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news/2010/dec/06/weatherwatch-ben-nevis-clement-linley-wragge | Weatherwatch: The Victorian who climbed Ben Nevis every day | An extraordinary Victorian, Clement Linley Wragge, nicknamed Inclement, set himself the task of monitoring the weather on top of the UK's highest mountain, Ben Nevis. He was an enthusiast who climbed the mountain every day from 1 June to 14 October, 1881, recording readings at intervals, while his wife took measurements at sea level for comparison. It took Wragge an average 11 hours a day, and he repeated the feat over the same months during the next two years, before taking a post in Queensland, Australia as a meteorologist. Partly as a result of publicity about his exploits, enough funds had been raised by 1883 to build a path to the summit and an observatory: a small, square room with 3 metre thick walls. To help pay for it, walkers to the summit were charged a shilling (5p) and horse riders three shillings. A year later an office, two bedrooms and a visitors' room were added, together with a 10 metre tower, tall enough to rise above snowdrifts in winter. The observatory was always kept manned, with supplies of tinned food and coke brought up by horse in the summer. The hourly observations taken over 10 years from 1884, still preserved in Scotland, show that at the summit there were on average full gales on 261 days a year and an astonishing 4,350mm of rain. In 1904, as a cost cutting exercise, the government withdrew funding and the observatory fell into ruin. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'science/meteorology', 'science/science', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-12-06T00:05:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/jun/03/shoots-of-hope-in-an-appalachian-swamp-saving-marylands-last-american-larch-trees-aoe | Shoots of hope in Appalachian swamp as US larch tree is rescued from beavers | Gripping the long branch of a speckled alder tree, ecologist Deborah Landau slowly steps into the waist-deep murky water. “You can’t see anything, so watch your step,” she warns as she makes her way through the chilly labyrinth of the Finzel swamp preserve in Maryland. The swamp is a meditation for the senses: the sweet aroma of red spruce, the call of the locally rare alder flycatcher and an array of colour in what appears as endless blueberry and rhododendron shrubs. The preserve, owned by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in the central Appalachians of far western Maryland in the US, protects a rare boreal fen. Its most notable resident is the American larch (Larix laricina), or tamarack tree, a deciduous conifer that is the reason for Landau’s sojourn in the swamp. Lying within a “frost pocket” – a microclimate where cold air is trapped by the adjoining slopes and subject to frequent frosts – Finzel swamp provides a favourable year-round climate for the locally endangered larch and other more northern flora and fauna. It is as if a piece of the Pleistocene survived the warming epoch to remind us what life was once like in these ancient mountains. Due to changes in climate and water conditions, the larch has been lost at four sites in western Maryland. The only other population this far south – the tree is native to Canada and found in the upper northeastern US – is within the Cranesville swamp on the Maryland and West Virginia border, also owned by TNC. “Finzel was one of the first sites I worked on when I started at TNC because it was a high-priority site for restoration, but the larch were slowly dying,” says Landau. Homes at either end of the reserve and a road that crossed the swamp had changed the natural flow of water. Standing water was killing the larch, but repeated attempts to clear beaver dams from culverts under the road had been unsuccessful. Eventually, the homes were bought and removed and the road was re-engineered by replacing three large sections with bridges. Natural water flow was restored through the swamp, but the beavers began to build dams underneath the bridges. While the benefits of beavers as a keystone species are well-known, their dams can prove problematic. “We regularly visit the swamp to do maintenance on our beaver baffles,” says Landau. Baffles are long pipes used to mitigate the negative effects of beaver dams, such as flooded roads, damage to property and, in Finzel, preventing larch regeneration. The pipes divert some water to flow through the dam without breaching it and maintain the natural ecology of the wetland. Dams built under the bridges, however, must be removed. “Otherwise, the beaver dams cause the water to back up and flood the larch,” says Landau. While a return to the more natural water flow benefits the entire swamp and prevents the larch from perishing in floods, the trees also need space to regenerate. “I’d walked all the way across the swamp and found no signs of larch regeneration,” recalls Landau of her first trip to the swamp. “The shrubs were just too thick, even in areas not in standing water.” Initially, three openings were made under mature larch. The shrubs had to be cleared in the middle of winter when the swamp was frozen because of the threat of high water. Only after the road restoration was complete and water levels had dropped was Landau able to check the trees’ progress in the clearings. Fortunately, the fruits of this “wild gardening” technique were successful. “We started seeing regeneration of the larch about two years after we created the openings,” says Landau. “It was very exciting!” The problem with shrubs is they grow back – and fast – which means the work must go on. To reach the larch clearings, Landau and her team must travel through thigh-deep swamp and almost impenetrable alder thickets. Once they arrive at an opening, the shearing and pruning begin. Soon, large mounds of shrub trimmings appear next to the larch and swamp ferns. The regeneration is unmistakable in the clearing Landau is visiting today. She points to some young, almost two-metre tall trees near a mature, larger larch. She also discovers a very young tree reaching slightly above ankle height. Some are beginning to show the rich golden needles of autumn, the larch’s most notable characteristic. Regeneration has not been seen anywhere else in the reserve other than the openings. This suggests that the swamp structure has changed so much that the larch is unable to regenerate on its own without Landau and her team maintaining the openings. Landau is also re-establishing Finzel’s red spruce population, the reserve’s other northern conifer. A University of Vermont study found that the populations at Finzel and Cranesville swamps have extremely low genetic variation, due to isolation. Now, locally collected spruce seedlings have been planted in both reserves. It is hoped the spruce will do as well as the larch. “Seeing the larch return to the openings has made all the work we’ve done worth it,” says Landau. “Knowing that the trees are viable and all they need is a little help from us to clear the way, gives me a deep sense of satisfaction that I’m one of its caretakers, and that we’re doing the right thing.” Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/forests', 'us-news/maryland', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'environment/mountains', 'environment/mammals', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-06-03T10:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2021/dec/03/us-state-department-officials-iphones-hacked-nso-group-spyware | NSO Group spyware used to hack at least nine US officials’ phones – report | The iPhones of at least nine US state department officials were recently hacked by a government using NSO Group spyware, according to a new report that raised serious questions about the use of Israeli surveillance tools against US government officials around the world. The claim, which was reported by Reuters, comes just weeks after the Biden administration placed NSO on a US blacklist and said the surveillance company acted “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US”. According to Reuters, at least nine state department officials were hacked in the attack over the last several months, and the individuals who were targeted were either based in Uganda or focused on matters concerning the east African country. Reuters said it could not determine which NSO client was behind the attack. NEWA National Security Council spokesperson said in response to the Reuters report: “We have been acutely concerned that commercial spyware like NSO Group’s software poses a serious counterintelligence and security risk to US personnel, which is one of the reasons why the Biden-Harris administration has placed several companies involved in the development and proliferation of these tools on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List.” The news comes just days after Apple launched a lawsuit against NSO and reports emerged that the tech giant was beginning to alert victims around the world who had been compromised by the hacking tool. Once NSO’s spyware – known as Pegasus – is successfully launched, it can hack into a mobile phone and intercept all communications, including encrypted messages. It can also turn any phone into a listening device, because once infected, a user of Pegasus can remotely control a mobile phone’s recorder and camera. In a statement released in response to the Reuters story, NSO said it had decided to “immediately terminate relevant customers’ access to the system, due to the severity of the allegations”. Pressed by the Guardian to identify the customers who had been cut off, an NSO spokesperson said the company would not disclose information about its customers. NSO said it had not received any information about the specific phone numbers that were targeted in the attack and had no indication that NSO tools were used in this case. “On top of the independent investigation, NSO will cooperate with any relevant government authority and present the full information we will have,” the company said. NSO also reiterated that its technologies are blocked from working on US numbers, but said it had “no way to know” who the targets of its customers are and would therefore not have been aware of this case. Researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto recently discovered the code behind an NSO exploit that was alleged to have been used to infect iPhones as recently as this July. The exploit, which was then promptly fixed by Apple, used a vulnerability in the company’s iMessage function on all Apple products. NSO has signalled that it would seek to convince the Biden administration to remove its name from the blacklist. But the latest revelation raises serious doubt that this will occur anytime soon. Apple said it had no comment on the latest allegations. While the report alleges the confirmed hack of US officials by a user of NSO surveillance tools, it is not the first time American citizens are believed to have been targeted. In July, the Pegasus Project, an investigation into NSO by the Guardian and other media outlets, which worked in coordination with the French non-profit media group Forbidden Stories, revealed evidence of attacks against American journalists and others. Among the Americans who were hacked was Carine Kanimba, an activist and daughter of Paul Rusesabagina, the imprisoned Rwandan activist who gained international fame for inspiring the film Hotel Rwanda, about the Rwandan genocide. Kanimba is one of dozens of individuals who it is strongly suspected have been targeted. Rwandan authorities have staunchly denied having access to NSO Group technology, but have long been suspected of being a client of the Israeli firm. The Pegasus Project also reported that the US phone number of a senior US diplomat, Robert Malley, who currently serves as the Biden administration’s envoy to Iran and was one of the lead negotiators of the Obama administration’s Iran deal, appears to have been selected as a person of interest by an NSO customer. There is no evidence that Malley was hacked and NSO has staunchly denied that the leaked database at the heart of the Pegasus Project was connected to the company or its clients. NSO has said its government clients are prevented from deploying its software against US numbers because it has been made “technically impossible”. Reuters reported that the most “victims” who have recently been notified by Apple that they were hacked were “easily identifiable” as US government employees because of their associated email addresses, which ended in state.gov. A senior Biden administration official, speaking to Reuters on condition that he not be identified, said the threat to US personnel abroad was one of the reasons the administration was cracking down on companies such as NSO and pursuing new global discussion about spying limits. The official added that they have seen “systemic abuse” in multiple countries involving NSO’s Pegasus spyware. | ['world/surveillance', 'technology/hacking', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-national-security', 'technology/data-computer-security', 'us-news/biden-administration', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stephanie-kirchgaessner', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-foreign'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-12-03T18:36:58Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2006/oct/30/uknews.recycling | Down in black and white: 'cows' that eat rubbish | Since council chiefs in Lewisham in south-east London painted their recycling bins to look like black-and-white cows the amount of refuse collected by the authority has risen by 60%. The "herd" of Cowbins, which have been sprayed to look like Friesian cattle, stand on sites painted green to look like grass and locals are urged to "feed" them with rubbish for recycling. Council spokesman Andrew Winter said: "People seem to like the idea of feeding them - children especially tell us they want to fatten them up and we hope that schools will get their own Cowbins." | ['environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews2'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2006-10-30T00:41:57Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2013/oct/31/halloween-treats-fuelling-rainforest-destruction | Are your Halloween treats fuelling rainforest destruction? | When you hand out sweets to trick or treaters knocking at your front door tonight, it might not just be rotten eggs or teeth you have to worry about. The campaign group Rainforest Action Network (RAN) has warned that the tonnes of goodies given out on 31 October could be inadvertently fuelling the destruction of rainforests in south east Asia and devastating the habitat of endangered orangutans. RAN is calling on America's 20 biggest snack companies, including global giants Mars, Mondelez, Nestle and Kellogg, to phase out the use of palm oil that has been linked to rainforest destruction. Many of the companies on the list have already committed to source palm oil from sources that have been certified as sustainable. For example, Unilever, which buys 3% of global palm oil supply, is seeking to source all its palm oil from certified, traceable sources by 2020, while Nestle says all of the palm oil it uses is already certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Similarly, Mars said it is halfway to a target to supply all palm oil from certified sources by 2015, while Kellogg maintains that all of its palm oil is sustainably sourced through a combination of certificates, mass balance, and segregated sustainably grown supply. But a recent report by RAN found that none of the "Snack Food 20" companies can yet prove their products do not contain palm oil from plantations connected to rainforest destruction, high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, or human rights abuses. "In the 21st century customers don't want to buy candy and cookies that are responsible for pushing the world's last wild orangutans to extinction and for horrifying child labour violations," said Lindsey Allen, executive director of Rainforest Action Network in a statement. "That's why Rainforest Action Network is putting these top 20 snack food companies using "Conflict Palm Oil" on notice that it's time to develop responsible policies and create products that reflect the values of their customers and the needs of our planet." The campaign comes after Greenpeace last month accused the RSPO of failing to adequately enforce its sustainability code of conduct that is designed to help curb deforestation and certify palm oil from plantations that adhere to agreed environmental best practices, including no burning policies. A Greenpeace report claimed that a high proportion of the forest fire "hotspots" in the province of Riau on the island of Sumatra took place in areas or concessions owned by members of the RSPO. But the RSPO subsequently hit back at the claims, arguing the evidence of violations of its code of practice was flawed and insisting that where RSPO members had been found to be in breach of its qualifying criteria urgent action was taken. | ['environment/series/guardian-environment-network', 'environment/environment', 'environment/palm-oil', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/indonesia', 'world/world', 'lifeandstyle/halloween', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'tone/news'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-10-31T10:03:51Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2019/sep/10/has-hurricane-dorian-sparked-climate-apartheid | The plight of Hurricane Dorian evacuees offers a frightening vision of 'climate apartheid' | Arwa Mahdawi | This week started out like most weeks for Donald Trump: a Monday morning spent sending a flurry of unhinged tweets then a quick break to indulge in some offline racism. Addressing reporters on the White House lawn before heading to a campaign rally, Trump said he was keeping a close eye on the situation in the Bahamas. Particularly since the people fleeing the grim aftermath of Hurricane Dorian and trying to come to America might be dangerous drug dealers. Presumably because they are black. “The Bahamas had some tremendous problems with people going to the Bahamas that weren’t supposed to be there,” Trump said. “I don’t want to allow people that weren’t supposed to be in the Bahamas to come into the United States, including some very bad people and some very bad gang members and some very, very bad drug dealers.” Like most things Trump says, this statement is very, very removed from reality. But who needs facts when you can appeal to racist feelings? Trump’s smearing of Hurricane Dorian survivors builds on his tried-and-tested strategy of dehumanising non-white people by describing them as “bad hombres,” rapists and MS-13 gang members. It builds on his strategy of describing any non-white person seeking refuge in America as a threat to the country. Trump’s comments, it should be noted, were prompted by a question about an incident on Sunday in which 119 Bahamian evacuees, including children, were told to get off a ferry bound for Florida because they didn’t have US visas. This came as a shock because Bahamians don’t need visas to visit America if they don’t have a police record and plan a short stay. According to an American reporter on the ferry, the evacuees he spoke to didn’t plan to move to the US, “They were coming to go grocery shopping, stay in a hotel with AC [air conditioning], chill for a little and then head back.” Nobody is entirely sure where the last-minute visa order came from. The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency’s Florida office initially pointed the blame at Baleària, the ferry company. “It breaks my heart,” a CBP spokesman told Newsweek on Monday. “It’s like when you raise somebody’s hopes and then you pop the balloon ...That, in my opinion, is what Baleària did.” Baleària, on the other hand, has said it was advised of the documentation requirements by the CBP. Meanwhile, Trump’s acting CBP head, Mark Morgan, blamed the ferry