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global-development/2021/may/20/climate-disasters-caused-more-internal-displacement-than-war-in-2020 | Climate disasters ‘caused more internal displacement than war’ in 2020 | Intense storms and flooding triggered three times more displacements than violent conflicts did last year, as the number of people internally displaced worldwide hit the highest level on record. There were at least 55 million internally displaced people (IDPs) by the end of last year, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). There were more than twice as many people displaced within their own country as forced out of their country as refugees, the IDMC said. The number is the highest on record, but in line with its steady rise over the past decade. During a year that was the warmest on record, 5 million more people were displaced than in 2019. To demonstrate the scale of the situation, the Norwegian centre’s recording system covers not only where the overall number of displaced people stood up to the end of 2020 – but also the number of moves, or “displacements”, that happened within 2020 alone. If a woman is forced from her home because of flooding, for example, and then wildfires wreck her displaced-persons camp, this counts as two displacements, though one person has been displaced. Looking first at the overall total of 55 million internally displaced people, the report found that about 48 million people had been uprooted from their homes as a result of conflict and violence up to the end of last year, while 7 million had been displaced by disasters. The IDMC said the latter was likely to be a significant underestimate due to incomplete data. About 20 million IDPs were children aged under 15 and 2.6 million were over 65. Most live in low- and middle-income countries. The IDMC report said: “Every year, millions of people are forced to flee their homes because of conflict and violence. Disasters and the effects of climate change regularly trigger new and secondary displacement, undermining people’s security and wellbeing. “The scale of displacement worldwide is increasing, and most of it is happening within countries’ borders.” Countries with the highest disaster-driven internal displacements were Afghanistan, with 1.1 million people; India, with 929,000; and Pakistan with 806,000. The countries with the highest number of people displaced by conflict and violence were Syria (6.6 million), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5.3 million), and Colombia (4.9 million). Turning to the the other measurement, the number of movements people made during 2020 alone – if they were displaced at least once – the report said the highest annual figure in 10 years had been recorded at more than 40 million new displacements. Of these, it said, 30 million were a result of floods, storms and wildfires. East Asia and the Pacific region was the location of 30.3% of new displacements in 2020. Sub-Saharan Africa was the second worst-affected region, accounting for 27.4%. The IDMC’s report shows that the nearly 10 million new displacements driven by conflict last year were mainly triggered “by persisting levels of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and Ethiopia”. Alexandra Bilak, IDMC’s director, said: “It is particularly concerning that these high figures were recorded against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, when movement restrictions obstructed data collection and fewer people sought out emergency shelters for fear of infection. “Today’s displacement crises arise from many interconnected factors, including climate and environmental change, protracted conflicts and political instability. In a world made more fragile by the Covid-19 pandemic, sustained political will and investment in locally owned solutions will be more important than ever.” The Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general, Jan Egeland, added: “It’s shocking that someone was forced to flee their home inside their own country every single second last year. We are failing to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from conflict and disasters.” • This article was amended on 21 May 2021 to add an example illustrating the distinction between numbers of displaced people, and figures for “displacements”, which can involve more than one move by an individual. | ['global-development/global-development', 'global-development/migration', 'world/internally-displaced-people', 'world/world', 'world/refugees', 'world/migration', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/africa', 'world/syria', 'world/afghanistan', 'world/india', 'world/pakistan', 'world/middleeast', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/saeedkamalidehghan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-05-20T04:30:28Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
global-development/2021/jan/07/guatemala-nickel-mine-death-adolfo-ich | Guatemala mine's ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader's murder | A judge in Guatemala has accepted a guilty plea by the former head of security at Central America’s largest nickel mine who was on trial for killing an Indigenous leader, in a rare conviction over human rights violations allegedly linked to Canadian-owned mining companies in the region. Mynor Padilla was found guilty on Wednesday of homicide for the 2009 fatal shooting of Adolfo Ich, a Maya Q’eqchi’ teacher and community leader who opposed the Fenix mine outside the town of El Estor. “We have spent a long time seeking justice,” Angélica Choc, Ich’s widow, told the Guardian outside the courthouse, in Puerto Barrios, a port city 185 miles east of Guatemala City, following the ruling. “It is not going to bring my husband back, but I feel satisfied.” Transnational mining corporations, most of them Canadian, their personnel, and state security forces have been accused by human rights groups of a litany of abuses in Central America, including the killings of mine opponents. Prosecutions are rare, and criminal convictions of mining company personnel are almost unheard of in the region. Patricia Quinto, who represented Choc, a joint plaintiff in the trial, said that the verdict set an important precedent in the country. “The judge noted mining companies have generated conflicts,” said Quinto. At the time of the killing, the Fenix mining project was owned by Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals, which faced opposition from local Indigenous communities to plans to reopen the mine. The company faces ongoing civil lawsuits in Canada related to violence against Indigenous residents, including Ich’s killing. “We will review the court’s written decision once it is released. Any agreements made in the Guatemalan court do not affect our view of the facts or Hudbay’s liability in relation to civil matters currently before the Ontario court,” a Hudbay Minerals spokesperson told the Guardian in a statement. The nickel mine had previously operated under other Canadian ownership during the country’s 1960–96 civil war between the military and leftist guerrillas. An estimated 200,000 people were killed during the war, most of them Indigenous Maya civilians killed by the military. Corporate land and mining rights acquired under military rule sparked decades of conflict and opposition from local Indigenous communities. The Fenix mine is located on the country’s largest lake, in a predominantly Maya Q’eqchi’ region in eastern Guatemala. The mine has been linked to violence for decades, including extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances during the civil war, according to a United Nations back truth commission. The mine reopened amid violent clashes with local protestors in 2014, and it is now owned by the Solway Group, a Russian conglomerate. In 2019, Guatemala’s constitutional court upheld a petition to suspend operations at the mine pending consultation with affected Indigenous communities. “There are many brothers and sisters in this struggle,” said German Chub, who was shot and paralysed by mine security personnel on September 27, 2009, the same day Ich was killed. A former army lieutenant colonel, Padilla was also found guilty on three counts of culpable injury for his role in Chub’s shooting and assaults on two other Indigenous men from a nearby village. Padilla spent four and a half years in prison prior to an initial 2017 acquittal, overturned in appeals. He pleaded guilty in December 2020 following a sentencing and reparations agreement between the prosecution and defense. He will not face further jail time. Padilla and his defense lawyers declined comment following the ruling Wednesday. The full sentence will be formally issued on 13 January. “For me it is a relief and at the same time it brings sadness,” Chub told the Guardian. “It took us so long to be heard.” | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/guatemala', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2021-01-07T17:05:17Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2018/may/28/beleaguered-amazon-tribes-remain-staunch-in-defence-of-their-land | Beleaguered Amazon tribes remain staunch in defence of their land | Jessica Moto | It was a letter of unity and solidarity. “Our forest, our rivers, our land are sacred to us,” wrote the Ka’apor tribe, from Maranhão in north-eastern Brazil, to the Munduruku, who live hundreds of miles away on the Tapajós river deep in the Amazon rainforest. Both tribes are under threat from organised criminals who illegally grab land, log trees or prospect for gold. Now, tired of waiting for official protection that often fails to arrive, they are taking law enforcement into their own hands. In three years, the Ka’apor have seized and torched 105 trucks carrying stolen timber, and closed down 14 illegal roads running through their lands, the tribe says. The Munduruku have delineated their own land in an effort to face down the lawless miners and land grabbers. Their foes often have ties to politicians and police, which – combined with the absence of federal oversight – has compelled the tribes to strengthen and organise themselves in the face of an unequal struggle, one in which the state often seems an enemy or ally of the aggressors. The Ka’apor live in the Alto Turiaçu indigenous territory. Since 1982, it has been granted a demarcated constitutional status that protects it for the tribe. But still the heavily forested area in the north of Maranhão has been invaded by illegal loggers, pillaging hardwood. “A lot of this wood goes to Europe, to China, to other places,” says Gilderlan Silva, a representative of the Indian Missionary Council in Maranhão. “You have an economic power that goes right from the gas station owner, who finances the fuel of the logging truck, to the guy who owns the sawmill, right up to the financing of politicians. “It is a market that drives a lot of money.” In 2013, the Ka’apor created a management council based on the tribe’s historic principles. It was a break from their previous system of tribal chiefs, a tradition they say was imposed by Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (Funai). The Ka’apor drafted an agreement to protect themselves, banning alcoholic drinks and drugs, which had arrived in the 17 villages in the hands of loggers. Having recovered the illegal roads and deforested areas from invaders, the Ka’apor established seven villages as protected areas, to repel the intruders. “We protected these areas because we did not want to see the end of our forest,” says Sarapó Ka’apor, one of the founders of the Ywyãhurenda village, a protected area that was previously an entry and exit point for logging trucks. “We got together with the council. We all gathered and took out the loggers. No one waited for Funai, we did it all ourselves.” Such boldness has been the target of retaliation. Three members of the tribe have been murdered since 2010, in killings the tribe suspects were committed by their enemies. The crimes have not been solved. The tribe have also faced several invasions of their land, most recently in January, when 30 armed men threatened to burn down the houses in one village. But last July, Michel Temer, the Brazilian president, obtained congressional approval to amend the constitution, legalising more than 2,000 irregular private properties on public lands in a move that was seen as sympathetic to the interests of land grabbers such as those in Maranhão. The Ka’apor, meanwhile, say they have the legal right to decision-making powers over government policies that affect them. “According [to] the international conventions that Brazil has signed, indigenous communities should be the authors of the relevant public policy,” said Luís Antônio Pedrosa, a lawyer with the Society of Human Rights in Maranhão. The Munduruku, likewise, studied strategies to strengthen the protection of their territory and keep the forest intact. For this, they meet other tribes, such as the Ka’apor, 10 times a year. In 2015, they demarcated their own territory in an attempt to keep out illegal miners and loggers. The tribe even has a problem with poachers stealing palmito, the vegetable of the palm tree. Now, tribe members patrol the edge of their territory, looking for signs of invaders. “The people who are closest to the edge [of the territory] report back on if there has been an invasion,” said Juarez Saw Munduruku, chief of the Sawré Muybu village. This report was produced by Agência Pública, a non-profit investigative journalism agency based in Brazil. This is a translation of the original version, published in Portuguese here | ['global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/land-rights', 'environment/environment', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-05-28T09:00:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
money/2022/mar/19/david-cameron-green-crap-energy-prices | Cameron’s decision to cut ‘green crap’ now costs each household in England £150 a year | The decision by David Cameron’s government to ditch what he denounced as “green crap” policies will cost every household as much as £150 a year by the autumn, new analysis has shown. With energy prices already soaring and bills set to rise even further this year, it suggests Cameron’s decisions to effectively end onshore wind projects in England, cut solar subsidies and slash energy-efficiency schemes played a large part in rising bills. It comes with the government preparing to announce its much anticipated energy strategy this week, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further drives up energy prices. It is expected to push measures such as solar and onshore wind power generation, as well as North Sea oil projects. However, there are concerns that the Treasury is holding back more radical action. Many of this week’s measures could reverse action taken by the coalition government. Analysis by Carbon Brief looked at the cumulative effect of ending onshore wind subsidies, cutting energy efficiency funding and scrapping a programme to make all new homes carbon neutral. It also factored in cuts to solar energy subsidies. With the energy price cap already at £1,277 a year and rising to £1,971 in less than a fortnight and an expected £3,000 in October, the analysis found that maintaining the green policies would have reduced energy costs by £8.3bn a year for the economy overall, part of which would equate to £150 a year per household. Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, said: “The government said they were ‘cutting the green crap’ but it was a disaster - with bills for working families much higher as a result. This demonstrates once again that going green is the right way to have energy security, cut bills, and tackle the climate crisis. “However often this government tries to relaunch their failed energy policy, they cannot be the solution to the crisis they created because they continue to face both ways on crucial issues like fracking and refuse to invest at scale at the solutions we need, including energy efficiency.” Dr Simon Evans of Carbon Brief, who conducted the analysis, said: “Cutting the so-called ‘green crap’ has left UK households highly exposed to soaring global gas prices and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Energy efficiency and cheap renewables are the fastest and most effective ways to cut gas imports – and household bills.” Cameron won the Tory leadership by forging an eco-friendly reputation, pictured with huskies on an early trip to the Arctic in 2006 and later installing a wind turbine on his house but reports emerged that he had told aides to “get rid of the green crap” in 2013. At the time that the remarks emerged, Cameron’s team said they did not recognise the phrase, but did not offer an outright denial. Then, a series of policies designed to push energy efficiency and renewable energy was scaled back. The number of homes having their lofts or cavity walls insulated each year dropped by 92% and 74% in 2013 respectively and has never recovered. Subsidies ended for onshore wind turbines, and planning reforms made them harder to build. Meanwhile, solar power was excluded from government support in 2015. Ministers have been battling for weeks to find ways of taking the pressure off energy and fuel costs. Boris Johnson travelled to Saudi Arabia this week to call for cheaper oil prices, while ministers have made clear that onshore wind and solar power generation will be prioritised in their plans. However, chancellor Rishi Sunak has rejected more radical plans such as cutting VAT on fuel bills or delaying a planned national insurance increase to help with household costs. Government officials said that a package worth billions had already been designed, including a £150 council tax rebate for many households in England from April and a £200 energy bill loan in Great Britain in October. A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesperson said: “We have consistently backed renewable energy sources including both onshore and offshore wind, delivering a 500% increase in the amount of renewable energy capacity connected to the grid since 2010. “We are also accelerating our progress in upgrading the energy efficiency of England’s homes, investing over £6.6bn to decarbonise homes and buildings and bringing in higher minimum performance standards to ensure all homes meet EPC Band C by 2035. We are also insulating millions of consumers from high gas prices through the energy price cap.” | ['money/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'money/household-bills', 'environment/energy', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/davidcameron', 'money/money', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/michael-savage', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-03-19T15:04:35Z | true | ENERGY |
business/article/2024/may/29/orange-juice-makers-consider-other-fruits-prices-bananas-brazil-harvest | Orange-juice makers consider using other fruits after prices go ‘bananas’ | Orange juice makers are considering turning to alternative fruits such as mandarins as wholesale prices have “gone bananas” amid fears of poor harvests in Brazil. Prices of orange juice concentrate reached a new high of $4.95 (£3.88) a lb on futures markets this week after growers in the main orange producing areas of Brazil said they were expecting the harvest to be 24% down on last year at 232m 40.8kg boxes – worse than the 15% fall previously predicted. Orange trees in Brazil have been suffering from citrus greening, an incurable disease, after extreme heat stress and drought during their key flowering period in the latter part of last year fuelled by the climate crisis. The predicted poor crop in Brazil, which accounts for 70% of all orange juice exports, marks the third difficult global harvest in a row. As well as problems in Brazil, Florida in the US has been hit by a series of hurricanes and the greening disease, which is spread by sap-sucking insects and turns the fruit bitter before killing the tree. The series of poor harvests has limited manufacturers’ ability to ride out the current difficulties by mixing the new crop with frozen juice – which normally has a two-year lifespan. “This is a crisis,” Kees Cools, the president of the International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association (IFU) told the Financial Times. “We’ve never seen anything like it, even during the big freezes and big hurricanes.” The IFU has said it is considering lobbying for a rewrite of UN-level food regulations so that orange juice can contain other citrus fruits, as well as pursuing rule changes at the country level. Francois Sonneville, a senior beverages analyst at Rabobank, said consumer demand for orange juice was down by about a fifth, compared with last year, as the price had “gone bananas” and consumer habits had changed. “The global orange juice industry is in crisis. The Florida industry has all but disappeared, and Brazilian groves are plagued by disease, rising costs, and unfavourable growing conditions, leaving global orange juice supplies at their lowest point in decades,” he said. Sonneville said drinks makers would have to either use lower quality juice, create mixed juices with other fruits such as apple, mango or grapes, or charge consumers higher prices. He was sceptical that mandarins could be used to replace oranges as this would involve new expense in transporting the fruit to a processor. The problems would persist, he said, as it took a long time to plant new orange groves and farmers were considering other options as demand was diminishing while they faced problems with disease and high labour costs in Florida. “You would have to think hard about planting a tree [that would last] for the next 25 years as next year prices could be lower again,” Sonneville added. • This article was amended on 30 May 2024 to clarify that the price for Brazilian oranges was for concentrate, not for juice as an earlier version said; and that the record high was on the futures, not the commodities, market. | ['business/fooddrinks', 'business/commodities', 'environment/farming', 'food/fruit', 'food/food', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sarahbutler', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-05-29T13:48:32Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
money/2019/may/11/satnav-update-phone-maps | My satnav is out of date – should I update it, or use my phone? | Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper. The satnav in my car is out of date. I often find myself in areas where there are no maps and even leaving a shopping centre can result in a confusing trip home. Can I update it? Or should I just use Google Maps on my phone? Do you have a problem readers could solve? Email your suggestions to money@theguardian.com or write to us at Money, the Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. | ['money/series/youre-the-expert', 'money/motoring', 'money/money', 'technology/motoring', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-05-11T06:00:18Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2017/apr/25/uk-windfarm-subsidies-ban-cheap-energy-electricity | Tory windfarm policy endangers cheap energy in UK, commission finds | Conservative opposition to windfarms risks the UK missing out on one of the cheapest sources of electricity, according to the head of a Shell-funded industry group. Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, said wind and solar power costs had fallen dramatically globally and urged the government to rethink its ban on subsidised onshore windfarms. “We have to at least understand that a ban on doing onshore wind is giving up the opportunity of what is increasingly the cheapest form of electricity. I would not personally have that ban on onshore wind,” Lord Turner told the Guardian. A report by the commission found that the cost of wind power had fallen by 60% in the past five years. The analysis predicted that by 2040, wind and solar would account for 45% of the global power mix, with hydro and nuclear making up another 35%. “We’re basically saying by 2040, you can get the share of fossil fuel generation down to 20%, and that is quite ambitious,” said Turner. “What is distinctive is the group of people who are making that statement. It’s not just either industry or NGOs, it’s both.” Membership of the commission, founded in 2015 to examine how energy systems can be changed to avoid dangerous global warming, includes the fossil fuel giants Shell and BHP Billiton, plus Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the investment manager Blackrock and the green thinktank the European Climate Foundation. The group said that by 2035, wind and solar could provide 98% of power in developed countries such as Germany and the UK, with gas power stations or batteries providing backup. Nuclear would not grow its share because of cost, while progress on carbon capture and storage of emissions from coal and gas power stations had been “too slow”. Of Donald Trump, who recently issued an executive order rolling back Barack Obama’s clean power plan, Turner said: “The Trump presidency is not good for climate change, we can’t pretend otherwise.” But he said renewable energy had such momentum in the US and globally that Trump would be unable to deliver a “fatal setback”. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2017-04-25T05:19:44Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2011/nov/13/puma-design-trainers-compost-heap | Puma aiming to produce compostable trainers and T-shirts | Your flowers love it, it's environmentally friendly and saves on rubbish collection. And soon you will be able to add your worn-out trainers and T-shirts to the carrot peels, potato skins and eggshells on the compost heap at the end of your garden, if German sportswear manufacturer Puma gets its way. "We are confident that in the near future we will be able to bring the first shoes, T-shirts and bags, that are either compostable or recyclable, to the market," Puma boss Franz Koch told the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche. He explained that the company was working with partners on developing products on the principle of the "cradle-to-cradle" design. "It follows two circuits, the technical and the biological: I can use old shoes to make new ones or something completely different, such as car tyres," said Koch, who has led the sports clothing company since July. "In the biological cycle, I can make shoes and shirts that are compostable so I can shred them and bury them in the back garden. We are working on products that meet these two criteria." Last year the sportswear company revealed its five-year sustainability strategy with the unveiling of its Clever Little Bag, a reusable bag produced to replace shoeboxes and made from 65% less paper as well as having a reduced water, energy and diesel consumption. The developments come at a time when there has been a trend towards the creation of green fashion in the form of ecological and sustainable clothing. German fashion designer and microbiologist Anke Domaske has produced organic chemical-free clothing using milk to create the first manmade, industrial-strength fibre at the Hanover-based company Qmilch. And earlier this year, Harry Potter actor Emma Watson teamed up with Italian designer Alberta Ferretti to launch a collection made entirely from environmentally friendly materials. | ['world/germany', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'lifeandstyle/compost', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/business', 'tone/news', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'type/article', 'profile/louise-osborne', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2011-11-13T16:49:41Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2013/nov/20/climate-change-adaptation-cost-destabilise-african-countries | Cost of climate change adaptation could destabilise African countries, UN warns | African countries are increasingly vulnerable to climate change and could struggle to feed and defend their people as temperatures rise, according to a major UN report. The cost of developing drought-resistant crops, providing early-warning systems for floods, droughts and fires, and building seawalls, dykes, and wave breaks will be vast, says the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) emissions gap report, launched this week at an African environment ministers' meeting in Warsaw. It will cost Africa approximately $350bn a year to adapt its farming and infrastructure to climate change if governments fail to hold temperatures to less than 2C and allow them to rise to about 4C, according to the report. The higher temperatures rise, the greater the financial and human challenge to adapt, says the report, which argues that present policies point to temperatures rising to 3-4C by 2100, a turn of events it claims would be catastrophic. The report claims coral reefs will die, sea levels will rise, freshwater reserves will decline over wide areas, and rainfall in southern Africa will decrease by 30%. Countries that fail to adapt to even the minimum expected temperature increase of 2C will be in dire straits, the report says. "Climate change in Africa is a reality," said Ephraim Kamuntu, Uganda's minister for water and environment. "We have to adapt or perish, but our capacity to respond is limited. The cost of waiting to do something is far greater than doing something now. How many super-typhoons do we need before we have to take action. This is a matter of survival; what are we waiting for?" "The plight of Africa is not of our making," said Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lead negotiator for the Africa group of nations. "The developed countries have caused the problem and Africa are asking for the funds to help but so far they are not forthcoming. "One billion Africans are in harm's way. We witness instability in rainfall, diseases spreading, sea level rise and floods. One of the effects of climate change is to send Africans further and further to seek water. This brings them into conflict with other Africans. We are faced with wars on African soil that are not created in Africa." The report warns: "Even with a warming scenario of under 2C Africa's undernourished would increase 25-90%. Crop production would be reduced across much of the continent as optimal growing conditions are exceeded. The capacity of African communities to cope will be significantly challenged." It suggests the magnitude of adaptation requirements could destabilise countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, water supply, infrastructure, and agriculture can be expected to incur the highest costs. In north Africa, infrastructure and adapting to extreme weather events are expected to prove costliest. | ['global-development/global-development', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/future-of-development', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/unitednations', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/africa', 'tone/news', 'environment/cop-19-un-climate-change-conference-warsaw', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-11-20T12:36:07Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
global-development/2023/nov/17/the-complete-of-our-young-india-counts-cost-of-another-polluting-diwali-on-a-generation-of-children | ‘The complete murder of our young’: India counts cost of another polluting Diwali on a generation of children | It is the third time in a week that Pankaj Ram, a construction worker, has lost wages because he has had to take his 18-month-old son, Ankit, to hospital, with breathing difficulties. “This time, the doctors say he will probably need to be admitted. The last two times, they gave him an injection,” says Ram. His wife, Pinki, and her sister squat in the corridor of Kalawati Saran children’s hospital in the Indian capital, New Delhi, while Ram talks to a doctor. Ram has been told that Ankit is probably asthmatic, though it is too soon to be sure. He is not fully aware of the lethal cocktail of factors that creates horrific levels of pollution in the city, but he does know that Diwali – the Hindu festival of lights that was celebrated on Sunday – has made things worse because he can see a pea soup of smog all around him the day after. A generation of children is growing up in a city that is, for most of the year, one of the most polluted in the world. Come October and the onset of winter, soaring pollution triggers a public health emergency. The winters are especially bad because there is little rain or wind to disperse toxins. Farmers in neighbouring states burn their crop residue, sending black smoke wafting into the city. On top of it all comes Diwali, when people burst firecrackers which release chemicals and noxious gases. This year could have been different. Just before Diwali, it rained, clearing the air, not to “good” but at least to “poor” quality. The air quality index (AQI) stood at 218 (0-50 is considered good but Delhi is so polluted that 218 is deemed pleasant). Heartened by the “low” AQI, the supreme court braced itself for Diwali by reminding residents of its 2018 nationwide ban on firecrackers. But some of the city’s 33 million residents ignored the ban. By Monday morning, the AQI in many areas had soared to 850. This week, clinics and hospitals have seen an influx of children, asthmatic and otherwise, coming in wheezing, with smarting eyes, coughs and respiratory problems. “Every year after Diwali, we see a 30% spike in respiratory cases, and many are children because their lungs are more vulnerable to damage,” says Dr Ajay Shukla, medical director at Delhi’s Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital. Studies by chest surgeon Dr Arvind Kumar have shown that almost one in three children in Delhi is asthmatic. Specialists say that because children are not fully developed, their lungs, brains and other organs are all vulnerable to damage. That is the reason Shukla opened a new pollution outpatients department at RML earlier this month, with specialists in ENT, skin, respiratory tract, eyes and psychiatry on hand. Why psychiatry? “Pollution can cause mood swings in children, depression and other mental health issues related to being confined indoors,” says Shukla. *** At Kalawati Saran hospital, the waiting room is packed with anxious parents rocking babies and toddlers. Nursing officer Renu Das says: “Cases have peaked since Diwali. It’s 3pm now, and we’ve seen 30 children who need nebulising since the morning. When it spikes like this, you know it’s the pollution.” Asthmatic children who are not in hospital being nebulised or receiving steroid injections, are often confined to their homes by parents who dare not let them out. Doctors say that breathing the air is the equivalent of smoking 25-30 cigarettes a day. Sabina Raza is waiting with her daughter, Fatima, eight, who has developed a chronic cough. Her fear is that, while Fatima is not asthmatic, she may develop the disease. “I try to keep her indoors to protect her lungs, but it is stressful,” says Raza. “She gets angry when I say she can’t go out and play with friends. She is missing out on fun, but it’s either that or lung problems.” Doctors regularly issue frightening predictions about what the polluted air will do to children’s health. “In the coming years, children are more likely to get airway disorders like asthma and upper respiratory allergies,” Dr Anant Mohan, pulmonary department head at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told India Today magazine. Here at Kalawati Saran, the doctor on duty, Dr Atul Verma, is already seeing that happen. He has just fitted a nebuliser on a seven-year-old girl who is about the same age as his niece. He has advised his sister to buy a house in the mountains and escape the gas chamber that Delhi has become. That is not advice he can give to his patients, who are all poor. They come to the hospital because treatment is free. They cannot afford air purifiers or homes in the hills. Verma says: “I limit what I tell parents. It’s bad enough if their child develops asthma. I cannot tell them about all the other organs that can be affected, the mutations that could be triggered by pollution. Why burden them even more?” Amid the angst over pollution, the hand-wringing columns and the blame game played by politicians, it was the supreme court that described the catastrophe in the bleakest terms: just before Diwali, the judges called it “the complete murder of our young”. | ['global-development/global-development', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'global-development/global-health', 'world/india', 'environment/environment', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'society/childrens-health', 'world/delhi', 'campaign/email/global-dispatch', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/amrit-dhillon', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-11-17T05:00:36Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2021/feb/26/airbus-reveals-planes-sold-in-last-two-years-will-emit-over-1bn-tonnes-of-co2 | Airbus reveals planes sold in last two years will emit over 1bn tonnes of CO2 | Planes sold by Airbus in 2019 and 2020 will produce well over 1bn tonnes of carbon dioxide during their lifetimes, according to landmark first estimates of the aerospace manufacturer’s emissions. Airbus sold a record 863 planes in 2019, which would translate to 740m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent produced over a 22-year period, according to figures seen by the Guardian. It sold 566 planes last year, for which lifetime emissions would be 440m tonnes. The figures highlight the scale of the challenge of decarbonisation for the plane-making duopoly of Airbus and its US rival Boeing. Aviation accounts for about 1.9% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and this share is expected to rise rapidly as more people in poorer nations are able to afford to fly. The emissions intensity of Airbus products fell from 66.6g of CO2 equivalent per passenger kilometre in 2019 to 63.5g in 2020. Airbus, which has factories in France, the UK, US and China, said this reflected more efficient planes even as the pandemic caused sales to fall. Julie Kitcher, a member of Airbus’s executive committee who oversees sustainability and communications, said: “Despite the crisis, we’re accelerating the roadmap to decarbonising aviation.” She said the disclosures were a worst-case view of potential emissions because sustainable fuels could cut the planes’ true net emissions. The independently audited disclosures mark the first time Airbus has published an estimate of the carbon emissions its commercial planes will generate. These are part of what are known as scope 3 emissions, as opposed to direct emissions from company machinery (scope 1) or emissions embedded in purchased energy (scope 2). The scope 3 disclosures come as scrutiny of the company’s emissions by the public, governments and investors increases. They will put pressure on Boeing to reveal its emissions. Emissions disclosure is seen as an important first step in the long journey towards a net zero economy, but Airbus said it had not yet set a science-based target for cutting its carbon emissions. The aviation industry has a non-binding target to reach net zero between 2060 and 2065, long after the 2050 deadline that scientists say is required to limit global heating to only 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Airbus, Boeing, and engine manufacturers such as the UK’s Rolls-Royce are working on zero-emissions propulsion, as are a crowd of much smaller rivals. Some smaller electric planes are nearing production and Airbus is hoping to launch its first hydrogen-powered planes by 2035. Zero-emissions technology for long-haul flights is far off. Airbus has reduced its emissions per passenger kilometre by half since 1990 through better aerodynamics, more efficient engines and lighter, stronger materials. However, further cuts in emissions will be more difficult to achieve. Kitcher acknowledged that Airbus’s plans to cut emissions would depend heavily on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), synthesised kerosene produced from replenishable resources. SAF would still emit similar amounts of CO2 but would theoretically cause net-zero emissions over its lifecycle. About half of Airbus’s plan for net zero emissions by 2050 depends on SAF, 42% from new technologies and the rest from more efficient management of planes. Similarly, Boeing has committed to certifying all of its planes for 100% SAF use by 2030, after carrying out test flights. Andrew Murphy, the aviation director at the campaign group Transport & Environment, welcomed the prospect of better aviation emissions disclosure. He said, however, that non-CO2 heating effects such as those caused by aircraft contrails should also be reported. Non-CO2 effects heat the planet more than carbon, according to EU analysis. He also said SAF was potentially viable but it would take concerted action by governments and industry over the next decade to scale it sustainably to anywhere near the levels required. The slow action meant the aviation industry was likely to rely heavily on carbon offsetting for the next decade, he said. “The sector is in kind of a bind,” he said. “The only thing the sector can do for the next 10 years is mitigate its growth.” | ['business/airbus', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'business/business', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'world/air-transport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'business/aerospace-industry', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-02-26T07:30:09Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2012/sep/04/mining-moors-row-york-potash | This mining in the Moors row exposes a deeper environmental offensive | Richard Seymour | I recently took a trip through the Moors, en route to Whitby. The train from Middlesbrough meandered through miles of lavish Yorkshire countryside, stopping at tiny hamlets like Castleton Moor, and Ruswarp. It was positively barbaric. Yes, the cottages are beautiful, but try getting a signal on your mobile. And if you do get a signal, try ordering a delivery from Ocado. This isn't entirely metropolitan snobbery. Whitby, a grand seaside town, is also the only town I've visited where "golliwogs" can still be won in arcade games. Now they want to dig up this achingly lush landscape for some potash, a fertiliser ingredient. Imagine my sorrow. Sarcasm aside, the 11 local organisations now opposing this development have a real grievance. This will be one of the biggest mines of its kind in the world, and will despoil 4.5 hectares of the 100 hectares of forestry already owned by York Potash, a subsidiary of the mineral mining company Sirius. The landscape is not only of aesthetic value, but also provides carbon storage, biodiversity and forms a natural flood defence, all of which are difficult to put a cash value on. Sirius promises that any negative effects will be outweighed by the creation of 1,000 new jobs. This is always the fastest route to the moral high ground for mining and development capital. Thus, some of the opposition from environmental campaigners hinges on the prospective damage to the economy, particularly tourism. But this merely highlights the false nature of the dilemma – growth versus sustainability– posed by mining interests. The real underlying issue in this, as in most controversies related to the exploitation of natural resources, is democracy. As George Monbiot has argued: "The first prerequisite for protecting the environment is a functioning democracy." Whether it is in Brazil, India, Canada, or Britain, the struggles that take place are invariably over who gets the final say in what is done with the planet's wealth. Take, for example, the Rio Tinto potash mine in Mendoza, Argentina, which was approved last month. Opposition centred on potential environmental damage and the creation of salt waste deposits that would pollute the drinking water. Rio Tinto was not trusted by locals to keep the area safe and clean. In addition, the opposition felt that they should have a say in how the country's resources were exploited. This environmentalism of the poor is sometimes erroneously called "resource nationalism": it is just a matter of democracy. On the face of it, mining in the Moors is a different proposition. The major objection is that it's taking place in a national park, conserved for the benefit of the public: a blot on a beautiful landscape. Surely the opposition is conservative and romantic? But taken as part of the government's wider strategy for development we can see that similar issues are at stake. This government is engaged in a hasty retreat from environmental commitments regarding regional development. The potash development follows the abolition of the Regional Spatial Strategies inherited from the last government that, while foregrounding industrial development, included targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases and the development of sustainable industry. Furthermore, the government is intent on handing more leverage to business in how development takes place. Regional development agencies funded by central government were disbanded in this government's Public Bodies Bill as part of a wider offensive against the public sector. The bill also included a plan to sell off the national forests to private developers, a controversial proposal abandoned at the last minute. These agencies have been replaced by local enterprise partnerships, which are not funded by central government but involve voluntary relationships between local governments and businesses. As a result, local authorities wishing to generate income and encourage development must subordinate everything to creating a convivial environment for investors. The York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership naturally makes the potash extraction industry a central component of its growth strategy. You can hardly blame them – there aren't many other opportunities coming in areas, particularly Scarborough and Whitby, hit hard by spending cuts. So, here is the problem. Two major developments of neoliberalism obstruct environmental justice. First, neoliberal reform has been hollowing out what little democracy parliament affords us, the shift from quangos to voluntary coalitions between government and capital merely confirming popular exclusion from decision-making. Second, when the economy provides few investment opportunities, neoliberalism offers "accumulation by dispossession"; turning over previously public goods, whether hospitals or park land, to private profit. This can always be presented as "creating jobs". The only answer to this is to assert popular sovereignty over the environment. On that account alone, it would be a step forward if Yorkshire residents stopped the potash mine. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'business/mining', 'business/business', 'tone/comment', 'politics/planning', 'politics/politics', 'society/localgovernment', 'society/society', 'politics/localgovernment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/richard-seymour'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2012-09-04T17:51:38Z | true | ENERGY |
