fire was discovered to have been deliberately lit during one of Victoria’s most serious fire situations since Black Saturday. The Victorian fire services commissioner, Craig Lapsley, on Friday told residents it would be at least 10 days before the fires stopped producing significant ash and smoke over the region, and the state’s chief health officer Dr Rosemary Lester advised at-risk groups in South Morwell to temporarily relocate. The government has offered free travel and relocation payments for some people as residents leave the area. There have been some complaints that the relocation payments are not available to all residents. On Sunday, the DEA, an environmental campaign group of doctors and medical students, warned the burning coal was creating an abnormally high level of particle PM2.5, which has been classified as a class one carcinogen alongside tobacco smoke and asbestos. PM2.5 is formed in a number of ways, particularly in fossil fuel combustion, Dr Merryn Redenbach, research and liaison officer for DEA said. “In general in Australia we have a daily average exposure advisory limit of 25 micrograms per metre cubed per day,” said Redenbach. “But there have been peaks of around or over 500 since the fires began at Hazelwood.” In the immediate short term, exposure to the high levels of PM2.5 was a danger to vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly, and people with pre-existing illnesses including heart and lung diseases, Redenbach said. “For example on days when particulate matter is higher, we see more hospital presentations with heart failure, heart arrhythmias,” said Redenbach. “Long-term exposure of PM2.5 is associated with increased mortality rates, but also with rates of lung cancer.” In response to the fires, the Victorian environment protection authority began hourly monitoring and publication of PM2.5, PM10 and carbon monoxide levels from the permanent monitoring station at Traralgon, two additional stations at Morwell, and mobile monitoring equipment. The EPA’s dedicated website for this ongoing situation shows the air quality index around South Morwell reaching above between 800 and 1100 on Thursday. Any reading over 150 is considered “very poor”. While this level of monitoring is providing concerned residents with constant updates, the EPA does not routinely monitor fine particle pollution around coal mine communities, said Redenbach, and the DEA is calling for federally regulated national monitoring and reporting requirements. “It is unfortunate that Australia lags behind other countries in collecting and reporting on levels of fine particle pollution, as this is one of the most important ways we can understand health impacts,” said Redenbach. The Australian Medical Association put forward a submission to the Senate inquiry into the impact of air quality on health in March last year also calling for regular monitoring. The Senate inquiry recommended buffer zones around communities, and pollution monitoring near major pollution sources. President of the AMA Dr Steve Hambleton told Guardian Australia it would like to see not just regular monitoring and reporting requirements of averages, but also of hotspots - for example around railway lines, near factories and coal mines where off-road diesel vehicles and construction equipment produce higher levels that on road cars. ”We would be very much in favour of [monitoring requirements],” said Hambleton. “How do we know there’s a problem if we don’t look for it? Average levels don’t tell us what we need to know.” Hambleton also suggested systems should be in place to warn people if conditions change, so residents - and schools and hospitals - could be told if a wind change was sending high levels of the particles towards them. The DEA on Sunday also called for a move towards cleaner energy sources, as PM2.5 is formed in many ways, including grinding and crushing processes. “This fire highlights the hidden costs of electricity from coal which tend to fall disproportionately on some communities, and this is happening now to the Latrobe Valley residents,” said Redenbach. “It is time to transition away from polluting coal to healthier, cleaner energy sources.” | ['australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/coal', 'society/health', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helen-davidson'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2014-03-03T08:45:16Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2021/jun/22/uk-online-shopping-boom-fuels-cardboard-shortage-as-households-hoard-boxes | UK online shopping boom fuels cardboard shortage as households hoard boxes | The nation’s online shopping habit is causing a cardboard shortage as empty delivery boxes are hoarded in homes or stuck in council recycling bins. UK households have amassed 135m cardboard boxes during the pandemic, keeping valuable raw material out of the recycling chain and pushing up packaging prices, according to the packaging specialist DS Smith. “People are consuming a lot more at home than they have in the past because of the lockdowns,” said Miles Roberts, DS Smith’s chief executive. “So there is a lot more packaging that’s ended up in the home.” Pre-pandemic, when most deliveries were made in bulk to high street shops and restaurants, packaging found its way quickly back into the system via recycling companies. But DS Smith, whose big customers include Amazon and consumer goods companies such as Nestlé and Unilever, is now at the mercy of consumers and council recycling policies – amid a big shift to online shopping that looks set to last. “Before we were collecting pure fibre, old boxes, from the back of a retailer, which had all been properly sorted,” he added. “Today we are given a bin that’s got everything in it and is only collected every two weeks. That means there is a higher cost to process and it has taken longer as well. “One of the challenges for us is that, with so much packaging now in people’s homes or in their garages, how do we get that paper back into the recycled network; how can we get it back into our mills so we can convert it into paper and reuse it again?” DS Smith has a “14-day box-to-box model”, meaning it can take the boxes it makes, then collect, recycle and convert them into new boxes all within a fortnight. But recent research by the company found a fifth of Britons had a stash of between five and 10 boxes, while 10% had up to 20. The company is also stymied by the absence of a unified recycling policy across the UK. It was having conversations on a “local authority by local authority” basis in an attempt to improve the situation, Roberts said. “There isn’t a common policy at all,” he said. “So you have to go to each local authority and say: ‘Can we start to put in different bins for different materials,’ because that means it’s easier to collect and cheaper to reprocess and that is good news for consumers.” The comments came as the group reported a near 40% drop in pre-tax profits to £231m on flat sales of £6bn in the year to 30 April. It experienced see-sawing sales during the health crisis as demand initially fell back, only to rebound strongly. The pandemic had brought mixed blessings, said the Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Laura Hoy. DS Smith’s boxes were much in demand but rising input costs and the need to make its operations Covid safe had dented profits. “With the cost of materials continuing to rise, DS Smith is passing those expenses on to customers via higher packaging costs,” said Hoy. “This makes sense and should offset those inflationary headwinds but there’s a tipping point at which volumes will start to decline if prices rise too dramatically.” | ['business/packaging', 'money/online-shopping', 'business/business', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'business/couriers-delivery', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/zoewood', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-06-22T16:30:19Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk/the-northerner/2011/sep/13/yorkshire-wolds-wind-turbines-aonb-humber-partnership-willy-howe-english-heritage | Windfarm proposals mass on David Hockney's favourite Yorkshire patch | Yorkshire has been presented with an enormous bouquet by its artist son David Hockney in the last week, with preview publicity for his shows which open at Saltaire tomorrow, Wednesday 14 September, and in January at the Royal Academy in London. In particular, the world's imagination has been caught by his invocation of the quiet world of 'real Yorkshire' in the byways of the East Riding and around Bridlington. As he memorably put it to journalists, the town is supposed to be a depressed area "but local people don't seem to see it that way." Some of them don't entirely agree that Hockney has got things right with the title The Bigger Picture which will be used for his RA spectacular of East Yorkshire work. The vivid landscapes he has been doing of the Wolds have generally got one thing missing: wind turbines. Not everyone dislikes these, just as ordinary, old-fashioned windmills have gone from being doubtless noisy blots on the mediaeval landscape to treasured examples of England's heritage, or novel and usually pricey homes. But the sheer scale of proposals for turbines on East Yorkshire's windswept farmland ("Nothing between here and the Urals," is the familiar catchphrase) might warrant a bit of artistic revision. David Hinde of the recently formed No to Wolds Wind Farm group says: Here's the real "Bigger Picture": our beautiful Yorkshire Wolds Landscape faces an urgent & immediate threat from swamping by Wind Turbines of all sizes. They are alien structures in this open landscape that will destroy its character and the reasons for tourists to visit this area. Over 190 applications for wind turbines & windfarms have been received by East Riding Of Yorkshire Council.They urgently need to uphold their protection policies for the Wolds & Heritage Coast. The group is fighting not only on the general, but the particular. They have found allies at English Heritage over one turbine scheme close to the Willy Howe neolithic barrow. The battle against too many turbines will be helped if the Wolds wins an upgrade from its current High Quality Landscape Area status to the better-protected Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Exactly this was proposed by the Humber Economic Partnership, but the organisation was wound up in March this year because of spending cuts at the local authorities which supported it. Few would disagree that the grand and lonely valleys, including the remarkable dry ones on the Wolds Way whose streams have long vanished underground, are exceptional. That's Hockney's point, as well as other interpreters of the area such as the novelist Winifred Holtby, whose novel South Riding was recently a TV success. But with wind farms? What do you think? | ['uk/the-northerner', 'tone/blog', 'artanddesign/hockney', 'travel/yorkshire', 'weather/bridlington', 'lifeandstyle/series/walk-yourself-fit', 'travel/walkingholidays', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/blog', 'technology/technology', 'society/society', 'politics/politics', 'culture/heritage', 'travel/heritage', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'type/article', 'profile/martinwainwright'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2011-09-13T17:06:00Z | true | ENERGY |
business/commentisfree/2021/may/22/the-coalition-doesnt-want-to-focus-on-climate-change-but-australia-will-be-forced-to | The Coalition doesn’t want to focus on climate change – but Australia will be forced to | Greg Jericho | This week we took another spin on the deranged carousel that is Australian climate change policy as the government announced it will fund a gas-fired power station at the very moment an international report detailed the need to do the exact opposite. I wish this was a new development, but it just felt like a repeat of late 2018, when less than a year before the federal election, the IPCC released a report stating that if nations acted together we could limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. We had to get to net zero emissions by 2050 and achieve a global 45% cut in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 if we started straight away. We didn’t. Australia, led then as now by those who profess not to be climate change deniers but who are able to pull off the most astonishing imitation, set about undermining attempts to limit emissions. In the 2019 election Scott Morrison declared that Labor was going to end the weekend because it had a policy of achieving a target of 50% of new car sales being electric by 2030. It didn’t matter that the Coalition’s own policy at the time had a similar (if undefined) target. Reality is not something that ever gets in the way of an electoral con. The ALP was also relentlessly asked to cost its target of a 45% cut in emissions by 2030 while the Coalition was able to skate by saying theirs would be cheaper (because theirs only involved a 26% cut). Now, alas, nothing has improved – that target still remains; but the ALP’s is gone, yet to be replaced. Thus it felt very familiar when this week, again within a year of the next election, a major international climate change report was released announcing a path to net zero emissions by 2050. The International Energy Agency’s “Net Zero by 2050” roadmap report gave some clear detail of what needs to be done in five year intervals out to 2050. It noted, for example, that by 2030 60% of new car sales should be electric, with no internal combustion cars being sold after 2035. I suppose the weekend will just be abolished at that point … The roadmap also calls for an end to new oil and gas fields or coalmines and that “unabated natural gas‐fired generation peaks by 2030 and is 90% lower by 2040.” So it was oddly in keeping with the climate change policy farce that is the Coalition that it chose the same day the report was released to announce it was going to spend $600m on a gas fired power-plant in the Hunter region. When the science and economics of climate change demand transition to renewables, of course this government would invest in an asset no private investors would touch with a 10-foot carbon rod. The report suggests by 2030 we need to cut emissions to 38% below 2020 levels. By contrast, it argues if nations barely co-operate we will likely achieve a mere 13% cut over the next decade and will only reach net zero emissions by 2087. By that time the world will almost definitely be 2C warmer than pre-industrial levels and there would be a 50% chance of reaching 2.7C by 2100. Graph not displaying properly? Click here Australia, of course, is doing worse than that. Currently we are on track to emit only 7% less in 2030 than we did last year. We are not the world’s leader but its anchor. There is little hope that the next election will have any focus on climate change other than to sow fear, and yet it should be the number one issue. The report notes that the move to net zero emissions will “affect multiple aspects of people’s lives – from transport, heating and cooking to urban planning and jobs”. The choice is whether we act in a manner that will manage that change with the least social and economic damage to people’s lives, or as is currently the case under the Morrison government, we put off paying the cost until it is much greater. And worse, it will be at a time when action will be forced on us by other nations and by the climate itself. | ['business/series/grogonomics-graph-of-the-week', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/gas', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/greg-jericho', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/fossil-fuels | EMISSIONS | 2021-05-22T20:00:10Z | true | EMISSIONS |
us-news/2023/oct/06/texas-drought-heat-dome | Dead lawns, dry wells: Texas drought persists after summer heat dome | The heat dome that roasted a wide swath of the US this summer has dissipated – but it has left behind a crisp, dehydrated landscape, particularly in Texas. Even as the weather cools, more than 30% of the continental US is experiencing drought, according to a newly released analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Sizable portions of the Pacific north-west, midwest and much of the south find themselves grappling with drier-than-normal conditions. However, in the heart of the Texas hill country, which lies in the middle of this vast state, “exceptional” drought – the most intense category – has persisted for months. Lawns and fields are dead. Trees are dying, even along the creeks. Wells have run dry. The Guadalupe River, a major artery that draws locals and tourists alike to bask in its cool green depths – and which the small city of Kerrville relies on as a water source – has stopped flowing along part of its route. Now, instead of a welcoming oasis, the broad, desiccated riverbed crunches underfoot. Kerrville and the surrounding region are arid and accustomed to cycles of drought. But 2023 has truly been exceptional. Locals compare this year’s conditions to another landmark drought, from 2011, which was Texas’s driest year on record. And many agree: this one feels worse. Although this year’s rainfall totals have been higher, the drought has been compounded by consecutive summers of extreme heat and a lack of replenishing rain during the past two years’ cooler months, said Gene Williams, general manager of the Headwaters Groundwater Conservation District. Headwaters registers and permits wells in Kerr county and inspects local aquifers. By the time this summer ramped up, the area already suffered from depleted reserves. In a state famous for cattle, the drought has pushed some homesteaders to their limit. Megan Mitchell, who has raised a small herd of beef cows with her husband, Clay, on their family farm in neighboring Gillespie county, said: “If we don’t get rain, it’s not a question of if our well’s going to go dry. It’s a question of when.” Last month, the Mitchells threw in the towel. They have sold five of their cows already, and their remaining two are on their way out. The couple had first talked about getting rid of the cows back in February, when the lack of rainfall drove hay prices up by as much as 50%. During that time, the local feed store, where Megan works, struggled to source hay for customers. First, they limited clients to two bales at a time. They later tightened it to one. Then they ran out. “We went from March until the middle of April with no round bales,” Megan said. “You couldn’t find a round bale in the state of Texas.” Still, they hung in there. It wasn’t until the height of summer, when neighbors’ wells started running dry and hay prices remained stubbornly high, that Megan turned to Clay and admitted: we can’t keep doing this. So the cows went, leaving an eerie quiet behind them. Megan still hasn’t gotten used to the absence of background chatter from the herd feeding and milling around. According to the Noaa’s analysis, the US drought expanded and intensified over the summer not only because of a lack of rainfall – but also because of evaporative demand (which the federal agency describes as “the thirst of the atmosphere”) and extreme heat. Austin, which sits on the eastern edge of the hill country, shattered records for triple-digit heat