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australia-news/2015/jul/12/coalition-stands-firm-on-shenhua-coalmine-but-labor-sits-on-fence | Coalition stands firm on Shenhua coalmine but Labor sits on fence | The Coalition will not revise its decision to allow the $1.2bn Shenhua mine to go ahead in the New South Wales Liverpool Plains, one frontbencher has said, as Labor hedged its bets on how it would proceed with the controversial project. The federal government last week approved the Chinese company’s Watermark coalmine, provided it fulfils 18 requirements. But critics – including Nationals frontbenchers, agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce and assistant health minister Fiona Nash – say it does not make sense to mine in the region’s rich agricultural land. The trade minister, Andrew Robb, said the government was not tempted to change its mind. After being asked to confirm on Sky News on Sunday that the federal government would press on with the project, Robb answered: “That’s correct.” Labor is refusing to rule out scrapping the project if it gets back into office. “What we think is that you’ve got to get the balance right, in terms of not just short-term mining, but also the long-term agricultural value of the Liverpool Plains,” the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said. “This is really a question for the scientific experts.” Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, was just as equivocal. “People expect me to have a solid view on the coalmine, I appreciate that, but these are very complex issues and each project, coalmining or coal seam gas, has to be dealt with on its merits,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday. “I don’t have the volumes of information [environment minister] Greg Hunt has on his desk. I don’t have the water modelling, etc.” Labor instead chose to highlight the rift in the cabinet over the issue. Shorten said Joyce’s position on the frontbench was untenable. “Either as a minister in the cabinet of Mr Abbott, he supports the decisions made by that cabinet, or he doesn’t – but he’s got to stop playing in the traffic,” Shorten told reporters in Melbourne. “He needs to decide whose side he’s on. He needs to nail his colours to the mast, and if he doesn’t agree with his prime minister, I think it is unsustainable.” Robb backed Joyce, whose electorate encompasses the Liverpool Plains. “Barnaby is a particular personality, and it brings with it great strengths and we want to continue to keep enjoying those strengths, and in many respects I think my colleagues understand the other side of Barnaby,” he said. He said the cabinet was full of headstrong “type A” personalities. “You have to make some judgements – the prime minister certainly has to – about how he manages the Coalition, about how he manages his colleagues, his cabinet,” Robb said. “I think in this instance, Barnaby obviously feels enormously strongly about it, has made that point of view, and the prime minister is comfortable that it is not going to cause a fracturing within the Coalition.” Robb said the mine would bring in $16bn in investment, and provide enough coal for 100m Indian households for 100 years. “This is a humanitarian role as well as an important commercial aspect of Australia’s growth,” he said. On Sunday, the Australian Industry Group issued a statement supporting the mine, saying it would add to NSW’s economy and spur growth in jobs. “The Watermark mine clearly arouses strong feelings, and the government deserves credit for taking a considered decision on a difficult issue,” NSW Ai Group director Mark Goodsell said. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/mining', 'science/agriculture', 'australia-news/barnaby-joyce', 'australia-news/bill-shorten', 'australia-news/fiona-nash', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/shalailah-medhora'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2015-07-12T07:13:20Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2008/may/10/forests.brazil | Brazil unveils new plan to curb Amazon logging | Brazil has unveiled its plan to encourage farmers in the Amazon region to develop sustainable sources of income and turn their backs on the illegal logging that is ravaging the rainforest. The Sustainable Amazon Plan includes £300m in low-interest loans that will be made available to farmers. Some 40,000 families who were formerly involved in logging will also get social security and unemployment benefits. The loans will be offered at 4% annual interest, well below Brazil's benchmark 11.75% rate, said the environment minister, Marina Silva. The lush Amazon rainforest covers 1.6m square miles, an area larger than western Europe, and most of the rainforest is in Brazil. About 20% of the original forest has been razed by ranchers, loggers and developers. "The Amazon belongs to humanity and produces benefits for the entire planet, but it's Brazil that cares for the Amazon, Brazil that decides what to do with the Amazon," Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said yesterday. A recent surge in illegal deforestation threatens to reverse three years of improvement, leading the government to boost efforts to combat illegal logging. The plan is an attempt to reconcile economic development with conservation. "We are reaffirming the concept that the Amazon is not only a mass of trees, but also of the more than 24 million Brazilians who live there," said the national integration minister, Geddel Vieira Lima, who is responsible with coordinating rural development. The plan also aims to improve Amazon highways and river transport, expand ports and broaden access to electricity, Lula said. | ['environment/forests', 'world/brazil', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-05-10T00:53:10Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2013/nov/04/ghana-uk-environcom-illegal-fridge-imports | Ghana accuses UK recycling firm Environcom of illegal fridge imports | One of the UK's largest recycling companies has imported thousands of banned second-hand fridges into Ghana, according to the west African country's energy regulator. Thousands of fridges discarded by British households have been shipped to Ghana by Environcom, which describes itself as the UK's largest electrical re-use and recycling company, flouting rules designed to protect the country's environment against harmful chemicals, according to the Ghanaian authorities. "Environcom have sent a shipment of about 37 containers – almost 4,000 second-hand fridges – to Ghana," said Victor Owusu, public affairs spokesman for Ghana's energy commission. Environcom has links to British retailers Dixons and Argos, which supply used appliances to the company for recycling. It admitted exporting the fridges to Ghana but said it did so before the ban came into place. "Environcom stopped exporting fridges to Ghana some months ago in line with the introduction of the ban, however some containers that left us on time got delayed in transit and arrived in Ghana late and containers that were received prior to the ban were also impounded," said a company spokesperson. The Guardian has seen documents which show the fridges were shipped from Britain to Ghana in August this year, almost two months after the ban came into force. Environcom says it sells second-hand fridges to third parties to ship to Ghana, and that it could not be held responsible for delays during the process. The Guardian has seen an email exchange between Environcom and the Ghanaian authorities in which the company threatened to withdraw plans to invest in a recycling plant in the country if it was not allowed to import parts from second-hand fridges. "Environcom have been working on a multimillion GBP investment in Ghana … Your latest feedback has led us to question whether we withdraw from this project and look at alternative markets within west Africa," wrote Graeme Parkin from Environcom, in an email dated 21 June. Environcom says it had been seeking to clarify the law in Ghana and was now working on a new agreement to invest in recycling facilities in the country. There is increasing criticism of the practice of sending second-hand electrical goods to African countries, where many end up in toxic rubbish dumps scavenged by children and poisoning local environments. A study by Greenpeace found that as much as 75% of "second-hand goods" imported to Africa could not be reused, and that in Ghana, goods that had been dumped were releasing hazardous substances into the environment, including toxic metal lead; chemicals such as the phthalates DEHP and DBP, which are known to interfere with sexual reproduction; and chlorinated dioxins known to promote cancer. Second-hand fridges have been banned in Ghana since 1 January, after officials became increasingly concerned about the number of old electrical products no longer wanted by British households which were ending up in the country. Ghana is the first country in the region to introduce a ban on old fridges, and officials hope it will reduce the quantities of toxic and ozone-unfriendly chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and reduce the energy burden on its already squeezed national grid, where old fridges suck up more than half of the national energy output of 2,000 megawatts a year. Ghanaian officials say numerous British companies are still importing second-hand fridges to Ghana in violation of the ban. "Since the ban came into force, we have made about 177 seizures of second-hand fridges," said Owusu. "Most of those have come from the UK – over 90% of the imports are coming from there. They know about the regulations, but they are errant companies that want to defy the law." Environcom said discussions with the Ghanaian authorities about its impounded fridges were continuing. But Ghanaian officials said the shipment would be destroyed, and accused Britain of being the main exporter of unlawful second-hand electrical goods to the country. "We are also determined that this ban of second-hand fridges into Ghana becomes a success story," said Owusu. "Now that energy is becoming so critical, who would allow their country to become a dumping ground for used refrigerators from the rest of the world?" Environcom has come under the spotlight for sending second-hand electrical goods to Africa in the past. Earlier this year company director Sean Feeney, a former senior Dixons executive, admitted Environcom had exported old-fashioned cathode-ray tube TVs to Africa when they became "hazardous" products, which could not be safely disposed of. "In the past unscrupulous companies have used west Africa as a dumping ground," the Environcom spokesperson said. "In fact, when the new management came on board, Environcom stopped exporting refurbished TVs to Africa for many years because of the difficulties in controlling the end results and the impact on the local environment." But as shipments of second-hand British fridges continue to arrive at its ports, Ghana said it would be making a complaint to the British government. "We are going to file a complaint to the EU, and to the British high commission," Owusu said. "I know that in the UK itself this kind of thing would not happen. I think they think it's Africa, so they can get away with it." | ['world/ghana', 'environment/recycling', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/afuahirsch', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2013-11-04T18:10:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2011/may/24/pilot-whales-sociability-outer-hebrides | Pilot whales: social creatures in dangerous straits | Philip Hoare | The distressed, and distressing, behaviour of the pilot whales currently threatening to beach themselves in South Uist reflects the remarkable and highly complex nature of cetacean sociability. Pilot whales, like the other toothed whales (odontocetes) of their sub-order – which includes sperm whales, killer whales and dolphins – form social groups, unlike baleen whales (mysticetes, such as the blue whale, the fin whale and the humpback), which generally travel alone or in mother-calf pairs. Toothed whales may travel in massive pods of hundreds, even thousands; I've seen pilot whales in huge numbers in the Bay of Biscay, the Azores and Cape Cod. Between their two species (the long-finned and the short-finned pilot whale) they can be found in almost every ocean. The combined population may number more than 1.5m. They are nomadic, as opposed to migratory in habit (unlike the mysticetes), principally going where their food source takes them; these are deep-diving cetaceans, often feeding on squid at depths of 200-500 metres. They are also obviously highly successful – and part of that success must be due to their socialisation, held together by bonds we still do not completely understand. We know that they communicate with each other continually. Dolphins have been proven to use signature whistles with which they announce their presence in the group. Sperm whales and pilot whales almost certainly use this method, too – unique in the animal kingdom. They focus these sounds through the bio-acoustical oil contained in their distinctively rounded heads, known as melons – in fact, enlarged noses. The necropsy on the first whale to die in South Uist indicated an infection in this area of the whale's anatomy, which might have caused its disorientation – and also caused its fellow whales to follow it into shallow waters. Such strandings are sadly common, and occur around the world – even in the river Thames, where a pod of 20 pilot whales appeared in 1965. The scenes of the whales in Scotland show typical behaviour. They are moving together, dependent on one another as a cohesive whole, but are composed of smaller family units of 10 to 20 whales. Genetic methods and observation, by scientists such as Hal Whitehead, of Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, have proved that these are basically matriarchal, but with males staying with their mother's group all their lives. As a result, these units are permanent and incredibly loyal. Hence the behaviour of the endangered whales in South Uist where the second whale to die was also a female. Photographs showing the whales raising their heads above water displays behaviour known as "spy-hopping" – they are literally looking up and around them. This may look cute but in this situation, where the animals are far too close to shore, it is a sign of near panic. Pilot whales are no strangers to Scottish waters. In fact, it was the Orkney scientist, Thomas Traill, who first observed and scientifically named the pilot whale, Globicephala melas, in 1809, as a result of his firsthand experience of the cetaceans – either alive, at sea, or stranded on Orcadian beaches. "This kind of dolphin sometimes appears in large herds off the Orkney, Shetland, and Feroe islands," noted Traill's friend and fellow scientist, William Scoresby. "The main body of the herd follows the leading whales, and from this property the animal is called in Shetland the ca'ing whale, and by Dr Traill the deductor." It's because of their propensity to act in unison, following one another, that these whales – also known as "blackfish" – were hunted as they still are, controversially, in the Faroe Islands, by being driven into shallow bays and slaughtered. Humans have even adopted pilot whale behaviour for their own warlike ends. The warriors of the Ngāti Kahungunu, a Māori iwi tribe, donned black cloaks and lay on the beach to lure an enemy iwi who would believe they were beached pilot whales and a source of ready food. More benevolent encounters between pilot whales and humans have been witnessed off Gibraltar and the Canary Islands. Pilots are, like many cetaceans, highly inquisitive, and divers report the animals will often make physical contact. This is not always a good idea. A now-infamous YouTube clip shows a female diver being dragged down by a pilot whale and nearly drowning. Far from being a "vicious attack", however, this whale was probably only playing, displaying the sociability of its species, which has brought them into such dangerous straits off the Scottish coast. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/whales', 'uk/scotland', 'environment/marine-life', 'science/animalbehaviour', 'science/biology', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/philip-hoare'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2011-05-24T10:33:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2017/sep/28/lloyds-of-london-harvey-irma-claims-maria | Lloyd’s of London starts paying out $4.5bn of Harvey and Irma claims | Lloyd’s of London, the world’s biggest insurance market, has started paying out the first of $4.5bn (£3.6bn) of claims related to tropical storm Harvey and Hurricane Irma, which wreaked havoc in the southern US and Caribbean. Inga Beale, the Lloyd’s of London chief executive, said: “The market is assessing claims and starting to make payments that will help local communities and businesses get back on their feet as quickly as possible.” Catastrophe modelling companies have estimated the insured damage caused by Harvey and Irma at $50bn to $70bn (£37bn-£52bn). Hurricane Maria, which recently ripped through Puerto Rico, is estimated to have caused $40bn-$85bn in insured losses. Beale said Lloyd’s was using those estimates to work out its share of the losses, about $4.5bn for Harvey and Irma. The market is still working out its liability for Hurricane Maria, the earthquake in Mexico and typhoons in Asia. Analysts at Jefferies estimate a further $1bn hit for Maria and the Mexican earthquake. They expect that Lloyd’s has the capital to absorb these losses without drawing on its central reserves. The cost of property insurance cover in the US is likely to rise “materially” as a result, but Asian prices should be unaffected. “It is clear that 2017 is a major catastrophe year,” said Simon Kilgour, an insurance partner at the law firm CMS. “The current-year losses are expected to wipe out industry earnings and impact capital for the first time since 2005.” Lloyd’s is closely monitoring the impact of climate change. Beale said rising sea levels raised the losses caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 by 30%. Another big challenge is Brexit. As part of its planning, Lloyd’s is about to file an application with the Belgian authorities to set up a subsidiary in Brussels. Beale said this was “a bit more complex” for a market with 83 syndicates than it would be for an individual company, but she still expects the new subsidiary to be up and running by the middle of 2018. Beale welcomed Theresa May’s plan for a two-year transition period. “The transition would be very helpful for the financial services sector,” she said. While the Brussels subsidiary will ensure that Lloyd’s can write new business in EU countries after the UK leaves, Beale stressed that it was vital for insurers to be able to fulfil their liabilities for existing policies, adding that the outlook was “still very uncertain”. Lloyd’s has thrown its weight behind proposals for a free trade agreement for financial services that would ensure UK and EU companies can trade in each other’s countries without tariffs or quotas. Beale’s comments came as Lloyd’s reported a pretax profit of £1.2bn for the first half of this year, down from £1.46bn a year ago. It excludes the impact of the storms and other recent natural disasters. | ['business/lloydsoflondon', 'business/insurance', 'business/business', 'us-news/hurricane-harvey', 'world/hurricane-maria', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'world/hurricane-irma', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | world/hurricane-maria | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-28T13:25:31Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2015/sep/30/jeremy-corbyn-nuclear-weapons | Jeremy Corbyn prefers mushroom curries to clouds – thank goodness | Lucy Mangan | From the age of five until 10 I lay awake every night frozen in terror by the thought of the four-minute warning going off when I was at school, which I knew to be at least a five minute run away even on a day when your legs weren’t paralysed by fear. When I at last revealed all to my mother, she brought sweet relief and the return of Morpheus by responding: “Don’t be so daft! There’ll be all sorts of palaver before a war starts, and I’ll keep you home. And we’re in London! It’s the first place they’ll hit, and we’ll all die together! Now go to sleep.” My understanding of global nuclear arrangements essentially arrested at this point. Teenage readings of Brother in the Land and Z for Zachariah, set in atomically- and apocalyptically bombed wastelands confirmed it was better not to know. Everything surrounding the news that Jeremy Corbyn wouldn’t push the button, if button-pushing time ever came, and if – that’s an “if” bigger than all four Vanguard submarines put together – he was in charge of the button at the time, suggests that we all – from frightened five-year-olds, yea even unto the mightiest of men – throw up mental walls around the subject. The Tories engage in the illogic of “Bigger! Better! More money! Always! Probably some penis issues in the mix too!” along with enough others to ensure that we will now for ever have enough nuclear missiles to destroy the world eleventy billion times over. This is the adult equivalent of marching round the house shouting “La, la, la!” with your hands over your ears until someone smacks your bum and sends you to bed. Corbyn insists that he won’t frazzle anything or join in the enfrazzlement, or refrazzle anything that’s left after the enfrazzling’s begun – and not just because he’ll be good and enfrazzled already himself. But he won’t tell others in the party what to do – and not just because most of them would like to up and enfrazzle him themselves. But if he does become PM, we are effectively disarmed. His letter of last resort will apparently be a chickpea curry recipe and a (really) sadface. And the letters themselves – they get written by every PM and sent to a safe within a safe within each of the four submarines carrying our weaponry, to be opened by their commanders in the event that the government and all other chains of command fall, fail or are frazzled. That’s not a sensible way of going on: that’s something someone saw in a film and thought looked cool, surely. It’s a way to pretend to ourselves that it’s all just a story. It can’t be real. It is too awful to contemplate, so we hedge it round with devices that make it look like a cautionary tale. Here be dragons, but Denzel Washington or Daniel Craig will save us. Four Minute Warning – coming soon only to a cinema screen near you, with any luck. Sorry is the harvest word I’ve just had the list of items requested by my son’s school for harvest festival. In my day, you took in a few posh cans of soup or a bag of apples, and the teachers handed them over to some faintly embarrassed residents of the local old people’s home. My son’s list has been compiled with great care by a national charity that will distribute the goods via local food banks. I feel like apologising to him. “Sorry about this world I brought you into, kid. Mummy got drunk, briefly envisaged life and history as a tale of linear progression and did away with the condom. Stay lucky.” Such a Jane Eyre-head I’m rereading (for a work thing) the Brontës. I can’t remember a thing. Not from previous readings, not as I’m going along. Is there any point to reading anything after the age of 20 or so? Is it all just bouncing off my calcified mind, or is it still porous enough to let something seep down into there eventually? Or is it just Netflix from here on out? | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'world/world', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/defence', 'politics/politics', 'tone/comment', 'commentisfree/series/notebook', 'type/article', 'profile/lucymangan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2015-09-30T18:27:52Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2022/jul/31/lost-in-space-and-broken-energy-market-blame-it-on-tories-small-state-stupidity | Lost in space and a broken energy market: blame it on the obsession with a small state | Will Hutton | Twenty-two years in and it’s already obvious that this century is demanding challenges and responses for which the British Tory mindset, with one or two honourable exceptions, is wholly unprepared. This century does not require a small state – it requires an agile state. More years of denial and the UK will be in very serious economic and social trouble. Last week came a vignette of small-state stupidity, ceding a major area of 21st-century economic activity to France and undermining our national security – with close observers believing that no minister even knew the magnitude of their crassness. I speak of the merger, on French terms, of the formerly British-controlled space company OneWeb with France’s Eutelsat, turbo-boosting the EU space effort. These Brexiters are remarkably incompetent at doing Brexit. But then incompetence comes with the territory. OneWeb was Britain’s opportunistic way of recovering the ground we lost in space because of Brexit and the consequent forced exit from the EU’s Galileo and Copernicus programmes. Rescued from insolvency by a daring £500m bid by the UK government two years ago, OneWeb owns valuable allocated orbit “shells” and spectrum rights, reckoned to represent an astounding 15% of all space available for service delivery to Earth. This spatial real estate is the basis for a unique constellation of satellites and for the next phase of commercial space development and sophisticated communications – worth in the decades ahead tens of billions. Last week, Tory ministers let it slip through our fingers. The Ukraine war had forced OneWeb to reschedule its satellite launch programme, at some expense. Every shareholder agreed except the British: tax cuts were more important, the state must be shrunk and the market must rule. Eutelsat saw the opening, won the OneWeb board’s approval and offered the deal to buy the risk-averse British out. But beneath the face-saving baubles about retaining a board seat and golden share, crucially Britain will no longer have control over the future space systems developed by OneWeb or on how any of its spectrum is used. Johnson may be a liar, a constitutional vandal and corrupt, but he did have the chutzpah to launch the deal (driven by Dominic Cummings). Britain’s avowed aim is to be a globally competitive space power. Forget it. Be sure prime minister Truss will not dare to attempt any OneWebs. But it is exactly this agile state mindset that is needed across the gamut of policy – not guff about tax cuts, aspiration, the magic of markets, attacking wokeness and bringing back grammar schools. Our broken energy market is a case in point. British consumers face among the highest energy bills in Europe. It should be no surprise: the approach embodied by the OneWeb deal has been applied to the electricity market. The electricity tariff is not the average price of electricity produced by varying power generators, as it was when directed by the “big state” Central Electricity Generating Board, ensuring no violent spikes in prices. Amazingly, our bills are pitched at whatever price is needed to bring the most expensive producer into the grid to complete the necessary base load – not reflecting the contribution from low-cost renewables and nuclear. Consumer tariffs are thus the highest they could possibly be, reflecting the rising spot market price of gas. Nor does the market madness stop there. Unlike a car or a TV or a new dress, electricity doesn’t vary with the producer: it is invisible. There is nothing to differentiate electricity; it is the least apt material with which to constitute a market. But in the Tory small-state mindset, markets are always best, so the doctrine is that varying producers – wind farms, nuclear energy, gas-fired power stations – form a market selling electricity to one another within a short time frame. Long-term contracts? Averaging out the costs across all generators, rather than being keyed into the highest cost generator? That implies too much big state. The Ukraine war and rocketing oil and gas prices have blown the whole conception sky-high. Thirty suppliers have gone bust. Bills were always going to rise, but a more rational electricity production and pricing system, along with building in incentives to construct low-cost renewable capacity fast, could have drawn some of the sting. As UCL’s Professor Michael Grubb argues, the price differential between cheap renewables and hyper-expensive gas is now “unconscionable”. What to do? Every energy producer should be required to incorporate as a public benefit company in emergency legislation, constitutionally forcing them to put the consumer interest before profit as their corporate purpose. Engaging with these newly constituted power generators, the regulator Ofgem should gather their now open book costs and calculate a standard tariff for all consumers that reflects the lower production costs of renewables and nuclear energy. Expensive gas-fired generators that would now make losses can apply to be nationalised (as the French did with EDF recently) or offered soft 50-year loans and grants to tide them over. It should be producers that take some of the hit over rising gas and oil prices; the hit should not be shouldered by consumers. Planning laws should be instantly relaxed to allow onshore windfarm construction, with those local communities sharing some of the revenue. Interestingly, Grubb proposes the creation of “green power pools” in which renewable producers store their cheap energy for sale to consumers. There should be a crash programme of home insulation and the creation of a national network of electricity charge points for cars. Rebates on consumer energy bills should be targeted on the least well off. This is the 21st-century agile state in action – a conception both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak know will win them no votes from ageing Conservative party members who deify Mrs Thatcher. Instead, better to give away Britain’s stake in space and attack cheap renewables as “woke”. That pleases the Conservative party. The gulf between the real world and Tory world has never been so deep. • Will Hutton is an Observer columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'science/space', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy', 'politics/conservatives', 'tone/comment', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/willhutton', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-comment'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-07-31T08:00:50Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2010/jun/17/plane-stupid-protesters | Plane Stupid protesters did not create life-threatening impact, court told | Nine climate protesters who occupied Aberdeen airport did not create any "financial or life-threatening impact" to an emergency air ambulance flight, a court heard yesterday. The Plane Stupid protesters have been accused of delaying the emergency flight when they allegedly chained themselves to a cage on the asphalt and clambered on to the roof of the main terminal building in March last year. The campaigners, four women and five men, deny that they caused a breach of the peace and vandalism, and allegations that they prevented aircraft taking off and landing, including the air ambulance flight. Yesterday Steve Wright, operational director of Gama Aviation, the firm that operated the air ambulance, told the trial that the emergency flight was late taking off only because of an "operational delay caused by medics". Soon after the incident on 3 March last year, Wright told Grampian police that the protesters "did not delay" the air ambulance. His statement said the flight had been due to take off at 0800 hours, but in fact left at 0835. "We have no complaint regarding this matter," he said. On Tuesday the court was told by the airport's duty manager, Michael Frost, that the emergency flight was unable to leave because the airport had been shut down due to Plane Stupid's protest. George Gebbie, one of the defence advocates, disputed his account and stated: "It is a matter of established fact that the cage with these protesters in it did not prevent the flight taking off." Frost replied: "It did up to a point because the airport was shut. Physically it didn't impede it but it delayed the take-off." Yesterday's hearing included evidence from Darren Collett, 38, an airport policeman, who said he found seven protesters who had locked themselves inside a "cage structure" on the taxiway. He said they were a very polite group who cooperated fully and immediately identified themselves as protesters. He saw banners with environmental slogans, including one that said "Plane Stupid Golf Open 2009". He told Alan Townsend, the prosecutor: "They said they were there to mount a peaceful protest and their intentions were to disrupt Aberdeen airport." The nine defendants, Dan Glass, 25, Emilia Kawowska, 19, Tilly Gifford, 24, Josie Hanson, 25, and Jonathan Agnew, 22, all from Glasgow, Mark Andrews, 25, from Edinburgh, James Kerr, 34, from Paisley, William Boggia, 43, from Ballater, Aberdeenshire, and Kate Mackay, 20, from Shipley, West Yorkshire, all deny the charges. The trial continues today. | ['environment/activism', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'uk/scotland', 'world/protest', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/severincarrell'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2010-06-17T10:21:39Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2016/nov/29/great-barrier-reef-scientists-confirm-largest-die-off-of-corals-recorded | Great Barrier Reef scientists confirm largest die-off of corals recorded | A new study has found that higher water temperatures have ravaged the Great Barrier Reef, causing the worst coral bleaching recorded by scientists. In the worst-affected area, 67% of a 700km swath in the north of the reef lost its shallow-water corals over the past eight to nine months, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies based at James Cook University study found. “Most of the losses in 2016 have occurred in the northern, most-pristine part of the Great Barrier Reef,” Prof Terry Hughes said. “This region escaped with minor damage in two earlier bleaching events in 1998 and 2002, but this time around it has been badly affected.” The southern two-thirds of the reef escaped with minor damage, Hughes said. This part was protected from the rising sea temperatures because of cooler water from the Coral Sea. Scientists expect that the northern region will take at least 10 to 15 years to regain the lost corals but are concerned a fourth bleaching event could interrupt the slow recovery. The dire assessment of the reef’s health comes as the Australian government is due to report to Unesco’s world heritage committee on its handling of the reef. After the federal government submits the report Unesco will decide whether to again consider listing the Great Barrier Reef on its “list of world heritage in danger”. The government will need to report on how it has funded and implemented its Reef 2050 long-term sustainability plan, as well as how the bleaching event has affected the reef. Since it last considered including the Great Barrier Reef on its list, the reef has undergone the worst bleaching event in recorded history. According to government agencies, 22% of the reef was killed in one hit, as unusually warm waters bleached and killed the coral. Climate change poses such a threat to the reef that the former head of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has called for a ban on all new coalmines in Australia to protect the reef from climate change. Graeme Kelleher, who was the first chief executive of the authority, a position he held for 16 years, said: “Australia cannot have a healthy Great Barrier Reef and a continuing coal industry. “I love the reef and I have worked to preserve it since 1979; I will oppose anything that threatens to destroy it,” he said. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/unesco', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/coral', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-11-28T19:49:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/jun/30/tories-urge-lifting-off-onshore-windfarm-ban | End onshore windfarm ban, Tories urge | Pressure is mounting within the Conservative party to end its block on new onshore windfarms after evidence that Tory supporters overwhelmingly back their return. Both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, who are battling to become the party’s new leader, are facing internal calls to give the green light to new onshore wind projects that could slash the price of energy. Latest research suggests Tory voters are far more concerned about fracking than they are about onshore windfarms. Clamping down on onshore wind turbines was used by David Cameron to appease Tory heartlands when he was prime minister. He said people were “frankly fed up” with the farms and slashed their subsidies, effectively making new installations unfeasible. The move led to an 80% slump last year in new onshore wind farms, with the fewest built since 2011. However, polling of more than 15,000 Tory voters suggests there is now clear support for onshore wind farms. The survey, carried out by Survation, for the Conservative Environment Network, showed that 74% of people who voted Conservative in the last election support onshore wind farms. The figure was twice the number of Tory voters who back fracking – just 37%. Analysis of the poll carried out by Chris Hanretty, professor of politics at Royal Holloway University, found support was high in eight of the 10 constituencies identified by Conservatives as swing seats, targeted by Liberal Democrats. This includes Bath and Richmond Park, where support is 80.7% and 78.1% respectively. Many Tory MPs, irrespective of whether they backed Remain or Leave at the referendum, are uniting in calling for a rethink. Vicky Ford, MP for Chelmsford, who is backing Hunt, said: “Times have changed. More people are more concerned about climate change than ever before, and most people support onshore wind too. Back in 2015, many members of the public were concerned about onshore wind planning applications. That clearly isn’t the case any more – our own voters are telling us otherwise. We should let onshore wind be built where communities want it.” Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park, who is backing Johnson, said: “Our constituents want to see us do more to tackle climate change. By introducing the net zero target we are responding with world-leading legislation. They support the technologies that will help us to get to that net zero future, which includes the use of onshore wind farms. “The next election will be fought on several key issues where we clearly diverge from other parties. But we shouldn’t be ceding ground on those that are straightforward, like bringing back onshore wind farms.” There is mounting evidence that onshore wind is significantly cheaper than other forms of energy. The government has already committed to a “net-zero” carbon emissions target by 2050. Onshore wind is currently excluded from competing in Contracts for Difference auctions, which are designed to provide stability and certainty to investors. The exclusion has been blamed for stopping further investment. It has led to complaints of an effective ban on new onshore wind projects in England. Trade body RenewableUK has said that a boom in new onshore wind projects could also cut energy bills by £50 a year, compared with a system reliant on gas. Simon Clarke, another MP backing Johnson, said: “As we are going for net zero, then we need to completely decarbonise our electrical grid, and onshore wind is the cheapest way to do this. We need to embrace this important technology. If communities are happy to have an onshore wind farm nearby, if they want cheaper bills and to tackle climate change, then we shouldn’t be stopping them.” | ['environment/windpower', 'politics/conservatives', 'uk/uk', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'politics/politics', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/michael-savage', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-06-30T05:00:09Z | true | ENERGY |
education/2019/feb/26/should-children-be-allowed-time-off-school-to-strike | Should children be allowed time off school to strike? | Thousands of pupils walked out of their classrooms on the Friday before half-term to protest against the lack of action on climate change. Though many headteachers privately support the strike, the issue has divided the school community. In a letter to the Guardian, more than 200 academics backed the students’ stand, but the two headteacher unions said it was disruptive for schools and raised safeguarding issues. So should pupils have time off to protest? Diane Reay professor of education, Cambridge University “Yes, definitely. I’d like to think that had I still been teaching in a school, I would have taken a stand and gone on strike in support. The older generation has really let young people down with short-termism and by prioritising self-interest, and I think young people in the UK lack opportunities for democratic engagement. “Most of those involved in the strike are too young to have a vote. Protesting is one of the very few ways in which they can take political action and be part of a participatory democracy. I encouraged my niece to go and she came back full of enthusiasm, and also much better informed about the state of the environment. Some people have argued that children are missing out on learning. Well, I think it’s a positive learning experience to come together collectively in a common cause.” Richard Sheriff executive headteacher, Harrogate grammar school, and president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) “No. I don’t agree with pupils taking strike action as a protest against climate change. The cause is vital to humanity and I feel personal shame that my generation has allowed this crisis to happen on our watch. But a pupil strike is not the right approach. Each day’s learning is important for their life chances and their potential to go out and change the world. Schools are also in loco parentis and it is a concern if pupils are off site. “We had a small number of very able and principled students let us know they planned to take strike action. Colleagues met them and explained why this was difficult for the school to support as we would struggle with our duty to keep them safe. The head and deputy voiced their support for the cause and showed them what the school was doing to respond to the challenge of climate change. We are not aware of any students who were absent because of strike action.” Tom Eames A-level student, Brighton, Hove and Sussex sixth-form college “Yes, we should be allowed time off. I think if you care passionately about something enough that it makes you want to go on strike, you should be able to. “I say that as someone who values my education, especially right now, with my A-level exams coming up. Missing a day of sixth form meant a lot to me – it was very costly for me to go when I am right in the middle of revising for my mocks – but I think it was important the strike took place during the school term. If it had not, it would not have been so impactful or controversial. “I have heard people arguing that young people went on strike to get out of school. Those people are not taking us seriously, they are not taking the issue of climate change seriously, and that attitude is part of the reason why we went on strike. When I read the statistics about global warming and what is going to happen in the future, I don’t think enough is being done by older people. If I can do something to make a difference, even if it’s just making everyone around me aware that I’m concerned, then I’m going to jump at that. If older people don’t want us to strike, they need to act. “My parents signed me out of college along with my younger brother, who is in secondary school, so they took responsibility for ‘safeguarding’ us that day. I know other young people whose parents didn’t want them going, and schools that didn’t allow it. And those young people felt silenced.” Caroline Barlow head, Heathfield community college, East Sussex “I’d like to say yes, but I’m struggling. A school cannot authorise absence for this purpose. A parent can withdraw their child, but must be willing to accept the consequence of a fine. Headteachers rightly have safeguarding concerns for those who miss school yet whose whereabouts are unknown in uncoordinated events such as Friday’s marches. “However, I believe peaceful, powerful protest has a valuable place in a civilised, democratic society; much good has historically come from it. Teenagers must be able to form, express and share their views. Adults need to listen to young people. They are voters of the future and dismissing or patronising their actions and views now may be something politicians later regret.” Toby Spence head, Sibford school, Banbury, Oxfordshire “Yes. The school community felt very strongly about the strike and I was happy to authorise the absences of those who wanted to take part. I sense a great deal of exasperation from children that political leaders of the world today seem to be unable or unwilling to take decisive and unilateral action on climate change. Instant gratification and myopic political point-scoring blindly trumps all. “As the head of a Quaker school that takes its responsibility towards the environment seriously, I believe it is incumbent upon us to support the children of today in making their voices heard. What is education about? If we do not have a planet to live on, then there is not a lot of point in learning about Pythagoras or Shakespeare. “Whatever the debate about climate change, there is clear and troubling scientific evidence, which cannot be ignored. Many children rightly have a sense of urgency and they absolutely should have a voice.” | ['education/series/multiplechoice', 'education/schools', 'education/education', 'education/pupilbehaviour', 'education/teaching', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/features', 'world/protest', 'society/youngpeople', 'type/article', 'environment/school-climate-strikes', 'profile/donna-ferguson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/education', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-education'] | environment/school-climate-strikes | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-02-26T07:00:21Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