food/2022/may/10/clingfilm-best-alternative | What’s the best alternative to clingfilm? | Kitchen aide | We know that clingfilm and plastic ziplock bags are environmentally unfriendly, but what are the alternatives? What other storage options are worth investing in? Jane, London N4 “You’ve got to have zero tolerance for everything to do with plastic, whether that’s in the house or what’s coming into the house,” says chef Ollie Hunter, who runs The Wheatsheaf, a sustainable pub in Wiltshire. But when it comes to eco-friendly replacements, it’s worth remembering that new isn’t always better: “I’m a purist,” says Hunter. “Let’s just reuse what we’ve already taken out of the planet.” He suggests getting into “the mindset of a bowl and a plate” – simple, yes, but achievable and affordable. This is also a favoured storage tactic of Anshu Ahuja and Renée Williams, co-founders of DabbaDrop in London, a vegan curry takeaway that delivers by bike in eco-packaging. “If it’s a lemon, for example, just put it [or an onion, red cabbage, tomato … you get the drift] sliced side down on a plate, and voilà! No bag or clingfilm needed.” If you’re storing something “wetter, crumbly, or a mixture” instead, use a deep bowl covered by a plate. “And if you need to wrap lettuce, just use a clean tea towel.” A tea towel can, of course, also be used when proving dough, and a damp one for wrapping things like pastry. Bowl covers (those things that look like shower caps) are another way to avoid clingfilm – just make sure they’re made of linen, Hunter says, because “it’s less water-intensive and easier to grow than cotton, and it does seem to be better, as long as you like the crinkled look”. Hunter is, however, “a big negative” when it comes to those reusable beeswax wraps. “Bees need to be left alone,” he insists. Soy wax versions are another option: “Plants and vegetables create better soil structure, more biodiversity, more oxygen in the planet. Bees aren’t going to be doing that.” Likewise, silicone – be it bags or boxes for the fridge and freezer or baking sheets – is better than plastic, Hunter says, but is “a harder thing to get back to its natural state”. Bamboo and wood are also good choices, as is metal, for fridge and freezer, and for Ahuja and Williams’ beloved dabbas. “They’re made from food-grade stainless steel and can carry lunch or store leftovers in separate compartments.” You can pop them in the fridge or oven, and they’re good for picnics, too – “We don’t use anything else.” Jars, meanwhile, are of course good for storing everything from dressings to grains, and come with the bonus of looking good, too. But, says Jake Leach, head chef at The Harwood Arms, the only Michelin-starred pub in London, use only whatever you have to hand. “There’s always takeaway boxes, butter tubs, bottles … most things can be reused.” Essentially, don’t buy it if you don’t need it. “We need to preserve, conserve and protect,” Hunter says. Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com | ['food/series/kitchen-aide', 'environment/plastic', 'food/food', 'food/chefs', 'environment/environment', 'environment/food-waste', 'business/packaging', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tone/recipes', 'profile/anna-berrill', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/feast', 'theguardian/feast/feast', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/feast'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-05-10T13:00:06Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2014/oct/13/weatherwatch-clouds-environment | Weatherwatch: Clouds are weighty wonders, but how do they stay up? | Viewed from a plane, clouds appear fluffy and light, but in fact the water droplets and ice crystals making up the average cumulus cloud (1km cubed in size) weigh around 550 tonnes – the same as a herd of 100 African elephants. Meanwhile, a towering thunderstorm cloud is equivalent to 200,000 elephants. So how do these great beasts stay up in the sky? If a cumulus cloud was a lump weighing 550 tonnes, then it would fall down with a thud. But in fact a cloud is made up from millions of minute droplets – each about 100th of the width of an average raindrop. Those tiny droplets do fall, but because they are so small their terminal velocity (the balance between gravity and the air resistance around the droplet) is a mere 900cm per hour or so. To fall from 2,700m (8,850ft) – a typical altitude for a cumulus cloud – would take more than 12 days in calm conditions. But of course the environment around most clouds is far from calm: clouds tend to form in places where warm air is rising. For an average cumulus cloud this updraft can be several metres per second – enough to keep most small droplets aloft. This balance between the updraft and the speed of the falling droplets is partly responsible for the shapes and textures of the clouds we see. Sometimes heavier ice crystals plummet downwards, creating wispy cirrus clouds. And once tiny water droplets start to club together they eventually become big enough to gather speed and fall as rain. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/environment', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-10-13T20:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2015/nov/10/social-enterprise-help-fix-greek-crisis-greece | Can social enterprise help fix the Greek crisis? | Myrto Papadogeorgou and her business partner Nikos Konstantinou chose not to join the exodus of 200,000 people from Greece over the past five years. Instead they’ve stayed, hoping to help drag their country out of crisis. For them, and many other young Greeks, starting a social enterprise has become a way to capitalise on their frustrations in the face of 52% youth unemployment. But Papadogeorgou and Konstantinou have hit a dead end. After four years unsuccessfully applying for funding from organisations at home and abroad for City of Errors, an interactive platform they’ve developed that encourages users to fix their city’s problems, the defeated pair have stopped trying. Now they talk about leaving Greece. “We tried to make a living but we can’t,” says Papadogeorgou “There’s no money here and the taxation is huge. We are trying to stay positive, but we’re lying to ourselves.” Papadogeorgou and Konstantinou believe their lack of success is down to Greek attitudes towards social enterprise. A relatively new concept in the country, it was only recognised through legislation in September 2011, and attitudes have been slow to follow. The two describe, for example, how Greek companies are reluctant to invest in the social economy. Papadogeorgou says some meetings are like talking to a brick wall: “Social entrepreneurship is not understood in Greece. It’s really hard to get funding because people don’t understand how you can have an impact.” People power The pair believes their fellow citizens, not politicians, have the power to change Greece and they want to empower their audience to think the same. “Athens really suffers from a lack of socially responsible local authorities, leaving the city to the people who love it,” says Papadogeorgou. One person filling the gap is Thanos Spiliopoulos, the 22-year-old co-founder of Ithaca, a laundry service for homeless people. “I started Ithaca because the homeless situation in Athens is getting worse day by day and there are very limited hygiene services for [homeless] people,” he says. Like Papadogeorgou and Konstantinou, Spiliopoulos believes a lack of knowledge about the social enterprise sector creates obstacles for social entrepreneurs. Lawyers, banks and some government departments are not used to dealing with social enterprise, making it difficult to set one up, he says. State hostility For social enterprise to play an active role in Greek society, entrepreneurs need support. Although organisations offering help do exist, Dr Ioannis Nasioulas, director at the Social Economy Institute, believes that state hostility towards social enterprise is still a major barrier to progress. Nasioulas thinks the 2011 law had a negative impact on many social entrepreneurs because it identifies “social cooperative enterprises” – defined as having a minimum of five members – as the main type of social business. Any initiative that does not fall within this definition will struggle to get funding. “This negatively affects any spontaneous or innovative types of social economy organisations and non-incorporated entities,” he says. Tax is another difficult issue for young Greek entrepreneurs, says Nasioulas, because startups receive no preferential treatment. But Yannis Ioannides, Greek economist and professor at Tufts University in the US, does not believe social enterprise should be a priority for Greece right now. “It could play a role in wealth creation if it is recognised that it could complement profit-seeking efforts. But ultimately Greece needs investment and I am not sure that social enterprise would help in that area.” Michael Printzos, director of the Hellenic Initiative, a community that encourages Greeks living abroad to invest in their home country, disagrees. He believes social enterprise can play a role in Greece’s healing process. “It is important to get over the discussion about the past and what brought us to this dreadful situation and think about a brighter and more promising future,” he says. “How we can get there and what solutions we should implement on the ground are questions that social entrepreneurship can provide some answers to.” Social entrepreneurs such as Papadogeorgou and Konstantinou could help bring Greece back to life. But for them, and many other young Greeks – skilled, ambitious and educated abroad – the feeling of frustration is overwhelming. | ['sustainable-business/series/rethinking-prosperity', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'world/greece', 'society/socialenterprises', 'society/communities', 'business/entrepreneurs', 'business/business', 'world/europe-news', 'business/small-business', 'society/society', 'world/world', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-11-10T14:15:29Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
global-development/poverty-matters/2012/may/14/colombia-resistance-corporate-mining-excess | Colombia's resistance to corporate mining excess has lessons for the world | Jonathan Glennie | I was recently sent a new film by an old friend, Hollman Morris. Morris was once the bete noire of the Colombian political class. His searing and powerful attacks on the role of the state in violence and displacement prompted the country's former president, Álvaro Uribe, to describe him as a "publicist for terrorism". Today, Morris is the boss of Bogota's regional TV channel, Canal Capital. His latest film, produced with Minority Rights Group International, is about a community of small-scale gold miners in the Cauca department of Colombia and their resistance against a mining company's attempts to dig on their land. The community has worked the mud and rivers of their territory for decades, even centuries, eking a living from the small finds they make. They have engaged in a successful campaign to defend their way of life, which is as important to them for its culture as its steady (if minimal) income. The film, which tells a story I have seen and heard so many times, prompted reflection on how much has actually changed in the world of mining after decades of work by civil society and UN representatives to force mining companies to behave better. For all the talk of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and new ways of doing business, can we be any more confident that large-scale mining activities will benefit the communities they almost always displace? This is not just a Colombian story – although the link between multinationals and paramilitary violence is a well-known phenomenon that makes the Colombian experience particularly gruelling – but a global one. Colombia aside, I have visited mines as far apart as Peru and the Philippines, and the story of community upheaval is invariably the same. The promise of progress is bound up with provisos, but the threat to wellbeing is real and brutal, prompting communities to resist. In Morris's moving film, one woman compares the community's treatment by those seeking to exploit their land to the experience of her ancestors arriving in slave ships from Africa. "They don't believe we have souls or hearts," she says. In many ways she is right – the job of a mining company, following the inexorable logic of the market and seeking to drive down costs, is to remove obstacles from the picture as quickly as possible. The international norm of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), which demands that communities give their assent to any proposed exploration, is honoured only in its flagrant abuse. I was chatting to a very senior member of the Colombian government last week, who said his administration would ensure that communities get a good deal from the arrival of mining companies. If it manages that, it will be the first government in history to do so. Precedent does not bode well – the promise of revenue from foreign firms usually outweighs concerns for the people on the frontline. That's why national legal processes are seldom sufficient to protect communities. So what can be done? Have the voluntary guidelines so beloved of mining executives and the CSR lobby made any difference? Doubtful. The environmental harm done by mining has reduced over the years, but that is down to the imposition of hard-nosed legal sanctions and technological advances that mitigate the most heinously destructive impacts. But the social harm continues unabated. If voluntary action works, we would expect to see a whole host of examples where FPIC has been respected and/or communities have benefited from the encroachment of mining without a) law being applied and b) lengthy struggles for justice by the communities in question with the support of national and international civil society and the media. But there are none, only endless accounts of communities losing everything. If you are aware of any, please let me know. Mining company annual reports don't count. The era of voluntary guidelines has not only been ineffective, it has been worse than useless. Although they may have led to incremental improvements in some areas, their real purpose has been to undermine attempts to develop effective legal sanction, both national and international, which is the only thing that will ultimately keep the destructive instincts of mega-wealthy companies at bay. So with mining companies behaving as vilely as ever – and until the long campaign to develop meaningful international law bears fruit – the work done by civil society and media in conjunction with affected communities remains critical. Without the spotlight of scrutiny, there is not a chance that mining companies will deliver anything approaching a decent deal for communities. | ['global-development/poverty-matters', 'global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/private-sector', 'global-development/transparency-and-development', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/colombia', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/mining', 'environment/environment', 'business/mining', 'business/business', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathan-glennie'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2012-05-14T06:00:01Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2007/sep/19/uknews.carbonfootprints | Chocolate bars and toilet paper to get carbon footprint label | Coca-Cola, Dairy Milk chocolate and Andrex toilet paper could soon carry a label revealing their carbon footprint, it emerged today. Nine major firms are in consultation with the Carbon Trust and BSI British Standards to produce a draft footprinting standard. The government-funded initiative aims to ensure that firms reduce their carbon emissions. The companies involved include Cadbury Schweppes, The Co-operative Group, Halifax, Muller Dairy, Scottish & Newcastle, which produces Fosters lager, and Kimberley-Clark, the makers of Andrex tissue and Huggies nappies. Walkers crisps already carries an early version of the label. "The take up from business of the Carbon Trust's scheme shows that there's real appetite and willingness to firstly understand, and secondly to reduce the impact that their products have on our planet," the climate change minister, Joan Ruddock, said. "Not only are people becoming more and more aware of their own carbon footprint, and want to know how to reduce it, they also want to know what business is doing to reduce its own impacts." Tom Delay, the Carbon Trust chief executive, said the unprecedented interest in the initiative made him confident that the UK was moving towards a low-carbon economy. However, carbon labelling has been criticised for being meaningless and misleading consumers that they can save the planet by shopping. George Marshall, author of the forthcoming book Carbon Detox, said: "Carbon labelling schemes are based on the assumption that through informed personal choice we can achieve social change. But what we know from history is that it is only through vocal social movements that we can achieve this, not by the crisps we buy." | ['environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'profile/alisonbenjamin'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2007-09-19T17:14:08Z | true | EMISSIONS |
technology/2016/jun/10/lenovo-smartphone-terminator-vision-project-tango | Lenovo launches smartphone that senses spaces with 'Terminator vision' | Chinese electronics manufacturer Lenovo has become the first to put Google’s Project Tango spatial awareness technology into a smartphone. Its PHAB2 Pro range of phones all have cameras, sensors and software capable of motion tracking, depth perception and area sensing, which means it can learn and produce a 3D map of the inside of a building or space. The technology will enable advanced augmented reality systems that can recognise objects in the world around the user and overlay information in real time, a feature often called “Terminator vision”, after the1984 film. Johnny Lee, engineering director at Google said: “Tango enables our devices to sense physical motion and space and, as a result, has the power to change how we interact with our surroundings. We believe that devices with positional tracking functionality will be pervasive and are happy that the PHAB2 Pro will introduce these new capabilities, making your phone even more useful.” The Tango-infused 6.4in PHAB2 Pro will be available starting in September along costing from $499. Lenovo also brought out a new flagship modular smartphone, the Moto Z, which replaces the Motorola Moto X as the top of the manufacturer’s line, after the Chinese firm bought Motorola from Google two years ago. The Moto Z, which comes in two versions including one with Motorola’s shatterproof screen, have a modular design which allows users to magnetically attach additional so-called Mods to the back of the phones. These include a pico projector for displaying images on a wall, an extra battery pack and a set of stereo speakers. Both smartphones also lack a headphones port, relying solely on USB-C port. The Moto Z has a 5.5in quad HD AMOLED screen, Qualcomm’s top-of-the-range Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage with a microSD card slot and a 13-megapixel camera, all squeezed into a 5.2mm thick frame. The camera protrudes from the back, however. The 7mm-thick Moto Z Force has similar specifications, but has Lenovo’s Moto ShatterShield screen protection, as used in the unbreakable screen of the Moto X Force, a larger battery and a 21-megapixel camera. Both smartphones are expected to be available in September. Lenovo is not the only one pursuing a modular smartphone design. LG’s G5 has a slot in the bottom for adding accessories that clip in and form part of the phone, while Google’s Project Ara aims to make almost every part of the phone a clip-in module. The benefit of the Moto Z’s magnetic system, which has pins on the back onto which the modules attach, is that the phone does not need to be turned off to have a new module attached. But whether consumers will buy into the concept of modules - available at an extra cost - remains to be seen. Project Tango: Google is building it, but will they come? Motorola Moto X Force review: great phone with a screen you simply can’t break | ['technology/lenovo', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/google', 'technology/android', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/technology', 'technology/alphabet', 'type/article', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-06-10T09:56:05Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2010/may/09/oil-spill-ecological-review-environment | Oil spill: US failing to tighten ecological oversight, say activists | The Obama administration waived environmental reviews for 26 new offshore drilling projects even as the BP oil disaster spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, environmental activists said today. The charge came as hopes for a quick fix to the Deepwater Horizon spill were dashed when a build-up of crystallised gas blocked pipes in a huge metal containment box that had been built to cap the well. Engineers are now considering a "junk shot", shooting a mix of debris – including shredded tires and golf balls – into the well at high pressure to clog it, said Thad Allen, a US coast guard commander. With the spill still unchecked and spreading to Alabama's beaches, there was renewed focus on oversight procedures that allowed BP and Transocean to drill without backup plans in place. The Centre for Biological Diversity said that even after the disaster, the Obama administration did not tighten its oversight of offshore drilling. An investigation by the respected environmental group revealed that since 20 April, when an explosion the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers, 27 new offshore drilling projects have been approved by the Mineral Management Service (MMS) the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing extraction of oil, gas and other minerals. All but one project was granted similar exemptions from environmental review as BP. Two were submitted by the UK firm, and made the same claims about oil-rig safety and the implausibility of a spill damaging the environment, the centre said. "This oil spill has had absolutely no effect on MMS behaviour at all," said Kieran Suckling, the director of the centre. "It's still business as usual which means rubber stamping oil drilling permits with no environmental review." The charges were the latest in a string of revelations about lax oversight of offshore drilling that, while dating back to the George Bush era, have also damaged the Obama White House. "I don't know where the regulators were on this. They certainly were asleep," Richard Shelby, a Republican senator from Alabama, told CNN today. "This reminds me of a big truck speeding along the Los Angeles freeway with no brakes." With the Deepwater wellhead pumping 795,000 litres (210,000 gallons) of oil into the sea each day, authorities sought to stop its spread to the Alabama coastline. Allen said a gate was being built to protect the port of Mobile, but owing to the unpredictability of winds and currents he said the entire region should remain on alert. "The entire Gulf pretty much has to be on guard," he told CBS television. BP crews were forced on yesterday to abandon their efforts to put a box over the leak after a combination of ice crystals, high pressure, and low temperatures made the 100-tonne contraption too buoyant. It was unclear whether BP would make a new attempt. "I wouldn't say it has failed yet," Doug Suttles, the firm's chief operating officer, told reporters. But Allen said BP was now looking at sealing the well with the junk shot. The latest failure to seal the wellhead has deepened fears about the economic and environmental impact of the spill, which is on course to surpass the Exxon Valdez disaster. "What it means is that we are most likely looking at one of the worst case scenarios," said Jacqueline Savitz, a scientist for the Oceana conservation group. "The longer it gushes, and the more oil it spews, the more animals are going to be affected." The prospect of oil continuing to gush until BP manages to drill a relief well in two or three months time has intensified concerns among those states now on the spill's trajectory. Florida's Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, said the spill threatened his state's fishing and tourism industries and even its military bases. "You are talking about massive economic losses," he told CNN. Environmental and safety procedures on the Deepwater Horizon rig will come under even greater scrutiny this week as multiple investigations into the disaster get underway. In Louisiana, the coast guard and the MMS will start their inquiries with two days of public hearings. The justice department is also conducting an investigation into the spill and has not ruled out criminal charges. "I've sent down representatives from the justice department to examine what our options are with regard to the activities that occurred there and whether or not there has been malfeasance on the part of BP or Transocean," Eric Holder, the US attorney general, told ABC television. Three separate congressional committees will also take a close look at offshore drilling and the disaster this week, with testimony from the executives of BP America, Transocean, the company which owned the sunken rig, and Halliburton, which made the cement cap on the well, whose failure set the disaster in motion. BP's initial investigations suggest the blast was caused by a bubble of methane gas that shot up through the drill column and broke several protective seals and barriers, the Associated Press reported. With oil still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico nearly three weeks after the initial explosion, the continuing catastrophe saw commentators from Al Gore to Fidel Castro weighing in at the weekend. The Cuban leader, in a piece in the local media, said the spill was further evidence of corporate. "The ecological disaster which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico shows how little can governments do against those who control financial capital," he wrote, adding "The hateful tyranny imposed on the world." ends ^E | ['environment/bp-oil-spill', 'environment/oil-spills', 'environment/oil', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-05-09T21:12:41Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2021/nov/21/western-canada-braces-for-new-atmospheric-river-as-three-more-bodies-recovered-from-mudslides | Western Canada braces for more torrential rain after deadly mudslides | Crews in British Columbia raced to clear debris from motorways and repair dykes as the Canadian province braced for more downpours on Sunday, just days after record rainfall led to the deaths of four people, brought parts of the province to a standstill and sparked shortages of food and fuel. The western Canadian province declared a state of emergency on Wednesday after parts of the province were pummelled by a phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river”, dumping a month’s worth of rain in two days and causing floods and mudslides that swallowed bridges and stretches of highways, cut off entire towns and forced the evacuation of thousands of people. The bodies of three men who had been swept away by landslides had been recovered, police said on Saturday, bringing the death toll to four people. A fifth person remained missing. Provincial officials warned on Saturday that the rough weather was set to continue, with Environment Canada forecasting that a similar weather system was set to bring as much as 150mm of rain and 20cm of snow to parts of northern British Columbia. The storm was forecast to turn south on Sunday, potentially resulting in heavy rains in some of the storm-affected areas, said the province’s public safety minister, Mike Farnworth. “I urge people to pay close attention to weather warnings, given the unpredictability that comes with climate change,” he added. Last week’s storm came less than six months after the western Canadian province suffered record-high temperatures that killed more than 500 people and fuelled to wildfires that gutted an entire town. The summer wildfires, which were blamed on the climate crisis, had magnified the risk of landslides, Thomas Martin, a forester in the province, recently told the Guardian. “If you burn a lot of the trees, grass and shrubs, there are fewer living things to intercept the water. It just flows directly off the hill. And fires can make the soil hydrophobic so the runoff increases even more.” On Saturday, about 14,000 people from several communities in the province remained under evacuation orders. Residents in some areas were subject to temporary restrictions on fuel and non-essential travel, resulting in reports of long queues at gas stations. The restrictions were aimed at easing tensions in the supply chain after the storm forced the closure of the Trans Mountain pipeline and cut two key rail lines that lead to Vancouver, Canada’s busiest port. Farnworth called on residents in affected areas to limit their movement until 1 December by avoiding travel, working from home where possible and taking public transport. “Over the next 10 days we know that we have enough gas for essential vehicles and everyone else who needs it, if we are prudent and conserve where we can,” he said. Federal officials said on Sunday that 500 members of the armed forces had been sent to the affected area to aid with tasks that ranged from evacuating stranded motorists to rescuing livestock from flooded farms. Exemptions had also been made to allow residents of the province to cross into the US for food or fuel and re-enter Canada without a Covid-19 test or quarantine. In Abbotsford, one of the municipalities that was hardest hit by the storm, crews were scrambling to patch up a 100-metre breach in a key dyke as forecasts said there could be 100mm of rain on Tuesday. “That’s a concern, especially with the weakened dykes,” said the mayor of Abbotsford, Henry Braun. “If there’s 100 millimetres of rain, if it comes in 24 hours that’s a big problem. If it comes over three or four days, maybe we’ll be OK.” On Sunday afternoon Braun said the breach in the dyke had been sealed but that crews were still working to build it back to its full height. The dyke is key to protecting Sumas Prairie, a low-lying expanse of fertile land created almost a century ago by the draining of a lake and which is now a major hub of Canadian agriculture. The storms battered the area, engulfing barns and felling power lines into the flood waters. On Saturday, Braun said that some farms continued to grapple with rising waters, pointing to one example where waters had risen eight inches overnight. “There’s still 2,500 cows in that corner, dairy cows, and [the farmers] are worried.” The storm had devastated farmlands, the country’s minister of emergency preparedness, Bill Blair, told reporters on Sunday. “We know that tens of thousands of animals, including entire herds and flocks, have been lost.” Chicken farmer Dave Martens was among the many who were ordered to evacuate earlier this week, doing so after frantically moving half of his birds to drier land. Soon after his farm was sitting under six feet of water. “Forty-thousand birds have died in my barn,” Martens told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “It’s not just water. It’s dead animal carcasses. You’ve got faeces. Diesel gas. Other contaminants floating around. This is all permeating, getting into our houses. Everything that’s down there is destroyed.” British Columbia’s agriculture minister, Lana Popham, said the province was coordinating efforts to get supplies and veterinarians to the animals, with four tonnes of feed airdropped on Saturday to as many as 5,000 hogs in the area. She estimated that the province had secured enough feed to last “five to six” days. “I think everyone understands it’s all hands on deck,” she added. | ['world/canada', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ashifa-kassam', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-11-21T13:36:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2015/dec/28/repair-flood-damage-raid-military-spending-foreign-aid-victims | To pay for the floods, we should raid military spending, not foreign aid | Mary Dejevsky | It is a neat calculation: the first estimates of the end-of-year flood damage in the north of England suggested a bill of a little over £1bn. Or, as sections of the rightwing press maintained, pretty much the same as the UK spends on help for the world’s “20 most corrupt countries”. Cue indignation from the diehard opponents of the 0.7% of GDP that is currently earmarked for overseas aid. And if you are among those whose homes have been inundated over Christmas, and you’ve learned that requests for improved flood defences were turned down by Westminster, you might well agree. The money is there, you would say; it is just a question of redirecting it from maladministered projects and ministerial Mercedes abroad to nice, clean, value-for-money schemes here. Charity begins – does it not? – at home? Well, yes – and no. The proportion of GDP that the UK has earmarked for foreign aid spending may be higher than that allocated by many other countries, but it is still tiny in real terms. If, as was reported towards the end of the last financial year, ministers and civil servants were casting around for worthy recipients because they faced the dire prospect – in departmental terms – of under-spending, then that reflects not the lavishness of the budget, but a failure of organisation and imagination on their part. This year, at least, there should be no such difficulty: the cost of what is said to have been the biggest flow of people since the second world war should absorb any surplus there might be in the UK aid budget. Whether the money helps to fund camps in the affected regions, or the cost of processing, accommodating and integrating all the refugees reaching Europe, this seems an entirely valid use of our aid budget – it being a reasonable combination of altruism and self-interest. There is a legitimate discussion to be had about the long-term value of foreign aid generally – how far it prevents countries developing their own resources and reforming themselves; whether it actually fosters dependency and corruption. The distinction sometimes made between emergency relief (essential) and long-term assistance (dubious) has merit and could lead to a beneficial change of approach. But the argument that the UK’s overseas aid budget should be raided to repair flood damage, whether in Cumbria, or Yorkshire, or last year in the West Country, makes no sense. Even if the costs reach £5bn, as has been suggested, it is a minute fraction of the estimated £750bn public spending tally for 2015, and it will be shared, as it should be in any developed country, with commercial insurers. The Environment Agency may be right, that a complete rethinking of flood defences is needed. How about starting with the sub-stations built on vulnerable sites, and the housebuilding (still, disgracefully) allowed on flood plains? It also makes sense to redirect some resources – but not from the aid budget. One of the successes of the emergency flood operation – in practical and PR terms – has been the involvement of the army. The numbers are not huge: 300 troops are there, another 200 have been sent, and 1,000 are on standby. But you can see the confidence they inspire in those being rescued; the order they bring to some of the relief efforts; the sense they generate that something is being done. As at London 2012, when the army was sent in to make up for the spectacular failure of Olympic security “outsourcing” to G4S, people like to see the army helping out on the home front. In the aftermath of the Iraq debacle, there was concern among the top brass about the breakdown of the “military covenant”: the presumed solidarity between civilians and the military. More frequent deployment of the army in domestic emergencies might not satisfy those who joined primarily to fight, but it can do wonders for civilian-military relations and could encourage recruitment to the reserve. The army’s contribution this Christmas also raises another question: might the UK today benefit from a highly trained civilian Home Guard, part-professional, part-volunteer? Defence chiefs will no doubt say that the military is overstretched as it is. But the answer here should be obvious: less Syria; more Kendal and Hebden Bridge. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'environment/flooding', 'world/world', 'global-development/aid', 'society/society', 'global-development/global-development', 'uk/military', 'type/article', 'profile/mary-dejevsky', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-12-28T14:56:16Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2014/may/21/far-left-overtake-greens-first-time-new-european-parliament | Far left predicted to overtake Greens for first time in new European parliament | The far left is expected to overtake the Greens for the first time in the next European parliament, according to final opinion polls ahead of voting across 28 countries on Thursday. Depending on the complicated manoeuvring to form electoral blocs following the elections, the Greens could slide from the fourth largest caucus to the sixth. With Nigel Farage's UK Independence party (Ukip) tipped to win in Britain, much will hinge on the affiliation of Beppe Grillo's Five Star movement in Italy, which is tipped to come second in the Italian vote with 19 seats. Should Grillo opt to make common cause with Farage, the Ukip-led Europe for Freedom and Democracy group could hold as many as 66 seats, putting it neck-and-neck with the liberals for third largest caucus behind the mainstream centre-right and centre-left blocs. Despite suggestions that the Greens are making gains in Britain, the outlook in their core constituencies of Germany and France is dismal. The Greens slumped in Germany's elections last year, underwent a generational leadership change and are still struggling to clarify their message. "The result was very chastening," said Cem Oezdemir, a leading German Green. The final polling conducted across the EU by Votewatch Europe has the Greens falling to around 44 seats from 58 in the current parliament. Germany and France supplied about half the Green MEPs in the current parliament, each returning 14. The number of German Green MEPs is predicted to fall to 11, and the French to collapse to five. Electionista's aggregate poll of polls has the Greens falling even further, to 41 seats in the 751-seat chamber. The draconian spending cuts and austerity wrought by the eurozone crisis over the past four years have boosted support for the far left, according to the polls. Under the umbrella of European United Left, far left parties are predicted to win between 50 to 53 seats, up from 35 in the current parliament. In the Netherlands, the far left Socialist party is running neck-and-neck with the governing Labour party in the polls. Die Linke, made up of former east German communists and disaffected social democrats, is now the main opposition party in Germany. Alexis Tsipras, the head of the Syriza movement and the annointed leader of Europe's new left, is expected to win the election in Greece. Given the extreme fragmentation of the parliament – initially there could be as many as 150 different national parties and independents represented, compared with 76 in the current parliament – power will hinge on the wheeling and dealing that follows the vote. "Compared to the outgoing parliament, the new parliament would be more polarised, with more MEPs on the radical left and on the right of the [Christian democrat] EPP," Votewatch Europe said. | ['world/european-elections', 'world/eu', 'politics/politics', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/iantraynor'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-05-21T17:20:53Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
global-development/2013/apr/15/ethiopia-forest-communities-reverse-deforestation | Ethiopia enlists help of forest communities to reverse deforestation | Mark Tran | When the Ethiopian government realised that outright bans on cutting down trees failed to stop deforestation, it instead turned to a strategy based on enlisting the help of forest communities. The first participatory forest management (PFM) schemes were piloted 15 years ago. Based on signs of success, PFM is being rolled out in larger areas. A particularly ambitious scheme is taking place in the mountains of Bale in the southern region of Oromia, where the authorities are applying PFM to 500,000 hectares (1.24m acres) of forest in a project run by Farm Africa, a British NGO in partnership with SOS Sahel, a local NGO. Ethiopia has experienced massive deforestation. From a baseline of perhaps 40% forest cover in the 16th century, the country is down to 4.6%, a result of 0.8% deforestation a year. Pressure on forests comes from a rapidly growing population – 85 million – with over 80% living in rural areas, relying on rain-fed agriculture. The 70 million livestock put pressure on land and forests. Starting the first PFM projects was difficult, Tsegaye Tadesse, programme manager with Farm Africa, told the Guardian, on a visit to London. "We were not welcomed by communities at first," says Tadesse, who has worked in forestry since the 1980s. "Imagine being told that you will no longer have free access – despite laws prohibiting you from cutting down trees. You would want to carry on with the easy way, coming and going as you choose." The government applied a carrot and stick approach. Officials raised the spectre of eviction and bused forest dwellers hundreds of kilometres to areas that had suffered extensive deforestation to show them the bleak future that was in store once the forests had disappeared. "We took community representatives to degraded areas so they could see the results of failing to take proper care of forests," he says. The carrot was managed use of the forest – including logging – for an unspecified time. In Ethiopia, land is owned by the state so it cannot be sold or used as collateral. Nevertheless, the offer of legal exploitation of resources was used as an incentive to gain the involvement of forest communities. It took eight years to apply PFM to 5,000 hectares, in Chilmo, about 90km west of Addis Ababa, the capital. It has become easier since the first projects because now, says Tadesse, forest communities can see successful examples of PFM. "It is a bit like vaccines. It takes a lot of money to develop at first, but once you have it, things become easier," he says. Besides husbanding forest resources, PFM also develops money-making activities. In Bale, forest communities have been taught to grow coffee and bamboo and to become bee-keepers. Of the 23,000 households (an average of five people per household) covered by the Bale project, about 3,500 have taken up these activities. But Tadesse says efforts to develop alternative livelihoods are being hampered by the lack of a strong private sector. "The idea was to bring in the private sector," he says. "But it is not strong enough yet to develop the continuous supply of forest coffee, natural oils and honey. We know the consumers are there – there is strong demand for honey in Addis. But we need hives to be distributed, technical support. Markets are not functioning as well as they should." Tadesse says the results have been encouraging from the first PFM pilot project, in Chilmo, where satellite imagery has shown a 9.2% increase in forest cover. Communities are seeing an increase in incomes from sales of honey to Addis and coffee to Italian firms. "Families are sending children to colleges. Thatched roofs are being replaced by corrugated iron, but we need to find out more about how big an impact these livelihoods are having," Tadesse says. One unintended consequence of PFM has been the growth of a sense of civic responsibility. "There are always conflicts around natural resources. PFM involves lots of conflict mediation and exercises in negotiation. It has contributed to the building of stable communities and in building democracy at a grassroots level." The question, as ever, is whether these communities can sustain themselves, once funding for the project stops. Funding of €5.4m (£4.6m) from Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands ended in December, although Norway has extended funding of €2m for another three years. With the help of Oxford University, Farm Africa is designing a scheme for Bale to tap into the UN's Redd+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) plan to raise money through carbon credits. According to Redd+, global deforestation accounts for nearly 20% of all CO2 emissions. Under the Redd scheme – proposed by Papua New Guinea and others in 2005 – developing countries are paid for protecting their forests. In preserving the forests of Bale, Tadesse estimates that the PFM scheme could produce 18m tonnes of tradable carbon over the next 20 years. A carbon credit currently sells for $5 a tonne. Tadesse, however, says any money from carbon credits would be a bonus, but not central to the viability of the project in Bale. A new report, Rediscovering Ambition on Forests, by Bharrat Jagdeo, former president of Guyana and a roving ambassador for the Three Basins Initiative, calls on rich countries to invest in forest conservation schemes. The report estimates that $29bn in incentive payments could halve annual deforestation across the 26 net deforesting countries of the Three Basins (Amazon basin, Congo basin and south-east Asia). It warns that without commitment to forest preservation now, it will be impossible to stabilise the world's climate within 2° above pre-industrial levels. • This article was amended on 16 April 2013. The original said the PFM scheme could produce 80m tonnes of tradable carbon over the next 20 years. This has been corrected to 18m | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'world/ethiopia', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'tone/interview', 'type/article', 'profile/marktran'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-04-15T14:57:26Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2008/dec/12/carbonemissions-climatechange1 | EU leaders announce leap towards low-carbon future | European leaders tonight announced they were leading the world towards a low-carbon future after sealing an ambitious climate change pact by making generous concessions to the big polluters in European heavy industry. A two-day summit of 27 government leaders in Brussels ended a two-year effort to agree mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and came as a triumph for President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in the closing days of his six-month presidency of the EU. Not noted for his understatement, the French leader declared: "This council will go down in the history of Europe." The French navigated a route through conflicting claims from Poland, Hungary, Germany, and Italy to finalise a deal that keeps the EU's key carbon dioxide reduction targets intact, while easing the costs of the package for European manufacturers and heavy industry. The climate accord orders Europe to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 compared with 1990 levels. This is to be achieved through national reduction targets which vary among the 27 countries and through a Europe-wide carbon trading scheme in which industries and power plants buy permits to pollute from 2013. The rules for the emissions trading scheme (ETS), however, were relaxed under German pressure to exempt most companies in the processing industries, such as steel and cement, from paying for the permits and power stations in central Europe, mostly coal-fired, were awarded large discounts on the price of carbon. "To address the specific concerns of some countries, we had to accept some changes," said Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission whose draft legislation on the package was much stiffer than that agreed yesterday. The decisions, to be turned into law by the European parliament next week, also cut CO2 emissions from cars by 19% by 2015, set binding national targets for renewable energy to total 20% of the European energy mix by 2020, encourage the use of "sustainable" biofuels, and order 20% greater energy efficiency by 2020. Gordon Brown said: "This is a major advance. Europe, after these decisions, remains the leader on climate change." But critics complained that the package was too little too late, that EU leaders had capitulated to fierce lobbying from European industry, that the loopholes in the system and the awarding of pollution permits free to most non-energy firms in the scheme would trigger a bonanza in windfall corporate profits. "Industry has to do next to nothing," said Claude Turmes, a Green MEP from Luxembourg who helped draft part of the legislation. "If they are honest, these leaders know they haven't agreed something really ambitious." Robin Webster, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "This could have been one of Europe's finest moments. But huge loopholes allow big energy-users to carry on polluting." Barroso admitted that the terms of the deal could bring windfall profits for industry, reversing the logic of the polluter pays principle that is supposed to underpin the carbon trading scheme. But he and others stressed that these concessions did not affect the overall targets. The accord was the first such agreement in the world and put Europe in a strong position to strike a broader pact with the incoming Obama administration in the US ahead of the effort to reach a worldwide global warming agreement in Copenhagen a year from now, Barroso said. "This is a message especially to our US partners," said Barroso. "Obama is still far from what we are proposing…The idea that this has been watered down is nonsense." "Combined with the spirit of engagement from president-elect Obama, there is now everything to play for as we put the pieces in place for a global climate deal in Copenhagen next December," said Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary. The package also includes provision for 12 pilot projects on carbon capture and storage — using novel technology to collect CO2 emitted from power stations and bury it underground. The projects are to be funded from the proceeds of the carbon trading which is supposed to generate tens of billions in revenue by 2020. Under pressure from the British, the summit agreed to double the funding available for these projects. "This is a transformational funding stream for a transformational technology," said David Miliband, the foreign secretary. "Nowhere else in the world has got that." | ['environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/emissionstrading', 'world/eu', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'type/article', 'profile/iantraynor'] | environment/carbon-capture-and-storage | EMISSIONS | 2008-12-12T17:56:05Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2021/aug/11/country-diary-the-morning-skies-free-of-aerostratus-take-me-back-to-2020 | Country diary: the skies free of ‘aerostratus’ take me back to 2020 | If only we choose to raise our eyes, so many of us can look up to an unmarked sky. How long will this last, the second truly blue summer of our lives, and will I live to see another? A surreal moment from the first, when the world stopped, will stay with me. I’d stepped outside, phone in hand, and pointed it above my head, pivoting slowly on my heels to record the pristine blue over the rooftops, over the limes, the sycamores, willows and cherry. No raggedy off-white ribbons, messy cross-hatching or blurred bands of a false front. Heaven had healed the scars, scores and slashes of aircraft vapour trails. Week after week we were blessed with the sunniest, bluest, purest skies we had ever known. A year later, I’m standing on the high footbridge over the river, girdled by water meadows full of ruminating cows, looking up and witnessing the morning’s weather unwrapping. I want to mark this period before the low rumble of high thunder, the human traffic that begins again with a lift-off from Stansted or Luton. I want to at least half-remember a time I wish never to forget. Down below, I can feel the damp soaking my trainer-clad feet. To the north, the purple clouds are carrying away the unwept remains of that pre-daylight shower. Low on the eastern horizon, a narrow cloudless bank of pink glows, the remainder of a dawn passed. Shafts of god rays suddenly break through a chink, maybe 100 metres above. To the left, a ripple effect, like tide marks left on shale sand. And swivelling right, more shaping, a herringbone pattern that half-fills the southern sky. Unusually, it is from the west that puffy optimism comes, billowing white clouds edge closer with grey wisps and backed by the lightest sky blue. I have read the minutes in nimbus, cumulus and cirrus, untainted by “aerostratus”: the residual trails of planes, discharging as dirty meteors. And then comes the air traffic – a skein of six Canada geese passing overhead. They leave nothing in their wake. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/pollution', 'lifeandstyle/walking', 'world/air-transport', 'environment/summer', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/derek-niemann', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-08-11T04:30:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2010/may/27/gulf-oil-spill-top-kill | Gulf oil spill: 'Top kill' mission to halt gush under way | BP embarked upon a high-risk "top kill" procedure using drilling mud last night to cap the catastrophic gush of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, as it faced fresh accusations of shortcuts in the hours before an explosion destroyed the Deepwater Horizon rig. After hesitation by top BP executives as they analysed data from robot submarines at the site of the leak, and under intense pressure from the Obama administration, the US coastguard gave the go-ahead for the operation to pump a cocktail of mud and heavy fluid at high pressure into the Macondo well, 50 miles off the Louisiana shore. Underwater TV cameras showed a live feed of oil billowing out while BP's heavy machinery moved into position. Chief executive Tony Hayward warned that the operation, never before attempted at a depth of 5,000 feet (1,500 metres), had only a 60% to 70% chance of success and could take several days. Barack Obama described the disaster as "heartbreaking" and expressed hope it would work. "If it's successful, and there's no guarantee, it should greatly reduce or eliminate the flow of oil now streaming into the Gulf from the sea floor," said the president. After a boat trip to see the damage, Louisiana's governor, Bobby Jindal, displayed vivid photos showing that oil was killing cane plants along the state's offshore marshes, an area which he described as "the nursery of the gulf". "We've been fighting this oil nearly a month now, requesting resources. Too often, the response has been too little, too late," he said; absorbent booms to capture oil were becoming saturated. "We can't afford to wait another 24, or 48 hours." The slick is estimated to cover 16,000 sq miles of ocean, It began on 20 April when an explosion and fire destroyed BP's rig, killing 11 people. Since then efforts by BP to stem the flow, first by placing a dome on top of the leak, have come to nothing. David Summers, a professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, said it would be clear within days whether the "top kill" procedure had worked. The method was straightforward and would have been started much earlier, were it not for the inaccessibility, he said: "It's relatively simple and been done many times before, but not at this depth." In a massive operation, 22,000 people and 1,100 vessels are tackling the slick. BP's top executives are monitoring events from a control centre in Houston. But as investigations begin into the cause, BP is facing accusations of "short cuts" in the hours before the rig blew up. In official hearings in New Orleans, several workers who survived raised questions about a decision shortly before the explosion in which rig bosses displaced heavy mud with salt water in the pipe rising from the seabed, potentially hampering the rig's ability to withstand pressure from the ocean depths. At yesterday's hearings Truitt Crawford, a roustabout on the rig, told coastguard investigators: "I overheard upper management talking, saying that BP was taking shortcuts … this is why it blew out." Another witness, Doug Brown, chief mechanic on the rig, said there was a "skirmish" between a BP "company man", a driller and engineers: "The driller was outlining what would be taking place, whereupon the company man stood up and said 'no, we'll be having some changes to that'," Brown said. A memo given to a congressional committee by BP reveals events as workers prepared to put a cement plug on the well in preparation for the rig to be moved. Two hours before the explosion, tests showed a buildup of pressure – and subsequent decisions to press ahead with the operation are under scrutiny. BP has pointed out that other firms were involved – it was leasing the rig from Transocean, which owned and operated it, while the US firm Halliburton was responsible for a cement plug. A poll by CBS News found 70% disapproval of BP's handling, and 45% unhappy with the Obama administration's response. Interior secretary Ken Salazar described it as a "massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster", and BP would be liable for costs beyond a usual $75m (£52m) maximum liability for oil firms in clean-ups: "BP will be held accountable for costs of the government in responding to the spill and compensation for loss or damages." As shrimpers, fishermen and tourism industry workers along the Louisiana coast see their livelihoods dwindle, BP has watched its share price slump by 28%, wiping $84bn off its market value. Some 1,200 vessels and 22,000 people are involved in the effort to temper the scale of the disaster. The US agency overseeing oil companies is also under intense criticism. An official report found that the Minerals Management Service allowed staff at oil and gas firms to fill in inspection reports in pencil, with regulators later going over the answers in ink. Mary Kendall, acting inspector general at the department of the interior, told a congressional committee yesterday that there were problems with "gift acceptance, fraternising with industry and pornography" at the agency. She suggested there was a problem with the closeness of ties between watchdogs and industry executives: "The individuals involved in the fraternising and gift exchange – both government and industry – have often known one another since childhood." | ['environment/bp-oil-spill', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oil-spills', 'environment/oil', 'business/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/bp', 'us-news/louisiana', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/technology', 'science/science', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'business/tony-hayward', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewclark', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-05-26T23:14:00Z | true | ENERGY |