this year, tallying 45 days in a row where temperatures tipped higher than 100F (37.7C). As nations around the globe race to mitigate the effects of climate change, Texas plays an outsized role that casts it as both villain and hero. Texas is the largest energy-consuming state in the US and a major player in refining and petrochemicals. Yet on the other side of the coin, Texas has led the nation for 17 years in wind-generated electricity – the state ranks second in solar installations, trailing only the decisive leader, California. The events in the hill country are “just a microcosm of the global situation”, said Dr Zong-Liang Yang, a professor in the earth and planetary sciences department at the University of Texas at Austin. Without human-induced climate change, the heatwaves that swept across the US, Mexico and southern Europe this summer would have been virtually impossible, Yang said: “The probability is less than 1%.” While climate scientists have a high degree of confidence in connecting extreme temperatures to climate change, droughts are trickier. “Temperature is directly related to the greenhouse effect. If you have more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, they will lead to more greenhouse warming,” Yang said. Drought, however, is influenced by a host of factors, including wind patterns, cloud formations, and pollutants. Although he cautioned that further study is needed, he said: “For current ongoing droughts, I would think that human-induced climate change would play a very high role.” Yang is the leading principal investigator on a research project studying climate models for the Colorado river basin, which supplies drinking water to Austin. The research team found that temperatures in the river basin will rise between 2.75C and 6.5C by the end of the century, another indicator of a rapidly changing climate. They also found that the number of dry days will increase. And when the rain finally does come? There’s more bad news: the basin will be more likely to see downpours, which could lead to flash flooding as heavy rainfall inundates parched landscapes and concrete urban areas. | ['us-news/texas', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'environment/water', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-10-06T11:00:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2017/jan/11/cirrus-clouds-high-flyers-scientists | Cirrus clouds: the secrets of high flyers | Named after the Latin word meaning “curling lock of hair”, cirrus clouds form high in the atmosphere, and often signal that a deterioration in the weather is on the way. But these beautiful repeating wisps of cloud are also mysterious: little is known about what triggers the embryonic ice-crystals to grow, from which cirrus clouds grow. The question is important because these cold high-level clouds act like a blanket around Earth, trapping heat in, and their predisposition to form in the future could have big implications for the rate at which global warming progresses. Now scientists from the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state have managed to watch the birth of a cirrus cloud in unprecedented detail, by recreating the temperature, pressure and humidity of the high atmosphere, inside a minute cloud-chamber – smaller than a poppy seed. Using a scanning electron microscope they watched how tiny particles (2 microns wide, equivalent to one tenth the width of human hair) attracted water vapour, and grew an ice-crystal, over the course of about 20 minutes. “Behind all these beautiful images were months and months of hard work,” says Alexander Laskin, one of the co-authors, whose findings have been published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. The images, which were taken every three seconds, resolved detail as small as 50 nanometres wide (one-thousandth the width of a human hair). Such high-resolution means that scientists can start to understand how a particle’s size, shape, chemistry and texture affect the way that ice crystals grow, and better understand what kind of conditions encourage these high-level clouds to form. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-01-11T21:30:09Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/nov/29/buried-in-marshes-sea-level-rise-could-destroy-historic-sites-on-us-east-coast | 'Buried in marshes': sea-level rise could destroy historic sites on US east coast | Large tracts of America’s east coast heritage are at risk from being wiped out by sea level rise, with the rising oceans set to threaten more than 13,000 archaeological and historic sites, according to new research. Even a modest increase in sea level will imperil much of the south-eastern US’s heritage by the end of the century, researchers found, with 13,000 sites threatened by a 1m increase. Thousands more areas will be threatened as the seas continue to climb in the years beyond this, forcing the potential relocation of the White House and Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and inundation of historic touchstones such as the Kennedy Space Center and St Augustine, Florida, which lays claim to being the oldest city in the US. “There are going to be a lot of cultural sites lost and the record of humanity’s history will be put at risk,” said David Anderson, a University of Tennessee anthropologist who led the published research. “Some sites will be destroyed, some buried in marshes. We may be able to relocate some. In some places it will be devastating. We need to properly understand the magnitude of this.” Threatened areas, including locations on the national register of historic places, include Native American sites that date back more than 10,000 years, as well as early colonial settlements such as Jamestown, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina. Researchers pinpointed known sites using topographical data and analyzed how they would fare in various sea level rise scenarios. Florida, which has a southern portion particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, has the most sites in danger from a 1m raising of the oceans, followed by Louisiana and Virginia. A 1m sea level rise by 2100 could prove optimistic, with several studies showing the increase could be much greater. Scientists have warned that the break up of the Antarctic ice sheet could significantly fuel sea level rise, pushing the global increase to around 6ft by 2100. The latest US government estimate predicts a worldwide increase of 1ft to 4ft by 2100, although an 8ft rise “cannot be ruled out”. The eastern seaboard of the US is at particular risk, with water piling up along the coast in greater volumes than the global average. The problem is compounded by areas of the coast, such as in New Jersey and Virginia, gradually subsiding due to long-term geological hangover from a vast ice sheet that once covered much of North America. Sea level rise is expected to displace millions of people from the US coasts over the next coming decades, with Anderson warning this will create further damage to heritage sites as people move inland. There is still some uncertainty over the exact timescale involved in the changes – it may take several hundred years for some coastal places to be at risk – leading to hopes that coastlines can be adapted in time in order to protect vital infrastructure and sacred sites. But losses appear inevitable. “Putting a sea wall around the whole of the US won’t be an easy thing to do and would cause a lot of damage elsewhere,” said Anderson. “We are going to have to do a lot of planning as a civilization in the next 50 to 100 years and we have to take heritage into account.” Coastal heritage has been lost by previous fluctuations in sea level rise and Harold Wanless, a coastal geologist at the University of Miami who wasn’t involved in the study, said that tough decisions will need to be made as to what to protect in the future. “We will have to look at how much effort we expend saving these sites over more practical things such as critical infrastructure or developing new agriculture resources,” Wanless said. “Our human history is important but there are a lot of new things to focus on. They will all need time and effort.” Human-driven climate change is already creating its own historical artifacts, with around a dozen towns in Alaska set to be abandoned or relocated due to rising sea levels and diminishing sea ice. In Louisiana, a community near New Orleans received federal funding last year to relocate because much of their low-lying land has disappeared. “It’s going to be an important choice for government,” said Rob Thieler, a sea level rise expert at the US Geological Survey. “There’s land that is becoming uninhabitable right now and we’ve seen from the hurricanes this year that people have to leave not just from the flooding but because infrastructure and services become unreliable.” | ['environment/sea-level', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oceans', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-11-29T19:00:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2012/jun/15/rio20-voice-san-jose-costa-rica | Rio+20: A voice from San José, Costa Rica | When asked about sustainable development, the first thing that comes to mind is the well-known Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and he'll feed for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll feed for a lifetime." Our generation should be committed to teaching one another how to grow in a way that will help us meet the needs of today without preventing future generations from meeting them tomorrow. This growth pattern should ensure a decent living environment for all human beings. Habitat for Humanity's solutions provide us with one example – slum developments typically have poor living conditions, high pollution, a lack of safe drinking water and non-environmentally friendly construction. These situations promote disease, poor access to education and other issues that result in larger and less educated families, as well as unbalanced communities. If we can partner with those communities – provide them with access to the materials they need, and help them to improve their own homes – not only will their context improve, but they will be empowered to continue to bring those changes forward. There will be increasingly less pollution, less disease, higher quality education, and more sustainable growth. When a community works together in synergy, a sustainability-centered ideology can be achieved. The living conditions for a lot of people have got worse. An unbalanced population growth has resulted in the abuse of resources. Poverty and unemployment seems to shoot closer to the roof every day. Being from a country like Costa Rica allows me to say, however, that I've lived in a place where a sustainable mentality has been present for the past two decades, regardless of the problems – or possibly as a result of them. Despite the worsening of the overall global picture, I've witnessed a rise in public awareness. People are more sensitive to their environmental conditions, to their neighbour's needs, and to the Earth as a whole. More important is the willingness and desire they have to get involved in possible solutions to the problems we are facing. There are a lot of people all over the world who are working hard to create a sustainable economy. Different areas are being reached on a very general basis – the environmental front, poverty eradication, quality of life – but there is only so much that NGOs can do. Committed groups need tools to develop solutions. We need committed political leaders to stand up for sustainable development and, as Rio+20's objective emphasises, come up with "renewed political visions and address new and emerging challenges". We all live in one world. One person's actions have a direct effect on the rest of the world. These actions will affect all of our lives in some way. Initiatives such as Rio+20 are essential for providing future generations like mine with better tools to work in synergy and achieve a sustainable economy. | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'tone/interview', 'global-development/series/global-development-voices', 'type/article'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2012-06-15T09:22:09Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2010/jan/04/regulations-battery-disposal | New EU regulations for battery disposal | New regulations come into force this month that require retailers selling batteries to provide collection and recycling facilities for their eventual disposal. The rules, part of the EU's batteries directive, are meant to deal with the thousands of tonnes of harmful metals that pollute the environment when used batteries are burned or put into landfill. According to the Environment Agency, which will be among the organisations to enforce the new rules, the directive will "affect any business that uses, produces, supplies, or disposes of batteries, as well as any business that manufactures or designs battery-powered products". For consumers, everything from AAA cells to mobile phone batteries and button cells used in hearing aids and watches, must be separated from household rubbish and placed into designated recycling bins in shops or other recycling points. Though the details are yet to be worked out, among the schemes expected to become available to consumers are in-store recycling points, kerbside collection and post-back to manufacturers or vendors. "The primary intention is to divert batteries away from landfill, to avoid metals such as cadmium and mercury in those batteries from getting into the environment," said Bob Mead, the Environment Agency's project manager. "For portable batteries, the current rate of collection and recycling are pretty low, the government estimates it at around 3%. The directive requires us to get that up to a minimum of 25% by 2012 and 45% by 2016." Anyone selling more than a tonne of portable batteries a year will have to arrange for the collection, recycling and disposal of waste batteries in proportion to their market share. But Mead said this did not mean retailers would be burdened with layers of extra responsibility. "The retailers themselves are required to do nothing more than provide a point where one of these collection bins can be placed," he said. "They have no responsibilities themselves in treating or recycling the batteries they collect. They merely have to phone up one of the compliance schemes and say: 'I've got some batteries so come and take them away from me.'" "We have made the system as easy as possible for consumers to recycle their batteries. Retailers that sell the equivalent of one four pack of AA batteries a day will need to offer a free in-store recycling facility. Consumers can take their used batteries back to any take-back point, and the retailers can then get the recycled batteries collected for free by approved Battery Compliance Schemes," said a spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The directive was created to deal with the approximately 800,000 tonnes of automotive batteries, 190,000 tonnes of industrial batteries and 160,000 tonnes of consumer batteries that are placed on the EU market every year. The metals used range from lead and mercury to nickel, cadmium, zinc, lithium and manganese. According to the European commission, mercury, lead and cadmium are the most problematic substances in the battery waste stream and batteries made with these metals are classified as hazardous waste. When these waste batteries are burned, they contribute to air pollution and, when they end up in landfill, the metals leach into the surrounding land. In additioon, thousands of tonnes of valuable metals, such as nickel, cobalt and silver, could be recovered if batteries did not go to landfills or incinerators. | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/landfill', 'environment/waste', 'world/eu', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'technology/technology', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/alokjha'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2010-01-04T16:26:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2015/nov/23/mystery-twisters | Mystery twisters | Winter is usually the quiet season for North American tornadoes, so the residents of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas were rather taken aback when as many as 40 twisters whipped across the high plains last week. Some of the tornadoes produced spectacular golf-ball-sized hail stones, and one even tore up ears of corn and flung them back down encased in little bullets of ice. In this case the tornadoes and associated high winds were forecast well in advance, but they still managed to cause plenty of damage. An oil-field servicing plant in Texas was destroyed, roofs were ripped off and power lines were sliced, leaving 47,000 people without power in Texas and Oklahoma alone. So what was behind the weird weather? In this case it was brought about by a combination of unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, which fed lots of energy and moisture into the atmosphere, and a juicy storm riding along on a powerful jet stream. This low pressure system, known as storm Ajax, plastered the southern Rockies with snow and created blizzard conditions over parts of the high plains. But it also spawned huge thunderstorms further south, and it was from this high energy environment that the tornadoes emerged. To have a tornado outbreak so far inland, and across such high ground, is unprecedented at this time of year. The strong El Niño conditions in the Pacific may have contributed by injecting more energy into the jet stream, and altering its usual path, but El Niño alone can’t be blamed – sometimes the weather is just plain freaky. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'science/meteorology', 'environment/elnino', 'world/tornadoes', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-11-23T21:30:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/dec/26/farming-of-the-future-rise-of-hydroponic-food-labs-thomas-myers | 'This is the farming of the future': the rise of hydroponic food labs | Beautifully arranged rows of bok choi, parsley, tarragon and basil alongside dozens of variety of lettuce grow together in harmony under the pink glow of an LED light in a former sugar factory. Water infused with nutrients trickles on to the green towers, keeping the rosettes hydrated and fed. This is a technically advanced indoor vertical farm buried deep in a basement at a former Tate & Lyle warehouse and now the Liverpool Life Sciences UTC. Two academics pooled their resources, recruited PhD and master’s students and are growing food hydroponically in towers – an increasingly popular concept where salads and leafy greens are grown all year round under precise conditions in vertically stacked foam-filled beds without natural sunlight and soil. The farm is the creation of Jens Thomas and Paul Myers, both with scientific backgrounds, who first met at a conference and then again at a Thai boxing class before deciding to work together. They founded Farm Urban in 2014. Since then, they have installed systems across the city including at the University of Liverpool, Alder Hey children’s hospital and Ness Botanic Gardens and have carried out a range of public outreach activities. Their aim is to change our relationship with food: the traditional methods of agriculture, they say, and using acres of land is no longer sustainable. The world’s population is growing – the World Health Organization estimates it will have increased to 9.7 billion people by 2050, with 70% of people living in urban areas. To preserve natural habitats and improve worldwide food security there needs to be a complete overhaul of food production methods, say Thomas and Myers. They are in precarious territory. Similar schemes have failed, including one in Greater Manchester. The Biospheric Foundation, based in a mill by the banks of the River Irwell in Salford, was supposed to be a state-of-the-art urban aquaponic farm, where fish waste provided the food source for growing plants, and the plants provided a natural filter for the water. Three years after the project opened, it went under more than £100,000 in debt, with the reputation of the whole scheme in tatters. Such food production schemes face very real financial challenges. First, there are the costs that, if not carefully managed, could end up being astronomical. They are mainly associated with the energy use required to maintain a controlled environment and provide artificial light. There is the issue of the carbon footprint of using high amounts of energy amid efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There has also been criticism of the farms for being geared to producing only leafy greens and not higher-calorie crops. Thomas and Myers insist their project is different. Their aims are hyperlocal – they want to start small and gear production in tandem with increasing commercial interest in their products. Their current vertical farm, which was shipped over from Canada, has been paid for by First Ark, a Knowsley-based social investment organisation. The £150,000 funding is part-loan and part-grant. Thomas and Myers are hoping to recoup some of the cash by selling salad boxes for £12.50 to individuals and businesses, with annual subscriptions costing £600. They have also launched a crowdfunding campaign, Greens for Good, where every box of greens bought by a local business supports a box of greens going to a local school. They have raised more than £17,000 of their £25,000 goal. Myers, 32, the son of a hairdresser and entrepreneur, became interested in food production while working on his PhD at the National Cancer Institute. Billions are spent on drugs research, but he feels there needs to be a more holistic approach to look at how diet and food quality can affect health. “This is the farming of the future. Pesticide-free and moving from the traditional horse and tractor agriculture that is steadily destroying the planet to a more sustainable approach,” he says. Myers is fully aware of the risks of his chosen career path. “Yes, I am a bit scared – we have taken on a huge debt – but we de-risked it as much as humanly possible and now it’s just a case of carrying on and working to make it work.” He certainly has the backing of students Emmanuella Aul-Mku and Rhianna Ghalleb, both 14, who have seen firsthand the benefits of growing salad in vertical farms. Their school canteen upstairs serves salad from the farm and pupils are regularly invited into the basement to see the mechanics of the technologically advanced food production. Ghalleb, who spent some of her childhood in Tunisia, and Aul-Mku in Nigeria, both come from families which grew their own vegetables and fruit in their back gardens. “My nanna had olive trees and figs and I would do gardening with her all the time and help her grow things but we don’t do that here. We just go to Asda and buy our food in plastic packets – we don’t know what conditions it has been grown in – what has been used to help it grow,” says Ghalleb. Aul-Mku agrees this reliance on supermarkets affects people’s relationship with food and thinks these new vertical farms could change that. “We get to see it growing in front of us and that really makes a difference. If there were farms like this everywhere then people would be able to feel part of a community because they would all be growing food for each other,” she says. | ['environment/farming', 'environment/food', 'global-development/food-security', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/liverpool', 'environment/conservation', 'society/health', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/nazia-parveen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-26T20:00:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
travel/2004/nov/14/observerescapesection3 | A hurricane that held a silver lining | Hurricane Ivan wreaked havoc across the Caribbean in September, leaving hotels destroyed and tourist attractions ruined. But two months on, after a massive clear-up operation, the region is returning to normality. Tour operators have resumed holidays to most islands, cruise ships are returning and 95 per cent of hotels are open, after many turned damage into an opportunity to revamp. 'Out of every disaster you get a better product and the Caribbean got millions of insurance dollars from hotelier's accountants being creative,' said a spokesman for the Caribbean Hotel Association. So what does the future hold for the worst affected countries, Grenada, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica? Grenada 'I visited Grenada recently, and what struck me was not the damage done but the smiles on people's faces,' said Pamela Richards, chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation. Amazing, considering Grenada received more damage than any other island, with over 90 per cent of buildings destroyed, over half the population of 90,000 made homeless and 39 killed. Grenadians have worked hard to rebuild the Spice Island, with help from charities including the Red Cross and Oxfam, but more is needed, and skilled volunteers, such as carpenters, electricians, builders and teachers are being offered free holidays to the island in exchange for labour. Contact the Tourist Office (020 8877 4516; grenadagrenadines.com) for details. Fred Olsen is the first cruise line to return this week, and tour operators are expected to follow. Just Grenada (01373 814214; justgrenada.co.uk) is resuming holidays from January but is warning that the spice farms are ruined, many locals are living under tarpaulin and the Grand Etang National Park rainforest is destroyed. A week at the True Blue Bay is £695 pp B&B, £100 off the brochure price, including flights from Gatwick. Cayman Islands Little Cayman reopened to tourists almost immedi ately, while Grand Cayman was affected most but is recovering fast. Last week McKeeva Bush, minister of tourism for the Cayman Islands, announced that all air travel restrictions to Grand Cayman would be lifted on 20 November, so tour operators are likely to start featuring it again soon. 'As a result of the hurricane, hotels accelerated renovation, so there's a whole new product,' said Bush. Kuoni (01306 742888; kuoni.co.uk) says it will go back when flights restart, but has no prices yet. The first cruises will return tomorrow, though many lines, including Carnival, have altered their itineraries to avoid the island. The white sand beaches are as pristine as ever, attractions such as the Turtle Farm and the pretty capital George Town are ready for guests, and more than 75 restaurants have reopened. This month a 9pm to dawn curfew, imposed to stop looting, was reduced to between midnight and 5am. Jamaica 'We skipped the one beat but are heading on,' says Jamaica's minister of tourism, Aloun N'doumbet-Assamba. Cruise ships returned a week after the hurricane, and now 90 per cent of hotels and attractions are open, and travel companies are operating. Even in Negril, the worst affected town, where 30-foot waves destroyed buildings or filled them with sand, most hotels have revamped and reopened. 'Some people thought it was Christmas when they got insurance money to spruce up their properties,' said the minister. Jakes (00 1 305 5318 800; islandoutpost.com), Jamaica's chicest shack, where Kate Moss, Robbie Williams and Sadie Frost all stayed last year, has re-opened after a refurbishment with rooms from £69 per night. In the south, vegetation regrowth has brought thousands of butterflies, making it prettier than ever. Elsewhere In all other areas, including Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas, damage was limited or non-existent and it's business as usual, with holidays unaffected. In the Dominican Republic over 4,000 new hotels are being built, with more cheap and medium-range hotels. 'We need different types of hotel, and to increase flights,' said Felix Jimenez, minister of tourism. Spend a week in the four-star Catalonia Bavaro Beach from £590pp, departing 5-15 December with Eclipse Direct (08705 010203; www.eclipsedirect.co.uk). Many of the islands in the Bahamas were unaffected, but on those that were, minor damage to buildings was repaired quickly and holidays are running as normal. Virgin is to introduce packages there next July. Thomas Cook (08701 111111; thomascook.com) is operating in Florida, Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic as usual, with the exception of one hotel in the latter. It is offering many cheap deals, such as 14 nights all inclusive at the Seagrape Hotel in Cabarete from £451. | ['travel/travel', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/escape', 'theobserver/escape/features'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-11-14T18:34:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2022/jun/11/new-york-has-a-chance-to-generate-all-its-electricity-from-clean-energy-by-2030 | New York has a chance to generate all its electricity from clean energy by 2030 | Ross Barkan | It has been, for progressives in New York, a trying year. Major pieces of legislation that were supposed to reshape the state to safeguard the working class have stalled out. A bill to create a statewide single-payer healthcare system is no closer to passage than it was several years ago. A push to guarantee new protections for tenants as rents soar in New York City could not find the votes. And ambitious legislation to combat climate that did have the votes to go through the state legislature was halted by the speaker of the state assembly. Unlike in Washington, Democrats in New York have no one to blame but themselves. The party holds supermajorities in both chambers, the state senate and state assembly. Progressives have grown their clout in each. A handful of socialists occupy seats as well. The trouble is that institutional forces – those aligned with the real estate and fossil fuel industries in particular – have plenty of clout, too. The left is stronger, in numbers, than it’s ever been, but the state’s power brokers are centrists or those most hesitant to challenge entrenched power structures. This is true in other Democrat-run states too, but it’s been sobering in New York where progressives have nurtured such high hopes for change. The left, of course, has gotten much further in New York in the last few years than it had in the previous decades. In 2019, Democrats took control of the state senate and immediately passed a large number of bills that had been bottled up for years. Legislation to help tenants, reduce the use of cash bail, and protect voting rights and women’s health all easily passed the body and were signed into law. In 2020, the pandemic hit and ambitious legislating was put on hold. The 2021 session was more of the same. This year offered hope. The Build Public Renewables Act, or BPRA, would mandate that the state’s public power provider, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), generate all of its electricity from clean energy by 2030 and establish a process through which it can build and own renewables while closing down polluting infrastructure. The state itself could build out wind and solar energy. With its high bond rating, the NYPA could easily finance projects. Passage of the bill would have profound national implications. New York would be a leader in the fight against the climate crisis and inspire other states with Democratic governors to follow their lead. With Republicans poised to retake Congress, state-level action is crucial. Independent power producers, who fiercely oppose the BPRA, currently build out new power generation infrastructure beyond NYPA. Solar industry trade associations fought the bill bitterly. They have made inroads in the legislature. In turn, a strange thing happened: the BPRA amassed the votes to pass the state assembly – it had already passed the senate – but was never brought up for a vote before the end of the legislative session in early June. The speaker, Carl Heastie, claimed the votes were not there because, apparently, the more than 80 lawmakers who backed the bill did not inform him personally they would vote that way. Advocates and supporters, however, were certain they had the votes. At first glance, it would appear Heastie had a point, since it is theoretically true the speaker cannot know who will vote for what if he has not been told about the intentions of each lawmaker. But that’s not how lawmaking really works in Albany, the state capital. There are hundreds of bills and the speaker cannot personally hear from all legislators before one is put on the floor for a vote. Rather, most Democrats vote reflexively with the speaker unless the bill has an organized constituency in their districts that opposed it. There is no popular, grassroots outcry against the BPRA. Most New Yorkers don’t know what it is. Why did Heastie claim the votes were not there? Some moderate Democrats are wary of passing any far-reaching bills in an election year. Organized labor had opposed earlier versions of the bill, but the New York AFL-CIO had agreed to stay neutral this time. Governor Kathy Hochul may not support the BPRA either, but she would be hard-pressed to not sign the bill if it reached her desk, especially if New York’s large environmental movement and progressive infrastructure mobilized for it. The good news is that the legislation may not be dead for 2022. Though lawmakers depart Albany in June and typically don’t reconvene until the new year to pass bills, Heastie requested the chairs of the assembly’s committees on energy, corporations and environmental conservation convene a hearing on 28 July. A hearing may mean a special session – a chance to get the BPRA to Hochul’s desk before 2023. If the Democrats in Albany act as they should, New Yorkers will begin to get the government they deserve. With climate cataclysms here, the political system can’t afford any more delays. Ross Barkan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of Demolition Night, a novel, and The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'us-news/us-politics', 'us-news/new-york', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'profile/ross-barkan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-opinion'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-06-11T10:25:16Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2019/jun/03/chemicals-seafood-meat-chocolate-cake-pfas-fda-report | 'Forever chemicals' found in seafood, meats and chocolate cake, FDA says | Significant levels of chemicals linked to an array of health problems have been found in seafood, meats and chocolate cake sold in stores to US consumers, the Food and Drug Administration has found. The levels in nearly half of the meat and fish tested by researchers were at least double the federal advisory level for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of more than 4,700 synthetic chemicals used for a variety of industrial purposes. Meanwhile, the FDA report found much higher levels in the chocolate cake, the Associated Press reported, with PFAS levels of more than 250 times the federal guidelines. PFAS have been in production since the second world war and are most widely used to make non-stick cookware, food packaging, carpets, couches, pizza boxes and firefighting foam. The ubiquity of PFAS means they are found in virtually all Americans’ blood, as well as in the drinking water of about 16 million people in the US. Public health groups have criticized the Trump administration for not acting more quickly to phase out the use of PFAS, with high levels of the chemicals on US military bases causing heightened concern and lawsuits in parts of the country. Exposure to high levels of PFAS has been linked to cancers, liver problems, low birth weight and other issues. The compounds have been dubbed “forever chemicals” because they take thousands of years to degrade, and because some accumulate in people’s bodies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier established a non-binding health threshold of 70 parts per trillion for two phased-out forms of the contaminant in drinking water. The EPA has said it would consider setting mandatory limits instead after the toxicology report and after federally mandated PFAS testing of water systems found contamination. The administration has called dealing with PFAS a “potential public relations nightmare” and a “national priority”. “I know there are people who would like us to move faster” on PFAS, the EPA administrator, Andrew Wheeler, said on Monday at the National Press Club. “We are addressing this much faster than the agency has ever done for a chemical like this.” The Associated Press contributed to this report | ['us-news/series/toxic-america', 'us-news/us-news', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/pfas', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-06-03T20:51:42Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