technology/2022/jun/15/bunnings-kmart-and-the-good-guys-using-facial-recognition-technology-to-crack-down-on-theft-choice-says | Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys using facial recognition technology to crack down on theft, Choice says | Bunnings, Kmart and The Good Guys have been using facial recognition technology in a bid to crack down on theft in-store, research by Choice says. The consumer group said it asked 25 of Australia’s largest retailers whether they were using facial recognition technology and examined their privacy policies. Based on that investigation, it said, the three appeared to be the only retailers among that group who were using the technology. Facial recognition technology captures images of people’s faces from video cameras – such as CCTV footage – as a unique faceprint that is then stored and can be compared with other faceprints. The privacy policy for The Good Guys says the cameras may capture an image of someone’s face to track the person through the store, and be retained to identify someone on future visits. The company says it is “strictly for the purposes of security and theft prevention and managing/improving customer experience at our stores”. According to Choice, Kmart and Bunnings have small signs on the stores where it is used. At Kmart it says “this store has 24-hour CCTV coverage, which includes facial recognition technology”. Both the Bunnings and Kmart privacy policies state the facial recognition technology is for “loss prevention or store safety purposes”. “The use of facial recognition by Kmart, Bunnings and The Good Guys is a completely inappropriate and unnecessary use of the technology,” Choice consumer data advocate Kate Bower said. “Discreet signage and online privacy policies are not nearly enough to adequately inform shoppers that this controversial technology is in use. The technology is capturing highly personal data from customers, including infants and children.” A spokesperson for Bunnings said the technology was used in select stores “to help prevent theft and support the safety of our team and customers” and was in line with the Privacy Act. “In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in the number of challenging interactions our team have had to handle in our stores and this technology is an important tool in helping us to prevent repeat abuse of team and customers,” he said. “We let customers know if the technology is in use through signage at our store entrances and also in our privacy policy, which is available on our website.” The Good Guys said facial recognition technology had been trialled in two stores to prevent theft and boost safety. The stores have signs at the entrance advising customers the technology is being used, a spokesperson said. Kmart said it was also trialling the technology “in a small number of stores” for loss prevention and safety. It said personal information would be kept private and protected in compliance with privacy law. Businesses are generally allowed to use CCTV to photograph customers on their premises, but Choice has raised concerns that privacy law has not kept pace with advances in facial recognition technology. A Choice survey released as part of the research found 78% of those surveyed had concerns about how their biometric data was being stored, while 75% were concerned companies might use the data to create customer profiles for marketing purposes. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Choice says it has notified the OIAC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) of its findings and asked it to determine whether the use of the technology is consistent with the Privacy Act. “Choice is concerned that Australian businesses are using facial recognition technology on consumers before Australians have had their say on its use in our community,” Bower said. Convenience store giant 7-Eleven last year disabled a feature in more than 700 in-store review tablets that the OAIC found had taken facial images of millions of customers who used the tablets to complete surveys without their consent. The company argued at the time that the images were used only to ensure multiple surveys were not conducted by the same person in one day and that it had destroyed the images. Kieran Pender, a senior lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre , said the increasing use of facial technology raised human rights concerns. “Such technologies should only be used alongside robust safeguards that ensure the use is necessary, proportionate and subject to appropriate oversight,” he said. “The new Albanese government should prioritise the implementation of regulations governing facial recognition technologies as part of the forthcoming overhaul of the electronic surveillance framework.” A spokesperson for the OAIC said it would consider the findings. | ['technology/facial-recognition', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'technology/technology', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'world/privacy', 'type/article', 'profile/josh-taylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-06-14T17:30:09Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2011/nov/21/iran-wave-sanctions-nuclear-programme | Iran faces new wave of sanctions over nuclear programme | The US and Britain are leading a new wave of international sanctions targeting Iran's banks and oil industry following the International Atomic Energy Agency's report earlier this month that said Tehran worked for many years to develop nuclear weapons and may still be doing so. Britain has used counter-terrorism powers to order its financial sector to cut all ties with Iranian banks in an attempt to undermine funding of the nuclear programme. The US announced measures intended to limit Tehran's ability to refine its own fuel as well as targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards' financial interests. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wrote to European leaders as well as the US and Japan calling for "unprecedented" sanctions against Iran, including a halt to buying its oil. But the measures are expected to have a limited impact in the face of resistance from China and Russia to strengthening global sanctions against Iran through the United Nations security council. Britain went the furthest by, for the first time, cutting an entire country's banking system off from London's financial sector. It said that Iranian banks "play a crucial role in providing financial services to individuals and entities within Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes". The foreign secretary, William Hague, said the measures are part of increasing pressure on Iran to engage with the IAEA and foreign governments about its nuclear programme. "The IAEA's report last week provided further credible and detailed evidence about the possible military dimensions of the Iranian nuclear programme," he said. "Today we have responded resolutely by introducing a set of new sanctions that prohibit all business with Iranian banks. "We have consistently made clear that until Iran engages meaningfully, it will find itself under increasing pressure from the international community. The swift and decisive action today co-ordinated with key international partners is a strong signal of determination to intensify this pressure." British diplomats said the Iranian central bank plays a direct role in procuring equipment for its nuclear programme and added that the sanctions were also intended to punish Tehran for its refusal to compromise over its enrichment of uranium, which can produce reactor fuel or fissile material for a bomb, despite a series of UN security council sanctions calling on it to do so. They said that denying Iran access to the international financial hub in London would raise the cost and hassle for the Iranians of doing business with the rest of the world. Canada took a similar step against Iran's central bank. In Washington, President Obama said additional US sanctions are intended to discourage business with Iran's petrochemical industry, which traditionally has produced plastics and similar products but has increasingly been used to refine petrol because international sanctions have hit Tehran's refineries. "New sanctions target for the first time Iran's petrochemical sector, prohibiting the provision of goods, services and technology to this sector and authorising penalties against any person or entity that engages in such activity," Obama said. "They expand energy sanctions, making it more difficult for Iran to operate, maintain, and modernise its oil and gas sector. "As long as Iran continues down this dangerous path, the United States will continue to find ways, both in concert with our partners and through our own actions, to isolate and increase the pressure upon the Iranian regime." Washington designated Iran a territory of "primary money-laundering concern" in the expectation that it will discourage foreign banks from doing business with Iranian financial institutions. However, Washington continues to avoid directly targeting Iran's central bank because if Tehran is unable to carry through financial transactions necessary to sell its oil, that could force the cost of petroleum up and hit the US economy. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, called the measures a "significant ratcheting-up of pressure" on Iran and said other countries will follow in the days ahead. In his letter, Sarkozy said that Iran's nuclear programme represents a "serious and urgent threat to peace". He called for a halt to purchasing Iranian oil and for the assets of Iran's central bank to be frozen. EU foreign ministers are also expected to consider further measures at a meeting on 1 December. | ['world/iran', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'us-news/us-news', 'business/banking', 'world/iaea', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/middleeast', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/chrismcgreal', 'profile/julianborger', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-11-21T19:44:05Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2011/mar/31/japan-battle-save-nuclear-reactors-failed | Japan says battle to save nuclear reactors has failed | Japanese officials have conceded that the battle to salvage four crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has been lost. The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said the reactors would be scrapped, and warned the operation to contain the nuclear crisis, well into its third week, could last months. Tepco's announcement came as readings showed a dramatic increase in radioactive contamination in the sea near the atomic complex. The firm's chairman, Tsunehisa Katsumata, said it had "no choice" but to scrap the Nos 1-4 reactors, but held out hope that the remaining two could continue to operate. It is the first time the company has admitted that at least part of the plant will have to be decommissioned. But the government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, repeated an earlier call for all six reactors at the 40-year-old plant to be decommissioned. "It is very clear looking at the social circumstances," he said. Tens of thousands of people living near the plants have been evacuated or ordered to stay indoors, while radioactive materials have leaked in to the sea, soil and air. On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suggested widening the 30-km exclusion zone around the plant after finding that radiation levels at a village 40km from the plant exceeded the criteria for evacuation. "We have advised [Japanese officials] to carefully assess the situation, and they have indicated that it is already under assessment," Denis Flory, a deputy director of the IAEA, said. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was due to arrive in Tokyo on Thursday to show support for the Fukushima operation and for talks with his Japanese counterpart, Naoto Kan. Sarkozy, the current G8 chair, is the first foreign leader to visit Japan since the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. An emotional Katsumata apologised for the anxiety the crisis has caused. "We apologise for causing the public anxiety, worry and trouble due to the explosions at reactor buildings and the release of radioactive materials," he told reports in Tokyo late on Wednesday. "Our greatest responsibility is to do everything to bring the current situation to an end and under control." He said the "dire situation" at the plant was likely to continue for some time. The pressure to make progress also took its toll on Tepco's chief executive, Masataka Shimizu, who is in hospital being treated for exhaustion. The country's nuclear and industrial safety agency, Nisa, said on Thursday radioactive iodine at 4,385 times the legal limit had been identified in the sea near the plant, although officials have yet to determine how it got there. On Wednesday the measurement had been 3,355 times the legal limit. Hidehiko Nishiyama, a Nisa spokesman, said fishing had stopped in the area, adding that the contamination posed no immediate threat to humans. "We will find out how it happened and do our utmost to prevent it from rising," he said. The government's acceptance of help from the US and France has strengthened the belief that the battle to save the stricken reactors is lost. On Tuesday, a US engineer who helped install reactors at the plant said he believed the radioactive core in unit No 2 may have melted through the bottom of its containment vessel and on to a concrete floor. While Nisa officials attempted to play down the contamination's impact on marine life, any development that heightens health concerns among consumers will dismay local fishermen, many of whom already face a long struggle to rebuild their businesses after the tsunami. Experts say the radiation will be diluted by the sea, lessening the contamination of fish and other marine life. Robert Peter Gale, a US medical researcher who was brought in by Soviet authorities after the Chernobyl disaster, said recent higher readings of radioactive iodine-131 and caesium-137 should be of greater concern than reports earlier this week of tiny quantities of plutonium found in soil samples. But he added: "It's obviously alarming when you talk about radiation, but if you have radiation in non-gas form I would say dump it in the ocean." Gale, who has been advising the Japanese government, said: "To some extent that's why some nuclear power plants are built along the coast, to be in an area where the wind is blowing out to sea, and because the safest way to deposit radiation is in the ocean. "The dilutional factor could not be better - there's no better place. If you deposit it on earth or in places where people live there is no dilutional effect. From a safety point of view the ocean is the safest place." Criticism of Tepco is building after safety lapses last week put three workers in hospital - all have been discharged - and erroneous reports of radiation data. Shimizu, 66, has not been seen since appearing at a press conference on 13 March, two days after the disaster. He had reportedly resumed control of the operation at the firm's headquarters in Tokyo after suffering a minor illness, but on Tuesday he was admitted to hospital suffering from high blood pressure and dizziness. Tepco said on Wednesday he was not expected to be absent for long. The hundreds of workers at the plant must now find a balance between pumping enough water to cool the reactors and avoiding a runoff of highly radioactive excess water. As yet they do not have anywhere to store the contaminated water. The options under consideration were to transfer the water to a ship or cover the reactors to trap radioactive particles, Edano said. | ['world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'world/japan', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-03-31T03:43:35Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2024/dec/05/earthquake-california | Magnitude 7.0 earthquake rattles northern California | A large earthquake struck the northern California coast on Thursday morning, rattling communities and activating emergency alerts for both shaking and tsunami risks just before 11am local time. Registered as a magnitude 7.0 and originating near the town of Ferndale in Humboldt county, the quake could be felt in San Francisco more than 260 miles (418km) away. Roughly 1.3 million people felt the quake , according to initial estimates provided by the US Geological Survey (USGS), which also reported that risks to human life remained low. “That is an earthquake with quite a lot of energy,” the climate scientist Daniel Swain said of the temblor during a discussion shared on YouTube, adding that it was somewhat similar to other earthquakes that have occurred in the region over the last decade. Cellphones buzzed throughout the region, warning of the incoming shaking and offering ample time to brace and cover. Tsunami alerts also rang out for at least 5.3 million people on the California coast and into Oregon, warning of large waves, strong currents and coastal flooding that could persist through the afternoon. Following the alert, Bay Area Rapid Transit trains were held and underground stations were cleared as major delays were announced throughout the system, and the San Francisco fire department began evacuating the beaches. The tsunami warning was withdrawn shortly after noon as officials announced the highest risks had subsided. “One challenge with tsunami hazards is you don’t always know what you’re going to get,” Swain said, explaining why the alarm was raised and then abruptly withdrawn. “If it’s going to be big it may be too late to get people out of harm’s way.” But some experts in the emergency management field were critical of how the warnings were rolled out, especially to residents in the San Francisco Bay area. Swain pointed to the potential for warning-fatigue to set in when alerts aren’t adequately explained as some in the region voiced concerns about confusion caused by inconsistent messaging and directions as some warnings were canceled. Speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, Gavin Newsom, the state governor said the alerts were issued as a precaution. “It is part of a protocol with tsunami warnings, anytime you are 5.0 or greater around a coastal region it typically goes into affect,” he said. “That allows us to back off through an abundance of caution.” Newsom added that state officials are now turning their focus to the aftermath from the large earthquake. The governor signed a state of emergency declaration for the region to ensure resources quickly get to where they are needed most. “We are concerned about damage, particularly in the northern part of the state,” he said. Some affected areas, especially those that hug the coast and were recently saturated with rain, could be prone to landslides, USGS data shows. No immediate damage reports were made available, but the USGS issued a “yellow alert” signifying that “some damage is possible and the impact should be relatively localized”. “Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are resistant to earthquake shaking, though vulnerable structures exist,” the USGS said in a bulletin, noting that brick masonry construction poses the highest risk. Videos of the aftermath posted online by local reporters showed grocery store shelves in disarray and shattered glasses and bottles lining bar floors. Residents shared images of cupboard contents that had been thrown to the flood. By early afternoon, only minor damage had been reported. But beyond the immediate impacts, officials and experts are hopeful that this event will provide learning opportunities for residents and responders alike. “It is another reminder of the state we live in,” Newsom said, “and the state of mind we need to bring to our day-to-day reality in the state of California, in terms of being prepared.” | ['us-news/california', 'world/earthquakes', 'world/tsunamis', 'us-news/west-coast', 'us-news/us-news', 'campaign/email/today-us', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-12-06T00:13:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2023/nov/13/it-was-incredible-to-see-kenyans-dig-deep-on-first-national-tree-planting-day | ‘It was incredible to see’: Kenyans dig deep on first national tree planting day | Geoffrey Mosoku and his two daughters have been digging a seedling deep into the ground of the Ngong forest in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. “It can become part of Kenyan culture to do environmental work,” said Mosoku, as he and his daughters tapped the tree into place in the natural forest a few kilometres from the city centre. The trio were one of hundreds of people who showed up at the forest on Monday to plant saplings for Kenya’s first national tree planting holiday despite heavy morning rains. The public holiday, announced last week, is part of a government initiative to plant 15bn trees by 2032 to tackle the climate crisis and deforestation amid worsening impacts such as a severe drought in the country and the wider Horn of Africa region. Government officials led tree-planting activities in different areas of the country and the environment minister urged the public to participate rather than use the holiday “to attend to other private and social obligations”. Seedlings were available to the public through local forest agencies and chiefs’ offices across the country. “Conservation of the environment is the urgent and collective responsibility of our time,” the Kenyan president, William Ruto, who launched tree-growing activities in Makueni county in eastern Kenya, said on X, formerly known as Twitter. While the government’s tree-planting initiative has been widely welcomed, Ruto has faced some criticism for what environmental groups see as double-speak on conservation issues. He removed a six-year logging ban earlier this year, allowing old trees to be cut down for economic activity, saying that a number of old trees were wasting away. Environmental groups opposed the lifting of the ban, saying it would increase illegal logging. As the morning rains subsided, roadsides and forests in Nairobi were a hive of activity. Hundreds of cyclists plied different routes, stopping to plant trees along major roads and cemeteries. Families, environmental groups, students, government officers and forest rangers plodded through muddy grounds in the Ngong forest with saplings in hand. A group of landscapers said they had been doing forest clearing and digging for nearly a week in preparation for the day’s activities. Some Kenyans said the surprise holiday was too sudden to allow them to plan around it, find out about designated planting sites or travel upcountry to plant in their village homes. Others, like Mosoku, hope that the tree-planting holiday can become a regular event like Rwanda’s monthly national cleanup days. Rivers in the Kisii highlands where he comes from have thinned over the years, with wetlands destroyed by the planting of water-consuming eucalyptus trees. He has also been saddened by changing rain patterns that have made rural communities in his home town more vulnerable to food insecurity. The government aimed to plant 100m seedlings on Monday. Official counts of seedlings used have not yet been released. It has also announced plans to plant a few hundred million more before the end of the short rainy season in December, and launched an app called JazaMiti (Swahili for “fill with trees”) where users can document their planting activity and find real-time updates on nationwide tree-planting efforts. The app contains information on dates of reforestation efforts, the regions they are taking place, tree nurseries nearby and the individuals, organisations or government bodies involved. It also helps users select the tree species suited to their location. According to a November 2023 government report, data on the app will be verified every four months each year, and awards and certificates of green conduct given to “outstanding tree planters”. “The environment is everyone’s responsibility – everyone has to make a contribution,” said Elizabeth Wathuti, an environmental activist who took part in tree-planting activities in Makueni. She lauded the planting of indigenous trees and the local community turnout. “It was incredible to see so many people asking where they could plant trees or get seedlings,” she said. Her family, friends and colleagues also took part in the activities. “It shows that more people are beginning to take the issues of conservation seriously, and having a national tree planting holiday shows political goodwill and intentionality.” Wathuti said seeing the plants to maturity was crucial. “Tree planting is just the beginning of the exercise – we have to have a lot of follow-up, and promote the culture of people ‘adopting trees’ within the area,” she said. Environmental groups in Mathare, one of Kenya’s largest informal settlements, used the tree-planting holiday to campaign against environmental access inequalities. Community members chanted environmental justice slogans as they planted trees at the Mathare green park. Local groups from the area have been involved in greening efforts throughout the year, such as clearing rubbish from certain areas to create room for a small community park, but say they face serious constraints. “We plant trees to give people hope of a more dignified life but there is barely any space to grow trees, so we are forced to plant near sewer lines or garbage lots, so we are also planting today to create awareness about [these] inequalities,” said Muchangi Nyaga, coordinator of an ecological justice campaign at the Mathare Social Justice Centers. | ['world/kenya', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'world/africa', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/caroline-kimeu', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-11-13T18:17:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/jan/18/nuclear-power-public-support-opinion-fukushima | Dip in nuclear power support after Fukushima proves shortlived | Damian Carrington | The dip in public support for new nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster in Japan lasted no more than nine months in the UK, according to a new poll from Ipsos MORI, published here for the first time. Futhermore, looking at the trend over the last decade, acceptance of nuclear power shows a rising trend. Polls, even gold standard ones, can only tell you what people think, not why they hold those views, so let's look at the data first (you can get the full dataset here). The Fukushima catastrophe began on 11 March 2011 and the Ipsos MORI poll in June 2011 shows a clear dip in support for nuclear power. But by December 2011, support was back to where it was, allowing for the margin of error. A Populus poll in August 2011 also showed little change in support from the previous year, suggesting the dip may have been shorter than even five months. The new Ipsos MORI data also show a clear long term trend towards support for new replacement nuclear plants. (Note that in 2001 the question was slightly different, simply asking about support for any new nuclear, not just replacement plants.) Another question Ipsos MORI asked - how favourably or unfavourably do you view nuclear industry and nuclear energy? - shows the same pattern. People holding favourable opinions fell from 40% to 28% after Fukushima and then went back to 40% in the December poll. Unfavourable opinions were held by 17% before the accident, went up to 24%, then fell to 19%. There are some pretty big differences between ages, sexes and socio-economic groups in the December poll, too. While 62% of men support nuclear power, only 39% of women do the same. And while 36% of 16-24 year olds support the technology, 60% of all those over 55 do the same. Lastly, 68% of those in the wealthiest socio-economic group support nuclear, with only 38% of those in the DE group following suit. Robert Knight, director at the Ipsos MORI Reputation Centre, offers this opinion: "After the body blow suffered by British public opinion following the Fukushima incident, support for nuclear newbuild has recovered robustly in just a few months. It seems the public see Japan as a long way away and memories are short, but concerns about the future security of energy supply closer to home are ongoing and persistent." That may very well be true, and I'd add that increasing awareness of the need to tackle global warming by cutting carbon emissions could help boost support for nuclear. But here are some other factors to consider. Nuclear power operators work extremely close with government in the UK - far too closely when it came to the public relations response to Fukushima. High-level employees of the nuclear energy companies are lent to government for free for years at a time. So it would not be that surprising if the official national support for nuclear power helped rebuild public confidence. The contrast with other countries where the state and nuclear industry are not so intimately entwined is stark. As I have argued before, I think new nuclear power for the UK is an unnecessary risk, primarily in terms of cost. There are plenty of credible future energy policies that avoid nuclear power and cost no more, so why run the risk of hugely expensive accidents and soaring waste disposal costs? A separate poll from November 2011, commissioned but tellingly not published by the Sunday Times, shows that solar and wind power are far more popular than nuclear power. It is clear that plenty of people in the UK are comfortable with the building of new nuclear power plants, especially older, wealthy men. That, incidentally, reminds me of a poll I commissioned in January 2011, which showed that climate change sceptics were overwhelmingly male, over 65 and likely to vote Conservative. But young people - those who will pick up the bill for new nuclear power - and poorer people - who spend far more of their income on energy - are far less certain. Once again the nuclear debate proves a complex one. | ['environment/damian-carrington-blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/fukushima', 'world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2012-01-18T08:30:00Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2020/may/01/environmental-controls-key-to-coronavirus-recovery-chancellor-told | Environmental controls key to coronavirus recovery, chancellor told | Strengthening environmental regulations must be a key plank of the UK’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis to help prevent the spread of future pandemics, say a cross-party group of MPs – and bailouts for industries must contain strict conditions on their future environmental performance. The expansion of intensive farming, mining and infrastructure around the world has contributed to diseases spreading from wildlife to people, scientists say. The 26 MPs want the government to learn this lesson and encourage better agriculture, help developing countries to halt deforestation, and provide funding for poor countries to improve their health systems. In a letter organised by Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, they ask the chancellor to provide funding, and to recognise in his economic recovery plans that human health is dependant on that of animals, plants and the environment, and to reform the financial system to protect nature. Lucas said: “For too long, governments have ignored the link between the emergence of disease and climate change or biodiversity loss, failing to recognise that human health depends on the health of animals, plants and our shared environment too. If our economic system continues to push the natural world to destruction and fuel the climate emergency, we will become ever more vulnerable to future pandemics.” The MPs are asking for environmental regulations to be strengthened and enforced, and any economic support for industries such as aviation and intensive agriculture to be conditional on environmental sustainability commitments. They also call for better funding of healthcare, and an approach to economic decision-making that takes into account health and environmental concerns, including the full costs and consequences of policies for people and nature. Their letter follows a warning last month by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity, which said recent pandemics were the direct consequence of human activity. The scientists warned: “Future pandemics are likely to happen more frequently, spread more rapidly, have greater economic impact and kill more people if we are not extremely careful about the possible impacts of the choices we make today.” The MPs said systems that prized economic growth above other considerations would fail to take into account the need to protect the natural environment. Lucas said: “You can’t negotiate with a pandemic. If we’re to avoid the worst in future, rebuilding our economies in the wake of Covid-19 must be on the basis of development that respects the Earth’s natural limits and recognises our own need for a healthy natural environment.” She criticised the decision to bail out easyJet, saying that unconditional aid for industries that fuelled deforestation, destroyed natural habitats or harmed the climate would lead to problems. The 26 signatories included Sir Edward Davey, acting co-leader of the Liberal Democrats; Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts; the SNP; and seven Labour MPs, including Clive Lewis. No Conservative MPs have signed the letter. | ['world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'environment/environment', 'science/infectiousdiseases', 'business/economic-recovery', 'environment/deforestation', 'politics/rishi-sunak', 'politics/caroline-lucas', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'society/health', 'business/business', 'environment/farming', 'society/society', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-05-01T16:00:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2009/may/28/who-nuclear-power-chernobyl | Toxic link: the WHO and the IAEA | Oliver Tickell | Fifty years ago, on 28 May 1959, the World Health Organisation's assembly voted into force an obscure but important agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency – the United Nations "Atoms for Peace" organisation, founded just two years before in 1957. The effect of this agreement has been to give the IAEA an effective veto on any actions by the WHO that relate in any way to nuclear power – and so prevent the WHO from playing its proper role in investigating and warning of the dangers of nuclear radiation on human health. The WHO's objective is to promote "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health", while the IAEA's mission is to "accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world". Although best known for its work to restrict nuclear proliferation, the IAEA's main role has been to promote the interests of the nuclear power industry worldwide, and it has used the agreement to suppress the growing body of scientific information on the real health risks of nuclear radiation. Under the agreement, whenever either organisation wants to do anything in which the other may have an interest, it "shall consult the other with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement". The two agencies must "keep each other fully informed concerning all projected activities and all programs of work which may be of interest to both parties". And in the realm of statistics – a key area in the epidemiology of nuclear risk – the two undertake "to consult with each other on the most efficient use of information, resources, and technical personnel in the field of statistics and in regard to all statistical projects dealing with matters of common interest". The language appears to be evenhanded, but the effect has been one-sided. For example, investigations into the health impacts of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine on 26 April 1986 have been effectively taken over by IAEA and dissenting information has been suppressed. The health effects of the accident were the subject of two major conferences, in Geneva in 1995, and in Kiev in 2001. But the full proceedings of those conferences remain unpublished – despite claims to the contrary by a senior WHO spokesman reported in Le Monde Diplomatique. Meanwhile, the 2005 report of the IAEA-dominated Chernobyl Forum, which estimates a total death toll from the accident of only several thousand, is widely regarded as a whitewash as it ignores a host of peer-reviewed epidemiological studies indicating far higher mortality and widespread genomic damage. Many of these studies were presented at the Geneva and Kiev conferences but they, and the ensuing learned discussions, have yet to see the light of day thanks to the non-publication of the proceedings. The British radiation biologist Keith Baverstock is another casualty of the agreement, and of the mindset it has created in the WHO. He served as a radiation scientist and regional adviser at the WHO's European Office from 1991 to 2003, when he was sacked after expressing concern to his senior managers that new epidemiological evidence from nuclear test veterans and from soldiers exposed to depleted uranium indicated that current risk models for nuclear radiation were understating the real hazards. Now a professor at the University of Kuopio, Finland, Baverstock finally published his paper in the peer-reviewed journal Medicine, Conflict and Survival in April 2005. He concluded by calling for "reform from within the profession" and stressing "the political imperative for freely independent scientific institutions" – a clear reference to the non-independence of his former employer, the WHO, which had so long ignored his concerns. Since the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in April 2007, a daily "Hippocratic vigil" has taken place at the WHO's offices in Geneva, organised by Independent WHO to persuade the WHO to abandon its the WHO-IAEA Agreement. The protest has continued through the WHO's 62nd World Health Assembly, which ended yesterday, and will endure through the executive board meeting that begins today. The group has struggled to win support from WHO's member states. But the scientific case against the agreement is building up, most recently when the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR) called for its abandonment at its conference earlier this month in Lesvos, Greece. At the conference, research was presented indicating that as many as a million children across Europe and Asia may have died in the womb as a result of radiation from Chernobyl, as well as hundreds of thousands of others exposed to radiation fallout, backing up earlier findings published by the ECRR in Chernobyl 20 Years On: Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident. Delegates heard that the standard risk models for radiation risk published by the International Committee on Radiological Protection (ICRP), and accepted by WHO, underestimate the health impacts of low levels of internal radiation by between 100 and 1,000 times – consistent with the ECRR's own 2003 model of radiological risk (The Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses and Low Dose Rates for Radiation Protection Purposes: Regulators' Edition). According to Chris Busby, the ECRR's scientific secretary and visiting professor at the University of Ulster's school of biomedical sciences: "The subordination of the WHO to IAEA is a key part of the systematic falsification of nuclear risk which has been under way ever since Hiroshima, the agreement creates an unacceptable conflict of interest in which the UN organisation concerned with promoting our health has been made subservient to those whose main interest is the expansion of nuclear power. Dissolving the WHO-IAEA agreement is a necessary first step to restoring the WHO's independence to research the true health impacts of ionising radiation and publish its findings." Some birthdays deserve celebration – but not this one. After five decades, it is time the WHO regained the freedom to impart independent, objective advice on the health risks of radiation. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/world-health-organization', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'world/world', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'society/health', 'world/unitednations', 'tone/comment', 'world/iaea', 'type/article', 'profile/olivertickell'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-05-28T07:00:01Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/jul/24/emissions-scandal-vw-showing-utter-contempt-for-londoners-says-khan | Emissions scandal: VW showing 'utter contempt' for Londoners, says Khan | Sadiq Khan has accused Volkswagen of showing “utter contempt” for Londoners after it refused to pay £2.5m compensation for its role in the dieselgate scandal. The German car manufacturer has paid billions of dollars compensation in the US after admitting around 11m cars worldwide were fitted with “defeat devices” that switched the engine to a cleaner mode to improve results in tests. The mayor of London wrote to VW last year imploring it to “fully compensate” the capital’s residents who were affected by the emissions scandal and reimburse Transport for London for £2.5m he claims it lost in congestion charge revenue because of the “defeat devices.” However, it has emerged that at a meeting with VW earlier this month the car giant’s UK managing director Paul Willis made it “abundantly clear” it would not be meeting Khan’s compensation claims. “I am disappointed by the utter contempt VW has shown for Londoners,” said Khan. “Their appalling lack of action since the ‘dieselgate’ scandal came to light must not be allowed to continue.” He said the thousands of Londoners who had bought VW cars in good faith, had unwittingly contributed to London’s air pollution crisis which is estimated to kill 9,000 people every year. He called on VW to offer drivers a buyback scheme and said the £2.5m compensation would be used to introduce a “schools air quality programme” to tackle air pollution around schools. “Unfortunately VW made it abundantly clear that they have no interest or intention of reimbursing Londoners or indeed any UK customers who bought these polluting vehicles. They are also in denial over their responsibility to help clean up London’s filthy air and mitigate the damage their cars have caused.” In the US VW is paying out $15bn (£12bn) compensation to drivers and Khan said its refusal to offer something similar in the UK was unacceptable. “It is now nearly two years since the ‘dieselgate’ scandal and the government must stop dragging their feet and urgently intervene. VW is making a laughing stock of the UK – the government needs to demand a compensation package that equals the billions VW gave customers in America.” It is estimated that more than 9,000 deaths occur each year in London due to illnesses caused by long-term exposure to air pollution. A Guardian investigation revealed more than 800 schools, nurseries and colleges in the capital are in areas where levels of nitrogen dioxide breach EU legal limits. A spokesperson for VW said all of its vehicles which benefitted from the congestion charge greener vehicle discount “did so validly throughout the relevant period”. It added there is “no basis on which it can be said that Transport for London has lost any sums as a result of the NOx issue. “No sums are therefore due in compensation,” the spokesperson said. However, the mayor’s office dismissed the suggestion that all VW vehicles met the green threshold legitimately. Khan called on the government and other regulatory authorities to intervene. “I am determined to stand up for those Londoners forced to breathe filthy air and who have been wholly misled by VW.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'business/vw-volkswagen', 'business/automotive-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-07-24T12:44:35Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2014/jun/10/banning-phones-marina-abramovic-best-work-performance-artist-serpentine | Banning phones from a gallery may be Marina Abramović's best work | Kate Abbott | Marina Abramović's new exhibition could not come at a better time for me. Not just because she's one of the world's leading performance artists, and is set to spend 512 hours interacting with the public at the Serpentine Gallery, but also because she's decided to ban all technology from her show, even the humble watch. This ban includes, of course, mobile phones and cameras, lately a leading irritant on any gallery visit. And they're not only irritating because other people use them too liberally; sometimes it's just so difficult to stop yourself. We can now all look forward to a whole summer, three happy months, free from the banal worry that a picture of Abramović will fail to get the 13 Instagram likes it seemed worthy of. I came six years late to the iPhone game – before getting one, I reasoned that it would be better to keep emails for the workplace and my life free from the shackles of 24-hour Facebook. But after just six months, I no longer recognise myself. There's not a moment you won't find me, logged in, Instagram account at the ready, poised to share my pictures with the world. The problem is, although I count myself among the phone-obsessed masses, I still go into spirals of rage when mobiles are used at cultural events. That 6ft 3in pillock at a gig with his iPad held high? Despise. The relentless phone flasher at the cinema, distracting from the drama every four or five minutes? Nightmare. Those swarms of view-blocking berks who take photos of any masterpiece at any gallery in the world, when they could just buy the requisite postcard? Loathe. Anyone whose phone is even at risk of ringing at the theatre? Hell. A cultural experience, free of distractions, no longer seems to be enough for many of us. But I don't want that to be my lot. I want to continue seeing art, going to plays, watching films, without feeling the need to share it all on social media. I want to keep having adventures where not one picture makes it online. In our social media whirl and haze, it's easy to forget that, in fact, nothing needs to be shared. Abramović may be an eccentric with a messiah complex, she may take herself way too seriously, be baffling buddies with Gaga and Jay-Z, have swaths of Americans clamouring for her retirement, and curators calling her unoriginal – but banning technology from a gallery could well be the apex of her performance art career. She claims to be terrified of the great British public, because we like bad gags and drink too much. Even so, she wants to tackle our cynicism. She could be our mascot, our tutor, perhaps our great guru of mindfulness, if we let her. Last night, my boyfriend had a word with me, casually accusing me of becoming a phone-wielding sociopath. "But I'm not even the worst offender we know …" was met with a disturbing, revealing silence. In my defence, the main reason it never leaves my side is in case something happens to my 99-year-old Grandpa. But still, it's high time I learned how to extricate myself from my phone, aka my new diary, memory, brain. And I think the famously intense Abramović might be just the one to crack me. I would hazard that you could do with a masterclass in being away from your phone, too. This is a great British shout-out for all of us to get a grip, before it's too late. So before you scoff, join in. You know where to find me: I'll be the one counting grains of rice at the Serpentine with Marina, practising the lost art of concentration, not an iPhone or camera in sight. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'artanddesign/marina-abramovic', 'technology/gadgets', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'artanddesign/performance-art', 'artanddesign/art', 'culture/culture', 'artanddesign/exhibition', 'technology/technology', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'artanddesign/serpentine-gallery', 'profile/kate-abbott'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-06-10T17:57:27Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2022/apr/17/an-absolute-honour-england-appoint-rob-key-as-director-of-mens-cricket | ‘An absolute honour’: England appoint Rob Key as director of men’s cricket | Rob Key will begin working on an overhaul of England’s coaching and selection setup after the former Kent captain turned Sky Sports pundit was named as the new director of men’s cricket on Sunday. Key has replaced Ashley Giles, who was fired after the winter’s calamitous 4-0 Ashes defeat. With no Test captain or permanent head coach in place, or anyone in charge of selection currently, the 42-year-old has a relatively blank canvas to work with. Ben Stokes is the obvious choice to become Test captain after Joe Root resigned on Friday, while Key is also expected to hire separate head coaches for the red and white-ball teams given the markedly different stages of their development. The national selector role, cut by Giles last year, is also tipped to return. Key, who will leave his role at Sky after six years, said: “It is an absolute honour to take up this role. The chance to have an impact and make a difference is an opportunity given to very few and I will give it everything I have to try to shape the next great era of English men’s cricket.” Once the head coaches are hired – names such as Gary Kirsten, Mahela Jayawardene and Stephen Fleming are believed to be in his thoughts – Key’s role will be to line-manage England’s centrally contracted players and support staff, while also working closely with county directors on best practice. The former batter will similarly oversee and challenge the men’s performance pathway, which includes the national academy at Loughborough, the Under-19s team and the England Lions; fresh eyes from outside the existing system mean all three departments are braced for a shake-up. The game as a whole is under the microscope, with Key to also play a central role in the so-called “High Performance” review that was triggered by the winter’s Ashes debacle and could lead to a restructure of domestic competitions – and a possible reduction in first-class county matches – from 2023 onwards. This review is being run by Andrew Strauss, who returned as director of men’s cricket in an interim capacity in February and oversaw the recruitment process which resulted in his former Sky colleague and England teammate being hired. Like Strauss before him, Key is light on direct experience of sports administration or coaching after moving from an 18-year playing career with Kent – during which he amassed nearly 20,000 first-class runs and won 15 Test caps – into television punditry. That said, nine seasons as captain at Kent saw Key heavily involved in the day-to-day running of the club. He has also previously sat on the England and Wales Cricket Board’s cricket performance committee and been a longstanding mentor to Zak Crawley, the current England opener. Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, said: “Rob stood out in a very competitive field. His passion and knowledge of the game at domestic and international level is outstanding. He is a proven leader and combines an approachable nature with fresh original thinking and resilience which will stand him in good stead.” | ['sport/england-cricket-team', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ali-martin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-04-17T16:54:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2023/dec/28/retailers-to-pay-for-consumers-e-waste-recycling-from-2026-under-uk-plans | Retailers to pay for consumers’ e-waste recycling from 2026 under UK plans | British households will benefit from improved routes for recycling electronic goods from 2026, under government plans to have producers and retailers pay for household and in-store collections. Consumers would be able to have electrical waste (e-waste) – from cables to toasters and power tools – collected from their homes or drop items off during a weekly shop, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said in a consultation published on Thursday. The ambition is for retailers, rather than the taxpayer, to pick up the tab for these new ways of disposing of defunct, often toxic products safely. The measures are due to come into force in two years’ time. Almost half a billion small electrical items ended up in landfill last year, according to data from the not-for-profit Material Focus. This problem was particularly acute during Christmas, when 500 tonnes of Christmas lights were thrown away, the government said. The latest proposals build on efforts to grapple with the issue that the UK helped develop as a member of the EU. This included the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, which came into effect in 2012. As with other waste-related rules they follow a principle that the producer of the waste will foot the bill for its disposal, which the UK and EU have followed in areas such as plastic packaging. The EU this year adopted policy recommendations for member states to improve collection of recycled materials, although targets vary by country. Post-Brexit, the UK has failed to keep pace with some EU regulatory efforts. The bloc is attempting to reduce e-waste with laws including a right to repair products, and requiring common chargers for phones (USB C) rather than Apple’s specialised lightning charger from 2024 onward. Cables, which are often hoarded as well as wrongly disposed of, are a major contributor to electronic waste. A lack of effective recycling capacity in areas such as battery processing has also left the UK lagging behind European peers on a range of recycling rates. An OECD study of British data shows it failed to meet its recycling targets for household e-waste from 2017 to 2020. The review by the economic thinktank found “further efforts are needed” for the UK to prevent illegal dumping and export of electronic waste including bringing in a proposed mandatory waste tracking system. The struggle to meet recycling targets comes despite Britain being one of the heaviest consumers of such items, according to a study by the consumer group U-Switch using data from the Global E-Waste Monitor report. The UK was second only to Norway for the amount of electrical waste it generates per person. Comparable data on electronic waste is patchy and needs improvement, MPs have warned. Measures aimed at easing the problem of electronic waste now include requiring larger retailers to create “collection drop points for electrical items in-store” for free, and without the need to exchange this with a new purchase. From 2026 onward, bricks-and-mortar retailers and online sellers would have to collect any broken or rejected large electrical goods including fridges or cookers when they are delivering a replacement product, Defra said. The recycling minister, Robbie Moore, said: “Every year millions of household electricals across the UK end up in the bin rather than being correctly recycled or reused. This is a sheer waste of our natural resources and has to stop.” He added: “We all have a drawer of old tech somewhere that we don’t know what to do with and our proposals will ensure these gadgets are easy to dispose of without the need for a trip to your local tip. Our plans will also drive the move to a more circular economy and create new jobs by making all recycling simpler.” Material Focus has created a tool to help consumers find recycling points for electronic items. | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'business/retail', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anna-isaac', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-12-28T00:01:19Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2016/jun/30/un-committee-may-again-consider-listing-great-barrier-reef-as-in-danger | UN committee may again consider listing Great Barrier Reef as 'in danger' | The Great Barrier Reef could be considered again for an “in danger” listing by the United Nations World Heritage Committee following the devastating bleaching this year, the Guardian can reveal. The news came as a group of prominent lawyers, scientists and NGOs wrote to the committee, urging it to ask Australia to do more to protect the reef. As a condition of UNESCO not listing the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” in 2015, the World Heritage Committee said Australia needed to report back to the committee on 1 December 2016, detailing the progress of conservation – how new 2050 water pollution targets were being implemented and funded. Scientists have said current policies and funding announcements are not even nearly adequate for meeting the 2050 targets, and between $10bn and $16bn was needed. If UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee find they have not been adequately implemented or funded, the reef could be considered again for inclusion on the “in danger” list at a meeting in 2017. But the Guardian can now reveal Australia will also need to report on how it is dealing with the current bleaching, where almost a quarter of the coral on the reef has been killed. “We would expect that that report from Australia is going to cover all the significant things that have happened since June 2015 and whether there are changes in the picture of the management or the response that is needed,” said Tim Badman, director of the IUCN’s World Heritage Programme, which advises the Committee on the state of its natural world heritage properties. “The bleaching event is a new issue to be considered.” State of Conservation reports, which are addressed to the World Heritage Committee, help it implement new conservation actions. They are produced for the most threatened natural world heritage sites, and only if there are new issues that need to be considered. The IUCN says: “In extreme cases, where a site is in ascertained or potential danger of losing the Outstanding Universal Value for which it was inscribed on the World Heritage List, the Committee may decide to inscribe it on the Danger List.” One such report was produced on the Great Barrier Reef in 2015, and that year the World Heritage Committee came close to listing the Reef on the Danger List. Badman told the Guardian the IUCN would also decide, in the first few months of 2017, whether or not a new state of conservation report was needed, given the damage to the reef. “We’re seeing new issues with the bleaching event as a new part of the issue to be considered,” Badman said. But he said whether or not the bleaching would lead to consideration of inclusion on the Danger List was speculation and not something the IUCN or UNESCO would comment on at this stage. The Australian government spent $400m lobbying for the Great Barrier Reef not to be included on the list, Fairfax media revealed last year, and the environment minister, Greg Hunt, has said the reef is the “work of his life”. Ever since the decision was made not to list the reef, Hunt has trumpeted it as evidence of the government’s good management, saying the government got the reef taken off a “watch list”. According to lawyers at Environmental Justice Australia, the reef already met the inclusion criteria for an “in danger” listing before the mass bleaching event this year. Meanwhile, most major Australian environmental NGOs, as well as a group of prominent scientists, including John Veron, Will Steffen and Terry Hughes, have expressed their dismay at Australia’s actions since the decision last year and urged the World Heritage Committee to demand more of Australia. “Since the World Heritage Committee considered the threats to the reef at its meeting in mid-2015, Australia has approved the expansion of the coal export port at Abbot Point within and adjacent to the world heritage area,” they said in a letter addressed to members of the World Heritage Committee. “This project would require dredging 1.1m cubic metres of previously undisturbed seagrass habitat within the world heritage area and dumping the dredge spoil adjacent to nearby coastal wetlands.” It continued: “To add insult to injury, the expansion of Abbot Point port is intended to facilitate the export of coal from the massive Carmichael coalmine, which the Australian and Queensland governments have also recently approved.” The letter’s authors also expressed concern at the government’s decision, revealed by the Guardian in May, to interfere and have all mention of Australia and the Great Barrier Reef removed from a UNESCO report on world heritage sites and climate change. They said that action “casts further doubt on its commitment to addressing threats to the reef”. They also said UNESCO’s “capitulation” to Australia’s pressure was inconsistent with its aim to “do its utmost” to inform the public about the effects of climate change on world heritage properties. Noni Austin, an Australian lawyer at the US-based Earthjustice, said the current bleaching event showed the world heritage site was in crisis and “requires a new and urgent response from the committee.” “If the world heritage system is to have any value in protecting our most precious and irreplaceable places, the committee must address the threat of climate change and Australia must accept its duty to protect the Great Barrier Reef for the benefit of the global community by ceasing its relentless promotion of dirty fossil fuels,” she said. Jon Day, previously one of the directors at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and now at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said the government’s own reports showed the reef’s outstanding universal values were being threatened. “The reef needs more government assistance, more leadership from industry and, crucially, more widespread public support if future generations are to enjoy what UNESCO considers is the most bio-diverse world heritage property on the planet,” he said. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/coral', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-slezak', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-06-29T20:21:07Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/article/2024/jul/14/madrid-culture-initiative-climate-crisis-summer-heat-air-conditioned-venues | ‘Beat the heat’: Madrid looks to cool off with culture amid climate crisis | A little after 3pm on a weekday afternoon, the footsteps and voices that echoed along the hallowed halls of the Prado were silenced by a series of percussive detonations that could have been mistaken for an indoor fireworks display. The source of the disruption, however, was not a vandal or a protester. Watched over by the eight muses for whom the Madrid museum’s Sala de las Musas is named, a tall, famous and angular flamenco dancer called El Yiyo was clicking, clapping, stomping and pirouetting before a rapt, grateful and slightly bemused audience. A few feet away sat the renowned guitarist Rafael Andújar, who had ambled into the sala a few moments earlier, taken his seat and begun to fill the air with notes. When El Yiyo finished his performance to loud applause 10 minutes later, he had hardly broken a sweat – which was very much the idea as the concert was part of an initiative that aimed to coax both visitors and madrileños into air-conditioned cultural venues during the sweltering afternoons of July and August. With summer temperatures that can reach 41C (106F), the streets of the Spanish capital are not a pleasant place to be during the hottest hours of the day. The new programme, called Refúgiate en la cultura (Take Shelter in Culture), offers free flamenco shows – in the Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza museums, and the Royal Collections Gallery – as well as free comic monologues in libraries and discounted cinema tickets for screenings before 5pm. “We’re obviously aware that summer can be a complicated time – and that there are more and more tourists in Madrid in July and August, which used to be months when we got very few foreign visitors,” said Marta Rivera de la Cruz, Madrid’s councillor for culture, tourism and sport. “We knew we needed to come up with some alternatives so that these people weren’t out on the streets at the hottest times of the day. So we thought, why not make use of places that are really well air conditioned and that also offer some extraordinary culture? And that meant museums, cultural centres, libraries and cinemas.” As Rivera de la Cruz points out, while the city’s inhabitants know how to cope with the heat – largely by staying indoors and keeping cool – visitors may not, and may also be tempted to pack in as much sightseeing and culture as they can. “That’s why we’re suggesting that if you come to Madrid for a few days, you should visit the Prado at the hottest time of the day,” she said. Although Madrid has always been as hot in summer as it is cold in winter, the effects of the climate crisis are becoming ever more acute in the capital – as elsewhere in Spain. “I think Refúgiate en la cultura is proof of the fact that the authorities have to provide ways to help people shelter and escape from these very hot times of the day, which people are more and more aware of,” said Rivera de la Cruz. “You have to take them seriously and you have to respect them. Being out on the streets isn’t a very good idea, but we have to give people alternatives.” The councillor also says the activities will not generate any additional carbon footprint as the spaces involved are already air conditioned. “It’s about taking advantage of the spring conditions in museums when it’s much hotter outside,” she added. Madrid city council hopes the initiative will become an annual programme that will complement the free Veranos de la villa concerts, plays and cultural events that have been a summer fixture in the capital for the past 40 years. Despite some initial shock, the reaction to El Yiyo’s dancing suggests there is ample appetite for more flamenco/gallery fusion. “I was just sitting here when I heard all this clattering,” said Lydia Pulsinelli, who was visiting Madrid from Knoxville, Tennessee. “I thought it was children playing but then I saw this guy dancing. It was great.” The bailaor himself was also pleased with the reception. “It’s another way of doing things on another kind of stage but it’s beautiful and I feel pretty good doing it,” he said. “At the beginning, I thought the audiences might be a bit unresponsive but people really get into it and we connect.” And, he added: “It’s a way to beat the heat.” | ['world/spain', 'culture/culture', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/europe-news', 'campaign/email/this-is-europe', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'news/overtourism', 'environment/series/overtourism-and-the-climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/samjones', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/series/overtourism-and-the-climate-crisis | GLOBAL_CRISIS | 2024-07-14T11:27:08Z | true | GLOBAL_CRISIS |
australia-news/2022/sep/25/nsw-flood-emergency-forecast-to-continue-as-towns-cut-off-by-road | NSW flood emergency forecast to continue as towns cut off by road | The ongoing flood emergency in New South Wales is expected to continue due to a new trough forecast to bring further wet weather across the state from Monday. The towns of Warren and Wee Waa, in the state’s north, are cut off by road and expected to remain that way for days. Emergency services are using aircraft to delivery water, medicine, food and other supplies to residents. In the 10 days to Saturday, the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) service fielded more than 800 requests for assistance across the state, including nearly 60 flood rescues. SES workers performed six rescues and answered 112 calls for help between 6am on Saturday and 6am on Sunday. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The town of Gunnedah continues to be affected by major flooding, but the water was slowly receding as of Sunday morning. The Namoi River peaked at the major flood level of 8.24 metres on Saturday and SES workers were on the ground to assess the damage. A five-year-old boy died in flood water near Tullamore, in the state’s central west, on Friday. He was separated from his family when their car was submerged in flood water on McGrane Way near Tullamore. Emergency services who responded to the distress call found two younger children and their parents clinging to trees. They said the boy’s parents were able to remove restraints from two younger children in the car, but weren’t able to free the older boy. The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the death was “incredibly tragic” and urged people to heed warnings. “I extend on behalf of everybody across our state, our thoughts and prayers and hearts go out to the family,” the premier said on Sunday. The Bureau of Meteorology warned a new trough was forecast to enter western NSW on Monday, progress eastwards later and “generating showers, rain and the chance of thunderstorms in many areas”. “This system looks set to move offshore during Thursday morning, with a ridge extending across the state in its wake,” the BoM said. Considerable falls are expected on Tuesday and Wednesday in southern and central inland parts of the state. The NSW SES has warned that the low pressure system would probably exacerbate flooding in the coming days. “Given the current flooding, saturated catchments and full dams, this forecast front will likely exacerbate the current riverine flooding, with multiple systems anticipated to see prolonged or renewed minor to major flooding,” it said. “With catchments wet and many dams at capacity, waterways are very sensitive to rainfall, and further river rises and renewed flooding are likely for the inland catchments.” “The SES will be liaising closely with the Bureau of Meteorology to determine the impact areas of the forecast weather.” An SES spokesperson, Greg Nash, warned against attempting to cross flood water in cars. “We have some very resilient communities and some communities that are very much aware of their flood risk,” he said. “[However] we want people to drive to the conditions, and if you find a flooded or a damaged road as a result of flooding, to stop, turn around [and] find another way – it’s not worth the risk to push on.” – with AAP | ['australia-news/australia-weather', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/donna-lu', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-09-25T06:28:20Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2012/oct/31/new-york-tourists-sandy | New York tourists try to make the most out of a bruised city after Sandy | The sight of hawkers touting an array of tat to tourists on Brooklyn Bridge returned on Wednesday, in a sure sign that lower Manhattan was trying its hardest to get back to normal. After days of being deprived of the delights of New York City, overseas visitors were not going to let a shut-down subway deter them from getting close to the attractions they had travelled so far to see. In and around Manhattan's financial district tourists appeared to outnumber New Yorkers, most of whom had presumably opted to stay at home and wait out the power outage to office blocks and homes. The streets showed surprisingly few signs of the destruction visited upon it by the wind, rain and floodwater of super storm Sandy just 36 hours earlier. The odd window may be boarded up and the shops shuttered, but it is only when you look up and ponder the lack of lights that you notice a marked difference to familiar streets. That is until you look at those roaming around. Gone are the teams of suited fellows ferrying themselves to the office, lunch or meetings. Instead the only employees working are the construction workers, police and security guards. And with most of the food markets shuttered and without power, seemingly all those on duty had descended on the same outlet – Steve's Pizza on the edge of Zuccotti Park. A line of fluorescent jackets queued outside the outlet, situated just a stone's throw from the World Trade Center. Whoever Steve is, he's is likely to be a richer man tonight, given the brisk trade and seemingly inflated prices. "Twenty-four bucks a pie, you're kidding me," moaned one customer. "I haven't seen price like that for a long time" Still he left with a slice in hand, as did his four colleagues. In the heart of the free market's spiritual home, supply and demand economics were still evident. Others had a different explanation for Steve's enterprising back-to-business approach. "We have been pretty impressed with the resilience of New Yorkers," said Liz Alison, a tourist from Australia. She knows a thing or two about how cities cope in a crisis, having opted to visit Christchurch in February 2011, just as an earthquake devastated the New Zealand city. "This is my second natural disaster in two years," she added, before heading off to find a bus to take her to Macy's. Other tourists were having a tougher time. On the Manhattan Bridge, Marie Malgram was not in the mood for sightseeing, nor did she have the time. Having arrived on Friday from Sweden with her nephew Casper, she had been hunkering down in Brooklyn over the last few days. The task facing her on Manhattan Bridge was working out a way to get to Newark Airport for her return flight that night. "We hope to get a cab once we're on Manhattan, but we don't know." Some enterprising motorists were picking up pedestrians on the Brooklyn side of the bridge – for a price, of course – but Marie evidently hadn't seen them. Asked how the rest of the holiday had been, the 44-year-old Swede looked skyward and then to her teenage nephew, "He managed to get some shopping in." Some of it was in the large luggage bags being dragged laboriously across the Manhattan Bridge. The drudgery of getting from point A to B would continue on the Manhattan side of the span. In Chinatown, the usually buzzing market day-like atmosphere was gone, with all but the odd hardware store operating, in darkness. A long line greeted the M103 bus as it pulled up to let passengers on. A woman at the front of the queue explained that she had been waiting for two hours. She was heading to midtown west, a journey she would have completed by foot in the time she had waited in line for a packed bus. Traffic on the bridges was heavy, but not the gridlock that many had predicted. City authorities had not gotten around to updating the less-than-cheery message greeting drivers heading to Manhattan. "Stay off roads. Take shelter," it warned motorists in day-glow letters. Not that many Brooklynites were taking any notice in any account. Mixing it with the tourists were workers keen to check that their Manhattan places of work were in an okay state, and to escape going stir-crazy at home. "I've been cooped up at home too long, I needed the exercise in any case," explained Amber McMillan, a 31-year-old director of an educational centre in the West Village. For others, it was the relentless wheels of America's legal system compelling them to cross the bridge. "I gotta get a to court," explained a man who gave his name only as Pete. "I got caught jumping the train." The irony of being unable to use public transport to appear at his probably postponed court day appeared lost on Pete as he hurdled the barrier separating the road from the bridge's walkway. | ['us-news/new-york', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'us-news/us-weather', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'type/article', 'profile/matt-williams'] | us-news/hurricane-sandy | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-10-31T22:35:33Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2021/sep/21/why-does-a-carbon-dioxide-shortage-matter-so-much-to-the-uk-economy | Why does a carbon dioxide shortage matter so much to the UK economy? | Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of industrial production, but it has a wide range of uses across numerous industries: from cooling nuclear power plants and extending the life of packaged fruit and vegetables, to surgical procedures and the sedating of animals during slaughter. The UK is one of Europe’s largest users of CO2. What is CO2 used in? CO2 is widely used across the food industry in production and packaging, and is of particular importance to the meat sector. The gas is essential for the humane slaughter of livestock as it is used to stun pigs and chickens. It is also widely used in the packaging of fresh meats, fresh produce such as salad and baked goods, where CO2 slows bacteria growth and extends the shelf life of the products. CO2 is widely used in fizzy drinks and beer and is also vital to cooling systems used to refrigerate products. It is also used to create dry ice, which can be used to keep food fresh for storage and transport. Meanwhile, the food industry says that the gas can encourage the healthy growth of vegetables in greenhouses, and can be used to purify drinking water. Surgeons use the gas to stabilise body cavities during operations, and to freeze off warts and moles. How do you make CO2? Carbon dioxide is created as a byproduct during the industrial manufacture of ammonia, alcohol and fertilisers, as well as being emitted by power plants. The UK currently emits around 350m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, and is preparing to take major steps to driving this figure down to net zero by 2050. So fears of a CO2 shortage could at first glance appear to be good news. However, to produce carbon dioxide which is pure enough to be used in fizzy drinks, food packaging and abattoirs, specialist equipment is required to capture, purify and separate gases. In the UK, it is most often chemical companies that are equipped to produce food-grade CO2 rather than fossil fuel power plants. How did the UK become reliant on two plants? Until recently, the UK’s food industry has been able to rely on a steady supply of carbon dioxide from two fertiliser plants in the north of England for up to 60% of its CO2. So the shock decision by owner US firm CF Industries to shut the plants prompted serious concerns. The concentration of so much CO2 production in the hands of a single owner – as part of a joint venture established in 2007 – was investigated at the time by the Competition commission, according to industry body the Food and Drink Federation (FDF). The commission insisted on certain remedies to address the reduction in competition in supply of the gas. Currently, a further 20% of the UK’s carbon dioxide is produced by other plants in the UK, and the remainder is imported from overseas. Could the UK rely on imports? Approximately 20% of the UK’s carbon dioxide is imported, mostly from plants in Scandinavia and the Netherlands. However, soaring energy prices are also having an impact on European firms. A number of sizeable EU fertiliser companies are also stopping or significantly cutting back their production, either for scheduled maintenance or as a result of rocketing costs, which will mean a considerable reduction in the amount of carbon dioxide produced on the continent. This could also further squeeze UK supplies. Can the UK become self-sufficient; could new technology help? Brewers had their fingers burned by the global shortage of carbon dioxide in 2018, which occurred during a football World Cup, a key moment for sales of beer. As a result, many of the industry’s largest players have invested in new technology in the past few years, which allows them to capture CO2 produced during the fermentation process, store it, and then re-use it to carbonate their beer. More widely, there are hopes of wider industry adoption of carbon capture and storage technology. This would involve storing carbon dioxide captured from power plant emissions beneath the North Sea, but academics believe it could also be repurposed as food-grade CO2. However, these future technologies will come as cold comfort to the food industry this winter. • This article was amended on 23 September 2021 to clarify that CO2 slows the growth of bacteria in food rather than preventing them. | ['business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/fooddrinks', 'business/business', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'uk/uk', 'business/gas', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/joanna-partridge', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'profile/sarahbutler', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-capture-and-storage | EMISSIONS | 2021-09-21T18:20:18Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2015/apr/23/oceans-are-worlds-seventh-largest-economy-worth-24tn-says-wwf-report | Oceans are world's seventh largest economy worth $24tn, says WWF report | The monetary value of the world’s oceans has been estimated at US$24tn in a new report that warns that overfishing, pollution and climate change are putting an unprecedented strain upon marine ecosystems. The report, commissioned by WWF, states the asset value of oceans is $24tn and values the annual “goods and services” it provides, such as food, at $2.5tn. This economic clout would make the oceans the seventh largest economy in the world although the report’s authors, which include the Boston Consulting Group, say this is an underestimate as it does not factor in things such as oil, wind power and intangibles, such as the ocean’s role in climate regulation. The economic value is largely comprised of fisheries, tourism, shipping lanes and the coastal protection provided by corals and mangroves. However, the oceans are facing mounting pressures. They soak up around half of the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by human activity, a process that is warming the water and increasing the acidification of the ocean. The report warns that nearly two-thirds of the world’s fisheries are “fully exploited” with most of the rest overexploited. The biological diversity of the oceans slumped by 39% between 1970 and 2010, while half of the world’s corals and nearly a third of its seagrasses have disappeared in this time. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, lead author of the report and director of the Australia-based Global Change Institute, said it was important that the business community understood the value of the oceans so that a strategy could be devised to reverse its decline. “If you don’t look after an asset like the ocean it starts to degrade so it’s important we start to solve these problems now on an international basis,” he said. “The oceans are in a bad state that is rapidly getting worse. Fisheries are starting to collapse, there are record levels of pollution, such as plastic pollution, and there is climate change.” Hoegh-Guldberg said the “shocking” rate of change in the world’s oceans was illustrated in the latest report by the UN’s climate science panel, which stated that changes in the ocean’s chemistry due to an increase in CO2 emissions was faster than at any point in the past 65m years. Warming temperatures can make life challenging for some marine species, while the acidification of the ocean hampers the ability of creatures such as corals and molluscs to form their shells and skeletons. “The changes we are making will take 10,000 years at least to turnaround, so we don’t want to go down this pathway,” Hoegh-Guldberg said. “This generation of humans is defining the future of 300 generations of humans. We are conducting these experiments with our world despite the consequences for people.” Hoegh-Guldberg said that nations should do more to manage localised issues such as pollution and overfishing to help oceans deal with climate change. “If you protect marine areas and regulate fishing, you can help corals survive the impact of climate change,” he said. “If we solve these local problems we can buy some time while we deal with the global climate issue. But let’s not pretend here – if we don’t get off the current CO2-rich pathway we’re on now, all the attempts to control local factors won’t work. Coral reefs will become a distant memory and the ability to feed people will be severely degraded.” The report calls for eight key steps to revive the health of the oceans, including a stronger focus in UN agreements on oceans, deep cuts to emissions, at least 30% of marine areas to be protected by 2030 and greater action to tackle illegal fishing. | ['environment/oceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'business/economics', 'business/global-economy', 'business/business', 'environment/food', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-04-22T22:08:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/dec/12/queensland-school-water-commercial-bottlers-tamborine-mountain | Queensland school runs out of water as commercial bottlers harvest local supplies | The Tamborine Mountain state school has run out of water, even as water miners in the Gold Coast hinterland are sending millions of litres to commercial bottling operations. Trucks sent by the Queensland government carrying emergency supplies to the school, including Mount Tamborine bottled water, have been passing trucks heading in the opposite direction taking local water to bottling plants for beverage giants such as Coca-Cola. The school remains open but parents have been advised by teachers to consider keeping their children at home. Water miners in the Mount Tamborine area supply roughly 130m litres of water each year to commercial bottling operations. Now the local bores are running dry. “I was staggered,” one local resident, Craig Peters, told Guardian Australia. “It was more or less the final straw for me. The school’s bore is 50 metres deep and has never ever had these issues before.” “We had an award ceremony at the school yesterday and earlier in the day [the school] sent out an SMS about the water situation. “At the conclusion of that ceremony they said give serious consideration to not sending kids to school for the rest of the week because of the lack of water. “The school bore has been operating since the school was there. There’s many other bores that have run dry. We are the largest community in Australia that doesn’t have reticulated water. If it doesn’t rain, people get water trucked in to fill their tanks. “Now the government is buying water back from Coca-Cola to bring here, which is where it came from in the first place.” The education department said it would continue to deliver water to the school until the end of the school holidays. Residents said the situation was a tipping point and would concentrate longstanding concern that the local water supply should be prioritised above the three commercial operations, which between them have approvals to send roughly 2.5m litres a week down the mountain. The situation seems to fall into a regulatory void, with no mechanism to halt commercial operations in times of severe drought or ensure that local water is allocated to locals. Peters said the community wanted the state’s natural resources minister, Anthony Lynham, to use emergency powers to prioritise local supply. Lynham said in a statement he understood the concerns of residents and the impact of the drought on their water supply. “As I have previously said, groundwater is not regulated on Mount Tamborine and so my department does not have the power to limit take. “I do have the power to limit take in a declared water shortage – but that is everyone’s take, including local farmers, households, and businesses.” “QUT research says levels of groundwater extraction are equivalent to less than five per cent of average annual groundwater recharge. “Of that five per cent, farmers use almost 84 per cent of the extracted groundwater for horticulture, households almost 11 per cent, and bottled water operations, about five per cent.” The Scenic Rim council has responsibility for monitoring the commercial water miners and ensuring they comply with their development conditions. In September the Scenic Rim mayor, Greg Christensen, tabled a mayoral minute that raised concern about the situation. It said authorities had no legal recourse to prioritise local supply in times of drought. “Council is aware that local water carriers are expressing concerns that the supply of water for household delivery on Tamborine Mountain is reduced, and with no rain predicted soon, may become critical,” Christensen said. “Additional water supplies (bores) are being sought to supplement existing supplies to cope with increased demand. Any commercial water extractor on the mountain is doing so in the context of relevant approvals and therefore a legitimate use. “There is no legal recourse for council to require water suppliers to provide additional water for local use. Once a development has been approved, it may continue to conduct the use indefinitely as approved.” Past studies have pointed to negligible impacts from groundwater extraction operations, and that the water table can replenish itself through rainfall. But Peters – who supplies water from his property for local consumption – said the situation had changed. The drought, which dried out nearby Gondwana rainforest that burned in spring bushfires, has bitten hard. “The water patterns have changed,” Peters said. “What might have potentially been a sustainable business at one point in time, that’s no longer sustainable.” | ['environment/water', 'environment/drought', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/queensland', 'business/cocacola', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-12-12T01:37:40Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2018/jul/03/intensive-chicken-mega-farms-feed-uk-poultry-industry-head-richard-griffiths | Chicken mega-farms are how we'll feed the UK, says poultry industry head | Britain will need to build more mega-farms to keep it supplied with chicken, according to the head of the UK’s influential poultry lobby. But the biggest threat to UK consumers, he believes, comes from cheap imported meat – “chlorinated chicken” – produced to lower standards as a result of post-Brexit trade deals. Most Brits eat chicken twice a week. As a result Britain’s poultry sector is among the largest in Europe, contributing more than £3bn to the economy annually and directly employing more than 37,000 people. Between 2011 and 2017 the sector saw a 27% jump in the number of poultry farms holding 40,000 or more birds, and most of Britain’s intensive farms overall – 86% – are dedicated to rearing poultry. “Larger farms are probably the most efficient way to go in terms of technology, resources, impact,” Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council (BPC), told the Guardian. He believes that ultimately such farms are “the way that we’re going to feed the country.” But what about animal welfare issues? Pressure groups such as Compassion In World Farming say the spread of “mega-farms” is “cruel and unnecessary” and that farming birds intensively indoors is inherently bad for welfare. Griffiths believes that this is not the case. “Indoor reared birds, on any size of farm, are in a controlled environment that provides good welfare. We operate under science-based legislation, the requirements of which are delivered by professional farmers and vets with high levels of training and experience.” If consumers want free range chicken, it is available, he says. “For consumers who want to emphasise one or two parts of the production chain then an extensive choice is available across the country, and it is this variety of indoor and free-range that is a strength of British poultry meat production.” The poultry industry has reduced antibiotic use: figures published last month show a dramatic reduction of 82% overall since 2012, which has been praised by government regulators. It was the first livestock sector in the UK to begin collecting its own antibiotic usage data in 2011, according to Griffiths. “It started with questioning whether the practices we were using were the right ones. And that also coincided with a greater interest in farm health and welfare. We were involved with some big work on farm welfare with government at the time. Those two coincided with the mindset of – let’s try to reduce, let’s try to use less. In any given situation, do we have to use antibiotics?” But antibiotic-free poultry production – as some companies in the US are championing – is not currently on the table, he believes. “I don’t think that’s possible, and anybody who says it is, is naive.” Following recent suggestions by the US trade representative that the UK’s animal welfare and food safety standards were “unnecessary and restrict trade”, Griffiths hit back, saying such claims were “insulting”. “British poultry producers don’t dip their chicken carcasses in chlorine as we do not believe in ‘cleaning up at the end’ or taking any shortcuts when it comes to producing safe food,” he said. “Using chemicals to disinfect food at the end of a production process can hide a multitude of sins, but what it can’t hide is the need for their use in the first place.” On a practical level, Griffiths said that, were cheap imports allowed to come in, the UK poultry sector could ultimately lose production capacity, with farms and slaughterhouses potentially forced to close. “My fear is that once we lose capacity it’s never coming back,” he said. Some campaigners fear US meat imports could lead to a “race to the bottom” as UK producers seek to compete with cheaper products, with potential moves to lower standards and increasing pressure to ease UK regulations. Griffiths says he believes this isn’t likely, and said the UK poultry industry is united: “I think we’ve nailed our colours to the mast on this. There’s a lot of political talk about improving standards, but maintaining and improving standards is the mentality that we have. We’re not going to drop standards.” A longer version of this interview can be read here. | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'food/chicken', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'food/meat', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/andrew-wasley', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-07-03T06:00:30Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/aug/31/no-point-in-throwing-away-if-you-can-fix-it-a-day-out-with-the-recycling-van | ‘There’s no point in throwing away if you can fix it’: a day out with the recycling van | It’s 8am on a damp Brighton morning and I’m joining Rob Jones-Mantle on his recycling round, but the second-hand batteries on Magpie Co-op’s fleet of repurposed electric vehicles are still charging. If only they could plug into Rob himself, we’d be on the road instantly: at 56, he’s a one-man renewable energy source in high vis and what he tells me are a pair of restored Edwardian steam engine stoker’s glasses. Rob and Magpie started out in 1990 when recycling was not really high on the political radar, although there was growing awareness of the amount of waste going into landfill: “The climate situation has been with us since the 1970s. We lived locally, we saw what was happening locally.” Working initially in partnership with the council and on a shoestring, a small group of concerned volunteers started a modest kerbside collection, which surprised them with its swift popularity. “We did cash for cans, we got the council’s clean up round, we got 5000 customers.” The data on recycling is pretty confusing, but the general trend is clear; a steady climb in recycling rates from 1996 until about 2009, followed by a long plateau. The UK still languishes in the middle on European recycling tables: Germany has achieved a 66% rate, but we’re stuck, eternally it seems, in the mid 40s. Rob believes that this is because the big business which now run the waste industry are far less nimble and committed then small companies like Magpie. “With businesses and government it’s always a 3-year plan, a 4-year plan or ‘capital’s got a 7-year life’.” In contrast, the Magpie fleet will keep going “until it’s completely useless“. He said: “With our box [the GreenBox, the household recycling box], we’ve got it to 90% recycled for the same cost as the communal service - so why aren’t they [the council] doing it this way? Because the waste industry is too powerful.“ Meanwhile Magpie has expanded, contracted and evolved. The current setup is a workers’ co-operative with a team of 20, servicing about 2,000 domestic and business customers (some of whom have been with Magpie since the beginning) from a site in Saunders Park, Brighton. The pandemic brought fresh challenges: the co-op also runs Shabitat, which restores affordable furniture, but its income dropped dramatically with lockdown closures. Booming kerbside collections – “All those beer and wine bottles!” – kept wages paid (all staff are on the same rate), and soon the coop plans to restructure as a multi-stakeholder community business. Recycling is collected in a hot-pink milk float, a repurposed runway baggage carrier, or our ride today: a green “glorified dodgem,” as Rob calls it affectionately, it’s part forklift, part milk float with a giant smiley on the side. Other road users are surprisingly courteous: Magpie’s vans are a beloved part of the Brighton landscape. A full business recycling round may include 40 stops and take six hours. Today is quieter, but it offers a good snapshot of local life: a pub, offices, a nightclub, and a shared workspace where one of Rob’s customers makes cordials and hemp kombucha. The round gives Rob the opportunity to get to know his customers and hear about developments in town (his home since the 1980s). “I know what’s going on with local trade … I get a real feel for it,” he says. We’re mainly collecting cardboard and plastic, but Rob spots and scrupulously sorts any rogue rubbish along the way: “It’s a case of looking out for mistakes.” It’s one of the reasons he thinks small is beautiful in recycling. “You need to be agile,” he says. “When you’re small you can work it out. What works here for recycling isn’t going to work three streets over. It requires very human and local solutions.” Recycling is more than a job to him: “I’m a Brummie, a tinker-y type. There’s no sense in throwing away if you could fix it, do it up, reuse it.” At the end of the round, he’ll sort today’s collection: card goes to a mill in Kent, plastics to a Yorkshire processor, glass to another local eco-business and cans to the local scrap merchant. The rest of his working time is divided between helping at Shabitat, expertly tending the various vehicles (he taught himself from manuals) and the careful, human business of being the most experienced member of a long-running workers’ co-operative: sharing knowledge and offering advice and support. It’s also about shaping and funding Magpie for the next 30 years and finding ways to do more: a plastics wash and return scheme perhaps, or recycling bottle tops into shelters for homeless people. For Rob, “green jobs” are as much about finding innovative, participative ways of offering public services as they are about the environment: “It’s like a new, fresh shoot. All work could be like this.” What would surprise his 1990 self about the job today? Mainly that it’s still necessary: “Our plan has always been: ‘We’re doing this as long as it’s needed.’ We didn’t expect that to be three decades.” Now, Rob sees Magpie as partly a “protest organisation”, but it’s one that approaches our waste problems with lightness. “Protest is important, but you have to make it fun. If it’s not fun, why would people be interested?” | ['environment/series/groundwork', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/emma-beddington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-08-31T06:00:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2009/nov/02/barcelona-us-climate-talks | Climate negotiators grow impatient at lack of leadership from America | With just five days' formal negotiations left before the start of crucial UN climate talks in Copenhagen next month, key figures in the negotiations are showing clear signs of impatience at the US position. At international climate talks in Barcelona, the United Nations and European Union, backed by international environment and development groups, today piled pressure on the US to set more ambitious targets and timetables to cut greenhouse emissions in order to reach an agreement. "We expect American leadership. President Obama has created great expectations around the world. Now we urge [the US] to contribute in the way that we have," said Andreas Carlgren, Swedish environment minister talking on behalf of the EU presidency. In a clear reference to the US, he added: "We are prepared to cut a deal. Other countries should demonstrate leadership and step up their current pledges." Countries accept that the Obama administration's hands have been tied by delays in Congress but they urged the president to show more personal leadership and to instruct his negotiators to be less intransigent. "I remind the US that it is not the only country in the world that has to have discussions with its domestic parliament," said Connie Hedegaard, the Danish environment minister who will host the talks in Copenhagen. "The expectation out there worldwide among populations and the young [is for] the US to deliver on one of the key challenges of our century. The Americans will have to come up [with an offer] one way or another," she said. Yvo de Boer, head of the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) echoed the call for more ambition from the US. "We need to see clear targets from the US at Copenhagen," he said. But US chief negotiator Jonathan Pershing responded that the US wanted a deal. "Notions that the US is not making an effort is not correct. To apportion blame is not the constructive thing to do. We do not want to be outside [an agreement]. We have the best chance to [make an agreement] if we can implement something domestically. We and Congress recognise the need to move forward," he said. Pershing accepted that China had moved significantly to reduce its emissions, but said that it needed to go further. "It is very clear that China has taken enormous steps to reduce greenhouse gases. We look forward to an aggressive [next] step from China," he said. However, groups like Greenpeace accused the US of doing too little. In a letter sent to Obama today they said: "Our critical assessment is that the [US] legislation pending in Congress in the crucial near term will be a perpetuation of business as usual and it will not decrease emissions in the US." "The continuation of business as usual means doing nothing to reduce emissions. The US position is to reduce US emissions by 17% below 2005 levels. This is far short of what science demands and what Europe has committed to achieve. The 17% reduction shrinks to an actual 4% if measured against 1990 levels." This is the accepted benchmark year used by the Kyoto protocol. "Congress and parliaments [around the world] have set themselves up to pass new laws to reduce emissions. It is the collective effort that should be reflected," said Pershing. | ['environment/copenhagen', 'tone/news', 'environment/environment', 'world/spain', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/eu', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-11-02T16:16:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2020/nov/11/mini-nuclear-plants-experiment-economics | Mini-nuclear plants may be an experiment worth exploring | An energy white paper is in the offing, so consider Rolls-Royce’s pitch for the wonders of small modular reactors (SMRs) a piece of last-minute lobbying. After all, it is clear already that more nuclear, in combination with more offshore wind capacity, is likely to be judged a central way to meet the UK’s targets for cutting carbon emissions. It’s an eye-catching pitch. “A domestic energy solution for the first time in a generation, with a product that is engineered, designed and manufactured in the UK,” as Tom Samson, the chief executive of the nine-member Rolls-led UK SMR consortium puts it. So not one of those mammoth £20bn-plus French-led and Chinese-backed Hinkley Point C constructions. A programme of building 16 mini-nuclear power stations would create 6,000 skilled jobs within five years, and a further 34,000 by the mid-2030s, says the consortium. About 80% of the components would be built in the Midlands and north of England. And the backers are already talking up the export potential – the Czech Republic and Turkey have signed up for feasibility studies. What’s not to like? The clue is in that word “feasibility”. The consortium hasn’t actually built an SMR yet, so claims about lower costs per megawatt hour versus EDF’s at Hinkley are yet to be tested on the ground. The first few stations would arrive at £2.2bn-£2.5bn, says the consortium, with the price dropping to £1.8bn after the first five. Yes, one can see how costs would fall: automated production lines, with the pieces transported for assembly on site, should yield efficiencies over time. On the other hand, we also know that nuclear projects never arrive on budget (as EDF could attest). And a key point about mini-nuclear plants, say sceptics, is that they have to be built near to where the energy is used in order to reduce transmission losses. Since a nuclear reactor is few people’s idea of a local community asset, there’s a planning issue. The consortium thinks that, actually, it could use existing nuclear sites for the first batch, perhaps because, at 440MW, or roughly a quarter of one of Hinkley’s two reactors, the proposed stations are at the large end of “mini”. But therein lies a debate over the economics of nuclear power. The immediate question for government is whether to give a green light for the next stage of development. That would mean legislative support, making sites available and coughing up roughly £2bn of public money. If nuclear power is deemed essential to hitting carbon targets, the answer is probably yes. A 30-year energy policy needs to be able to adapt to ever-changing financial calculations. SMRs have the advantage of speedier construction times than Hinkley-style mega-plants. They are an experiment worth exploring. Timing of Pfizer chief’s stock sell-off looks awful Albert Bourla, the chief executive of Pfizer, is a smart boss running a smart company. But he’s been spectacularly naive in selling $5.6m-worth of his shares in the firm on Monday, the day of the big announcement of a breakthrough with a coronavirus vaccine. The timing looks awful. There is no reason to suspect anything worse than naivety. Pfizer says the sale was part of a regular trading scheme that allows executives to buy or sell on pre-determined dates. The actual instruction to sell, says the company, was given in August – long before anybody had a whiff of the encouraging news from vaccine trials. Even so, somebody at Pfizer should have twigged that there could be a problem. Shares sales by executives need to be authorised and a mid-November date for the release of the first vaccine results has been known for weeks. The danger that Bourla could be perceived to be cashing in on possible good news should have been obvious (and, in the event, Pfizer’s rose 8% on Monday). It would have been a simple matter to tell him to wait until the hotly anticipated news was out of the way. To repeat, Bourla did things by the book. But one hopes the vaccine lives up to its promise. If Monday were to turn out not to have been “a great day for humanity”, as Bourla put it, the share sale would look even worse. | ['business/nils-pratley-on-finance', 'business/rollsroycegroup', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/pfizer', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'business/pharmaceuticals-industry', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/nilspratley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2020-11-11T19:37:25Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/aug/30/brazilian-court-blocks-abolition-of-vast-amazon-reserve | Brazilian court blocks abolition of vast Amazon reserve | A Brazilian court has blocked an attempt by the president, Michel Temer, to open up swaths of the Amazon forest to mining companies after an outcry by environmental campaigners and climate activists. The federal judge Rolando Valcir Spanholo said the president went beyond his authority in issuing a decree to abolish Renca, an area of 46,000 sq km (17,760 sq miles) that has been protected since 1984. Approving an injunction requested by public prosecutors, the judge said the dissolution of Renca (more formally known as the National Reserve of Copper and Associates) could only be done by Congress. But this may be only a temporary reprieve for the area, which is thought to contain deposits of gold, copper, tantalum, iron ore, nickel and manganese. The attorney general has appealed. In several previous cases related to development of environmentally sensitive areas or indigenous territory, higher court judges have overturned rulings made by local courts. But the injunction buys a little time for opponents and adds to the pressure on Temer, who has repeatedly come under fire for putting economic interests ahead of the environment. The announcement of the abolition of Renca prompted a furious backlash last week. An opposition lawmaker called the move the “biggest attack on the Amazon of the last 50 years”. The supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who has become a prominent advocate of forest protection, has accused the government of selling off the Amazon for private interests. Temer subsequently withdrew his initial decree, and re-issued it with a clarification on protections for indigenous territory and conservation areas. Environmental activists said the move was a marketing ploy, because 30% of the region would still be opened up to mining companies. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-08-30T18:35:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/jan/24/saxon-church-prays-for-deliverance-from-nuclear-plant | Saxon church prays for deliverance from nuclear plant | For the 55 years that Tim Fox has worshipped at St Peter-on-the-Wall, his only neighbours have been a farm and a birdwatchers’ shelter. Now, the tranquil surroundings of the salt marsh and the Essex sea wall at Bradwell-on-Sea are threatened by a new arrival: a sprawling nuclear power station, Bradwell B. If all goes to plan, the Grade I-listed St Peter-on-the-Wall, built in an abandoned Roman fort in about 660 during the Saxon settlement of Britain, will be an ideal place to watch 10,600 construction workers building the nuclear reactor. “My parents brought me here in 1965 when I was four years old and I can’t remember not coming,” Fox said. “If they build the power station, it would have a devastating effect on us – I don’t think we’d be able to survive the construction.” Fox is a member of an obscure Christian community called Othona, founded by an RAF chaplain after the second world war, and named after the Roman fort that the chapel was built on, although most of the ruins have been swallowed by the seas around the Blackwater estuary. “We have about 700 members in Essex,” Fox, Othona’s centre manager, said. “There’s no hierarchy and no restrictions. Anyone who wants to lead can take the daily service. That might be reading a bit of poetry or meditating – anything as long as it’s not inciting hatred or bigotry. It’s open to people of all faiths and none.” Although Othona is welcoming to visitors, that generosity is not extended to EDF Energy and China General Nuclear Group (CGN), the Franco-Chinese consortium behind the Bradwell B project. “I know this has to be on somebody’s doorstep, but it seems to me that nuclear power isn’t the way to go,” Fox said. “Renewable energy is getting cheaper and there are two wind farms here. This is the driest part of England – you could put a solar farm here.” Bradwell B was part of David Cameron and George Osborne’s vision of a string of six new nuclear power stations. Hinkley Point C in Somerset is under construction and in December when the government published its energy white paper, it said ministers would reach a decision on “at least one large-scale nuclear project” by 2024. Although most attention has focused on Sizewell C in Suffolk, Bradwell B could be ready for approval next year. Earlier this month the Environment Agency told CGN that it needed to make at least six changes to the reactor design. “My view, like a lot of the community, is that we shouldn’t be taking money from the Chinese government,” Fox said, citing the Hong Kong crackdown on opposition politicians and the Chinese government’s genocidal campaign against Uighur Muslims. Radiation and nuclear waste are other concerns. Further along the Blackwater estuary is Bradwell A, an old Magnox reactor that has been decommissioned. “It’s encased in some sort of cladding, and they’ll leave that there for 200 years or so for the next generations to worry about. I don’t know what they will do with the waste if they build a new one.” The Bradwell B proposal is “10 times as big as Bradwell A, and needs a hole in the earth five times the size of Wembley Stadium,” he added. “It will absolutely devastate the sanctuary of the Saxon chapel.” Electricity demand is expected to double by 2050, but that does not mean nuclear power is necessary, according to Roz Bulleid, deputy policy director at the Green Alliance. “With Hinkley Point coming online supposedly by 2025 and Sizewell C being lined up, even if we do need new nuclear, do we need this one right now?” she said. “We would prefer that the government makes a much more concerted effort to avoid the need for power and invest in more electricity storage for renewables.” Since 2016, the cost of offshore wind power has fallen by about two thirds, she said, costing about £40 per megawatt hour, compared with £90 for Hinkley Point. “Obviously, renewables are more intermittent so you don’t have a steady supply, but all sorts of other options are coming online with storage – pumped storage, batteries, compressed air storage. “And digital technologies allow us a much more sophisticated management of demand, so you can charge electric vehicles overnight when the wind is blowing but no one’s using power.” Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said that “all credible assessments” by bodies such as the International Energy Agency, the OECD and Climate Change Committee showed that nuclear power was needed to bolster wind and solar energy to meet the target of zero emissions by 2050. “We need to have four times the amount of clean power on our system than we do today,” Greatrex said. “Pretending it can be done without zero-carbon nuclear simply increases the reliance on burning fossil fuels, and means more carbon emissions and peril for the planet. Net zero needs nuclear.” Nuclear power is part of the government’s ‘ten point plan for a green industrial revolution’, he added. The Climate Change Committee said in 2019 that about 57% of electricity should come from renewable sources, with 38% from low carbon power such as nuclear plants or biomass plants that capture carbon dioxide emissions. The Bradwell B consortium was approached for comment. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/essex', 'world/religion', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'culture/heritage', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/james-tapper', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2021-01-24T09:00:41Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2022/apr/27/ben-stokes-to-be-rubber-stamped-as-england-test-captain | Ben Stokes to succeed Joe Root as England Test captain | Ben Stokes will be named England Test captain on Thursday when Rob Key holds his first media conference since becoming the managing director of men’s cricket. Key offered the role to Stokes on Tuesday during face-to-face talks in the north-east and though the 30‑year‑old all‑rounder always played down any captaincy ambitions during his time as Joe Root’s deputy, he has accepted the challenge. The appointment of a Test captain requires sign-off from the England and Wales Cricket Board’s independent board but while it is in flux – Martin Darlow was announced on Wednesday as the new interim chair – Key’s fresh mandate since taking charge of the men’s national teams 10 days ago has made this a formality. Given a paucity of credible alternatives in the Test side, Stokes was always the outright favourite to take over after an exhausted Root called time on his five-year tenure in the wake of England’s winless winter in Australia and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, Key still needed to meet Stokes to establish his hunger for this additional responsibility, both as a linchpin of the Test side with bat and ball and having taken a four-month break last year for his mental health. Stokes has captained the Test team – a four-wicket defeat against West Indies in Southampton two years ago when Root was on paternity leave – but it remains his only first‑class match in charge. That said, he has long been a leader in the dressing room and earned plaudits when captaining a rookie one-day international team to a 3-0 series win against Pakistan last year after a Covid-19 outbreak ruled out the first‑choice squad. His first appearance as the permanent England captain and an 80th cap will come against his country of birth, New Zealand, when a three-Test series gets under way at Lord’s on 2 June. It remains to be seen if Stokes will have a head coach alongside him, however, with the interview process for the vacancy not starting until 9 May. While the likes of Gary Kirsten, Graham Ford and Simon Katich vie for that role, another position needing to be filled is that of Test vice-captain. Often used to blood future leaders, it may require an experienced head, initially, given the likelihood that Stokes, a full-throttle cricketer who is nursing a knee problem, may well miss games along the way. Root appears unlikely to step in while he focuses his energies on batting, and the only other batter assured of his spot is Jonny Bairstow after centuries in Sydney and Antigua this year. Should the England hierarchy decide to invest in a younger player, Zak Crawley – mentored by Key during his career – is a candidate. There is also an expectation that Stuart Broad – down to start his season with Nottinghamshire on Thursday – and Jimmy Anderson will feature in the Test team this summer, with Stokes understood to be in favour of the veteran pair returning to the selection fold after they were controversially dropped for the Caribbean tour. It is one of a number of topics likely to be covered by Key at Lord’s on Thursday during his first public appearance as director of men’s cricket, along with the 42-year-old’s decision to split the head-coach roles by way of format and his overall vision for the men’s game at both international and at the domestic level. Some semblance of a plan will be welcome, given there is a leadership vacuum at the very top of the ECB. On Wednesday the governing body confirmed it has been forced to restart the recruitment process for the role of permanent ECB chair that has been vacant since Ian Watmore resigned last October. Ron Kalifa, a non-executive director on the board for the past 18 months, was previously in charge of the search but now appears likely to run for the role of chair himself after a statement from ECB confirmed “no single candidate was able to fully meet the criteria”. Barry O’Brien, interim chair for the past eight months, has also stepped down for health reasons, with his deputy, Darlow, taking over until the role is filled. Meanwhile, the England all-rounder Chris Woakes has signed a two-year contract extension with Warwickshire until at least the end of the 2024 season. | ['sport/england-cricket-team', 'sport/ben-stokes', 'sport/jimmy-anderson', 'sport/stuart-broad', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ali-martin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-04-27T16:57:59Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2021/may/01/why-do-dead-whales-keep-washing-up-in-san-francisco | Why do dead whales keep washing up in San Francisco? | The 45ft carcass lay belly-up in the surf at Fort Funston beach, just south of San Francisco, drawing a small crowd of hikers and hang gliders. The stench lingered on the evening breeze as seabirds circled the animal, a juvenile fin whale. The whale was the fifth to wash ashore in the area this month. The other four were gray whales – giant cetaceans who migrate an astounding 11,000 miles each year from Alaska to Baja and back – all found on beaches near the city over a span of just eight days. Each was a startling scene that raised immediate concerns for many observers. Whales are an important part of the ecosystem, often looked to as markers of ocean health, and their deaths can serve as indicators that something is amiss. But scientists say the picture is more complicated. Investigations into the whale deaths continue and so far, experts say, there isn’t a smoking gun. Some marine researchers believe the deaths may be more cyclical than a sign of catastrophe. “At first glance, it sounds horrific,” says Joshua Stewart, a research associate with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). “But this is not an isolated event and to some extent that puts me at ease, personally.” After nearing extinction in the 1950s, gray whales have had a remarkable recovery, rebounding to levels that enabled their removal from the endangered species list in 1994. Now they are among the most frequently sighted along the California coast as they migrate south for the winter and north in early spring. They are also one of the most studied marine mammals, with data that goes back to the 1960s. Each time a whale winds up ashore, it gives scientists a new opportunity to learn about the state of seas. However, the gray whale population on the west coast has declined in recent years – dropping by roughly 24% since 2016. Today there are an estimated 20,580 whales left, according to data from Noaa. And this month’s high spate of deaths was not the first – in 2019, Noaa declared an ongoing “unusual mortality event” when 122 whales washed up across the western shore from California to Alaska, more than four times the previous 18-year average of 29. Stewart, who tracks gray whale population numbers, notes that, even with the declines, the population is still close to an all-time high. “Despite these downturns that, at the time, are very distressing, they have bounced back multiple times,” he says, adding that they are a highly adaptable and resilient species. “We want to know if this decline is continuing or a temporary thing.” On 8 April, there were two whales to examine in the Bay at the same time. One carcass had been floating for days before it wound up lodged at the Berkeley marina. The other washed ashore on Muir Beach, just north of San Francisco. Teams from the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences conducted necropsies, which includes taking tissue samples, assessing the internal organs and reproductive tract, and evaluating the ribs and vertebrae for signs of trauma or impact. Moe Flannery, senior collections manager of birds and mammals for the California Academy of Sciences, was on the scene for the necropsies and says teams haven’t concluded their investigations – though culprits could include a lack of food or disease. “There are no real answers yet,” she says, adding that despite the deaths, scientists are hopeful the gray whale population will bounce back. “They are a resilient species and I think it is concerning, but we have hope that this is just a little blip in time and that the species itself will rebound as it has in the past.” Ship strikes have already been identified as the cause of some deaths, including the fin whale found on Friday. Unlike the gray whales, fin whales are still listed as endangered. There are only an estimated 3,200 left along the west coast off California, Oregon and Washington, and ship strikes are the biggest threat to their survival. “It goes to show how many threats these whales are facing,” says Callie Steffen, a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Initiative. Steffen works on a team that developed the Whale Safe project, which uses data to help mariners map where whales are when they plan voyages off southern California. The system, which she says is “like a Smokey the Bear fire warning but for whales”, has had a positive impact. But whales may be traveling closer to the coast, putting them at higher risk of harm from ship strikes, loud disruptive noises from ports, chemical pollution and entanglement, according to a 2019 study from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Authors of the study believe the change has something to do with the whales’ biological clocks. Ari Friedlaender, a marine ecologist who teaches and heads a lab at the University of California at Santa Cruz, says that whether whales are killed by malnutrition or ship strikes, their deaths should be seen as red flags. Even if we can’t point our finger at a singular cause behind the decline, human activity – from shipping to the climate crisis – is driving changes that negatively affect the whales. “It means people are likely affecting and altering the ecosystems that these whales require food from,” Friedlaender says. “There are so many downstream effects and impacts from the things we do in our daily lives. The actions we take locally can have consequences and impacts very far away and over longer periods of time. We need to keep our eyes open.” | ['environment/whales', 'us-news/san-francisco', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gabrielle-canon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-05-01T10:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2014/feb/13/2012-floods-victim-clean-up | I was a victim of the 2012 floods. The clean-up took 15 months | Sue Blackmore | How will David Cameron's open cheque book cope with what lies ahead? While the flood water's pouring in, you survive on adrenaline, caffeine and the kindness of people around you. When the water recedes and everyone else gets back to normal, the long haul begins. And it can be very long. Our builders finally moved out in October 2013 – 15 months after we were flooded in July 2012. Why does it take so long? The answers are different for each of several stages and for every home, and I can only write from my own experience, but there will be similar themes for everyone. Stage one is the clear-up. That fateful July morning we were woken at 5 o'clock to see waves crashing against our bedroom window and muddy brown water creeping slowly around the bed. Our normally peaceful river had risen nearly 3 metres and become a raging torrent. All we could do was rescue the possessions we could grab and welcome the many neighbours who rushed round with mops and buckets and pumps. By the evening, the river had subsided and the water in the house was all gone. That's when the scale of the disaster hits. Rooms can look almost normal, as though it's just a damp floor you have to contend with and a muddy line a metre up the wall, but you gradually and painfully learn how much has to go: the suspended floor has to come up, fitted furniture you lovingly painted yourself is wrenched out, bathrooms that look fine are condemned because water's got behind the tiles, and on it goes. After that, and a few weeks of noisy, power-guzzling drying machines, there's nothing left but the shell of the rooms. Next come the decisions. Do you put everything back as it was, as some insurers insist? Or do you rebuild your home to face accelerating climate change and the next terrible flood? We decided not to reinstate and to pay for flood resilience instead, planning to tile the entire ground floor and make it flood-proof. But there seems to be no standard way of doing this and no one would guarantee any waterproofing. After weeks of investigation we decided to go with a good builder who reckoned his system of double tanking, tiling and waterproofing would work. We have yet to see whether it does. Then there's the wait for the builders to be available and finally you get started on months of building work and eventually the redecoration. Unlike some, we could luckily stay in our house throughout. Our bedrooms are downstairs, so the night after the flood we moved one of the surviving mattresses upstairs into my study, along with chests of drawers and a hanging rail for clothes. We couldn't possibly have imagined that we'd still be living in that room a year later. Back to Cameron's open purse – and what it will pay for. We chose to buy this house right on the river and we accept that we must take the rough with the smooth. We've added bunds and other flood protection measures outside the house and made the inside as resilient as we can. And this is just as well, because we are no longer insured for flood damage. Although the government wants everyone in flood risk areas to be insured it is far from clear how this can work. No new company would take us on, and the one we had before increased the premium by 300% and raised the previously small excess to £100,000. They may call that insurance but I don't. And it's a good thing we don't want to move in a hurry. Local estate agents won't put a figure on our loss of value but they do admit that many buyers won't even look at a house right on the bank of a beautiful river. If your heart goes out to those who are flooded now, don't abandon them on the long road ahead. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/flooding', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/sueblackmore'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-13T13:25:22Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2021/oct/02/queen-calls-on-scottish-parliament-to-tackle-climate-change | Queen calls on Scottish parliament to tackle climate change | The Queen has urged Scotland’s MSPs to tackle climate change and “help create a better, healthier future” in a speech ahead of the Cop26 climate conference. The Queen also reflected on the “deep and abiding affection” and happy memories she and the late Duke of Edinburgh shared of Scotland as she formally opened the new session of the Scottish parliament. Accompanied by the Prince of Wales and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall – known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland – the Queen told MSPs that as the country emerged from the “adverse and uncertain times” of the pandemic, there was an opportunity for “hope and optimism”. She said: “Next month, I will be attending Cop26 events in Glasgow. The eyes of the world will be on the United Kingdom – and Scotland in particular – as leaders come together to address the challenges of climate change. “There is a key role for the Scottish parliament, as with all parliaments, to help create a better, healthier future for us all, and to engage with the people they represent – especially our young people.” Speaking at Holyrood for the first time since Prince Philip’s death, the Queen added: “Today is also a day when we can celebrate those who have made an extraordinary contribution to the lives of other people in Scotland, locally or nationally during the Covid-19 pandemic. “It is often said that it is the people that make a place. And there are few places where this is truer than in Scotland. As we have seen in recent times. We all know of the difficult circumstances that many people have encountered during the last 18 months. However, alongside this have been countless examples of resilience and goodwill. “Following my grandson’s time as lord high commissioner, Prince William has told me many heartening stories that he heard first-hand of people and communities across Scotland uniting to protect and care for those who are isolated or vulnerable.” The monarch, who has been on her annual break at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, met party and parliamentary leaders in the garden lobby before the ceremony in the debating chamber. Responding to the Queen’s speech, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said Covid was the biggest crisis to confront the world since the second world war. “It has caused pain and heartbreak, it has exposed and exacerbated the inequalities within our society. But it has also revealed humankind’s boundless capacity for inventiveness, solidarity and love,” she said. “And for those of us in public service, it has reminded us that with collective political will, changes that we might previously have thought impossible or just too difficult can indeed be achieved. “In the months ahead, we must take the same urgency and resolve with which we have confronted this pandemic and apply it to the hard work of recovery and renewal, to the task of building a fairer and greener future for this and the generations who come after us.” Afterwards, the Queen, Charles and Camilla were due to meet Scots who have been recognised for their contribution to communities during the Covid-19 pandemic. | ['politics/scotland', 'uk/scotland', 'uk/queen', 'uk/monarchy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'politics/nicola-sturgeon', 'politics/politics', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/harriet-grant', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-10-02T12:23:39Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
travel/2005/jul/24/observerescapesection4 | Travel news: Hurricane halts Mexico travel | Tour operators are holding back tourists from the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, which was hit by Hurricane Emily last week, until hotels reopen and damage is assessed. Winds of 125mph swept across the popular holiday region on Monday, killing six and forcing the evacuation of 30,000 tourists in Cancun. Many had to camp in a local gymnasium for the night. Some tourists on the island of Cozumel also had to abandon their hotels. The hurricane continued to the north-east coast and moved inland, travelling westwards. A hurricane warning remained in effect from La Cruz to the Texas border at the time of publication. Anyone due to travel to Mexico should contact their tour operator before travelling, and check foreign office advice on www.fco.gov.uk. Some hotels in Playa del Carmen, Playa Car and Tulum, as well as Cancun, were damaged and tourists were being kept away. A spokeswoman from Virgin Holidays said: 'Some of the six hotels we use were damaged. We are carrying out a full assessment but a couple will be taken off sale. We are holding back those due to travel to Mexico until at least 25 July and are allowing them to postpone holidays or take alternative trips of equivalent value anywhere in the world, subject to availability.' Tourists who were there at the time were given the option to return early, she said, but none had done so. Journey Latin America said clients due in the Mayan Riviera this week had had their itineraries amended and were being re-routed elsewhere in Mexico, many to Vallarta on the Pacific coast. The company was not offering refunds for those wishing to cancel. Emily also passed over the Caribbean island of Grenada, but all hotels and tourist attractions are functioning as normal. Four people were killed in Jamaica but tourism was unaffected. | ['travel/travel', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/gemmabowes', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/escape', 'theobserver/escape/features'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-07-24T18:47:19Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2008/jul/16/gdfsuez.merger | Suez shareholders endorse GDF merger | Shareholders in Franco-Belgian energy group Suez today overwhelmingly endorsed the €95bn (£75bn) merger with state-controlled Gaz de France (GDF). They voted 99.6% in favour of creating a new French "national champion" – and Europe's second-largest energy group – exactly 30 months after the merger was first announced in a government-inspired deal to avert an Italian takeover. The merger, certain to be approved by GDF shareholders later this afternoon, was hailed by Gérard Mestrallet, Suez chief executive, as "the biggest in France in 20 years". GDF Suez, to be headed by Mestrallet, has ambitious plans to expand its gas and electricity portfolio into renewables, including wind, wave and solar power, and nuclear. The aim is to generate 100GW of electricity by 2013. Suez, which operates nuclear power plants in Belgium, dropped out of the bidding process to acquire British Energy, the UK's biggest nuclear operator, leaving the field clear for state-owned EDF. But Mestrallet has signalled that GDF Suez is interested in building and operating new-generation nuclear power plants in Britain – probably with a British operator. He has also indicated it wants to build France's second new-generation plant, a European Pressurised Reactor (EPR). Under the terms of the merger, hard-fought through the courts by unions angered by the reduction of the state's interest in GDF from 70% to 35.7% in the new group, Suez is floating off its environment business. Suez Environnement, the waste and water business which will begin trading on July 22, will remain 35% in the hands of the new group with 65% sold off to investors. This step was approved by 99.7% of Suez shareholders who are also being given a special dividend of €0.80 a share. GDF Suez, which also begins trading next week, will have a workforce of almost 200,000 and sales of €74.3bn a year. It is aiming for pre-tax profits of €17bn by 2010 on 10% annual sales growth. | ['business/utilities', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'world/france', 'environment/environment', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/davidgow'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2008-07-16T13:45:32Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2008/jan/04/ifyoumustflymakeitlessl | Tread lightly: If you must fly, make it less long-haul | Photograph: Toby Melville/PA It's the new year, and time for some resolutions, so this week's pledge is about choosing short- rather than long-haul holiday destinations this year. While we all know that it would be better not to fly at all, the reality is that many people will continue to do so until we're prohibited by cost or legislation. Part of the Tread lightly ethos is about being able to still live your life while being more aware of the consequences our actions have on the environment, so this pledge is about still being able to have a holiday but choosing not to fly as far for it. Next week we'll be calculating how much carbon you could save if you did travel to short-haul destinations by train, but after this week's latest rail fiasco, taking the train instead is not always the best option ... In this week's pledge, the options are taking a flight to northern Europe or the Mediterranean instead of a long-haul destination like India, Sydney or the United States. We're also trying to listen to the feedback that we've been getting from Tread lightly community users, so that those who feel strongly about this issue can opt to choose not to take a long-haul holiday flight at all. Our calculations are based on the emissions for various long and short-haul flights. For northern Europe, we have calculated that instead of flying to Miami (the average amount of emissions for long-haul flights), which would generate 2.01 tonnes of carbon emissions, a flight to Amsterdam instead would generate 0.12 tonnes. Broken down into the weekly units that Tread lightly uses to calculate its graphs, this would mean that each person was saving 36kg. Likewise, a pledge to fly to Greece in the Mediterranean would generate 0.53 tonnes of carbon, compared to Miami's 2.01 tonnes, saving 28kg a week. Avoiding one long-haul flight altogether would save 2.5 tonnes, or 48kg a week for 2007. So what do you think? Is agreeing to one less flight enough? Is it up to us to be more responsible, or should business and the government be regulating who flies and where? | ['environment/series/tread-lightly', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'environment/blog', 'profile/jessicaaldred'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2008-01-04T00:00:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2014/sep/10/nevada-floods-state-emergency-governor-storm-evacuation | Nevada floods prompt governor to declare state of emergency | Tourists and truckers were told Wednesday to prepare for several more days of disruptive detours around a closed stretch of busy Interstate 15 in southern Nevada that crumbled in chunks during intense flash flooding. Crews were working to repair the freeway as Governor Brian Sandoval declared a state of emergency late Tuesday and dispatched officials to begin estimating the cost of damage after Monday’s storm wiped out swaths of the vital interstate and swamped parts of Clark County and an Indian reservation. “We hope to have one lane in each direction open by the weekend,” Nevada department of transportation spokeswoman Julie Duewel said. The National Weather Service said more than 4in of rain fell in less than two hours in the area during what might have been most intense storm in 30 years in the Muddy River valley and rural Moapa area about 50 miles north-east of Las Vegas. The sudden torrent of runoff down sunbaked washes toward the Virgin River and Lake Mead also scoured out part of a main Union Pacific rail freight line and swelled a river so high that a Utah national park was briefly shuttered. The same storm, spawned by seasonal monsoon moisture and the remnants of tropical storm Norbert, dumped heavy rain throughout the south-west and set a single-day rainfall record Monday in Phoenix. Convenience store manager Penny Hyde spent a harried day Tuesday in the I-15 exit town of Glendale, Nevada, advising motorists who waited through hours of delays and detours that to get back to the interstate they’d need to take another roundabout route on two-lane highways to Panaca, Nevada, and then to Cedar City, Utah. “It’ll be a couple of hours out of their way,” said Hyde, who noted the remnant red mud all around her store. No damage estimate was immediately available, but Clark County spokeswoman Stacey Welling said officials were preparing to ask county lawmakers next Tuesday for an emergency declaration. During the height of the storm, about 190 people were evacuated from the Moapa Band of Paiutes reservation after tribal officials warned that waters were close to breaching a Muddy River dam. But in a “near miss”, the water stopped short of spilling over, said Erin Neff, spokeswoman for the Clark County Regional Flood Control District. A subdivision with about 30 homes flooded several miles downstream, in Overton, and Clark County firefighters counted 18 rescues in the area, many involving submerged cars. Transportation officials said the damaged stretch of I-15 near Moapa could take weeks to be fully repaired. Duewell said it usually carries about 20,000 vehicles a day. Union Pacific Railroad service was suspended while crews repaired track that was undermined and washed out near Moapa. Officials hoped to have the track bed and rails repaired by Wednesday for freight service to resume on the busy Las Vegas-to-Salt Lake City main line, railroad spokesman Aaron Hunt said. In southern Utah, rangers at Zion National Park turned away visitors for several hours Tuesday when heavy rain and a surging river made park routes impassable. Mud, debris and a boulder blocked Route 9, the road through the main canyon. A shelter remained open Tuesday night at a school in Overton, but Southern Nevada Red Cross chapter spokesman Lloyd Ziel said no residents used it. More than 50 Red Cross and cooperating volunteers were going door-to-door in Moapa, Logandale and Overton to assess damage and offer help to residents, Ziel said Wednesday. “Some people didn’t get touched, and some have several feet of water in their homes,” he said. | ['environment/flooding', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-09-10T16:36:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2012/jun/18/peachia-cylindrica | Peachia cylindrica – Lurker in the sand | Description A 12-tentacled anemone with W-shaped markings down each of its limbs. Ecology Members of this genus don't attach themselves to rocks as most anemones do – they burrow. At its base this species has slender column, which it buries in the sand; the column has rounded end that acts as an anchor. Its tentacles seize passing prey, which they transfer to the central mouth. Distribution Found offshore down to about 50m, generally on the west coast of Britain. • Name the other species by clicking on the links on the right-hand side or the previous and next buttons at the top of the page | ['environment/series/name-a-species', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2012-06-18T07:06:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2014/jan/06/sea-shepherd-chases-japanese-whaling-fleet-from-antarctic-sanctuary | Australian government urged to lodge whaling protest with Japan | The Australian government has been urged to lodge a formal protest with Japan after activists said they chased the Japanese whaling fleet from a designated whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean. Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said three of its vessels chased Japanese boats from the area. Sea Shepherd also released video footage that appears to show the butchering of four minke whales on the deck of Japanese factory ship Nisshin Maru. The Greens party said the prime minister, Tony Abbott, should raise the issue of whaling directly with the Japanese government. “After six years of rhetoric from [environment minister] Greg Hunt calling on the previous government to stop the blood in the water in the Southern Ocean, it is time for him to act,” Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said. “Greg Hunt must immediately walk into Tony Abbott’s office and get him to call the prime minister of Japan and issue a protest on behalf of the Australian people.” Whish-Wilson said Hunt and Abbott should decide if they “stand on the side of the Australian people or on the side of whale murderers”. The Sea Shepherd fleet – which includes the vessels the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker and the Sam Simon – engaged the Japanese fleet of five ships for the first time during the current whaling season on Sunday. The whaling boats were operating within the whale sanctuary in New Zealand’s territorial waters, located in the Ross Sea in Antarctica, according to Sea Shepherd. Conservationists argue that Australia should enforce its own Antarctic territory by cracking down on whaling, which has been deemed unlawful by the federal court. However, only four nations – which do not include Japan – recognise Australia’s claim to Antarctic land and sea territory. Video shot by Sea Shepherd aircraft appears to show three minke whales loaded onto the deck of the Nisshin Maru. Activists say a fourth whale was being cut apart at the time of the filming, with crew members seen mopping up large pools of blood on the deck. Sea Shepherd said the Japanese fleet fled out of the whale sanctuary without violent confrontation. There was no sign of either the HMNZS Otago, which is patrolling New Zealand’s southern waters during whaling season, nor the Australian government aircraft, which was put forward by environment minister Greg Hunt in lieu of the customs vessel he promised before the election. Hunt’s department said it would not discuss the activities of the aircraft for “operational security purposes” but said patrols would be based on “ongoing assessments” of maritime security threats. “It is the responsibility of the masters of all vessels operating in the Southern Ocean during the 2013-14 whaling season to ensure that the safety of human life at sea is not endangered,” a Department of Environment spokeswoman said. “While the Australian government is committed to meeting its obligations under the Safety of Life at Sea [Solas] convention, the area of the Southern Ocean where this activity takes place is remote. In a Solas incident it could take days for a vessel to travel to the location where assistance is required. “Australia unreservedly condemns any dangerous, reckless or unlawful behaviour, whether in the Southern Ocean or elsewhere.” Asked what an aircraft could do to deter illegal fishing in Australian-claimed waters or prevent the loss of life during clashes between protestors and whalers, the spokeswoman said: “It is the responsibility of the masters of all vessels operating in the Southern Ocean during the 2013-14 whaling season to ensure that the safety of human life at sea is not endangered. “Any further course of action by Australia would occur in accordance with the international and domestic laws applicable to the specific circumstances of the incident." Jeff Hansen, the managing director of Sea Shepherd Australia, told Guardian Australia that the Japanese fleet was “on the run”. “We are keeping on their tail and they aren’t whaling at the moment so we’re happy about that, at least,” he said. “There is no need for confrontation, the number one priority is the protection of whales.” Hansen said the minke whales killed could include some that were tagged by Australian scientists last year to measure their progress from the Great Barrier Reef down the east coast to Victoria. “We are disappointed but not surprised we didn’t see any other vessel from Australia,” he said. “In opposition, political parties say they will have the guts to stand up to the whalers, but when it comes to it we are the only ones who do. They just don’t want to do it. “There’s an Australian federal court order banning the slaughter of whales. The government doesn’t want to see the whalers breaking the law and have to arrest them. They just don’t want the headache with Tokyo, simple as that.” Hansen said the aerial monitoring was a “waste of taxpayer money”, adding that he had already sent images and video to Hunt to show what the Japanese fleet had been doing. Last year Australia took Japan to the international court of justice in an attempt to force it to stop whaling, which Japan claims is for legitimate scientific purposes. A decision on the case is expected soon. | ['environment/whaling', 'environment/environment', 'world/antarctica', 'world/japan', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-01-06T05:55:02Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
law/2011/jan/11/undercover-activists-sexual-encounters | Undercover officers: Limited rules on sexual encounters | It was unclear tonight what if any guidance exists for undercover operatives about how close they should get to those they are trying to gather intelligence or information from. One senior member of the Metropolitan police authority, the body that oversees the Met, said the force had questions to answer and called for a review of the use of undercover officers. Cindy Butts, a former deputy chair of the MPA, said: "I don't think 'by any means necessary' should be the modus operandi at all. There should be guidance so officers remain focused on what they are doing. "There should be a review. I expect questions on all aspects of this case, including these allegations, and issues such as proportionality." Butts said that if sex was used as a deliberate tactic by undercover officers, it could negate the duty of care they had towards the protesters they were targeting: "To an extent there is a need to fully engross yourself and adopt a particular character and personality. But where you have an officer with a family and wife, I don't think a public servant should be implicit in encouraging or endorsing him to have extramarital affairs … The police have a duty of care even to the people being infiltrated." She added: "It would be irresponsible for an organisation to be encouraging that kind of behaviour." The Metropolitan police said they were not prepared to discuss the case. The Association of Chief Police Officers was unable to say if there were any guidelines covering whether undercover officers are allowed sexual relations with those they are attempting to gain intelligence from. The rules governing undercover officers and what they can do to gain intelligence appear to be limited. What rules and case law there is governs the admissibility of any evidence they produce in a court case, and also whether they can participate in offences. Officers can participate in criminal activities in limited circumstances, but must not initiate crimes. A paper produced by Andrew Choo and Manda Mellors at the University of Leicester points out that in two cases from the 1990s undercover officers used the lure of love and sex to attempt to elicit not just intelligence, but confessions to crimes. In both cases the police actions were sanctioned by the Crown Prosecution Service. The most famous case was that of Colin Stagg, who police wrongly believed had killed Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon common. An undercover woman officer pretended to fall in love with him to gain a confession to the killing. The case was thrown out of court. Years later police finally caught and convicted the correct suspect. | ['law/law', 'environment/activism', 'uk/police', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'type/article', 'profile/vikramdodd', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-11T21:30:03Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