fiasco on confusion. It is perfectly possible that nothing more insidious than administrative confusion led to those 119 Bahamians being kicked off a ferry. But Trump’s comments about “very bad people” also means it’s perfectly possible that more malicious motives were at play. No matter who is at fault, however, this episode should leave us all very unsettled. As the climate crisis progresses, there will be more climate migrants seeking temporary or permanent reprieve. They will not be met with open arms and open borders. They will be met with no legal recognition and little protection, as they won’t have refugee status. They will be met with racism. They will be met, as a UN expert recently warned, with a growing system of climate apartheid. And, if the likes of Katie Hopkins (Trump’s favourite Brit) have their way, eventually they will be met with gun boats. | ['type/article', 'tone/comment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/hurricane-dorian', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/bahamas', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'media/katie-hopkins', 'profile/arwa-mahdawi', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features'] | world/hurricane-dorian | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-09-10T11:17:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/apr/01/air-pollution-falling-london-millions-still-exposed | Air pollution falling in London but millions still exposed | Two million people in London are living with illegal air pollution, according to the most recent data. However, nitrogen dioxide levels are falling and could reach legal levels within six years. In 2017, London saw its first breach of annual pollution limits just five days into the new year and in 2018 it occurred within a month. However, three months into 2019, no such breaches have taken place. In 2016, the last year in which Boris Johnson was mayor of London, there had been 43 breaches by this time. The new data is an update of the London Atmospheric Emission Inventory, which now includes 2016, the latest year available. It shows 2 million people living in areas with toxic air, including 400,000 children. It also shows that between 2013 and 2016, total nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions fell by 9%. However, over the same period, the number of primary schools in illegally polluted areas barely changed, going from 371 to 369, while the number of secondary schools affected grew from 81 to 86, according to City Hall. Sadiq Khan, who has been mayor of London since May 2016, has moved the cleanest buses to the most polluted routes and introduced a charge for highly polluting vehicles that enter the city centre. This is being toughened from 8 April with the start of an ultra low emission zone (Ulez) that penalises more diesel cars, the primary source of NO2. “From the very outset I have been crystal clear that I would do everything in my power to tackle London’s toxic air crisis,” said Khan. “The data I’ve published today gives an even clearer picture of the urgent need to take action.” He said the Ulez would be the first in the world to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Ministers have been defeated three times in the high court over the inadequacy of their national action plans. The latest plan, described by environmental lawyers as “pitiful”, revealed that air pollution was much worse than previously believed. Air pollution causes at least 40,000 early deaths in the UK from lung and heart disease, but it is being linked to an increasing range of health impacts, from miscarriage to teenage psychosis. “London needs effective measures to improve air quality to an acceptable level at which it is not having a negative influence on children’s health,” said Prof Frank Kelly at King’s College London. “I applaud the mayor and his team for taking the bold action needed to protect the health of London’s children.” A recent KCL study looking at the rate of reduction in NO2 levels across London found that the trend between 2010 and 2016 under Johnson meant it would have taken 193 years to reach legal levels. Further KCL modelling indicates the new policies mean this time period has been reduced to just six years. | ['environment/air-pollution', 'uk/london', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-04-01T13:06:21Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/2009/jan/22/sellafield | Speaker to investigate 'rigging of parliamentary procedure' in Sellafield deal | A government decision to rush through a scheme indemnifying a US-led private consortium who took over Sellafield from any liability for a nuclear accident is to be investigated by the Speaker of the Commons, Michael Martin. He has accepted a complaint from Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport, that former energy minister Malcolm Wicks had not properly consulted MPs when he granted the consortium, made up of the American company URS Washington, French firm Areva and the UK company Amec, an indemnity. Wicks used emergency procedures – and informed two select committee chairmen just before the parliamentary summer recess – because he said it was urgent to sign the deal. The consortium had threatened to walk away unless Britain waived its rights to charge companies the first £140m for the costs of any accident. The contract is worth £6.5bn over five years and could be renewed for a further 12 years.. His action was strongly defended by his successor, Mike O'Brien, when the matter was debated last month. Now following the release of 140 pages of emails under the Freedom of Information Act by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority it is revealed that civil servants were aware three months before the application was made to parliament they would have to apply for the indemnity. Flynn said: "This was a deliberate, cunning, planned conspiracy to ensure that parliament could not comment or ask questions. We were gagged. It the worst example of rigging parliamentary procedure I have experienced in 21 years." Today he was joined by David Heath, the Liberal Democrats' shadow leader of the house, who claimed they had been an abuse of procedures. He said MPs were not been able to properly scrutinise the granting of the contract to run the nuclear processing site. MPs would normally be given 14 days to object to public liabilities of more than £250,000, but were not able to in this case because the parliamentary recess meant politicians were not informed until 75 days after the last chance for them to oppose the deal. Heath said of the episode: "I think that is an egregious abuse of the house and its procedures." He called on leader of the Commons,Harriet