us-news/article/2024/may/22/half-moon-bay-mass-shooting- | Farm owners in California mass shooting to pay workers $450,000 | The owners of two mushroom farms in northern California where a disgruntled employee shot and killed seven people last year will pay a total of more than $450,000 in back wages and damages to 62 employees. In an announcement released on Monday following an extensive investigation, the US labor department said the payment is an element of administrative settlements reached by the department’s wage and hour division with California Terra Garden and Concord Farms. The government’s announcement comes after the incident in which the accused gunman, 67-year old Chunli Zhao, opened fire on two farms in Half Moon Bay, a small community approximately 30 miles south of San Francisco, on 23 January 2023, killing seven workers and injuring another. Speaking to investigators, Zhao said that prior to the shooting, he had had an argument with a supervisor who insisted he pay $100 in repairs following a forklift incident that Zhao said was not his fault. According to Zhao, a co-worker intentionally hit the forklift with a bulldozer, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Zhao, a Chinese citizen, has pleaded not guilty to multiple murder charges. Zhao worked at Concord Farms previously and was later an employee at California Terra Garden. The deadly shooting and the labor department’s investigation revealed the hazardous working conditions that many migrant farmworkers have been subjected to in San Mateo county. “Our investigators found workers at California Terra Gardens and Concord Farms housed in sickening conditions, forced to sleep near garbage and with insects all around,” Alberto Raymond, the labor department’s wage and hour division assistant district director, said in a statement. At California Terra Garden, investigators found that 39 workers were housed in cramped cargo containers, garages and dilapidated trailers, were forced to sleep on filthy mattresses and were exposed to insects and trash. According to the labor department, the farm’s owners, Xianmin Guan and his wife, Liming Zhu, illegally deducted money from workers’ pay for the substandard housing. At Concord Farms, investigators found that its owner, Grace Tung, housed workers in moldy, makeshift rooms in a greenhouse infested with bugs. Tung also violated federal regulations by shortchanging workers who were not paid appropriate overtime, the labor department said. As part of the settlements, California Terra Garden has agreed to pay totals of $84,074 directly to 39 workers to recoup the employers’ illegal housing deductions, and $42,494 in civil money penalties to resolve its housing, wage-disclosure and record-keeping violations. Meanwhile, Concord Farms has agreed to pay a total of $370,107 in overtime wages and liquidated damages to 10 workers, as well as a total of $4,242 in late wages to 23 workers. It has also agreed to pay $29,049 in civil money penalties to address its various violations. The civil penalties are in addition to the more than $450,000 in back wages and damages to be paid to the 62 employees from both farms. | ['us-news/california', 'world/gun-crime', 'us-news/west-coast', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/migration', 'environment/farming', 'society/housing', 'us-news/series/guns-and-lies', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/maya-yang', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-05-22T22:31:38Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2008/apr/05/britishenergygroupbusiness.nuclear | EDF poised to bid for British Energy | Shares in British Energy rose sharply yesterday after a report that the board of France's EDF had given the go-ahead for a bid for Britain's nuclear power generator. State-owned EDF said the UK was one of four countries it was considering as part of its plans for nuclear new build. "In this context EDF is in contact with the UK's players in the area to deliver this objective," a company spokeswoman said. Industry sources said EDF may make a non-binding offer for British Energy, but the process was still at an early stage. British Energy declined to comment yesterday. Last month it issued a statement confirming that it was "in discussions with interested parties in the context of its future and its plans to take a pivotal role in any new nuclear programme". Bid speculation has swirled around British Energy following the government's decision to give the green light to a new generation of nuclear power stations and its announcement that it is reviewing its 35.2% stake in the company - a move seen as signalling a willingness to sell. A single buyer for the government's stake would be required to make a bid for the whole company under UK takeover rules. Yesterday's developments saw British Energy shares climb 48.5p to 711p. The government acquired a 64% holding in British Energy in 2002 after it rescued the company from the brink of collapse caused by a slump in wholesale energy prices and the cost of the nuclear clean-up. British Energy, which produces about a sixth of Britain's electricity, is seen as a crucial player in any development of nuclear power in the UK. It operates eight nuclear plants which are seen as offering the most likely locations for new nuclear facilities. Developments within the UK industry are also seen as potentially influential in the development of nuclear power elsewhere. EDF is not alone in expressing interest in British Energy. Germany's RWE and E.ON, and Spain's Iberdrola are among other utilities mentioned. Britain's Centrica is also thought to be considering the possibility of some sort of cooperative agreement with the nuclear generator. Some industry observers expressed surprise that EDF, which has also been linked to a possible bid for Iberdrola, owner of Scottish Power in the UK, could be considering a full-scale offer for the company, which is valued at £7.3bn after yesterday's 6.7% increase in the share price. It would mean EDF taking operational control of British Energy's ageing fleet of nuclear reactors as well as all of its sites which might be in excess of what is required for a new generation of more powerful reactors. It could also raise competition issues because of EDF's existing generating capacity in the UK. The government has to decide whether it is prepared to see British Energy go to a single buyer or whether it would want it divided among a number of owners which would make it easier to ensure competition for the next generation of new nuclear plants. EDF's state ownership - the French government holds an 85% stake - may also become an issue. | ['business/britishenergygroup', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'business/edf', 'profile/markmilner', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2008-04-04T23:06:31Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2012/oct/30/new-jersey-christie-obama-response-sandy | New Jersey governor Chris Christie praises Obama's response to Sandy | New Jersey has suffered unthinkable devastation from hurricane Sandy, governor Chris Christie said on Tuesday, after the superstorm smashed into the state's famous shoreline and swept inland, killing at least three, leaving 2.4 million people without power and effectively bringing the region to a standstill. "This is beyond anything I ever thought I would see," Christie said at a news conference as the eastern seaboard of the US woke to widespread destruction from Sandy. The storm made landfall close to Atlantic City, causing extensive flooding at the state's gambling mecca, and has left much of its famous 127-mile shoreline underwater. Residents living on New Jersey's barrier islands have been cut off from the mainland, and levees have broken in northern New Jersey leaving at least four towns with up to 6ft of water. Some 5,500 people are currently housed in five shelters across the state and a sixth is being opened. Christie said every line in the state's rail system had been damaged, including major hubs Hoboken and Secaucus. Kearny rail yard was surrounded by floodwaters. The state's roads are similarly devastated. Christie said there are 173 incidents statewide involving highway closures, including 7ft-high "debris fields". He asked people to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary and said employees should ask staff to stay home. "We have a lot of work to do. I have absolute confidence that we will be able to do and do it together. I have confidence in the fact that we will have complete support from the president of the United States and the federal authorities," said Christie. The governor, recently seen as a potential vice presidential pick for Republican hopeful Mitt Romney and a likely presidential contender in 2016, was full of praise for Barack Obama. He said the president had been "outstanding" and praised Obama's swiftness in designating New Jersey a disaster zone, opening up federal funds for relief work. "I have to say, the administration the president, himself and Fema [federal emergency management agency] administrator Craig Fugate have been outstanding with us so far," Christie told ABC's Good Morning America. "We have a great partnership with them." Christie said Obama had called Monday night and offered to help in any way he could. New Jersey has now been declared a major disaster area, opening up government funding for recovery efforts. "I want to thank the president personally for his personal attention to this," said Christie. On Fox News Christie was asked whether he would be touring the disaster-stricken state with Romney. "I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested," Christie said. "I've got a job to do here in New Jersey that's much bigger than presidential politics, and I could care less about any of that stuff." "I have a job to do," he added. "I've got 2.4 million people out of power; I've got devastation on the shore; I've got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics then you don't know me." Christie said Sandy had affected twice the number of people who were hit by last year's tropical storm Irene. He said it had taken eight days for the state to get back on track after Irene. "This may take longer," he said. Christie said weather conditions were still so bad that the full extent of the damage would not be known for the next 24-48 hours. | ['us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/new-jersey', 'us-news/chris-christie', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'us-news/mittromney', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-politics', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/dominic-rushe'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-10-30T16:45:49Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2016/dec/01/demonstrations-sheffield-tree-felling-court-hearing | Demonstrations outside tree-felling court hearing in Sheffield | Approximately 150 people have staged a protest in support of two men who appeared in court in Sheffield after they tried to stop a 100-year-old tree being cut down. Simon Crump and Calvin Payne are two of five people to have been arrested in the long-running battle over the local authority’s tree-felling programme. Campaigners claim 4,000 trees across the city have been chopped down since a 25-year private finance initiative (PFI) deal with the private contractor Amey was signed in 2012. The deal to maintain the city’s roads and pavements claims it will “see Sheffield’s roads transformed from some of the worst in the country to the best”. The controversy attracted national media attention this month when two women in their 70s spent eight hours in a police cell after they staged a similar demonstration to prevent trees on their road being chopped down. Scores of people gathered outside Sheffield magistrates court on Thursday morning to protest against the charges against the two men and the cutting down of what they say are healthy trees. The former Green party leader Natalie Bennett addressed the rally saying that people in the city were being “terrorised” by the police and the council. Bennett has been chosen by her party to stand in the Sheffield Central constituency at the next election and she is in the process of moving to the city. It was a target seat for the Greens in May 2015, when the party secured 15.8% of the vote. The Labour MP Paul Blomfield increased his majority there and won 55% of the vote. Crump and Payne pleaded not guilty to charges under section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, which criminalises anyone who persistently stops someone from carrying out lawful work, in this case tree surgeons contracted by Amey to chop down trees on 2 November. A trial date has been set for 9 March and the pair remain on unconditional bail until then. Speaking outside the court, Crump, a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Huddersfield, said he was pleased the case would be heard in court. “My reaction is, bring it on,” he said. Payne, a well-known local campaigner, said the protest outside the court was about more than tree felling. “It’s about the imposition of this contract. It’s the undemocratic nature of it and the fact that the democratic process seems to have shut down while this 25-year contract with the company is in place.” A council spokesperson said they could not comment on police proceedings, but they have previously said the roots of many of the trees earmarked for felling prevent people in wheelchairs and people pushing buggies from using pavements. Bennett said none of the protesters had a problem with the council taking action to deal with diseased or dangerous trees, but said independent experts had declared many of the felled trees to be healthy. She argued that it was cheaper for Amey to chop down old trees with big roots and plant new ones, than it was for them to maintain mature ones. “Amey is acting to maximise its profits. It’s a private company and that’s what it is supposed to do,” she said. Sheffield city council apologised last week after a team from Amey woke up residents on Rustlings Road at 5am to ask them to move their vehicles so they could fell trees. Freda Brayshaw, a retired French teacher, and Jenny Hockey, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Sheffield, both in their 70s, were arrested along with another man when they tried to protect the trees. The dispute has caused headaches for Labour, with the chair of the Sheffield Central constituency party warning the council’s leader that the controversy threatened the party’s future in the city. On Thursday South Yorkshire’s Labour police and crime commissioner, Alan Billings, hit out at Sheffield council for causing “reputational damage to the force at a time when it cannot afford it”. “There was no plan to involve SYP officers in door knocking, but on the morning there were insufficient council/contractor staff to knock on all doors in a timely fashion,” he wrote in a letter to the MP for Sheffield Hallam, Nick Clegg. Vanessa Leeming, who lives in the Nether Edge area of the city and has several trees earmarked for felling on her road, said she had decided to get involved in the campaign when she heard about the morning raid this month. “People are trying to make us out to be tree-hugging idiots, but it’s got nothing to do with that,” she said. “We want an organised programme so that dangerous, decaying and diseased trees are managed. But they are murdering and felling completely healthy 100-year-old trees that have given Sheffield its green reputation. “Sheffield is an ugly city. It was bombed and annihilated in the war. We’ve got no architectural beauty like other cities, but what we have got is our greenery, our trees and our parks.” | ['uk/sheffield', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'society/localgovernment', 'politics/politics', 'society/society', 'politics/natalie-bennett', 'politics/green-party', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/frances-perraudin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-12-01T13:36:59Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/jan/30/ddt-and-other-banned-chemicals-pose-threat-to-vulnerable-dolphins-on-great-barrier-reef | DDT and other banned chemicals pose threat to vulnerable dolphins on Great Barrier Reef | Harmful levels of long-banned chemicals, including the pesticide DDT, have been found in the tissues of two vulnerable dolphin species swimming in waters flowing into the Great Barrier Reef. Scientists found levels of the chemicals in the tissues of snubfin dolphins and humpback dolphins had tripled and, in some cases, risen even higher between 2010 and 2015. One tissue sample taken from a female humpback dolphin had concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – banned in Australia since 1975 – that were among the highest recorded in the scientific literature. Scientists at Flinders University and Southern Cross University examined levels of PCBs, DDT and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in the tissues of dolphins in 2009 and 2010, and then took samples again between 2014 and 2016. They published the results in the journal Ecological Indicators. Special darts were used to take 5mm-wide samples of blubber and skin from the dolphins while they were swimming at locations in the Fitzroy River estuary and at Port Curtis. The marine ecologist Dr Daniele Cagnazzi, of Southern Cross University, said 68% of the dolphins sampled had levels of the chemicals high enough to impact their health “and long-term survival”. He said: “With PCBs, DDT and HCBs – these have been linked to mass mortality events. We know they have health implications and can affect the dolphins’ immune system and make them more susceptible to other diseases. “These elements have been banned from Australia and many other countries, but because they are persistent contaminants they survive for a long period of time.” The snubfin dolphin is the only dolphin species unique to Australia, and is listed in Queensland as vulnerable. There were 18 samples from snubfin dolphins analysed for the three pollutants, all taken at the Fitzroy River estuary. Humpback dolphins are also listed as vulnerable in Queensland. There were six samples analysed from the Fitzroy River and 11 from Port Curtis. A 2015 sample from one female humpback dolphin from the Fitzroy River estuary had concentrations of PCBs among the highest ever recorded in the scientific literature. While the study was not designed to find a cause, researchers wrote that flooding in the regions and nearby port developments were likely to be behind the rising levels of contaminants. Associate Prof Guido Parra, a co-author of the study at Flinders University, said the build-up of contaminants “could have implications on the long-term survival of entire dolphin populations in Queensland”. He said the threat from the chemicals added to existing problems faced by dolphins, including climate change, habitat destruction, underwater noise and fishing bycatch. Tooni Mahto, the threatened species campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said: “These dolphins are a unique and vulnerable species and they exist in very small populations. They need protecting. “These animals are still paying the price of these chemicals that we stopped using almost half a century ago. They are silent killers in the water.” Dr Liesbeth Weijs, of the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University, who was not involved in the study, said the results were indicative of findings around the world. Her own work had found the same rising levels of contaminants in dolphins in South Australia. She said the contaminants accumulate in the fatty tissues of dolphins through the food they eat – mainly fish. “These substances were engineered to be persistent – they don’t break down and they were designed to hold on for decades.