sport/2009/mar/04/indian-premier-league-sri-lanka | Sri Lanka cricket team attack: IPL will be safe insists ICC vice-president | Preity Zinta, co-owner of the Punjab Kings XI team, said it would be an individual decision for foreign players whether to travel to India for the IPL. "We have faith in the government and I'm certain that security would be more than adequate," she said. "I don't have any fears over the safety and security of my players. I think we are going to have enough security in and around the stadium and when we move around. That goes without saying. Security was a number one concern for us last year and I'm sure it would be our biggest concern this year as well. "I guess the foreign players would have to share the faith we have in our system. But anyway, its an individual decision and we do respect their security concerns," she said. ICC vice-president Sharad Pawar believes security forces in the country will be able to provide adequate protection for both the IPL and the country's general election simultaneously. The second edition of the IPL was thrown into jeopardy when India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, under whose charge security in the country falls, asked for the IPL to be postponed in the wake of yesterday's attack in Lahore, saying he did not want to stretch and strain security forces between the IPL and the general elections next month. But Pawar, whose party is a member of the ruling coalition, said he expected only minor adjustments to the dates. "The situation in India is vastly different from Pakistan," Pawar said. "Our security forces are competent, the public is aware so I don't think we would have a situation [like Lahore] here. I think minor adjustments to the dates in the IPL should be sufficient." Chidambaram had said he would prefer the IPL to begin after the general election which ends on 16 May, but IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has ruled out a postponement. "There is no chance of postponing the IPL," Modi said and reiterated his stand that matches in a city would not clash with the polls. "We will ensure that there will be no games 24 to 48 hours prior to the polling dates across all the nine match venues in the country," he said. | ['sport/sri-lanka-cricket-team', 'world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack', 'sport/ipl', 'sport/cricket', 'tone/news', 'type/article'] | world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-04T12:36:31Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2013/dec/21/nuclear-plants-energy-plans | Fifty new nuclear plants could be goal in official energy plans | Up to 50 nuclear power stations could be built under plans being looked at by the government. The remarkable figure – 10 times the number the government is openly discussing – is revealed in documents submitted to the Department of Energy and Climate Change by one of its own advisory bodies. The documents are likely to raise questions as to what extent the government's energy policy is weighted in favour of nuclear and away from renewables such as wind turbines. It comes as Brussels begins an investigation into whether Britain is providing up to £17bn of potentially illegal public guarantees for the first nuclear power plant in a generation, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which aims to provide 7% of the country's electricity. In a submission to a consultation on geological waste disposal, the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management has said an upper limit of 75 gigawatts of nuclear power is "being examined" by the DECC in London. The current programme announced by ministers is to build 12 reactors to supply 16 gigawatts at five sites. The higher figure equates to more than 50 new large-scale modern reactors. The committee has been given the task of assessing the number of disposal facilities that might be required for the waste that will be produced by new nuclear power stations. It notes that the 16-gigawatt programme is only the "first tranche" and is "substantially below the 75 gigawatts upper limit being examined in [the Department of Energy and Climate Change]". The upper limit echoes a scenario outlined by the energy department in a 2011 report, outlining its vision for a low-carbon future. It suggested 75 gigawatts of nuclear power – enough to provide 86% of UK electricity – could be brought on line by 2050. "Nuclear energy is vital for our energy security and we want it to be part of the energy mix in the future, alongside renewables and clean coal and gas," a department spokeswoman said. "It's important to model potential scenarios to plan for our future energy needs, but we haven't set any targets for the amount of new nuclear to be developed." But Dr David Lowry, an environmental policy consultant and nuclear specialist, said the 75-gigawatt scenario was a "nuclear fantasia at it worst", and failed to explain how huge amounts of radioactive waste generated by the plants would be stored. | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'profile/jamiedoward', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2013-12-21T20:19:38Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2019/sep/11/can-we-save-the-world-one-tree-at-a-time | Can we save the world, one tree at a time? | Van Badham | Fires are raging across Queensland and New South Wales – 80 across Queensland alone. As is the case with the Amazon fires, for many the strong urge is to hide from the news. It’s not for lack of caring. It’s because you don’t even need to have survived fire seasons to remember how this awful story ends – just a childhood memory of Bambi or Smokey Bear. The forest paradise is destroyed, the world made more ugly in its ruin. The animals are left homeless, scarred or dead. Watching the news at a distance is to feel as powerless to intervene and save the innocent creatures as we did back then. We’re just weeping children stuck in their chairs while on the other side of the cinema screen – or the world – that which is most precious is annihilated. Amid the growing global climate anxiety, there’s an intimate, personal distress induced by these blazes. Other desperate omens – the disappearing glaciers in Iceland, the bioluminescent coastlines in India, melting lakes in the Alps – register as disturbing but more abstract terrors. One explanation of why forest catastrophes are uniquely terrifying perhaps also explains the powerful impact of the Bambi story, even on children who have never seen a living deer. In his book Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness, psychologist David Foulkes suggests animals are recruited as avatars of the emerging self in children’s dreams; they feature heavily within them. “Animals carry human concerns,” Foulkes writes, “and readily become objects of identification.” So it’s not just on a metaphoric or rational level that we know what’s happening to the creatures terrorised, scorched and destroyed in the flames is also happening to us. We grasp it psychologically. No wonder the instinct is to run away, hoping for a hero, a cosmic deus ex machina or someone’s clever mum to save us, especially given governments from Brazil to Australia and the US seem so uninterested. Thinking about child psychology, the way children problem-solve and a panic-inspired, imperative emotional need to rescue every Bambi, everywhere, provoked me to the sudden question: Mum, can we regrow all the burning forests in our backyards at home? Amid much intimation that the Amazon fires are a convenient event for a Brazilian government intent on land clearing, the vocal point was made that Australia also faces a land-clearing crisis. Irrespective of what damage is wreaked by fires, more than three million hectares of local woodland are facing destruction through deliberate means by 2030. This means that three-quarters of already threatened species are likely to lose what remains of their habitat. The UN reports that a third of greenhouse gases are attributable to land clearing for farming. But governments, like that of New South Wales – a state currently on fire – have responded by weakening land-clearing laws and gifting amnesties to illegal land clearers. The horrifying science is that deforestation itself drives more forests to burn. And this is why both habitat protection and active reforestation and revegetation has to be prioritised by governments – at all levels – in the pressing climate fight. The battlefront is not only to save the forests we have left, but to properly revegetate the spaces humanity has already taken over – for while wildlife areas perish, cities are also warming. Plant life sequests carbon, and retains habitat and biodiversity, but trees also make the most significant contribution to urban cooling – a necessity for liveability as the climate heats. In Australia there are some efforts to do this at a local government level, but in the absence of a prioritised national strategy, it’s piecemeal. A recent study reported in the Conversation found 54 out of 139 of communities studied “suffered statistically significant” losses of green space within the preceding decade – because it’s not only the Amazon that’s disappearing. In the empty space of any policy framework, we’re building over the Australian backyard – tragically, maddeningly. The backyards and other green spaces of our communities are the one place where individuals can, in fact, make some material contribution to fixing the collective problem. It’s not the present Morrison government but Bob Hawke’s legacy, Landcare, showing leadership in replanting a denuded Australia. The networked national organisation of community-based groups does mobilise volunteers to assist land rehabilitation. It does plant trees. In the areas where their pilot scheme, Gardens for Wildlife, is running, they will even come to your home and advise how to turn what land you have into a working contribution to carbon capture and habitat extension. The most dangerous thing about this pilot scheme is the hope it inspires. Imagine if it was part of a coordinated national strategy, funded on a level the climate crisis should oblige. Imagine instead of volunteers, governments employed people in the business of doing the manual work of neighbourhood climate action. Gosh, it might even start to look like those “jobs of the future”, secure and local, so often discussed yet so rarely delivered. It’s precisely because ideas are dangerous that pursuing these schemes – wherever we can – is so important. Running towards what frightens us instead of away is how we used to distinguish our adulthood from our childhood. The times are upon us to rebuild our living planet, street to street, place to place, land to land. Not just for the sake of a burning Queensland or NSW or the Amazon. Or just for Bambi. But because to have any chance of surviving the terrible fire, even Bambi has to grow up. • Van Badham is a Guardian Australia columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/van-badham', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-09-10T18:00:55Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2023/apr/01/new-oilfield-in-the-north-sea-would-blow-the-uks-carbon-budget | New oilfield in the North Sea would blow the UK’s carbon budget | A single new oil and gas field in the North Sea would be enough to exceed the UK’s carbon budgets from its operations alone, analysis has shown, as the government considers fossil fuel expansion despite the legally binding commitment to net zero. Rosebank is the biggest undeveloped oilfield in the North Sea, with the potential to produce 500m barrels of oil, and has already cleared several regulatory hurdles, meaning a decision on its future could come soon. But analysis by the campaigning group Uplift has shown that the likely emissions just from producing oil from the field would be enough to exceed the share of the UK’s carbon budgets that should come from oil and gas production, from 2028 onwards. That would mean other sectors of the economy would have to cut their emissions further and faster to enable the UK to stay within its carbon budgets, if the Rosebank field went ahead. The findings raise further questions over the government’s plans to push ahead with the development of oil and gas despite pleas from scientists and the UN to halt new licences. Ministers are in the midst of a new licensing round for oil and gas in the North Sea, and this is expected to continue despite the net zero strategy. The government’s energy security and net zero strategies, running to more than 1,000 pages, were unveiled on Thursday. They contain a major gamble on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which will receive £20bn of government support over 20 years, and which ministers said would allow for continued fossil fuel use. But scientists told the Observer that using CCS in this way was a dangerous gamble, and that calling off any proposed new development of oil and gas was a safer way to meet the net zero commitment. The Rosebank field, to be developed by the Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor, is about three times the size of the Cambo field, which was the subject of intense campaigning before being paused last year. The emissions from Rosebank’s operations alone – not counting any emissions from burning the oil and gas it is likely to produce – are likely to reach 5.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to analysis by Uplift of the environmental statements provided by Equinor. This would be enough, when added to the emissions from the operations of existing oil and gas fields, to exceed the amount of emissions that should be allowed to come from the UK’s oil and gas sector, within the UK’s total carbon budget, from 2028. Counting Rosebank’s likely emissions, oil and gas production would exceed its theoretical share of the UK’s fifth carbon budget, from 2028 to 2032, by about 8%, and exceed its share of the sixth carbon budget, from 2033 to 2037, by about 17%. The carbon budget is not formally divided up among emitting sectors, but the Committee on Climate Change provides guidelines suggesting that various sectors should stay within approximate limits. By this reckoning, North Sea oil and gas operations should account for only about 4% of the UK’s carbon budgets, which run for five years each and have so far been set out to 2037. Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, said: “This analysis clearly shows what the government has long known but chosen to ignore: that it is impossible to reconcile approving a huge new oilfield like Rosebank with the UK meeting its climate obligations.” She pointed out that the development could be eligible for £3.57bn in tax breaks under the windfall tax, which hands companies incentives for investing in increased oil and gas production. “Ministers also know that approving Rosebank will do nothing to lower UK fuel bills and will do very little for UK energy security as most of these reserves will likely be exported. On every level, including legally, Rosebank fails.” Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow secretary for climate and net zero, said: “After the miserable failure of ‘green day’ confirmed that the Conservatives will never meet Britain’s energy needs or create the clean jobs of the future, the idea that they are about to throw billions at new fossil fuel exploration shows that they will scandalously waste money on climate vandalism. The evidence is clear: Rosebank will do nothing to cut bills, as the government admit, is no solution to our energy security, and would drive a coach and horses through our climate commitments.” Grant Shapps, secretary of state for energy security and net zero, said at the launch of the government’s Powering Up Britain strategy on Thursday that a decision on Rosebank was “not on my desk”. He defended the continued licensing of oil and gas, despite a plea by 700 scientists last week for the UK to halt new development, and the urging of the UN secretary general, António Guterres, for countries to forgo fossil fuel development and reach net zero by 2040. A spokesperson from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We are on track to deliver our carbon budgets, creating jobs and investment across the UK while reducing emissions. Our carbon budget delivery plan is a dynamic long-term plan for a transition that will take place over the next 15 years, setting us on course to reach net zero by 2050.” | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/fossil-fuels', 'business/oil', 'business/gas', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'politics/politics', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/carbon-capture-and-storage | EMISSIONS | 2023-04-01T18:00:02Z | true | EMISSIONS |
society/2019/dec/06/bees-in-amazon-are-greatest-ally-to-halt-rainforest-destruction | Bees in Amazon 'are greatest ally to halt rainforest destruction' | Under an Amazonian canopy of guava and Xylopia trees, Neida Pereira lifts the lid of a beehive, gently lowers an unprotected hand into the swarm, and smiles as she lifts it out unscathed but covered in pollinators and honey. For the 49-year-old educator and environmentalist, the stingless Amazonian insects are the greatest ally she has found in a decades-long campaign to halt the destruction of the rainforest and improve the livelihoods of its people. “Bees are everything to me. They help me to protect the forest. They help the trees to stand tall, to produce fruit and to be strong,” she says, tears welling. “The bees are much more important than me for the environment.” Pereira speaks not just from the heart, but from experience. The beekeeper was born in a remote forest community and has spent her life working for the training network, Casa Familiar Rural, in remote and threatened regions of Pará state in the north of Brazil. For her, Amazonian beehives are not just a hub of pollination, they are also the most economically viable alternative to the environmentally destructive traditions of slash-and-burn agriculture and cattle ranching. To have any chance of resisting soy plantations and mining companies, Pereira says local people need higher living standards, and an incentive to maintain the forest rather than cut it down. Beekeeping ticks all these boxes. The community here in the Gleba Lago Grande settlement is remote and until recently largely forgotten. Ownership of close to a sixth of the 300,000 hectare area is disputed between residents, land grabbers and distant property speculators. Local residents want the area to be classified as an extractive reserve, which would give protected status to them and the forest. Satellite images show strong forest cover in the area. But pressures are growing. The US mining conglomerate Alcoa is exploring bauxite deposits in the region. Emboldened by the rightwing president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, there has been an increase in illegal logging, fishing and hunting. The head of the residents’ association, Antonio Andrade, has received death threats for trying to stop this. “People ask me what right I have to tell them not to take from the forest and the river. I reply that I don’t do this for myself, I do it for future generations,” Andrade says. “Without us, the majority of the forest would be gone.” His T-shirt is emblazoned with an image of the murdered nun and environmental activist, Dorothy Stang, and her words, “The end of the forest is the end of our life.” Local people need better economic prospects, but according to the destructive logic of the past few decades, that means burning the forest and clearing the land for cattle or monocultures. But there is increasing interest in alternatives, which is where Pereira and the bees come in. With investment from the Global Greengrants Fund – one of the Guardian and Observer’s 2019 appeal charities – and its Brazilian partner CASA Socio-Environmental Fund, the region’s first beekeeping business opened in November at an agri-ecological training centre in the forest. In terms of land, labour and materials, the costs of beekeeping are minimal and the returns potentially lucrative. Showing the first pots of honey and pollen, Pereira estimates that each hive can generate 800 reais (£145 ) in six months. Multiply that by 40 and the returns on a fifth of a hectare of forested land are more than 30 times higher than they would be from the usual backbreaking economic activity of growing manioc (Cassava) on land cleared by fire. “People don’t realise yet how much income they could get from this,” she says. “We have to spread the word.” At this initial stage, the centre is only selling at local markets and relies largely on word of mouth. But they will apply for official certification so they can sell in markets. The main objective, however, is to demonstrate how Amazonian beekeeping works for local people, especially the young. Trainees come from across the region for courses lasting several days. Other units include seed cultivation, soil protection, how to improve per-hectare yields with non-fire land preparation; low-intensity cattle rearing; and reforestation with Amazonian fruit trees, such as pineapple and banana. The Casa Famlliar Rural centre aims to build a new dormitory and plans to create a nursery so that students can take saplings back with them, as well as, hopefully, bees. In the future, they would like to set up a new centre in one of the border areas most threatened by miners and loggers. “We want this to set an example for the region and the world,” said one of the founders of the centre, Paulo Brasil. Pereira says her biggest hope for the future is education. “We need to show the young that there is a different way to live with the forest. But of all the courses we teach, it’s the bees that I love the most. They are so beautiful. I can watch them all day.” Please donate to our appeal here | ['society/series/guardian-and-observer-charity-appeal-2019', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/brazil', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'society/society', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-06T12:00:41Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2019/oct/02/australiansuper-tells-minerals-council-its-climate-policy-is-not-strong-enough | AustralianSuper tells Minerals Council its climate policy is 'not strong enough' | Australia’s biggest superannuation fund, the $170bn AustralianSuper, has warned the Minerals Council its position on the climate crisis was not good enough and the peak mining body needed to do more. AustralianSuper’s head of environmental, social and governance issues, Andrew Gray, told Guardian Australia the council was a good example of a group of industry associations that had made a general commitment to the principles of the Paris agreement, designed to limit global heating to 2C, but had failed to say how their members would do so. “They’ve got a very high-level statement about alignment with Paris but I want to see them do more,” he said. The substance behind its statement needed to be developed. “A high-level statement like that was probably where people were at a few years ago, but people need to keep evolving,” he said. Over the coming year, tackling industry associations whose climate agendas did not match the stated goals of member companies would be a priority for Climate Action 100+, a global group of investment funds including AustralianSuper that control more than $35tn in assets. Other members of the 370-strong group include Australian fund manager BT, global bank HSBC and California’s state pension fund Calpers. In its first progress report, the group – which was set up in December 2017 – said many companies were making progress but more needed to be done. Gray, who sits on the Climate Action 100+ steering committee, said the initiative was still in its early days. “I’m not disappointed about the progress to date but that’s not the same as saying much more doesn’t need to be done,” he said. “I think these achievements are really significant and we’ve got a lot of momentum.” The Minerals Council’s position on the climate has already caused significant pain for the peak body, with its chief executive, Brendan Pearson, leaving the organisation in November 2017 after clashes with BHP and Rio Tinto, who were unhappy with its advocacy for coal. Despite changes at the council, activists and investors have continued to pressure the big miners over their continued membership. Rio Tinto threatened to quit if the council made statements contradicting the Paris agreement, and BHP is reviewing its membership of all industry organisations.On Tuesday, after lobbying from Climate Action 100+, BHP released new guidance that broadened the issues it would examine when deciding if it should be a member of industry groups. “I think it’s very good steps in the right direction,” Gray said. In its report, Climate Action 100+ said 77% of companies clearly assigned responsibility for climate to the board of directors, but less than 8% ensured their positions were consistent with those of industry associations. “It’s important that industry associations of which companies are a member have consistent positions with their members,” Gray said. “If that’s not the case that represents a business risk for us.” This was because any inconsistency was “potentially undermining the company’s position”, he said. “Generally speaking the climate policy positions of industry associations aren’t where they need to be, they’re not as strong as they need to be,” he said. “The Minerals Council, I think, is a good example.” The Minerals Council’s chief executive, Tania Constable, said it “welcomes AustralianSuper’s endorsement of our public policy position on climate change and agrees with them that there is more that the industry can do, and is doing, to improve environmental outcomes”. She said the Australian minerals industry supported the Paris agreement and claimed the industry’s direct emissions “might have peaked already”. “Australian mining businesses are working together to make our contribution to lowering emissions,” she said. “This includes reducing the emissions from minerals extraction and processing, investment in low emission technology such as carbon capture and storage, energy-efficiency initiatives and increasing the use of renewable energy in operations.” Gray said although AustralianSuper did not screen out companies based on their environmental performance, it was an issue that fed into how they valued potential investments. “The size of ownership or whether we own it or not will be affected,” he said. Companies had to deal with both the physical risk global heating posed to their businesses and with the risks associated with moving the world to a low-carbon future. “I think it is inherently a difficult issue because we are dealing with a) the weather and b) a wholesale economic transition,” he said. But this was not much different to working out the risks associated with other changes, such as technology, he said: “A lot of things investors have to forecast for the long term are inherently difficult.” | ['australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/mining', 'environment/mining', 'australia-news/superannuation-australia', 'business/investing', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/australia-economy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-butler', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news', 'tracking/platformfunctional/dcrblacklist'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2019-10-02T07:00:07Z | true | ENERGY |
sport/2022/sep/14/helena-rowland-hat-trick-red-roses-england-beat-wales-set-winning-record | Helena Rowland bags hat-trick as Red Roses beat Wales and set winning record | A Helena Rowland hat-trick helped England to a 73-7 win over Wales at Ashton Gate, which means the Red Roses will head to the World Cup on a winning run of 25 consecutive matches. They are the first international rugby team to win 25 in a row – the perfect springboard from which to launch their campaign on 8 October against Fiji. A key moment in the match came around the 70-minute mark when the Red Roses went down to 14 players. Player of the match Rowland was taken off in what was described as a precautionary measure and she could not be replaced as England had already emptied their bench. “She started to cramp,” said the England head coach, Simon Middleton. “The last thing we want is for the cramp to turn into a tear. Medical were concerned. “Yes it gives you a chance to look at a 14-player scenario and get Holly [Aitchison] some time. We wanted to look at Holly at 13 and what we didn’t want to do was disrespect Wales in any way. We would never do that. I would rather have that finger pointed at me than leave my 12 on the field and the cramp turns into a tear. We were never going to take a chance on that.” After a minute’s silence for Queen Elizabeth II the match got under way. England had good early possession but the lineout was sloppy five metres out, which gave Wales a foothold. The visitors won another penalty and fly-half Elinor Snowsill showed their intent with a kick to the corner. However, the tides quickly turned with England gathering the ball from the Wales lineout and running it upfield. In the 22 Rowland ran a beautiful line to bypass two defenders and crash over. That had the 11,961 crowd on their feet. Rowland had a try ruled out due to obstruction a few minutes later after a TMO check. Wales were the next to strike with a driving maul allowing Gwen Crabb reap the rewards, Snowsill added the extras to level the game after 15 minutes. England hit back quickly with Lydia Thompson working a play straight off the training pitch to rip open the defence, eventually winning a penalty. The ball was whipped out from the maul to Emily Scarratt, who leaped to England’s second try. The hosts’ driving maul came into play next but Alex Callender brought it down illegally and was sent to the sin bin. The hosts took full advantage of being a player up with Marlie Packer crashing over off the back of a maul. England’s fourth came through a penalty try. There was a worry for the team shortly before as Lark Davies was replaced by Amy Cokayne and Middleton did not have a conclusive answer on Davies’s injury. Ellie Kildunne wrapped up the first half with the Red Roses’ fifth as England outnumbered Wales on the wing. The Red Roses continued their scoring ways immediately after the break with Cokayne going over from a driving maul and the replacement hooker was instrumental in their next try, running a great line to feed Rowland, who sprinted over. Scarratt lodged her complaints after her conversion was charged down by Callender but the referee, Aurélie Groizeleau, was happy. England kept hammering the Welsh line and found another score through Scarratt. A slick team try followed with replacements Claudia MacDonald, Aitchison and Hannah Botterman putting it through the hands to put Rowland through for her hat-trick. Botterman and Zoe Aldcroft finished off an impressive display with their fire firmly lit to win back the trophy they have not had their hands on since 2014. Wales, too, will be on a plane to New Zealand for the World Cup and their captain, Hannah Jones, said: “We have a bit of time now to hurt, to reflect. We have got to pick ourselves up, there is a quick turnaround.” | ['sport/england-womens-rugby-union-team', 'sport/womens-rugby-union', 'sport/wales-womens-rugby-union-team', 'sport/sport', 'sport/rugby-union', 'campaign/email/the-breakdown', 'type/article', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/sarah-rendell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/wales-womens-rugby-union-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-09-14T22:15:20Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/feb/06/food-waste-solutions-cuttlefish-testicles-pigs-heads | Food waste solutions: cuttlefish testicles and pigs' heads | Waste is the most pressing problem in modern food (unless you don't have enough of it – but that's another post). Home cooks are endlessly lectured about cutting back the 30% of usable food we are said to throw away. The government-backed Wrap agency, with its Love Food, Hate Waste campaign, has been at the job for 14 years. Now the supermarkets are issuing their own finger-wagging advice (which is sort of hypocritical, because it is in food production and retail that most waste occurs). Tesco admitted recently that it throws away 30,000 tonnes of food a year – including a third of all the bags of salad it puts on sale. At the restaurant level it is all rather different. For a start, food is a relatively minor expense compared with staff costs and premises. The more high-end restaurants make little, if any, money on their food; the profit is in alcohol. Good restaurants order ingredients according to what the bookings and experience dictates, and managers hold chefs to account if they have overdone the buying. So avoiding waste becomes more of an issue of pride and morality – that, at least, is the attitude of five big-name chefs who have contributed ideas to a photo exhibition and conference being held in London this week by the Sustainable Restaurant Association and the Dutch embassy. The results are dishes of ugly fish, wonky carrots as served at Grain Store, mackerel scratchings, prawn heads, cuttlefish testicles prized by chef Peter Weeden and some of the far extremities of farm animals. Wahaca's Thomasina Miers came up with dishes to make the most of Sunday roast leftovers, and Henry Dimbleby made a "bin-end pilaff". Last month I watched two Michelin-starred Andrew Fairlie working in his kitchen at the Gleneagles hotel. "Using the whole beast is a great way to cook," he said, pulling out a bucket of pink pigs' tails. "It's cost effective. Buying local? Using the whole beast? It drives me mad when people boast about these things. Any self-respecting chef should be buying local and using as much of the animal as possible." Fairlie cooked us his glorious "pig bits" signature dish. It is a celebration of the far ends of the animal, so often discarded in Britain, though not in more sensible places such as Thailand or China. On the plate you get a series of intriguing riffs – roulade of head, confited and smoked pork belly, crispy pig's tail, creamy boudin noir – served with crispy bacon, jus, tarragon mustard and caramelised apple. "We're using every bit of the pig except the bones." This parade appears on the menu simply as assiette de porc. It has been a favourite since Fairlie opened his restaurant at Gleneagles 13 years ago, outselling every other main course. Over the years, the only change is that the medallion of pork loin was dropped. Customers wanted the odd bits. In the kitchen, we watch Fairlie's chefs prepare the different elements of the dish. It is time-consuming. "Most of the expense is the labour," he says. But the ingredients are insanely cheap. Pig heads are just 50p each. The big bucket of pigs' tails were free from the supplier. From that bucket and six heads will come as many as 140 portions, the main part of a dish selling for more than £20. You'd have thought the economics of that might inspire a canny restaurateur – but, of course, there are some fine old-fashioned skills needed. "The young chefs need to be taught. We had this young guy, 26 or so, he's worked in some great restaurants but this was the first time he'd seen a whole pig's head. He was so excited. Boning a pig's head is an amazing skill. "Chefs have to understand the anatomy of the animal. It drives me nuts when you see people chucking the head of a beast away. Go to the farm, meet the farmer, see what he goes through. You wouldn't toss good food away again." Campaigner and author Tristram Stuart sees tackling food waste as a global crusade. "We, the people, do have the power to stop the tragic waste of resources if we regard it as socially unacceptable to waste food." He quotes the recent report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which estimated that 30-50% of the 4bn tonnes of food produced globally each year never reaches a human stomach due to "poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, as well as market and consumer wastage". Even a partial solution would go a long way to solving the problem of feeding the nine billion people expected to inhabit the earth by 2050. How to get started: ask your butcher for a pig's head and do this, with advice from St John's Fergus Henderson. Sourcing cuttlefish testicles may be a little harder. | ['lifeandstyle/wordofmouth', 'food/chefs', 'food/restaurants', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/exhibition', 'tone/blog', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/alexrenton'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-02-06T12:29:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/jul/03/uk-overseas-aid-climate-crisis-environment-spending | UK to put climate crisis and environment at the heart of overseas aid | The UK will have an “ethical” development policy that puts the climate emergency and environmental protection at the heart of overseas aid, with more than £190m to be spent directly on climate-related issues in the first initiative, the government has announced. Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, said he hoped this sum would soon be doubled and “run to billions rather than hundreds of millions” within a few years. But he noted even this would not be enough given the massive international lack of funding for the climate. “Particularly in the midst of a leadership campaign, people talk as if we are spending eye-watering sums [on international aid], but … the global funding gap on climate change is $2.5tn. We are only just scratching the surface,” he said. However, Stewart’s ambition of increasing spending on the environment may not become lasting government policy, as he is likely to be reshuffled when either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt becomes prime minister. He recently said it would be “heartbreaking” to leave the post. Of the initial £193m, about £100m will be spent on low-carbon energy and projects to cut carbon emissions in the developing world. The remainder will be split among projects to help developing countries adapt to the effects of global heating, and agriculture, including developing crops that are less susceptible to heat, drought and floods. An unspecified tranche of the £193m is likely to be spent in the UK, as institutions around the world will be invited to bid to undertake research and development into technology that can reduce emissions and help people adapt to global heating. For instance, weather forecasting data is essential to helping people become resilient to the effects of the climate crisis, such as floods and droughts, and communications technology is needed to ensure people gain access to forecasts in a timely manner. Current ways of measuring the success of overseas aid spending might also have to change, Stewart suggested. The focus on increasing the GDP of developing countries was “based on calculations the development economists of the 1960s pursued – a very narrow model for growth, still in use in the Treasury and DfID [Department for International Development]”. Stewart said there was “no simple mathematical formula” that translated investment into long-lasting effects on the ground, and in many cases, development was not a simple transfer of cash, because local politics and other circumstances determined whether projects succeeded. “The secret is not numbers; the secret is values. This is ultimately an ethical project, and DfID has a moral purpose,” he declared. Instead, Stewart said, the results of spending should be looked at on a variety of measures, including wellbeing, resilience to climate change, building communities and reducing environmental harm. Stewart also took aim at China, saying the Belt and Road initiative to increase Beijing’s influence in developing countries was “pushing fossil fuels”. He suggested the UK’s soft power could be brought to bear by “leaning in” to China to discuss ways of using low-carbon energy instead. By putting consideration of the climate and environmental protection into every project DfID pursues, Stewart said, overseas aid could be transformed. “If we can get this right, you can imagine international development, climate change and the environment as a single thing, not a series of weird trade-offs,” he said. “All development policies must be ethical. The key is in partnerships – it’s not us giving lessons to other people; it’s about sharing. In the end, all politics must be morally purposed.” Stewart gained plaudits for his passionate performance in the Tory leadership campaign, before being knocked out, leaving either Johnson or Hunt to become the next British prime minister. | ['environment/green-politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/rory-stewart', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/aid', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-07-03T12:45:53Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sustainable-business/2016/may/27/rachel-bradley-guardian-sustainable-business-unsung-hero-2016-rhs-timber-peat-free-plastics-collaboration-kingfisher | Rachel Bradley: Guardian Sustainable Business unsung hero of the year 2016 | Quiet tenacity, impressive determination and outstanding leadership are just some of the qualities Rachel Bradley’s colleagues point to when asked why they nominated her to be the Guardian Sustainable Business Unsung Hero 2016. The reader-nominated award, the winner of which is chosen by public vote, recognises an employee who has gone beyond the call of duty to drive sustainable change in his or her organisation. In Bradley’s case, she has managed a number of significant projects in her 11 years at B&Q, including completing the transition to 100% responsibly sourced timber that began in 1991, working towards the company’s products becoming peat-free, and adopting the RHS Perfect for Pollinators label to help customers choose the best flowers for butterflies and bees. Bradley – who heads up One Planet Home, B&Q’s sustainability programme – is unaware that she has won the award when the Guardian interviews her over the phone, but she is clearly delighted to have been shortlisted. She is modest about her achievements: “One Planet Home has been the umbrella for a range of exciting projects over the years. I’m not sure I can take credit for any of them, but I have been privileged to be involved with some amazing people who have found a way to include consideration of sustainability in their work and exceeded everyone’s expectations.” Bradley’s colleague George Padelopoulos, B&Q’s responsible sourcing manager, is more direct: “It’s time that Rachel’s tenacity, commitment, resilience and unstinting passion for doing the right thing is recognised. It is not often in the world of retail that a programme lasts a couple of years, let alone the 10 that One Planet Home has. Rachel needs to take a huge amount of credit and recognition for being the driving force behind it.” As well as working to improve the sustainability options for B&Q’s customers, Bradley is tasked with improving the sustainability track record of the company and its 30,000 employees. This includes a commitment to reduce the business’s carbon footprint by 90% by 2023 through behaviour change initiatives such as in-store eco heroes, investment in technologies such as LED lighting, and a commitment to renewables. While B&Q stores are a long way from plastic free, the company has developed its so-called teabag technology for plants – peat-free compost held together by biodegradable packaging made from compostable corn starch and coconut husk fibres that can be placed straight into the ground. A truly sustainable organisation is one which can work with and support wider sustainability initiatives, something that B&Q – under Bradley’s leadership – has done remarkably well. From designing the One Planet Home programme with sustainability charity BioRegional, to working with Friends of the Earth (FoE) to protect British bees and collaborating with the RSPB to promote peat-free gardening, B&Q highlights the role a multinational can play in improving its environmental impacts when it puts time, money and dedicated staff behind it. “Rachel was one of the first to see the value in the collaboration [between FoE and B&Q ] but she always asked the hard questions,” says James Cole, former business engagement manager at FoE. “She has a business mind and an environmental conscience – a vital confluence if we are to make progress on corporate sustainability.” Rachel Bradley is the 2016 winner of the unsung hero of the year category of the Guardian Sustainable Business Awards. | ['sustainable-business/series/gsb-awards-2016', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/gsb-awards', 'sustainable-business/series/sustainability-case-studies', 'business/kingfisher', 'business/business', 'business/retail', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/bees', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/insects', 'sustainable-business/series/unsung-sustainability-hero-of-the-year', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/guardian-sustainable-business-awards-winners-2016', 'profile/tess-riley', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-05-27T04:00:22Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2018/jan/25/wind-and-solar-success-shows-spirit-of-snowy-lies-with-renewables | Wind and solar success shows spirit of Snowy resides with renewable energy | Tristan Edis | When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced he wanted to massively expand the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme, he was on a political winner. The Snowy Hydro Scheme is an icon in Australia’s history, driven by leaders across both Labor and Liberal Governments. For many Australians it is a symbol of what we’re capable of achieving as a country when we put our mind to something. From 1949 to 1974 it was constructed by a multi-cultural team including many immigrants escaping a Europe that had been ravaged by war. When seen up close, the tunnels, dams and power plant infrastructure are a truly impressive sight. They are a testament to how our country can successfully harness the hard work and talents of people from across many countries and cultures. Several decades on it continues to deliver great benefits to the country with rapid-response power supply and irrigated agriculture. No wonder the American Society of Civil Engineering deems it one of the engineering wonders of the world. Australians are sick of politicians who seem to be only capable of bickering and tearing others down. That’s why Turnbull’s announcement to build Snowy 2.0 made for such a refreshing and welcome change. Finally a political leader who, rather than trying to tear others down, telling us what can’t be done and what’s wrong, instead wanted to build something to achieve something great and inspiring. But there’s something else in the here and now that Australians can now point towards as a symbol of what great things we can achieve. In just the past year Australia started construction on renewable energy projects that within the next two years will produce more than twice the amount of electricity generated by the Snowy Hydro-Electric Scheme (which took a quarter century to build). Green Energy Markets has been tracking construction activity in the Australian renewable energy industry dating back to 2001. Pulling together the data for our Renewable Energy Index it was staggering what had been achieved last year. The 3,700MW of capacity committed to construction in 2017 (more than twice the capacity of Hazelwood power station) completely dwarfed anything achieved before. On top of this construction activity at the big utility-scale level, Australian households and businesses installed a record amount of solar PV on their rooftops – exceeding 1,000MW. We now have a cumulative total of 6,500MW of rooftop solar, with almost all of it installed since 2010. A little appreciated fact is that while the Snowy scheme is certainly an engineering marvel, the amount of power we’ll produce from wind and solar dwarfs that produced by the Snowy Scheme. And this wind and solar power has been built far faster. This achievement opens our eyes to what might be possible in addressing what is the most carbon emission-intensive electricity supply in the developed world. If we simply kept up the level of construction commitments seen in 2017 for another decade it would produce almost two-thirds of Australia’s entire electricity consumption. For those who continue to doubt our ability to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels it’s worth looking back on what was said not long ago. In May 2015, the then energy minister Ian Macfarlane told ABC Radio that achieving the 2020 Renewable Energy Target would be “an enormous challenge”, which he had serious doubts could be met. He said all the best wind farm sites were gone and there were no other competitive technologies available to share the load. To back up his claims he cited the current head of the Australian electricity industry association saying, “Matthew (Warren)’s view is that it is almost impossible to build this many wind towers in the time they have available.” On Tuesday this week, two and half years later, the current energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, declared, “ there will be enough renewable energy projects built over the next three years to meet the Renewable Energy Target in 2020”. He added, “This milestone has been surpassed ahead of schedule following a record level of investment in renewable energy in 2017.” Then in a comment that represents a perfect rebuttal to the lack of foresight of his predecessor, Frydenberg observed, “One of the major shifts in the market is the huge increase in share of large-scale solar. In the first 6,000 megawatts committed under the scheme, solar contributed only 4% of the total. In the firmly announced projects since 2016, solar now makes up 46%.” Rather than spending all their time looking in the rear-view mirror to dream up reasons for why Australia can’t achieve great things, imagine if our leaders, like those behind the original Snowy Hydro scheme, tried harder to think through how great things could be done. Tristan Edis is a director at Green Energy Markets | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/josh-frydenberg', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/tristan-edis', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2018-01-24T17:00:52Z | true | ENERGY |