world/shortcuts/2013/may/21/tri-state-tornado-deadliest-of-all | Tornadoes can kill, and the Tri-State tornado was the deadliest of them all | Terrible as it was, the monstrous tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma, on Monday, razing whole neighbourhoods, destroying a primary school and killing at least 24 people, was not the deadliest twister the US has experienced. That tragic honour goes to the so-called Great Tri-State Tornado, which, on 18 March 1925, roared across south-east Missouri, southern Illinois and south-west Indiana, devouring all in its path. Starting at about 1pm northwest of Ellington, Missouri, the tornado finally dissipated near Princeton, Indiana, some three and a half hours and 220 miles later. Along the way, its nearly one mile-wide front, moving at speeds of up to 73mph and accompanied by winds put at over 300mph, destroyed more than 15,000 homes, leaving 2,027 people injured – and 695 dead. No tornado in US history has killed more people in a single town (234 in Murphysboro, Illinois), or in a single school: 33 at De Soto, Illinois (17 more children died at Longfellow School, Murphysboro; in all, the Tri-State Tornado killed 69 children in nine schools). Illinois bore the brunt: almost the entire town of Gorham demolished; 541 people killed and 1,423 injured in barely 40 minutes as the tornado swept through Murphysboro, De Soto, Hurst-Bush and West Frankfort. The small town of Parrish, where 22 people died, was one of four communities effectively wiped from the map. The total damage was estimated at $16.5m; maybe $1.5bn today. Long before the invention of radar and accurate tornado warnings, with even radio still in its infancy, the Tri-State Tornado must have been all the more terrifying. Even farmers with long experience of such extreme weather events seem to have been taken by surprise, partly perhaps because of its unusual appearance: the tornado's vast size, and the very low clouds of its parent thunderstorm, led some survivors to describe it as more of a "rolling fog" or a "boiling cloud", without a tornado's recognisable funnel. Contemporary accounts still convey the horror. A Gorham schoolgirl told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that as the twister struck her school, "the walls seemed to fall in, all around us. Then the floor at one end of the building gave way. We all slipped or slid in that direction. I can't tell you what happened then. I can't describe it. I can't bear to think about it. Children all around me were cut and bleeding. They cried and screamed. It was something awful. I had to close my eyes …" The air, the paper reported, "was suddenly filled with 10,000 things. Boards, poles, cans, garments, stoves, whole sides of the little frame houses, in some cases the houses themselves, picked up and smashed to earth. A baby blown from its mother's arms. A cow, picked up by the wind, hurled into the village restaurant." In the aftermath, the paper described "scenes of suffering and horror", and a destruction "so complete … that people could only guess at where they once had lived". | ['world/tornadoes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/oklahoma-city-tornado', 'us-news/oklahoma', 'us-news/us-weather', 'news/shortcuts', 'tone/features', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/jonhenley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | us-news/oklahoma-city-tornado | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-05-21T16:19:12Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2019/aug/26/chump-change-g7-cash-to-put-out-amazon-wildfires-not-enough-say-campaigners | G7 cash for Amazon fires is ‘chump change’, say campaigners | The G7’s pledge of $20m (£16m) to douse the fires in the Amazon has been dismissed as “chump change” by environmental campaigners, as concerns grow about political cooperation on deforestation and other climate issues. The summit host, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told reporters he would try to deal with the long-term causes by creating an international alliance to save the rainforest, with details of a reforestation programme to be unveiled at next month’s UN climate meeting in New York. But the US president, Donald Trump, skipped the summit session aimed at finding solutions to global heating through tree planting and shifting from fossil fuels to wind energy. In a press conference after the summit, he was dismissive of efforts to change direction. “I feel the US has tremendous wealth … I’m not going to lose that wealth on dreams, on windmills – which, frankly, aren’t working too well,” he said. “I think I know more about the environment than most.” The most concrete outcome of the three-day summit of major industrialised democracies in Biarritz was the $20m that leaders promised to make immediately available to Amazonian nations such as Brazil and Bolivia, primarily for more firefighting planes. The assistance plan, announced by the French and Chilean presidents on Monday, would involve a programme of reforestation, to be unveiled at the UN general assembly meeting next month. “We must respond to the call of the forest, which is burning today in the Amazon,” said Macron. Environmental groups said the emergency fire aid was insufficient and failed to address the trade and consumption drivers of deforestation. “The offer of $20m is chump change, especially as the crisis in the Amazon is directly linked to overconsumption of meat and dairy in the UK and other G7 countries,” said Richard George, the head of forests for Greenpeace UK. “The UK has plenty of leverage to stop the destruction of the Amazon by suspending trade talks with Brazil until its full protection is guaranteed. Any post-Brexit trade deals must prioritise the environment and human rights.” But there was also appreciation that several G7 leaders, including the UK’s Boris Johnson, had expressed concerns about the Amazon. Macron said he had had long and in-depth talks with Trump on the Amazon fires and that Trump “shares our objectives” and was “fully engaged” in the joint effort to help put out the fires and reforest. “It’s good to see the fate of this vital forest on the global agenda, as well as new commitments of funding, especially from the UK. But protecting this incredible forest, and the future of the planet, will take bolder action,” WWF said. “That will require us to stop importing commodities that drive deforestation.” Conservation groups in Brazil said the sums were tiny compared with the hundreds of millions of dollars Brazil was losing in donations from Norway and Germany as a result of President Jair Bolsonaro’s policies in the Amazon. “The amount offered [by the G7] is far from significant, but resources do not seem to be a problem for the Brazilian government,” said Adriana Ramos, the policy director of Brazilian NGO Instituto Socioambiental. “This money that has been blocked could be made available with a stroke of the pen by the president if he really had any political interest in combating deforestation and fires in this country.” Environmental experts said Bolsonaro’s policies have fuelled accelerating deforestation and contributed to the intensity of the wildfires. France and Ireland have threatened to block an EU trade deal with Brazil and three other Latin American countries if Bolsonaro does not change course. Macron’s criticism sparked an angry response from Bolsonaro, who accused him on Monday of treating Brazil like “a colony or no man’s land”. But the international pressure has prompted the president to deploy two C-130 Hercules aircraft to tackle the fires. The reforestation plan would require the consent of Bolsonaro and local communities. The Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, a Bolsonaro ally on the political right, said he was in constant touch with the Brazilian president and that the two leaders had spoken as recently as Sunday. He said he was confident he would be able to convince him about the need for reforestation of the Amazon. “I will discuss that with him. But I think that it is absolutely necessary. And I tend to think that he will agree,” Piñera told the Guardian. “In the last 20 years, almost 10% of the use of the surface of the Amazon has been destroyed. We can recover that. It will take time. It will take money. It will take effort but we can do it,” said Piñera. Piñera suggested Macron and other world leaders had set about trying to make Bolsonaro change course in the wrong way, criticising him rather than cooperating with him. “The Amazon is in South America, and the countries there have sovereignty over that territory they want to protect,” Piñera said. “At the same time the Amazon is part of the health of the whole planet. And therefore it is reasonable that everybody is concerned about that. We have to find a compromise between those two.” Piñera was speaking before news came that Bolsonaro had endorsed an insulting comment on Facebook about Macron’s wife, Brigitte. Under the umbrella of the G7 summit, a coalition of more than 50 indigenous groups and environmental organisations issued their own statement, adding to the political pressure. With the support of Macron, they directly blamed Bolsonaro for accelerating the clearance of the rainforest by “systematically dismantling” environmental protection agencies, halting the demarcation of indigenous land, and verbally attacking anyone who opposed forest clearance. The declaration urged the G7 to strengthen import restrictions on beef, soy, minerals and other products that originate from areas affected by deforestation, enhance due diligence for investments in the Amazon to ensure they do not violate human rights and environmental controls, and to support Brazil to achieve the Paris climate targets. | ['world/g7', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/emmanuel-macron', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'tone/news', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'world/brazil', 'environment/wwf', 'world/chile', 'world/americas', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'profile/julianborger', 'profile/angeliquechrisafis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-26T18:05:04Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk/the-northerner/2012/dec/13/lake-district-upland-meadows-heritage-lottery-fund-cumbria | Heritage Lottery money helps Cumbria's threatened hay meadows | The fame of Cumbria's fells may overshadow another interesting feature of the beautiful county: it has almost a third of England's upland hay meadows. These are havens for a remarkable number of wild flowers, even though they are man-made, like so much of our small island's 'wild' landscape. By recreating the glades which once existed in dense forest cover, they provide home for up to 120 flowering species, among them the devil's-bit scabious, globeflower, great burnet, lady's-mantle, oxeye daisy, pignut and wood crane's-bill. Beside these grow grasses including cock's-foot, crested dog's-tail, meadow fescue and sweet vernal-grass and among them all stride birds such as the curlew, lapwing, snipe and twite. Such roll-calls stir the heart of anyone, and today's news from the Heritage Lottery Fund will go down well, especially at a time when there are serious concerns about the coming review of Natural England, the main custodian of the country's landscape. There are influential people, especially in the shooting world, who would like to see the group's power and resources curtailed. The HLF is giving some £1.3 million to two upland projects in Cumbria, one of them the county's Hay Meadows Project which plans to use the money to restore 65 hectares of meadowland, and train staff and volunteers to monitor the health of the county's whole estate of this kind of habitat. It is not a vast area but then neither is the UK's total of upland meadow; England has an estimated 1000 hectares and Scotland, the land of heather and thistle, only around 100. They date back more than 2000 years but have suffered dramatic attrition in the last half-century through ever more intensive farming and land management. Surveys have found that fewer than five percent of those in the Yorkshire Dales can still be described as 'herb rich' and the Peak District lost three quarters of those recorded in the 1980s by the end of the following decade. The Cumbrian project will be led by the county's Biodiversity Partnership, working with landowners, farmers and inmates from Haverigg prison. The latter will get involved with 60 volunteers in training on sustainable meadow management. Apart from learning new skills, the programme will bring the chance of landscape qualifications and help with pre-release rehabilitation. Graham Jackson-Pitt, manager of the Cumbria Biodiversity Project, says: The grant will not only kick start a programme of hay meadow restoration and volunteer surveys, but also provide new opportunities to learn about and participate in hay meadow conservation. These meadows are biodiversity gems that are part of the farming landscape of Cumbria. They are becoming increasingly rare and we can't afford to lose them. The meadows are getting £429,600 while the upland Heron Corn Mill on the river Bela at Beetham gets £939,100 for repairs and restoration of a largely 18th century building with origins in mediaeval times. The HLF has given £72 million to Cumbria since its inception in 1994. | ['uk/the-northerner', 'tone/blog', 'travel/lakedistrict', 'uk/lake-district', 'culture/heritage', 'uk/lottery', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/birds', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'type/article', 'profile/martinwainwright'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2012-12-13T15:00:00Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2008/dec/10/poznan-climatechange | Letters: Can Poznan make climate change history? | It is striking to read of an EU official at the UN climate talks in Poland saying other countries were simply "lubrication" for a deal that depended solely on the US and China (Planet under pressure, December 8). The wrong decision by EU member states on their climate and energy package could scupper progress in UN negotiations and send a very poor signal to the rest of the world about acceptable levels of ambition. Discussions in Brussels and Poznan this week will be decisive in terms of setting the tone for next year, when the world must agree on a successor to the Kyoto protocol or face irreversible and devastating climate change. The signs do not look good: in Brussels, Italy, Poland and Germany are trying to water down commitments on emissions reductions, backed by shortsighted business lobbies. Meanwhile in Poznan everyone appears to be waiting for someone else to move first. The disconnect between UK rhetoric and policy is demonstrated by the contrast between your front page, where the environment secretary, Ed Miliband, calls for mass mobilisation (People power vital to climate deal - minister, December 8), and two stories much further back in the paper (Colliery on track for record output; Botched biofuels legislation stalls climate change initiative). Coal is one of the dirtiest forms of energy production and the government should not be presiding over an increase in production. But mandating compulsory biofuels use when concerns abound about negative environmental and social side effects is not the right strategy either. The legislation should not be redrafted to ensure enforceability - it should be scrapped. Robert Bailey Senior policy adviser, Oxfam Ed Miliband must have taken heart at the rapid response of the airport protesters (Heathrow next, warn activists who caused Stansted chaos, December 9) to his call for a popular movement, along the lines of Make Poverty History, to get governments to commit to a new agreement on much-needed greenhouse gas emissions cuts. I am rather more sceptical. Make Poverty History is a chilling example of how popular pressure dissipates as quickly as the ink dries on government promises for international action. The sad reality is that we are no closer to making poverty history today than we were a decade ago and, despite repeated international commitments to deep cuts, I am afraid we are no closer, in real terms, to effective action on carbon emissions. Rather than encouraging frustrated citizens to engage in disruptive and futile direct action campaigns, perhaps Mr Miliband might follow the example of President-elect Obama and apply himself to persuading his cabinet colleagues to make substantial public investment in technological change to our energy infrastructure a core element in the government's economic stimulus strategy. Steve Rayner James Martin professor of science and civilisation, University of Oxford Ed Miliband is right when he calls for a mass global campaign to get governments to tackle climate change, but he is the wrong person to call for it. As someone who served on the team that coordinated Make Poverty History, I know only too well what government "support" for a campaign can do. It is better for all if the line between civil society campaigns and their targets stays as clear as possible. All the other campaigns he mentions - the suffragettes, anti-apartheid, sexual equality - grew organically out of civic and intellectual movements. They may have had supporters in government, but they kept their distance. Mr Miliband is right to feel "odd" - he can be an ally, but he cant be in the vanguard. Steve Tibbett London Ed Miliband's rallying cry for a "popular mobilisation" to demand action on climate change is welcome. But the TUC course on "Trade unions and the environment" that I had hoped to attend this week was cancelled due to undersubscription. Clearly some unions are not grasping the opportunities to bring their members into a "popular mobilisation". They could be getting them trained as green reps for negotiations with employers to improve the sustainability of businesses and public services, or helping them to educate colleagues, family and their community on how to adopt lifestyle changes. Sadly, many employers don't even have a dialogue with their workforce, let alone negotiations with elected union representatives on a green agenda - perhaps they should be required to. A mass movement in the UK to bring about action on climate change must involve the 6 million trade unionists and their families, among many others. Miliband's plea may indicate that too many cabinet ministers are responding to short-term business interests, or fighting the wrong battle - advocating airport expansion or other polluting work instead of an emergency Green New Deal creating millions of sustainable jobs. Unions must press Gordon Brown and his cabinet to take the necessary action. Trevor Phillips Norwich The anti-airport-expansion flash mobbers won't be the only ones making a trip to Heathrow next month (Letters, December 4). On Monday January 12 at 7pm - the day that MPs return from their winter holiday - the Climate Rush will descend on Terminal 1 in Edwardian dress (under big coats!), and with hampers of food, and stage a "Dinner at Domestic Departures" as a protest against the construction of the third runway and the unsustainable use of short-haul flights. When the string quartet plays its first note they will reveal their costumes and share their food. Everyone is invited to this important event (www.climaterush.co.uk). Come and toast the demise of unsustainable aviation! Andrea Needham Hastings, East Sussex | ['environment/poznan', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'environment/series/road-to-copenhagen', 'environment/copenhagen', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2008-12-10T00:01:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/oct/21/hawaii-papahanaumokuakea-ocean-reserve-spillover-benefits-yellowfin-bigeye-tuna-study | World’s largest ocean reserve off Hawaii has spillover benefits nearby, study finds | Six years ago, the then US president, Barack Obama, created the world’s largest fully protected ocean reserve by expanding the existing Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument in Hawaii, a world heritage site that include islands, atolls and archeological treasures. Now scientists have found that the reserve, which spans 1.5m sq km (580,000 sq miles) and is inhabited by whales and turtles, has brought unexpected benefits to the surrounding ocean. Catches of yellowfin tuna, known as ahi in Hawaiian, were found to have risen by 54% between 2016 and 2019 near the reserve, within which fishing is banned, while catches of bigeye tuna rose by 12%. The findings, published in the journal Science, by researchers from the University of Hawaii and the University of Wisconsin-Madison may strengthen support for a target, agreed by more than 100 countries, to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. “This research is important because it helps us understand that a large, carefully placed no-fishing zone can create benefits for these large iconic species,” said Jennifer Raynor, an environmental economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the paper’s three co-authors. Although marine protected areas (MPAs) have repeatedly been shown to protect local populations of fish, previous research has cast doubt on their potential to provide so-called spillover benefits for migratory species, such as tuna and swordfish, as many MPAs are small compared with the geographic range of these species. “The protected area could be doing one of two things,” said Raynor. “The first is that these iconic fish populations are increasing because the areas provide nurseries for baby fish, and some of them are spilling over into nearby areas. A second reason might be that fish are just finding a safe place to aggregate, near the protected area, where they can’t be caught.” She said the research could help demonstrate that MPAs are a worthwhile investment. “By setting up no-fish zones, we are forcing people to stop fishing in places that they previously enjoyed,” she said. “But it is like an investment. You make big upfront costs, with the hope that it will pay off in the future, through higher catch rates. Our paper says: if you create these areas carefully, then that investment can pay off.” The scientists used data from the US National Marine Fisheries Service’s Pacific Islands observer programme, which monitors the Hawaii-based longline fishery catching bigeye and yellowfin tuna. The largest increases in catches were seen at distances of between about 100 and 200 nautical miles (185-370km) from the reserve’s border. As a control, they compared fish catches from 2016-19 with catches between 2010 and 2013, before the reserve’s expansion. They found no significant increase or “spillover benefit” before 2016. MPAs are often declared by governments without any accompanying prohibition on commercial fishing, leading to criticisms that the reserves are simply “paper parks” with no real protection from damaging extractive activities. In Papahānaumokuākea, however, commercial fishing is banned. While the area’s remote location makes enforcement difficult, the park has officers patrolling in addition to monitoring flights and visits by US coastguard vessels to deter illegal fishing. • This article was amended on 7 November 2022 to correct a transcription error in a quote, which should have referred to “higher catch rates” rather than “higher tax rates”. | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/fish', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/hawaii', 'world/pacific-islands', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/world', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'environment/national-parks', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-10-21T05:00:16Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2023/feb/03/worlds-biggest-investment-fund-warns-directors-to-tackle-climate-crisis-or-face-sack | World’s biggest investment fund warns directors to tackle climate crisis or face sack | Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s single largest investor, has warned company directors it will vote against their re-election to the board if they do not up their game on tackling the climate crisis, human rights abuses and boardroom diversity. Carine Smith Ihenacho, the chief governance and compliance officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages more than 13tn Norwegian kroner (£1tn) on behalf of the Norwegian people, said the fund was preparing to vote against the re-election of at least 80 company boards for failing to set or hit environmental or social targets. Established in the 1990s to invest surplus profits from Norway’s huge oil and gas reserves, it is the world’s largest sovereign fund, controlling an average of 1.3% of 9,338 companies across 70 countries. Large holdings include Apple, Nestlé, Microsoft and Samsung. “We all know, we live in a world with a climate crisis, and we have a role to play and then companies have a role to play,” Smith Ihenacho said. “So we have stepped up our expectations towards the companies when it comes to setting targets to get to that net zero [emissions] by 2050 target. And we will push the companies more in setting targets and understanding how they’re going to get there.” It comes as the prime minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, bowed to public pressure to release more money from its oil profits to help support Ukraine. The country donated 10bn kroner in civilian and military aid last year. “We are in a situation where we have room for action due to extraordinary income from the petroleum sector,” he said. “We are now stepping up this aid. We will contribute even more to the repair and reconstruction of damaged infrastructure.” The fund, which holds the equivalent of about 2.4m kroner ($240,000 or £200,000) for each man, woman and child in Norway, invests parts of the large profits generated by the Norwegian petroleum sector, mainly from taxes of companies but also payment for licences to explore for oil as well as the State’s Direct Financial Interest and dividends from the partly state-owned energy giant Equinor. Smith Ihenacho said the fund, which this week recorded a loss of 1.64tn kroner for 2022, expected all large carbon emitters to set emissions targets now, and all other smaller companies to have done so no later than 2040. “We also want companies to publish scenarios including [what happens if temperatures rise by] 1.5C so we can actually understand how they are going to get there.” She said only 17% of the more than 9,000 companies that the fund invests in had set “clear science-based net zero targets”, and the fund is actively “pushing” the remaining 83% to act fast to set their targets. “If the companies are totally unresponsive to what we say, we have to step up,” she said. “What we’ve done so far for, let’s say, the worst companies – those that don’t even have any targets, no reporting around climate risk – we have started to vote against the board as we say the board is really accountable for this.” It led the fund to vote against the entire board of 18 companies last year and Smith Ihenacho warned that in the coming spring AGM season there would be a “big step up in how we vote against board members”. She said the fund would vote against at least 80 companies in the next few months. Smith Ihenacho said that if there was still no improvement the fund may sell its stake in the companies. “We want to support and push the company through the transition to a low-carbon economy, we don’t see selling as going to solve the climate crisis,” she said. “But in the end, we may do that with some companies and we have already sold out to quite a few companies that we just believe have an unsustainable business model when it comes to climate.” She said the fund was also taking a more active approach to tackling a company’s record on human rights, excessive executive pay, tax transparency, and boardroom diversity. Last month, the fund excluded two companies – China’s AviChina Industry & Technology and India’s Bharat Electronics – due to “unacceptable risk that the companies are selling weapons” for use by the military in Myanmar. | ['business/sovereignwealthfunds', 'business/corporate-governance', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'global-development/climate-finance', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/norway', 'business/investing', 'world/europe-news', 'business/financial-sector', 'world/world', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rupertneate', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2023-02-03T12:46:52Z | true | EMISSIONS |
us-news/2015/sep/14/two-untamed-wildfires-northern-california-valley-butte | Two untamed wildfires displace 23,000 people in northern California | Two explosive wildfires have displaced 23,000 people in northern California and threaten to wreak more devastation in rural communities, which have lost hundreds of homes. The so-called Valley fire in Lake County raged untamed on Monday after incinerating 61,000 acres, or 95 square miles, in just two days. Overcast weather grounded firefighting airplanes and helicopters, leaving ground crews to battle without air cover and prompting warnings of worse to come from a blaze that is just 5% contained. “Firefighters from across California are aggressively fighting the Valley fire that has continued to spread in hot, windy conditions,” said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). “The fire continues to grow as firefighters work to construct fire lines, while protecting lives and property.” The blaze has consumed 400 homes plus hundreds of other structures, and law enforcement is investigating a report of a civilian fatality, the agency said. Some 1,255 personnel were fighting the fire, it added. Since erupting on Saturday the fire’s speed and ferocity has astonished experts, who said it moved faster than any other in California’s recent history. Sheriff Brian Martin called it the worst tragedy ever seen in Lake County, 20 miles north of Napa winelands. People fled amid billowing smoke, smouldering telephone poles, downed power lines and fallen trees. Mark Ghilarducci, director of Office of Emergency Services, told a news conference it drove about 13,000 from their homes over the weekend. Another 10,000 people fled a second blaze, the so-called Butte fire about 200 miles away in the Sierra Nevada. Since flaring on 9 September it has scorched 71,000 acres and more than a hundred homes and buildings. It is 30% contained. Four firefighters, members of a helicopter crew, were injured on Saturday amid wind gusts which reached 30mph, sending embers raining on homes. “This has been a tragic reminder to us of the dangers this drought is posing,” said Daniel Berlant, a Cal Fire spokesperson. The injured firefighters were airlifted to a hospital burn unit and treated for second-degree burns. Berlant said their condition was stable. The displaced have thronged evacuation centres. Those who spent Sunday night at the Napa County Fairgrounds awoke on Monday to a breakfast of eggs, bacon and doughnuts. They milled eating, walking their dogs and sifting through donations of food, clothing, shoes, diapers and dog food. Nancy O’ Byrne was evacuated from her home in Middletown, which is reportedly half-destroyed, said her home was still standing. She said she felt “very, very, very lucky”. Michael Alan Patrick had been at the fairgrounds since Saturday and lost everything in the blaze. When the fire broke out, he had been sitting in a Middletown park with his friends and saw the flames coming. He said it was like looking through a tunnel. Forecasters say Northern California weather conditions are changing as low pressure approaches the West Coast. That will mean cooling, increasing winds, higher humidity and showers, with more widespread rain Wednesday. Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in affected areas to to free up resources. A four-year drought has has created unprecedented tinderbox conditions. The practice of fighting fires, paradoxically, has exacerbated the risk by interrupting a natural cycle of burning which used to consume dry scrub and other fuel. The historic nature of the drought was underlined in a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday which estimated that the Sierra Nevada snowpack is at its lowest level in more than 500 years. | ['us-news/california', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/drought', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rorycarroll', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-09-14T19:49:47Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2016/jan/05/thailands-forest-rangers-step-up-training-in-violent-blood-wood-war | Thailand's forest rangers step up training in violent 'blood wood' war | It’s dawn in Thailand’s Eastern forest, and the sound of combat boots echoes through the jungle mist at Ta Phraya national park’s headquarters. The stomping boots belong to forest rangers on a counter-poaching tactics course. They are training with Hasadin, a team of elite rangers formed in June 2015, whose mission is to stop the Siamese rosewood tree from being driven to extinction by poachers. “The poachers don’t care if we’re rangers ... if they meet us and they have weapons in their hands, they shoot immediately without warning,” says Piroon Pilaphop, leader of Hasadin’s Dong Yai wildlife sanctuary team. Siamese rosewood is a hardwood species confined to the remaining forested areas of just four countries in the Mekong region – Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Renowned for its blood-red colour, the highly coveted endangered species is illegally logged in Thailand and smuggled through mainland south-east Asia to luxury “hongmu” furniture markets in China. Conservationists have warned that with rates of illegal logging increasing by 850% in recent years, Thailand’s Siamese rosewood trees could be extinct within a decade. Large trees in protected forests have become so scarce that their plunder is more akin to wildlife poaching. Increasingly large groups of illegal loggers cross the Thai-Cambodian border with weapons and are willing to engage in firefights in order to get the highly valuable “blood wood”. “Rosewood is becoming harder and harder to find. The last big rosewood trees are in the deep forest, so the smugglers are moving deeper and deeper into Thailand,” says Khajornsak Anantuk, a sergeant major with the Ta Phraya border police, who is helping to train the rangers. In the war against rosewood poaching, rangers train in self defence, patrol, conducting raids, making arrests, weapons and explosives identification. In the classroom they study poachers’ rights, GPS mapping, forest law and species identification. The poachers have increasing safety in numbers - vastly outnumbering the rangers - and in the deep forests the rosewood has to be carried out on foot. “If they want 60 pieces of wood, they have to bring more than 60 people because it’s one piece for one person. They also bring guards and front scouts,” says Booncherd Jaroensuk, head of Ta Phraya national park. Seven forest rangers died in 2015 in relation to violent Siamese rosewood crime, according to the Freeland Foundation, an organisation based in Bangkok working to improve ranger training in Thailand. Most loggers previously came from the border region with Cambodia, but some are now allegedly brought in from as far as the Cambodian-Vietnam border by traffickers. “The people along the border have got wise to how dangerous it is, so the middlemen are bringing people from over on the Vietnam border who don’t know anything ... sometimes they don’t even know it’s a protected forest,” says Tim Redford, training coordinator at Freeland. In September last year, 23 Cambodian would-be loggers fled their traffickers upon discovery that Siamese rosewood was their target, and handed themselves over to the Thai police, according to the Cambodia Daily. “It’s a form of human trafficking … they are being tricked into it ... there have been two cases recently where Cambodians have been taken into the forest and told that they were going to be working on legal timber projects or on construction work,” says Redford. “I wish they would just arrest the big guys so the problem will finally stop,” says Hasadin ranger Piroon, referring to the catalogue of corrupt officials, businessmen, and brokers involved in the clandestine transnational trade that carves its murky way throughout south-east Asia. The lucrative trade saw $1.2bn worth of Siamese rosewood imported to China between 2000 and 2014, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Sold for 200 baht (£3.60) a kilo on the forest floor, it currently fetches more than £30,000 per tonne (£30/kilo) in China’s wholesale markets. EIA reported a bed made from Siamese rosewood being sold for US$1m in Shanghai in 2011. Siamese rosewood was listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in 2013 in an attempt to curb the decimation of south-east Asia’s remaining stocks. The listing should have prohibited the international trade in logs, sawn timber and veneers, but an annotation allowing for the legal trade in “semi-finished” products of Siamese rosewood has provided a catastrophic loophole. “The biggest problem is the demand ... without that, there wouldn’t be the tsunami of cash entering these badly governed countries which then exacerbates corruption, undermines the rule of law, and provides incentives for loggers to risk their lives,” says Jago Wadley, senior forest campaigner at EIA. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/national-parks', 'world/thailand', 'world/laos', 'world/vietnam', 'world/cambodia', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/demelza-stokes'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-01-05T07:00:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/aug/05/biden-electric-vehicles-goal-2030-climate-crisis | Biden sets goal for 50% of new US vehicles to be electric by 2030 | Joe Biden is setting a goal for half of all new US vehicle sales to be electric by 2030 while also tightening pollution standards for cars and trucks, in a barrage of action aimed at reducing the largest source of planet-heating gases in America. On Thursday, the White House outlined its plan to tackle the climate crisis by cutting emissions from vehicles, with Biden set to sign an executive order demanding that 50% of all new cars and trucks sold by the end of the decade be powered by electric batteries. At the White House with car makers and unions on Thursday, Biden said the future of the car industry is “electric and there is no turning back.” “The question is whether we will lead or fall behind in the race for the future,” said the president, who stood in front of two electric SUVs. “We used to lead in this technology and we can lead again, But we need to move fast. The rest of the world is moving ahead, we’ve just got to step up.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US department of transport, meanwhile, are unveiling new fuel efficiency standards for vehicles to bolster pollution rules that were weakened under Donald Trump’s presidency. From 2023, new cars will be required to emit 10% less greenhouse gas emissions compared to the previous year, with further reductions of 5% a year mandated until 2026. Michael Regan, administrator of the EPA, said the new vehicle pollution standards were “a major step forward in delivering on president Biden’s ambitious agenda to address the climate crisis and create good paying, union jobs”. The crafting of this strategy follows months of talks between the Biden administration and major car manufacturers and, the White House hopes, be paired with a new infrastructure bill that will fund a major upgrade in electric charging points across the US. The administration said the move will reduce CO2 emissions by 2bn tons, save 200bn gallons of gasoline and save drivers several hundred of dollars in fuel savings. “The importance of these new vehicle emission standards is hard to overstate,” said Dan Lashof, director of the World Resources Institute. “Along with the infrastructure investments currently under consideration in Congress, these standards will be among the most impactful measures that the Biden administration can take to address the climate crisis.” Trump’s rollback of clean car standards were initially welcomed by the auto industry but many car makers have since indicated a willingness to focus more on electric vehicles. Executives from Ford, GM, Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, as well as the United Auto Workers (UAW) union will appear with Biden at a White House event on Thursday to back the changes. Electric vehicles comprised less than 2% of all car sales in the US last year, with many Americans still preferring large, carbon-intensive SUVs. However, electric vehicle sales are rising quickly and manufacturers have started to bring out an array of new models – in May, Ford, which has said 40% of its sales will be electric by 2030, unveiled a battery-driven version of its F-150 model, which has been America’s best selling vehicle since the 1980s. A joint statement by Ford, GM and Stellantis said that the companies were aiming for 40% to 50% of electric sales by 2030. “This represents a dramatic shift from the US market today,” the statement read, adding that this could only be achieved if the federal government is able to provide incentives to buy electric cars, invest new charging infrastructure and bolster research and development funding. Some climate advocates argue that the US president’s measures do not go far enough, as the fuel efficiency standards reflect those of California, which struck a compromise deal with car makers in the Trump era, rather than impose a major upgrade on the previous standards. “We already lost out on four years of climate progress under Donald Trump, and we can’t afford to lose any more time,” Becca Ellison, deputy policy director at Evergreen Action. “In order to meet our climate goals and build a future with more good jobs and less toxic pollution, president Biden should be championing a much faster transition to electric vehicles.” Biden has set a goal for the US to hit net zero emissions by 2050, a target that experts say will only be reached if America phases out sales of gasoline and diesel cars by around 2035. Campaigners want the president to quickly call time on the internal combustion engine. “Biden cannot think of himself as the climate president with a 50% electric vehicles goal,” said Varshini Prakash, executive director of Sunrise Movement. “FDR didn’t set a goal to half win the war, and JFK didn’t set a goal to get halfway to the moon.” | ['us-news/series/americas-race-to-zero-emissions', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/electric-cars', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'technology/technology', 'us-news/joebiden', 'us-news/biden-administration', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-08-05T14:00:30Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2004/aug/16/usnews.naturaldisasters1 | 'A strong whistle, then everything crashed' | The town clock was still stuck at 4.26pm, the exact time when the sleepy palm-fringed community of Punta Gorda bore the brunt of Hurricane Charley and the 145mph winds that came with it. Yesterday those who survived the storm were counting their blessings and their insurance premiums, and those who were evacuated were tip-toeing back to see what was left of their homes. Hurricane Charley - one of the worst in living memory - has taken at least 20 lives so far, one in Jamaica, three in Cuba and 16 in Florida. Those who perished included some who were hit by falling trees, were flipped over in their trucks as they fled or were electrocuted by fallen power cables. The signposts to Punta Gorda were twisted, as though a retreating army had obscured the route. The trees beside Highway 75 looked as though they had been scythed by some other-worldly chainsaw. All around, in the trailer parks in the main town, mobile homes could be seen to have lived up to their description all too literally. The area has been officially declared a disaster zone, with early estimates suggesting that the damage already runs into billions of dollars. How many people have died here or in other parts of Florida will only be known in the coming days, when workers start sifting through the debris. Health officials in some areas have ordered more body bags, just in case. "This place will never be the same," said Dan Strong, 51, surveying the rubble of what was his house. "My home and this neighbourhood can be rebuilt, but not like they were. We've lost too much." Yesterday, those who survived the winds that tore the town apart on Friday described being terrified by the ferocity of a storm that was not expected to hit Punta Gorda at all. "When the storm came over, I could see the walls flexing," said Nolan Wehmueller, 65, who moved to the area from St Louis, Missouri, 18 years ago. "It was a terrible noise. You can't even describe. The roof caved in, in the front of the house." He had considered the advice to evacuate, but he and his wife stayed because of their animals. "The storm tore up every tree in the yard and stripped our 80ft Norfolk Island pine like it was a telegraph pole. There were times when we just grabbed pillows and threw them over our heads." Kyle Kilgallon, who works in the boat-lifting business, said he had had to sign an affidavit after declining to evacuate so as to take care of a friend in a wheelchair. "I told my mother it looks like Iraq came over and bombed the shit out of us," he said. "It was like a freight train coming through but the house held up good." Wendel Palmer, a restaurateur, from Jamaica, said: "It was like a good experience because people say you can't see the wind but I saw the wind. It was awesome." He said it was important that people realised that "in Bangladesh they have just had something like this and lots of people were killed so we have to consider ourselves lucky". Chris Fletcher, manager of the River City Grill, said: "It was completely unimaginable. This was voted one of the best places to retire to in Money magazine. Rape, murder and mayhem, we don't have that here. It was just a sleepy town. Now we'll have to see what sort of an inner person it brings out in most of us." Yesterday was the calm after the storm, with fleets of national guardsmen, tree cutters from Oklahoma City and power trucks arriving to start the rescue. In the morning George Bush arrived in a motorcade, a convoy of flashing blue lights and black four-wheel-drives with radio masts the height of some of the lampposts now lying in the gutters. It was his second visit in less than a week to a crucial state in the presidential election, and he called for "God's blessings" on all those hit by the hurricane. With state officials estimating that the damage to property will range from $5bn-$11bn (£2.7bn-£6bn), President Bush said: "A lot of people's lives are turned upside down." When asked whether there were any political undertones to his quick trip to the state, the president said: "If I didn't come, they would have said we should have been here more rapidly." His brother Jeb Bush, Florida's governor, added: "It's just hard to describe seeing an entire community totally flattened." Gabriel Cosea, 21, a local chef offering to help feed the homeless, said the arriving storm had "a really strong whistle, then you heard everything crash, windows breaking, roofs coming off". Angie and Britt Matthiessen moved to the area from Georgia, attracted by the palm trees on the main street. They ended up in a shelter as Charley blew most of the trees away. "We were under the table with an air mattress tied over it," Mrs Matthiessen said. Her husband said computer predictions were that the hurricane would strike land 70 miles to the north. "But it's mother nature; you can't predict with 100% accuracy." The sun was shining on Punta Gorda again yesterday as people began clearing up in the wake of a hurricane that made a mockery of human-based predictions. | ['environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/duncancampbell'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-08-16T00:59:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2023/nov/30/cop-28-dubai-developing-world-climate-crisis | To the world leaders at Cop28 we say: do not squander this chance to get back on track | Ban Ki-moon and Graça Machel | After a year marked by unparalleled global temperature highs and climate impacts, leaders are set to meet in Dubai for the 28th conference of the parties to the UN framework convention on climate change – Cop28. We have entered an unprecedented era of global heating: 2023 is near certain to be the hottest year on record. We have seen extreme wildfires blanketing North America, more than 15,000 killed by extreme weather events in Africa, record-breaking heatwaves in China, southern Europe and the United States, as well as deadly hurricanes and cyclones including Storm Daniel, which killed at least 10,000 people in Libya, Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, and caused at least $20bn (£16bn) of damage. Ocean temperatures also soared to record-breaking highs, posing a critical threat to the health of coral reefs and causing widespread disruption to marine ecosystems. Science warns us that the severity of extreme weather events will only intensify unless decisive, bold action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Every incremental rise in global temperatures underscores how critical a proactive response to the climate crisis is – world leaders need to act now. Yet we are woefully underprepared. The recently published Adaptation Gap report 2023 from the UN environment programme (Unep), subtitled Underfinanced. Underprepared, finds that climate change adaptation – the process through which we prepare for and build resilience to the impacts of climate change – is slowing on all fronts, just when it should be accelerating to catch up with rising impacts. This is particularly true for developing countries, which have the fewest resources to devote to adapting to climate change, and did the least to cause global heating. The Unep report found the costs of needed adaptation investments in developing countries are between $215bn and $387bn per year this decade. This is 10-18 times greater than current international public finance flows for adaptation, leaving a staggering financing gap of $194bn-$366bn per year. World leaders must immediately rectify this. The Glasgow pact agreed at Cop26 called for a doubling of finance to support developing countries in adapting to the impacts of climate change and building resilience. Developed countries must fulfil this commitment. Countries must also adopt an ambitious framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation to guide action and investment on adaptation. We urge leaders to seize the moment and send an unequivocal message that we need urgent, meaningful investments in order to fortify people, economies and ecosystems against the escalating threats of the climate crisis. We know that solutions already exist. A prime example is the UN secretary general’s ambitious Early Warnings for All initiative, which seeks to provide all people on Earth with access to early warning and early action information for hazardous weather, water or climate events by 2027. Other needed solutions include climate-informed planning and development; resilient food, water, health and infrastructure systems; and social safety nets for when calamity strikes. Crucially, the framework must include robust, quantifiable targets so that we can all track progress over time, and must include means of implementation – finance, capacity building and technology transfer – to support the delivery of the framework, so that it doesn’t become become another hollow promise that is never kept. With the complex mix of global challenges, a critical focus must be on fortifying agri-food systems. The resilience of these systems remains fundamental, especially as smallholder farmers in the global south bear the brunt of this crisis. It is a stark injustice that those who have contributed least to the climate crisis are left to fend for themselves, receiving a woefully inadequate share of climate finance support. More than 2 billion people depend on these smallholder farms for sustenance and livelihoods – yet less than 2% of global climate finance is directed toward their adaptation efforts. This disparity must be urgently addressed. The climate crisis does not have to spell total catastrophe for the future of food systems, provided we embrace innovation and entrepreneurship, with women at the helm. The agri-food sector’s transformation hinges on actionable research and development, and turning local challenges into global opportunities. It is imperative that grassroots innovators are empowered with the resources, knowledge, and financial support they need; it will be pivotal in transforming vulnerabilities into strengths. Humanity is at a crucial juncture; we must not squander this chance to get back on track. At Cop28, leaders must meet opportunity with collective will and fulfil the commitments that have, until now, remained unmet. Graça Machel is a deputy chair of the global human rights organisation The Elders, and a women and children’s rights advocate. Ban Ki-moon is a deputy chair of The Elders, co-chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, chair of the Global Center on Adaptation, and the 8th secretary general of the United Nations Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cop28', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/dubai', 'world/world', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/bankimoon', 'profile/gra-a-machel', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/cop28 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2023-11-30T06:00:42Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