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/dolphins', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-01-29T16:30:52Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/nov/08/discovered-in-the-deep-the-ancient-plankton-that-fill-a-major-evolutionary-gap | Discovered in the deep: the ancient plankton that fill a major evolutionary gap | Half a billion years ago, the ocean was filling up with animals for the first time, including scuttling trilobites and spiky worms. Little is known, however, about what was happening further down the food chain. Now, a British palaeontologist believes he may have found fossilised phytoplankton – forerunners of the tiny but vital algae that today suck masses of carbon out of the atmosphere and produce about half the oxygen we breathe. The fossils, dating back to the Cambrian period – 538m to 485m years ago – are microscopic, roughly the width of a human hair, and lived in the ocean back when there was no life on land. Tom Harvey, from Leicester University, discovered them in rocks he had collected from a logging trail in Newfoundland, Canada, which he was examining using a microscope to search for animal skin. Instead, he came across a cluster of spiny objects stuck together in neat geometric clusters. They were unlike anything he’d seen before. “The cells were quite big, they formed quite a large colony that has this amazing geometry,” he says. They reminded him of the pattern of butterfly eggs laid on a cabbage leaf, but he had no idea what he was looking at. “It was just too mysterious,” Harvey says. “I didn’t even want to hazard a guess.” It was years before he found more of these microfossils. The process involves dissolving rocks in powerful acid, leaving carbon-based fossils intact, floating in a watery residue. Harvey then uses a microscope to search each drop of liquid, and suck up individual clusters of cells with an eyedropper. Eventually, he had a collection of a few dozen similar-looking fossils. Childhood memories were stirred of pond dipping and examining pond water under a microscope, giving Harvey the idea that his new fossils – although found on land – could be phytoplankton. The discovery is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B , which describes fossils shaped like little flat plates and rings, just one cell thick; the closest match Harvey could find today are algae that live in ponds and lakes. Harvey believes that, judging by their neat, symmetrical shapes, these colonies formed in a similar way to some living freshwater phytoplankton: rather than dividing into ever bigger blobs of cells, the parent plankton cells split off daughter colonies in a single step, then let them go. Living phytoplankton do this when they sense animals nearby. Chemicals wafting through the water from grazing creatures, such as water fleas, stimulate the plankton to divide and become spinier, which makes them more difficult to eat. Harvey thinks the ancient phytoplankton may have done the same thing. If he’s right, then this is the earliest evidence that animals had begun filtering seawater for phytoplankton, a critical part of the way ocean ecosystems work today. The discovery could help fill a huge gap in the fossil record for phytoplankton. The main varieties living in the ocean now can be traced to only about 200 to 100m years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs, compared with Harvey’s fossils, which are about 510m years old. Hoards of microfossils date back earlier in Earth’s history but remain stubbornly enigmatic. Palaeontologists call them “acritarchs”, but don’t know what they were. Some could be cells broken from phytoplankton colonies similar to those that Harvey has found. He hopes his fossils could help other palaeontologists identify more of these colonies by showing them what to look for. “I think they’ll be out there on microscope slides and collections in museums all around the world,” he says. • This article was amended on 9 November 2023 to clarify the type of plankton that this discovery could help. | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/fossils', 'science/biology', 'world/canada', 'science/evolution', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/helen-scales', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-11-08T06:00:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2023/may/04/australia-warned-of-over-mining-risk-in-race-to-secure-minerals-needed-for-clean-energy | Australia warned of ‘over-mining’ risk in race to secure minerals needed for clean energy | In the high-stakes quest to break China’s grip over minerals crucial to clean energy technology, Australia risks over-mining while ignoring alternatives such as improved battery recycling, according to a new report. The release of the Jubilee Australia research, which questions mineral demand assumptions and warns against causing unnecessary environmental harm, comes as the federal government prepares a strategy to address China’s dominance of minerals seen as critical to a nation. Jubilee said Australia could be digging up more critical minerals than necessary due to a rush to capitalise on “staggering predictions”. “It is critical that we adopt a smarter and more efficient approach as we look to exploit another resource,” said the report’s lead author, Luke Fletcher. “While the government’s strategy to make Australia a ‘renewable energy superpower’ will validly speed up the transition from a fossil fuel-based export economy, extracting these key transition minerals will cause significant social and environmental damage if we don’t manage it correctly.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Critical minerals – such as lithium and copper – and its rare earths subset are used in everything from electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines to smartphones, high-powered magnets and defence technology. China is a large producer of many of those minerals and often dominates the refining processes needed to make them useful. Mining of rare earths, in particular, can generate large volumes of toxic material and processing is complex, giving China a large head start over other other nations. While Australia has large deposits of most minerals, it traditionally sends them offshore for processing. Last month the resources minister, Madeleine King, told a Darwin audience that included key allies and trading partners that China’s position in the market posed a strategic challenge to Australia. “Working together, like-minded partners can build new, diverse, resilient and sustainable supply chains as part of a global hedge against concentration,” she said. The government position represents a green light to the mining sector to pursue projects that produce minerals that go into low-emissions technologies such as electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels, as well as defence applications. There are also government grants available for companies developing mineral processing and manufacturing capabilities. Jubilee questions whether Australia can mine itself out of a climate crisis. “One of the solutions to the carbon crisis is often portrayed, including in advertising by mining companies themselves, in the simplistic terms that this will require significant amounts of new minerals to be extracted,” the report said. Jubilee said demand projections should be tested, and mining could be reduced through alternative sources of mineral supply. Lithium-ion batteries, for example, are up to 90% recoverable, but only recycled in Australia at a rate of under 10%, according to Jubilee. The report recommends increasing protections for Indigenous communities, given mineral extraction often has significant impacts on communities located near the deposits. Rod Campbell, the research director at the Australia Institute, said policy was being made on the back of economic models with flaws and unclear assumptions. “It’s high time some critical thinking was applied to policy on so-called ‘critical minerals’,” Campbell said. “With clearer thinking and rational debate around electrification mineral use and extraction, the damage, inequalities and inefficiencies of earlier mining booms can be avoided.” | ['environment/mining', 'business/mining', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/energy-storage', 'australia-news/australian-foreign-policy', 'world/china', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathan-barrett', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-05-03T20:00:18Z | true | ENERGY |
society/2004/aug/22/1 | More storms - then comes Hurricane Danielle | Just when you thought the weather couldn't get worse or wetter, forecasters have warned Britain to brace itself for even more of a battering. The Met Office expects torrential rain to start sweeping the country this afternoon. In some areas, almost a month's average rain will fall in a day. The new storms have raised fears that global warming is already beginning to have a profound effect on our weather. The Met Office says there is danger of more flooding and landslides today and tomorrow. Then, as the nation starts to recover, the forecasters say the tail end of Hurricane Danielle, now sweeping across the Atlantic, will strike later in the week. Extreme events, such as last week's, will occur more often, say meteorologists, and the cost of life insurance is expected to soar as storms, droughts and floods become more frequent and more lethal. The Association of British Insurers admitted last night it was looking at UK life expectancy in the wake of last year's European heat wave. The association's climate expert, Malcolm Tarling, said: 'France's heat wave killed more than 27,000 people and that could happen here. We have started to look at the potential for health.' Warmer summers could lead to greater life expectancy by encouraging outdoor activities, but raised risks of skin cancerand heat waves would offset this effect. In any case, it is the risk of freak weather patterns that most concerns the industry. Those affected by this month's dramatic weather included drivers of 57 vehicles caught in landslides in Lochearnhead in central Scotland and more than 80 people who had to be rescued from Boscastle in Cornwall after a 10ft wall of water smashed into the village. 'The trouble is that we know global warming is going to produce more and more extreme weather events,' said Professor Alan Thorpe, director of the Natural Environment Research Council's centres for atmos pheric science. 'However, we don't yet have the computing power to predict exactly where and when these events will take place. We need massive machines for that.' The solution, he said, was for Britain to collaborate with the rest of Europe, as it has done with space research, and set up a European climate computer centre to predict more accurately how droughts, floods and storms will strike. Other scientists have also warned that Britain could be sued for billions of pounds by countries suffering climate change effects, the result - they say - of Britain pumping millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past 200 years. Professor John Schellnhuber, of Oxford's Tyndall centre, said lawyers in South America were already looking at the possibility of suing industrialised countries for 'direct liability' over climate change. 'This will happen,' he said. 'People still think of the effects of climate change in 20 years' time, but that is not the case. It is happening now.' Estimates by the Tyndall centre to be shown to European scientists this week reveal that just one extreme weather event - for example, a particularly ferocious storm - could cost more than £15 billion in damages in future. | ['society/society', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/marktownsend'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-08-22T09:24:59Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2011/jan/30/greenpeace-protests-koch-brothers-rally | Greenpeace protests at Koch brothers' rally | Prominent figures on both the right and left of the US political spectrum gathered in the luxury enclave of Rancho Mirage in the Californian desert today amid increasingly heated debate about the influence of the secrecy-loving billionaires Charles and David Koch on the political process. About 200 key figures in business, energy, the media and law were expected to assemble at a five-star hotel at the invitation of the Koch brothers for the latest of their twice-yearly discussion groups on how to forward their libertarian causes. The talks began at 1pm with sessions that focused on how to fight the Obama administration, which the Kochs see as a threat to the free market and unfettered wealth. As the attendees arrived in their private jets, they were greeted by an airship that circled over the hotel's golf courses and tennis courts bearing the logo: "Koch brothers dirty money." It was sent up by Greenpeace, the environmental campaign group, which has joined forces with several other left-leaning organisations to hold a counter-rally to the Koch meeting. The Koch brothers run the second largest privately-owned company in the US, Koch Industries, which has stakes in oil and other energy industries, paper and pulp and chemicals, among other concerns. They are accused by detractors of increasingly using both their combined wealth - put at $35bn (£22bn) - and the wealth of their friends and fellow billionaires brought together at their gatherings, to distort the democratic process through huge campaign donations. Greenpeace researchers looked at the guest list of the last Koch gathering, held in Aspen last June. The list of attendees was leaked to the Think Progress blog. Using that list as a base, Greenpeace calculated that the 200 or so participants in Aspen contributed more than $61m (£38m) to political campaigns between 1990 and 2010. That makes them a major, though unofficial, bloc within American politics. The role of the Koch gatherings as huge bankrolling events for rightwing candidates and causes was underlined in Aspen, where attendants were exhorted to put their hands in their pockets ahead of the 2010 mid-term elections. According to Politico, some $25m (£16m) in donations to Koch-backed groups was pledged at the lunch on the final day, including several individual pledges of $1m and $12m by the Koch brothers themselves. In his letter of invitation to today's gathering in Rancho Mirage, Charles Koch referred to the previous Aspen meeting and said "participants committed to an unprecedented level of support". He added: "Our group heard plans to activate citizens against the threat of government overspending and to change the balance of power in Congress [in the mid-term elections]". The aim of this latest Koch gathering was believed to be to raise at least as much money as in Aspen on behalf of the brothers' favourite causes, which include climate change denial, anti-government initiatives and the Tea Party movement. They are big funders of rightwing thinktanks such as Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute. But for the first time they had to contend with the attentions of their opponents, with the convening of a panel discussion and rally just down the road from the hotel called by the accountability in politics campaign Common Cause. The counter-events attracted a wide range of activists from the environmental, anti-war, trade union and other movements. "The Koch brothers manage to be destructive in so many areas," said Jodie Evans of Code Pink , a women's peace group. "But one positive thing they've done is to galvanise so many different opponents around them." | ['us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-politics', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'us-news/tea-party-movement', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'us-news/koch-brothers', 'type/article', 'profile/edpilkington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-30T17:06:31Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
technology/2017/oct/05/iphone-8-plus-apple-reports-batteries-bursting-smartphones | iPhone 8 Plus: Apple looking into reports of batteries bursting out of phones | Apple is looking into multiple reports of batteries swelling within new iPhone 8 Plus smartphones, which apparently broke them open as a result. At least five separate reports of the new 5.5in iPhone 8 Plus smartphones have shown deformed phones, swelled batteries and screens being detached from the aluminium bodies of the devices. The reports have spanned Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and Greece, all displaying similar symptoms, making the notion that there was simply a single bad batch of devices coming off the production line less likely. An Apple spokesperson said the company was looking into the issues. Some of the devices were reportedly collected by mobile phone operator partners for investigation. This is not the first time Apple has had batteries swell within new devices. The company manufactures and sells between 40m and 80m iPhones a quarter, a volume that means isolated issues are likely whether it be through manufacturing defects or problems during shipping. But the spotlight has been shone on battery issues following the disastrous problems faced by Samsung with it’s 2016 Galaxy Note 7. Battery design and manufacturing issues led to Note 7s catching fire. The company recalled devices and shipped out a second batch with a different battery from another supplier, but it too suffered similar issues, leading to the company permanently recalling and discontinuing the smartphone, which cost Samsung billions. The incident led Samsung and others to double down on battery safety and testing, with some winding back on more less proven developments and decreasing battery energy capacity to focus on proven technology and avoid a similar billion-pound catastrophe. While swelling batteries is not nearly as bad as the cells catching fire, the chemistry of modern lithium-ion batteries and the amount of energy they can store makes them dangerous with any kind of fault. Apple will hope that the incidents are isolated, can be dealt with swiftly and are not a prelude to further problems. iPhone 8 Plus review: still massive – but not in a good way | ['technology/iphone-8', 'technology/apple', 'technology/iphone', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/technology', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/telecoms', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2017-10-05T10:51:41Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2023/dec/06/uk-nuclear-police-workers-whatsapp-jokes | UK nuclear police and workers share WhatsApp jokes about paedophilia, racism and homophobia | Specialist police officers and workers at some of the UK’s most secure nuclear sites have been sharing jokes about paedophilia, racism and homophobia in work-linked WhatsApp groups, the Guardian can reveal. Images and messages reviewed by this newspaper show racist comments about public figures and politicians including a black Labour politician as well as homophobic images and conversations about the paedophiles Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris. Two groups’ activities have been examined by the Guardian, including one of which has members of the Civil Nuclear constabulary (CNC) at Sellafield in Cumbria and workers there. The other group largely comprises staff in sensitive areas of two other nuclear sites and CNC officers. Among the messages are racist comments about a black Labour MP, who has been a frequent target of racist abuse online. The conversations also include homophobic memes about a prominent TV presenter. The Guardian has chosen not to name them but offered specific details about the content of the messages and the groups’ geographic locations to the CNC. The messages also show explicit images of nudity, as well as racist imagery and descriptions of graphic paedophilic acts. They also show men ridiculing female colleagues at the sites for their appearance and sexual attractiveness. Among the members of the groups, who have taken part in the conversations, are employees of the CNC, tasked with protecting some of the UK’s most sensitive and toxic sites. The messages have come to light amid broader revelations in Nuclear Leaks, an investigation into cultural challenges, security and safety concerns at Sellafield and other nuclear sites throughout the country. The groups also suggest that cultural concerns at Sellafield