news/2005/may/20/brazil.environment | Rainforest loss shocks Brazil | Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest last year was the second worst ever, figures released by the Brazilian government have shown. Satellite photos and other data showed that ranchers, loggers and especially soy bean farmers felled more than 10,000 square miles. The figures shocked Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva, who told delegates to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre earlier this year that she believed that increases in deforestation had been stemmed and that illegal deforestation was under control. In fact, the destruction was nearly 6% higher than in the same period in 2003, when 9,500 square miles were destroyed. "We will intensify our actions to fight illegal deforestation in the most critical areas," Ms Silva said. She added that deforestation in several Amazon states had decreased. Just under half of the deforestation occurred in the state of Mato Grosso, where trees have been replaced with soya fields, largely to supply the booming European market, which has moved away from genetically modified soya grown mainly in the US, and rapidly industrialising China. Last year soya exports propelled Brazil to a record trade surplus. New figures show more than 70% of the loss occurred between May and July 2004, immediately after the adoption of President Lula's plan to curb deforestation. Environmentalists were dismayed at the figures, which were announced nearly a year after the Brazilian government pledged $140m (£76.25m) to increase surveillance of threatened areas and create large environmental reserves. "Agribusiness and illegal logging are key culprits. President Lula's government is facing a fundamental contradiction: to fight Amazon deforestation or to promote the expansion of agribusiness to pay the Brazilian external debt", said Paulo Adario, head of of Greenpeace Amazon. "The government needs to restrict soya plantations to areas already deforested, combat illegal logging, and effectively implement their own anti-deforestation plan", he said. | ['world/brazil', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'environment/conservation', 'world/world', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2005-05-20T10:21:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/2014/jul/01/corporate-values-practice-diversity-management | Taking values from the page to practice | Corporate values such as “creativity," “diversity,” or “transparency” may sound straightforward, but turning those ideals into action can prove much more difficult than expected. For one thing, interpretations about what those values really mean — and how and when they should apply — can vary widely. In a recent survey conducted by sustainability non-profit Katerva for Guardian Sustainable Business, we asked corporate leaders about the barriers they face in bringing company values to life and how these barriers are being addressed. The answers suggest that employees at all levels are challenged by the inconsistent use of values, as well as a lack of open communication about where values aren't working. For example, one respondent from a global media company (we agreed to withhold names to encourage honesty and avoid repercussions) said that while creativity is a “'highly touted' value, the hallway conversation around here is that there is absolutely no time allowed for creativity. How much value does it actually have?” That said, the same employee was very proud of the company's transparency in its operations, as evidenced by its corporate social responsibility reporting and its participation in global reporting initiatives. It's not unusual for some values to end up getting applied more vigorously than others. When values sow confusion instead of clarity Employees of multinationals reported the most unease about the gap between the values expressed on paper and how they play out in practice. They reported that in multinational, multicultural situations, the values themselves can become sources of misunderstanding. While it is convenient to create short, snappy values statements, this brevity can force people to make assumptions about meaning, leading to frustration when translating both content and intent from one language or regional context to another. As one respondent noted: “Top-management is outspoken about the role that values play in the success of our business. That said, those values don’t always show up in the way that our operational managers implement. This is especially true in places far from the headquarters and where the culture is very different.” It seems that these cultural assumptions and interpretations must be explored in order to pin down exactly how the values should be applied and understood. In the survey, multinational employees who reported the most open dialogue about values also expressed the greatest understanding and acceptance of those values. Still, frustrations about the gap between a company's stated values and their implementation figured prominently in respondents' written remarks. Here are some quotes about the gap from individual respondents: • On the inability to challenge leadership: “While our corporate values state that ‘we communicate openly and honestly', there is no reward for truth-telling about leadership or their pet programs. If the CEO likes something, no matter how much of a waste of time it is, nobody is going to say so.” • On respect for women’s opinions: One senior manager at a big multi-national wrote: “While we say we respect everyone’s opinions equally, this is a very male-dominated culture — both in the company and in the region. A woman’s ability to be heard isn’t just a matter of ‘leaning in.’ There is no way to safely call the question about whether a woman’s opinion is being discounted. This is particularly difficult here where women are still more 'seen than heard.'” • On diversity: “It’s one thing to support a value such as diversity. You would be considered a cretin if you didn’t. But our customer base is much more diverse at the management level than we are. It use to be that our leadership claimed they were doing the best they could — that there were not enough women educated as engineers to fill the spaces that ultimately lead to managerial spots. But the available pool is there now. Our company culture just hasn’t caught up.” A real commitment For those who felt that their company was doing a good job in leading with values across the globe, the key seemed to be an organizational commitment to a values-driven conversation, demonstrated by sharing stories and applauding success (and sometimes failures) and explicitly using values to shape culture. “Our company has embedded our values into key edicts, taglines and themes that are a core part of our culture,” one respondent wrote. “These are everywhere and everyone talks about them. If you act outside of these, someone is going to notice and ask why.” Ultimately, our survey shows companies with the strongest and most consistent approach to applying values across all departments and in all regions have a lively and honest dialogue about values, more or less all the time. When asked to explain why it’s important for values to be applied consistently, most survey respondents had a simple answer: it builds trust. Why should management care? Organizations with a culture of trust often have higher levels of performance and retention. The Edelman Trust Barometer, now in it’s 13th year, validates the importance of trust as a key indicator for success for business. But trust in leadership is lower than ever, according to the report, and the barriers to building trust are significant. This is where values play a huge role. To our respondents, values are just an accessory unless they are understood and lived consistently by all employees – from management to front-line workers — and applied fairly in every part of the world. Taking on all the different assumptions and interpretations — and hammering out all the inconsistencies — takes plenty of courage from leadership. But confronting these issues head on can move the values now hanging on the company wall to where they can really make a difference — in the everyday actions of your employees. Jean Brittingham is a partner and the chief operating officer of Katerva. The values-led business hub is funded by SC Johnson. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here | ['type/article', 'sustainable-business/transparency', 'sustainable-business/ethics', 'sustainable-business/engaging-employees', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'tone/comment'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-07-01T13:03:08Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2014/feb/16/flood-defences-osborne-yesterdays-crisis | Flood defences: George Osborne tackled yesterday's crisis at the cost of today's | Chris Huhne | There is no excuse. In 2010 the coalition slashed spending on flood defences when it should have gone up. Even last year's increase in flood defence spending was under duress. The insurers, some of the most enlightened big businesses on this issue, have repeatedly warned about the rising claims and losses from climate change-induced extreme weather. A confidential deal struck last June, ahead of the spending review, increased flood defence spending as a payback for the insurance companies continuing to provide cover for 350,000 homes at high flood risk. The Association of British Insurers had the Treasury and Owen Paterson, the climate-sceptic environment secretary, over a barrel. If the government had not increased flood defence spending, the insurers would have pulled cover. Since you cannot get a mortgage on a property without buildings insurance, and with one in six homes at some flood risk, that would have put a torpedo through the chancellor's housing market revival. The 2010 cuts were entirely driven by the chancellor's impatience for deficit reduction, rather than by climate scepticism. This was long before Tory wobbles on windfarms and climate science. We tackled yesterday's crisis at the cost of today's. The proof is the divergence of the two Whitehall departments with responsibility for climate change. Oddly, the budget for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (which has responsibility for adapting to the impact of climate change and for the Environment Agency) was slashed. The budget for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (with responsibility for stopping future climate change, but also nuclear clean-up) suffered far less. Nor did Defra at that stage have a climate sceptic in charge: Caroline Spelman is a diligent Cameroonian who respects the scientific evidence on climate change, and was effective in fighting Whitehall battles such as for a Green Investment Bank with borrowing powers. Spelman was unfairly sacked after a U-turn on forestry privatisation that was Downing Street's fault. But at the time of the spending review she had the ingenue's fatal weakness in the Whitehall jungle; she was like a team-playing head girl who put her hand up first, and settled early, when the Treasury came calling for cuts. Whatever the Treasury says, it never gives spending ministers credit for being reasonable or early. Result? The capital budget at Defra was down 34% in real terms over the coalition's first spending review period – flood defences to the fore – while the capital budget at my old department was up 41%. Why is Labour not making more of this coalition cock-up? Simple. The overall capital spending plans pursued by George Osborne after 2010 were the same as those laid down in 2009 by his predecessor, Alistair Darling. Labour planned to cut public capital spending – including flood defences – from £44bn in 2009-10 to £22bn in 2013-4. That was a decision, of course, that Ed Miliband and Ed Balls signed off as cabinet members. This was frankly nuts, as even someone as ideologically committed to a small state as the chancellor has now recognised: the coalition has recently been upping the spending on public investment across the board. The flood defence story is particularly salutary, since the Environment Agency has been designing good schemes. Even though we've had the wettest January for 250 years, the flooding has done less damage to life and limb than in the past. So far, the number of people who have died as a result of the storms and flooding is just into double figures. In 1953 more than 300 people died in storm surge flooding on the east coast (where sea levels rise when water is pushed south down the narrowing North Sea). In 2007 flash floods killed 13 and are estimated to have caused £6bn of damage. Global warming allows the air to carry more moisture, so that more intense and frequent storms and rainfall are an entirely predictable consequence, as Sir Michael Pitt's review of 2007 said. One of the most alarming features is the sudden downpour that can cause floods, even on high ground, as storm drains are overwhelmed. We will have to adapt to climate change in ways most people have yet to fathom: flood defences, stronger roofing, road foundations, upgrading inadequate storm drains, and separating them from sewers. The cost is high, as the rows over the £4.2bn London super-sewer show. The Tory climate sceptics' line is changing. Now they are arguing that we should be spending money on adapting, but not wasting it on trying to stop the problem. It is progress of a sort: learning by drowning. But it is absurd given the existence of two frightening accelerators. The first is that these storms are happening when we have only warmed 0.85C since 1880, and have another 1.15 degrees to go before the so-called "danger level" of 2 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures. The second is the evidence from the Foresight flood studies that a rise in rainfall intensity leads to four times the rise in flood damage. Look out that rain-spattered window, and imagine the forces of nature that we will have to fight if we arrive at 5C warming and more, which is where we are heading without urgent action. It does not bear thinking about. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/flooding', 'politics/georgeosborne', 'politics/politics', 'politics/conservatives', 'society/public-sector-cuts', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/chrishuhne', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-16T20:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2007/dec/10/pressandpublishing.transportintheuk | Tube passengers discard 9.5 tonnes of free papers a day | London underground passengers are discarding nine-and-a-half tonnes of freesheet newspapers a day on three of the tube network's busiest lines, it emerged today. Commuters on the on Northern, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines are cluttering up carriages with copies of the Metro, thelondonpaper and London Lite, according to the contractor in charge of maintaining the lines. Tube Lines said the amount of waste paper has tripled since Associated Newspapers, publisher of London Lite, and News International, owner of thelondonpaper, launched a freebie battle over London readers. The company admitted today that the piles of unwanted newspapers had contributed to it missing one of the targets in its Public Private Partnership contract with Transport for London, the public body that owns the tube network. "There has been a huge increase in the numbers of free newspapers being left on trains; typically 9.5 tonnes are picked off trains each day now, compared with 3 tonnes in the past," said Tube Lines. A spokeswoman for the company said the freesheet mountains were straining staff resources, with armies of cleaners being deployed in the morning to sweep up copies of the Metro and then filing out in the evenings to bin thelondonpaper and London Lite - the free version of the Evening Standard. "There are so many of these free newspapers when the trains get to the end of their journeys now. There are piles of paper and it is having an impact," said the spokeswoman. Tube Lines said it missed its "ambience target", which measures factors such as cleanliness of carriages and how secure passengers feel during journeys, between July and September this year. Under the terms of the PPP agreement, Tube Lines will receive a lower maintenance payment from TfL for missing the benchmark. The company admitted it did not have full details of why the target was missed because the ambience section is measured by a "mystery shopper" survey. However, Tube Lines singled out newspaper clutter as the most likely cause and admitted that it is powerless to prevent freesheets from piling up in carriages. "There is very little that we can do other than ask London Underground to encourage people to take their papers with them," said the Tube Lines spokeswoman. The total tonnage of waste newspapers could be four times higher, because Tube Lines accounts for three out of the capital's 12 underground lines. | ['business/business', 'media/media', 'media/pressandpublishing', 'uk/transport', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'uk/london', 'type/article', 'profile/danmilmo'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2007-12-10T14:46:31Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/2020/jan/21/counter-terrorism-policy-is-a-threat-to-democracy | Counter-terrorism policy is a threat to democracy | Letters | We are deeply concerned at the inclusion of peaceful campaigning organisations in a counter-terrorism police document distributed to NHS trusts, schools and safeguarding boards (Report, 18 January). The suggestion that campaigning for peace, environmental justice, human rights and animal rights, and against racism, should be regarded by those safeguarding the public as extremist activities is grotesque. This provides yet more evidence of the threat posed to core democratic values, including free speech, by the government’s counter-terrorism agenda. This document must be immediately rescinded. But there is also an urgent need for a full, and proper independent review of the Prevent strategy. More widely, we collectively support the demands of the Network for Police Monitoring’s Protest Is Not Extremism campaign, which calls on the police to stop categorising campaigning and protest activities as “domestic extremism”, for a clear separation of protest policing from counter-terrorism, and for better protection for campaigners against surveillance. This must include independent oversight of how the police use surveillance in relation to political protest. These proposed measures are essential to defend our right to political engagement and peaceful protest – and indeed to defend democracy. Kate Hudson General secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Ben Jamal Director, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Lindsey German Convener, Stop the War Coalition, John Sauven Executive director, Greenpeace UK, Isobel Hutchinson Director, Animal Aid, Weyman Bennett Co-convener, Unite Against Fascism, Sabby Dhalu Joint secretary, Stand Up to Racism, Jane Tallents Trident Ploughshares, Angie Zelter XR Peace • How have we got to the point where those campaigning for environmental justice are now regarded by the state as potential terrorists? One answer to this is that this is not a new phenomenon. For decades, state agents and politicians of both major parties have sought to extend the definition of subversion – as Merlyn Rees, the former Labour home secretary, did in 1978. In 1981, a former senior police officer, Harold Salisbury, defined subversion as “anyone who shows affinity towards communism, that’s common sense, the IRA, the PLO and I would say anyone who’s decrying marriage, family life, trying to break that up, pushing drugs, homosexuality, indiscipline in schools, weak penalties for anti- social crimes … a whole gamut of things that could be pecking away at the foundations of our society and weakening it”. In fact, it is the views of those like Rees and Salisbury, and their contemporary equivalents, not the attitudes of those engaging in perfectly lawful activities, which are undermining and pecking away at the democratic foundations of this country. Such attitudes and pronouncements are designed to discourage popular participation in democratic action for fear of being labelled domestic terrorists. Is there any other country in the world, which claims to be democratic, where those campaigning against badger culling have been placed on a terror list? Even having to ask this question clearly illustrates the further intensification in the authoritarianism of the state. Prof Joe Sim School of Justice Studies, Liverpool John Moores University • The only surprise about police monitoring the likes of Greenpeace should be that anyone is surprised. Those of us with longer memory and experience know that the police and their co-workers, special branch, MI5 etc, have always treated members of such groups as dangerous radicals and extremists to be watched. In the 1980s I was a member of Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and CND; I was illegally detained and photographed at a peaceful demonstration where the police, mostly not local, were under the direction of a special branch officer. I expect I have a file somewhere, which will have to be dusted off when I chain my Zimmer frame to the railings in protest at the importation of chlorinated chicken. Andrew Gold Seaton, Devon • On Monday three of my friends from Manchester XR presented themselves at their local police station to register as potential “terrorists”. They were politely received and offered a cup of tea. Their only complaint? There was no vegan milk. Lisa Battye Oxton, Merseyside • 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 | ['politics/terrorism', 'uk/uksecurity', 'politics/politics', 'uk-news/prevent-strategy', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'world/protest', 'world/activism', 'uk/police', 'tone/letters', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2020-01-21T18:39:39Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
business/2005/aug/30/usnews.hurricanekatrina | Insurers count the cost of Katrina | Hurricane Katrina will be the costliest single event for insurers since the September 11 attacks, companies predicted today. Estimates of losses ran as high as $26bn (£14.5bn) before Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico's coast. Air Worldwide of Boston yesterday forecast a payout of between $12bn and $26bn, while Risk Management Solutions of Newark, California, estimated $10bn to $25bn. Those were pared back today as New Orleans escaped the brunt of the fiercest storm to hit the US since Hurricane Andrew smashed into southern Florida in 1992. The city remained on the western, less powerful side of the hurricane, which brought winds of 140mph ashore with it. However, damage was severe to catastrophic in much of Louisiana and Mississippi, with the tourist resorts of Biloxi and Gulfport particularly badly affected. In New Orleans, one of the levees that protect the city, which sits below sea level, was breached. At least 80 people died as a result of the storms, according to unconfirmed reports. Fitch Ratings, the international ratings agency, said Katrina would probably be the most expensive single event for insurers since the September 11 attacks of 2001, which cost it at least $50bn. Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, estimated total insured losses from Katrina at $15bn to $20bn and put its own share at up to $488m. Swiss Re, another big reinsurer, estimated that total claims may be comparable to those from Hurricane Andrew. | ['business/business', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/natural-disasters', 'money/money', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/marktran'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-08-30T13:57:33Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
society/2017/nov/29/guardian-public-service-awards-2017-finance-winner-warwickshire-county-council | Guardian Public Service Awards 2017 finance winner: Warwickshire county council | Warwickshire county council’s winning project in the 2017 Guardian Public Service Awards finance category franchises reuse shops at its household waste recycling centres and has achieved success on multiple fronts. It is generating £375,000 a year for the council, and another £300,000 for the local Age UK charity, which spends the money on local services. The scheme has saved 700 tonnes of goods from landfill, provides jobs for 39 people and up to 50 volunteers, and gives less well-off families the opportunity to buy affordable secondhand products. The council initially introduced a charity tip shop at one of its household waste recycling centres in 2003. When residents brought goods to the site, they were given the opportunity to donate them instead to the charity, a local hospice, which would then sell them on. Because there was some doubt about whether it would take off, the charity was charged only a peppercorn rent. But the enterprise rapidly became highly profitable and the scheme was extended to other waste sites and charities. In 2014, Warwickshire offered the franchise for the shops at eight sites, split into four lots. Age UK Warwickshire won the bid for all four, paying the council £300,000 a year for an initial period of five years, with the option to extend for another five. The move has paid off: while the charity’s overheads (mostly staffing and power costs) come to about £300,000 a year, it makes another £300,000 in pure profit. “It’s very healthy,” says David Whitehouse, project manager at Warwickshire. “If this was on Dragons’ Den, Peter Jones would be whipping out his chequebook.” About a third of the items that the shops take as donations from visitors to the recycling sites are electrical goods, such as televisions, says Whitehouse. These are inspected and certified for safety before being sold on. Vinyl records and cassette players are also proving popular. Shop customers include local traders, secondhand dealers and those on low incomes – a “healthy mixture”, says Whitehouse, “of rich and poor, bagging bargains”. The shops have proved particularly valuable for those finding it hard to make ends meet: “We’ll get a young man setting up his home for the first time and struggling to kit out a flat from scratch,” says Whitehouse. He’ll come down and, for £20, he can buy saucepans, plates and cutlery, and odds and ends.” If applied throughout the UK, the Warwickshire model could generate £35m a year for local authorities. There has been a great deal of interest from across the country, and the franchise model has already been adopted by other councils. Meanwhile, the benefits – environmental, economic and social – keep adding up. The council has saved £75,000 a year in disposal costs and landfill tax, as well as cutting CO2 emissions – Warwickshire’s recycling and reuse rate is now at an impressive 54%. Age UK has invested its proceeds in projects to help reduce loneliness among older people, such as exercise clubs, lunch clubs and befriending services. It’s that rare gem: an initiative that has made everyone a winner. | ['society/series/guardian-public-service-awards-2017', 'society-professionals/series/guardian-public-service-awards-2017', 'society/society', 'society-professionals/society-professionals', 'public-leaders-network/public-leaders-network', 'society/public-sector-careers', 'society/charities', 'society/voluntarysector', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'professional-supplements/professional-supplements', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kim-thomas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-11-29T09:55:32Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2019/nov/20/extinction-rebellion-protest-met-accused-of-521-abuses-of-power | Extinction Rebellion protest: Met accused of 521 abuses of power | Police carried out widespread abuses of power during Extinction Rebellion’s two weeks of protests in October, according to investigators who have collated dozens of reports from protesters. The Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) says it counted 521 reports by XR protesters of abuses of police power, including 200 accusations of rough handling and physical harm and 99 of intimidation or inappropriate behaviour. Netpol’s report comes after the force’s own disability advisers accused officers of “degrading and humiliating” treatment of disabled activists and judges in the high court opened the way for mass legal action against the police by quashing the force’s attempt to ban the protests. Sam Walton, a member of Netpol’s steering committee and an author of the report, said: “The key conclusion is that police were more interested in preventing Extinction Rebellion’s protests than in facilitating them. “In doing that they systematically discriminated against disabled protesters, they used excessive force, and they used their section 14 powers to delegitimise protesters as citizens with rights. We hope that this scrutiny of the policing of XR leads to the bodies that hold police to account actually taking some action.” Between 7 and 19 October, protesters staged dozens of demonstrations around Westminster and the City of London financial district as part of XR’s “autumn rebellion”, with the aim of raising awareness of the lack of government action over the climate and ecological crisis. Following XR’s doctrine of causing disruption through non-violent disobedience, thousands taking part blocked roads and sites, including through the use of lock-on devices, in an attempt to shut down parts of the city. Police responded in force, making more than 1,700 arrests in just under two weeks. It was the second mass protest organised by the movement after a similar fortnight of demonstrations in April. However, while those taking part in the first wave of protest were surprised by the comparative leniency of police, many complained of excessive and overzealous tactics and behaviour from officers during the second. In one incident mentioned in the report, a police officer snapped the finger of a protester holding a scaffold in Trafalgar Square, causing what doctors confirmed would be a life changing injury. In another, a disabled protester who was injured by police while being held in a van after being arrested was dearrested and let out rather than being cared for. A third reported incident involved a woman who said a police officer touched her inappropriately while arresting her, while another played with her hair as she was in handcuffs. Aside from violence and intimidation, Netpol collected dozens of accounts of misuses of stop and search, inappropriate arrests, confiscation of belongings, and targeting of disabled people. Jenny Jones, a Green party peer, said: “I am shocked in particular by the absolute disregard for the welfare and rights of disabled protesters, as well as those who are elderly and less physically robust. “Based on their experiences outlined in this report, I fully support the call for an urgent review of how, in future, the police facilitate disabled people’s right to protest and how disabled protesters are treated on arrest.” | ['environment/extinction-rebellion', 'uk/metropolitan-police', 'uk/police', 'world/protest', 'environment/activism', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-11-20T13:50:04Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2017/sep/14/strange-eel-mystery-of-the-texas-eyeless-sea-beast-solved | Strange eel: mystery of the Texas eyeless sea beast solved | The mystery of an eyeless fanged sea monster washed ashore by Hurricane Harvey has been solved by social media. Preeti Desai, a science communicator, found the sinister-looking fish on a beach in Texas City after the storm, and asked Twitter users to help identify it. It was variously identified as “that thing” from the film Tremors, to Disney’s Dr Finkelstein in eel form until Desai’s photographs were passed to Dr Kenneth Tighe, a biologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Dr Tighe identified it as the fangtooth snake-eel but warned that a precise identification was difficult without the tip of its tail. It could possibly be one of another two species belonging to the family of garden and conger eels. The fangtooth snake-eel is less than a metre long and is usually tucked away in burrows in the ocean between 30 and 90 metres deep. It may have been dislodged from its usual habitat by the rough weather. The eel’s scientific name Aplatophis chauliodus roughly translates as “terrible serpent”. But its apparent eyelessness is simply because its small eyes have decomposed during its time dead in the water. | ['environment/marine-life', 'environment/oceans', 'us-news/texas', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-09-14T15:13:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/oct/03/because-secondhand-is-feckin-grand-how-clothes-swapping-became-huge-in-ireland | ‘Because secondhand is feckin’ grand’: how clothes swapping became huge in Ireland | Mary Fleming was on holiday in Kenya when she saw it: a mound of secondhand clothes heaped by a river, the pile so vast and unruly it was spilling into the water. The sight shocked her. At home in Ireland she was a passionate shopper and bought a new outfit almost every weekend. Now in east Africa she was seeing the consequence of fast fashion and mass consumption. A decade later Fleming, now 34, is leading a campaign to prevent waste by swapping, reusing, repairing and repurposing clothes under the inimitable exhortation: “Because secondhand is feckin’ grand”. She is the founder of Change Clothes, a non-profit that hosts a swap shop in Dublin and runs pop-up outlets and workshops across Ireland. It lets people rent, exchange and buy used clothes and gives tutorials in mending and upcycling frayed garments. “Most people wouldn’t know how to patch a hole. Once they figure it out they’re delighted with themselves,” says Fleming. “It’s so simple it’s criminal that it’s not better known.” Change Clothes outgrew its base in Crumlin, west Dublin, and this month moved to new premises in the city centre. “So many people were coming, we just needed more space,” says Fleming, who was still unpacking and sorting shoes and fabrics at the Thomas Street hub. The non-profit also runs night markets and workshops in making Halloween costumes, Christmas baubles and wreaths. “This has grown really quickly so who knows where we will be in a few years. There is an appetite for change, an opportunity for change.” Fleming points to rolls of brightly coloured textiles stacked in a corner. “An underground network of textile freaks alerted me to a dump that had brand new rolls of fabric – it was heading for a landfill.” Change Clothes is a mecca for the converted but Fleming’s goal is to reach people who bin old or unwanted clothes and trek to Zara, Next or Gap and other outlets to replenish their wardrobe. “In some communities there is still a stigma about secondhand clothes and not wanting to be seen to be poor. We’re trying to change perceptions. There is a lot of work to be done.” Enticing people into a swap-shop can be a “great gateway drug” that introduces them to wider possibilities of reusing and repairing garments, she says. Fleming and her team of two part-time staff and a dozen or so volunteers have three categories: clothes in very good condition, clothes that “need help” and clothes at the end of their life. For a €5 (£4.20) fee people with garments in the first category can book a 30-minute slot at Change Clothes, obtain tokens for their donations – the better the condition or brand, the more tokens – and then use the tokens to select items from the shop’s racks. Alternatively you can rent an item, which must be returned clean, for about €10 per week. Last year, Fleming added her wedding dress, a sequin gown, to the rental racks. She had bought it online, her first such purchase in years, after her first choice, a secondhand dress, did not fit properly. Surplus clothing in good condition is donated to refugee centres and assisted living accommodation. Fleming’s team crisscrosses Ireland visiting university campuses, libraries and community centres to give lessons in repairing or repurposing damaged or worn clothes. People’s eyes light up when they discover they can do basic tailoring, she says. “It can be incredibly creative and mindful. You’re not on your phone or laptop.” Garments beyond rescue are chopped and cut and turned into something else such as banners or placemats. The need for such skills is about to grow. From January new EU rules will require member states to separate the collection of textiles for re-use and recycling, a directive that covers clothing, blankets, bed linen, curtains, hats, footwear, mattresses and carpets. The sight of that riverbank in Kenya redirected Fleming’s life. She quit her career in corporate marketing to work for non-profits that promoted sustainability. Her first swap-shop, a weekend pop-up, was such a hit she organised more, using her parents’ garage for storage, which she still does. “They’ve been very patient, God love them.” Fleming finds ideas and inspiration in Suay, a Los Angeles shop and recycling hub, and collaborates with the Northern Ireland charity Show Some Love Belfast, but she has no illusions about the challenge facing the movement. Irish shopfronts are filled with Halloween outfits and decorations that will soon give way to winter and Christmas ware, then spring ware, summer ware and back to Halloween, part of a remorseless, globalised churn of production and consumption. “If I spent every day thinking about what we’re up against I don’t think I’d bother. I want to focus on the change that is possible,” says Fleming. Garment by garment she will spread the message: second hand is feckin’ grand. | ['environment/series/the-alternatives', 'fashion/fashion', 'fashion/sustainable-fashion', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'world/ireland', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'world/eu', 'business/retail', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/rorycarroll', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-10-03T11:46:42Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
media/2006/sep/11/ITV.broadcasting | World Cup misses TV ad goal | The World Cup failed to produce the predicted boost to television advertising, pushing up ad spend by just 1% more than the year before. Figures for the second quarter of 2006 - covering the majority of the June tournament - show that TV advertising spend in the UK grew from £983.7m to £993m year on year - a 1% increase. Despite relatively buoyant ad spend for May and June, the World Cup month of June registered a decline of 7% year on year. ITV, in particular, had been banking on the World Cup to pull in major revenues. The same period in 2002 - when the World Cup was held in Japan - produced an 8% increase in total TV advertising, according to media agency Mediaedge:cia. The tournament's location in Germany meant European broadcasters had favourable times for matches and led media agencies to predict ITV would see at least a 5% revenue boost, with total TV ad revenues benefiting to the tune of 12%. But Thomson Intermedia's report puts ITV1 down "at least" 10% for all of 2006. Overall, media spend grew by 8% year on year for the second quarter, from £2.48bn to £2.68bn, according to research from Thomson Intermedia and KPMG. Cinema advertising also surged by 58% year on year, from £27m to £43m, on the back of blockbuster movies, including The Da Vinci Code and Ice Age 2. Press spend rose by 8% from £666.9m to £720.8m. Radio's spot advertising revenues grew by 3% from £69m to £71.8m - a result that the report describes as "disappointingly below [the] all media average". Online display advertising massively outperformed other media, showing a 36% year-on-year growth among the top five websites, including AOL, MSN and Yahoo! - accounting for two-thirds of advertising impressions. Across the top 20 websites, growth was 26% from £28.8m to £36.4m. "The continuing growth of online spend reflects the changing internet business models we are now seeing," said Richard Bawden, the head of media at KPMG. "AOL's migration from its historic subscription-based service to advertising funded content and SpiralFrog's innovative music download model are clear pointers to the future." · 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/ITV', 'media/television', 'media/advertising', 'business/business', 'media/media', 'uk/uk', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'type/article'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2006-09-11T10:27:12Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2016/jun/23/food-waste-what-can-we-do-about-it | Food waste - what can we do about it? | Almost $1 trillion in food is thrown away, lost or wasted every year worldwide - roughly one third of all food produced for human consumption. Food such as fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food. Around half of us go by the date label printed on the packaging of food and will often throw away food that is safe to eat. According to the Waste Resources Action Programme (Wrap), an organisation that promotes sustainability, we throw away 4.2m tonnes of food every year in the UK, which, aside from the financial costs, has a huge impact on the environment. We buy too much, or we cook too much, or we forget to store leftovers properly. But the biggest reason for throwing food away is because we don’t use it in time, and, in many cases, we simply look at the date on the packet rather than the contents – and that date might be OK to ignore. What can be done about this? There are many effective projects and initiatives combating food waste and we’d like to hear from people involved. Are you involved in a food waste project in your local community? Are there food loss initiatives near you? We’d also like to hear how you prevent food waste in your own home - and to find out about your solutions to combat the problem. Share your photos and stories by clicking on the blue ‘Contribute’ button on this article. You can also use the Guardian app and search for ‘GuardianWitness assignments’ – and if you add it to the homepage – you can keep up with all our assignments. Alternatively you can fill in our form below. We’ll include a selection of your contributions on our site. GuardianWitness is the home of readers’ content on the Guardian. Contribute your video, pictures and stories. | ['environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'global-development/food-security', 'global-development/global-development', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'profile/guardian-readers', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-06-23T03:00:29Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/feb/13/nsw-land-clearing-prosecutions-down-80-in-three-years | NSW land-clearing prosecutions down 80% in three years | Prosecutions in New South Wales for illegal land clearing have dropped by 80% in the past three years, according to data released under freedom of information laws. The information, obtained by the NSW Labor opposition, shows the Berejiklian government claims not to have any information about how much clearing has occurred under new laws that came into force in August 2017 aimed at making land clearing easier. And despite the NSW government having information about earlier clearing from the 2015-16 period, it has refused to release it until April 2018 “or when [the] final version of the document is submitted for approval”. The NSW Coalition government scrapped three pieces of legislation aimed at protecting native vegetation and wildlife in NSW (the Native Vegetation Act, the Threatened Species Conservation Act and the Nature Conservation Trust Act), and replaced them with a single piece of legislation, the Biodiversity Conservation Act. The move was welcomed by farming lobby groups, who wanted fewer controls on land clearing, but was lambasted by scientists and conservation groups, with warnings that broadscale clearing rates could double as a result. The legislation followed laws introduced in Queensland, which created “self-assessable codes”, allowing landholders to decide whether or not clearing required approval. Law changes in Queensland in 2012 caused land clearing there to skyrocket, and it now amounts to almost 400,000 hectares a year. The newly released documents show that in the four months after those laws came into force in NSW, not a single prosecution for illegal land clearing had begun. In the first seven months of 2017, before the new laws took effect, one prosecution was started. There were two prosecutions started in 2016-17, another two the previous year. That is a sharp drop on 2014-15, when 10 prosecutions began. “Every warning about the impact of these land-clearing laws is coming to pass right under the noses of a government which is wilfully allowing this environmental vandalism to continue,” said Penny Sharpe, the NSW Labor spokeswoman for environment and heritage. “As the chainsaws and bulldozers roar across NSW, failure to prosecute shows that those illegally clearing know they have nothing to fear. “Like water theft, the NSW government is failing our environment, choosing to back the thieves and illegal clearers over farmers and other landholders doing the right thing,” Sharpe said. The Nature Conservation Council CEO, Kate Smolski, called for the urgent release of data on land-clearing rates in NSW. “February 25 marks six months since those laws took effect, but the public still remains in the dark about the harm that they are causing,” Smolski said. “Lax land-clearing laws are a matter of life and death for wildlife. They degrade our soils and water supplies and are driving species to extinction, yet in NSW the public has no idea how many native animals are dying.” “The government has the technology to report on habitat destruction within days but refuses to do so, presumably because it knows the public would be horrified and demand that strong protections be restored.” A spokewoman for the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage said land-clearing rates were “constantly monitored to ensure that environmental safeguards are not exceeded”. She also said reports of illegal land clearing had not changed significantly despite the drop in prosecutions. “Calls to Environment Line regarding alleged unlawful clearing have remained relatively consistent for the three-month period prior and post the commencement of the new Biodiversity Conservation Act,” she said. “OEH investigates all reports of alleged unlawful land clearing … OEH encourages people with specific information about alleged unlawful clearing to report the details to Environment Line on 131 555. “The government has provided additional funding for compliance activities – including 15 new compliance and regulation staff over the next four years.” The NSW minister for environment and heritage, Gabrielle Upton, has been contacted for comment. | ['environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/gladys-berejiklian', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-slezak', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-02-13T03:49:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2019/nov/03/flights-diverted-in-delhi-as-toxic-smog-hits-worst-levels-of-2019 | Flights diverted in Delhi as toxic smog hits worst levels of 2019 | Pollution in Delhi has reached its worst levels so far this year, at almost 400 times the amount deemed healthy, causing planes to be diverted away from the city. A week on from Diwali, the thick brown smog that shrouded the city after the festival has shown no sign of shifting. On Friday a public health emergency was declared and Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the city had turned into a “gas chamber”. By Sunday the air quality had deteriorated further, with the air quality index measuring over 900 in some areas, far exceeding the level of 25 deemed safe by the WHO, and well above even the 500 mark deemed “severe plus”. Visibility became so bad that more than 30 flights were redirected from Delhi airport. “Pollution has reached unbearable levels,” said Kejriwal. Sachin Mathur, 31, an auto-rickshaw driver in north-west Delhi, said he had to stay outside for work and he had been struggling to breathe and could barely keep his eyes open on the roads. “I have been driving auto on Delhi roads for the last three years and every year this time after Diwali, Delhi becomes like this,” Mathur said. “I am suffering from a throat infection and my eyes are burning. The pollution means I do not get many passengers, so going to a doctor is not affordable.” The air pollution crisis is now an annual tradition in Delhi at this time of year, owing to a toxic mixture of smoke from celebration firecrackers, the burning of crop stubble by farmers in the neighbouring regions of Punjab and Haryana, and a cold shift in temperatures locking in the fumes. On Sunday the government environment monitoring agency Safar said there would no relief for at least another two days because of rain and humidity. Schools have been closed until at least Tuesday, construction work has been ordered to stop and the government has organised for 5m masks to be handed out. From Monday the city will begin a trial run of a scheme in which cars with odd and even numbered licence plates can drive on alternate days. Many in Delhi say far stronger measures are needed, particularly to stop the main culprit, crop burning. Satellite imaging showed more than 3,000 incidents of stubble burning in neighbouring states last week. The practice is estimated to cause 44% of Delhi’s pollution. Rachel Rao, the vice-principal of Queen Mary’s school in Delhi, said they had limited outdoor activities for pupils. “Over the past 10 years the situation has been getting worse. We never used to see pollution like this,” said Rao. “The past few days have been absolutely awful. We have seen many of our pupils falling sick and complaining of having difficulty breathing. “Before Diwali, we tried to spread awareness among our students about not burning firecrackers, in the hope they would bring that message back home. But the Delhi government, the Punjab government, the Haryana government and the central government should be coming up with better solutions rather than just blaming each other for the problem.” Neeraj Sharma, 45, a businessman, said his 16-year-old son, a professional athlete, had been forced to stop his training this week because the pollution levels made it impossible to exercise. “It is very difficult to breathe in this weather, there is a bitter taste in the air,” said Sharma. “I think the government is very superficial in their approach to pollution control. For the last five years the Delhi government did nothing, but now, as an election is approaching, they are acting as if they are concerned. The Delhi government said they banned crackers in Delhi, so how come so many of them were bursting all over Delhi during Diwali? If you ask me, nothing will change, the situation will continue to go from bad to worse.” Hospitals in the capital reported a surge in patients coming in with respiratory issues. Dr Sai Kiran Chaudhary, the head of pulmonology at the Delhi Heart & Lung Institute hospital, said people had become much more aware about the dangers of pollution in the past two years, with masks becoming a common sight and people staying indoors. “Everything, from increased construction, increased urbanisation, increased number of cars on the road and a reduction of green spaces, is making this problem worse every year,” said Chaudhary. “So many people are losing their lives.” According to a UN report, 14 out of 15 of the world’s most polluted cities are in India. The long-term health implications of living with this air were laid bare in a study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago released on Thursday, which found that the life expectancy of people living in the Indian states of Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal has reduced by up to seven years due to pollution. | ['world/delhi', 'world/india', 'environment/air-pollution', 'world/world', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/hannah-ellis-petersen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-11-03T15:09:37Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