Harman, to undertake a "proper investigation" and report back to MPs. "We simply cannot have the financial scrutiny afforded to members of this house diverted in this way by ministers," he said. Harman said he should raise the issue with the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Ministers have not commented on the decision since the Speaker decided to investigate. | ['politics/houseofcommons', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'politics/michaelmartin', 'tone/news', 'politics/commons-speaker', 'type/article', 'profile/davidhencke'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-01-23T00:05:05Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2009/jul/16/uk-coal-record-losses | Biggest UK coalminer to report record £82m loss | Britain's biggest coalmining company warned today that it expects to make a record first-half pretax loss of £82m compared with a loss of £9.9m over the same period last year because of higher production costs and a fall in coal prices. UK Coal expects full-year deep mine production to rise to 6.75m tonnes from 6.2m tonnes a year ago. Total first-half production was flat at 3.7m tonnes, the company said. It spent £155m on production at its deep mines in the first half of the year, compared with £136.3m last year. It now expects these mines to make a loss of about £35m, compared with a loss of £24.2m a year earlier. "We have deliberately increased the amount of deep mine development work we undertake alongside coal production," said the Doncaster-based company. "This increases costs in the short term but will enable a smoother flow of future coal production and minimise face gaps, consequentially benefiting future production volumes." The firm said that net debt at the end of June would total £145m, up from £137.1m at the end of December. UK Coal, which has a large property portfolio, has also been affected by the downturn in the housing market. Its wholly owned subsidiary, Harworth Estates, which manages a large portfolio that includes agricultural land originally acquired for its underlying coal reserves and the sites of former mines, has seen its portfolio fall £37m in value. "Whilst agricultural land prices have continued to improve, the market for redevelopment land has been particularly subdued and, not surprisingly, the valuations of this land have fallen, despite planning progress," said UK Coal. "Business park valuations have also reduced, reflecting increased yields on shorter term commercial tenancies. "Overall, we are therefore expecting the valuation on Harworth Estates to have fallen by around 9% in the first half, resulting in a first half non-cash valuation loss in the income statement of some £37m." Last year, the company reported a loss of £15.6m. Shares in the company closed down 5p or 4.07% at 117.5p. | ['business/mining', 'business/ukcoal', 'business/recession', 'environment/coal', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/kathrynhopkins', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2009-07-16T17:48:51Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2015/oct/27/au-burundi-malgre-les-troubles-politiques-les-projets-de-centrales-solaires-sont-mis-en-route | Au Burundi, malgré les troubles politiques, les projets de centrales solaires sont mis en route | Lorsque des entrepreneurs et des membres du gouvernement ont signé un accord sur la première centrale solaire au Burundi, l’avenir de cette nation pleine d’énergie semblait très prometteur. Le lendemain, des tirs se faisaient entendre dans les rues et des bâtiments prenaient feu – un général rebelle essayait de prendre le pouvoir. Tels sont les défis de l’exploitation des énergies renouvelables dans l’un des pays les plus instables d’Afrique. « On était tellement excité », se souvient Lazare Sebitereko, directeur du programme pour le Burundi de l’entreprise spécialisée dans le développement solaire et social Gigawatt Global. « Ça nous a contrarié, car on voulait commencer notre projet. On ne s’est pas arrêté mais la progressions est lente par rapport à ce à quoi on s’attendait. » Néanmoins, Sebitereko espère que les travaux débuteront d’ici la fin de l’année. Ils doivent porter sur une centrale solaire de 7,5 megawatts (MW) qui changera l’existence des habitants de ce petit pays enclavé où seul un habitant sur 25 à un accès résidentiel à l’électricité. L’énergie sera acheminée sur 17 hectares dans le village de Mubuga (province de Gitega), à 105 km de la capitale, Bujumbura. Gigawatt Global tire des leçons du Rwanda voisin, où l’entreprise a ouvert l’année dernière le plus grand champ solaire (d’une capacité de 8,5 MW) de l’Afrique de l’Est. Mais malgré les similitudes au niveau du climat, de la topographie et de la culture, le Burundi est une option risquée et bien moins prévisible. Sebitereko et Jean-Jacques Nyenimigabo, un conseiller du président burundais, ont visité le site isolé en septembre pendant un voyage où ils étaient plongés dans un paysage de collines et vallées verdoyantes à vous couper le souffle. Mubuga n’a jamais était électrifié et se trouve à 11 km du réseau électrique le plus proche. Nyenimigabo, qui se trouvait dans sa propre circonscription, a assuré les habitants qui l’écoutaient avec attention qu’ils allaient profiter des bienfaits de cet investissement de 22 millions de dollars. « Ce serait dommage que Mubuga produise de l’électricité pour d’autres villes sans qu’on en bénéficie », remarquait-il. « Mais faites-nous confiance. Une partie de cette énergie sera destinée à la population locale. Quels qu’en soit les bénéficiaires, on fera partie des premiers à en profiter. » La centrale permettra de créer 300 postes dans l’entretien, la construction et l’assistance, dont au moins 40% destinés aux femmes, avait alors promis Nyemigabo. « Les hommes dépensent leur argent en s’achetant de l’alcool. Avec les femmes, on sait que l’argent sert à nourrir la famille. » Gigawatt Global va également répartir 100 panneaux solaires entre les dirigeants locaux. L’un d’entre eux, Placide Manirambona, 34 ans, s’en réjouit : « Ce projet est plus que bienvenu car nous vivons dans l’obscurité et sommes contraints d’aller dormir dès qu’il fait nuit. Nous sommes contents que ce projet s’accompagne d’initiatives de développement. » Manirambona ajoute : « Nous espérons que l’énergie solaire réduira le nombre d’arbres abattus dont on se sert pour le bois de chauffage et le charbon de bois car l’électricité peut être une alternative dans la cuisine. Le projet nous permettra d’obtenir de meilleurs résultats dans l’éducation. Les élèves qui ne pouvaient pas faire leurs devoirs dans le noir pourront à présent réviser. Leur vue ne se détériorera plus en raison d’un éclairage inadapté. Si