technology/2008/aug/21/computing.digitalvideo | Ask Jack: August 21 2008 | Student laptop My son is about to go to university to study architecture. What sort of laptop would you recommend, for up to £600? Cathy Matheson JS: The final choice depends on the use, and there are at least three possibilities, so you will need to talk to your son and perhaps to his university. The first idea would be to get a lightweight portable to carry everywhere for note-taking, email and web browsing. A good cheap example would be the Acer Aspire One running Windows XP on a 10-inch screen. The keyboard beats the Asus Eee PC version. A spare battery would be useful. The second option would be a desktop replacement laptop that he could use in his room. This would provide computer functions plus home entertainment, doubling as a DVD player, sound system, and games machine. There are plenty of portables with 15.4in widescreens from Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba and other suppliers, but aim for a Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB or more memory for Windows Vista. Look for a Kensington lock to tie it down. The third option would be a portable workstation, intended to run specific software that is used on the course. Unfortunately, the software used for serious architectural work - such as Autodesk's AutoCAD and Bentley MicroStation - needs lots of memory and a separate graphics card, rather than the Intel integrated graphics chips built into cheap laptops. To handle complex models with AutoCAD 2008, I'd be looking for something like a Dell Latitude D830 with 4GB of memory, 64bit Windows Vista Ultimate, nVidia Quadro or similar graphics, and probably a screen upgrade: Autodesk recommends 1,280 x 1,024 pixels. You might not get much change out of £1,000, and it's not worth cutting corners: having 2GB instead of 4GB saves £40, and having 32bit XP Pro or Vista Business only saves £34. Before spending this sort of money, your son should talk to his university department and preferably to more advanced students to find out exactly what is required. A simpler and cheaper laptop may well do. If a course involves the use of specialist software such as AutoCAD, the university will usually provide access to shared computers that have it installed. Students who want to run it themselves can usually obtain an educational version at a reduced price. The cheap LT version of AutoCAD 2008 costs around £1,500, whereas the student version costs about £100 for a 14-month licence. Books for Kindles I am considering an Amazon Kindle. However, I'd like to use it for ebooks freely available in text format, and others in Microsoft's Reader format. John Borgoy JS: The Kindle can handle books in plain text (.txt) plus the Amazon (.azw) and Mobipocket (.mobi; .prc) formats. It can also handle Microsoft Word documents and web pages, but you have to email these to your kindle.com address. Amazon will convert them and send them wirelessly to your Kindle for a small fee. You can convert Microsoft Reader (.lit) files by using a free converter such as ABC Amber LIT. Movie rescue My DigiFusion Freeview recorder died when its power unit fried after a power cut. Is there any way I can transfer the movies and recorded programmes to my PC from the hard drive? John Rogers JS: If you remove the hard drive from the recorder, you should be able to mount it in an external drive enclosure and connect it to your PC via a USB port. I'd guess it's a 3.5in drive. If you are lucky, it will be in the FAT32 file format used in Microsoft MS DOS and recognised by most operating systems. If you have a proper desktop PC, a cheaper alternative is to fit the drive internally, but this can be a little trickier. Searching for data My computer died suddenly and I had to get another. I can read the hard disk of the old machine via USB, but how do I get at emails and the address book? Alec Williams JS: You should be able to copy the old data from your backup CDs or external hard drive! Since the hard drive still works, however, you can copy the data to your new PC in the usual way and then import it. You can find the data by running a disk-wide search for the types of storage file your software uses. If you used the Windows address book, search for *.wab (with an asterisk) files. If your email program was Outlook Express, search for the Inbox.dbx and Folders.dbx files and copy that whole folder across. For help, click here and here to read the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles. Backchat As mentioned in Technophile (August 7), I struggled with the Linpus version of Linux on an Acer Aspire One subnotebook. Alan Cocks comments: "Information forums are appearing. This one might have helped some of your frustrations". On copying cassette tapes etc using Audacity software, Tim Gossling points out that it does have track splitting: go to Analyze and select Silence finder to automate the process "with probably varying degrees of success, particularly for classical music," he says. "Manual splitting is done via Project and Add label at selection: click in the label field and type in a title. File|Export multiple will then generate multiple files, each named with the track label." · Get your queries answered by Jack Schofield, our computer editor at jack.schofield@theguardian.com | ['technology/computing', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'technology/askjack', 'profile/jackschofield', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/technologyguardian', 'theguardian/technologyguardian/technology'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-08-20T23:01:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2020/dec/04/the-guardian-view-on-amazonian-cave-art-a-story-about-the-environment-too | The Guardian view on Amazonian cave art: a story about the environment, too | Editorial | In the past week, remarkable images of ancient cave art have hit the headlines: rock paintings made in South America around 12,000 years ago. The art, created on rock faces in the Serranía de la Lindosa, on the northern edge of the Colombian Amazon, is a riot of ochre-coloured geometrical pattern, handprints, and images of animals and humans. Until recent excavations, the works of art had been unknown to the international community. Their exuberant creativity will soon be revealed to a broad audience in the UK thanks to the Channel 4 series Jungle Mystery: Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon. The people who made these works of art were, it is believed, among the earliest humans to occupy the region, after migrations across what is now the Bering Strait some 25,000 years ago. Preliminary study of the iconography of the art has led scholars to speculate that among the deer, tapirs, alligators, bats, serpents, turtles and porcupines, long-extinct megafauna are also represented: mastodons, American ice-age horses, giant sloths, camelids. This creativity, this 12,000-year-old print of human hands, and this extraordinary depiction of long-extinct species, is remarkable and moving. But the ongoing archaeological studies in this area may also begin to tell an important story about the environment – and how humans have interacted with the precious Amazonian rainforests. The archaeologists, a team led by Francisco Javier Aceituno of the Universidad de Antioquia, Gaspar Morcote-Rios of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and José Iriarte, of Exeter University, also discovered stone tools and animal and plant remains, all of which add to the knowledge of the region – and suggest many questions, too. The extinction of the megafauna is itself an intriguing problem: was it caused by climate change, by humans hunting them to extinction, or by a combination of factors? No megafauna bones were found at the sites investigated, so the people who painted the rock faces were either not big-game hunters or dealt with the carcasses of large animals elsewhere. What has been found, however, is evidence of many species of useful plants, including 10 species of palm; the researchers think that these people may have been beginning to manage the forest – not just adapting to it passively, but changing it. By around 4,000 years ago, scholars have recently shown, communities in the forest were fertilising soil, planting Brazil-nut trees and chocolate, and clearing land in a very limited way for crop cultivation. These communities, much more populous than previously assumed, achieved food security and were well-nourished – and their presence actively promoted the astonishing biodiversity of the rainforest. Their direct successors are today’s indigenous populations whose existence is so cruelly threatened. The glorious ancient cave paintings are not just a spectacle, they are the roots of a way of life that human greed has done its best to destroy – but on which the ecological richness of the Amazonian forest, and in turn all of humanity, depends. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'science/archaeology', 'world/colombia', 'artanddesign/art', 'education/historyandhistoryofart', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'science/anthropology', 'world/americas', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-12-04T18:25:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/may/07/national-trust-to-recreate-19th-century-norfolk-woodland-using-raf-photos | National Trust to recreate 19th-century Norfolk woodland using RAF photos | The National Trust is reconstructing a 19th-century landscape in Norfolk using an Edwardian survey map and aerial photographs taken by the Royal Air Force after the second world war. The £190,000 project at Oxburgh Hall, which will take a decade to complete, will replant native trees in the Grade II-listed landscape, making it one of the largest wood pastures the charity has ever created. Most of the parkland around the hall was lost when it was auctioned off for farmland in the 1950s, but thanks to some historical detective work, the charity is confident it will be able to restore the site back to its heyday. The conservationist and historian Dr Sarah Rutherford, who has researched the project, said: “Using an Ordnance Survey map from 1904, we have been able to research details of how the landscape looked when it was at its peak. We’ve also used RAF aerial photographs from 1946 which show the park before its sale in 1951 which clearly show numerous trees.” The project team used the sales details for trees sold at auction for timber to identify individual locations and species of trees for replanting, although they have made some changes to account for the impacts of climate change and ash dieback where the historic species would no longer thrive. Tom Day, an area ranger who is overseeing the project, said: “It’s incredibly exciting, being able to actually restore the swathe of old farmland back to what it would have been in its heyday. It will become an immersive historical experience where people can experience the estate as it would have been.” The National Trust bought Oxburgh Hall, home to the Bedingfeld family for 500 years, in 1951 to save it from demolition. However, much of its original 1,442-hectare (3,563 acre) estate was sold at auction, and most of the parkland around the hall converted to intensive arable farmland. In 2017, the charity acquired an additional 51 hectares, and now work is under way to restore 70 hectares of the original 162 hectares of parkland habitat. Working in partnership with Natural England and Historic England, 227 trees will be planted, including native species such as the rare black poplar, white willow and oak. In winter the first 150 trees will be planted in newly established grassland areas using satellite positioning to locate the exact spot for replanting according to the original parkland design, while 10 remaining ancient trees will also be incorporated. “The majority of wood pasture [in the country] was turned over to industrial agriculture post-second world war, so we lost an incredibly large area of what is now a very rare priority habitat,” Day said. “Lots and lots of creatures that would have called that home have been displaced so restoring such a large area, in what is still quite an industrially farmed landscape, is going to be a really important stronghold for lots of the species we are starting to lose.” The National Trust will also recreate ponds and planting areas of scrub to create habitats more resilient to climate change, and the wood pasture will be grazed by native breeds of cattle, helping conserve the breeds for future generations. | ['environment/forests', 'uk/national-trust', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/norfolk', 'culture/heritage', 'uk-news/england', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jessica-murray', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-05-07T05:00:27Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
money/2008/oct/07/workandcareers.waste | Why the price of disposing of an old PC may be higher than you think | When your PC starts acting as though it has attention deficit disorder, staring back at you blankly whenever you try to do anything, the natural instinct is to dial IT and demand a new computer. The last thing you want is for the voice at the other end of the phone to start talking you through complicated reboots, or suggest they come upstairs to "have a look at it". Although you may usually spend half your day on YouTube, suddenly you have important deadlines to meet. The best solution for all concerned is for the IT person to bring you a new machine. But where will the old one end up? According to Greenpeace and Computer Aid International – a charity providing refurbished computers to developing countries – your broken machine may be illegally shipped and dumped somewhere like Ghana, Nigeria or China. Last month Greenpeace released a report detailing the increasing amounts of Britain's e-waste being found in huge toxic dumps in Ghana. There, impoverished workers burn it to extract precious metals, releasing harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. These deadly toxins are then inhaled by the workers, many of whom are children, while poisonous substances seep into the soil and rivers, from where they are ingested by livestock, whose meat is then eaten. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Weee) directive was put in place in 2007 to force retailers to take back old computers and recycle them properly. This should make things easy for your company – in theory it should simply return them to its IT supplier and its eco-conscience is clear. Except that this neat little system doesn't appear to be working. Greenpeace's report traces a calamitous chain of poisoning back to IT equipment from British businesses, colleges, councils and even hospitals. It says defunct computers are being shipped to developing countries by companies that claim they are functioning, second-hand goods for resale. The Environment Agency, which is charged with making sure the Weee directive is properly carried out, says it doesn't have the resources to check every container of second-hand IT equipment heading to countries like Ghana. Computer Aid this week called on the government to tighten up the directive and give the Environment Agency the power it needs to properly police this illegal trade. "The Environment Agency must be provided with the resources to police e-waste, prosecute anyone involved in a supply chain that results in the dumping of e-waste and remove licences from organisations in breach of the Weee legislation," says Louise Richards, the charity's chief executive. "It's imperative that the government clamps down on fraudulent traders posing as legitimate re-use and recycling organisations, who are enticing unwitting UK businesses to use them for disposal of electrical equipment." But for the time being, what can you do to make sure your old PC doesn't end up damaging a child in Africa? At a company level, your boss could try asking for guarantees from suppliers that returned goods will not end up on a dump somewhere in the developing world. Or, as in the days before Weee, the company could look for a reputable organisation to deal with its IT waste, such as Computer Aid International, which will only send working computers to developing countries, ReCOM, or Computers for Charity, both of which refurbish computers for community groups and charities. And what can you do as a worker? Try putting pressure on your boss to make sure the company is disposing of old equipment properly – and next time, get IT to fix your computer rather than demanding a replacement every time it takes more than four seconds to start up. | ['money/work-and-careers', 'money/money', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'profile/adharanandfinn'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-10-06T23:01:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2023/mar/20/the-aukus-deal-is-a-against-the-worlds-climate-future-it-didnt-have-to-be-like-this | The Aukus deal is a crime against the world’s climate future. It didn’t have to be like this | Jeff Sparrow | Under the terms of the government’s nuclear submarine purchase, the first Australian-built Aukus class vessels come into service in the early 2040s. What else might be happening then? According to the IPCC, at current rates, the planet will have warmed more than 1.5C above its pre-industrial state. In fact, many scientists believe temperatures could smash the 1.5C barrier as soon as 2030 or 2035 – that is, around about when Australia receives the first of its Virginia-class nuclear subs. Warming on that scale means extreme weather becoming common. It means disasters like the 2019/20 bushfire season or the 2022 floods taking place not once in a century, but every year or so. It means drought and heatwaves disrupting food production, it means rising seas inundating the land, and it means millions of people fleeing regions suddenly rendered uninhabitable. When you think about what the Australian people might require under such ghastly conditions, “nuclear submarines” do not top the list. Back in 2019, Scott Morrison responded to a Greta Thunberg speech by saying that he didn’t want children to feel “needless anxiety” about global warming. That bizarre insouciance about climate science still pervades the national security establishment, even as the Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s “Red alert” panellists demand a “psychological shift” to ready Australians for a major war. The submarine enthusiasts don’t care that the geostrategic environment for which their vessels are designed won’t exist as ecological collapse reshapes world politics. Rather, they consider the eye-popping sums associated with Aukus (“the biggest transfer of wealth from Australia to another country in its history”) as an immediate down payment on the US alliance, integrating Australia into the forces propping up declining American hegemony in the Asia Pacific. Yet the rest of us should think long and hard about what that means. With this deal, Anthony Albanese has now pledged vastly more money for hi-tech weaponry than Australia’s ever spent on preventing global warming. The $368bn allocated to nuclear submarines that may or may not ever arrive could, for example, have delivered a renewable energy grid, not once, nor twice but four times over. Yet, instead of a zero carbon energy system, we’ve acquired a gigantic bill, one that will almost inevitably climb – the Australian military’s acquisitions often run billions of dollars over budget. No future government will dare abandon the Morrison/Albanese commitment. On the contrary, every politician will invoke submarines to justify underfunding environmental and social programs. Already, Peter Dutton suggests buttressing Aukus with cuts to the NDIS – a small taste of what’s to come. It didn’t have to be like this. “For the first time in the modern era,” notes the Financial Review’s Aaron Patrick, “the left of the Left [in the ALP] controls power at the national level.” Yet Labor has persisted with its “small target” strategy on emissions, so far refusing to ban new fossil fuel developments despite the increasingly desperate pleas from António Guterres and Fatih Birol. The “left of the Left” has expended its political capital not on a transformational climate policy but on a deal conceived by, of all people, Scott Morrison, a military expansion that not so long ago even the right of the Liberal party would have considered a khaki fever dream. Let’s be real: Aukus makes the already huge task of decarbonisation far, far more difficult. If we were to consider the world’s militaries as a single country, their combined carbon footprint constitutes the fourth largest national contribution in the world. An arms race in the Asia Pacific and beyond will enrich the defence companies contributing to funding the Australian Strategic Policy Institute but it will derail the international cooperation necessary to cut emissions, as all the main powers throw resources into their own polluting fleets. An actual conflict would be infinitely worse. A Sino-US war would mean a world-historic catastrophe, both because of its likely escalation to a nuclear exchange, but also because it would lock in an environmental future immeasurably bleaker than the already grim projections of the IPCC. The fighting in Ukraine has already resulted in vast amounts of greenhouse gases. What do you suppose two clashing superpowers would do? That’s why the Age/Sydney Morning Herald Red Alert series was so extraordinarily irresponsible. If war is really as imminent as these “experts” claim, we don’t need conscription or atomic weaponry or other blithely mentioned nostrums. We need, rather, to redouble efforts for peace, simply because a conflict between nuclear powers would seal our environmental death warrant. No one should have illusions about Chinese dictators and their regime. But Iraq and Afghanistan provide an awful warning that military assaults on authoritarian regimes do not culminate in democracy and freedom, but instead intensify the misery inflicted upon ordinary people. In 1953, Dwight Eisenhower spelled out what the first cold war race signified, saying, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.” We know, with a level approaching certainty, that climate change is coming. So how else can we think about Australian’s unprecedented new arms expenditure other than as an awful crime against the future? • Jeff Sparrow is a Guardian Australia columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/aukus', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/anthony-albanese', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'campaign/email/five-great-reads', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/jeff-sparrow', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-03-20T02:07:09Z | true | EMISSIONS |
commentisfree/2017/may/05/tories-plan-clean-up-air-pollution-hold-breath | What’s the Tories’ plan to clean up air pollution? Hold your breath until 2050 | Jonn Elledge | One of the things I love most about living in London is quite how big everything is. And not just cool things like art galleries and skyscrapers and the public transport network, either, but all sorts of things – like rents and salaries (not yours or mine) and the queue to get into brunch. They’re all so much bigger than in any other British city. It’s brilliant. No, honestly, it’s completely brilliant. Anyway, one of the things which it’s recently turned out was also bigger in London is its air pollution. EU law states that the average hourly level of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), spluttered out mainly from diesel vehicles, should not exceed 200 micrograms per cubic metre more than 18 times a year. But this country is not letting any Brussels bureaucrat dictate to us about what we can and can’t breathe, and Brixton Road, one of the main highways into south London, had already managed to exceed that limit by 5 January. Take that, Junker. Brexit means Brexit. You lost, get over it. This isn’t actually a new phenomenon: last year, Putney High Street managed to breach the hourly limit over 1,100 times, which is a bit more than 18. In all, since the decade’s start, the legal limit has been breached in more than 90% of the UK’s urban areas. Nor is this just a theoretical problem: in 2010, when air pollution was rather lighter than it is today, researchers at King’s College London calculated that long term exposure to NO2 was linked to 5,900 deaths in London. In all, according to the Royal College of Physicians, air pollution across the UK is responsible for about 40,000 premature deaths each year. It’s difficult to come up with any other phenomenon or policy or organisation that could get away with knocking off a population the size of Dover every year without the government being forced to intervene. As it happens, ministers are taking action – but they’re not taking very much action, and they’re also taking their sweet time about what they are bothering to do. (In their defence, the ministry responsible, Defra, puts the number of deaths attributable to air pollution every year at just 23,500, and killing a population the size of Ormskirk is fine.) The original plan to sort out this mess would have seen parts of the UK not meeting EU standards until 2030, but in 2015, the supreme court ruled that the government had to take immediate steps. This, it turns out, meant “another two years and one court battle later”, which I think gives us a sense of how serious ministers are about dealing with this problem. Finally today, the government published its air quality strategy consultation – not a plan, so much as a plan to have a plan. To be fair, this includes a number of positive proposals for getting air pollution down: cutting speeds on certain motorways; introducing a scheme to “retrofit” the most polluting vehicles; an expansion of the UK’s “clean air zones” in which local authorities will take specific actions to get emissions down. But the strategy is noteworthy, too, for what it leaves out. It doesn’t commit the government to a scheme to scrap the dirtiest diesel cars. And it does everything it can to discourage councils from charging polluting vehicles entering clean-air zones. For a party that believes in the economics of financial incentives, it’s funny how reluctant the Conservatives are to impose any new charges on drivers. The problem, I fear, is that deaths from air pollution are largely invisible: they manifest as other, more noticeable symptoms such as cancer, stroke and heart disease. The protests of the car industry and the motoring lobby, by contrast, are very visible indeed. As it stands, it’s easier to lose votes by penalising drivers than it is to win them by cleaning up the air. So it is that the government’s ambition is for “nearly every car and van to be zero emission” by the distant date of 2050. Until then, you’ll just have to hold your breath. And whatever you do, avoid Brixton Road. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'technology/motoring', 'politics/health', 'politics/conservatives', 'society/policy', 'type/article', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/jonn-elledge', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-05-05T14:47:52Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2014/feb/09/floods-environment-agency-chris-smith-hits-back | Ministers playing politics with floods, says Environment Agency chief | Ministers are "playing politics" with the flood crisis and "getting in the way of decent people doing a valiant job", according to an unprecedented outburst from the embattled boss of the Environment Agency, who blamed the government for limiting the agency's response. Hitting back at the vitriolic criticism that has been aimed at him and his agency for weeks – one MP has called him a "git" and threatened to "stick his head down the loo and flush" – Lord Smith said the attacks had been unlike anything in his career. In an article for the Guardian, Smith, a former Labour cabinet minister, said: "In a lifetime in public life, I've never seen the same sort of storm of background briefing, personal sniping and media frenzy getting in the way of decent people doing a valiant job trying to cope with unprecedented natural forces." He said his heart went out to those who had been flooded. More severe storms are due to batter Britain in the week ahead. On Sunday the agency had 16 severe flood warnings – meaning lives are at risk – in place. Fourteen of those were for stretches of the Thames. Smith blamed government budget cuts and "value-for-money" rules imposed by the Treasury for curbing the Environment Agency's response. His forceful defence of the agency is significant because in his six years as agency chair, Smith has always refrained from criticising ministers. But on Sunday he broke his silence after the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, blamed the agency for the plight of those on the Somerset Levels, who have been flooded for weeks. Pickles apologised unreservedly to those who had been flooded, and told the BBC: "We made a mistake, there's no doubt about that. We perhaps relied too much on the Environment Agency's advice. I am really sorry that we took the advice … we thought we were dealing with experts." He said: "I don't think it was a question of money in the Somerset Levels. It was a policy not to dredge and the more we know about it the more we know it was a wrong-headed decision." In his article, Smith writes: "What really saddens me, though, is seeing the Environment Agency's work and expertise in flood-risk management, internationally respected and locally praised in many parts of the country, being used as a political football for a good media story." The coalition cut annual flood defence spending by almost £100m and the agency will have lost 25% of its staff by October. Smith, who steps down in July, said the agency's work was not only limited by its budget, but also by rules on value imposed by the Treasury. Most flood schemes need to prevent £8 of damage for every £1 spent to go ahead. On dredging, Smith said the agency had recognised in 2012 the local view that dredging would help to carry water away faster after a flood and had assigned £400,000: the maximum sum allowed under Treasury rules. He said government attempts to attract additional private or local funds had failed, although he noted the Treasury rules are now being waived for the Levels. Dr Hannah Cloke, a flooding expert at the University of Reading, said: "The EA have responded particularly well to this series of flood events, but of course more could be done with more funding." She added that the focus of ministers on dredging "shows short-term politics has trumped long-term scientific and economic evidence. Taxpayers' cash would be better spent on more effective, long-term soft engineering schemes to protect homes, such as water capture and upland tree planting." | ['environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'environment/environment-agency', 'world/world', 'world/natural-disasters', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'politics/chris-smith', 'type/article', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-09T20:45:14Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2024/oct/02/california-students-hospitalized-heatwave-injuries | At least three California students taken to hospital for heat-related injuries | As a grueling heatwave baked the US south-west this week, there were reports of at least three students being taken to the hospital with heat-related injuries. The injuries highlight the effects of extreme heat on health as the country struggles to grapple with increasingly severe weather amid the climate crisis. Cal Fire and the fire department in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, reported responding on Tuesday afternoon to a junior high school and high school cross-country meet in the city where they evaluated five juvenile patients for “general weakness”. Three were transported to a hospital for further evaluation, the agency said. The area saw temperatures as high as 102F (38.8C) on Tuesday. California, and the US south-west, is in the midst of a scorching heatwave that is expected to bring record fall temperatures that officials have said poses “a significant threat to property or life”. On Tuesday, San Francisco recorded its hottest day this year while Phoenix marked its hottest 1 October on record. Schools across the state are feeling the impacts of extreme weather. As much as 20% of California’s public schools, serving students from kindergarten to 12th grade, have no air conditioning or heating systems, CalMatters reported this week. That figure includes Long Beach, where most or all buildings at area public schools don’t have air conditioning, the outlet said. The city experienced a high of 109F last month. “We have protections for farm workers and other industries in the case of extreme weather, now climate change is forcing us to also extend similar protections to students at school,” said Dr Akilah Weber, a state assemblymember, in a statement this year announcing a bill to protect students from extreme weather. Extreme heat in particular takes a toll on learning – researchers have found that students learn less in school years with more hot days. In Riverside, 1,200 students from 43 schools participated in a cross-country event organized by Woodcrest Christian school that saw students run as much as three miles, the Southern California News Group reported. Eric Reynolds, the school’s head cross-country coach, told the outlet that some students did not hydrate enough before the meet. Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, recently signed into law a bill requiring the state education department to create guidelines to protect students from extreme weather. The bill is named for Yahushua Robinson, who died at age 12 last year after he collapsed while running in his physical education class on a day when temperatures reached 107F. Last month, however, Newsom vetoed the Climate Resilient Schools Act, which would have created a “roadmap” for schools to access federal funding to upgrade facilities. | ['us-news/california', 'environment/extreme-heat', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/west-coast', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dani-anguiano', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/extreme-heat | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-10-02T19:24:54Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2024/oct/01/kew-botanic-gardens-study-33-dark-spots-plant-species-identification-unknown-biodiversity- | Botanists identify 33 global ‘dark spots’ with thousands of unknown plants | Botanists have identified 33 “dark spots” around the world where thousands of plant species are probably waiting to be discovered, according to new research. From a palm tree in Borneo that flowers underground to a Malagasy orchid that spends its life growing on other plants, researchers are still making dozens of new species discoveries every year. But with more than 100,000 plant species believed to be undiscovered, the majority of which are believed to be at risk of extinction, a new project led by Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens is highlighting parts of the world where botanists should be concentrating their search. From Madagascar to Bolivia, scientists have identified the areas of plant diversity in an effort to turbocharge identification. The study, published in the journal New Phytologist, builds on analysis by researchers at Kew last year that found that three-quarters of all undescribed plant species were likely to be threatened with extinction. Scientists believe the unknown species could hold clues to future drug discoveries, fuels or other innovations. Prof Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at Kew and senior author of the paper, said the research was aimed at helping to better target conservation and speed up the rate of plant discoveries, warning that many species would become extinct before they were ever known to science at the current rate of identification. “We are protecting 30% of the planet by this decade under current UN targets – but we don’t know which areas to protect unless we have the right information,” Antonelli said. “Previous research has shown that biologists haven’t been particularly efficient in documenting biodiversity. We’ve gone back to the same places over and over again and we’ve neglected some areas that may contain lots of species,” he said. Most of the regions are in Asia, which has 22 areas listed as in need of further research, including the island of Sumatra, the eastern Himalayas, Assam in India, and Vietnam. In Africa, Madagascar and South Africa’s Cape provinces were identified, while Colombia, Peru and south-eastern Brazil were areas highlighted in South America. Almost all of the areas overlap with areas that have already been identified as biodiversity “hotspots” – areas of the planet that are rich in life but are threatened with destruction. Dr Samuel Pironon, a biology lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, an honorary research associate at Kew and a lead author of the paper, said: “All countries have agreed to preserve and restore biodiversity, including plant biodiversity. How do we do this if we don’t know what species we are talking about or what the biodiversity is and where we can restore it?” Many of the countries where these dark spots occur have limited capacity for formal species identification and the researchers said they hoped the analysis would inspire future collaborations between research institutions and local people around the world. The scientists warned that members of the public should not collect species themselves due to strict international laws on moving biodiversity around the planet, as well as potentially threatening the survival of species, but said taking photographs of plants in these areas and sharing them on citizen science platforms could help. Pironon said: “It’s a great opportunity to strengthen partnerships between scientists and citizens, because platforms like iNaturalist rely on both. People take photos of things they think may be interesting to the rest of the world, and scientists are key because they help identify those species.” Next month, governments will meet at the Cop16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia, for the first time since they agreed in 2022 on targets to prevent the loss of life on Earth this decade. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/plants', 'environment/biodiversity', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/cop-16', 'environment/series/sixth-extinction', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'science/taxonomy', 'science/science', 'science/biology', 'science/extinct-wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-10-01T05:00:22Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2022/jun/21/qld-state-budget-2022-queensland | Queensland state budget increases taxes on miners, big business to fund new hospitals and mental health services | Queensland has announced plans to increase royalties on coal companies amid record profits, as surging prices for fossil fuels help fund investment in the state’s healthcare sector. The Queensland treasurer, Cameron Dick, said the state would record an unexpected $1.9bn surplus in 2021-22 off the back of surging prices for fossil fuels, although a small deficit is forecast next financial year. The centrepiece of the budget is a $23.6bn investment in healthcare – an increase of $1.2bn, roughly 6% – that would include measures to hire 9,450 healthcare workers, build three new hospitals and add 2,200 new hospital beds. The state has also set aside $1.6bn for mental health services over five years, to be funded by a payroll tax levy applied to the largest 1% of businesses. “[The budget] contains responsible revenue measures that focus on companies that can afford today to pay, at a time when they can afford to pay,” Dick said. The government’s pre-existing 10-year freeze on coalmining royalty rates ended this year. Despite prices reaching record rates in recent months, coal companies and the resources lobby had been agitating against any changes. Under the existing scheme, the top tier royalties rate (15%) kicked in at $150 per tonne. Queensland coking coal has been selling for about $500 a tonne. Dick said the old royalty rates structure for coal was “not fit for purpose”. Miners will now pay 20% for prices above $175 a tonne, 30% for prices above $225 a tonne, and 40% for prices above $300 a tonne. The measures are expected to net an additional $1.2bn in revenue before prices temper. The high prices have already had a substantial impact on the state’s bottom line – coal royalties income for the current financial year will be more than $9bn – almost triple the projection in last year’s state budget. Compared to last year’s projections, royalties income from coal and gas producers are up about $12bn. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Dick said multinational coal companies had enjoyed “an extraordinary period of stability” but that rates needed to take into account unprecedented windfall prices. He said coal producers could “rest easy” knowing that royalties would remain the same when prices temper, and that changes would only net the government a modest amount during a boom time. The Queensland Resources Council has said previously that increasing royalties “overnight and without warning will have a negative impact on foreign investment and confidence in our industry”. Investments in healthcare Part of the government’s $23.6b spend on healthcare will go towards a pledge to hire additional 9,450 health workers over the four-year term of the government. New hospitals will be built in Bundaberg, Toowoomba and Coomera. There will also be expansions at hospitals in Cairns, Townsville, Robina, Mackay, Redcliffe, Ipswich and Hervey Bay, as well as facilities in the greater Brisbane area: Princess Alexandra hospital, the QEII hospital, the Prince Charles hospital and Logan hospital. The government has also trumpeted “an Australian-first” comprehensive Queensland Cancer Centre will be built at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospital. Dick said the post-pandemic budget would build on the state’s economic standing. “It is a budget that puts healthcare first,” he said. “We are taking advantage of global shifts, like decarbonisation and digitalisation, to realise opportunities in our traditional and emerging industries and help to create more jobs.” Among the cost of living measures announced in the budget was $6.8bn in concessions to Queenslanders – a 10% increase from last year, including a $175 cost-of-living rebate to manage electricity costs. The treasurer said his budget was committed to “protecting Queenslanders’ lifestyle” and environment in the wake of the biggest boom in internal migration to the sunshine state since 1994. The budget invests in accelerating the construction of new housing estates in the state’s south-east. A $200m commitment over three years will fund infrastructure and interest-free loans to help developers “unlock” new housing in planned high growth areas such as Caboolture West and the Ripley Valley, near Ipswich. It also commits almost $40m to “help protect Queensland’s native animals at risk” across the region, including $24.6m to support the South East Queensland Koala Conservation strategy. The government said the budget provides for 675 more teachers and nearly 200 additional teacher aides in 2022–23, with about 100 of them being those who changed careers after graduating from the Turn to Teaching Internship program. The treasurer said the government would continue to negotiate with unions regarding wage increases for public sector workers like nurses, teachers, transport workers and police. Unions have been pushing for a wage increase for public sector workers that would meet the rising cost of living. The Queensland Council of Unions made a last-minute call to cancel a protest outside parliament house “to consider a formal wages offer from the state government made overnight to unions”. They said unions would consider the offer and discuss it with their members and their decision-making bodies. | ['australia-news/queensland-politics', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/health', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/transport', 'australia-news/annastacia-palaszczuk', 'business/australia-economy', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'profile/eden-gillespie', 'profile/joe-hinchliffe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2022-06-21T05:14:33Z | true | ENERGY |