books/2021/aug/25/crude-britannia-by-james-marriott-and-terry-macalister-review-a-harrowing-read | Crude Britannia by James Marriott and Terry Macalister review – a harrowing read | This November the eyes of the world will turn to Glasgow. “Cop26 meeting is last chance, says Alok Sharma as he backs UK’s plan for new oil and gas fields,” the Observer reported in an interview with the Tory minister in charge. The contradiction in this sentence is all the proof you need of the central themes of Crude Britannia: that Britain’s economic prosperity is inextricably linked to oil, and that breaking this link appears a more distant prospect than human extinction. Journeying through landscapes of rigs and refineries, from the Thames estuary to north-east Scotland, campaigner James Marriott and former Guardian energy editor Terry Macalister interweave history and psychogeography. This is refreshing if not seamless: as the narrative style shifts from reportage to the rhythms of speech and prayer you would find in a David Peace novel, it is easy to mistake stylised prose for casual errors and incomplete sentences – of which, unfortunately, there are several. One theme is how oil made pop music. Some examples seem contrived, but not “Stanlow”, released in 1980 by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The song opens with a recording of a diesel pump at the Merseyside refinery of the same name, accompanied by the words: “We set you down / To care for us / Stanlow”. After reading Marriott and Macalister’s soul-stirring interviews with former refinery workers and OMD’s Andy McCluskey, whose father worked there, it becomes impossible to see the name Stanlow without hearing echoes of the band’s “intriguingly melancholic” melody. As the authors say, it’s “a premonition” – of the industrial decline and missed opportunities that followed the song’s release, when Margaret Thatcher used tax revenues from oil to cushion rising unemployment while placing the North Sea in the hands of international capital. It’s a story that is told too rarely, and Marriott and Macalister should be commended for giving it such vivacity. Crude Britannia can also be a harrowing read. The authors shine a spotlight on the framing and execution of the “Ogoni Nine” – including writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa – who had protested against Shell pipelines in Nigeria. Shell continues to deny involvement, but in 2009 the company paid out £9.7m in compensation to the activists’ families as part of a “process of reconciliation”. Marriott and Macalister also document the revolving door between British governance and Shell and BP, which continues even after these companies have largely vacated their British sites. While climate campaigners are forging new cultural identities around renewable energy, governments have failed to secure jobs in Britain as fabrication contracts go overseas. With oil defying past expectations of scarcity, perhaps it’s no wonder we can’t let go. • Crude Britannia: How Oil Shaped a Nation is published by Pluto (£20). To support the Guardian and the Observer buy a copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. | ['books/politics', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'books/history', 'science/geography', 'books/scienceandnature', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/conradlandin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/guardianreview', 'theguardian/guardianreview/saturdayreviewsfeatres', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/review'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2021-08-25T08:00:14Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/blog/2008/jul/22/greenwatchjungleloggingthre | Greenwatch: Jungle logging threatens tribes in Peru's Amazon | Jungle logging threatens tribes in Peru's Amazon >>Source: Environmental News Network PUCALLPA, Peru (Reuters) - Delia Pacaya grew up in Peru's Amazon in a nomadic tribe that shunned contact with outsiders, but when loggers invaded the land she fled the virgin rain forest and settled in a tiny village. Kenya pushes traditional crops for food security >>Source: Environmental News Network NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's government began giving farmers seeds for traditional food crops on Monday, hoping to shore up stocks in the face of rising prices and shortage fears. California first state to adopt green building code >>Source: Environmental News Network The California Building Standards Commission announced on Friday the unanimous adoption of a statewide "green"_ building code, the first in the nation. UAE academy to tackle regional water shortages >>Source: Environmental News Network The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched an Arab Water Academy (AWA) to tackle water shortages in the region that will increase as a result of climate change. About 20 percent of EU timber illegal or suspect: report >>Source: Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Nearly a fifth of wood imported into the European Union has been harvested illegally or comes from suspect sources, mostly in Russia, Indonesia and China, according to a report by environmental group WWF. Lonesome George may end bachelor days on Galapagos >>Source: Reuters QUITO (Reuters) - After decades of solitude, "Lonesome George" may finally save his species of Galapagos giant tortoise from extinction, his keepers said on Monday. Rebuilding a Dutch tradition, one windmill at a time >>Source: New York Times The Dutch are building windmills again. Up and down the coast, out from port cities like this one, you can see them: white and tall and slender as pencils, their three slim blades turning lazily in the North Sea breeze. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/series/greenwatch', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'type/article'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-07-22T09:26:41Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/jul/16/farmworkers-labor-deadly-heat-few-protections | ‘We’re not animals, we’re human beings’: US farm workers labor in deadly heat with few protections | The climate crisis is endangering farm workers around the US who work outside in excessive heat throughout the year without any federal protections from heat exposure in the workplace. “It’s really challenging to work in the heat, but the reality is we have to, we don’t really have a choice, we have to keep working even when it’s incredibly hot,” said Tere Cruz, a farm worker for 15 years in Immokalee, Florida. “The first thing in the morning, you don’t feel it as much but then after 11am your body really starts to feel the heat. You feel like all the energy has been sucked out of you and it’s really hard to keep going.’’ Cruz explained workers often will get too hot and vomit from drinking too much water too fast, but they face immense pressure to continue working through heat stress. “It would be really good to have a broad rule so when farm owners see that temperatures are way too high they need to stop and allow people to rest. Things as they are right now, you can see when it’s really hot that by 1 or 2 in the afternoon, people just can’t work any more. But there’s this real pressure to keep working and keep working,” added Cruz. “We’re not animals, we’re human beings, but there’s this feeling that no matter what happens, even when people can’t seem to work any more, the bosses keep pushing and pushing.” An analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Washington in March 2020 found US farm workers will experience an increase from about 21 days of working in unsafe temperatures per season to an average of 62 days by the end of the century – nearly three times as many. Heatwaves have also become more common and intense over the past several decades, as the US west coast has experienced record breaking heatwaves this year. June 2021 was the hottest June on record in the United States. “It’s extremely hot out there and it’s getting worse every year,” said Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli, general coordinator of the Farmworker Association of Florida. “One of the biggest problems is the way that farm workers are paid. When they’re paid by the piece rate, that encourages workers to exert themselves even more. When they’re part of a crew, the person who slows down because he has to take a water break or use the restroom, then they become the guy who slows down the crew.” Death of a worker The state of Washington recently announced emergency rules to provide heat protection for farm workers and other outdoor workers, shortly after Oregon issued emergency rules in the wake of a farm worker who died from heat exposure during record high temperatures in the region. Sebastián Francisco Pérez, a 38-year-old from Guatemala who was working at a tree farm in rural St Paul, Oregon, died after collapsing on June 26. California and Minnesota are the only two other states in the US with heat protections for workers, though Colorado has some limited protections. Reyna Lopez, executive director of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), said the organization had been demanding Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) issue heat protection rules ahead of the latest heatwaves in the region. Workers had been expressing concerns about the lack of shade or water while working through blueberry and cherry harvesting. “There’s a lot of sacrifice that happens from immigrant workers for us to have food on our table,” said Lopez. “We believe fully that any kind of death on the job is absolutely avoidable. This is the first recorded death in Oregon’s Osha fatalities report that’s specific to farm labor and heat.” According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 53 workers died in the US due to temperature extremes in 2019, and the climate crisis is creating more hazardous conditions for workers, as temperature extremes become more common. Heat stress can cause kidney issues and worsen pre-existing conditions such as asthma and heart disease, as well as cause sudden death on the job. According to CDC data, farm workers are 20 times more likely to die from heat-related causes than other workers. Farm workers and several organizations have been advocating for Osha to enact federal heat safety standards to guarantee basic protections for workers, including adequate shade, water and rest breaks. Advocacy efforts have also pressured states to enact standards and bills have been introduced to Congress to grant workers federal heat protections. Alfredo Juarez, a 21-year-old farm worker in Skagit County, Washington, wakes up at 3.30am every morning during picking season to be able to get to work by 5am. He works until 4pm or later, seven days a week. “We work getting paid by the pound, so we try to work as fast as we can and it gets really hot as soon as we start picking, even when temperatures are normal,’’ said Juarez. He explained that if workers get a break, they will pile in cars and blast the air conditioning for some relief from the excessive heat, but generally workers are left with water that gets hot very fast from being outdoors. They have no shade and nowhere to sit down to take a break. “Strawberry picking takes a lot of focus. You’re on your knees every day and some of the rows are very hard to pick and your back will hurt from a lot of bending down, looking for berries,” he added. “There’s a lot of pain.” | ['environment/series/our-unequal-earth', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/farming', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/michael-sainato', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-07-16T11:34:43Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/apr/16/country-diary-as-close-to-immortality-as-british-nature-can-get | Country diary: As close to immortality as British nature can get | Mark Cocker | The yew in the churchyard here has a legend as the oldest tree in Britain, although its exact age is a matter of dispute. Many propose that it is older than Christianity and some that it could even predate Stonehenge. Perhaps a more revealing comparison arises with an “artefact” from about the same period (circa 3000BC). It’s the man called “Oetzi”, whose leathery, ice-preserved remains were extracted from a Tirolean glacier in 1991, along with his deerskin boots and bearskin cap. Oetzi carried a mark of high prestige in his little copper axe, but this state-of-the-art technology also had a handle made of the same wood as the tree in Fortingall. The Scottish yew has thus endured from the age of copper to a time when children (like those standing next to us as we visited) take Snapchat shots on smartphones. The tree, in truth, is much reduced since 1769, when it was lassoed by Daines Barrington and measured at 15.9 metres. Souvenir hunters began hacking off parts of its monumental girth until concerned locals threw up a wall – some see it as a prison – to protect the remains. As I pondered my tree, I wondered how best to capture its full eldritch condition. Should I photograph the blackening heartwood, some of whose laminar swirling shapes suggest the eddying surface to a pollen-stained river, but also the flames licking up from a wood fire? Or does its true exceptionalism lie in the cone-like flowers that are still sprouting at the twig ends and, at this very moment, look for all the world like any rain-sodden greenery in this landscape? My dilemma reminded me of a pronouncement by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, known for a series of fragmentary sayings, many paradoxical in nature. Life, he proposed, was akin to music produced when the strings of a bow are laid crosswise upon a lyre. Harmony arises in the tension of these diametrically opposed strings. “The name of the bow is life,” he wrote, “and its work [the music] is death.” The Fortingall yew, which is closer to immortality than any other resident in these islands, is perhaps the most death-like life I’ve ever seen. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'culture/heritage', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/markcocker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-04-16T04:30:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2009/may/01/wind-turbine-renewable-energy | Letter: Puffed-up claims | Ditlev Engle of Vestas, the Danish wind turbine maker, blames UK nimbys and lack of government support for the difficulties facing his industry (Closure of wind turbine factory, 29 April). However, according to data published by the British Wind Energy Association, there is some 7,000MW (roughly 3,000 turbines' worth) consented but unbuilt, much of this onshore. This represents more than 200% of all the wind capacity ever built in the UK. As for a lack of public support, the renewables obligation already, and before the budget's increases were announced, provided a top-up of approximately £52/MWh generated. In fact, subsidy accounts for 50% of the income stream of a renewable generator, costing the consumer over £1bn a year at present. If the wind industry is facing problems, these do not appear to be undue obstacles in planning or weak economic incentives. Dr John Constable Dr Lee Moroney Renewable Energy Foundation | ['environment/vestas', 'environment/energy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2009-04-30T23:01:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2024/feb/27/country-diary-the-mystery-of-the-wonky-rowans | Country diary: The mystery of the wonky rowans | Amy-Jane Beer | Change is coming to the land I’ve come to love in 15 years living on the edge of the Castle Howard estate. Across almost 9,000 acres of mixed agriculture, forestry and parkland, the clear felling is over, as is the estate pheasant shoot – empty pens stand ready for dismantlement. The least agriculturally productive acreages are to be unyoked from cultivation – large herbivores will manage what springs from the boggy soils and there are hopes, soon, of beavers. Elsewhere, farming is switching to regenerative methods and tree cover is set to increase through a mixture of natural regeneration and planting with stock grown from seed gathered by hand – a huge effort boosted by volunteers. When I call into the estate’s tree nursery, Guy Thallon, the head of natural environment, is chatting to nurserymen Josh and Henry. They’ve been grading saplings for sale, but something is awry. “The rowans are all growing bent again,” says Josh. “They did it last year too.” He holds out a few examples. They are emphatically wonky – some executing 90-degree turns just a few inches above ground level. It’s odd, Josh muses, as other species growing alongside are reaching – conventionally – skywards. Then he says that the deviants are bound for disposal. They won’t fit in tree guards and no one wants bent trees anyway. Rowans have a strong appeal, aesthetically, ecologically and culturally. They are pioneers and bird magnets, at home on exposed crags in minimal soil, and thus ideally suited as urban “amenity trees”, because a city street has much in common with a rocky mountainside. Their associated mythology and folklore is almost boundless, encompassing associations with life, fertility, fire, blood, death, transition and magic of the quickening, protective kind. I discover that the Castle Howard rowans are all bending the same way, to the south. Reaching for the light. I hard relate. When Guy offers to gift me a few trees of my choice as thanks for some small favours last year, I go back to the determinedly bent rowans, and pick four of the wonkiest I can find. They’ll grow potted for now while I work out what they might have to tell me. And I persuade Josh and Henry to keep some in stock in case anyone else fancies embracing their queer and quizzical wisdom. For inquiries email treenursery@castlehoward.co.uk. • Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/plants', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/spring', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/amy-jane-beer', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-02-27T05:30:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2005/sep/22/hurricanes2005.hurricanekatrina | Tens of thousands ordered out of Texas as Rita rivals power of Katrina | Tens of thousands of people along the Gulf coast grabbed their most prized possessions, boarded up their homes and fled yesterday in face of the onslaught from Hurricane Rita, a category 5 storm that could rival Hurricane Katrina in intensity when it makes landfall this weekend. Mandatory evacuations were underway in Galveston, Texas, and New Orleans, although the storm appeared to be veering away from the flood-hit Louisiana city. Houston's mayor also called for a voluntary evacuation of low-lying areas that could be affected by storm surges. Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys as a category 2 storm on Tuesday, causing relatively minor damage, but picked up power from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico as it tracked to the west. The eye of the hurricane was expected to move through the south-eastern Gulf overnight, and is predicted to make landfall near Galveston on Saturday morning. Its projected path passes over the largest concentration of oil refineries on the US Gulf coast, leading to the price of oil rising by more than $1 a barrel yesterday. Galveston, built on a low-lying island off the Texas coast, was the scene of America's worst natural disaster in 1900 when an estimated 8,000 people died after a hurricane submerged much of the city. Since then a large sea wall has been built and much of the city has been raised using dredged sand from Galveston Bay. But, after Katrina, nobody was taking any chances. "Destination unknown," Catherine Womack, 71, who was boarding up the windows of her brick bungalow in Galveston, told the Associated Press. "I've never left before. I think because of Katrina, there is a lot of anxiety and concern. It's better to be safe than sorry." About 80 buses were due to leave the city for shelters 100 miles north in Huntsville, part of a mandatory evacuation ordered by officials in Galveston County, where 267,000 people live. "The real lesson [from Katrina] that I think the citizens learned is that the people in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi did not leave in time," said Galveston mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. "We've always asked people to leave earlier, but because of Katrina they are now listening to us and they're leaving as we say." David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said aircraft and buses were available to evacuate residents. Rescue teams and truckloads of ice, water and prepared meals were also being sent to Texas. Stung by criticism of the slow response to Katrina, President George Bush spoke to Texas governor Rick Perry about planning for the storm. "Up and down the coastline, people are now preparing for what is anticipated to be another significant storm," Mr Bush said. "We hope and pray Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we must be ready for the worst." Although Rita had been expected to remain a category 4 storm until it reached land, the National Hurricane Centre last night upgraded it to a top-of-the-scale Category 5 storm, with sustained winds of 165 mph (265kph). Houston was also evacuating 1,100 Katrina evacuees still in the two mass shelters to an Arkansas army base. If forecasts are correct, New Orleans can rest easy. A high-pressure system should prevent Rita turning north until it is west of the Louisiana coast, sparing the city a second lashing in a month. But the precarious state of New Orleans levees led Mayor Ray Nagin to order a mandatory evacuation. The army corps of engineers said the levees can only handle up to 6in of rain and a storm surge of 10-12ft. "The protection is very tenuous at best," said Dave Wurtzel, a corps official. Academics at Louisiana State University's Hurricane Centre have rejected official explanations for the levees' collapse, saying the storm surges were smaller than suggested and flood protection should have kept the city dry. The death toll from Hurricane Katrina climbed to 1,037 after Louisiana yesterday raised the number of its fatalities to 799. There were 219 dead in Mississippi, with 19 deaths elsewhere. | ['environment/environment', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/texas', 'us-news/houston', 'type/article', 'profile/jamiewilson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international1'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-22T14:00:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/jan/20/blacksmith-recycles-canisters-into-cult-kitchen-knives-for-zero-waste-foodies | ‘My customers like zero waste’: the blacksmith recycling canisters into cult kitchen knives | The little steel bulbs that litter parks, roadsides and city centres – the discarded canisters from Britain’s second favourite drug, laughing gas – cause misery to many communities. But now one blacksmith has found an innovative use for them: turning them into handmade kitchen knives. The prevalence of the canisters has prompted some councils to impose local bans, while the home secretary is keen to outlaw them nationally. But Tim Westley’s handmade kitchen knives are gaining a cult following among environmentally conscious foodies after being endorsed by chefs committed to low waste. Since promising to make at least two-thirds of his blades from empty “nos” canisters, Westley knives are selling in record time on his website, Clement Knives. “I usually make about five a week, and when they go on the site there’s a rush to buy them, especially in the run-up to Christmas. This week it was only two or three minutes before they were all gone,” he said. “I’d like to think customers are buying them because they like the zero-waste concept rather than that they just want a knife.” Westley, 33, a former artist-in-residence at London’s Museum of Water & Steam, moved his forge to south-west Scotland last year. He has always been committed to knife making using recycled materials, including metal dredged from canals with magnets. Then, on walks with his dog, Mayday, he became troubled by the sight of littered piles of canisters, and worried that they posed a risk to cyclists of skidding. Last year his friend Douglas McMaster, the founder of Silo, the UK’s first zero-waste restaurant, challenged Westley to recycle the canisters into knives. The resulting experiment proved such a success that Westley has promised to only use recycled canisters for all his blades. For the handles he uses recycled plastic. According to Home Office figures, nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, is the second most popular drug among 16- to 24-year-olds, behind cannabis. The government is consulting on making the possession of laughing gas a crime. However, the drug charity Release has cautioned against criminalising what is a relatively benign substance if heavy use is avoided. But there is consensus that laughing gas’s popularity has created an ugly littering problem. Westley is doing his bit to reduce this modern form of waste, using traditional blacksmiths’ techniques. For a typical 210mm blade he uses 10 nos canisters in a process he says is laborious but worthwhile. He first cuts off the ends of the canisters with an angle grinder, then opens and flattens them with a hammer on an anvil. The flattened pieces of soft steel are then forge welded on either side of a harder carbon steel used for the sharpened edge. Westley said: “It’s call San Mai, which has been used for years by Japanese knife makers. They use two soft layers of steel around a hard steel in the middle. The only difference is that I use nos canisters for the soft steel. It’s using an ancient technique to address a modern problem.” He added: “It is more hassle, but it’s worth it because we should be using more of the materials we already have. My knives are just as good, if not better, made with materials found off the street. And there is no industrial processes involved, so there is zero waste.” In fact, Westley says the knives use more waste than they create. All the steel off-cuts go to a scrap metal dealer and the worn sanding belts used for polishing the blades are turned into plant pots. Westley gave the first nos canister knife he made to McMaster and has been supplying his restaurant with knives ever since. McMaster said they equalled any knife he had used, despite their grungy appearance caused by the recycled materials involved. His chef colleagues at the low-waste London pizzeria Crate are also using them, and McMaster is planning to feature Westley’s knives on his Zero Waste Cooking School YouTube channel. | ['environment/recycling', 'society/nitrous-oxide-laughing-gas', 'artanddesign/design', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'food/chefs', 'food/food', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/matthewweaver', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-01-20T13:34:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2024/apr/11/charles-darwin-university-asked-inquiry-not-to-publish-staff-submissions-critical-of-its-support-for-harbour-project | Charles Darwin University asked inquiry not to publish staff submissions critical of its support for harbour project | Charles Darwin University asked a federal inquiry not to publish submissions by three of its staff after the academics criticised the university’s support for a gas and industrial development on Darwin Harbour. The news comes as the Northern Territory government is due to give evidence in Darwin on Thursday to the Middle Arm inquiry, which is examining the proposed precinct and a $1.5bn investment promised by the Albanese government. At a hearing on Wednesday, Larrakia traditional owners called on senators to “take decisive action” to protect Middle Arm from the development, saying it would “poison and destroy” mangrove ecosystems, songlines and culturally significant sites. The inquiry was launched last year after a Guardian Australia investigation revealed the government knew Middle Arm was seen as a “key enabler” for new gas projects, despite being publicly branded a sustainable development precinct. In a letter published by the inquiry, CDU’s vice-chancellor, Scott Bowman, asked the committee not to publish a joint submission by two academics and to redact parts of a second submission by a professor of nursing and outgoing chair of the university’s human research ethics committee that was “unfairly” critical of CDU. The academics had written to the committee in response to an official CDU submission that expressed support for the development – subject to environmental monitoring and community consultation – because of the “need to drive economic growth in the NT”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup In one letter, the professor of nursing Marilynne Kirshbaum wrote she “was dismayed by Charles Darwin University’s submission” and had been asked by many staff and students to register their “opposition to the official perspective of Charles Darwin University”. She wrote the majority of academics, staff and students had not been consulted for their views on the project and the submission was “the view of the VC who is entrusted with the financial viability and growth of our university”. In the joint letter, a research and teaching associate in the faculty of arts, Stephen Enciso, and a faculty of health research assistant, Janina Murta, wrote CDU’s position was “not representative of the views of staff and students” and did not reflect the “expert scientific consensus in relation to the health and climate impacts of petrochemical and fossil fuel projects”. The letter also claimed there had been no internal consultation with staff before the submission was created and expressed concern about “the possible existence of conflicts of interest between the university and the fossil fuel industry”. CDU’s chancellor is the lobbyist and former NT chief minister Paul Henderson. Bowman told Guardian Australia Henderson had “no input or visibility over CDU’s submission”. In a right of reply to the inquiry, Bowman asked the committee “to not publish the supplementary joint submission” by Enciso and Murta and “redact the sections of Prof Kirshbaum’s submission where it criticises, I believe unfairly, CDU”. While he was supportive of “the participation and counterviews” by academia at CDU and “would not seek to limit any academic’s participation in the inquiry”, he said the university had not purported to present a unanimous view in its submission. “I do not believe the criticism of CDU is justified or should be published,” the letter states. Bowman, in response to questions on Wednesday, reiterated that he strongly supported the participation by academics at CDU in the inquiry and the presentation of counterviews. “Regarding the two submissions in question, I felt the criticisms of the process were unfair and could not see the value in these matters of process being published,” he said. “In retrospect, this was unnecessary, and I am pleased these academics are participating in the inquiry.” Enciso, who along with Murta is a member of Darwin-based community climate groups including the No New Gas Coalition, expressed disappointment at the request to withhold their submission from publication. “Transparency is important and this kind of request from the leader of an academic institution ostensibly committed to free speech amounts to a request for censorship,” he said. He said many staff and students, if given the opportunity, would have given “clear reasons why it would be unacceptable for CDU to give conditional support for the Middle Arm development in its current form”. “If the university can send all-staff emails asking for suggestions on the staff Christmas party, then it can do the same for what its position should be on the Middle Arm industrial precinct,” he said. Don Driscoll is a professor of ecology at Deakin University and the chair of the academic freedom working group at the Ecological Society of Australia. His research has examined academic freedom and scientific suppression in Australia. He said he was heartened the federal inquiry had chosen to publish the submissions in full. The NT chief minister, Eva Lawler, and senior officials will appear before the inquiry on Thursday. | ['australia-news/series/the-top-end-carbon-bomb', 'australia-news/australian-education', 'australia-news/darwin', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/northern-territory', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'business/gas', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/australian-universities', 'environment/gas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2024-04-10T15:00:34Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2015/jun/16/queensland-land-clearing-project-halted-amid-concerns-over-threatened-species | Queensland land clearing project halted amid concerns over threatened species | Queensland’s largest tree clearing project, which was approved by the former Newman government without any assessment of environmental impact by the commonwealth, has ground to a halt. Bulldozers stopped work at Olive Vale in Cape York last Friday after the cattle operators who owned the property agreed to belatedly refer the project to the commonwealth for any impact on threatened species. It came after a campaign by environmental groups and an investigation by the Palaszcuk government that found its predecessor wrongly approved the project under its own relaxed clearing laws days before losing office. Conservationists said it was vindication of their efforts after a simple “desktop search” by computer found the property was likely to be habitat of national environmental significance. It also came after Warren Entsch, the federal Liberal national party member for Leichhardt, last week accused conservationists of feeding the state government “bullshit” and hyping the issue to raise funds. Olive Vale owner Ryan Global agreed to refer the property for assessment under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act following visits by federal environmental compliance officers on 11 and 12 June. That department ran its own investigation after conservation groups including the Wilderness Society and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) warned the project would impact on 17 protected species. These included the red goshawk and arguably Australia’s rarest bird, the buff-breasted button-quail. Their warnings that the project also risked sending more run-off pollution into Great Barrier Reef catchments were echoed last week by a damning state auditor general report that raised concerns about the threat from increased tree clearing to reef water quality. The federal environment department said in a statement: “The owners are cooperating fully with the department in its enquiries and have undertaken to refer the balance of the clearing for a decision under national environmental law. A referral is expected within the next few weeks.” Ryan Global had approval to clear 330 sq km for what it said would be trials in growing sorghum, rice and chickpeas. But the cattle operator’s plan to boost the number of beasts on the property from 15,000 to 25,000 raised suspicions from conservationists that the clearing was a backdoor for more grazing. The former Newman government ruled out grazing as a purpose for liberalising the tree clearing laws, saying they were to enable “high value agriculture”. The Queensland environment minister, Steven Miles, said in a media statement that he welcomed the move to suspend clearing at Olive Vale. “I remain deeply concerned, based on the independent review tabled in parliament on 4 June, that the land in this area is not suitable for the agricultural purpose for which the land clearing approval was sought,” he said. “This scale of land clearing, in an ecologically sensitive area, must not be undertaken lightly.” Australian conservation foundation program officer Andrew Picone said the referral was an acknowledgement the proper process was not followed the first time around. He said the clearing at Olive Vale, backed by Entsch, “would have been an embarrassment” for prime minister Tony Abbott, who was set to launch his government’s white paper on northern Australia in Cairns on Friday. “It vindicates the role of the environment movement in protecting nature and ensuring best practice and environmental laws are followed in the first place,” he said. “It vindicates our call from the beginning that this process go through environmental agencies, which it hadn’t. “It vindicates what we were able to achieve from a simple desktop search, that the property is most likely habitat for matters of national environmental significance and that information is easily available to the public. “We welcome the news that clearing has stopped. We look forward to a proper investigation.” Picone said the ACF hoped the state government separately addressed environmentally significant matters not captured by federal law. This included the impact of Ryan Global’s “unacceptable” proposal to clear right to the edge of Lakefield national park and on other species. | ['environment/wildlife', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joshua-robertson'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-06-16T08:07:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/commentisfree/2020/oct/28/the-worlds-banks-must-start-to-value-nature-and-stop-paying-for-its-destruction-aoe | The world's banks must start to value nature and stop paying for its destruction | The scientific community has long been unequivocal about biodiversity destruction. Last month, the UN reported that the world had failed to meet fully any of the 2020 Aichi bioiversity targets that countries agreed with fanfare in 2010, even as it found that biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and the pressures driving this decline are intensifying. This week’s Bankrolling Extinction report finds that financial institutions provide the capital that is funding over-exploitation of our lands and seas, putting biodiversity in freefall. Last year, the world’s 50 biggest banks provided $2.6tn (£1.9tn) in loans and other credit to sectors with a high impact on biodiversity, such as forestry and agriculture. Bank by bank, the report authors found a cavalier ignorance of – or indifference to – the implications, with the vast majority unaware of their impact on biodiversity. In short, this report is a frightening statement of the status quo. Fortunately, signs are emerging that some governments are – slowly – taking aim at financial backers of the destruction of the natural world. They must now push more forcefully. In the wake of Covid-19, treasury cupboards may be bare, but with new policies and limited recovery funds, they can steer trillions of dollars of private capital towards a nature-positive response to coronavirus, to spur growth, prosperity and resilience without returning to business as usual over-consumption and climate and biodiversity risk. Voices from economics and finance are starting to add impetus and rationale for such momentum. One of the world’s foremost business groups, the World Economic Forum (WEF), has recognised the economic importance of nature. In its annual Global Risks Report, published earlier this year, WEF found that for the first time environmental risks dominated perceived business threats. Biodiversity loss was considered among the five most impactful and most likely risks in the next decade, with concerns ranging from the potential collapse of food and health systems to the disruption of entire supply chains. And Cambridge University professor of economics Partha Dasgupta will describe in a forthcoming report how we are running down our precious natural capital because we have omitted to value nature. Dasgupta has said that the “asset management problem” resulting from this economic oversight requires us to become far more efficient about how we use our planet’s precious natural resources. Smart financial institutions are aware that biodiversity regulation is coming. The first recommendation of the Bankrolling Extinction report is, quite rightly, for banks “to disclose and radically reduce their impact on nature and stop finance for new fossil fuels, deforestation, overfishing and ecosystem destruction”. I see three critical actions governments can take. First, they should set an example in biodiversity-positive finance, by diverting harmful agricultural subsidies to promote a shift to less damaging activities. Agriculture is the leading cause of biodiversity loss today. The Paulson Institute recently estimated that, at $450bn annually, the value of agricultural subsidies harmful to biodiversity exceeds the cost of paying farmers to use nature-friendly practices. In other words, diverting harmful subsidies to pay farmers to protect biodiversity can lead to a net saving. In this case, Britain could be a leading light, if it can get right its planned overhaul of agricultural subsidies post-Brexit, replacing crop-based payments with environmental payments. Last week, the EU also recognised that we need to make farming more environmentally friendly. Second, governments should direct their development banks to use their cash and convening power to become global role models for reporting and reducing their impacts on biodiversity. There are 450 development finance institutions (DFIs) worldwide, which invest $2tn annually. Many have just one shareholder, their national government, and as such they can be a powerful financial lever of political goals, including to conserve and restore biodiversity. DFIs could become world leaders by showing commercial banks that the data and methods to allow them to measure and reduce their impact on biodiversity already exist. It would be wonderful if they could announce such an initiative at the first-ever global meeting of all 450 DFIs, at the Finance in Common Summit in November. And third, financial regulators and central banks could make such biodiversity risk reporting a condition of licensing of financial institutions. The Dutch Central Bank has already taken a first step, in its recent report, Indebted to Nature. Having identified biodiversity-related risks exceeding €800bn (£725bn) at Dutch financial institutions, the bank concluded that financial institutions should spell out the risks they face from loss of biodiversity. Once they report their impacts on biodiversity, financial institutions will have to reduce them, under pressure from stakeholders including citizens and financial regulators, and they will pass this pressure on to the companies they invest in. We saw a glimpse of this in action, when the world’s biggest asset manager, BlackRock, this month joined a shareholder revolt, demanding that the world’s biggest consumer group, Procter & Gamble, specifically measures and reports the impact the company has on forests. At a time of regulatory change, doing the minimum is a dangerous strategy. In the case of biodiversity, the minimum bar is likely to move constantly upwards for the foreseeable future. By going beyond, investors can seize the opportunity, rather than focusing on solely avoiding risk. Funds specialising in environmental social and governance priorities highlight this opportunity. Such funds are now worth more than $1tn, and could exceed the value of conventional funds by 2025 in Europe, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis. By paving the way for private capital in this way, governments can set new biodiversity goals for 2030 at the UN’s conference on biodiversity in Kunming next May with the confidence that they will not again be shamefully missed. • Sir Robert Watson is the former chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'business/global-economy', 'business/economics', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'business/banking', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/robertwatson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-10-28T07:30:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2015/sep/07/paris-climate-talks-could-fail-warns-francois-hollande | Paris climate talks could fail, warns Francois Hollande | The president of France, Francois Hollande, has warned that the global climate change talks scheduled for Paris this December will fail unless nations make a much greater effort to reach agreement – and that the result could be millions of new refugees fleeing climate disaster. “There is a risk of failure,” he told journalists, after a meeting on the issue of providing financial assistance to poor countries affected by climate change. “If we don’t conclude [with a successful agreement], and there are no substantial measures to ensure the transition [to a climate-affected world], it won’t be hundreds of thousands of refugees in the next 20 years, it will be millions.” His warning comes after an inconclusive week of UN negotiations in Bonn, and ahead of a crucial meeting of world leaders later this month in New York. Hollande has staked his political capital on a successful outcome in Paris, where countries will meet in the hopes of hammering out a global agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to come into force from 2020. But as pre-Paris talks stalled in Bonn last week, with only five official negotiating days to go before the Paris conference begins, negotiators are left with a mountain to climb before a text suitable for agreement by governments can be crafted. Many observers are pinning their hopes on the UN general assembly in New York later this month, at which world leaders are expected to adopt a new set of “sustainable development goals” that will address social issues such as healthcare, education and gender equity. But there will also be ample opportunity for them to discuss climate change, and instruct their negotiating teams to clear the roadblocks from a potential Paris agreement. The French, as hosts, have launched a concerted diplomatic effort this year, aimed at forging an agreement that could determine whether the world stays within the 2C of warming that scientists have warned is the limit of safety, beyond which global warming is likely to become irreversible and catastrophic. Targets on emissions curbs, to come in from 2020 and last until 2025 or 2030, have been tabled by most of the world’s major developed and developing economies. Countries responsible for about two-thirds of the planet’s current emissions have now made pledges, which the French government has hailed as a massive achievement. Critics, including many civil society organisations, have pointed out that these pledges are still inadequate to cut emissions in line with scientific advice. But the French view is that, even if the pledges are not enough in themselves, the Paris conference will still be a success if it can create a mechanism by which, through regular revision of countries’ commitments and a ratcheting up of pledges, the scientific goal can be reached. But Hollande warned that this would still take a great deal more effort on ensuring that finance is available for the task, from both public and private sources. Developing countries were promised, at the last major global climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009, that they would receive at least $100bn a year in financial flows to help them cut emissions and cope with the effects of climate change. However, there is still no agreement on what should happen to financial assistance after 2020, which is a major sticking point at the talks. Hollande told journalists: “There will not be an agreement if there is no firm commitment on financing.” Hollande’s mission at the UN assembly in three weeks’ time will be to persuade world leaders to translate into action the “political will” which many of them have professed to see the Paris talks succeed. | ['environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/francois-hollande', 'world/france', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey'] | environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-09-07T14:54:19Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2016/jan/17/the-eco-guide-to-litter | The eco guide to litter | Lucy Siegle | The charity Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) is urging you to clean up for the Queen’s 90th birthday (cleanforthequeen.co.uk). Cigarette butts are the most littered item on our streets, followed by fast-food and snack packaging, and plastic bags. Litter is an ecological nightmare. Our rubbish fragments into bits of plastic that are washed into water courses, poisoning wildlife and choking the ecosystem. Every wrapper or container made from virgin materials that isn’t recycled is a blow to the ambitions of a smarter, more circular economy. KBT’s report How Clean is England? tells us that litter disproportionately affects low-income neighbourhoods, so it is a social justice issue, too. The rise in our consumption of on-the-go food follows the global trend. In Los Angeles the average citizen generates 4.7lb a day of potential litter in takeaway containers. I lay responsibility at the feet of brands and outlets which still have a patchy approach to recycling. Remember that your local council has power through Community Protection Notices to take a stand. The more difficult it is for consumers to bin, or preferably recycle, the more litter there is. Unfortunately I have evidence that major food brands are changing their packaging from recyclable plastic to non-recyclable. We need clarity. The waters are muddied by the promises of biodegradable and degradable packaging. Professor Richard Thompson of Plymouth University has published dozens of papers on plastic debris. He says: “Designing plastic that could recognise when it has ceased to be useful and so begin to rapidly degrade would be challenging.” Basically we would need plastic containers that are smarter than us. In any event, litter is not going to melt away. The big picture: very visible Vanish Plastic litter is often talked about in general terms, but residents of Poldhu Cove on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall were treated to a very specific deluge two weekends ago when hundreds of bottles of Vanish detergent washed up on the beach. The distinctive pink bottles are thought to be from a container that slipped off a cargo ship near Land’s End last May. A clean-up is under way, with surfers joining the effort offshore. Parent company Reckitt Benckiser said it was “deeply concerned” about the spill. Well dressed: design your own knitwear The production processes of most clothes are enough to keep you awake at night. There is egregious waste and you can rarely be certain where and how your garments were made. But who can afford couture? Unmade, the collective bringing transparency to knitwear, is holding a special preview show at London’s Somerset House until 29 March. They offer bespoke designs by hacking industrial knitting machines. Herman, Helga and Hansel and Gretel, three Stoll machines (Stoll machines are reckoned to produce a staggering 10% of the world’s clothing) are waiting to machine-knit you a bespoke scarf or jumper. The design might be based on a 1930s map of Borneo or a reworking of a classic check. The point is, you are in control. If you can’t get to the preview, you can order online. (preview.unmade.com). Email Lucy at lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @lucysiegle | ['environment/series/its-not-easy-being-green', 'environment/series/ask-leo-lucy', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'environment/recycling', 'lifeandstyle/knitting', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'profile/lucysiegle', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/life-and-style'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2016-01-17T06:00:01Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2023/jan/24/carbon-offsets-are-a-licence-to-pollute | Carbon offsets are a licence to pollute | Letters | Your report (Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest provider are worthless, analysis shows, 18 January) makes uncomfortable reading for enthusiasts of nature-based solutions to climate change. While forest protection should provide a win-win situation, benefiting both biodiversity and climate, it can too easily become lose-lose, because carbon offsets allow emissions to continue, worsening global heating and threatening not just forests but all natural ecosystems. The problem is that reliable quantification of the “additionality” of nature-based climate mitigation is near-impossible. The answer is that ecosystem protection (and restoration, wherever possible) must become the default, not the add-on. Until that happens, any carbon trading based on natural processes should be limited to the offset of biologically based emissions, excluding those from fossil fuels. Dr Phil Williamson University of East Anglia • Your reporting of the phantom carbon credits scandal is very welcome. But the bigger problem lies with the concept of offsetting itself, whether in the established market in carbon or the quickly emerging market in biodiversity. Such schemes offer a licence, indeed an incentive, to polluters to carry on polluting. Without damage – emissions or ecological vandalism – there is nothing to offset, a situation that would make investors and speculators in these markets very unhappy. As George Monbiot remarked in 2006, this setup is reminiscent of the indulgences scam run by the medieval church. Richard Middleton Crossmichael, Dumfries & Galloway | ['environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'business/royaldutchshell', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-01-24T18:14:13Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2018/oct/26/great-barrier-reef-forecast-warns-entire-system-at-risk-of-bleaching-and-coral-death-this-summer | Great Barrier Reef forecast warns entire system at risk of bleaching and coral death this summer | Mass bleaching and coral death could be likely along the entire Great Barrier Reef this summer, according to a long-range forecast that coral experts say is “a wake-up call” for the Australian government. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has forecast a 60% chance that the entire Great Barrier Reef will reach alert level one, which signals extreme heat stress and bleaching are likely. The forecast period covers November 2018 to February 2019 and the risk extends to the southern Great Barrier Reef, which escaped the mass mortality seen in the middle and northern parts of the reef in 2016 and 2017. “This is really the first warning bells going off that we are heading for an extraordinarily warm summer and there’s a very good chance that we’ll lose parts of the reef that we didn’t lose in the past couple of years,” said marine biologist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland. “These are not good predictions and this is a wake-up call.” Hoegh-Guldberg said it was particularly worrying that the long-range forecasts were already showing high chances of bleaching and mortality before March, which is the main month of the year for bleaching events. He said if the models proved accurate it would mean the entire Great Barrier Reef would be damaged by climate change and coral populations would trend towards very low levels, affecting the reef’s tourism and fishing industries and the employment they support. “To really have the full picture we’re going to have to wait for those projections that cover the main part of bleaching season,” he said. “Given sea temperatures usually increase as we get towards March, this is probably conservative.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent 1.5 degree report warned coral reefs were especially vulnerable to climate change. At even 1.5 degrees of warming it estimated the planet would lose 80% of its coral reefs. At 2 degrees they would all be wiped out. The government has backed coal power in defiance of the IPCC’s call for a phase-out by 2050. But Hoegh-Guldberg said the projection and warning from the NOAA was “very consistent with what the IPCC 1.5 degree report told us.” “It’s extremely important that politicians and our leaders stand up and make the changes we need to make so we don’t tread down an even more dangerous path,” he said. The environment minister, Melissa Price, said “like many Australians, I deeply share concerns about the health and resilience of our world heritage listed-Great Barrier Reef.” “We acknowledge that climate change has an impact on the reef,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons that Australia is working with other countries to tackle climate change through the Paris agreement, and we will deliver on the commitment to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030.” Price said that of the $443m the government had given in a grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, $100m would go towards reef restoration and coral recovery. The most recent quarterly emissions data published by the government shows Australia’s emissions are increasing. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/coral', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-10-26T02:16:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2009/mar/06/chris-broad-pakistan-cricket | Chris Broad's controversial cricket history in Pakistan | Chris Broad and Pakistan have history. Broad, one of the game's more strong-willed and opinionated figures, has been involved in a succession of controversies as a match official and when he was an international Test cricketer who once scored three centuries in consecutive matches. On one occasion he smashed down his stumps in Sydney after getting out. On another he dared challenge one of the greatest spin bowlers of all time, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan, reporting him for an illegal action. But it was in Lahore, ironically, 22 years ago that his temperament most clearly stood out. On England's stormy tour of Pakistan Broad briefly rebelled against the Pakistani umpire Shakeel Khan's decision to give him out by standing his ground. Although batsmen have since challenged umpires - and been fined for it - at the time it was a rare act of defiance for which he was reprimanded. The flashpoint was the precursor to an even more notorious episode later in the series, when the England captain, Mike Gatting, was drawn into a finger-wagging stand-off with umpire Shakoor Rana, which escalated into a diplomatic incident. As for Broad, his international career foundered soon after. | ['sport/pakistancricketteam', 'sport/cricket', 'world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack', 'sport/sport', 'world/pakistan', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/sri-lanka-cricket-team-attack | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-06T00:01:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2010/aug/18/british-pakistanis-grassroots-flood-appeal | British Pakistanis raise flood aid through grassroots activism | More than £3,000 has been put into the collection box at Mohammed Asif's Gloucestershire shop. Those proceeds will be spent 4,000 miles away, in the north-western province of Pakistan, where the businessman's extended family has constructed a soup kitchen for hundreds of flood victims. The aid supply chain linking Asif's Oriental Food Store in Cheltenham to refugees flooding into the Pakistani city of Nushera is one of hundreds of ad-hoc relief efforts that British Pakistanis have begun organising while Pakistan's government struggles to cope with the disaster. "The support from the Pakistani community to us has been extremely noticeable," said Brendan Paddy of the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella organisation which responds to major disasters overseas. "But there are a significant number organising their own community activity and wiring money to contacts in the country." The surge in support from British Muslims, who are currently observing the holy month of Ramadan, contrasts with donations to multinational relief charities, which have struggled to raise the sums given after recent disasters elsewhere in the world. Asif, 36, whose family lived four miles from the swollen Indus river, which is causing some of the most severe flooding, said his relatives had survived. "Their situation is better than some villagers who have lost their entire savings. They're just focusing now on helping the survivors." He added: "People are coming in off the streets and putting £20 notes in the box. Even kids are giving. People here remember the floods in Cheltenham and Tewkesbury in 2007, so they can relate through that." When friends returning from Pakistan told Rezwan Farooque, 32, from Crawley that, in contrast to the 2005 earthquake in the country, the floods represented a "creeping disaster" he decided to take action. His football team, Crawley Tigers, most of whom are of Pakistani origin, opened a car wash outside a local mosque. The £5 fee has helped raise £3,700, he said, money which has been given to the aid charity Islamic Relief. It is the kind of local, small-scale action that appears to be flourishing in Muslim communities across the UK. In Leicester, one group began selling £5 boxes of curry to office workers. "We're just a one group of friends who wanted to get together and raise money," the organiser, Shah Ali, told the local newspaper, the Leicester Mercury. "What we're saying is that food for you means food for people in Pakistan. We were amazed by how many orders initially we received so we doubled the target to 2,000 boxes." Similar initiatives are afoot in Huddersfield, Bradford and Blackburn. Irim Ali, 31, a Labour councillor from Newcastle upon Tyne, said £15,000 was raised by British Pakistanis at a recent event she organised in the city, with just five days notice and the help of the Asian radio station Spice FM. The proceeds will go to Islamic Relief. She said: "Muslims give about 2% of their wealth to charities during Ramadan, so the timing has been good. A lot of businessmen and families have relatives who have been affected out there so they are donating large sums of money." | ['world/pakistan-flood', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/uk', 'world/pakistan', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'society/charities', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'profile/paullewis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | world/pakistan-flood | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-08-18T18:32:20Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/feb/03/loss-of-eu-protections-could-imperil-uk-hedgehogs-report-says-aoe | Loss of EU protections could imperil UK hedgehogs, report says | Britain’s hedgehogs could be at greater risk after Brexit because hedges may no longer be protected by agriculture regulations, a report says. Under EU law, hedgerows cannot be cut during the bird nesting season and two-metre wild “buffer” strips cannot be doused with pesticides or ploughed up. This is designed to protect hedgerow habitats that provide refuge for 80% of woodland birds and 50% of all mammals. The new agriculture bill reveals gaps in domestic legislation, meaning there is not the same level of protection as under the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP), according to the report by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), commissioned by the Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and WWF. This could mean a significant loss of habitat for the country’s dwindling hedgehog population, which has already fallen by 97% since the 1950s, according to a 2018 report. Nests of woodland and farmland birds such as linnets, yellowhammer and turtle doves could also be destroyed. Mammals such as field voles and hazel dormice are also at risk. “Hedgerows may just be dividers between crops to us, but they are often hidden worlds, teeming with the amazing wildlife that calls our farmland home,” said Tom Lancaster, head of land, seas and climate policy at the RSPB. Bird nesting season runs from February to August. Under the CAP, farmers are not allowed to trim hedges between 1 March and 1 September. EU law says buffer strips must be two metres wide and must not have fertilisers or pesticides put on them. These protections are not contained in the new legislation being debated in the House of Commons. The bill moves away from a system where farmers receive subsidies based on how much land they farm to a process where they receive money for public goods such as providing habitats for wildlife and maintaining healthy soils. Campaigners are lobbying the government to make sure every farmer meets minimum environmental standards after Britain leaves the EU, not just those that sign up for wildlife subsidies. “The agriculture bill includes vital new powers to pay farmers to restore nature but is silent on the rules and regulations for farming in the future. With the change that Brexit will bring, this presents real risks to our soils and hedgerows, and the nature that depends upon them,” Lancaster said. There is already a gap in domestic and EU regulations that means farmers can fill in ponds or leave them to become overgrown. Campaigners want this addressed in the new regulations because ponds support a large proportion of freshwater biodiversity, especially uncommon freshwater species such as damselflies. The report also flags a lack of protection for bare soils. Debbie Tripley, the director of environmental policy and advocacy at WWF, said: “Unless the government starts plugging the gaps left by leaving EU regulation, our soils, hedgerows and the wildlife that depends on them are at risk. We need firm but fair enforcement and advice that ensure food is produced to high environmental standards across the country.” Cutting hedgerows during nesting season could be “calamitous” for wild pollinators and birds, says Lynn Dicks, a lecturer in animal ecology from the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the research. “Hedgerows are really important for wild pollinators, especially because they provide flower resources in the early spring, often when not much else is in flower. “If hedgerows are more frequently cut in the spring and early summer, a practice that currently breeches EU regulations, substantial proportions of this spring flower resource in the English countryside could be lost. A third of our wild bee and hoverfly species are already declining. Loss of flowers in the hedgerows can only make this worse.” Alexander Lees, senior lecturer in conservation biology at Manchester Metropolitan University said: “It seems ridiculous that we should have to worry that legislation to protect our natural capital like soils and clean water might be eroded, no forward thinking nation should ever contemplate such acts of self-harm, yet our current track record at enforcement of regulation is already very poor.” A Defra spokesperson said: “We will continue to be a world leader on the environment as we leave the EU and both the agriculture bill and the environment bill are a crucial part of that. “We will not lower the exceptionally high environmental standards we already hold. In fact, leaving the EU means we can transform British agriculture to reward farmers for enhancing the environment, tackling climate change and protecting our wildlife for future generations.” | ['environment/farming', 'environment/wildlife', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/phoebe-weston', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-02-03T07:00:05Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
society/2022/apr/01/secondhand-bong-smoke-worse-tobacco-study | Secondhand bong smoke worse than that from tobacco, study finds | A new study has found that secondhand cannabis smoke from bongs can be even more harmful than tobacco due to an increased concentration of fine particulate matter. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who published their report on the Jama Open Network this week, conducted their experiment with students from the university. They measured levels of fine particulate matter before, during and after eight cannabis social-smoking sessions in the living room of an apartment near campus. They found that secondhand bong smoke contains fine particulate matter in much higher concentrations and is more dangerous compared with secondhand tobacco smoke. The students, who provided their own cannabis and bongs, remained anonymous and were not observed during the two-hour smoke sessions. “We exerted no control and gave no direction to the students on how to smoke the cannabis in the bong,” said S Katharine Hammond, a professor who oversaw the study alongside graduate student Patton Khuu Nguyen, to the San Francisco Chronicle. “They were free to smoke as much as they wanted when they started the session.” Hammond and Nguyen used an aerosol monitor to measure the air quality before, during and after each session, which they then compared with the data collected from tobacco smokers in a hookah setting. They found that fine particulate matter from cannabis bong smoking was at least four times greater than the smoke produced by tobacco. “Patton and I compared the particulate exposure from the bong hits to the air quality of the orange sky days after the wildfires of September 2020 … The concentrations were five to 10 times greater in the living room during the smoking,” Hammond told the Chronicle. The study, conducted over two months in 2018, also found that fine particulate matter concentrations took a significantly long time to return to pre-smoking levels. In one of the sessions, the concentration stayed at more than 10 times the original concentration level, 12 hours after the group had stopped smoking. Cannabis has long held a reputation as less harmful than cigarettes, but Hammond said she hopes the study will alert people to the reality that it comes with its own serious risks to the smoker and those around them. “This cohort study suggests that, contrary to popular beliefs, bong smoking is not safe … Incorrect beliefs about SHCS [second hand cannabis smoke] safety promote indoor cannabis smoking,” the study said. “It can actually affect the health of children who are nearby or other people in pretty serious ways,” Hammond added in a statement to USA Today. “We need to wake up to that.” | ['society/cannabis', 'environment/pollution', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/maya-yang', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-04-01T23:57:18Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2011/oct/05/weatherwatch-thunder-noise | Weatherwatch: Snap, crackle and boom | Thunder does not just boom but has a surprisingly rich vocabulary. It can snap, crackle, peal and rumble, with each sound being produced by a distinct physical process. A snapping or tearing sound before the main thunder is caused by a failed leader, a streamer of positive charge going up from the ground. One streamer connects with the downward stroke to make the lightning circuit, but many others do not, and make a faint sound without even being visible. Crackling comes from small branches of lightning nearer than the main stroke, so the sound is heard first. The loudest part of the lightning, the clap or crack, comes from the main channel. If the path of the lightning is relatively straight, there will be a single boom, but lightning with several zig-zags will produce a different clap from each section. Cloud to ground lightning that originates from the top of the cloud may be several times longer than lightning from the base of the cloud a few hundred metres above the ground. Sound travels at 300 metres a second, so the sound from a long stroke may reach you over the course of five seconds. A peal of thunder is a clap which changes in pitch or loudness. And, finally, the rumble at the end of thunder is prolonged by reflections off the clouds and ground features such as hills. These echoes gradually tail off in the distance, so the loudness of the next clap is always a surprise. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'science/meteorology', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-10-05T22:05:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/article/2024/aug/12/greek-officials-evacuate-residents-as-wildfire-moves-like-lightning | Greek officials evacuate residents as wildfire moves ‘like lightning’ | Authorities are evacuating people from towns, villages and hospitals on the outskirts of Athens as firefighters battle to contain a massive blaze that is moving “like lightning”, ripping through trees, homes and cars. Propelled by gale-force winds, the wildfire tore towards residential areas of the Greek capital on Monday, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. Late in the day, despite the “superhuman” efforts of forest commandos and an army of volunteers to bring the fires under control, the inferno had reached the city’s northern suburbs, threatening the premises of the national observatory on a hill in Penteli. Residents, some wearing masks, could be seen with buckets, hoses and even olive branches desperately trying to douse flames as they encroached on homes. In a statement, the observatory’s meteorological service said the fast-moving blaze was “threatening important facilities, technologies and years of research efforts.” In what would be the first loss of life since the fires erupted, authorities announced early on Tuesday that the charred remains of a woman had been found in a factory in the northern suburb of Vrillisia. The victim is believed to be an immigrant worker. Greece’s climate crisis and civil protection minister said firefighters were struggling in “dramatic conditions” that had been exacerbated by a prolonged drought. The Mediterranean nation has experienced an exceptionally hot and dry year. On Monday it called for help in tackling the fire from other EU countries, and assistance is expected from France, Italy, the Czech Republic and Romania. “Its an extremely dangerous fire that we’ve been battling for over 20 hours in dramatic conditions because of the very strong winds and prolonged dryness,” the minister for climate crisis, Vassilis Kikilias, told reporters. More than 670 firefighters, backed by 17 water bombing planes, 15 helicopters and trucks, were trying to bring the fire under control and forces were being “continually reinforced”, he said. “Right now the battle is being waged on two fronts: one in the area of Kallitechnoupoli and the other in [the village of] Grammatiko,” Kikilias said. “We will continue with all our might until it is brought under control and the last front is put out.” At least 25 areas across the stricken Attica region, including the ancient town of Marathon, were forced to evacuate residents. The mayor of Marathon, Stergios Tsirkas, said the town, which gave its name to the long-distance race, was facing a “biblical catastrophe”. “Our whole town is engulfed in flames and going through difficult times,” he told the Skai television channel. The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, cut short his summer break on Crete to return to Athens and oversee the response in a nation where memories of the 104 people who died in wildfires at the seaside resort of Mati six years ago remain vivid. The fire began in the vicinity of Varnava, a village about 20 miles north-east of Athens, sending gigantic clouds of ash smoke billowing over the capital. From the outset, firefighting efforts were hampered by strong winds. At least half of the country was under a “red alert” – the highest level of extreme fire risk in the country’s five-tier system. A fire brigade spokesperson, Vassileios Vathrakogiannis, said on Sunday that flames fanned by the gusts were up to 25 metres (80ft) high. The winds were constantly changing the course of the fires, hampering efforts to bring them under control. With the strong winds showing no sign of abating, meteorologists predicted that the days ahead would be critical. Health officials urged residents in the region to limit their movements and stay inside, saying the thick smoke had seriously affected air quality across the Attica basin. By mid-afternoon on Sunday, within hours of the blaze erupting, the skies above the Greek parliament in central Syntagma Square had turned a yellowish brown as ash clouds were blown southward. Greek media reported people being taken to hospital with respiratory problems. Unprecedented temperatures – June and July were the hottest on record – after the warmest winter on record have resulted in wildfires becoming increasingly common and intense in Greece. In a first, this summer the country registered a week-long heatwave before mid-June, a sign of the accelerated pace at which the climate is breaking down, environmentalists said. Meteorologists believe 2024 will be the hottest Greek summer on record. At least 10 tourists, including the British TV presenter Michael Mosley, died earlier this summer from heat exhaustion after walking in blistering temperatures. Mosley is believed to have succumbed to the heat two hours after he set off on a walk from a beach on the remote island of Symi in temperatures topping 40C. | ['world/greece', 'world/wildfires', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'campaign/email/headlines-europe', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenasmith', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-08-12T11:00:34Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2018/oct/23/humans-contain-plastic-waste-drastic-banning-straws | Even our own bodies now contain plastic waste. It’s time to get drastic | Gaby Hinsliff | We are what we eat, and what we eat reveals something about what we are in return. So it shouldn’t be all that surprising that humans are now apparently eating plastic, given what we mostly are is thoughtless enough to have littered the planet with the stuff. A small trial at the Medical University of Vienna found tiny shreds of it in the digestive systems of people from eight different countries including the UK. And while that’s only a very tentative opening to the conversation – the study involved just eight people and doesn’t tell us what if any effect eating plastic was having on their bodies, which means an awful lot more research is needed before we know what any of this really means – it’s a conversation that feels overdue. We already knew fish were ingesting plastic. Did we really think it wouldn’t reach back up to the top of the food chain, that the consequences of our own actions couldn’t return to haunt us? With apologies to Blue Planet, however, this goes beyond cleaning up the oceans. Six of the eight subjects of the study ate sea fish, but not all of them did. Other possible theories involve drinking out of plastic bottles, eating food that’s been wrapped in plastic, or tiny plastic particles floating in the air which then land on our food. But our environment is so saturated now with plastic that it seems almost inevitable that we were going to absorb it somehow. Does it actually matter? This study can’t yet answer that question, because all it tells us is that microplastics were found in human faeces. If it’s just passing through like an unwelcome guest before being summarily expelled from the body, then perhaps there’s no damage done. If there were evidence of plastics being absorbed through the gut barrier and accumulating in our internal organs, as some animal studies have suggested they seem to be doing, that would potentially be a red flag. But either way, the instinctive yuck factor of finding something inside ourselves that we wouldn’t have actively chosen to put there ought to put rocket boosters under efforts to tackle plastic pollution. Michael Gove, the environment secretary, is currently consulting on plans to phase out plastic cotton buds, drinks stirrers and straws. But even looking at that list makes you wonder why on earth it hasn’t happened before now. Cotton swabs do at least have medical uses, but since when was a drinks stirrer, whether made of plastic or anything else, necessary to human existence? These are things we can easily eliminate without missing them, yet they represent a drop (if you’ll pardon the pun) in a very overcrowded ocean. The commitment to use foreign aid money to fight plastic pollution in developing countries gets fewer headlines but has the potential to be more of a game-changer, given that one study found 90% of the plastic waste polluting oceans came from 10 rivers in Africa and Asia. Yet all of this is still only scratching the surface of the problem. Solving plastic pollution is, it should be said, nowhere near as simple as some campaigners make it sound. Switching away from plastic packaging to other materials would trigger other environmental quandaries, for a start. Bottling liquids in glass rather than plastic makes them heavier, which potentially means more trips to transport them; paper production has a bigger carbon footprint than its plastic equivalent. There’s a reason, in short, we got so reliant on plastic in the first place, and even if it were possible to phase the stuff out tomorrow, it would take up to 1,000 years for some of what’s being produced right now to biodegrade. But just because it’s difficult, doesn’t mean we shrug our shoulders and do nothing, and perhaps this is the wake-up call some needed. There is something genuinely mad about a society that is on the one hand obsessed with the quality of the food we put in our mouths, and yet also blithely eats its own garbage. The war on plastic, it seems, just got personal. • Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/series/first-thoughts', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/pollution', 'science/science', 'tone/comment', 'environment/oceans', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'profile/gabyhinsliff', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-10-23T10:43:56Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2019/jan/22/the-guardian-view-on-rising-sea-levels-a-warning-from-greenland | The Guardian view on rising sea levels: a warning from Greenland | Editorial | Dramatic increases in the rate at which ice on Greenland and East Antarctica is melting are, along with the heatwave gripping Australia, among the latest manifestations of the changes our planet and its atmosphere are undergoing. Concerns surrounding the risk of melting ice causing sea levels to rise were previously focused mainly on large glaciers. But scientists have discovered that the largest recent losses from Greenland’s vast ice sheet, which is two miles thick in places, have occurred in the island’s largely glacier-free south-west. Combined with recent analysis of retreating Antarctic glaciers that were previously thought to be stable, this new research makes unnerving reading. This is because of what it tells us about the extent of likely sea level rises, and warming seas linked to coral die-off and chaotic weather, but also because it highlights the difficulty of fully understanding the climate system. Last year the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urged governments to work towards the most ambitious targets in the 2015 Paris agreement, and a global temperature rise not greater than 1.5C. Many experts fear that factors including the election of Donald Trump in the US and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil mean that even the more modest goal of sticking to current commitments, putting the world on course for a 3C rise, remains a huge challenge. Currently, global carbon emissions are still rising. But if people all over the world are getting used to the idea that higher temperatures and increased frequency of extreme weather events are the new normal – recent polling in the US suggests 72% of Americans believe global warming is important, the highest-ever figure – we are arguably less advanced in our understanding of warming oceans. The sea level rises that scientists expect to accompany a temperature rise of 3C would submerge cities including Shanghai, Osaka and Miami along with parts of Rio de Janeiro and Alexandria – less than a century from now. Among nations, Bangladesh will be particularly severely affected, with one estimate suggesting that 250,000 people are already forced to move each year, making them environmental refugees. Such facts on the ground, as well as predictions, are why climate activists have long linked their cause to wider concerns around social justice. Just as carbon emissions must be limited to protect the livelihoods of people already struggling in areas vulnerable to drought and desertification, sea level rises must be restricted to protect the millions of people who live on coasts and in low-lying areas. The movement of peoples around the world, including but not limited to refugees, is in some cases a direct consequence of changes to the environment. Weather and climate systems are complex, and sea levels are hard to predict confidently. Already, ice sheets and glaciers are surprising scientists by behaving in unexpected ways. But while trying to limit future emissions remains the most pressing task, these ominous findings highlight the need to address the consequences of carbon already emitted. Sea level rises will continue long after emissions have peaked. We will have to adapt to our world’s changing shape. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/sea-ice', 'environment/sea-level', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/greenland', 'world/world', 'environment/poles', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-01-22T18:53:09Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/feb/04/barely-15-of-the-worlds-coastal-regions-remain-ecologically-intact-study-says | Barely 15% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact, study says | Just 15.5% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact, according to new research that calls for urgent conservation measures to protect what remains and restore sites that are degraded. The study, led by researchers at the University of Queensland, used satellite data to examine the extent to which human activities have encroached on coastlines around the globe. It found that up to 2013 – the latest year for which the data was available – few intact coastlines remained, with even remote areas such as the Kimberley region of Western Australia affected by fishing and mining. The research, published in the scientific journal Conservation Biology, builds on previous work that examined human activities within terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The small areas of coast that remain undamaged by pressures such as fishing, agriculture, urban development, mining and roads were mostly in Canada, followed by Russia, Greenland, Chile, Australia and the United States. Very few intact areas and often high levels of degradation were found in island nations, much of Europe, and countries including Vietnam, India and Singapore. Coastal regions containing seagrasses, savannah and coral reefs had the highest levels of human pressure. Brooke Williams, the study’s lead author and a conservation ecologist at the University of Queensland, said because most of the world’s population live in coastal regions, the pressures on those ecosystems could take many forms and occurred both on land and at sea. “Our paper really advocates for coastal region restoration quite urgently,” she said. “That such a low proportion is at the higher spectrum of the intactness scale is alarming. It’s not good news.” The situation certainly would not have improved since 2013, she said. The coastal analysis was compiled by using two datasets called the human footprint (which examined land-based ecosystems) and the cumulative human pressure index (which examined pressures in marine environments). Pressures were then mapped out to 50km on either side of the shoreline. Williams said areas that were still largely intact were often more remote and thus more difficult to access. In Australia, the Great Australian Bight remained relatively untouched, but Williams noted it had faced development threats in recent years. Co-author James Watson, of the University of Queensland, said remoteness didn’t guarantee coastlines would remain intact, pointing to mining and particularly fishing as industries causing environmental decline in those places. He said he had expected Madagascar, Namibia and northern Australia would all retain large areas of intact coastline, but it had not proved to be consistently the case. “It shocks me how pervasive fishing is. It’s just everywhere. You can’t avoid it,” he said. “These remote places around the world, you’re seeing fishing impacts.” The researchers argue that protecting the world’s coastlines will require a range of measures, including legislation to protect undamaged regions and restoration work to improve places that have been degraded. “You’ve got to increase those areas that are safeguarded,” Watson said. “And in places that are heavily degraded we’ve got to have a much bigger restoration agenda not just for species but for water, for carbon, all of those things.” | ['environment/coastlines', 'environment/environment', 'world/canada', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/fishing', 'world/world', 'environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-02-06T22:00:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2024/nov/26/australian-farmers-support-renewable-energy-transition | ‘Silent majority’ of Australian farmers found to support renewable energy transition | Seventy per cent of regional Australians in renewable energy zones support the development of renewable energy projects on local farmland, a new survey has found. The survey, conducted for lobby group Farmers for Climate Action, found that support for renewable energy developments increased to 73% for people connected to the farming industry, but was conditional on concerns around consultation, project design and decommissioning being met. Just 17% of respondents said they opposed renewable energy developments, with 8% strongly opposed. The Farmers for Climate Action chief executive, Natalie Collard, said the results showed the “silent majority” of farmers support the renewable transition, despite an increasingly loud campaign by anti-renewable voices. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Collard said the survey, which included a poll of 1,000 people and a smaller focus group discussion among 19 farmers, including “a lot of detractors”, showed that those who vocally opposed renewable energy developments and those who said they would support them on their land shared the same concerns. Those concerns were the potential impact of a project on their ongoing use of the land for farming, a fear they would be left with the costs of decommissioning and a general distrust of developers. Whether that translated to a broader opposition to all renewable energy developments depended on the individual’s general trust in government to hold developers to account, Collard said. Anti-renewable campaigners have marched on Canberra twice and held packed community meetings throughout New South Wales and Queensland, backed by National party politicians and a pledge by the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, that the Coalition would cap renewable energy investment if elected. Collard said most of the concerns raised could be addressed through the government introducing national standards for the conduct of developers, including guidelines around decommissioning and consultation. Decommissioning plans, which are already required as part of the approvals process, should be made readily available on developers’ websites, and developers should also use social media to better engage with the community, she said. Land use concerns could be ameliorated by giving farmers a say in project design, the survey found. “We know that a lot of developers are already acting to a high standard,” Collard said. “They are not the ones that are letting the sector down. “Some developers are opting to pay the fine rather than do community consultation. That should not even be an option.” Farmers who supported renewable energy developments said the income security from hosting a project– which averages $40,000 per wind turbine per annum or $1,200 per hectare for a solar farm – could “drought proof” their business. A livestock and cropping farmer from NSW told the focus group: “The biggest benefit would be a constant source of income regardless of seasonal conditions and livestock prices. This is very important to me, particularly given the current returns in agriculture.” Collard said an analysis by the Clean Energy Council found large-scale wind and solar projects could deliver up to $11.7bn to farmers in landholder payments by 2050. “It’s incredible to me that there are some voices in agriculture that are prepared to take away choice from farmers who want to host renewables and make money from it,” she said. “That’s something I have never seen in Australian agriculture before and I am just shocked that it’s not held to account.” | ['australia-news/series/the-rural-network', 'australia-news/rural-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'profile/calla-wahlquist', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/the-rural-network'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2024-11-25T23:00:03Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2020/may/12/government-commits-150m-to-bushfire-affected-wildlife-but-more-action-needed-conservationists-say | Government commits $150m to bushfire-affected wildlife but more action needed, conservationists say | The government has been praised for committing an additional $150m for wildlife and habitat recovery after the recent bushfire crisis but conservationists also warn it should be coupled with stronger policy to protect species and address threats related to climate change. The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said $110m of the new funds would be for on-ground recovery work in fire-affected regions, including in vulnerable areas of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and in rainforests on the NSW north coast. The money will be spent over two years from 1 July and is in addition to the initial $50m announced in January to support wildlife recovery. Ley said it would benefit species including the koala, the Kangaroo Island dunnart and the northern corroboree frog, as well as plant life including the Wollemi pine. “We have listened to the experts from the wildlife and threatened species bushfire recovery expert panel, from wildlife carers, conservation organisations and community groups,” Ley said. “Since our initial package which has delivered much needed relief for volunteers, land managers, seed banks, veterinarians and zoos, we have been clear that more money would be forthcoming and we intend to put it to the best possible use, using expert advice.” Conservation groups have welcomed the announcement, with the Australian Conservation Foundation describing it as a “sizeable investment in ecosystem and wildlife recovery”. “The funding will help with restoration, erosion control, weed and pest management, and should assist species such as the Kangaroo Island dunnart, the northern corroboree frog, koalas and more,” policy analyst James Trezise said. But organisations said funding should be matched by work to improve Australia’s conservation protections. They noted that in the aftermath of the fires unburnt habitat had already been opened up for logging. Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is currently subject to a once-in-a-decade review. Conservationists said the review was an opportunity to strengthen protections for species and critical habitat and ensure policies were in place to address the threat of more frequent natural disasters in a warming world. Trezise said the review was an important opportunity for the “Morrison government to build a stronger legal framework with emergency protection for critical habitats to better protect remaining unburnt areas”. “The truth is Australia’s laws are not adequately protecting native species and their homes,” he said. Tim Beshara, the federal policy director at the Wilderness Society, said the organisation’s submission to the bushfires royal commission recommended the government establish a nature recovery fund specifically to deal with climate-related disasters. “These bushfires aren’t a standalone event, there will be more and we need to be ready to roll immediately every time this happens,” Beshara said. “These fires started in August 2019 and the majority of funding won’t hit the ground until after July 2020.” Beshara said the organisation was also concerned the government had not developed a policy response to the environmental impact of the fires outside of the grant funding. “These fires have been the largest single catastrophic event for terrestrial biodiversity in generations and it hasn’t instigated a single change to government policy in how they protect and manage nature,” he said. Responses to written questions from a Senate estimates committee show the government had spent $18.75m of the initial $50m announced in January for wildlife as at 20 April. In its response, the department said a total of more than $30m of the $50m had been committed to projects. Labor’s environment spokeswoman Terri Butler said the additional funding for wildlife was welcome but the opposition was “deeply sceptical about the government’s announcement”. Butler said the environment department had suffered multiple budget cuts under Coalition governments and the government had not moved quickly enough to get money out the door for the fire recovery. “Scott Morrison has rushed to the nearest podium for a press conference, but has been devastatingly slow to act on bushfire recovery,” Butler said. Analysis for the federal government has found 113 vertebrate species, nearly 200 invertebrates and more than 400 plants need urgent assistance in the aftermath of the fires. Guardian Australia has sought a response to Labor’s comments from Ley. | ['environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/sussan-ley', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/biodiversity', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-05-12T05:07:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2010/jun/25/name-a-species-usnea-florida | Usnea florida, the edible, medicinal lichen | Description Usnea florida forms a bush of thin branches often ending in flat spore-producing discs and can grow to 10-20 cm long. This group of lichens can be easily identified by pulling back the outer sheath on the main stem. Usnea lichens have a cord running through the centre of the main stem. Lichen species which resemble Usnea do not have this white cord, and appear grey-green throughout. Usnea lichen also contains potent antibiotics which can halt infection and are broad spectrum and effective against tuberculosis bacterial. Usnic acid (C18H16O7), a potent antibiotic and antifungal agent, is found in most species. This, combined with the hairlike structure of the lichen, means that Usnea lent itself well to treating surface wounds before sterile gauze and modern antibiotics. It is also edible and high in vitamin C. Habitat Found in broadleaf tree canopies. Prefers exposed, well-lit situations. Status Usnea is very sensitive to air pollution, especially sulphur dioxide. Under bad conditions they may grow no larger than a few millimetres, if they survive at all. Lost from at least eight sites recently in the core area of Devon. Threatened by nitrogen deposition and inappropriate woodland management. Distribution Southern and western British Isles. • Name the other species by clicking on the links on the right-hand side or the previous and next buttons at the top of the page | ['environment/series/name-a-species', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/environment', 'science/taxonomy', 'environment/plants', 'science/zoology', 'science/science', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/environmenteditor'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-06-25T08:00:10Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2019/jun/12/louisiana-chemical-companies-sued-cancer-town-reserve-clean-air-act | Chemical companies at centre of Guardian's Cancer Town series face state legal action | Louisiana’s environment agency is poised to sue the two chemical companies associated with America’s only neoprene plant in the town of Reserve, the Guardian has learned. The legal action relates to alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and Louisiana state environmental laws. The news comes a month after the Guardian launched a year-long reporting project from Reserve, called Cancer Town, that tracks residents’ struggle for clean air and reports from other parts of the New Orleans-Baton Rouge corridor known colloquially as Cancer Alley. The move, quietly announced in a letter from the state’s department of environmental quality (LDEQ) to Louisiana’s attorney general, represents a significant and rare escalation in the state’s response to air pollution in Reserve. According to US government science, the town has the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxicity anywhere in America. The letter, dated 5 June, is written by LDEQ’S general counsel, Herman Robinson, and requests “concurrence to file a civil action” in federal court against Japanese neoprene firm Denka and American chemicals giant DuPont. In a response on 7 June, shared with the Guardian, Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry agreed, calling a suit the “best course of action”. Denka is the current operator of the neoprene unit at the Pontchartrain Works facility in Reserve, which it purchased in 2015 from DuPont, who had operated the site since the 1960s. Neoprene, a synthetic rubber, is primarily made of the compound chloroprene, which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says is likely to be carcinogenic to humans. Chloroprene emissions around Reserve have routinely been dozens of times above the EPA’s recommended guidance that is safe for humans prompting recent outcry from residents living close to the plant. LDEQ’s said it would not comment on pending legal matters. Denka also told the Guardian it would not comment on pending litigation, citing the advice of counsel. Marylee Orr, director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (Lean), said that for the agency to potentially file suit “against a major industry in Louisiana’s pro-business climate is no small feat”. She said: “Hopefully this is a step towards relief for a community that has endured 50 years of hazardous exposure to a likely carcinogen.” Although the precise details of the requested lawsuit are unclear, LDEQ had warned Denka last month that readings of chloroprene had not fallen below the agreed standards set in a voluntary agreement back in 2017. That agreement committed the firm to reducing chloroprene emissions by 85% by 2018. The possible suit comes amid reports of rankling between LDEQ and local government over the failures to meet emission reduction targets. Hugh Lambert, a lead attorney in a lawsuit filed against Denka and DuPont by a number of residents in Reserve, urged the Louisiana attorney general, Jeffery Landry, to act on the LDEQ request. “Hopefully politics doesn’t get in the way of this health and environmental issue that should have nothing to do with politics. If the attorney general does his job, he will approve this LDEQ request and OK the filing of a suit against Denka. That ought to happen,” Lambert said. A representative for DuPont did not respond to specific questions on the potential litigation but said the company continued “to uphold our commitment to safe operations for our workers and neighbors”. The representative insisted that DuPont met chloroprene emissions limits in its state permit before sale of the neoprene unit to Denka. | ['us-news/louisiana', 'us-news/series/cancer-town', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'society/health', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/laughland-oliver', 'profile/jamiles-lartey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-06-12T18:47:28Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
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