ce projet réussit, d’autres communautés pourront suivre notre exemple car nombreux sont les pays qui manquent d’électricité. Si le soleil peut nous en procurer, de nouvelles perspectives s’offrent à nous. » Le Burundi a certainement besoin de plus de sources d’énergie. Les infrastructures installées ont une capacité de production d’à peine 52 MW, dont 15,5 MW produits par des générateurs au diesel. Les coupures de courant influent sur le mode de vie et limitent fortement les activités de certaines filières comme le secteur minier. Sebitereko pense que le projet, cofinancé par des subventions américaines, britanniques, finlandaises et autrichiennes, donnera également à la communauté le sentiment de posséder ses ressources et aura des retombées sur la formation et l’emploi sur le long terme. « Le lien entre le projet et l’éducation est primordial. Demain, nous auront besoin de techniciens et nous ne voulons pas être dépendants de l’étranger. Demain, nous pourrons nous occuper nous-mêmes de l’entretien et faire partie du système. Parmi les enfants qui grandissent avec ces technologies, il y en a qui vont travailler sur ces sites, non pas qu’en tant qu’ouvriers mais aussi comme techniciens. » Toutefois, cette grande vision a été mise à mal par les récents bouleversements à Bujumbura. Des manifestations ont éclaté au mois d’avril contre le président Pierre Nkurunziza qui s’était porté candidat pour un troisième mandat, une décision largement condamnée et considérée comme anticonstitutionnelle. On estime qu’au moins une centaine de personnes ont trouvé la mort dans ces affrontements. En mai, le général Godefroid Niyombare a déclaré que Nkurunziza a été evincé. Mais le président a réaffirmé son contrôle. Le coup d’État manqué s’est produit le lendemain de la signature du contrat relatif à la centrale solaire. C’était la dernière chose dont avait besoin Gigawatt Global. Michael Fichtenberg, son directeur général au Burundi, a qualifié le contexte d’« inquiétants » tout en ajoutant : « Nous demandons à la communauté internationale qu’elle nous apporte un financement et nous permette de mener à bien ce projet. » This is part of the Guardian’s Keep it in the Ground campaign. Find out more and sign up here Traduction: Frédéric Schneider/VoxEurop | ['environment/series/keep-it-in-the-ground', 'world/burundi', 'tone/features', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/solarpower', 'world/africa', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'world/world', 'world/series/the-guardian-in-french', 'type/article', 'world/series/the-guardian-in-translation'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2015-10-27T13:01:10Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/aug/06/uk-risks-losing-out-europe-home-battery-boom-report-warns | UK risks losing out to Europe in home battery boom, report warns | The UK risks being left behind in Europe’s home battery boom because of a controversial tax hike on solar-battery systems, according to a report. The energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie has predicted that Europe’s home battery capacity could climb fivefold in the next five years as more households plug their rooftop solar panels into battery packs. The analysts expect that by 2024, annual home battery installations across Europe could total more than 500MW, the equivalent of building a new gas-fired power plant every year. The report said the battery boom had already taken hold in Germany and would accelerate across Italy and Spain as battery power became more economic. However, the UK is likely to lag behind its European neighbours due to its “unfavourable” policy frameworks and a VAT increase for solar-battery packs this October. Rory McCarthy, a senior researcher at Wood Mackenzie, said Germany’s lead had made Europe the largest residential storage market globally. “Off the back of Germany’s success, residential storage is beginning to proliferate into other European countries, particularly where market structures, prevailing power prices and disappearing feed-in tariffs create a favourable early stage deployment landscape,” he said. “The economics of storage have been challenging in the past, however we are in the midst of an economic tipping point.” The UK’s laggard status comes after the government vowed to put energy storage at the heart of its plans for a cheap and clean energy system, which included a £246m pledge to develop battery technology. Greg Clark, the former business secretary, said the falling cost of energy storage meant it had a role to play in making renewable energy “abundant”. It will be more difficult for households to access the potential of low-cost renewable energy after the VAT hike on solar batteries installed from October. The UK has blamed EU rules for the VAT change, a claim disputed by Molly Scott Cato, a Green MEP for South West England. “There is appetite from [UK] utilities and technology providers but the market has no incentives so is lagging behind thus far,” said the report. “The recent VAT increase from 5% to 20% confirmed to begin in October 2019 is not an effective way to kickstart a market with challenging economics.” | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/green-economy', 'politics/hmrc', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2019-08-06T18:56:28Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2013/nov/08/typhoon-haiyan-biggest-storms | Typhoon Haiyan the biggest yet as world's tropical storms gather force | When typhoon Haiyan - known in the Philippines as Yolanda - pounded into the islands of Samar and Leyte at 4.40am after picking up speed on a 900-mile track across the Pacific, the US navy's warning centre, JTWC, in Honolulu, calculated its winds to be gusting at up to 235mph (380kph). This would make it the fourth most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded and possibly the strongest to have ever hit land. By comparison, St Jude, the storm that hit in southern England last month, had winds gusting to 99mph. As Filipino communities calculated the flood and wind damage done in the 25-mile-wide path of the storm, meteorologists questioned claims that Haiyan was the strongest ever to make landfall. "All we can say at this stage is maybe. The estimates of wind strength and central pressure are just that – estimates – albeit from well-attested satellite techniques developed over decades. Without ground observations right in the centre of the track we can never be totally sure," said Julian Heming, tropical prediction scientist at the Met Office. Haiyan is the third Category 5 "super typhoon" to hit the Philippines since 2010. "In 2010 Megi peaked at 180mph winds but killed only 35 people, and did $276m