may extend to a range of other sensitive sites, raising questions about conduct within the nuclear sector as a whole. Sources told the Guardian that they fear a failure to address a negative working culture and concerns ranging from bullying to a lack of trust in management could ultimately undermine the safety of some of the most hazardous sites in Europe. Studies examining safety in the nuclear industry have found that working culture can feed into how sites are run. A 2020 report from the Office for Nuclear Regulation argued that poor culture fed into events which led to nuclear disasters, including Chornobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011. Last year, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) began a criminal investigation into messages shared by nuclear police in a WhatsApp group separate to the ones reviewed by the Guardian. The investigation involves “grossly offensive messages” sent by current and former CNC officers. The IOPC said when the investigation was launched that the allegations were “extremely serious and concerning”. Last year, two Metropolitan police officers were sentenced to three months in prison after being found guilty of sharing racist, homophobic, misogynistic and ableist messages in a WhatsApp group. Another messaging group has been used as an example of a “toxic, abhorrent culture” within the Met. The chief constable of the CNC, Simon Chesterman, said: “I was disappointed to hear that the Guardian says it has evidence of officers being involved in a group sending unacceptable and offensive messages. “Without seeing the evidence, it is difficult to comment, and I would urge the matter be reported at the earliest opportunity so this can be investigated fully and referred to the IOPC if necessary. If anyone with information comes forward, we will deal with the matter with due sensitivity and with their wishes in mind. “I have made it clear that anyone holding misogynistic, racist, homophobic, or other unacceptable views, or who carries out behaviour that breaches our standards of professional conduct, has no place in the CNC. To ensure that officers and staff holding these views are rooted out, we have expanded our professional standards and vetting departments so we know we have the right people to investigate and deal with any wrongdoing. I am committed to ensuring the CNC is an inclusive and respectful place for all.” A Sellafield spokesperson said: “There is no place for bullying and harassment at Sellafield. We do not tolerate it and where we find it, we take action. If anyone has information related to employee misconduct we urge them to come forward so we can investigate. “We’re committed to ensuring all of our employees are respected, included, and able to perform at their best. “We regularly seek the views of our workforce, and it was a survey in 2018 that brought focus to concerns about bullying and harassment. “We confronted the issue, proactively shared information with employees, and developed a company-wide improvement programme. This work is continuing, and we remain as committed as ever to eradicating unacceptable behaviour from our workplace. “Since 2018 we have implemented a number of improvements including increased resources for mediation, counselling, and our confidential employee assistance line. We also have a wide range of employee-led networks which provide peer support and advocate for change and improvements.” | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'business/series/nuclear-leaks', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/police', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anna-isaac', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2023-12-06T14:30:33Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2006/jul/24/brazil.foodanddrink | Food giants to boycott illegal Amazon soya | Leading European supermarkets, food manufacturers and fast-food chains, including McDonald's, are expected to pledge today not to use soya illegally grown in the Amazon region in response to evidence that large areas of virgin forest are being felled for the crop. In a victory for consumer power, the companies say they will not deal with the four trading giants who dominate production in Brazil unless they can show they are not sourcing soya from areas being farmed illegally. The traders met in Sao Paolo last week and are expected to sign up to a moratorium on using soya grown in the Amazon. The deal has been brokered by Greenpeace which, in an investigation earlier this year, linked the illegal destruction of the forest to large-scale soya farming financed by US-based commodity multinationals Cargill, ADM and Bunge. Investigators say that they spent three years tracing the movement of soya from illegal plantations in the Amazon through the US-based firms to chicken factories in European countries including Britain. The Amazon-grown soya was found to be going into the supply chain of McDonald's, KFC, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons and Unilever. After the report was published in the Guardian, the companies feared a consumer backlash and pushed traders to clean up their supply chain. Under the moratorium, the big US-based traders, together with the Brazilian firm Gruppo Maggi, are expected to pledge not to buy soya from any areas of the rainforest cleared from now on. They will also pledge not to buy from soya plantations linked to slavery. Where rainforest has already been cleared and land used illegally, they are expected to negotiate new systems to ensure farmers start complying with Brazilian law. Large-scale farmers have moved into the Amazon from states in southern Brazil, but the inquiry said few had legal title to the land. Environmental laws that required farmers developing land to retain 80% of it as forest and only use 20% for agriculture were being ignored. The traders were accused of providing illegal soya farmers with seed and finance to grow the crops and export them. The new deal will require the traders to check land titles and not to buy from farmers who have cleared more than 20% of forest. Cargill said in February that most supplies came from land that had earlier been deforested. Greenpeace disputed this. The mood among retailers and fast-food chains is that any raw material that causes embarrassment is unacceptable. Several British supermarkets buy Brazilian chicken linked to rainforest soya for their ready meals or special offers. Companies such as McDonald's were linked to rainforest destruction because meat factories in Europe were using Brazilian soya feed from the big traders. The companies are believed to have been highly influential in forcing the multinational traders to agree to reform. Environmental campaigners in Brazil welcomed the moratorium but warned it would be hard to undo the damage. Father Edilberto Sena, director of the Catholic radio station in the Amazon region and a leading protester against soya farming, said the deal was "a good start". "It's not a solution to the problem," he said. "Between 60,000 and 80,000 hectares [150,000-200,000 acres] of land in our region has already been destroyed ... To restore the forest and enforce this will require huge investment." Yesterday Karen Van Bergen, McDonald's vice-president, Europe, said: "McDonald's has had a long-standing policy not to source beef from recently deforested areas in the Amazon rainforest, so it was important to us to bring soya sourcing in line with this policy. "McDonald's Europe has already asked its suppliers, including Cargill, to source non-GM, non-Amazon feed for poultry as from next harvest." The British Retail Consortium, which represents all major supermarkets, said: "Retailers have responded positively to Greenpeace's concerns over the environmental impacts of soya farming in the Amazon by putting in place a system to trace the source of the soya used in all products." A Cargill spokeswoman said it was unable to comment on the moratorium ahead of the announcement, but added: "We have had good industry discussions in Brazil and we are very optimistic." Backstory The soya bean has been grown in China and used in different ways for thousands of years but almost half the world's production is now in the US, which produces 70m tonnes a year. Other leading producers are Argentina, China, India and, increasingly, Brazil, which is expected to overtake US output within a few years. The bulk of the crop is solvent extracted for vegetable oil, with soya meal used for animal feed. A tiny proportion is consumed directly as human food. Apart from foods, soya beans are now used in industrial products such as oils, soap, cosmetics, resins, plastics, inks, crayons, solvents, vodka and biodiesel. Clearing land for industrial soya farming is taking over from timber as the major driver of forest loss in some regions. | ['world/world', 'environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'food/food', 'environment/conservation', 'uk/uk', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/felicitylawrence', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international1'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2006-07-24T14:30:42Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/solar-industry-losing-momentum | Is sustainability losing momentum in the solar industry? | The commitment of solar panel manufacturers to good environmental practices may be fading as intense competition causes some companies to pare costs and others to go out of business, according to an industry watchdog. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition has just released its third annual Solar Scorecard, which evaluates US makers of photovoltaic solar panels for their performance in recycling, emissions, worker rights and use of toxic materials. The group's director said it is seeing some danger signs for the industry, including declining market share among the companies most focused on sustainability and a reduction – from 14 to 10 – in the number of companies that answered the coalition's annual survey. Three of last year's respondents have either shut their doors or filed for bankruptcy. Solar manufacturers find themselves in a cruel paradox this year. The US market for solar panels is booming. In the first quarter of this year, the country installed 723 megawatts of solar, representing an increase of 33% from the same quarter last year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). The rapid uptake of solar power is spurred, in part, by falling prices for solar modules, caused by a global production glut. Razor-thin or nonexistent margins are leading to an industry consolidation. Sheila Davis, the executive director of the toxics group that issued the report, said that an industry with environmental stewardship at its heart is at risk of sacrificing its greenness. "We don't think that's a good sign for the industry. If there's an economic downturn, the first people to go are the sustainability people, and we don't want to see that happen," she said. "Sustainability should be a core of the solar industry model." The toxics coalition saw a few worrying signs in this year's scorecard. Two of last year's respondents, Sovello Solar of Germany and Scheuten Solar, owned by China but based in the Netherlands, went out of business in 2012. A third, Suntech Power, the Chinese firm that was once the world's largest maker of PV solar modules and a leader in sustainability initiatives, is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings. These companies are among only a handful of industry players who have responded to the coalition's survey in the past. Two companies that did respond to the survey, both this year and in previous years, have seen their market shares drop significantly. Arizona's First Solar saw its share drop from 9.4% in 2011 to 6.9% in 2012, while China-based Trina Solar declined from 8.1% to 6.3%. First Solar, the only solar manufacturer that required its customers to recycle panels at the end of their 25-year lifespan, has discontinued the programme everywhere except in Europe, where such recycling is required by law. An SEIA spokesman disputed that the solar industry's commitment to green practices is fading and pointed to SEIA's environment and social responsibility charter, which deals with issues such as water, electricity use, recycling and waste. A handful of solar-panel makers, which together account for more than 50% of US solar panels, have signed the charter. They're currently refining it and plan to start reporting on key performance indicators later this year. Signatories include the highest-scoring companies on this year's SVTC scorecard: Chinese panel-makers Yingli Solar and Trina Solar, as well as California-based SunPower. Another signatory, Gehrlicher Solar of Germany, declared bankruptcy last month. "Certainly the companies that are going out of business are scaling back, but the companies that are predominantly the leaders are continuing to dedicate resources to sustainability," said John Smirnow, SEIA's vice president of trade and competitiveness. First Solar, which drew criticism in the report for scaling back its recycling program, claims it did so in response to the desires of its customers. Commercial customers don't want to pay upfront for recycling 25 years from now, spokesman Stephen Krum said. Instead, customers are "using their financial resources by dealing with the recycling issue at the end of life". Among its other findings, the toxics coalition concluded that only three of the top 40 solar manufacturers report information about their emissions, while 12 post their targets for reducing their use of toxic chemicals on their websites. David Ferris is a journalist who writes about eco-business and eco-technology for publications like Forbes, Sierra magazine and the New York Times. | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'guardian-professional/sustainability', 'tone/blog', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'type/article'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2013-08-13T17:48:00Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2020/feb/14/delta-carbon-neutral-airline-plan | Delta announces $1bn plan to be first carbon neutral airline | Delta announced an ambitious plan on Friday to become the first US airline to go carbon neutral, committing $1bn over the next 10 years to mitigate all emissions from its global business. The move by Delta will put pressure on other airlines to follow suit at a time when the UN is warning that airplane emissions of carbon dioxide will triple by 2050. Carbon dioxide emitted by airlines increased by 32% from 2013 to 2018, according to a study by the International Council on Clean Transportation. A Guardian analysis found long-haul flights generate more carbon emissions than the average person in dozens of countries around the world produces in a year. “There’s no challenge we face that is in greater need of innovation than environmental sustainability, and we know there is no single solution. We are digging deep into the issues, examining every corner of our business, engaging experts, building coalitions, fostering partnerships and driving innovation,” said Ed Bastian, Delta’s chief executive. Delta outlined a series of efforts it will use to reach its goal: The company will seek to reduce its carbon footprint by decreasing the use of jet fuel and increasing efficiency. Delta will seek to offset its carbon emissions by investing in carbon removal programs in forestry, wetland restoration, grassland conservation, marine and soil capture and other negative emissions technologies. The company will seek coalitions with its employees, suppliers, global partners, customers, industry colleagues, investors and other stakeholders to reduce their carbon footprint. Delta is the latest big company in a heavily polluting industry to announce plans to go carbon neutral. This week energy company BP announced plans to reduce its carbon footprint to net zero by 2050, which has been met with skepticism by climate activists. Peter Miller, carbon offsets expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said he was encouraged to see Delta spending money to reduce its carbon footprint but said that there were at present few low-carbon options available at scale for airline companies. “It will be critical that the offsets they purchase are credible and real,” he said. “And that is certainly possible. It’s a whole lot better than doing nothing.” | ['business/theairlineindustry', 'business/business', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dominic-rushe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-02-14T16:19:28Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2019/may/25/josh-frydenberg-low-emissions-future-is-inevitable-and-a-huge-opportunity | Josh Frydenberg: low-emissions future is inevitable and a huge opportunity | Josh Frydenberg says Australia needs to roll out new infrastructure in the coming term of government to support renewable energy zones, and has declared that the “inevitable” transition to low-emissions sources creates an opportunity for the country. In his first wide-ranging interview since holding his Victorian seat last weekend, where he was subjected to a concerted campaign from the Greens and the climate-focused independent Oliver Yates, Frydenberg told Guardian Australia the Coalition would implement the $3.5bn climate policy it took to the election rather than pursue a reboot. But echoing the Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos, who has urged colleagues to use a changing energy market to bolster the Coalition’s environmental credentials and be positive about the increasing share of renewable energy, Frydenberg said emissions reduction and a strong economy were not mutually exclusive propositions. “I do see the energy transition as an opportunity,” the treasurer said. “I’m really excited by the technology developments – the peer-to-peer lending, microgrids, the improvements in solar panels, battery storage, Snowy 2.0, the Tasmanian renewable energy resource and the potential we will get from a second interconnector. “One thing we really need to do, which I will be thinking about as the treasurer, is putting in place the infrastructure nationally that the Australian Energy Market Operator has talked about to create the renewable energy zones and to ensure we have the transmission and distribution networks to prepare our country for the long term. “I see enormous opportunity for the economy from a lower emissions future. Renewables are coming down the cost curve, but the key is ensuring stability in the system. If there’s one message I can leave: I don’t see this issue of climate and energy as a zero-sum game. I don’t see a strong economy as mutually exclusive from emissions reduction.” Addressing the economic outlook as Scott Morrison bedded down a ministerial reshuffle expected on Sunday or Monday, and as government MPs prepare to return to Canberra on Tuesday, Frydenberg said the government faced challenging times. He pointed to the increase in trade tensions between the United States and China as a geopolitical confrontation with the potential to put a drag on global economic growth. The treasurer said another round of US tariff increases would double the proportion of global trade covered by recent trade actions