business/article/2024/sep/05/oil-firms-vow-to-fight-judicial-review-of-north-sea-oil-and-gas-projects | Oil firms vow to fight judicial review of North Sea oil and gas projects | Two of Europe’s biggest oil companies have vowed to fight two legal cases brought by environmental campaigners against their plans to develop new oil and gas projects in the North Sea. Shell and Equinor have said that they will defend their plans to develop new North Sea projects despite Labour’s decision to withdraw government support for the plans, which were approved by the Conservatives over the last two years. Greenpeace called for a judicial review of the government’s go-ahead for the Jackdaw gasfield, operated by Shell, which received approval in 2022. It also, alongside the campaign group Uplift, called for a judicial review of Equinor’s plan to develop a giant oilfield at Rosebank, which was approved last year. The green groups’ campaign against new North Sea oil and gas projects received a boost earlier this week after Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, withdrew government support for the companies’ plans. Miliband has also ruled out further licensing rounds for new projects in the North Sea. The government’s decision came months after a supreme court ruling, known as the Finch ruling, appeared to lend support to judicial reviews by finding in a separate case that the full emissions impact of burning fossil fuels should be taken into account before approving new oil and gas projects. A Shell spokesperson said: “We accept the UK supreme court’s ruling in the Finch case, but will argue that Jackdaw is a vital project for UK energy security that is already well under way. Stopping the work is a highly complex process, with significant technical and safety issues now that infrastructure is in place and drilling has started in the North Sea. “Jackdaw will provide fuel for UK customers – enough to heat 1.4m homes – strengthening energy independence for Britain, as other, older gas fields reach the end of production.” Shell’s claims are rejected by campaigners, including Greenpeace. Mel Evans, a climate team leader at Greenpeace UK, said: “Rosebank and Jackdaw will do nothing to help our energy security or bring down our bills; the oil and gas extracted will be sold on the international market, making Equinor and Shell further billions in profits. “Both the government and the supreme court agree that you cannot ignore the emissions generated from burning fossil fuels. But Shell and Equinor are trying to hide this harm they’re doing to the planet. “Equinor and Shell know that the consents for these fields are unlawful, but despite this, they say they will continue to develop them during this judicial review, putting people and the planet at risk.” A spokesperson for Equinor said Rosebank “is a vital project for the UK in terms of investment, job creation and energy security”. | ['business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/commodities', 'business/business', 'politics/labour', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/gas', 'business/oil', 'business/gas', 'environment/oil', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2024-09-05T16:27:01Z | true | ENERGY |
media/2011/jun/02/parental-warnings-online-music | Parental warnings to be introduced for online music | Parental warning logos are set to be introduced before songs and music videos on services such as Spotify and YouTube that contain explicit material, following recent concern about the amount of risqué music content too easily available to children online. Music industry body BPI is to update its 15-year-old Parental Advisory Scheme – which is responsible for the well-known warning symbol appearing on CDs, DVDs and records with strong language, sex or violence – to "bring up to date what happens on the high street to the digital age". The BPI is implementing an updated set of guidelines to expand the scheme for the logo to appear with songs and videos available to stream or download on UK digital music and music video services. Most audio and video streaming services – including Google-owned YouTube, Spotify, Napster and Vevo, the music video website founded by Universal Music and Sony Music – do not yet have a uniform parental guidance system, according to the BPI. "We think it is important for parents to get the same standards of guidance and information online as they get when buying CDs or DVDs on the high street," said Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI. "We are updating our... scheme for the digital age to ensure that explicit songs and videos are clearly labelled." Apple's iTunes online store, which has an 80% share of the UK market for legal music downloads, already runs a warning system on its audio and video content. The music industry has come in for criticism over explicit content recently with Ofcom, which enforces television regulations, calling in music TV broadcasters for a dressing down over several breaches of the broadcasting code. In May Ofcom issued a warning about scheduling and code compliance after an unedited version of Rihanna's S&M video, containing scenes of "sexual bondage, dominance and sadomasochism", aired during the morning when children could be watching. Ofcom had already warned music TV broadcasters after ruling against a racy Flo Rida video on MTV and Channel 4's 4Music that it deemed too sexualised for a pre-9pm watershed transmission. The TV regulator also warned that Rihanna and Christina Aguilera dance routines performed during The X Factor final in December were "at the limit of acceptability for transmission before the 9pm watershed", although they did not breach the broadcast code. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook | ['media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'music/music', 'culture/culture', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'technology/digital-music-and-audio', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'tone/news', 'technology/youtube', 'technology/spotify', 'type/article', 'profile/marksweney'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2011-06-02T06:16:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2023/jun/07/petrol-diesel-engines-technology-electric-cars | Petrol and diesel engines are dying technology. The electric car age is inevitable | Ben Lane | It should by now be clear to all vehicle manufacturers and policymakers that the electric vehicle (EV) age is all but inevitable. Most drivers already get it, as shown by the huge order books for most electric models. The long-running fight over whether electric or petrol/diesel engines generate more emissions during their lifecycle, further fuelled by Rowan Atkinson’s recent intervention, is in fact all but over. After years of crunching the numbers, peer-reviewed studies consistently arrive at the same conclusion: EVs win. The UK government’s own research supports this position and concludes that transitioning to zero-emission vehicles would “significantly” reduce overall carbon use. Of course, where the vehicle and battery are manufactured, and how the electricity is generated, make a difference to the carbon benefits of EVs. But helpful and accessible tools such as the Transport & Environment campaign’s How clean are electric cars? calculator are doing much to demystify these concerns for the average person. This tool clearly shows that across its whole lifetime, a small EV driven in Sweden using a battery produced there emits 83% less than a similar petrol car – that’s a huge improvement. Even one driven in Poland with a battery made in China still emits 37% less. As someone who has spent more than 20 years working in e-mobility, first in policy and then in the EV industry, I want to see us move beyond the basic emissions debate – which by any reasonable standard of proof is over. With EVs already numbering more than 20 million worldwide, and global EV sales surging every year, there’s so much more to discuss about EV technology that is of supreme importance to how we approach climate policy. First is the under-appreciated efficiency improvements offered by EVs. Since the start of the industrial revolution, the heat engine has been the core technology enabling the controlled release of the significant quantity of energy contained in fossil fuels. In the 300 years between the invention of the first steam engine and the kind of internal combustion engines (ICE) used by most vehicles today, thermal efficiencies – the amount of heat converted into work or motion – have dramatically improved, from less than 1% for the Newcomen engine (invented in the early 18th century and used to pump water out of deep mines) to around 40% for the Toyota Prius hybrid. However, since the French physicist Sadi Carnot first expounded the thermodynamic cycle in 1824, we have known that the maximum efficiency of any heat engine is limited by the upper and lower temperatures of an engine’s cycle. Carnot’s formula tells us that we have already reached this limit for petrol engines; any further investment only providing diminishing returns. The petrol engine is therefore doomed to waste at least half the energy carried in a car’s fuel tank. EVs, on the other hand, convert the electrochemical energy stored in the battery to motion using motors that have efficiencies of more than 85%, and even accounting for the losses of delivering energy to the charger, EVs remain more energy- and carbon-efficient than their fossil-fuel equivalents. And electrification gives us a clear path to the greater use of renewables as the grid continues to decarbonise. In an age when energy is a highly valued resource, and there is an urgent need to drastically cut carbon emissions, we must therefore be bold and ditch the heat engine as fast as possible. Second is the observation that the automotive industry is increasingly at odds with the other technology sectors, and closer to the age of steam than one based on modern materials and processes. While the digital revolution is transforming almost all human experiences, ICE-powered road transport continues to rely on largely mechanical systems that use steel components, with each vehicle having tens of thousands of moving parts, all of which must be designed, supplied and maintained. Furthermore, the vehicle’s energy is provided by complex, processed liquid fuels that are transported in bulk from halfway around the world. This makes it highly dependent on heavy engineering and the movement of large quantities of raw and processed materials. Contrast this with the possibilities offered by electrification – ones that are already materialising at scale. Vehicles that are high-quality, high-performance, zero-emission and quiet in their operation, with driving ranges of more than 300 miles, recharging times of less than 30 minutes and batteries that can be recycled. Vehicles that are relatively simple in their engineering design, constructed from lightweight materials such as carbon composites, and controlled by highly flexible software that can be updated over-the-air. Not only can EVs be charged using renewable energy, they can also provide mass storage for excess wind and solar energy at times of oversupply, and then support the grid by feeding back this energy at peak times, becoming a critical part of our future energy infrastructure. Yes, we need new battery chemistries to extend vehicle ranges at lower costs. Yes, we need more public charging infrastructure (the UK’s target is for 300,000 devices by 2030). Yes, we must be vigilant to ensure that the new environmental impacts of mining and battery production are well understood and highly regulated. And no, EVs on their own are not enough to solve the transport element of the climate crisis – we also need better public transport and more support for walking, cycling and new mobility services. But to press on with a 19th-century technology makes no sense in the digital age, which is decarbonising at pace. While completing the transition from internal combustion engine to EV will be challenging and will require imagination, innovation and investment, not doing so would be a grave mistake. It would cost not just carbon emissions and cleaner air, but also jobs and the UK’s place at the global automotive table. Ben Lane is co-founder and CTO at Zapmap, a UK-wide map of electric car charging points | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/electric-cars', 'technology/technology', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'technology/motoring', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/ben-lane', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2023-06-07T06:00:29Z | true | EMISSIONS |
business/2015/nov/25/citi-criticised-investor-abengoa-collapse | Citi criticised by investors over Abengoa collapse | A Spanish renewable energy group has collapsed into insolvency protection, it said on Wednesday, just months after US investment bank Citi led a €100m (£70m) share sale to raise funds for the group. Abengoa shares dropped 70% in minutes after the company said it was entering insolvency protection after a deal for a €350m capital injection fell through. The collapse is especially embarrassing for Citi after it led a July share sale for the company at a price of €2.80 a share. On Wednesday Abengoa shares slumped to just €0.33. The company, which employs 24,000 people, is involved in renewable electricity generation, converting biomass into biofuel and desalination of seawater for drinking. Disgruntled investors, who subscribed to the shares at the time, have long questioned why Citi had not done more due diligence before acting on the share sale. Citi declined to comment on the latest turn of events at Abengoa. Days after the Citi-led share sale in the summer, the Spanish company revealed it was seeking to raise €650m of capital and dispose of €500m of assets. Then it alerted the market that its free cash flow for the year would be as much as €800m lower than previously forecast. One banker said on Wednesday that Citi had made a “big, big mistake”, promoting the share sale without having more information on problems that lay ahead. However, there would have been limitations as to how much the company could have told it ahead of announcements to the market. Abengoa, which has been at the centre of speculation over its chances of survival for some time, had been hoping to receive an injection of capital from Spanish industrial group Gonvarri but was forced to tell the markets that the agreement had fallen through. “The company will begin the negotiating process with its creditors with the aim to reach an accord to guarantee the financial viability under the article 5 of the Bankruptcy Act, which the company intends to request as soon as possible,” Abengoa said. Under Spanish law, companies can enter into pre-insolvency protection, giving them up to four months to reach an agreement with creditors to avoid a full-blown insolvency and a potential bankruptcy. Abengoa has been trying to find new investors since the end of July, when it announced a €650m rights issue of new shares to cut gross debt of some €8.9bn. Spanish and international banks’ total exposure to Abengoa stands at around €20.2bn, including financing for projects, a source familiar with the matter said at the end of September. Gonvarri’s interest was conditional on banks underwriting a rights issue agreed in September, asking the banks to inject €1.5bn into the company, Reuters sources told the news agency late on Tuesday. The group held a three-hour long conference call with investors after the publication of its results. | ['business/citigroup', 'business/banking', 'business/business', 'money/shares', 'money/moneyinvestments', 'money/money', 'world/spain', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/david-hellier'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2015-11-25T14:00:47Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2007/aug/13/brazil.environment | Brazilian ministers claim victory in war on illegal loggers | The destruction of the world's largest rainforest last year fell to its lowest rate in nearly two decades, according to figures announced by the Brazilian government. Between August 2005 and July 2006, around 5,400 square miles of Amazon forest were felled - a 25% reduction on the previous 12 months, government officials said. Initial figures for the 2006-2007 period, compiled with the useofsatellite images, predicted a further reduction to under 4,000 square miles. "The numbers show that we are starting to take account of environmental governance in one of the world's most important eco-systems," the environment minister, Marina da Silva, told reporters in Brasilia, the capital. "It's a great achievement for Brazilian society," she added. She claimed that a government clampdown on illegal loggers had saved around 600m trees, 20,000 birds and 700,000 primates in the Brazilian Amazon. It is estimated that around 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been destroyed. Ms da Silva attributed the figures to the government's anti-deforestation plan, launched in 2004. She also highlighted 20 federal police operations targeting illegal logging mafia as, in which 560 people were arrested and more than a million cubic metres of wood seized. Environmental groups welcomed the figures, but warned that the fall in deforestation levels owed more to a drop in soya bean prices and a rise in the value of Brazil's currency than to government action. Economic factors had made razing the forest to grow soya less profi table, activists claimed. In a statement, the Brazilian wing of the WWF described the figures as "good news", but said the country's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had still presided over higher levels of deforestation than his predecessors. "In the first term [of President Lula's government] around [33,000 square miles] were cut down. Compared to previous governments this number is a record," the statement said, adding that it was not yet clear how the forest would be protected from "the new wave of development that sees the environment as an obstacle". Earlier this year the government launched an ambitious plan intended to boost economic growth, known as the PAC. The plan outlines the construction of major road networks and several hydroelectric plants in the Amazon, which environmentalists fear will have negative consequences both for the country's rainforest and the indigenous tribes there. In a recent interview in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, Greenpeace's Amazon director, Paulo Adario, said one of the biggest challenges faced by the Brazilian government remained law enforcement in the vast Amazon jungle, where illegal loggers continue to tear down vast tracts of forest and gunmen are often hired to protect remote parts of the forest. "Respect for the law is a very complicated thing in Brazil," he said, comparing the government's diffi culty in clamping down on Rio de Janeiro's drug traffickers and the Amazon's illegal loggers. "It is, for example, illegal to sell cocaine, but in Rio you can go to any favela in Ipanema and buy it," he said. According to the government study the Amazon state of Para was the worst affected by deforestation, losing more than 2,000 square miles of its forest. In Mato Grosso, the state that is at the cent re of Brazil's soya industry, nearly 1,700 square miles were cut down. Environmentalists there fear that an expected rise in the price of soya could cause the destruction levels to grow again. | ['world/world', 'world/brazil', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/tomphillips'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2007-08-13T10:23:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2017/may/16/drug-money-traffickers-destroying-swaths-forest-central-america | 'Narco-deforestation': cocaine trade destroying swaths of Central America | Cocaine traffickers attempting to launder their profits are responsible for the disappearance of millions of acres of tropical forest across large swaths of Central America, according to a report. The study, published on Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, found that drug trafficking was responsible for up to 30% of annual deforestation in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, turning biodiverse forest into agricultural land. The study’s lead author, Dr Steven Sesnie from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said: “Most of the ‘narco-driven’ deforestation we identified happened in biodiverse moist forest areas, and around 30-60% of the annual loss happened within established protected areas, threatening conservation efforts to maintain forest carbon sinks, ecological services, and rural and indigenous livelihoods.” The research, which used annual deforestation estimates from 2001 to 2014, focuses on six Central American countries – Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. It estimates the role of drug trafficking, as opposed to drug cultivation, in deforestation for the first time. “As the drugs move north their value increases and the traffickers and cartels are looking for ways to move this money into the legal economy. Purchasing forest and turning it into agricultural land is one of the main ways they do that,” said Sesnie. He said the US-led crackdown on drug cartels in Mexico and the Caribbean in the early 2000s concentrated cocaine trafficking activities through the Central American corridor. “Now roughly 86% of the cocaine trafficked globally moves through Central America on its way to North American consumers, leaving an estimated $6bn US dollars in illegal profits in the region annually.” This had led to the loss of millions of acres of tropical forest over a decade as drugs cartels laundered their profits, Sesnie said. “Our results highlight the key threats to remaining moist tropical forest and protected areas in Central America,” he said, adding that remote forest areas with “low socioeconomic development” were particularly at risk. The report calls for drugs and environment policy – nationally and internationally – to be integrated “to ensure that deforestation pressures on globally significant biodiversity sites are not intensified by … supply-side drug policies in the region”. | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'world/drugs-trade', 'society/drugs', 'environment/environment', 'world/nicaragua', 'world/honduras', 'world/guatemala', 'world/el-salvador', 'world/costa-rica', 'world/panama', 'world/americas', 'environment/forests', 'society/society', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-05-15T23:01:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/jun/21/microbes-and-solar-power-could-produce-10-times-more-food-than-plants | Microbes and solar power ‘could produce 10 times more food than plants’ | Combining solar power and microbes could produce 10 times more protein than crops such as soya beans, according to a new study. The system would also have very little impact on the environment, the researchers said, in stark contrast to livestock farming which results in huge amounts of climate-heating gases as well as water pollution. The concept uses electricity from solar panels and carbon dioxide from the air to create fuel for microbes, which are grown in bioreactor vats and then processed into dry protein powders. The process makes highly efficient use of land, water and fertiliser and could be deployed anywhere, not just in countries with strong sunshine or fertile soils, the scientists said. Food security is a “critical issue” for humanity in coming decades, they said, with the global population growing, biofuels competing for land with crops, and about 800 million people already undernourished today. Furthermore, tackling the climate crisis will be near impossible without slashing emissions from animal and dairy food production. Microbes are already used to make many common foods, such as bread, yoghurt, beer and Quorn. But other researchers said converting consumers to eating microbial protein might be difficult and that such foods may not be nutritionally complete. Dorian Leger, at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, who led the new analysis, said: “We think microbial foods are very promising and will be one of the major contributors to solving the potential food crisis. “It might pick up quite quickly on the consumer side, but it’s hard to say. “But I do some exercise, and if I was offered a bacterial protein shake now, I would have it.” The team focused on soya beans, as these are linked to the destruction of forests and are mostly fed to animals, but other bacteria produce the main elements of palm oil. “Bacteria are very flexible, so they could eventually be tuned to different products,” Leger said. At least a dozen companies are already producing animal feed from microbes but the bacteria are typically fed either sugars from other crops or methane or methanol from fossil fuels. Solar Foods, based in Finland, is using electricity to create food for humans. The new assessment, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, is the first quantitative comparison of land use and energy efficiency between traditional agriculture and solar-powered microbial production systems. The researchers used data on today’s technologies to calculate the efficiency of each step of the process, including capturing CO2 from the air and processing the microbes into food that people could eat. They found the microbial system used just 1% of the water needed by the crops and a small fraction of the fertiliser, most of which is wasted when used in fields. The analysis estimated that the solar-microbial process could produce 15 tonnes of protein from each hectare (or per 2.5 acres) a year, enough to feed 520 people, which the scientists said was a conservative estimate. In comparison, a hectare of soya beans could produce 1.1 tonnes of protein, feeding 40 people. Even in countries with relatively low sunlight levels like the UK, microbial protein production was at least five times greater from each hectare than plants. The microbial protein would cost about the same as current proteins eaten by people, such as whey or pea, the researchers suggested. But it was several times more expensive than current animal feeds, although future technological improvements are expected to lower costs. Leger said plants’ ability to photosynthesise is remarkable but, in terms of energy efficiency, staple crops only convert about 1% of solar energy into edible biomass. This is because plants have evolved to compete and reproduce as well as just grow, and use less of the solar light spectrum than photovoltaic panels. All the components of the system exist, but Leger said they now need to be tested together and at scale, in particular the capturing of CO2 from the air and ensuring that used solar panels can be recycled. “For human food, there’s also a lot of regulation that needs to be overcome,” he said. Pete Iannetta, at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, said: ““It’s a really interesting concept – you are divorcing food production from land use, which would mean you could have all that land available for rewilding.” But he said food is not only composed of the main nutrients, like protein and carbohydrate: “There are an awful lot of secondary compounds that are important for your wellbeing.” Iannetta also questioned whether microbial foods would become mainstream: “For example, we have used algae for a long time as a potential food resource, but it’s still not widely accepted.” Dr Toby Mottram, a consultant on agricultural technology, said: “Until the model is tested and costed with a pilot-scale plant, including a lifecycle assessment of [solar panel] production, it is hard to comment on whether it improves on [farming] systems which have been sustained for thousands of years, albeit for a lower population than we are planning to feed.” | ['environment/food', 'environment/farming', 'global-development/food-security', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'science/food-science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-06-21T19:00:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/dec/29/christmas-day-2016-renewable-energy-uk-green-electricity | Christmas Day 2016 sets new UK record for renewable energy use | Christmas Day was the greenest on record for energy generation, according to the power group Drax. The company said more than 40% of the electricity generated on the day came from renewable sources, the highest ever. It compared with 25% on Christmas Day in 2015, and 12% in 2012. Andy Koss, chief executive of Drax Power, said: “These Christmas figures show that the UK energy system really is changing. Renewables are increasingly vital to the UK’s energy mix as we decarbonise and move away from coal.” Figures produced by Electric Insights and commissioned by Drax showed that three-quarters of renewable energy produced on Christmas Day came from wind turbines. Drax is Britain’s largest coal power producer but it is in the process of converting its facility to using biomass. Koss said the company provided 20% of the UK’s renewable power in the first half of 2016. “It’s important to have the right mix of energy generation to ensure we are decarbonising, whilst also keeping the lights on and the costs down,” he said. Earlier this month Drax said it was bidding to buy business energy provider Opus Energy and four gas stations as part of the move away from coal. If the £340m deal goes ahead, it would create Britain’s fifth-biggest business energy retailer in combination with Drax’s existing Haven Power customers. | ['business/draxgroup', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'environment/environment', 'education/universityofgreenwich', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angela-monaghan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2016-12-29T17:49:46Z | true | ENERGY |
money/2014/feb/11/retailers-campaign-old-clothes-waste | Retailers launch campaign to keep old clothes out of landfill | Britons are being urged to extend the life of their clothing to avoid 350,000 tonnes of garments worth an estimated £140m ending up in landfill. High street fashion outlets including Tesco, M&S and Next, fashion designer Stella McCartney, recyclers and charities have joined forces to pledge a 15% reduction in carbon, water and waste going to landfill by 2020. In the tradition of the wartime Make Do and Mend campaign, the Love Your Clothes campaign will open up consumers' wardrobes to see what is lurking in them and how people can extend the life of their clothes, save money and keep them out of landfill. The campaign's research showed that British households were hanging on to £30bn worth of clothes which have not been worn in the last year, while 350,000 tonnes of clothing worth £140m is binned annually. The average UK household owns around £4,000 worth of clothing and buys around £1,700 of clothes each year. The campaign has been developed by Wrap, the organisation behind Love Food Hate Waste, which helps consumers waste less food. Wrap chief executive, Liz Goodwin, said: "Clothes cost money. Not getting the most out of them by mixing and matching garments, repairing favoured items, selling them on, or giving to charity shops means we're not getting the most out of that hard earned money, and wasting scarce resources." The Love Your Clothes website has advice on choosing clothing designed to last longer, buying second-hand clothes, using energy-efficient laundry methods that keep your clothes looking good, repairing and altering clothes, as well as donating, swapping or selling unwanted items. The site also shows how clothes too damaged or worn can still be donated for recycling rather than ending up in the bin. | ['money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'uk/uk', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'fashion/fashion', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-02-11T07:00:10Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2022/aug/08/burst-water-main-in-north-london-islington-causes-anger-amid-drought-crisis | Burst water main in north London causes anger amid drought crisis | Thames Water is facing criticism and anger from customers after one of its water mains burst, causing street flooding at the height of a drought crisis. The burst 91cm (36in) water main prompted many road closures around Hornsey Road, north London, as video of the incident showed streets submerged in more than a metre of water. About 50 properties were damaged, four people were rescued, a sports centre was closed because of flooding and thousands of households were left without water. The emergency services were called to the scene in the borough of Islington at just after 7am, the London fire brigade said. Eight fire engines and about 60 firefighters were deployed to the scene on Hornsey Road. A fire brigade spokesperson said: “Flood water is affecting Hornsey Road and Tollington Road. “There are multiple road closures in place while crews work to make the scene safe. People are urged to avoid the area.” A church in the area opened its doors to anyone affected by the flood. Liz Clutterbuck, the vicar of Emmanuel church, promised “jugs of water (for now!) and plenty of biscuits”. Just before noon she tweeted that water levels had subsided, leaving many homes damaged. Earlier she said: “The flood stretches all the way to Arthur Road. The houses between Arthur Road and Tollington Way have water above the bottom of their front doors. “The Sobell [leisure centre] is flooded by several feet – could see it at least two feet high on the external exits in the car park. Water still seemed to be flowing fast an hour ago. “They’re still working out how to evacuate those houses with water up to their doors.” The flood comes as ministers have urged more water companies to impose hosepipe bans after the driest eight-month spell since 1976. Meanwhile, forecasters are predicting another heatwave with no sign of rain in many parts of UK. The former Undertones frontman, Feargal Sharkey, who now campaigns on river and water issues, said the flood was the result of a lack of investment by Thames Water. Retweeting images of the flood he wrote: “Now you know what decades of underinvestment looks like. Hornsey Road, London, N7 at 8:30 this morning. Wouldn’t that be right @thameswater.” The Liberal Democrat peer Sarah Ludford also criticised Thames Water’s for underinvestment. Residents in six postal areas reported either no water or low pressure. Some expressed frustration about the lack of updates from Thames Water on when supplies would return. The company apologised to customers and said it had stopped the flow of water. In a statement it said: “We’ve been using temporary pumps to restore water pressure levels and most customers should be back in supply and have their water pressure returned to normal. “We’ve also been proactively contacting everyone in the affected area who has pre-registered with us as having special requirements, such as being medically reliant on water, so we can make sure we give them the help and support they need.” A member of staff at the Tollington Arms, in Hornsey Road, said: “It happened about 7am and within minutes there was flooding like a tsunami. “The fire service were down very quickly and we hope along with Thames Water, they can get things back to normal as quickly as possible. “It happened when the pub was shut but as we get through the morning, it may impact us but fingers crossed it gets sorted. We have got one eye on our cellar as that would get hit first. Let’s hope for a positive outcome.” Last week, Thames Water, England’s largest water company, warned it might soon impose a hosepipe ban. Last month it was estimated that the company was leaking 605m litres of water a day, based on a three-year average. Monday’s incident is the latest in a series of floods in the area caused by water leaks, including two separate floods in December 2016 in Islington’s Upper Street and nearby Stoke Newington. | ['environment/water', 'uk/london', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/england', 'business/utilities', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewweaver', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-08T15:03:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2020/oct/02/water-firms-england-criticised-rising-environmental-pollution | Water firms in England criticised over rising environmental pollution | Water companies in England were responsible for their worst levels of environmental pollution in five years in 2019, leading to condemnation from ministers and the Environment Agency. In its annual assessment of the nine privatised water and sewerage companies, Emma Howard Boyd, the chair of the EA, said their performance continued to be unacceptable. More investment was needed by several of the companies wich were failing to protect the environment, she said. The environment secretary, George Eustice, and Howard Boyd are summoning the worst performing firms – South West Water, Anglian, Northumbrian and Southern – to a meeting to demand they “step up” and do better. But Nick Measham, of Salmon and Trout Conservation, said it was time for a review into how the industry was run. “This is utterly unacceptable,” said Measham. “The current water industry setup is not working. The companies are being run to maximise returns to their mostly private equity owners with the environment taking second place. A regulatory reset to ensure our rivers get the protection they deserve is essential if government aims for water are to [be] anything [other than] lame platitudes.” The damning assessment of the way water companies treat the environment comes after the poor state of rivers in England was revealed last month. No river in England was found to be in a good overall state, amid concerns over the scale of sewage discharges and agricultural and industrial chemicals entering the water system. The EA performance assessment published on Friday revealed there were 2,204 “pollution events” last year – the highest number since 2014 – marking the worst record for environmental pollution from the water industry for five years. Southern Water was responsible for 458 pollution incidents, nearly double its 2018 total. Serious pollution events that have a major impact on rivers or seas by the water companies have hardly improved, the report says. In 2019, there were 52 category 1 events – the most serious – compared with 56 in 2018, and 48 serious pollution incidents took place at sewerage facilities, more than half of which were from Anglian and Thames Water assets. Only Severn Trent and Wessex Water achieved the highest level of performance, with 4 star ratings from the EA. Howard Boyd said: “We expect much more. This includes developing, publishing and implementing specific plans by the end of this year to reduce pollution incidents. We will closely follow the delivery of these plans and will apply tough regulation to ensure companies stick by them.” Southern Water became the first company to be given a 1 star (poor) rating since 2015, and was one of four companies rated as poor or requiring improvement. It was fined a record £126m last year over “shocking” failures at the company’s sewage treatment sites that polluted rivers and beaches in southern England. Eustice said: “Water companies have a responsibility to act as custodians of the environment and this report for 2019 shows that some are failing to take their obligations seriously. That is not good enough. Certain water companies must step up and do better, which is why I will be meeting those who are falling short of our expectations to discuss how we can work together to drive better performance.” Howard Boyd defended the action taken by her agency against companies that continued to pollute the environment. In the last five years, she said, the agency had brought 44 prosecutions against water companies, securing fines of £34m. Water companies are being told to implement plans to reduce pollution incidents by the end of the year, as part of an action plan to tackle their unacceptable performance. She pointed to a new storm overflow task force to tackle the scale of raw sewage pollution released by water companies into rivers. The task force was set up after the Guardian revealed that water companies discharged raw sewage from storm overflows more than 200,000 times in 2019. The five-year high for environmental pollution by the water industry comes as analysis shows that the sector has paid out £57bn in dividends since it was privatised 30 years ago. Dave Tickner, chief adviser on freshwater science at WWF-UK, said: “Our own prime minister told the UN it is time to turn words into action to address loss of nature. To do that our government must provide more resources for the Environment Agency so it can do the job the public expects. “It should also demand that the Agency uses these resources to clamp down on polluters. In addition, Ofwat should have a duty, passed on to water companies, to protect river health.” Philip Dunne, the chair of the environmental audit committee, said: “Today’s report ... offers a bleak picture of the state of UK water and sewerage companies, and it is deeply alarming that four out of the nine companies assessed require improvement. There seems to be a level of complacency resulting in terribly poor performance. All water companies must crack down on pollution which can be deeply damaging to the natural environment and human health.” | ['environment/pollution', 'environment/water', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/environment', 'environment/environment-agency', 'uk/uk', 'business/utilities', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2020-10-02T12:23:53Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2011/mar/25/energetic-approach-green-investment-bank | Letters: More energetic approach needed on green investment bank | If the chancellor wanted to boost growth in the budget he should have given the new green investment bank full borrowing powers now – not in 2015 (Green initiatives, 24 March). Hundreds of billions of investment is needed in the next few years to transform the UK's energy markets, keep the lights on and meet our climate and renewable-energy targets. And the green economy should be a big driver for growth, creating jobs and helping deliver the required deficit reduction. The £3bn the chancellor has pledged is a good start, but it won't be enough on its own. The huge levels of investment a fully fledged bank could have leveraged from day one would have brought jobs and growth to many parts of the country at a time when public sector cuts are biting. From investing in new wave and tidal power systems in Cornwall to insulation for homes in Hull – the ability to borrow and lend right now would have created employment all round the UK. It would also have put UK businesses in a prime position to capitalise on the growing worldwide market for clean energy technology that is clearly destined to be huge. Instead of neutering the bank until 2015 the Treasury should work with the Office for National Statistics to maximise the green investment bank's ability to invest, while minimising its impact on the deficit. Joan Walley MP Chair, Environmental audit committee • It was announced last week, after a fast-track review, that the government's feed in tariff will be cut, cutting the incentives to farmers to build solar farms on their land. Tariffs will be cut from 31p per kWh to 8.5p per kWh of energy fed into the grid. This announcement casts doubt on all non-domestic schemes, and while both domestic and commercial schemes are important, if we are to move Britain towards a low-carbon economy, we need to see more commercial photovoltaics schemes. Many different investors have invested in renewables, and solar in particular, solely on the basis that the FiT income is guaranteed for 25 years. This backtrack has halted many important CO2 saving projects and has undermined the low-carbon industry's confidence about investing in the UK. Jon Abbatt Principal consultant, ADAS • Although we are still in the middle of a nuclear catastrophe in Japan, the government sees fit to hand out a major subsidy to the nuclear industry, in the form of carbon-floor pricing. It is estimated that this will benefit them by around £3bn between now and 2050 for doing absolutely nothing. Couldn't the government think of a way to only give the benefit of carbon-floor pricing in proportion to the carbon saved and not to existing, unsustainable and non-renewable sources such as nuclear power. The "no subsidy for nuclear" promise is another coalition joke. Pete Rowberry No Money for Nuclear | ['environment/green-economy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'politics/georgeosborne', 'politics/politics', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/feed-in-tariffs', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/green-investment-bank', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2011-03-25T00:05:08Z | true | ENERGY |
music/2024/oct/10/taylor-swift-donates-5m-hurricane-relief-efforts-helene-milton | Taylor Swift donates $5m to US hurricane relief efforts | Taylor Swift has donated $5m to relief efforts connected to hurricanes Helene and Milton. The charity Feeding America thanked Swift, saying it was “incredibly grateful … This contribution will help communities rebuild and recover, providing essential food, clean water, and supplies to people affected by these devastating storms.” The donation came as Hurricane Milton made landfall with Florida, leaving 2 million homes without power. The disaster is happening less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene swept through the northern part of the state towards Georgia and the Carolinas, causing huge flooding and other damage. Swift is known for her philanthropy during natural disasters. In December 2023 she gave $1m to tornado relief efforts in her home state of Tennessee, after six people died and hundreds of buildings were damaged. She gave another $1m in 2020 for the same cause. She has also frequently donated to food banks, including on stops on her record-breaking Eras tour. In June, Cardiff food bank received the largest ever donation from an individual, with chief executive Rachel Biggs saying: “The breathing space Taylor’s donation has given us will enable us to lift our heads and shift our focus from the food bank to the creation of a sustainable operation supporting people who currently need our help.” Swift is hoping to perform in Florida next week. The final leg of the Eras tour is scheduled to begin at Miami Gardens on 18 October, before visiting New Orleans, Indianapolis and Toronto, and concluding in Vancouver on 8 December. The total revenue for the tour, which began in March 2023, is expected to reach $2bn. | ['music/taylor-swift', 'music/music', 'music/popandrock', 'us-news/hurricane-milton', 'us-news/hurricane-helene', 'us-news/us-news', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-beaumont-thomas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | us-news/hurricane-milton | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-10-10T08:35:41Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2011/oct/05/microsoft-yahoo-software-internet-business | Microsoft considering fresh bid for Yahoo, say sources | Microsoft is considering a fresh attempt to take control of Yahoo, sources close to the situation have told Reuters, more than three years after its first bid for the internet business failed, The software giant launched a $44.6bn hostile bid for Yahoo in 2008 that was vigorously rebuffed by the company. Yahoo's share price has subsequently collapsed and the firm was valued at less than $18bn before Microsoft's renewed interest was reported. Yahoo's shares soared by 10% on the rumour, which neither company would comment on, before falling back in after-hours trading. Peaking at $15.94, the shares were still barely half the value of Microsoft's $31-per-share offer in 2008. Yahoo axed chief executive Carol Bartz last month and said the company was conducting a strategic review of its business, prompting speculation that it was a takeover target. Goldman Sachs and media specialist Allen & Co are working with the firm and are believed to be sounding out potential buyers. Last month, several Yahoo employees in were told in a memo that the company's financial advisers were "fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options." Jack Ma, chief executive of Chinese internet company Alibaba, has already expressed an interest in buying Yahoo. The US firm owns 40% of Alibaba and Ma has previously sought to buy back the holding. The two firms have had a contentious relationship and Bartz was criticised for her handling of the Chinese firm, seen as one of Yahoo's best assets. Other potential bidders include News Corp, buyout firms Providence Equity Partners, Hellman & Friedman and Silver Lake Partners and Russian technology investment firm Digital Sky Technology. Microsoft may seek a partner to go after Yahoo, according to Reuters' sources. If Microsoft makes a bid it will be at a fraction of the price it was prepared to pay in 2008. That bid ended in failure after an intense four-month battle that eventually led to the resignation of Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who has opposed Microsoft's move. According to Reuters there are "two camps" within Microsoft. One group of executives believe buying Yahoo would be a 'knock-out blow' to rival AOL, leaving MS-Yahoo as the undisputed leading web portal. Others, though, believe Microsoft should focus on buying companies with more potential for growth. Yahoo is still one of the biggest draws on the internet but it has lost out to Google and Facebook in the battle to win over advertisers. At the time of the original bid Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer said buying Yahoo was the best way to achieve scale online, an area where the software giant has trailed arch-rival Google. The two firms started talking again in 2009 and Microsoft signed a 10-year deal with Yahoo to run its internet search advertising business. That deal was attacked by Google as an "attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC." Any new deal between the two firms is also likely to spark regulatory scrutiny and fierce lobbying from Google. Tech analysts were sceptical about the chances of Microsoft bidding for Yahoo again, especially now it has secured the search advertising deal. They also argued that the sale process remains in its early stages. | ['technology/yahoo-takeover', 'technology/mergers-acquisitions', 'technology/microsoft', 'technology/computing', 'technology/yahoo', 'technology/internet', 'business/business', 'technology/technology', 'tone/news', 'business/technology', 'media/mediabusiness', 'media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'type/article', 'profile/dominic-rushe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | technology/yahoo-takeover | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2011-10-05T21:34:49Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