in damage. But Bopha, which hit the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on 3 December, 2012 , left 1,901 people dead and was the costliest natural disaster in Philippines history at the time," said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at US-based Weather Underground in his daily blog. According to the Philippine government, the area's typhoons have been getting stronger. "Menacingly, the Filipino typhoons are getting stronger and stronger, especially since the 90s," said Romulo Virola, head of the government's national statistics board. "From 1947 to 1960, the strongest typhoon to hit us was Amy in December 1951 with a highest wind speed recorded at 240kph in Cebu. From 1961 to 1980, Sening was the record holder with a highest wind speed of 275kph in October 1970. During the next 20 years, the highest wind speed was recorded by Anding and Rosing at 260kph. In the current millennium, the highest wind speed has soared to 320kph recorded by Reming in Nov-Dec 2006. If this is due to climate change, we better be prepared for even stronger ones in the future." The steady warming of the oceans is likely to lead to fewer but stronger tropical typhoons, said scientists from the intergovernmental panel on climate change in a special report on climate extremes this year. "The average tropical cyclone maximum wind speed is likely to increase, but the global frequency of tropical cyclones is likely to decrease or remain unchanged," it said. A record seven typhoons developed across the west Pacific during October, beating beat the previous record of six in 1989. Nearly one-third of the world's tropical storms form within the western Pacific and many track due west to the Philippines archipelago, the first major landmass they meet. In a normal season, only three or four typhoons develop. Other regions are also experiencing some of their strongest storms in years. Last month, cyclone Phailin, which gusted at up to 160mph (260kph) forced 500,000 people in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states, India, to flee their homes. The Atlantic hurricane season has been one of the quietest on record in 2013 but in September hurricane Manuel was one of the worst in Mexico's history, causing $4bn worth of damage. Earlier this year the World Meteorological Organisation calculated that tropical cyclones had killed nearly 170,000 people in 2000-2010, and affected more than 250 million, causing economic damage of $380bn. After roaring across the Philippines, typhoon Haiyan is expected to move into the South China Sea and eventually hit Vietnam and Laos. "Once Haiyan exits into the South China Sea, it will steadily decay, due to colder waters and higher wind shear. However, it will still be a formidable Category 1 or 2 typhoon when it hits Vietnam and Laos, and I expect that the 12 or more inches of rain that the storm will dump on those nations will make it a top-five most expensive natural disaster in their history," said Masters. | ['world/typhoon-haiyan', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'world/philippines', 'world/asia-pacific', 'tone/analysis', 'science/meteorology', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-11-08T20:15:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/audio/2008/feb/01/tech.weekly.podcast | Tech Weekly Extra podcast: Microsoft makes an audacious bid to buy Yahoo for $44.6bn | We were so excited about Microsoft's audacious bid to buy Yahoo that we managed to squeeze ourselves into the studio here at the Guardian Gulag and record an additional podcast - our first Tech Extra. Bobbie Johnson is joined by Charles Arthur and Jemima Kiss as they ponder the whys and wherefores - and leave you wondering what $44bn really looks like. (What do you think? Shall we call them 'Microhoo'?) | ['technology/technology', 'technology/yahoo-takeover', 'technology/microsoft', 'technology/yahoo', 'business/technology', 'technology/series/techweekly', 'tone/news', 'media/media', 'business/business', 'type/podcast', 'type/audio'] | technology/yahoo-takeover | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-02-01T18:08:55Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2019/dec/14/indigenous-boy-15-murdered-on-brazils-amazon-border | Indigenous boy, 15, murdered on Brazil's Amazon border | A 15-year-old indigenous boy has been murdered in Brazil on the edge of a heavily deforested indigenous reserve in the state of Maranhão, on the fringes of the Amazon. The murder, the fourth from the Guajajara tribe in recent weeks, came as a wave of racist abuse against indigenous people swept social media in the state. The Indigenous Missionary Council(CIMI), a non-profit group reported that Erisvan Soares Guajajara’s body was found with knife wounds on Friday in Amarante do Maranhão. The group said he had travelled to the town, on the edge of the Araribóia indigenous reserve, with his father. The G1 news site reported that a non-indigenous man called Roberto Silva, 31, was also killed with Erisvan and that both died in the early hours of Friday at a party in an area called Vila Industrial. “Another brutal crime against the Guajajara people,” tweeted Sonia Guajajara, a leader from the same tribe and reserve who is executive coordinator of Brazilian indigenous association ABIP. “Everyone who doesn’t like us feels allowed to kill because they know impunity rules. It’s time to say ENOUGH.” Murders of indigenous people soared 23% in 2018, according to CIMI figures, and land invasions have risen since far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took office in January. He has compared indigenous people living on reserves to “prehistoric men” and said their lands should be developed. In a statement, the state government of Maranhão said preliminary investigations indicated “the crime was not motivated by hate, land disputes or deforestation in indigenous reserves”. Brazil’s indigenous agency Funai said it was following the case. Erisvan lived in the Araribóia indigenous reserve, which has been decimated by loggers. A group of Guajajara forest guardians expelled loggers from the reserve but have faced threats and violent attacks. In November, the guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara was killed by loggers in an ambush and another, Laércio Guajajara, was shot and injured. Loggers in illegal vehicles operate openly around Amarante yet police rarely intervene. “There is a lot of racism against indigenous in Amarante,” said Gilderlan Rodrigues, CIMI’s Maranhão coordinator. The group said Erisvan’s family refuted comments by local police linking the killings to the drug trade. Last Saturday, two Guajajara leaders – Firmino Silvino Guajajara and Raimundo Bernice