from 2% to 4%. He suggested global headwinds, coupled with pressures in the domestic economy, such as weak consumption and a slowdown in the housing market, made the government’s proposed income tax cuts an important stimulus, although he did not use that word. Frydenberg said the package “must be supported in its entirety and as a priority”. He rebuffed questions about whether it was prudent to bake in tax cuts for high-income earners at a time when uncertain global and domestic conditions meant the budgetary position could easily deteriorate, and he continued to insist the expensive tax relief would not trigger expenditure cuts despite recent analysis from the Grattan Institute pointing to that risk. He said the tax cuts would “strengthen the system” and maintain its progressive element. Asked whether the chance of cutting government expenditure to pay for the tax cuts package was zero, Frydenberg said: “Everything is budgeted and funded and we laid that all out in the budget.” And on whether the government would pursue further tax reform in this term, revisiting either business tax relief or the GST, the treasurer ruled out both. | ['australia-news/josh-frydenberg', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australian-election-2019', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/interview', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-05-24T23:53:21Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/nov/04/a-game-changer-the-9000-acre-project-reclaiming-the-fens-for-nature | ‘A game-changer’: the 9,000 acre project reclaiming the Fens for nature | Looking north from Woodwalton Fen nature reserve, in Cambridgeshire, visitors get an uninterrupted view of Britain’s flattest landscape. An entire hemisphere of sky hangs over a network of carefully drained fields that stretch to the horizon without a hill or mound in sight. Potatoes and other root crops grow in profusion in the rich, peaty soil. But change is coming to this quiet corner of fenland – thanks to one of the largest and most ambitious restoration schemes ever launched in Europe: the Great Fen project. Organised by Wildlife Trust conservationists, the project has already cost £10m and its price tag could reach £30m by the time it is completed, they say. The money – which has included an £8m donation from the National Lottery Heritage Fund – is being used to buy large sections of farmland to create a 9,000-acre site around two nature reserves – one at Holme Fen and the other at Woodwalton Fen, the latter being one of the very first wildlife refuges created in the UK . The land will then be transformed by allowing water to return to previously drained fields, restoring it to its former damp glory. Mosaics of pools, streams and water meadows will take over fields that recently brimmed with onions and carrots. Recreating these old habitats should then entice a host of animals and birds – from voles to kingfishers – into the Great Fen. Rare species that have already been recorded in the area include marsh harriers and scarce chaser dragonflies as well as plants such as cuckooflower, purple loosestrife and greater water parsnip. “We have very high hopes for restoring biodiversity here,” said Henry Stanier, the project’s monitoring and research officer. “We should have all sorts of species - hobbies, bitterns, snipe and sticklebacks – coming in soon.” New methods of farming will be tested at Great Fen to create types of agriculture that are sustainable and resistant to climate change, while the land will also be used to provide open access for visitors and ecotourists. And central to these aspirations has been the purchase of Speechly’s Farm. This was completed a few months ago and is important because its land connects two separate chunks of rewilded countryside that have been developed around the Holme and the Woodwalton reserves. Thanks to the purchase of the farm, these two restored landscapes can be united. “For the first time this century, we will have a continuous corridor of natural wet fenland that will stretch over thousands of acres of the Great Fen,” said Kate Carver, manager of the rewilding project. This point was backed by Lorna Parker, restoration manager for the Great Fen. “It’s quite simple. This piece of land is a game-changer for the project,” she said. A major focus of the Great Fen project is its reserves of peat. The land in this East Anglian region was once thickly coated with peat, but it is now being lost at an alarming rate. It is estimated that every year a layer of about 2cm is destroyed as the land is drained and dried and peat is blown off as dust. And that loss could have a crucial impact on the countryside. Peatlands reduce flood risk by slowing water flowing from upland areas; they provide nesting and feeding grounds for many wading birds; and they are vital habitats for rare insects and plants. Most importantly, however, they are key stores of carbon dioxide. “An acre of peatland holds as much carbon dioxide as an acre of rainforest,” said Parker. “Everyone worries about the rainforest but they forget that we are stripping back our peatlands at a terrible rate as well.” The process of draining the Fens began in earnest in Victorian times with the development of powerful steam-driven pumps that brought dramatic changes to the landscape – as is revealed at Holme Fen reserve where, in 1848, a post was driven into the peat so that the top of it was at ground level. That post now towers four metres above the ground, demonstrating starkly how peat levels have shrunk over the past 170 years. “We are now losing around 4.5m cubic metres of peat every year, and at this rate we will not have much left in a just couple of decades,” said Carver. “We have got to find ways of farming that do not use up our precious peat and do not increase carbon emissions.” Part of the Great Fen project will therefore be to trial new farming systems that will not lead to peat loss and associated rises in carbon emissions. The solution is to employ wet farming techniques, or paludiculture, as it formally known. As the water table rises in the area, the land will get wetter and a new range of crops will be grown. Candidates include bilberry, celery, cranberry, nettle, sedge grains, sweetgrass grains, watercress and water pepper. “Systems which rely on having wet farmland could have all sorts of benefits,” said Carver. “It would help prevent the loss of carbon dioxide from dry arable land and it would prevent the loss of our supplies of peat which are dwindling at an alarming rate. These are our goals for the Great Fen project.” This point was backed by Stanier. “This place is the cradle of conservation and it is entirely appropriate that it is going to help to make a real difference in our battle to preserve our biodiversity.” | ['environment/conservation', 'uk-news/cambridgeshire', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/birds', 'environment/insects', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-11-04T16:00:43Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/11/horn-of-africa-drought-resilience | Horn of Africa: How can the region be better prepared for recurrent drought? | Vinod Thomas | The Horn of Africa is facing a humanitarian catastrophe from the worst drought in 60 years. The UN estimates that more than 11 million people need urgent assistance to stay alive. The region has faced droughts every few years, and each time they have set back progress on reducing poverty, disrupted food production systems and jeopardised the lives of millions of people. The sharp rise in food prices this year makes the situation worse. The severity of the drought and its ominous link to climate change this time around deepen the concern over the current devastation. Immediate relief and recovery is, of course, the urgent priority in a calamity. But the recurrent nature of the crisis, especially in the face of climate change, also highlights the need to build resilience – in two ways. First, by supporting the development of reliable early warning systems and of flexible social safety nets to protect the most vulnerable groups is one. Second, by strengthening agricultural and agribusiness systems by improving farmers' access to drought-resistant varieties of crops, improved rainwater-harvesting technologies and information from weather-forecasting systems, while continuing to increase investment in irrigation development is the other. On social safety nets, it is important to look at the emerging work and lessons from Ethiopia's experience. Since the famine of 1984, Ethiopia had issued an appeal for humanitarian assistance every year. Following the drought in 2003, the government established the New Coalition for Food Security and sought a new approach to deal with food insecurity. The approach recognised that issuing annual emergency appeals was unsustainable and did not secure timely delivery of food to drought victims. The Ethiopian government established the Productive Safety Net Programme in 2005. PSNP, a collaborative effort between the Ethiopian government and development partners, aimed to provide transfers to people in chronically food-insecure areas and structured to prevent asset-depletion for households and create additional assets for communities. An impact evaluation in 2008, right after a significant drought, found that PSNP beneficiaries were more likely to be food secure, to borrow for productive purposes, to use improved agricultural technologies, and to operate non-farm-related business activities. PSNP also prevented beneficiary households from sliding deeper into poverty and selling household assets. One of the strong points of PSNP has been its flexibility. Initially designed to address regular shocks in rural areas, the programme expanded to create options for two different types of poor – those with the potential to move out of poverty and those who face chronic challenges. Another aspect of PSNP was setting up contingency funds that would allow the government to take swift action during food shortages. The drought risk financing (DRF) mechanism, which considers a rainfall-based index, allows scaling up of disbursements and providing rapid support to households. The DRF was activated in 2008 and in 2009 to respond to food-related shocks, and is scheduled to come into effect again in September to mitigate the effects of the current food shortages in the region. As mounting water stresses and climate change are only likely to worsen, droughts are bound to increase. Thus, the recent stepped-up support for agricultural development by international donors in Africa is important, as it can contribute to building food security and resilience. The vast majority of people in the region depend on either livestock or farming, or a combination of the two. Support to increase farmers' access to improved water-harvesting technologies, drought-tolerant crop and fodder varieties, should help improve resilience. Increasing investments in new and old irrigation systems would also be critical for improving agricultural productivity and reducing food shortages overtime. The Juba and Shabelle river basins in Somalia, the country bearing the brunt of the current drought, have considerable potential for irrigation development, and several irrigation schemes have been developed in the past in these two major river basins. However, years of civil insecurity and unrest have led to the collapse of these schemes, which need urgent reinvestment from the international community. Given the unfortunate recurrence of droughts in the Horn of Africa, there is urgency in investing and maintaining drought-resilient agriculture and agribusiness. Such investments can target drought-resistant crops, catalyse the use of rainwater-harvesting and water-conserving technologies, and improve irrigation systems. To strengthen further the resilience and preparedness of the region to droughts, social safety nets should factor the cyclical nature of natural disasters, and aim to protect the poorest and most vulnerable. Social safety nets must have flexibility to change, refocus and adapt to evolving country contexts and needs. • Vinod Thomas is director general and senior vice-president of the Independent Evaluation Group within the World Bank Group | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/africa', 'world/ethiopia', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/food-security', 'global-development/aid', 'tone/blog', 'business/worldbank', 'type/article', 'profile/vinod-thomas'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-08-11T06:00:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2022/may/04/us-recycling-plastic-waste | US is recycling just 5% of its plastic waste, studies show | When most people toss a plastic bottle or cup into the recycling bin, they assume that means the plastic is recycled – but a new report lays bare how rarely that actually happens. According to the Last Beach Cleanup and Beyond Plastics, the organization behind the report released on Wednesday, the recycling rate for post-consumer plastic was just 5% to 6% in 2021. The Department of Energy also released a research paper this week, which analyzed data from 2019, and came to the same number: only 5% of plastics are being recycled. The researchers on that report wrote that landfilled plastic waste in the United States has been on the rise for many reasons, including “low recycling rates, population growth, consumer preference for single-use plastics, and low disposal fees in certain parts of the country”, according to a press release. The problem has also been exacerbated by shifts in the global recycling market, including China’s 2017 ban on most US plastic exports. Countries such as China used to accept ships full of plastic waste from the US, says Jan Dell, founder of the Last Beach Cleanup, but without that option, more plastic is ending up thrown away, since few US facilities have the capacity to recycle it. “The rate of plastic recycling in the US has never been about 4% to 5% ever,” she says. “We don’t have factories to do it. It’s also very water intensive, so we’re not going to build more plastic recycling facilities in the US.” Around 85% of plastics end up in landfills, and the remaining 10% are incinerated, according to Dell’s research. And even when plastics are recycled, about a third of the material from a PET plastic bottle is discarded in the process. The Last Beach Cleanup and Beyond Plastics’s report also revealed that while plastic recycling is on the decline, the generation of plastic waste per person in the US has increased by 263% since 1980, from 60 pounds a person to 218 pounds a person. Plastics stand out as egregiously wasteful in the world of recycling: paper is recycled at 66%, according to the American Forest Products Association, while the figure for aluminum cans is about 50.4%, according to the EPA. “We can’t stay in the single use plastic nightmare scenario that we are right now,” says Dell. “There’s no way to sort our way out of this without reducing waste to start with.” Dell says that solutions exist to replace single-use plastics – for example, fiber-based food trays that can be composted or recycled. She says Nestle has replaced plastic with paper on candy in the UK – something they’re calling “paperification”. And of course, reusing and refilling bottles rather than tossing them after use also helps. She adds that the plastic producers have been deceptive in slapping the triangular “chasing arrows” shape on the bottom of products and misleading people into thinking they are recyclable, when in fact the symbol does not guarantee that. “They have co-opted America’s love of recycling and the thought that we are doing something good for the environment, when they knew all along it wasn’t recycling,” she says. “They leveraged the heartstrings of consumers and said this stuff was recyclable.” Bans on single-use plastic items such as bags, food containers and utensils are increasingly popular, with versions adopted in places including the European Union, the state of California, and Los Angeles. But such rules need to go further, the report says. “Proven solutions that will reduce US plastic waste and pollution already exist and can be swiftly enacted. The success of single-use plastic bans, water refilling stations, and reusable food and dish ware can be extended nationwide.” | ['us-news/us-news', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-gammon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-05-05T05:00:28Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2015/jan/22/coaching-by-numbers-is-data-analytics-the-future-of-management | Coaching by data : is analytics the future of management? | The 2011 film Moneyball depicts the true story of baseball manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) who defies all odds by taking an underdog team to the playoffs and winning a record 20 consecutive games despite spending very little money on players. His killer weapon? Data. Indeed, by hiring a geek rather than experienced baseball scouts, and trusting computer-generated algorithms rather than common sense, Pitt’s character demonstrates that sporting success does not depend on common sense or intuition, but robust scientific principles and maths. Unsurprisingly, the film has spurred a great deal of speculation about the idea that technology may eventually replace sports managers. The underlying logic to this idea is twofold. First, computers are able to gather and process much more data than we do, which enables them to better predict future performance; second, unlike humans, computers are not biased by emotions or subjectivity, so their decisions are bound to be more rational than ours. Despite the appeal of this sports analytics, it is fairly unlikely that Jose Mourinho or Greg Popovich will be out of work soon. There are three main reasons for this. Data alone is trivial Indeed, it is only when combined with expertise, experience and knowledge that data can enhance our ability to make the right decisions. As the German philosopher Immanuel Kant once noted, “theory without data is groundless, but data without theory is just uninterpretable.” The point of data is to refine our intuition, but, at the same time, a great deal of intuition is needed to make sense of any data. Unless you know what to look for, the data will show only numbers. This is why experts are capable of making intuitive decisions that mirror data-driven decisions. Humans are only partially rational Because of this, a purely rational approach to managing people does not work. This is why sports athletes need human coaches, who can tune into their emotional states and empathise with them. Of course it may be possible to refine artificial intelligence to mimic human coaches in this task, but a fundamental difference between machines and humans will remain, namely that machines won’t care about the athletes – at best, they will be able to fake feelings for them but they will still seem pretty unbelievable. Athletes are pre-wired to respond more emphatically to humans than computers. Having your coach watching you creates a strong process of psychological influence, called leadership, which machines will never manage to imitate. Thus, even if data does a good job at diagnosing problems, the intervention – acting on those problems, including making decisions and influencing athletes – is best left in the hands of humans. If sports outcomes were entirely predictable, there would be no sports at all As sports spectators, we seek a certain degree of consistency and predictability. This creates an implicit moral code underlying sports whereby, on average, the best teams or players should win. However, it is the remaining degree of unpredictability that makes sports exciting. This is why betting houses make so much money. What sports consumers want, then, is to have the ability to predict the unpredictable; but if they were really able to do this the thrill and pleasure of watching sports would just vanish. The application of technology and data to sports management mirrors the wider realm of business. Consider the field of talent management, the area of human resources concerned with the selection, motivation, and retention of employees, especially at the top of the organisational hierarchy. Despite substantial technological developments in this area during the past decade, big data and computer-driven algorithms have yet to have a real impact on management practices. Sure, it is now easier, faster, and cheaper to find suitable employees for a job, to quantify their contribution to the company, and to make data-driven decisions regarding rewards, promotions and retention. However, few organisations have adopted such tools widely, and those who have are not obviously more effective than their counterparts. Besides, there is a high price for the datification of management practices. First, despite the objectivity of such practices they are unlikely to be perceived as fair by the workforce (particularly those classified as poor performers). Second, making these practices transparent increases the probability that individuals play or game the system (just like hotel owners may fake their Tripadvisor ratings, or those of their competitors). Third, when transparency is avoided ethical issues and anonymity concerns emerge. For instance, most companies would learn a great deal about their employees by mining their e-mail data, but who would want to work in a place like that? In short, sports analytics, computer-generated algorithms, and big data can certainly improve human decision-making in the field of competitive sports, but so long as the athletes are human, technology alone will not improve their performance. Data can help us make better predictions, but it will not make people more predictable than they already are. Finally, most coaches, clubs and managers have access to the same quality and quantity of data, but significant differences between their performances remain because human decision-making still dominates the game. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of business psychology at University College London and vice-president of research and innovation at Hogan Assessment Systems. He is co-founder of metaprofiling.com The Creative Data hub is funded by Accenture. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘Brought to you by Accenture’. Find out more here. | ['sport/sport', 'technology/series/creative-data', 'technology/big-data', 'media/digital-media', 'technology/technology', 'football/premierleague', 'football/football', 'football/jose-mourinho', 'sport/nba', 'sport/sport-betting', 'film/moneyball', 'sport/us-sport', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'profile/tomas-chamorro-premuzic'] | technology/big-data | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-01-22T15:59:18Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2017/apr/06/air-pollution-beijing-china-smog-britain | Air pollution made Beijing unbearable. Britain should watch and learn | Tania Branigan | On a good morning, from my Beijing tower block, I could gaze across the city to the hills far to the west. On the worst days, when pollution levels soared off the scale, I could barely make out the buildings across the road. The air purifiers in each room were turned up to 11. The filters inside were supposed to last for six months – but after just a couple of months, the pristine white folds had usually turned charcoal grey. Even with a mask, 20 minutes outside could leave you feeling nauseous. Friends complained of sore throats and coughs that never went away. It was a running, though unamusing, joke: Airmageddon. The airpocalypse. Beige-jing. But it got inside your head as well as your system. After a spate of especially bad days, my spirits lowered. I longed to see the sky. And then one spring I returned home for a holiday, and turned the corner at the Peak District’s Surprise View, one of the loveliest I know. Below me lay the Hope Valley, and, to my horror, the smog lay thick in its bottom. It took me a moment to recognise my error. Pollution had become so normal to me that, even at a place I knew so well, and had seen shrouded so often, it had not occurred to me that it was just mist. In primary school my teacher had described climbing up to the hills as a child, and being unable to see Sheffield thanks to the blanket of smog. So many years after the Clean Air Act, it had been unimaginable to us. Now I took toxic air as the norm, like so many in China. I rolled my eyes when headlines shouted about the UK’s air pollution crisis in April 2014. It was, by Beijing’s standards, a pretty clear day. Now I live in London again and note each morning how good it feels to breathe clean air. But I’ve noticed, too, how unpleasant it can be to walk along Euston Road. And I’ve started to ask myself why I’ve regarded illegal levels of pollution as acceptable. It is hard to see how our own attitudes – what we notice, what we tolerate – shift and how dependent this is on the views of people around us. To begin with, I took Beijing’s bad days for granted. I lived there for five years before getting purifiers. No one liked the filthy air: but most residents regarded it as inevitable, like bad weather. Masks were seen as at best an eccentricity, at worst an indulgent affectation. The only Chinese people who wore them were warding off infections or trying not to spread them. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when things changed. The research was piling up – scary data on the long-term health impacts: early deaths, heart and lung problems, cancer, diabetes, birth defects. So was the anecdotal evidence: toddlers who developed terrible asthma; the previously healthy friend who found himself waking in the night, struggling to breathe. Soon we were checking an air pollution app each morning, and discussing air purifiers and masks as petrolheads might compare sports cars. Private schools acquired inflatable domes so pupils could exercise without going outside. We could afford to do this. Whether in Birmingham, Beijing or Delhi, pollution disproportionately affects the poor. They are more likely to live in heavily polluted areas (near factories or main roads, say) and are by definition less able to afford even partial remedies. But no one can escape the problem entirely. Politburo members also looked out on a wall of grey, and presumably their sisters and sons were complaining, and their grandchildren too were racked by coughs. In 2015, hundreds of millions of people watched the documentary Under the Dome, which laid out the impact of pollution on China in frightening detail. It was a turning point in public awareness – and strikingly, while it was eventually censored, it had received at least partial official backing. Some within the leadership had realised that it had to take action, even if there is still a very long way to go. That British problems are less severe does not mean we can afford to ignore them. The impact of nitrogen dioxide levels on our health, and especially that of our children, whose developing lungs are so much more vulnerable, is undeniable. The high court has twice judged the government’s response to air pollution as being illegally poor. Measures such as masks and purifiers may help individuals and even save lives. But they are not enough. The true significance of their adoption in China was that they showed people were recognising the problem. Their popularity helped to reinforce the sense that such concerns were sensible and pressing rather than peculiar or trivial. The real solutions are social – taken by city leaders, national governments and international bodies. But they will act only when the rest of us decide we have had enough. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/taniabranigan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-04-06T08:57:32Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/article/2024/jul/09/wood-wide-web-theory-charmed-us-bitter-fight-scientists | The ‘wood wide web’ theory charmed us all – but now it’s the subject of a bitter fight among scientists | Sophie Yeo | You have probably heard the theory, that the health of forests depends on common mycorrhizal networks. Trees send resources to their neighbours through strands of hyphae, which act as an underground arboreal postal service, connecting root systems within the soil. Mature trees preferentially provide their offspring with resources, ensuring the survival of their own. Not ringing any bells? Try switching “common mycorrhizal network” with “wood wide web”, the more familiar term that has described this phenomenon in hundreds of more mainstream places: novels, magazines, films and television series. The wood wide web is one of those rare things – a scientific theory that has captured the popular imagination. The explosion of interest comes not from an unaccountable passion for fungal networks but for what the theory implies: that the natural world is not static and cruel, but rather a living community governed by the same moral principles as our own. The concept of the wood wide web originated in a series of scientific papers led by the forest ecologist Suzanne Simard. Her 2021 book, Finding the Mother Tree, cemented the hypothesis as a global phenomenon. No one can blame an academic for framing their work in terms the layperson can understand, even if some precision is lost along the way. But trouble arises when a scientific theory gains a life of its own, becoming culturally relevant in a way that ignores, simplifies, or contradicts the facts that birthed it. This is what has happened in the case of the wood wide web. In 2023, three scientists, led by Justine Karst at the University of Alberta, published a paper in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution arguing that the wood wide web theory had gone too far. Their language was measured: it was not that these mycorrhizal networks didn’t exist, they said, but rather that the claims about what they did outstripped the evidence. More research was needed. Simard did not take the criticism well. Their paper, she responded, was “an injustice to the whole world”. In an article published in Nature last month, she accused Karst of a conflict of interest because she had taken funding from Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance – the implication being that her comments were financially rather than scientifically motivated. Karst then hit back at these claims, both in the article and later on X. “This was an attack made in bad faith to demean my character and question my objectivity,” she wrote. “Behind the scenes of the ‘debate’ has been ugly. It might get worse and I could spend more time defending my character than debating the evidence. I hope you understand that I can only lose in this situation. So, I’m out. Debate without me.” We think of science as neutral: experiments unfolding neatly, numbers noted on spreadsheets, society advancing in increments towards an absolute truth. Scientists are the automatons behind this process – temporarily able to transcend the biases, beliefs and subjectivity that make everyday life so complicated for the rest of us. But that could not be further from the truth. Scientists are not superhuman – they, too, form attachments. Indeed, in their original article, Karst et al did not blame Simard alone for the runaway success of the wood wide web. Other scientists had also exaggerated the evidence, they wrote, citing papers in support of the hypothesis, even when the actual papers were lukewarm on the idea. No wonder so many journalists had seized on the metaphor: not only was it emotionally appealing, it also seemed incontrovertibly true. As a result, the speed at which the idea had spread through the public realm had outpaced the science underpinning the idea itself. The wood wide web is among many instances of scientific ideas going rogue. I have spent the last three years writing a book on environmental history – a subject particularly prone to myth and misrepresentation. I usually found that simplicity and romance won out over complexity and nuance. Repetition easily supplanted reality; when enough voices sing in unison, few stop to question whether the words are true. One of the many myths I encountered during my research was the Great Wood of Caledon; that is, the notion that the Highlands were once covered in a great pinewood – until humans cut it down. Indeed, the central tenets of the myth are often repeated in the media and by politicians. However, contrary to the popular understanding, palaeoecological evidence suggests that prehistoric climate change played a large part in the demise of these forests. The reality is more complex and less politically appealing than the oft-repeated myth. But we should not fear difficult ideas. I like simplicity and romance, but I also like accuracy and open-minded debate. Scotland has fewer pinewoods than it could; the past doesn’t change that. Meanwhile, scientists continue to work quietly to untangle the many mysteries of mycorrhizae. How widespread are these networks in forests? Do they really benefit seedlings? Can mature trees actually support their kin? Let us hope that the wood wide web is flexible enough to incorporate such progress as it happens. As Karst herself put it: “Less hype. More hyphae.” Science thrives on debate. When people become wedded to a particular idea, that debate can get personal. Opponents are no longer challenging a hypothesis but a worldview, one that many people beyond science have become attached to. We owe it to the planet – and to each other – to stay open to the truth. Sophie Yeo is editor of Inkcap Journal and the author of Nature’s Ghosts: The world we lost and how to bring it back | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'science/fungi', 'science/biology', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/sophie-yeo', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-07-09T12:00:27Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2024/nov/10/its-gang-gang-country-the-landholders-restoring-farmland-to-forest-in-the-victorian-alps | ‘It’s gang-gang country’: the landholders restoring farmland to forest in the Victorian alps | Three and a half years ago, Karst Kreun bought 60 hectares (150 acres) of land by Mount Buller in memory of his late wife, Lindy. Located in Mansfield in Victoria’s north-east, the property, named “Karlindy” after his wife, had been used for generations for intense farming and seed production. “It had 11 mature trees on it,” Kreun says. “That’s it.” Kruen has planted 13,500 native trees and shrubs so far and is aiming for 90,000 by the time he is finished. “I’ve always been keen on conservation and I thought this was a good project to work on,” he says of his mission to attract more birds and wildlife. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter “They come for miles. Robins and swallows, wrens and the gang-gang. They have a unique sound.” Gang-gang cockatoos are listed as endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act due to habitat loss in the cool alpine forests they call home. Rewilding rural Victoria A similar project is under way at Tillabudgery, a property in the hamlet of Woodfield, near Bonnie Doon, owned by Kirsten Hutchison and her sister Neridda. They inherited the land after their father’s death four years ago and have been continuing his conservation efforts with help from the Victorian government’s BushBank program. The scheme is funding 20,000ha of native forest replanting across the state through partnerships with private landowners. Hutchison says their aim is to provide foraging habitats for the native wildlife, including gang-gangs, through restoring 43ha of native forest. The site is steep and challenging to work on but they have managed to plant thousands of trees and to control weeds, rabbits and sambar deer. “It is gang-gang cockatoo country,” Hutchison says. “We sometimes see or hear them during the warmer months when they return to the higher, wetter forests.” Conservation was their father’s passion. “We always grew up with a strong sense of moral social conscience when it came to the environment,” Hutchison says. “It is our hope that our restoration project will help provide more foraging habitat and help buffer the adjacent Maintongoon bushland reserve to reduce any edge effects for [the gang-gang].” “Edge effects” are the intrusion of invasive plants and animals into native vegetation through adjacent cleared farmland. Sean Dooley, the public affairs manager of Birdlife, an Australian non-profit organisation, says gang-gang cockatoos were first listed as endangered in 2022. “Many people attribute this uplisting of threatened status to the impacts of the black summer bushfires, however, the declines in population were happening well before this,” Dooley says. The most reliable surveys of the species show population declines of as much as 69% between 1999 and 2019. “The black summer bushfires were another hammer blow with somewhere between 28 to 36% of their habitat burnt, and an estimated 10% of the population killed in the fires,” Dooley says. According to the Action Plan for Australian Birds 2020, habitat loss, particularly nesting hollows, due to land-clearing and continuing native forest logging is the main threat to the bird. Hutchison says she and her sister are also working with the conservation organisation Trust for Nature to permanently protect the property in a conservation covenant, ensuring it remains a long-term habitat for the cockatoos. “Dad spent most of his time on the property and really threw himself into planting trees on the land,” she says. “We thought we would fulfil Dad’s dream and legacy, transform his property and leave something for the future.” At Karlindy, Kruen has a similar plan: “The aim is to bring it as close as I can to what it was 200 years ago.” Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter | ['australia-news/series/the-rural-network-victoria', 'australia-news/series/the-rural-network', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/birds', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/victoria', 'australia-news/rural-australia', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/farming', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'campaign/email/the-rural-network', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/dellaram-vreeland', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/the-rural-network'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-11-09T19:00:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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