technology/askjack/2008/jun/12/howlongwillmycamcordermin | How long will my camcorder mini-DVD discs last? | I use Sony DVD-Rs with my camcorder. What are the projected lives of these discs? Colin Jones The 8cm (3 inch) mini DVD discs used in most camcorders are made in the same way as their larger siblings, so good ones should also last for 25-50 years or so. However, DVDs can be pressure sensitive so they may require more careful handling. The DigitalFAQ media guide rates the Sony DVD-R discs as excellent, whether made in Japan or Taiwan, but it's always wise to make back-up copies. The stated manufacturer may not actually have made the discs, but DVD Identifier and similar programs can usually identify the source. As always, avoid using DVD-RW (or CD-RW) for anything you want to keep. These "optical phase change media" were not designed to last. | ['technology/askjack', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'profile/jackschofield'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-06-12T00:04:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2024/mar/26/china-spy-on-britain-more-important-things-to-discuss | Does China spy on Britain? Of course. But we have more important things to discuss with them | Simon Jenkins | Once upon a time Britain would have sent a gunboat up the Yangtze River. That would teach those Chinese a lesson. To hear some MPs talk about Beijing’s espionage activities, you would think gunboats were already on their way. Of course, it is malicious and hurtful for a foreign state patently to hack into Britain’s Electoral Commission and target senior parliamentarians – as the government on Monday claimed China did in 2021. It is equally malicious to fabricate MPs’ emails and use a Commons researcher as an informant. No less evil is the culture of fear sown among Britain’s 150,000 Chinese students by agents of Beijing, albeit tolerated by British universities greedy for money. How to react is another matter. Rishi Sunak was quick to the fray. “We’ve been very clear that the situation now is that China is behaving in an increasingly assertive way abroad, authoritarian at home, and it represents an epoch-defining challenge, and also the greatest state-based threat to our economic security,” he said. “So, it’s right that we take measures to protect ourselves, which is what we are doing.” That was clear. It was also ridiculous. On Sunday night, an equally absurd BBC political bubble programme, the Westminster Hour on Radio 4, seemed to regard war as at hand. MPs demanded that the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, “call out China”, rather as though it had broken a Garrick Club rule. Beijing was “unacceptable”. There should be “consequences”. The Yangtze gunboat was clearing its decks. But ahead of that, Dowden was indeed having his say. There will be a reckoning, he promised MPs, more sanctions. Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, who is said to have been targeted alongside other parliamentarians in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, was also blunt. China is not just a challenge to us, he said. It must be framed as a threat. “As they grow in power and potency, we are shrinking before them,” he said. Still, I doubt if this gets even a news-in-brief in the People’s Daily. Britain’s parliament cannot be a big deal in the hierarchy of Beijing security. The fulminations of Duncan Smith will hardly have had the People’s Liberation Army straining at the leash. It is sound and fury, much like at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when any British minister meeting a Chinese host was told always “to raise issues concerning Uyghur human rights”. A Chinese acquaintance told me it became comical, “like the Brits saying grace or asking about the weather”. British diplomacy still exists in a mist of lost imperial power. China, meanwhile, is expanding its global influence exactly as the west once did. Its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) now extends across Asia, Africa and Europe. Its investments have advanced China’s interests but also the lives of those it assists. BRI has, incidentally, been much to the gain of the City of London, in construction, banking, insurance and professional services. Realpolitik is how it works. The fate of the Uyghurs never stopped David Cameron and George Osborne begging for Chinese cash for power stations and railways; business was business. Today the world’s relations with China are in one area crucial. That country is responsible for more than a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and rising. Britain is now actively participating in China’s proposed “greening” of its BRI programme, which is largely about infrastructure. Given that a third of all greenhouse gas emissions are from construction – a fact still ignored by British planning policy – this collaboration with China is central to fighting the climate crisis. It is not about diplomatic posturing. It is about something essential. The reality is that all states spy on each other, mostly to no effect and at vast cost. Nothing justifies hacking other people’s emails, but a helping of public outrage and a few Chinese diplomats sent packing should be enough to restore Westminster’s machismo. It is also clear that international action is needed to police the darker regions of the digital universe, where the entire world is wandering without a candle. But, for all these concerns, a sense of proportion remains the hardest but most necessary quality to maintain in international relations. We are told daily that global heating is the greatest threat now facing the world. Unless that applies only before lunch, then it should surely lie at the centre of all relations with China. Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/china', 'technology/cybercrime', 'world/asia-pacific', 'uk/uk', 'technology/hacking', 'politics/politics', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/simonjenkins', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-03-26T06:00:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2021/mar/30/ecb-ponder-covid-passports-to-get-fans-back-into-grounds-for-county-championship-cricket | ECB ponders Covid passports to get fans back into grounds for championship | As the county season prepares to burst into life on 8 April with the first round of Championship matches, the ECB revealed that it is pondering the use of Covid passports once crowds are again allowed into grounds. Games will be played in front of empty stands until at least 17 May, when venues will be allowed to fill up to 25% capacity. The ECB is then exploring all possibilities to allow as many people through the turnstiles as possible once most restrictions are lifted, in theory, on 21 June – though much will depend on government guidance and the needs of different local authorities. “There has been a lot of talk,” said Neil Snowball, the ECB’s managing director of county cricket. “We have gone from no passports to suddenly now looking at a Covid certification. We will explore anything that enables us to get our members back and our spectators back. At the moment it looks like that might happen. “If you look at 21 June, it is going to be a question of balancing three things. One, if there is going to be some sort of passport or Covid certification, second is testing, third is some sort of social distancing – and we have said we will do whatever we are asked to do to make sure we can get the maximum number of people back. “The ideal would be some sort of certification with an element of social distancing and probably wearing masks.” The ECB also announced that, as last year, adding saliva to the ball will be banned in all cricket and that teams will again be awarded eight points for a draw in this year’s County Championship – where rules on the new ball, over rates and the follow-on revert to 2019 standards. Should any match in the new group stages of the Championship be cancelled, all group positions will be determined on an average points per completed match basis. A new law will be brought in this summer which states that if a helmet or part of a helmet breaks the wicket, the batsman will not be out. | ['sport/ecb', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/countychampionship2nddivisioncricket', 'sport/countychampionship1stdivisioncricket', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tanyaaldred', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-03-30T16:53:45Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2017/sep/13/uk-to-provide-further-25m-aid-to-hurricane-irma-hit-bvi-and-anguilla | British territories hit by Irma 'too wealthy' to receive aid budget funds | The British government has said it is unable to use its £13bn aid budget to fund the hurricane rescue effort in the Caribbean since the British overseas territories affected are too wealthy to qualify for aid under official international criteria. The criteria for overseas development assistance, enshrined in UK law, are set by the OECD thinktank and agreed to internationally. They have long been criticised by the Conservatives as too restrictive in the definition of combatting poverty. The decision means the government will have to foot a bill that could eventually stretch to more than £100m from the general Treasury funds and not the Department for International Aid budget. A government spokesperson said: “This is an unprecedented disaster and it was absolutely right that the UK responded immediately to the need of the people affected – this was our primary focus and continues to be our priority. “We are looking at how the current overseas aid rules apply to disasters such as this one.” Another official said: “These are British people on British territories and, in times of crisis, we stand by them. Absolutely nothing held us back in sending help. Our response was based on need alone.” The news came as it was announced that the UK was to provide a further £25m aid to the hurricane-wrecked British overseas territories of Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. Theresa May announced the extra funds as the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, made a visit to the British Caribbean islands. Johnson said: “It is clear this place has been through an absolutely hellish experience and there is no doubt at all that you need help with power generation, with getting the hospital back up and running, getting the airport back up and running, and schools properly set – all kinds of things need to be done.” Johnson flew to Barbados on Tuesday before transferring to a military flight to reach Anguilla and then the BVI to inspect the scale of the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma. Total UK aid has reached £57m, but BVI officials claim many millions more will be needed to help with reconstruction. Political criticism mounted over the UK’s apparent indifference to the islands’ fate, especially compared with the speed and scale of the response of the French president, Emmanuel Macron. Constitutionally, the security of British overseas territories is the responsibility of the UK government. Johnson was given a political boost when Victor Banks, the chief minister of Anguilla, said the UK government had responded within hours, but added a rider that the overall bill for the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma could top $1bn (£751m). Banks said Johnson’s visit to the island “sends a very positive signal to Anguillians that the British are serious about their response to this very severe hurricane”. Johnson dismissed suggestions his visit was a PR stunt, saying: “This has been long-planned ever since the hurricane broke. “They’ve never seen anything like it for 150 years. People don’t realise that these are British people, these are British islanders and we have a duty to them.” According to the Press Association, Johnson gave an upbeat assessment of the scale of the damage, telling a gathering at the home of the governor of Anguilla, Tim Foy, that what he had seen was very surprising. “I had been told it was going to be a scene of devastation from the air and I have to say that I looked down as we flew in and I saw an incredible amount of tidying up had already happened,” he said. UK officials said there was now a military presence on the BVI, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Seven hundred troops had been deployed as well as more than 50 police officers. More than 40 metric tonnes of aid had been distributed including shelter kits for 13,000 people. However, HMS Ocean remained docked in Gibraltar and was not due to depart for the Caribbean for another 24 hours. Its deployment was announced on Thursday. Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson, whose Necker Island retreat was devastated by the hurricane, has been in Puerto Rico helping to organise the aid response. He said he had spoken to Johnson and would be returning to the BVI. He said: “There is an extreme sense of urgency to get food, water and aid supplies into the BVI, and we are bringing as much as we can. Once people have these, restoring order and calm to the islands will be far quicker and simpler.” Branson said he was due to meet the deputy prime minister, Kedrick Pickering. upon arrival in the BVI, as well as the governor, Gus Jaspert. He said: “More can be done, but we are trying as hard as possible to get as much food, water and aid in as possible.” Branson’s yacht, Necker Belle, sailed from Barbados full of supplies. Meanwhile, BVI officials are suggesting that non-BVI residents should be evacuated from the islands since there would be no work for them in the foreseeable future. At prime minister’s questions in Westminster, May said the emergency Cobra committee had been meeting regularly, adding: “We have now deployed over 1,000 military personnel to the region, with an additional 200 to arrive in the next few days along with over 60 police.” The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said the UK must respond “as generously as we possibly can” to help those affected by the hurricane. He said: “I hope that the prime minister will be prepared to look carefully at the speed of our response to Hurricane Irma and, if demands are made in the near future from any country affected by it, that Britain will respond as generously as we possibly can to help people at what must be the most catastrophic time of their lives.” May insisted the government had reacted quickly and would be working with overseas territories on reconstruction work. | ['world/hurricane-irma', 'world/british-virgin-islands', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'uk/uk', 'politics/theresamay', 'world/barbados', 'world/emmanuel-macron', 'business/richard-branson', 'us-news/puerto-rico', 'politics/pmqs', 'politics/cobra', 'politics/jeremy-corbyn', 'world/world', 'politics/politics', 'global-development/aid', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrickwintour', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | world/hurricane-irma | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-13T19:25:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2022/mar/20/pm-to-chair-roundtable-on-boosting-uks-nuclear-power-output | PM to chair roundtable on boosting UK’s nuclear power output | Boris Johnson will chair a meeting on how to increase the UK’s nuclear power output on Monday, as he prepares to publish his energy security strategy this month amid soaring prices. The prime minister will discuss domestic nuclear projects with leaders from the nuclear industry at a roundtable meeting at Downing Street, No 10 said. Johnson is expected to publish the government’s energy security strategy later in March, against a backdrop of rocketing energy bills, which were already creating a cost of living crisis even before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine led ministers to pledge to phase out Russian energy. The UK generated less than half (43%) of its electricity from renewable sources in 2020, and gas-fired power plants still play a significant role, with Britain reliant on gas for heating as well as electricity. Nuclear power plants currently provide about a sixth of the UK’s electricity. Johnson has previously announced that he intends to remove fossil fuels from UK electricity generation by 2035, and has also argued that the country should invest in more domestic nuclear and renewable energy in order to become more self-sufficient. No 10 officials said topics expected to be discussed at the roundtable meeting include how government and industry can work together to remove barriers and progress future nuclear projects in the UK more quickly and cheaply. Downing Street added that nuclear power is a “safe, clean and reliable energy source”. Last November, the government agreed to invest in a new generation of mini-nuclear reactors, being developed by engineering firm Rolls-Royce. Ministers hope that these small modular reactors, or SMRs, will be quicker and cheaper to build than traditional large-scale nuclear reactors – such as the Hinkley Point C project – which pose considerable construction risks and are often beset by spiralling costs and delays. Johnson told Conservative members at the party’s spring conference in Blackpool over the weekend that the government was going to place some “big bets on nuclear power”, including backing SMRs and larger projects. However, some environmental experts have raised concerns over how to safely dispose of nuclear waste after the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Labour has said it supports building more nuclear sites, and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves called on Sunday for ministers to “get on with the investment in new nuclear”, as well as renewable energy. Johnson is also due to meet executives from the wind sector in the coming days as he looks to bolster domestic energy sources from all available quarters. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'business/business', 'technology/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'business/cost-of-living-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joanna-partridge', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-03-20T22:30:08Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2015/feb/02/british-army-brigadier-says-he-is-a-scapegoat-in-romanian-forest-scandal | British army brigadier says he is a scapegoat in Romanian forest scandal | A high-ranking British army official has said he is an innocent scapegoat in a scandal over an alleged illegal land grab of a huge tract of Romanian forest. In a court hearing reported by Romanian media last week, Christopher Ghika, the commanding officer of the 1st battalion of the Irish Guards, was accused of working with an organised crime group to illegally claim 43,000 hectares (106,210 acres) of state owned forest. A distant descendent of a Romanian prince, brigadier Ghika was said to have agreed to exaggerate his inheritance rights so as to claim the forest through Romania’s restitution process – the process by which land that was taken by the communist state in the 1940s is returned to former owners. According to press reports, a tape recording revealed a conversation between him and a man called Gheorghe Paltin Sturdza, a Romanian businessman accused of restitution crimes. The recording – which was given as evidence by Sturdza himself – was presented in court by a prosecutor who suggested it demonstrated that Ghika and Sturdza had colluded to issue false declarations which would entitle them to the ownership of the forest area. A document said to be Sturdza’s notes of the meeting was also presented in court, and was said to show that Ghika had promised to write a false declaration – translated by the Romanian media as a will – which Ghika would be send to Sturdza along with his personal legal papers. Following a two-year investigation by Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), investigators claim Sturdza has assembled a network of top Romanian politicians, judges and businessmen to carry out the restitution scam. They say that, assisted by a lawyer and member of Romanian parliament called Ioan Adam, the network spent millions of euros buying off influential figures and pushing Sturdza’s claim for the forest through law courts. Last year, investigators said, with the deal seemingly secured, Sturdza signed a contract to sell the land for €140m (£105m) to German renewable energy and logging company Prokon. According to Romanian press reports, Ghika is alleged to be a central part of this plan. Ghika’s inheritance entitles him to a small part of the disputed forest area. False declarations exaggerating the amount of land Ghika is entitled to would smooth the restitution process for Sturdza, who could push the claim through court in Ghika’s name. Ghika said he has been made a scapegoat by Sturdza. Talking over the phone from the Fort Riley army base in Kansas, US, Ghika told the Guardian: “I am aware of the allegations being made by Sturdza. These are completely untrue. Sturdza tape-recorded our meeting and has then twisted the words in it. We discussed restitution issues but we came to no agreement. I have entered into no agreement then or since.” Since 1990, over 3m hectares of forest in Romania has been returned to purported former owners through the restitution process. An audit last year by the Romanian court of accounts claimed that 20% of these reclamations were illegal – a total of 600,000 hectares. Prime minister Victor Ponta has referred to a “restitution mafia”, a wide spread network of well-connected businessmen and politicians who have exploited corruption in the law courts to claim billions of euros of land and forest in the last two decades. In the 25 years since the end of communism, Romania has lost 370,000 hectares of forest – including some of Europe’s last areas of virgin forest – to illegal deforestation, according to a report last year by the Romanian Court of Accounts. Gabriel Paun, founder of the environmental crime investigation NGO Agent Green, says this is linked directly to the restitution process. “Restitution is rigged so that the forest goes to the big players in Romania. It is then sold or leased immediately to international logging companies, who clear cut huge areas without any respect for Romanian or European law,”’ he says. “It’s organised crime on the biggest scale”. | ['environment/forests', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/land-rights', 'world/romania', 'uk/uk', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/luke-dale-harris'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-02-02T13:49:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/nov/20/bali-plastic-recycling-scheme-swamped-with-garbage | Bali plastic recycling scheme swamped with garbage | The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) makes high-profile claims about the projects around the world it supports in the pursuit of clearing up plastic waste leaching into the environment. It works with partner organisations in developing countries to support community initiatives to collect and recycle plastic waste. But a visit to one of the earliest projects in Bali reveals it has collected a fraction of the plastic waste it set out to handle. Based in Jembrana, west Bali, the scheme set out to develop a “life-changing” waste system catering for 160,000 people. It was designed and implemented by the alliance in partnership with Project STOP, which aims to support waste management projects in south-east Asia. Jembrana’s scheme includes a household waste collection service, an educational campaign and sorting buckets for residents, and a new recycling facility, where waste is processed and composted. The facility was built next to an existing landfill. When the Alliance handed Project STOP Jembrana over to the local government and community last year, it said that it had “reached financial sustainability”. But it reported collecting less than a quarter of the 2,200 tonnes of plastic it originally intended to prevent from entering the oceans each year. But when a reporter from Greenpeace’s Unearthed team went to visit it earlier this month, it was swamped with garbage from an adjacent landfill and struggling with broken machinery and poor finances. The local organisation that took over the site with the local government has fallen into debt, and the mountain of waste at the surrounding landfill is bigger than when Project STOP began. The project recently announced plans for waste to be burned in cement kilns – a practice that has raised concerns over the impact of air pollution on local communities, and which campaigners say disincentivises recycling. Unearthed was told by workers that only 35 of the original 53 waste collection vehicles were still operational, and many of those frequently broke down. “There has been no fleet to pick up trash from my house for a long time. So I still use a bucket to collect trash, but I burn the trash behind my house,” resident Ni Luh Sumitri told Unearthed. Crucial waste sorting and recycling equipment is also broken, contributing to the growing waste pile adjoining the site. This waste pile has reportedly caused frequent fires, pollution and foul odours. A landfill worker, who spoke to Unearthed on condition of anonymity, said smoke from fires at the landfill often entered residents’ homes at night. A spokesperson for the AEPW said: “We fund a portfolio of projects of different sizes and nature with the objective of helping to solve the plastic waste challenge as well as develop learnings for future activities. “As with any portfolio, we recognise projects may not work perfectly or achieve the same level of success. If these projects were easy, we wouldn’t be fulfilling our purpose of developing new solutions. Accordingly, we not only measure our progress by volume, but also through the funding of projects and the advancement of what we hope are scalable solutions that may have the potential to scale.” The head of Jembrana’s environmental agency, Dewa Gede Ary Candra Wisnawa, told Unearthed that his party was still trying to improve management, but added: “We in the regions [are facing] budget constraints … there are many things that need to be fixed or adjusted. That is normal in adjusting the system.” “More and more residents are collecting and sorting waste before being transported to [the recycling facility], but the problems at the [facility] are now an obstacle,” I Ketut Suardika, the head of the Jagra Palemahan community organisation, told Unearthed. | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/recycling', 'world/bali', 'environment/environment', 'environment/waste', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-11-20T10:00:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2013/jul/31/once-tories-understood-rural-britain | Once, the Tories understood rural Britain. Not any more | John Harris | Sight unseen, you would hardly have expected an explosion of rage in the West Sussex village of Balcombe. It sits just to the north of that well-known hotbed Hayward's Heath, and suggests a mixture of chocolate-box cutesiness and commuter-belt quiet – hardly the most obvious setting for a carnival of dissent that has been supported by droves of local people, and such visitors as Bianca Jagger. There again, neither does Balcombe look like the kind of place that prospectors might identify as a potentially rich source of oil: even though we have long had a small-scale inland industry, oil is a resource that most British people have always understood as coming exclusively from under the North Sea. Now, though, with George Osborne in a state of high excitement, freshly announced tax breaks and planning exceptions, and the word "fracking" all over the media, a new reality is upon us. For the moment, the Balcombe stand-off is its most obvious manifestation – though the big story is less about oil than natural gas, and the supposedly plentiful supplies that lie in shale rock deep beneath whole swaths of the country. The British Geological Survey reckons that Lancashire's Bowland basin could supply the UK's gas needs for 40 years. Meanwhile, prospecting licences for shale gas, coalbed methane and new oil supplies cover such diverse locations as Dorset, the Mendip Hills, the New Forest, and the East Riding of Yorkshire. All over the country, an old story is back with a vengeance: the power of corporations and government colliding with much more human imperatives, and sparking trouble. It's there in an increasingly widespread juxtaposition of hi-vis jackets, drilling kit and security guards, and serene British countryside. It was also evident in this week's claims by the Tory grandee Lord Howell – George Osborne's father-in-law – that though some parts of the country might have justified fears about fracking, in such "desolate" places as the rural north-east we should just get on with it. In a country as deindustrialised as the UK, ministers will always go weak-kneed about grand projects and new technologies. But the lingering effects of the crash have pushed their thinking into the realms of the neurotic, as government has been seized by a mixture of fear, profiteering zeal and metropolitan arrogance. All of these extend beyond energy policy into such issues as road-building, the dazzlingly stupid plan for high-speed rail, the current mania for airport expansion – and such delicate issues for the liberal-left as house-building on green-belt rather than brownfield land, and wind farms. ""Infrastructure" is this year's most ubiquitous word, even though it probably leaves most people feeling either indifferent or slightly nervous. This year's Tory conference, I would imagine, will hear rhetoric more suggestive of a Soviet party congress than a gathering of British Tories: lots of talk about energy security, salutes to the wonders of pipelines and power stations, and exhortations to further boost our growth figures and keep up with the Indians and Chinese. By way of answering back, the people rattled by what's happening to their communities may cite such functional concerns as traffic congestion and noise pollution, but their take on things runs a bit deeper than that, into the profound stuff of place, history and collective identity. Once upon a time, the Conservative party would have understood them: somewhere in its soul, after all, was an innate understanding of the more transcendental aspects of life outside big cities, and the elements of national life best kept away from the brutal ways of the market. "The beauty of our landscapes, the particular cultures and traditions that rural life sustains – these are national treasures, to be cherished and protected for everyone's benefit. It is not enough for politicians just to say that. We need leaders who really understand it, and feel it in their bones. I do." David Cameron said that, five years ago. Now, by contrast, his party's view of things is summed up by a pledge in Osborne's 2011 budget, to "introduce a new presumption in favour of sustainable development, so that the default answer to development is 'yes'". The word "sustainable", of course, was for the birds – here was a crude invitation to tarmac the planet. Make no mistake: just as New Labour's London-centric prejudices fed the revolt led by the Countryside Alliance, so another rebellion is brewing, stoked by the Mail and Telegraph – and spread much wider than the hoo-hah over foxhunting, from the UK's rural wilds to the outer edges of the suburbs. Given that the left is even more metropolitan than the right, as it grows louder, supposed progressives will doubtless come out with their standard sneers, bemoaning nimbyism and condemning anyone with small "c" conservative instincts as a hopeless throwback. To that, there are two answers. First, it's probably worth bearing in mind that the worship of concrete, smokestacks and growth for its own sake has tended to be a much more congruent fit with dictatorship than democracy. Second, as events in Balcombe prove, plenty of people are now standing in the way of an economic system that has never been more rapacious and corrupt, and demanding something surprisingly radical: peace and quiet. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'business/economicgrowth', 'business/economics', 'business/business', 'environment/fracking', 'environment/energy', 'environment/gas', 'environment/environment', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/politics', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/johnharris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2013-07-31T19:31:00Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2010/jun/09/obama-block-deepwater-drilling-causes-anger | Obama block on Gulf of Mexico drilling meets with anger | A decision by Barack Obama to slap a block on deepwater exploration in the Gulf of Mexico has angered the energy industry and crisis-hit communities that rely on rigs for lucrative jobs. In a move barely noticed by the public as BP was struggling to plug its leaking Macondo well, the White House ordered a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, pending new safety standards that will be drawn up by a special presidential commission charged with scrutinising the causes of the worst slick ever to blight America's oceans. The move was applauded by environmentalists – the Natural Resources Defence Council described it as a "forceful step" to protect marine life and coastal communities blighted by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Another group, the Sierra Club, said the disaster was a wake-up call: "It's time to take offshore drilling off the table for good." But the move comes at a cost. It will mean a halt to work on 33 drilling platforms, jeopardising as many as 46,000 jobs on land and sea, according to industry figures. Those rigs, leased by oil companies at a typical cost of $500,000 a day (£340,000), are likely to be loaded onto ships and taken elsewhere – possibly to Brazil, India or the west coast of Africa, where wells are waiting to be drilled. An emotionally powerful defence of drilling came this week from the widows of two of the 11 workers who died when BP's Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire. "My husband took great pride in his job, and many men depend on offshore drilling, that is our way of life," said Natalie Roshto, who lost her husband, Shane, in the disaster. She told a congressional hearing: "I fully support offshore drilling." Her views were echoed by Courtney Kemp, a Louisiana resident whose husband, Ross Wyatt Kemp, died in the explosion. Kemp urged stiff penalties for safety lapses but described offshore rigs as "a way for families to make a living". The freeze will have a significant impact on the oil supply. The energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie estimates that 80,000 barrels of oil per day will be deferred in 2011 and that further ahead, a tightening in permits could reduce production by 350,000 barrels per day in 2015 and 2016. Shares in oil services companies including Halliburton, Diamond Offshore, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger have slumped. Although drilling in shallow water will still be allowed, these figures will be sufficient to reduce any growth in supply from the gulf, which accounts for a quarter of US oil production. That will hinder the Obama administration's stated goal of weaning the US off its reliance on foreign oil, much of which comes from politically unstable parts of the world. Lee Hunt, president of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, maintained that the moratorium was unreasonable: "This is like seeing a 100-car wreck on an interstate highway and then shutting down Detroit from producing cars because of a car accident." He said it would have "devastating economic consequences" for the industry and suggested it would mean that oil companies drilled elsewhere in the world: "Oil companies look at the political risk factors when they decide whether to invest in particular projects. Right now, the political risk of investing in a deepwater project in the US is roughly equal to Angola." The Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, has chimed in with a letter to Obama urging a rethink. Jindal said his state had already suffered "severe negative economic and ecological impacts" from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, with the local seafood industry in jeopardy and wetlands clogged by tar. He wrote: "The last thing we need is to enact public policies that will certainly destroy thousands of existing jobs while preventing the creation of thousands more." On Tuesday oil firm Anadarko Petroleum announced it was moving three rigs away from the gulf in response to the moratorium, putting them elsewhere to meet production goals. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported fears from shipbuilders and vessel operators that the freeze could effectively shut down work for two years, with rumours of 3,500 imminent job cuts at one local port operator. A Louisiana senator, David Vitter, said: "The moratorium will cost us more jobs and economic devastation, on top of the repercussions of the spill itself, as energy companies move their businesses away from the coast." To some political commentators, the spill, however tragic, has created an opportunity for the US to engage in a wholesale rethink of its energy policy. The Sierra Club has called on the White House to use the disaster as a trigger for a broad-ranging plan to move the US away from its dependance on oil within 20 years. Its executive director, Michael Brune, said tightening safety regulations and rehashing oversight of drilling were not adequate: "This is the worst environmental disaster in our history. It requires a response of the same scale." But the green view gets short shrift in the oil heartlands of Texas and Louisiana, where fishermen often switch to well-paid jobs on rigs during the off-season. William Arnold, a former Shell executive turned energy professor at Rice University in Houston, said: "These are seen as very high-paying jobs, with good benefits, for high school graduates." BP's name is already mud among the American people. The company is in danger of losing friends within the industry, too, if its accident jeopardises a whole category of lucrative activity off the south-western US coast. In an open letter to Obama published in Louisiana's Thibodaux Daily Comet newspaper, local resident Stephen Morris vented fury at the drilling freeze: "If it was a knee-jerk response to everyone's anger about the continued leak and possible annihilation of southern Louisiana's way of life, you didn't think it through or your advisers are smoking way too much crack." | ['business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/bp', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'environment/oil-spills', 'environment/environment', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewclark', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-06-09T15:10:52Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2021/sep/28/britain-homes-energy-crisis-governments-insulation-low-carbon-heating | Britain’s leaky homes make the energy crisis worse. Why have governments not fixed them? | Max Wakefield | Over the past few days the country has been thrown into panic, as soaring gas prices threaten to plunge hundreds of thousands more households into fuel poverty, joining the 2.5 million already there. For others, uncomfortably tight budgets will be further squeezed. Any country reliant on the worldwide gas market faces the risk of perennial price shocks. But let’s be clear: the extent of this crisis was not inevitable. It is, in significant part, the result of a decade of government failure to insulate us from the disastrous downsides of fossil-fuel dependency. The UK is a difficult country to keep warm. It has some of the oldest and leakiest housing stock in western Europe, ensuring that heat dissipates through walls, windows and doors quickly after leaving radiators. Nine in 10 households rely on gas boilers, and lots of gas boilers need lots of gas: UK households consume more of it than almost all of their European peers, at around twice the EU average. In 2000, when North Sea gas accounted for 98% of overall supply, households were at little risk of price shocks. But as national production has tumbled by two-thirds in the two decades since, imports have risen from just 2% to 60% of supply to fill the gap. Gas burned in households now equates to half of all imports – that is why any spike in gas prices immediately translates into higher heating bills. In times like these there is little standing between the average household and the opaque mechanics of a deeply politicised, and profit-driven, global gas market. Using cheap gas to compensate for poor housing stock only works as long as gas is cheap – and as long as you don’t have a climate crisis spinning out of control. Given all this, you’d be forgiven for thinking the government might have made it a national priority in recent years to reduce our entrenched reliance on fossil gas. While a significant task, a well-designed programme to repair the nation’s homes should not have been beyond us. It’s Rockwool insulation, not rocket science. Instead, we have witnessed a decade of half measures and outright failure. In 2013 the Tory-led coalition launched the “green deal”. Intended to be cost-free for government, it offered loans – with interest – to householders to install efficiency measures, repayable via the household’s energy bills. Unsurprisingly, the complexity of the scheme combined with its inherent financial uncertainty did not lead to strong takeup. Of a target of 14m insulated households by 2020 just 15,000 had been completed when the programme was binned a couple of years later. Next, the zero carbon homes standard, which had been due to come into effect in 2016, would have required new homes to generate as much energy on-site from renewable sources as they used – it was a flagship policy genuinely worth the hype. Instead, soon after the surprise 2015 Conservative election win, George Osborne killed the programme at the behest of the construction lobby. It has never been revived. Then came the green homes grant, announced in one of the first Covid economic stimulus packages last year. This was a simpler scheme, with upfront government grants. And yet, despite very high levels of public interest and applications to the scheme, it reached only 5,800 of its target 600,000 homes – a select committee investigation called its implementation “botched” and its administration “disastrous”. Like the green deal nearly a decade ago, it was cancelled early. The sum total of this is not pretty. Between 2012 and 2019 the number of home insulation installations actually dropped by 95%. The charity National Energy Action has noted that at that rate it would take nearly a century to properly insulate all of the current fuel-poor homes in the country. In 2021, millions still live in fuel poverty, and many more will likely join them this winter, while domestic gas boilers account for one in seven tonnes of carbon the UK emits each year, accelerating the climate crisis. This must be the last winter fuel crisis we ever face, and our homes must be future-proofed without delay. Ministers are already more than a year late on delivering plans for how to end burning gas for heat. They must deliver a credible plan immediately. Only an ambitious, long-term, well-funded and properly designed national retrofit scheme will do. Even further than this, it is well past the time to bid farewell to gas boilers altogether. No new builds should be connected to gas, and every time a boiler breaks, with a handful of exceptions, it should be replaced by a heat pump – an ultra-efficient device that uses electricity to harvest ambient heat from the air (or ground) to heat your home. The UK props up the table of European countries for annual installations: Lithuania installs five times as many per year as we do, Italy 10 and Norway 60. At the current rate it will take the UK around 700 years to move to low-carbon heating. The government’s legally enshrined climate commitments require us to be halfway there by the mid 2030s. The good news is the public are increasingly warming up to change: polling by researchers at Walnut Unlimited in June found that more than two-thirds of people agreed that homes should switch to a low-carbon heat source. Like solar panels, the more that are installed the more we’ll learn – and the cheaper they will get. This task is ambitious, but also entirely achievable. To succeed, we must learn from our mistakes – and the success of others. Whether this government does so will be a deciding factor in whether we will find ourselves again at the mercy of the markets as the winter nights draw in. Max Wakefield is director of campaigns for the climate action group Possible | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/energy', 'money/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/gas', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2021-09-28T10:00:19Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2021/mar/18/climate-crisis-cop26-president-global-targets | Time is running short – but we can get a grip on the climate crisis | Alok Sharma | The climate crisis represents a clear and present danger to people and our planet. Its real-world consequences are now all too visible. In Nepal last month, I met communities displaced by melting glaciers. In Ethiopia, I saw how floods, droughts and locusts have decimated crops. Around the world, oceans are warming, and storms, floods and wildfires are intensifying, while here at home, our coastal towns face serious long-term threats from rising seas. Unless we act now, we will be out of time to hold back the worst impacts. Our planet is heating up, fast. On course, scientists tell us, for temperature rises of some 3.5C by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels. The impact of such a rise will be nothing less than catastrophic. Yet, at the same time, we are increasingly waking up to the danger, and the direction of travel is changing. Countries responsible for 65% of global emissions now have net zero or carbon neutral commitments. The world is moving towards a low-carbon future, with clean energy now the cheapest source of electricity. But the pace of change needs to pick up. Globally, we must halve emissions over the next decade alone if we are to meet the goals of the Paris agreement – which aims to keep global temperature rises well below 2C and closer to 1.5C. That means taking action today. Of all the competing issues, fighting climate change and preserving biodiversity is now the UK’s number one international priority. That is the clear message from the prime minister’s comprehensive strategy for international policy – the integrated review – published this week, which also affirms our commitment to aligning all future UK aid with the Paris agreement. Cop26 – the UN climate conference being held in Glasgow in November – plays a key role in the UK’s efforts. This must be the moment the world gets a grip on the climate crisis and, as Cop26 president, I have four clear aims. The first: global net zero. I want to put the world on a path to reach net zero by the middle of the century, which is essential to keeping 1.5C within reach. Today’s global targets for 2030 are nowhere near enough to meet the Paris agreement temperature goal, as a recent UN report made clear. So, the UK is using the Cop presidency to urge all countries to set 2030 emissions reductions targets that put us on a path to net zero. We also need policies in place to make such targets a reality. Over this year we want to see countries making ambitious commitments on ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles, taking inspiration from UK plans for a 2030 phase-out. We need a green thread running through all Covid-19 recovery packages. And we want significant new commitments on ending new coal power and phasing out existing plants. The UK will champion this. As the integrated review laid out, we aim to become the world’s leading centre for green technology, finance and wind energy. The world is already at a tipping point when it comes to power. In the past five years, plans for 900 gigawatts of new coal power plants have been abandoned – the equivalent of more than 10 times the UK’s power supply. It is increasingly clear that clean power is the future, coal is a relic of a bygone age, and this year we need a final push to leave it in the past where it belongs. The second goal: adaptation; protecting our communities and natural habitats from the destructive impact of climate change, the effects of which will grow in force and ferocity, even on a path to net zero. We have seen the enormous value of investing in preparing for extreme weather. When Cyclone Amphan struck India and Bangladesh in 2020, early warning systems saved tens of thousands of lives. So, by Cop26, we want every country to have a credible plan for managing the unpredictable and often damaging weather patterns that are the result of climate change. We are bringing nations together to share solutions, through the new Adaptation Action Coalition, which countries around the world are joining. And we are working to increase the funds going into the technologies and systems that protect people and nature. That is part of our third goal: finance. Sufficient funds are vital to tackling the climate crisis. Developed countries have promised to raise $100bn a year for climate action. In the UK we have committed £11.6bn over the next five years in climate finance and are pushing others to follow our lead. In tandem, we are working with the former Bank of England governor and prime minister’s finance adviser for Cop26, Mark Carney, to generate the trillions in private finance needed to meet global net zero. And in a few weeks’ time, we will hold a climate and development ministerial meeting to look for ways to approach challenging issues like access to finance and debt that make it difficult for developing countries to fully implement the Paris agreement. My fourth goal is working together to make the negotiations in Glasgow a success. We are bringing together communities, governments, third-sector organisations and businesses to accelerate the global move to net zero. We are inviting them to work together on vital challenges, like protecting natural habitats and boosting clean energy, to help deliver the emissions reductions needed at the speed the crisis demands. The climate crisis is the greatest challenge that we face. But it is entirely within our power to address it. To accelerate the move to our green future, to turn ambition into action and to come together. Cop26 is our chance. We must take it. Alok Sharma is president designate of Cop26 and the Conservative MP for Reading West | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/alok-sharma', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-03-18T14:30:51Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sport/2022/jul/04/sebastian-vettel-expresses-sympathy-for-silverstone-climate-protestors-f1 | Sebastian Vettel expresses sympathy for Silverstone climate protestors | The four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel said he sympathises with the environmental protesters who invaded the track at the British Grand Prix on Sunday. Vettel, who has been an outspoken climate campaigner for some time, conceded that the activists’protest could have put lives at risk. Activists from the Just Stop Oil group had breached the fencing and sat down on the track on the opening lap at Silverstone shortly after the Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu had suffered a high-speed crash at turn one. The race was stopped immediately but five protesters took to the track on the Wellington straight while the cars were still circulating back returning to the pits. They were before being removed by the authorities shortly afterwards. Their methods for the protest actions were widely condemned as dangerous but Vettel joined Lewis Hamilton in expressing support for their cause. “Everybody is free to have their own view on it,” Vettel said. “These people don’t act out of frustration but they are desperate and I very much sympathise with their fears and anxieties which I think everybody who understands the size of the problem that’s drifting towards us can understand. On the other hand, I see the other side. There’s marshals trying to stop people from doing these kind of things. You’re risking people that are involved in the race weekend, drivers, marshals. So there’s two sides. I think the message was very clear and I completely sympathise with their fears and anxieties.” James Skeet, a spokesperson for the group, said he believed the action had been a success in drawing attention to their cause. “We are out of time unfortunately,” he said. “We are in a dire situation.” Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won the race, with Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez second and Hamilton third for Mercedes. When asked about the protests Hamilton said: “I love that people are fighting for the planet. We need more people like them.” He later posted on Instagram clarifying that he did not condone their methods. “While I’ll always support those standing up for what they believe in, it must be done safely,” he wrote. “Please don’t jump on to our race circuits to protest, we don’t want to put you in harm’s way.” Hamilton’s third place equalled his best finish this year and he also led a race for the first time this season. He was cautiously optimistic about the performance of his Mercedes at Silverstone, as F1 heads to the Austrian GP this weekend. “It’s hugely encouraging that we were in the fight,” he said. “For a good period of time, I was matching the Ferraris’ pace, and even better at some stages and we got the quickest lap at the end, which I don’t think we’ve been able to do this year. I don’t think we’re in a winning position yet but we’re not far away.” | ['sport/formulaone', 'sport/sebastian-vettel', 'sport/silverstone', 'environment/just-stop-oil', 'sport/motorsports', 'environment/environment', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gilesrichards', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | environment/just-stop-oil | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-07-04T11:40:54Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
money/2018/dec/01/which-electric-bike-should-i-get-and-are-they-safe | Which electric bike should I get? And are they safe? | Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper. My cycling-mad father is 80 this year and considering getting an electric bike to allow him to stay in the saddle. Can anyone suggest a good one that isn’t £3,000? Will he be able to cope with the extra speed – any other octogenarians made the same move? Do you have a problem readers could solve? Email your suggestions tomoney@theguardian.com or write to us at Money, the Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU | ['money/series/youre-the-expert', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-12-01T07:00:16Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2018/apr/10/eu-will-seek-non-regression-clause-to-tie-uk-to-environmental-standards | EU will seek 'non-regression' clause to tie UK to environmental standards | The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has warned that Brussels will not rely on Michael Gove’s pledges over the environment but instead insist on a “non-regression” clause in any future deal after Brexit to tie the UK to the bloc’s high standards. Barnier said he welcomed a 25-year plan published in January by the environment secretary, a fervent Brexiter during the referendum campaign, under which the UK vowed to be a “global champion” of greener policies after 29 March 2019. But Barnier said in a debate in the European parliament on Tuesday that the 27 member states would be “extremely vigilant” in blocking any attempt by the British government to undercut current regulations to gain a competitive advantage. The future partnership with the UK “should include a non-regression clause and prevent the reduction of pre-Brexit standards”, the former French minister said. “If we make sure our partnership is based on a level playing field … then we should have strongly mitigated the threat of Brexit to EU environmental policy,” he told MEPs. “There will be no ambitions partnership without guarantees on fair competition, social standards, tax dumping and not least environmental standards.” Gove and the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, have previously counselled Theresa May that the UK will only be able to reap the advantages of Brexit if the UK diverges from the EU in terms of its regulatory standards in some key sectors. However, the environment secretary has also insisted that the UK will “occupy the high ground” on green standards. Barnier said he hoped that Gove’s position would translate into the negotiation over the coming months, as the UK spells out how it intends a future trade deal to work. He said: “Does the UK want to stay close to European regulatory model or distance itself from it? “It’s a very important question because European regulatory model is underpinned by choices that are very dear to us. “What we hear from the UK could be seen as reassuring … This is reflected in the UK’s proposed 25-year plan on the environment. This is welcome but my responsibility as EU’s lead negotiator is to remain extremely vigilant.” Barnier added that he expected agreement on a non-regression clause to be difficult, and that he would want its scope to widen anything seen before. “We know Britain wants to integrate all existing standards in law,” he said, “but what happens on day plus-10? “Currently the UK is totally integrated but we are going to diverge. What will become of this divergence? Does it remain reasonable? Or does it become a tool for social, fiscal and environmental dumping? We face a huge risk of ratification from national parliaments if we don’t reassure people and provide solutions.” In an illustration of his intention to raise standards, Gove is consulting on a ban on the export of live animals. The National Farmers’ Union estimates up to 20,000 live sheep were exported to Europe in 2017. EU single market legislation currently prevents the UK from prohibiting exports of livestock. | ['environment/green-politics', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'world/eu', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/daniel-boffey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2018-04-10T16:03:48Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2007/aug/16/nuclearindustry | US-led consortium poised for £500m nuclear waste deal | British Nuclear Group, the main operating arm of state-owned BNFL, is unlikely to have any role in a £500m contract to manage Britain's low-level atomic waste dump at Drigg in west Cumbria. A consortium of private firms led by America's Washington Group International has been made preferred bidder to take over the facility from BNG and devise a strategy with any future waste coming from a possible new generation of plants. Washington - with its partners including Serco of Britain and French nuclear plant builder and operator Areva - said they were "delighted" to have beaten off competition from rival consortiums -one containing BNG and the other led by Babcock of the UK - after negotiations with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The success could help Washington to the biggest prize in the forthcoming privatisation of the UK's nuclear industry: a potential £15bn deal to clean-up the Sellafield complex which Washington is bidding for. A Drigg deal would also represent a good foothold for Areva which would like to be involved in the construction of any new nuclear plants in Britain, something which the government is considering. The NDA said yesterday it hoped to award a firm contract to manage the waste dump in October. "The NDA will now embark on detailed contract negotiations with the preferred bidder to agree terms and conditions. Subject to a satisfactory conclusion, there is potential to award a contract which could have a value of between £200m - £500m," it added. The Drigg licence will run for five years with the potential for extensions, subject to performance and NDA management approval, up to a total of 17 years. Washington and its partners will take over at Drigg next April if it wins final selection. Last night the NDA's backing for Washington, which operates a deep waste dump in New Mexico, was warmly endorsed by Prospect, the UK's largest union in the nuclear industry representing 15,000 scientists, engineers and professional staff. Its national secretary, Mike Graham, said: "This is welcome news. Prospect has experience of working with some of the partners in the consortium and believes the combined talents will bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the industry." | ['business/business', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'uk/uk', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2007-08-15T23:00:28Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/apr/23/weatherwatch-underwater-robots-feed-data-to-meteorologists | Weatherwatch: Underwater robots feed data to meteorologists | Is it a bird? Is it a fish? No, it’s a robot. Scientists are deploying silent gliding robots to swoosh beneath the ocean waves, recording the singing of whales, clicks of dolphins, pitter-pattering of raindrops, humming of ship motors and crashing of waves during a storm. These new torpedo-shaped robots are remotely controlled by pilots, using satellite to communicate. They are about the same size as a small person and can dive to depths of 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) and travel the seas for months at a time. Pierre Cauchy, a scientist at the University of East Anglia, has been experimenting with these robots for the past five years, testing their ability to record underwater noises in the Mediterranean Sea, north Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean. “It is fascinating to listen in to underwater life such as long-finned pilot whales in the north Atlantic, but also to hear the echoes of what is happening in the skies above,” he says. In remote ocean regions, where there are no permanent weather stations, the data recorded by the silent robots can be used to calculate surface wind speeds. This helps meteorologists assess how quickly a storm is whipping up and, for climatologists, the data is useful for fine-tuning their models. • Kate Ravilious will be one of the panel of Weatherwatch contributors taking part in Freak Weather in History at the British Library on Wednesday 2 May, at 7pm • This article was amended on Tuesday 24 April to correct a depth conversion. | ['environment/oceans', 'technology/robots', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'science/science', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-04-23T20:30:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2008/sep/01/republicans2008.hurricanegustav | Michael Tomasky: Why the GOP can't spin Gustav | Further thoughts on the GOP and Gustav. There was a lot of hand-wringing on the blogs yesterday about how the GOP was going to turn this calamity to its great advantage. That is still possible, but as I wrote yesterday, I don't buy it. When I wrote it yesterday I was writing mostly on gut instinct, but now I have given the matter a little actual thought. Gustav is an external event of the sort that happens during campaigns all the time, large and small. One party or the other usually takes advantage of them or benefits from them. But which one, and how is that decided? Now: in America, the images of the two parties are deeply hard-wired into people's brains, even the brains of people who don't pay much attention to politics. Walk down the street in any town in America and ask average people what the two parties stand for. Unless you get highly opinionated partisans – "Republicans are crypto-fascists," "Democrats hate America," etc. – I would bet you'll hear remarkably consistent answers from people. Democrats care more about the poor, they're more for minorities, they back unions, they're not big on throwing America's weight around and they're softer on criminals would probably be about the main five identifiers. Republicans are for the rich, they're for business over unions, they're tougher on crime, they do like throwing the US's weight around and they talk a lot more about Jesus would be the about the main five GOP identifiers. These traits have existed for at least 30 years (Jesus), maybe 40 years (the soft power-hard power foreign policy divide, which dates to Vietnam) and up to 70 years (the economic traits, which date to the New Deal). They are so deep in the American psyche that practically nothing can dislodge them. Hypothetically, President Obama could get into office and start a war with Russia, and I bet even that wouldn't suddenly make average Americans believe the Democrats were now the hard-power party. Major externalities, when they occur, feed into the deeply held preconceptions of what each party is about. The Russia-Georgia crisis played well for McCain because Americans are just conditioned to think that the GOP is more likely to take care of business when it comes to Russia. In reality, McCain's views and those of his advisors are extreme and dangerous. But alas that isn't what matters here. What matters is the information the American people bring to the situation: the Republicans have always been tougher on Russia, a Republican president defeated the USSR (yes, extremely simplistic and US-centric; I'm not endorsing, just explaining), McCain is a tough guy and the Repubican, ergo QED. Now consider a flood, especially in the aftermath of Katrina, and especially a flood hitting an urban area, a situation that finds many African American people being interviewed on television, as is the case today. Your average American is not going to bring information to this picture that will make her conclude that the Republicans are the party to handle this. She will think, without even really knowing that she's thinking it, that this is a matter for the Democrats to take care of – that the Democrats will handle this situation with more empathy and, post-Katrina, more competence. I'm trying to think back over major external events in recent presidential campaigns. There actually haven't been many (and I don't think this will end up being a major one). The bin Laden video that surfaced in October 2004 surely helped Bush as it reminded people that he was still out there and probably made most of them think that we still needed the tough-guy party (the tough-guy party had failed to track him down, but remembering that requires taking an extra logical step that requires intellect instead of feeling, and most people don't take that step). The biggest fairly recent event I can remember was the Rodney King rioting of 1992. Those riots helped Clinton, I think. Now you might suppose at first blush that images of rioting black people would help the law-and-order party. But the incidents that sparked the rioting – the beating of King by LA cops and the subsequent acquittals of three of the four officers – were so overwhelmingly unjust to average people (even average white people) that the rioting was, in some sense, understandable to many people. The black residents of Los Angeles needed empathy and the country needed reconciliation. Those are things Democrats do. So – who trusts Republicans to make sure that poor people harmed by an act of God are going to get a fair shake? That's a tough one for them. They'll spin it that way, and many cable hosts will play along. But cable hosts have less power over the process that goes on in people's minds than these historical identifiers. So unless they come up with some blindingly brilliant manipulation that's beyond my imagining, I can't see the GOP winning the Gustav spin war. | ['commentisfree/michaeltomasky', 'us-news/republicans2008', 'us-news/hurricanegustav', 'tone/blog', 'us-news/republicans', 'us-news/us-elections-2008', 'us-news/us-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/michaeltomasky'] | us-news/hurricanegustav | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2008-09-01T15:47:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2020/nov/18/hackers-hq-and-space-command-how-uk-defence-budget-could-be-spent | Hackers HQ and Space Command: how UK defence budget could be spent | National Cyber Force A specialist cyber force of several hundred British hackers has been in the works for nearly three years, although its creation has been partly held back by turf wars between the spy agency GCHQ and the Ministry of Defence, to which the unit is expected to jointly report. The idea behind the new unit is to bring greater visibility and coherence to offensive cyber, a capability that the UK claims to have had for a decade but until recently has rarely acknowledged or discussed. Earlier in the autumn, Gen Patrick Sanders, the head of the UK’s strategic command, said the military already had the capacity to “degrade, disrupt and destroy” enemies. Past operations include hacking into Islamic State systems in 2017 to understand how the terror group was operating a low-tech drone capability out of Mosul, which the military claims allowed it to understand how the drones were bought and how operators were trained. Space Command Creating a “Space Command” is a promise that was made in the Conservative election manifesto, and comes at a time when major military powers are rapidly showing an interest in space, largely because of the need to ensure the safety and security of satellites on which critical communications and location systems depend. The UK’s new Space Operations Centre, based at the RAF headquarters in High Wycombe, comes less than a year after Donald Trump announced the creation of a new space force, arguing that “space is the world’s new war-fighting domain,” and that maintaining American superiority over Russia and China was “absolutely vital”. The UK’s plans are expected to be be far less ambitious than those of the outgoing president, given that British capability in space is far behind that of US, Russia or China. Instead, the UK wants to develop a satellite rocket launch capability from 2022. Space command staff will come from all three of the armed forces, but one former senior Whitehall insider questioned whether the UK had the capability to make a Space Command an effective reality. “Where are the people who will make this real? Are there cybermen waiting to be activated?” Artificial intelligence agency Extra cash in the review will also fund the creation of an artificial intelligence agency, details of which were scant on Wednesday, such is the speed at which the defence spending announcement has been put together. It is unclear how this is related to plans devised by Dominic Cummings, when he was working in Downing Street, to create an advanced projects research agency along the lines of the US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Defence sources said it would be led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Building a strong UK position in artificial intelligence is an obsession among the intelligence and defence community, in the belief the technology has a long-term strategic value and the country must have its own capability. But little has emerged in the public domain. At present, the UK’s AI efforts are coordinated by the existing Office for Artificial Intelligence, which was created as part of Theresa May’s industrial strategy of 2017, and sits within the departments for business and culture. | ['uk/military', 'politics/defence', 'uk/ministry-of-defence', 'technology/cyberwar', 'technology/hacking', 'uk/gchq', 'world/espionage', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/dan-sabbagh', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2020-11-18T22:30:55Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2012/mar/27/spain-canaries-deepwater-drilling-protest | Canary Islands protest Spanish government's oil drilling approval | Plans approved by the Spanish government this month to start prospecting for oil off the Canary Islands have triggered protests nationwide. Despite large-scale opposition and the danger drilling presents to whales and other marine life that migrate through this part of the Atlantic, Madrid gave the go-ahead to the Spanish company Repsol to start exploration at nine locations, at depths between 1,500 and 3,000 metres, less than 60km off Lanzarote and Fuerteventura in the Canaries. Spain currently imports about 80% of its energy. The industry, energy and tourism minister, José Manuel Soria, argues that it can no longer afford the luxury "of holding back business or wasting natural resources". Estimates suggest substantial reserves in the area, sufficient to produce 100,000 barrels of crude a day, equivalent to one-tenth of national demand. Repsol has announced possible investments worth $13bn and 5,000 new jobs in a region where a third of the workforce is unemployed, but local organisations, environmental groups, fisheries and the tourism industry see things differently. Under the slogan "No to oil, yes to renewables", they organised a two-day scientific meeting to discuss plans for drilling last week, and planned a major demonstration. The Canaries regional government announced that it will begin legal proceedings. "We are totally against this," said vice-president José Miguel Pérez, adding that "the future of the Canaries is in renewable energies and combating global warming". One of the Canary Islands, El Hierro, claims to be the first "100% renewable" island. It is self-sufficient in terms of energy, thanks to a wind farm. Councillors on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura point out that economic development, centred on tourism, is not compatible with oil drilling. The same is true of fishing. This article originally appeared in Le Monde | ['environment/oil', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/oil', 'world/spain', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/sandrine-morel'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2012-03-27T12:59:02Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/jan/15/barrage-of-questions-for-swansea-bay-tidal-lagoon | Barrage of questions for Swansea Bay tidal lagoon | Letters | You report (Tidal lagoon power is ‘reliable and affordable’, 13 January) that the Swansea Bay scheme “would be the first of its kind in the world”. In France, the Rance estuary plant has been operating since 1966. In Canada, in the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world, the plant at Annapolis Royal has been operating since being opened by Prince Charles in 1984. However, the French have no firm plans for more such plants and the Canadians have abandoned them altogether. In Canada, a major consideration has been the devastating impact on fish stocks. It seems to me that the major objective of the proposal might be to extract taxpayer funding for no useful purpose, and the government needs to study the proposals very carefully to ensure we do not end up with a number of very large white elephants in the Severn estuary. Ian Brittain Owermoigne, Dorset • In 1981 a report on tidal power from the Severn estuary by Sir Hermann Bondi calculated that an inner barrage alone could have generated as much electricity (12.9 TWh a year) as a potential series of tidal lagoons. While this could have been up and running within 14 years of starting construction, additional lagoons would add baseload to this reliable supply, given the natural differences in the times of tides sweeping around the coast of Britain. Back then the Central Electricity Generating Board was wedded to nuclear power, when the projected cost per kWh was on a par with the Rance tidal power station in Brittany, and Électricité de France assumed it was twice as expensive as nuclear power, instead of turning out to be cheaper. The ecological impact was negligible; a reduced tidal range would still expose plenty of mudflats where wading birds could feed twice a day, and studies found that the biodiversity of the Rance estuary soon returned. David Nowell New Barnet, Hertfordshire • Your report on the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon proposals (10 January) does not mention that the output from such tidal lagoons drops to zero twice every 24 hours. This could be compensated if tidal generation were to be linked to CANDU-type nuclear reactors. The heavy water these reactors need could be generated by tidal power in periods of slack electricity demand. The reactors would provide power to the grid at the daily periods of zero tidal output and in general in accordance with grid requirements. If this route were to be taken, the economics of a full Severn barrage, with its maximum output some 25 times that of the Swansea Bay scheme, might well be worth reconsideration. David Hayes (ex-CEGB) Bristol • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | ['environment/wave-tidal-hydropower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/wales', 'uk/uk', 'tone/letters', 'uk/swansea', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/edf', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-01-15T18:35:02Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2013/sep/18/arctic-sea-ice-shrinks-record-low | Arctic sea ice shrinks to sixth-lowest extent on record | Sea ice cover in the Arctic has shrunk to one of its smallest extents on record, bringing the days of an entirely ice-free Arctic during the summer a step closer. The annual sea ice minimum of 5.099m sq km reached last Friday was not as extreme as last year, when the collapse of ice cover broke all previous records. But it was still the sixth lowest Arctic sea ice minimum on record, and well below the average set over the past 30 years of satellite records. This suggests the Arctic will be entirely ice-free in the summer months within decades, scientists said. The annual sea ice minimum, based on a five-day average, is expected to be officially declared by the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado, within the next few days. "It certainly is continuing the long-term decline," said Julienne Stroeve, a scientist at the centre. "We are looking at long-term changes and there are going to be bumps and wiggles along the long-term declining trend, but all the climate models are showing that we are eventually going to lose all of that summer sea ice." Overall, the Arctic has lost about 40% of its sea ice cover since 1980. Most scientists believe the ocean at the north pole could be entirely ice-free in the summer by the middle of the century – if not sooner. The most dramatic changes have occurred in the past decade. The seven summers with the lowest sea ice minimums were all in the past seven years. The loss of sea ice cover is a leading indicator of climate change, and will be a key part of the findings released next week by the United Nations' climate science panel, the IPCC. It has also emerged as a driver of extreme weather events in Europe. The extent of Arctic sea ice has generally decreased in all regions since satellite records began in the late 1970s. The Arctic continues to warm at about twice the rate of lower latitudes. This year's minimum was reached despite cooler temperatures in some areas that slowed melting, Stroeve said. Air temperatures in the central Arctic were 1-4C colder than in the past six years. "We had a pretty cold summer in general for the time period we're looking at and yet the sea ice cover didn't recover to the extent that we had in the 1970s and 1980s," she said. Rapid warming last year reduced the area of frozen ocean water in the Arctic to less than 3.5m sq km. This year's low was more in line with the summer of 2009, Stroeve said. After shrinking to a minimum of 5.099m sq km on 13 September, the summer sea ice extent increased to 5.104m sq km on 14 September and 5.105m sq km on 15 September before falling back to 5.103m sq km on 16 September. But the decline of the surface area of frozen water tells only part of the story, scientists said. Ice in the Arctic has also been thinning over the years – which makes it more vulnerable to melting in the summer. Scientists now believe it is the combination of reduction in thickness and surface area that is hastening the advent of an ice-free Arctic in the summer months. Observations from the European Space Agency's CryoSat mission released last week showed the volume of sea ice in the Arctic falling to a new low last winter. Last March and April – typically the time of year when the ice floes are at their thickest – there was just 15,000 cubic km of ice. There would have been 30,000 cubic km, or twice that volume, at the height of winter 30 years ago, scientists said. "There is very little thick multi-year ice left covering these great areas. It is really thin so if you get a little weather the next year, it's all gone," said Andreas Münchow, a scientist at the University of Delaware who studies the Arctic. The loss of the thicker, multi-year ice was also one reason for the larger year-to-year changes in Arctic ice cover, Münchow said. But the overall direction of sea ice cover in the Arctic was clear, he added. "We really are heading towards an ice-free Arctic in the summer. "It just takes a freak event eventually, in the next five or 10 or even 20 years, and the next year there will be a huge Arctic cover. But it is all going to be thin on top, and the long-term trend is that the ice is disappearing in the summer in the Arctic." • This article was amended on Friday 20 September from 5,099m sq km to 5.099m sq km. | ['environment/sea-ice', 'environment/poles', 'world/arctic', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-09-18T09:19:58Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/aug/27/country-diary-humans-are-nature-just-as-much-as-the-falling-tree | Country diary: Humans are nature just as much as the falling tree | On the first morning of our holiday, we walked a winding route through woods to the sea. Returning a few hours later, the same path was blocked by the carcass of a huge ivy-swathed Scots pine. While we’d been lucky to miss the drama of its falling by a few hours or minutes, it had ripped limbs from neighbouring trees, crushed, smashed, uprooted other plants, and no doubt terrified every sentient creature in earshot. A moment of seismic disruption – but only destructive if you consider that moment in isolation. Wait a year or 10, and we might see that tree sustain as many lives and connections in death as it did in life. Our inclination is to look for conclusions, and seeing the bigger picture doesn’t always come naturally. It takes practice to encounter a river and intuit an ocean, a spring or a rainshower. Three days before the tree fell, I’d unwittingly become involved in another, smaller drama, involving two carrion crows and a hunched form I first mistook for a rabbit, but which resolved into a crouching, defensive buzzard. As the dog and I loomed on their horizon, the trio took off, leaving slight flattenings of the grass. No carcass. The dog shoved her nose into the sward and inhaled deeply. I envied her additional sensory insight into whatever conflict had been unfolding. My encounters with wild lives often leave me with the feeling that I’ve interrupted something – in fact, I’m sometimes accused of disturbing wildlife by merely existing in the same place. There is, among a subset of environmentalists, an idea that in order to allow nature to heal we must write ourselves out of the scene. But we’re neither spectators nor dramaturges in the theatre of life. We’re players. On an individual level, we are nature. Did I bother the crows or the buzzard more than they were bothering each other? Has my passing through a wood ever wreaked chaos to match that of a falling tree? Trees fall. Crows mob buzzards. Humans pass by. Species interact. That’s what makes an ecosystem. Our systems have inflicted untold harm and we must change them. But hairshirt misanthropy won’t help. It may even sever the last fibres in our already threadbare tapestry of nature connection. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', '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 | 2022-08-27T04:30:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
global-development/2022/aug/25/new-maps-and-local-knowledge-power-chad-climate-fightback-hindou-oumarou-ibrahim | ‘Grandmothers are our weather app’: new maps and local knowledge power Chad’s climate fightback | It’s a simple idea: where land and river boundaries are disputed, make a map. Putting it into practice, using the unwritten knowledge and oral histories of farmers, nomads and of grandmothers who read bird migration patterns to forecast rain, is a little harder. But Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim says she is a fighter. “If you’re born as an Indigenous person, you’re born an activist, because you’re born with the problems surrounding your community,” she says. Her native Chad is on the frontline of the climate crisis, with temperature increases predicted to be 1.5 times higher than the global average rises. The UN describes Chad as “one of the world’s most environmentally degraded countries”. In 2020, record rainfall caused a huge loss of food stocks and displaced hundreds of thousands while last year’s floods left more than 160,000 homeless. The changing weather has already wrecked the lives of pastoralists, who cannot milk their dehydrated cattle. Desertification has shrunk farming and grazing lands and nomads such as the Mbororo – Ibrahim’s people – and farmers are being pushed into conflict while government and military land grabs have further reduced access to water. To help mitigate tensions, Ibrahim is working with communities to produce maps to enable them to agree on the sharing of natural resources. Using high-resolution satellite images, Ibrahim and representatives from EOS Data Analytics ran workshops with leaders from 23 villages in Mayo-Kebbi Est to map 1,728 sqkm. People added features such as rivers, settlements and roads, as well as sacred forests, medicinal trees, water points and corridors for cattle. Laminated copies of the maps were distributed to each community. She is conducting a similar exercise on the shores of Lake Chad. Ibrahim said it was vital to involve women in the process, not just to ensure their representation, but because of the knowledge they have, such as how to find water in the dry season. “In the west, people check their weather app to find out if it’s going to rain,” Ibrahim says. “Our best app is our grandmothers because they can just observe the cloud positions, the bird migration, the wind directions, or the little insects, and say, ‘Oh, it’s going to rain in two hours!’” Ibrahim, who has chaired Indigenous peoples initiatives at four UN climate conferences and was listed by Time as one of 15 women leading on climate action in 2019, wants to use the map to show how Indigenous-led crisis response can be combined with technology – and work. As a Mbororo woman she understands what marginalisation means. Her mother, who never went to school, fought to educate her and her sister in Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, where Ibrahim was teased for “smelling like milk” by classmates. “I grew up between two cultures,” says Ibrahim. Her mother, who learned to read and write two years ago, has now mastered WhatsApp. “She said, ‘You’re travelling a lot, and I need to hear your voice,’ so you see, being an activist in my community is being innovative over the generations.” At school, Ibrahim started thinking about the changes she wanted to see around her. “I realised that I can’t talk about women’s rights without talking about community rights. I can’t talk about community rights without talking about the environment we live in and depend on,” she says. At 15, she founded the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (Afpat), focused on women’s rights and environmental protection. In 2019, Chad ranked bottom on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative index, which measures vulnerability and resilience to climate change in 182 countries. “Sometimes I just cry. Because I say, we are going to end. I will have no peoples, just a history that my peoples used to be nomadic with cattle,” Ibrahim says. “But when I see the communities who are every day standing up to protect nature, it gives me more hope and energy.” Those who participated in the mapping are using it to agree how to use the environment sustainably. One community has even constructed a building to hold a physical copy. But international responses drain Ibrahim. “We are in a climate crisis, but companies are still digging for more fossil fuels and governments are not making decisions to shift to clean energy,” she says. “Maybe they call them developed countries, but I call them overdeveloped countries. They get more than what they need to survive in a good way, yet they are not acting fast enough to ensure we can also survive.” In Chad, people from the north are migrating to the greener south. “It creates conflict between those who are coming and those who are staying and on the natural resources.” Others leave and “finding themselves in Europe without things that they can do”, says Ibrahim. “We are shying away from using the name climate refugee, but we must put it on the table and talk about it.” More progress is needed in bringing Indigenous peoples into climate change discussions, she says. “If they recognise the science, they must recognise our knowledge. If they recognise our knowledge, we must be at the tables making decisions about the future of our world.” Sign up for Her Stage to hear directly from incredible women in the developing world on the issues that matter to them, delivered to your inbox monthly: | ['global-development/global-development', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/chad', 'world/sahel', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/womens-rights-and-gender-equality', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/refugees', 'global-development/access-to-water', 'society/communities', 'environment/farm-animals', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'tone/interview', 'profile/alice-mccool', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-25T08:45:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2010/apr/06/mystery-of-oriental-yeti | Mystery of the Oriental Yeti | A mysterious hairless creature, dubbed the "Oriental Yeti", has been trapped by hunters in a remote region of central China. Apparently, it emerged from ancient woodlands. Described by its finders as "a bit like a bear but with a tail like a kangaroo", it reportedly makes a noise like a distressed cat. Chinese scientists are hoping that DNA tests will prove it to be the zoologists' equivalent of the Holy Grail – a mammal new to science. Could it be? Time to examine the facts. First, its size. The Yeti is, according to legend, a mysterious bear-like beast, standing well over the height of a man. The mammal discovered in China is a small, possum-like creature, perhaps two feet long at most. Next, its appearance: particularly its hair, or in this case the lack of it. Photographs reveal a wrinkled, pink animal, sprouting a few tufts of hair and several nasty looking lesions on its exposed skin. Far from being naturally hairless, this is, according to Oxford scientist and TV presenter George McGavin, a very sick animal indeed. "It looks like a shaved civet, and to be honest I think it probably is. You can immediately see that it has lost its hair, probably through illness." And McGavin is highly sceptical about the idea that this animal may be new to science, as has been claimed. "If this truly is a new discovery I would be very surprised." McGavin can speak from experience, having led the recent expedition to the jungles of Mount Bosavi in New Guinea, featured on the BBC series Lost Land of the Volcano. While there, McGavin and his team did indeed discover a mammal new to science: a giant rat, provisionally named the Bosavi woolly rat. Such findings are becoming increasingly infrequent, as the vast majority of the globe has now been explored, meaning that most large or medium-sized mammals have already been discovered and named. If you still want to find a creature new to science, and even have it named after yourself, there is still plenty of scope - but you would be best advised to focus on the smaller stuff. In the last decade alone almost a quarter of a million new species have been described – though most are micro-organisms rather than mammals. And, so far at least, there have been no confirmations of a miniature hairless Yeti. | ['environment/wildlife', 'world/china', 'science/zoology', 'tone/features', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/taxonomy', 'world/asia-pacific', 'news/shortcuts', 'type/article', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2010-04-06T18:30:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sustainable-business/fashion-rental-startup-rentez-vous | Nothing to wear? Peer-to-peer fashion rental start-up could help | You know how it is – a wardrobe full of clothes but nothing to wear? Or indeed a city full of people but no-one to meet up with? Young, French entrepreneur Fiona Disegni has come up with a solution to both. Her start-up business Rentez-Vous allows people to rent out their clothes, access other people's wardrobes, and meet like-minded individuals. Part of the collaborative consumption movement, Disegni describes Rentez-Vous as "the Airbnb of fashion" and believes it could revolutionise the way people view clothes and shopping for them. Disegni certainly has the background for it. Her dissertation at the Institut d'études politiques in Rennes was in collaborative consumption. Fashion and marketing internships then followed at Burberry, JWT and Asos, before she dedicated herself to Rentez-Vous full-time last year. "I started with a small event in a flat in Paris with friends," she explains. "We'd have events every month, then I moved to London and started events here every month. "Women are always unsatisfied with their wardrobe, they keep spending and they never wear the majority of what they buy. Women spend over £1,000 a year on their wardrobe but don't wear over 70% of their clothes... There's [an estimated] £1.6bn of clothes in women's wardrobes in the UK that they don't wear but don't want to throw out. Those are exactly the type of clothes we want to target – the clothes that you like but you don't wear so much." So far the concept has been events-based – 40 to 50 individuals sign up, pay an entrance fee, and bring their clothes to rent or simply turn up to meet and browse. The rental cost is set at 15% of the original retail price (as set by the owner – no-one is asked for an original receipt) for one week's hire, which averages at £20. Rentez-Vous takes a 20% fee from each hire. But the real money comes from designers. Four or five upcoming designers hire a stall at each event, giving them direct access to customers and a new revenue stream: Rentez-Vous takes a 30% fee and, if renters decide they want to buy it afterwards, a 20% fee again from the sale. "We are peer-to-peer but we are also about bringing a sustainable solution to fashion professionals," says Disegni. "The idea is to make this a winning situation for everyone. We don't want to be competitors to fashion brands, we are recycling their products. "The core of our proposition is that every time you buy something you have a guilty feeling – you have to rationalise it. For us rental is a way to get access without the guilt. You can get it wrong, you can fall in love, or you can keep – we are not against buying, we are more against waste." According to WRAP figures (PDF), extending the lifecycle of clothing by just three months reduces the carbon footprint by 8%, water consumption by 10%, and waste by 9%. The plan now is to move from bijoux events to the online masses. "Collaborative consumption is online, it's everywhere," says Disegni, who indicates there will be postal delivery options for those without the time or desire to meet up. "It was our decision to create a community first – for such a new concept you really need the trust of people... they are now becoming our ambassadors." The barriers to scale remain getting the technology and logistics in place – a web developer is working on the site and app, while Disegni is establishing a network of dry cleaners as local drop-off points. A membership subscription is being trialled for designers to have access to the online community. But this is a new concept – clothes rental has always been around, but not peer-to-peer and not in such a nimble, social way. Disegni admits there is a fear of being "too early for the market". But two big things work in her favour. One is the potential pent-up demand – even the thinnest slice of the £1.6bn of unused clothes hanging in women's wardrobes (and it is women that Rentez-vous is initially targeting, though men will be courted later) would be enough to make a sustainable business. The second is the nature of fashion itself – there are arguably fewer sectors which (on paper at least) are better suited to collaborative consumption. "People are into new, novel things, they are super into this volatility of fashion, and we want to capture that but make it sustainable," enthuses Disegni. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/fashion', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'fashion/fashion', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'profile/tim-smedley'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-02-23T10:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2016/dec/09/great-barrier-reef-not-likely-to-survive-if-warming-trend-continues-says-report | Great Barrier Reef not likely to survive if warming trend continues, says report | The Great Barrier Reef will not survive coral bleaching if current sea temperature trends continue, according to a new report charting increases over the past three decades which blames manmade climate change for the problem. The study found thermal stress to coral reef areas was three times more likely when its investigation finished in 2012 compared with when it began in 1985, forecasting “more frequent and more severe” bleaching through the middle of this century. Led by researchers at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and published in Scientific Reports journal, the report projects that by 2050 more than 98% of coral reefs around the world will be afflicted by “bleaching-level thermal stress” each year. “The likelihood of the reef being able to survive through that is extremely low,” the report’s co-author, Scott Heron of the NOAA, told Guardian Australia. “If annual severe bleaching was happening across 98% of global reefs, it is very unlikely the Great Barrier Reef would be maintained.” The report found 97% of 60,000 coral reef locations risked bleaching across the timeframe studied, with “drastic increases” expected to follow. “Coral bleaching events have become and will continue to become more frequent and severe,” it reads. Heron said that for any part of the Great Barrier Reef to remain it would need to “get lucky”, but the chances of a positive outcome were remote. “If a piano is going to fall on you, it is going to fall on you irrespective of how healthy you are,” he said. Since the conclusion of the investigation, the planet has experienced the longest bleaching event on record. “Scientifically the facts are clear, that the level of warming we are seeing is a direct result of human activities globally,” Heron said, speaking to the report finding that the “main driver” of stress to coral reefs were high sea temperatures. “The increase in prolonged high temperature events on coral reefs is a stark example of the effects of climate change.” The researchers observed that “summer-like” water temperatures had increased decade to decade with a “corresponding shortening” of the respite period experienced during winter, with reefs “among the most sensitive of all ecosystems to climate change”. For the Great Barrier Reef, which a poll found two-thirds of Australians want to see declared a national emergency, its southern reaches have not been as significantly affected by thermal stress as it has further north. According to Heron, this is a positive in the short term, but it would be wrong to assume it would remain this way. “I think it is wonderful to point out that there are parts of the Great Barrier Reef that escaped the impacts of bleaching for all of the industries who use the resources of the reef,” he said. “But to say that is representative of the entire reef is a complete falsehood.” Asked whether the domestic politics of emissions reduction, highlighted this week in Canberra, frustrated the efforts of the scientific community, Heron remained upbeat that necessity would ultimately drive the public policy solutions at home and abroad. “I still have hope that they will respond with appropriate urgent action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and concentrations in the atmosphere,” he said. “We are on an upward trajectory at an upward rate and we are already halfway towards the threshold that has been defined as being a limit that we really cannot reach.” | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/coral', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-collins', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-12-09T06:46:49Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2018/jun/03/letters-sir-richard-body-obituary | Letters: Sir Richard Body had a strong sense of history | Giles Oakley writes: On the one occasion I met the Tory MP Sir Richard Body he made a great impression. In 1987 I was interviewing him for a BBC2 Open Space documentary entitled Aggro Chemicals presented by self-taught scientist and campaigning organic dairy farmer Mark Purdey. Sir Richard supported Mark in his principled refusal to comply with a Ministry of Agriculture order to apply an organo-phosphate-based compound on his cattle to prevent a hypothetical infestation of warble fly. Mark, preferring his own organic treatment, took the matter all the way to the high court, and won. As chair of the House of Commons select committee for agriculture, Sir Richard invited Mark to give evidence to MPs about his evolving theories regarding the dangers of OP pesticides and his belief that they were at the heart of the “mad-cow disease” crisis. I know how much Mark, a mud-on-his-boots and straw-in-his-hair idealist, valued Sir Richard’s support and encouragement to keep on pushing the issue. I warmed to the squire-like MP with his old-school courtesy and twinkly eye for mischief. He had a strong sense of history and he told me he had backed the rebellious Mark in part because he likened him to a “village Hampden”, in honour of the 17th-century parliamentarian John Hampden, who had refused to pay “ship money” to Charles I. Charles Harris writes: When preparing my BBC2 satirical documentary Sex, Drugs and Dinner in 1991, I found that Sir Richard Body was sharp, had a very dry sense of humour and was passionately committed to the environment. Indeed, his views were so diametrically opposed to those of his farmer constituents in south Lincolnshire that I finally asked him why on earth they voted for him. “They would vote,” he said laconically, “for a pig if it wore a blue rosette.” | ['environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'environment/farming', 'tone/letters', 'tone/obituaries', 'media/bbc', 'type/article', 'profile/giles-oakley', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/obituaries', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-obituaries'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-06-03T17:08:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2014/feb/26/california-drought-respite-rain-storms-oscars | California awaits brief respite from drought with incoming storms | California is bracing for two storms which are expected to dump the most significant rainfall in almost three years, promising a brief respite to the state’s drought. Moderate to heavy showers on Wednesday were due to be followed on Friday by heavier torrents, a blessing for farmers and water management authorities but unwelcome news for motorists and organisers of the Oscars. A weather system moving in from the Pacific will “broadside” the region, with rain strenghtening throughout Wednesday and ebbing on Thursday before a second, more powerful storm hit, said Bob Benjamin, of the National Weather Service. “It has the potential to be messy.” The deluge is expected to dump between one and three inches of rain in coastal and valleys areas and five to seven inches in hills and mountains – a dramatic event by California’s desiccated standards. “Big rain storms may hit #Malibu this week. Could these be the answer to the drought?” asked the Malibu Times. The experts’ consensus: no. The rain will moisten soil, partly replenish reservoirs, may help save some crops and above 5,000 feet it will bring snow, boosting struggling ski resorts. But it will add up to only marginal relief after 13 months of devastating drought. “It all goes in the plus column. But it is still far outweighed by the negative column,” said Benjamin. Nasa underlined the drought’s impact on Tuesday by releasing images of Folsom Lake, a reservoir north of Sacramento, juxtaposing a July 2011 image, when it was 97% full, with a bleak, parched contrast taken last month, at just 17% capacity. Authorities continued appeals to conserve water, stressing the deficit will remain huge. “Take advantage of the coming #LARain and simply shut your sprinkler systems off,” tweeted Don Knabe, chairman of the LA county board of supervisors. President Barack Obama pledged tens of millions of dollars in federal aid when he visited Fresno last week in the wake of Governor Jerry Brown declaring a state of emergency. The drought has wrought havoc on a $45bn agriculture sector which supplies much of the country’s fruit, nuts, vegetables, wine and dairy products. The crisis could leave thousands of farm workers jobless and increase food prices. Nasa announced on Thursday it was partnering with state agencies to apply advanced remote sensing and forecast modeling to better assess water resources and drought. “Early detection of land subsidence hot spots, for example, can help forestall long-term damage to water supply and flood control infrastructure,” said Jeanine Jones, a manager at the California Department of Water Resources. Not everyone will benefit from the rain. Officials warned that parts of the San Gabriel mountains scorched in last month’s wildfire – an unseasonal burn blamed on the drought – could dissolve into mudslides and send debris down slopes. Fire stations were offering sandbags. An electrical utility offered safety tips. Motorists braced for traffic disruption: a drizzle can prompt southern Californians to drive extremely slowly or even stop. Hollywood also cast its eyes skyward: there was a 40% chance the second storm will drench the red carpet at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony. Some on social media mocked the city’s hyper-sensitivity to moisture given hurricanes and blizzards elsewhere in the US, coining terms like soakzilla, stormageddon and downpourpocalypse, via the hashtag #LARain. “Only in Los Angeles do they start talking about an inch of rain a week before its going to happen,” tweeted one. “Must be winter in California. There are a few clouds in the sky,” tweeted another. | ['us-news/us-news', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'science/nasa', 'weather/losangeles', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rorycarroll'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-02-26T13:48:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2022/oct/24/tonga-wales-rugby-league-world-cup-match-report | Daniel Tupou takes Tonga into World Cup quarter-finals with win over Wales | Two games, two wins and qualification for the Rugby League World Cup quarter-finals assured. To that end, it is job done for Tonga in the opening 10 days of the tournament, but it would also be safe to assume we are still expecting a little bit more from a nation some believe can go all the way this year. Kristian Woolf’s side were perhaps fortunate they escaped their opening game against Papua New Guinea with a victory. They were once again tested here, this time by a gallant Wales side made up predominantly of part-time players with day jobs away from this tournament. In truth, the Tongan team were somewhat underwhelming again, even if the scoreline does not quite suggest so. That is not decisive just yet, as there is still time for them to build into this tournament. But England supporters in particular will be watching their clunky displays with intrigue, given the two sides could meet in a semi-final. Tonga ultimately got the job done here but were some way below the standards many expect from a nation littered with NRL superstars. They actually trailed Wales 6-4 as half-time approached, with Kyle Evans’s try putting John Kear’s side ahead after 15 minutes. Tonga hit back through Daniel Tupou but even then, they appeared lackadaisical at best before tries in the final five minutes of the half from David Fifita and Keaon Koloamatangi made it 16-6. That was a hammer blow for Wales, who had led on merit to that point. “We’ve got a lot of improvement in us,” Woolf said. “But we probably looked like we thought it was going to be a bit easier than it was. You can see the potential there though, there’s a lot of potential.” He is right about his side’s capability, but his admission that this team had an air of complacency to them should also be of concern. With a quarter-final berth now secure, Tonga’s World Cup journey will continue beyond the group stage; unlike that of Wales. But the Welsh players can take real heart from how they have tested both Tonga and the Cook Islands in their two group games so far. Just two of this squad plays in Super League, the rest come from the lower leagues of the English and Australian domestic scene. “They’re all heart, aren’t they?” Kear said of his side. “You’ve got to take your hat off to them. They committed totally against a big, physical team and I’m proud of them. They gave everything.” Wales certainly did, but in the end, the class of Tonga’s superstar side was too much, even with their questionable attitude. Tupou was their one real top performer here, finishing with a hat-trick on a night when history was made, as Kasey Badger became the first female referee to officiate a men’s World Cup match. Badger’s performance, like Tupou’s, was well worthy of a mention. You feared the worst for Wales when Tesi Niu’s try made it 22-6 shortly after the restart but yet again, the Welsh effort and endeavour despite being huge underdogs was clear for all to see. They were never likely to fight back and cause a huge upset, but they battled until the very end. That kept the scoreboard more than respectable, with only two more tries for Tupou added to the margin of victory as the Tongan attack began to show brief flickers of what it is undoubtedly capable of in those closing moments. Though they will need much more than that to get the job done and uphold the expectations many have for them when the knockouts begin. | ['sport/rugby-league-world-cup-2021', 'sport/tongarugbyleagueteam', 'sport/wales-rugby-league-team', 'sport/rugbyleague', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-recap', 'type/article', 'tone/matchreports', 'profile/aaron-bower', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/wales-rugby-league-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-10-24T20:42:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/2015/may/16/washington-state-drought-emergency | Washington state declares drought emergency with $1.2bn in crops at risk | With more than two-thirds of Washington state experiencing abnormal dry conditions and more than half of the state experiencing moderate drought, Governor Jay Inslee on Friday declared a statewide drought emergency. “We are really starting to feel the pain from this snowpack drought,” Inslee said. “Impacts are already severe in several areas of the state. Difficult decisions are being made about what crops get priority water and how best to save fish.” According to the Washington state department of agriculture, about $1.2bn of crops could be lost as a result of the drought this year. “The drought is unlike any we’ve ever experienced,” said Maia Bellon, director of the state department of ecology. “Rain amounts have been normal but snow has been scarce. And we’re watching what little snow we have quickly disappear.” Bellon’s department has requested $9.5m in drought relief funds from the state legislature. At the beginning of the month, the Natural Resources Conservation Service found that of 98 snow sites measured in Washington, 66 were snow-free, 11 for the first time ever. According to Inslee’s office, snowpack in Washington’s mountains has dropped to just 16% of normal levels. In California, snow on the mountains has fallen to 12% of average levels, from 28% last year. Snowmelt normally keeps the rivers running – in April, the US Geological Survey found that 78% of streams in Washington state were running below normal. As a result, the state’s department of natural resources expects more early-season and higher-elevation wildfires. “We have some tough, challenging months ahead of us,” Inslee said. “We’re ready to bring support and relief to the hardest hit areas of the state. We’re going to do everything we can to get through this.” About 2.47 million people living in Washington are affected by the drought, according to the information released on Tuesday by the US Drought Monitor. A year ago, 55.74% of the state was abnormally dry and 34.66% of the state experienced moderate drought. This year, 67.51% of the state is abnormally dry and 51.82% is experiencing moderate drought. The droughts in California and Washington are only the beginning, according to a study written by the scientists at the Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. They predict that the US south-west and the Great Plains will face decade-long droughts far worse than any experienced over the last 1,000 years, because of climate change. “The 21st-century projections make the [previous] mega-droughts seem like quaint walks through the garden of Eden,” said climate scientist Jason Smerdon, a co-author of the study. “We haven’t seen this kind of prolonged drought even certainly in modern US history. What this study has shown is the likelihood that multi-decadal events comprising year after year after year of extreme dry events could be something in our future.” | ['us-news/washington-state', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/california-drought', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jana-kasperkevic'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-05-16T21:28:59Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2023/feb/14/ireland-six-nations-rugby-union-world-cup | The Breakdown | Grand slam and then the world? Fun for Ireland may only just be beginning | Rare indeed is the Six Nations championship that has everyone purring after two rounds. If the organisers could rewind the clock they might have preferred Ireland v France as the tournament’s grand finale, but, in some ways, a round-two classic has worked a treat. Quite apart from lifting neutrals out of their seats it has also raised the bar quality-wise for everyone else. Given it is a Rugby World Cup year, it feels like the fun is only just beginning. Particularly if you are Irish. If there has been a more gloriously complete Six (or Five) Nations performance by an Ireland side it was hard to recall as they blasted past France in Dublin on Saturday. Shamrock-and-roll is rugby’s modern soundtrack, with even bigger stadium gigs still to come. Much has been written about the well-stocked pool of schools talent and artful player management that help Ireland turn up on big occasions looking half a yard fitter and fresher than their opposition. What is even more striking is how visibly individuals are improving. Hugo Keenan, Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris could well be the best players in their positions in the world while Finlay Bealham, Tom O’Toole, Ross Byrne and Craig Casey are starting to underline their squad’s increasing strength in depth. Success, in other words, breeds success. Which is why a grand slam seems to be theirs to lose. Beyond that? Well, their World Cup record is famously rubbish – they have never made it past the quarter-finals – and their half of the draw contains France, South Africa, New Zealand and Scotland. Only two of those six teams can make the semi-finals. Suddenly, though, that is probably Ireland and one other, which will be giving this autumn’s hosts even more palpitations than last Saturday’s result. The way to beat France has certainly been demonstrated. With a ball-in-play time of 46 minutes – the equivalent figure for the England v Italy game was 37 minutes – their big forwards were made to play a game that absolutely did not suit them. Yes, Antoine Dupont is absolute class – how good was that tackle on Mack Hansen? (at 2m50sec here) – but with three rounds o play he and some of his teammates look in need of a breather. Scotland, unbeaten after two matches for the first time in the Six Nations era, may be heading to Paris next week at an opportune moment. Scotland, if not quite at Ireland’s level yet, also look like a team on the up. Duhan van der Merwe and Finn Russell have deservedly grabbed the headlines but Sione Tuipulotu, Blair Kinghorn, Ben White, Matt Fagerson and George Turner are contributing importantly, too. It has reached the point where Kinghorn will be mighty unlucky if he does not start in Paris, relegating last season’s captain, Stuart Hogg, to the bench. There is a wider question, though. As the standard of Europe’s top sides rises, where does that leave those struggling to catch up? While Wales still have good individual players, they have been blown out of the water by sides playing faster, smarter, more skilful rugby. No shame in that necessarily, but it is clear that even a consummate turnaround specialist like Warren Gatland has his work cut out. And England? They have a new coaching team, but, in many ways, familiar problems persist. Any rebuilding job invariably takes time, but what people are less keen to discuss is the deadline for this project’s completion. Steve Borthwick is entirely justified in prioritising small steps and incremental improvements, but the loud ticking noise in the background is not going away. Unless the Rugby Football Union has given up on winning the Rugby World Cup, in which case there should be mass administrative resignations. So, yes, England’s maul worked better against a sub-par Italy. Yes, they have finally picked an inside-centre who can take the ball to the line and put them on the front foot. But the differences in cohesion, consistency, vision and tactical innovation compared with, say, Ireland, are clear. To expect Borthwick and his lieutenants to bridge that gap in a little over six months feels unrealistic. The upshot is that England fans will have to be patient. Borthwick openly admits it is impossible to solve everything all at once. The best-case scenario is that England’s scrum, maul and lineout will all be tightened up and that a restrictive, suffocating gameplan will make them harder to beat. But the game is moving on fast. Ireland, France and Scotland look comfortable in possession, all with influential fly-halves whirling the creative baton. England, having opted for Owen Farrell over Marcus Smith, seem to have decided that, for now, their best option is simply to batten down the hatches. Short-term, it is a commonsense approach. Longer-term it is storing up trouble. Even with a decent lead against Italy it was telling that Borthwick felt unable to take off his captain, Farrell, and allow Smith to play with other centres at his elbow. Do people really see Farrell, who will be 32, walking away from Test rugby after the World Cup and handing over the keys to Smith for the next four years? There is more chance of Vladimir Putin hosting a pre-match picnic in the West car park. It is not a dilemma that is going to fade away. But what does that mean for Smith’s Test career? Or England’s prospects at the 2027 World Cup? England, as Borthwick accepts, are behind many of their major rivals. Getting ahead of the curve again is not going to be easy. This is an extract from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions. | ['sport/series/breakdown', 'sport/six-nations-2023', 'sport/ireland-rugby-union-team', 'sport/france-rugby-union-team', 'sport/scotland-rugby-union-team', 'sport/wales-rugby-union-team', 'sport/england-rugby-union-team', 'sport/sixnations', 'sport/rugby-union', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-recap', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/robertkitson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/wales-rugby-union-team | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-02-14T12:01:13Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
politics/2024/dec/24/uk-less-dependent-china-critical-minerals-thinktank | UK must be less dependent on China for critical minerals, says thinktank | The UK must become less dependent on China for critical minerals, an influential thinktank has concluded before a government strategy decision in the spring. In a report on rare earth minerals, which are essential components for hi-tech products from mobile phones to missiles, Labour Together said ministers should “de-risk” supply chains and reduce reliance on China by building partnerships with other countries. The report said China’s dominance in critical mineral supply chains created “vulnerability” and the UK was at greater risk of being singled out after Brexit. Amid escalating trade tensions with the US before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, China banned shipments of antimony, gallium and germanium to the country earlier this month. The UK government has said it will produce a new strategy on critical minerals in the spring. Labour Together said this should be closely informed by the government’s industrial strategy, also due in the spring, to determine which critical minerals and stages of the supply chain the UK will be most reliant on in the future. Critical minerals are essential for the green transition. Data suggests China extracts about 70% of the world’s rare earth metal ore, dominates the processing and refining of it and uses it to manufacture 90% of the global supply of neodymium magnets, the magnet most commonly used in wind turbines. The report also said it was important for China to be “engaged where possible, eg on mining standards, rather than treated as an adversary”. A paper by the Royal United Services Institute thinktank in October said the UK should work with China on improving environmental and labour practices in mining and engage with Chinese companies operating in countries eligible for international aid. Labour Together said the government should improve the coordination of cross-Whitehall work on critical minerals, work more closely with the EU, promote responsible mining standards internationally and lead a campaign to drive investment. The Conservative party published a critical minerals strategy in 2022, which the foreign affairs committee said was “too broad and does not convey the sense of urgency”. Alicia Kearns, the Tory committee chair at the time, said that for three decades governments had been “asleep at the wheel”. Labour Together described the Tory approach as “too slow, too general and given too little support”. Felix Cazalet, a policy fellow at the thinktank and author of the report, said: “The new government should be more alert than the last to risks, including from the concentration of production in countries like China, while taking a pragmatic and targeted approach in the new strategy. “This should focus on the key things that matter for the UK, and include working more closely with international partners such as the EU to increase responsible investment in resilient supply. The new strategy is an opportunity to secure the materials we need for the UK’s growth, security and green ambitions.” Ruby Osman, a China policy adviser at the Tony Blair Institute, said ministers needed to prepare for disruption if the critical mineral export restrictions targeted at the US were extended to the UK. “When it comes to China, our biggest problem has been timing. China has been building its remarkable market dominance for decades – the UK only released its first critical mineral strategy in 2022,” Osman said. “Diversification is, rightly, likely to be at the heart of Labour’s new strategy. But the UK’s strategy also needs to be realistic – we can’t ignore quite how dominant China is at every step of these supply chains. Even if it wanted to, the UK is never going to be able to cut China out entirely, and that means we’re going to need some considered engagement.” In 2010, China introduced an export ban on rare earth elements to Japan after a dispute. The clampdown lasted only two months but led Japan to diversify its supply chains and become less dependent on China. | ['politics/trade-policy', 'politics/economy', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'politics/politics', 'world/china', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/commodities', 'environment/mining', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/eleni-courea', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2024-12-24T16:00:46Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2016/nov/24/russia-turkey-cyprus-send-firefighting-planes-to-israel | Tens of thousands evacuated as Israeli wildfires rage | France, Russia, Turkey and Cyprus are to send firefighting planes to Israel as the country battles fierce forest fires that have triggered the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, including 11 neighbourhoods in Haifa. Strengthening east winds on top of warm, dry weather have helped spread the blazes in several areas of the country for a third day, including outside Jerusalem, where fires temporarily closed the main motorway linking the city to Tel Aviv. Haifa, however, was the worst affected, with fires starting out in the north-east of the port city near Paz Bridge and spreading to near the city’s football stadium. About 50,000 people have been evacuated from the city as a precaution. Haifa’s civilian airport was closed on Thursday, while local media reported plans to evacuate prisons. “We evacuated three neighbourhoods and there are people who are stuck,” a fire department spokesman, Kayed Daher, said of the situation in Haifa earlier in the day. “The fire is still burning and the flames are approaching a gas [petrol] station.” The fires are the worst since 2010, when Israel suffered its single deadliest wildfire; it killed 42 people and was extinguished only after firefighting aircraft from as far away as the US were dispatched to bring it under control. The Palestinian Authority, which sent firefighters in 2010, has also offered to join the international effort to extinguish the blazes. The fires started on Monday in Neve Shalom, outside Jerusalem, before spreading. Hundreds of homes have been damaged and a dozen people treated for smoke inhalation. Despite claims by Israel’s security minister, Gilad Erdan, that 50% of the fires were “apparently arson”, the Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators had not yet been able to determine whether any of the dozens of fires countrywide had been set deliberately. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said if proof was discovered that any of the fires were deliberately sparked they would be treated as acts of “terror”. “Every fire caused by arson or incitement to arson is terror and will be treated as such accordingly,” he told reporters in Haifa near the scene of the fires. Israel’s police chief, Roni Alsheich, told reporters that arsonists were suspected of setting some of the fires for political reasons. “It’s safe to assume that whoever is setting the fires isn’t doing it only out of pyromania,” he said. “If it is arson, it is politically motivated.” Naftali Bennett, the leader of the far-right, pro-settler Jewish Home party, suggested on Twitter that arsonists were disloyal to the state, and that those who set the fires could not be Jewish. “Only those to whom the country does not belong are capable of burning it,” he said in a tweet in Hebrew. Bennett provided no evidence to support his claims. | ['world/israel', 'world/wildfires', 'world/russia', 'world/turkey', 'world/cyprus', 'world/middleeast', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterbeaumont', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-11-24T18:06:57Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2023/sep/02/joe-biden-visits-hurricane-florida-desantis | Biden tours Florida hurricane damage: ‘nobody can deny impacts of climate crisis’ | Joe Biden said that no one can deny the impacts of the climate crisis anymore after he visited Florida on Saturday and surveyed the damage left behind by Hurricane Idalia. Speaking to reporters in front of fallen trees and debris, the US president pointed to this year’s extreme weather events and disasters, saying: “Nobody can deny the impact of climate crisis. There’s no real intelligence to deny the impacts of the climate crisis anymore.” “Just look around the nation and the world for that matter. Historic floods, intense drought, extreme heat, deadly wildfires … that cause serious damage like you’ve never seen before,” he added. Biden’s visit to Florida comes after Hurricane Idalia’s category 3 storm left a trail of damage in the state’s Gulf Coast including devastating floods, destroyed buildings and downed trees and power lines. In what was widely seen as a snub, Florida’s right-wing governor, Ron DeSantis, did not meet Biden on Saturday as his spokesperson said that Biden’s visit might hinder recovery efforts across the state. “We don’t have any plans for the governor to meet with the president,” DeSantis’s spokesperson, Jeremy Redfern, told CNN. In response to a question from reporters on Saturday on what had happened to the meeting, Biden said, “I don’t know. He’s not going to be there,” Reuters reported. On Thursday, the White House said that Biden informed DeSantis that he would be visiting Florida and that the governor’s office did not raise any security concerns at the time. Accompanying Biden on his visit was his wife, Jill. “Their visit to Florida has been planned in close coordination with [Federal Emergency Management Agency] as well as state and local leaders to ensure there is no impact on response operations,” the White House spokesperson Emilie Simons said. The Fema administrator, Deanne Criswell, also joined the president and first lady as they took an aerial tour in Live Oak to survey the damage. Biden received a briefing on response and recovery efforts from federal personnel, local officials and first responders at Suwanee Pineview elementary school. He also toured a community affected by Hurricane Idalia and delivered remarks in which he reiterated federal support for Florida. As Biden’s motorcade drove towards the school, one person was spotted waving a “Let’s Go Brandon” flag – a reference to a rightwing anti-Biden insult. Other bystanders either just photographed or videoed the motorcade. Addressing reporters and local residents, Biden said that he has “directed Fema to help you in every way they can”. “The spirit of this community is remarkable. People are in real trouble. The most important thing to give them is hope. There’s no hope like your neighbor walking across the street to see what they could do for you or the local pastor or someone coming in, offering help,” he said. Biden also said that 20 states have sent hundreds of line workers to Florida to reestablish electrical connections and that he has been in “frequent touch” with DeSantis since the storm made landfall. He went on to reiterate his calls towards Congress to ensure federal funding is available for natural disasters, saying, “Every American rightly expects Fema to show up when they’re needed.” “I’m calling on the United States Congress, Democrats and Republicans, to ensure the funding is there to deal with the immediate crisis, as well as our long term commitment to the safety and security of the American people,” Biden said. According to analysts, Hurricane Idalia, which also swept through Georgia and the Carolinas, could become the US’s costliest climate disaster of this year. Early estimates by risk analysts have put preliminary costs between $8.36bn and $18bn-$20bn. Last week, Biden visited Hawaii following the devastating aftermath of the Lahaina wildfires in Maui that have left at least 99 people dead and thousands of buildings destroyed. | ['us-news/joebiden', 'us-news/hurricane-idalia', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/ron-desantis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/maya-yang', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-09-02T19:57:19Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2017/feb/16/the-guardian-view-on-pollution-a-new-clean-air-act-is-overdue | The Guardian view on pollution: a new Clean Air Act is overdue | Editorial | A problem that cannot be seen is one that politicians will generally choose to ignore. That natural human tendency is dangerously short-sighted. When it comes to air pollution it is literally lethal. Scientists and environmental campaigners have been warning about a build-up of toxins in the atmosphere over British cities for years. Yet only when the filth forms a visible haze, when people are advised to stay indoors because outdoor respiration is palpably harming their health, does the issue register on many political radars. The smogs of the early 1950s were unignorable, not just because they could be seen but because they were obvious killers. Thousands died when an especially noxious cloud settled over the capital in 1952. The resulting Clean Air Act tackled domestic and industrial coal-burning. Hundreds of thousands are directly affected by equivalent scourges today – particulate emissions, nitrous and sulphurous compounds, mostly belched from cars. Children and the elderly are most at risk; minority ethnic and deprived communities are harder hit; but no one is immune. Parts of London reached the annual legal limit for volumes of nitrogen dioxide within the first five days of 2017. Glasgow, Leeds and other cities are similarly blighted. Almost two-thirds of the population backs an upgrade of clean air legislation. This week the European commission issued a “final warning” over the UK’s failure to meet anti-pollution standards. The court of justice in Luxembourg could impose hefty fines for non-compliance. Inevitably, some Eurosceptic ultras see this as a problem of jurisdiction not public health, as if the problem goes away when the court’s reach into UK affairs is curtailed after Brexit. Nigel Farage has blamed British air contamination on dirt wafting over from Germany – an assertion as stupid as it is ethically negligent. Emissions are the problem, not the European institution enforcing a standard to which the UK has submitted voluntarily and with good reason. Pollution affects the poorest most, but it harms us all. The air we breathe is an indivisible shared resource that can only be protected by collective action. That upsets those conservatives who hate the idea of government acting on behalf of society as a whole in ways that curtail any individual freedom – even the freedom to pollute. But the facts can overcome even the most stubborn denial. Today’s campaigning calls for action will eventually become a consensus. London’s mayor Sadiq Khan is in the political vanguard. His calls for a Treasury scheme to encourage the upgrading of old diesel vehicles to cleaner models has obvious merits. So do ultra-low emission zone regulations in town centres and positive incentives, such as cheaper parking, for electric vehicles. But those are tactical measures when the challenge is strategic – a policy shift towards clean, public transport that works well enough to make individual car journeys less essential. None of this will happen without a commitment from government to cleaner air, underpinned by statute, including targets that trigger sanctions in the breach. The European commission might soon lose the authority to rebuke Britain for allowing our air to be foul, but the duty and power to clean it up has always been a matter for Westminster. The moment to take that responsibility more seriously is long overdue. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/pollution', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk/london', 'world/road-transport', 'world/world', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'politics/politics', 'world/european-commission', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'cities/series/the-air-we-breathe', 'type/article', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-02-16T18:23:03Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2018/jun/07/thousands-of-job-seekers-details-potentially-exposed-in-hack | PageUp data breach: thousands of job seekers' details potentially exposed | A Sydney law firm is seeking potential victims for a class action after PageUp, a multinational software provider used by some of Australia’s biggest companies to manage their recruitment, notified that it had been hacked. Thousands of job applicants’ personal details may have been compromised in the data breach. The software is used by many large companies and agencies including Telstra, Wesfarmers, Linfox, the Reserve Bank, and the ABC to manage job applications via an online process. The information included in job applications would be extremely useful for identity fraud. As well as birth dates and other identifying details, job applications could potentially include passport details, tax file numbers and bank accounts. Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Several large corporates and government agencies that rely on PageUp People have now suspended their recruitment sites as they await for answers on what, if anything, was compromised. PageUp, which boasts 2 million active users across 190 countries, posted a statement from chief executive Karen Cariss on its website, saying it had noticed “unusual activity” in its IT infrastructure on May 23. The company has launched an investigation, while its client companies also released emergency statements to their employees and candidates who had applied for jobs using PageUp’s software. “We have suspended all connections between Coles’ systems and PageUp’s systems and stopped all available points of upload, while we obtain information from PageUp about the nature and extent of the security incident and possible data breach,” Coles said in an advisory to staff. The list of companies includes: Wesfarmers: Coles, Target, Kmart, Officeworks NAB Telstra Commonwealth Bank Lindt Aldi Linfox Reserve Bank of Australia Australia Post Medibank ABC Australian Red Cross University of Tasmania AGL Jetstar PageUp’s company statement said it had notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and engaged with Australia’s Computer Emergency Response Team and equivalent United Kingdom authorities. Head of the ACSC Alastair MacGibbon said the centre was working with PageUp to investigate the security breach. “There has been a breach, there has been malicious code executed inside PageUp’s systems and criminals may have access to an amount of documentation, we just don’t know exactly what it is,” Mr MacGibbon said. “Any breach is bad and our job in the government is to reduce the likelihood of these events happening, but unfortunately the reality is that criminal groups are always looking at new ways to steal credentials and wreak havoc on our society.” Mr MacGibbon recommended any PageUp users change their passwords. The principal solicitor of Centennial Lawyers, George Newhouse, said employers owed a duty to keep highly personal information confidential, not only of their workers but also those that are applying for work. This can often include financial information and even medical information required as part of an induction process he said. “Companies, and those that provide services to them, must take adequate steps to protect their employees’ or potential employees’ information. This case highlights the damage that can be done if security is breached,” he said. | ['technology/hacking', 'technology/technology', 'money/identityfraud', 'australia-news/sydney', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anne-davies', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-06-07T08:04:03Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2020/oct/21/climate-science-deniers-to-give-road-safety-evidence-to-mps | Climate science deniers to give road safety evidence to MPs | MPs are to hear evidence on road safety from a campaign group that dismisses warnings about global heating and wants higher speed limits and fewer cycle lanes, prompting alarm from environmental and active travel organisations. The Commons transport committee will take oral evidence on Wednesday from the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD), which says it represents mainstream views but accepts its membership is “tiny” as a proportion of drivers. The ABD’s formal position is that human-created global heating is a myth, and that many concerns about the health impact of vehicle pollution represent “scaremongering”. ABD’s policies include raising all speed limits to 85% of actual average speeds and abolishing urban 20mph zones. It believes that cycling and walking are “not a credible transport policy”. In May, the ABD’s official Twitter feed argued that the UN and other groups “have been captured by One World Global Marxist sympathisers, whose gradual aim is to gradually pauperise and depopulate the west and the developing world”. The tweet was later deleted, the group explaining: “Someone got a bit carried away.” Wednesday’s hearing is about improving road safety for young and novice drivers, and will hear from witnesses including Malcolm Heymer, described as a “traffic management adviser” with the ABD. Paul Morozzo, a transport campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: “I hope the Alliance of British Drivers have only been invited along to provide the transport committee with a spot of light relief, because their views are nothing but a joke. “This hearing is supposed to be about road safety, but crackpot ideas like increasing speed limits and scrapping cycle schemes would only make our roads and climate more dangerous.” Simon Munk, a campaign manager with the London Cycling Campaign, said the ABD was “an organisation notorious for its fringe views on driving and road safety”. He said: “This strikes me as similar to the way the media used to talk to climate change deniers for ‘balance’. This organisation has shown itself to be utterly unfitting to be taken in any way seriously, much less give evidence in parliament.” Hugh Bladon, a spokesman for the ABD, rejected this: “I don’t think it’s fair to say that our views are fringe. What we want is safe roads. Unfortunately, the authorities grab the one thing that they can measure easily, which is speed.” On the climate emergency, he said: “We don’t deny that the climate is changing. The climate has always changed and will continue to change, and there’s bugger all we can do about it. We’re not causing or accelerating it, or if we are, it’s imperceptible.” Bladon said he did not know how many members the ABD has: “All I will say is, the number of people we have got in our organisation is tiny when you consider the something like 41 million licence holders in the country.” The transport committee says that the ABD are among a wide range of groups giving evidence to the inquiry, which has also included relatives of people killed in road crashes involving young drivers, groups that want tougher driving restrictions, and mainstream organisations such as the AA and RAC. The ABD, which has given evidence to transport committee inquiries in previous years, was invited to appear after it submitted written evidence. | ['world/road-safety', 'uk/uk', 'uk/transport', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/transport', 'politics/politics', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterwalker', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2020-10-21T06:00:28Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/blog/2007/nov/27/tescoturnsecowarrior | Can the suits really go green? | It's all bitterly unfair. For decades now environmentalists have frantically tried to warn everyone of impending doom, and for their pains they've been called hippies, freaks, crusties. Now, just like that, the Confederation of British Industry has gone bright green, overtaking the government's ambitions with one long stride. The CBI has always been the absolute devil, as far as environmentalists are concerned, and with good reason: for years it has rudely pooh-poohed any kind of greenery because it appears to come festooned with the sort of regulations and taxes they hate more than anything. But now it's turned on a sixpence. On Monday, at the beginning of its green themed annual conference, it brought out a report called Climate Change: Everyone's business. Panel discussions focussed on ethics and climate change (in fact Gordon Brown's speech, which dwelt lovingly on skills provision, seemed oddly ungreen in comparison to the wall to wall foliage on display here) with business leaders from Ben Verwaayen of BT, Philippe Varin of Corus and Sir Terry Leahy of Tesco lining up on stage to express their commitment to getting greenness into "the dna of business". The audience too were greener than a bunch of mildewed frogs: through handheld voting machines they expressed their opinions on whether there should be mandatory reporting for companies on green issues (49% said yes with a bit more work, and 33% just said yes); on whether their businesses had commitments to cut carbon (68% did); and on whether UK businesses will thrive in a low carbon world (wahay! A thumping 72% said yes). From zero to hero in just two years. Obviously it's partly spurred by the desire to dodge environmental regulation, and we saw a peep of that when Leahy was asked whether he would support a ban on plastic bags. He did not: what he wants is that "the green movement becomes a mass movement in green consumption". Similarly a question on actually cutting economic growth was dodged: no one wants to talk about unpleasant things like that. But what is very clear is that the CBI has got its house in order and it has got plans. It's interesting to look at where these plans intersect with the government's, and with the green lobby. Presumably in areas where the government and the CBI agree, we might as well give up now. So we'll be having more planes, and cars with higher fuel efficiency instead of fewer cars, thank you very much. You'd imagine that in areas where the greens are divided, we will also not be taking the decisions. So that's nuclear power, decentralised energy, and big investment in the carbon capture and sequestration market coming up soon. Everyone agrees that insulation is a good thing, and everyone wants more renewables, because the CBI now perceives them as an "opportunity". This is something to be highly prized: in fact there are many good things that are going to come out of the CBI's new greenness. For example it pointed out, embarrassingly for the government, that the UK's investment in energy-related research and development is about a third of the average in Europe. The government will no doubt leap to make up this shortfall. With the CBI on board these things will be taken seriously now, which will of course be gutting for those who've been saying them for 20-odd years. But it's a start, at least. However, the downside to all this is that the CBI is taking control of the agenda. It's very good at it too: they're incredibly positive about the whole thing and want to market the idea to people, instead of frightening them into action ("more carrot, less stick" as Leahy put it). It is very well-organised: all the microphones at this conference work, for example, in stark contrast to any green conference I've ever been to. However in other areas - anything which inconveniences it - it will just dig its powerful heels in, and the government will capitulate. Action on plastic bags, for example, has been referred by the prime minister to a forum of supermarkets, the British Retail Consortium and "other interested groups", who can just twiddle their thumbs for another year or two. And if the CBI does get properly going on this, certain ideals and dreams like localism, environmental justice, deep ecology, ideas which are very precious to most members of the environmental movement, may just not make it through. Unless the greens get suddenly very, very organised and start agreeing with each other, of course. It would be interesting to do a little vote about how likely you think that is. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'profile/bibivanderzee'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2007-11-27T15:56:16Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
culture/2022/sep/16/festival-of-thrift-redcar-make-do-and-mend-fair-grows-cost-of-living-bites | Festival of Thrift: make-do-and-mend fair grows as cost of living bites | In an office window on Redcar’s rainswept esplanade hangs a washing line of recycled paper, slowly drying after being pulped and having seeds embedded into it. Soon the paper will become business cards and leaflets. Inside the the office, organisers of a festival taking place on 24-25 September discuss what workshop should go where, from sessions on how to make your own laundry liquid and do-it-yourself aromatherapy, to lessons for children in sawing and hammering. The Festival of Thrift has been going for 10 years and, with little sign of the cost of living crisis easing, this year it seems more relevant than ever. It is the UK’s only national celebration of sustainable living and the core message remains the same, says the festival’s creative director, Stella Hall. “We have never lost that starting point which is thrift, make do and mend, keeping things rather than chucking them into landfill, fixing things rather than throwing them away, swapping things rather than putting them in the dump.” Over two days there will be food, music, art, interactive entertainment and a blizzard of workshops on how to make your own wildflower bombs, beeswax food wraps or clay mindfulness totems. The festival will take over the village of Kirkleatham, in the borough of Redcar, for two days. If visitors don’t wish to make things, there are free tips on basic budgeting by the Darlington Building Society and lessons in Japanese “boro” clothes-mending techniques. Hall, one of the festival founders, recalls how tricky it was in the early days to find sponsors. “One company said they would like to get involved but said ‘we’ve talked to our staff and they think it’s a bit too hippyish’. But, of course, everyone came with their families and they had a fantastic time and so the next year the perception had changed.” The organisers expected perhaps 5,000 visitors in the first year and about 25,000 people came. “We realised we had hit a zeitgeist. There were people wanting to learn old skills and share their knowledge and their stuff.” Last year, with very little time to organise the event because of the pandemic, there were close to 50,000 visitors. Art and artists will be at the heart of the festival, says Hall. “Artists are always at the forefront of our thinking because they can help you re-vision the future. In subtle ways, every year artists astound me with their ability to bring difficult concepts into a performance or an installation and really get our ideas across.” One highlight this year is a collaboration between the novelist and poet Ben Okri and the artist duo Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey. They will show a version of a work originally displayed at Tate Modern, in which Okri’s words – “Can’t you hear the future weeping? Our love must save the world” – were imprinted and grown in a large, living banner of grass. Other events include a popular swap shop, where someone might bring a pair of unused garden shears and come away with a new ice-cream machine. Long before BBC One’s The Repair Shop, the Festival of Thrift had its Fix It Cafe, which is less about cherished heirlooms and more about broken kettles, laptops or lawnmowers. Planning for the festival takes place all year round, and Hall is keen to point out: “It’s a communities festival. We listen. We ask what do you want? What do you need? What can you offer? What can you share?” It has important underlying messages about sustainable development but, Hall hopes, visitors won’t come away feeling they have been bashed over the head or preached to. The cost of living crisis has sharpened the minds of organisers. “It’s a responsibility to give people what they need, not just what you think will be fun and enjoyable,” says Hall. “Yes it is about fun as well as some very serious messaging.” How to make your own laundry detergent, by Lou Rea You will need: 1 cup of bicarbonate of soda 1 cup of soda crystals 5-10 drops organic essential oil (optional) 1-2 cups of soap flakes (optional) Mix everything together and store in an airtight container. To use: scoop 1/8 – 1/4 of a cup per wash. Note, if you leave the powder out in the open it hardens and you will lose the fragrance. Bicarb is a natural softener. You can also replace shop-bought liquid with distilled white vinegar. The vinegar smell disperses in the rinse wash. For this add a few drops of organic essential oil but steer clear of synthetic fragrance. Lavender and tea tree is a lovely blend. Add five drops of essential oil to a litre of distilled vinegar. Shake and store in a sealed glass bottle. Add one cup per wash. Lou Rea is an aromatherapist and will be leading the love your laundry workshop at the festival. The Festival of Thrift, 24-25 September, Kirkleatham, Redcar. | ['culture/festivals', 'culture/culture', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'business/cost-of-living-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/markbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-09-16T16:57:12Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
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