Guajajara – were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting on a highway in the nearby Cana Brava indigenous reserve in the same state. Two others were injured. The men were returning from a meeting when a group of men in a white car opened fire. A Funai official said the killing could have been related to frequent robberies on the highway which crosses the reserve but Maranhão’s human rights society blamed rising prejudice. Since then a wave of racist abuse has swept social media in the region. “Those who fired should have killed at least 50,” said one local on a WhatsApp group. “The government should throw a bomb and exterminate these disgraceful indigenous,” said another. “These are common people … inciting crimes against indigenous people,” said Érika Nogueira, the director of the Ascalwa indigenous association. “That is what is most worrying, it is civil society.” | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dom-phillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-14T00:25:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2024/mar/01/documented-sex-male-humpback-whales-gay-lesbian-nonbinary-queer-cetaceans-sexuality | Gay, lesbian and intersex whales: our queer sea has much to teach us | Whales are extraordinarily sensuous creatures. Those blubbery bodies are highly sensitive, and sensitised. At social meetings, pods of sperm, humpback and right whales will roll around one another’s bodies for hours at a time. I’ve seen a group of right whales engaged in foreplay and penetration lasting an entire morning. I have also watched a male-female couple so blissfully conjoined that they appeared unbothered by our little fishing boat as they passed underneath it. And in what may sound like a career of cetacean voyeurism, I have also been caught up in a fast-moving superpod of dusky dolphins continually penetrating each other at speed, regardless of the gender of their partner. That’s why this week’s report of the first scientifically documented male-to-male sexual interactions between two humpback whales off the coast of Hawaii is not surprising. The remarkable image of a two-metre whale penis entering another male “leaves little room for discussion that there is a sexual component to such behaviour”, as one whale scientist, Jeroen Hoekendijk at the Wageningen Marine Research institute in the Netherlands, notes drily. In fact, one of the whales was ailing and there has been speculation that the encounter may not have been consensual or that the healthy whale was actually giving comfort to the other. Whatever the truth, such “flagrant” acts also expose many of our human presumptions about sexuality, gender and identity. Off the north-west Pacific coast of the US, male orcas often leave family pods to rub their erections against each other’s bellies. But females have also reportedly been seen engaging in sexual contact with one another, too. Indeed, the graphic accounts of male-to-male behaviour may mask many “unseen” female-to-female sexual interactions. Dr Conor Ryan, an honorary research fellow at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, notes: “It’s easy to visibly identify male ‘homosexual’ sex when an extruded penis can be two metres long.” It is less easy to diagnose when female sperm whales are seen “cuddling”, as Hoekendijk observes. Ryan has often witnessed same-sex behaviour between whales and dolphins. “I am interested in the things that we miss,” he says. He has recorded competitive behaviour by humpback whales in groups that seemed to be typically male, such as pursuing other whales. But they proved, from DNA samples, to be genetically female. He speculates that humpback females may even use whale song – hitherto thought to be the province of mating males. “If I were a female being harassed by horny males, maybe I would sing too,” says Ryan. “To attract more females, to take attention off me, while masquerading as a male.” *** These observations throw up new ideas about the way these animals behave. Whale society is almost overwhelmingly matriarchal. Female sperm whales, for example, travel in large groups – sometimes thousands strong – in which males are only “useful” for their sperm, visiting the groups briefly, then leaving the females to their own society. Male-oriented science has in the past made various judgments regarding sexual behaviour. But the idea of lesbian whales should not be surprising. Ryan even cites the case of a “non-binary” beaked whale, which was discovered to have both male and female genitalia. Even identifying as a species can be fluid for cetaceans. In 2022, near Caithness in Scotland, a bottlenose dolphin was found to be identifying as a porpoise, swimming with a pod of porpoises and using their vocalisations. In one of the great queer pairings of the 20th century, Virginia Woolf referred to her lover, Vita Sackville-West, as “my porpoise”. *** We cannot know how whales and dolphins themselves regard genital interactions. But in most cases they appear to enjoy them – without, perhaps, the preconceptions we humans as a species have historically projected upon such behaviour. They may make great clickbait on social media, but they have an important relevance for us, too. When the Canadian biologist Bruce Bagemihl published his book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity – listing 450 species exhibiting such behaviour, including whales and dolphins – it was used in evidence in a US supreme court case in 2003 that struck down, as unconstitutional, homophobic “sodomy” laws being used in Texas. It is telling, too, that the best-known work of literary fiction written about whales, Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick, is a decidedly queer book. Melville conflates the queerness and diversity of his characters – his narrator, Ishmael, is declared married to his shipmate, the multi-tattooed Queequeg, based on a Māori warrior – with the mysterious sensuality of the whales he is describing. He even spends an entire chapter describing a whale’s foreskin, with joyful innuendo. The sea itself seems to be a queer place, where gender is at best a slippery notion at times. Slipper shells stuck together on the beach, which you might find when beachcombing, are in fact changing sex, from female at the bottom to male at the top. Cetaceans’ genitals are concealed, in any case, in genital slits. Sleek and streamlined, it is as if bothersome sexual definitions were overtaken by the sheer beauty of wondrous hydrodynamics. So much of what we project on to whales and dolphins is about our own complexes. They seem to lead a free and easy life. They may not possess hands to manipulate, but they have the biggest brains on the planet, and highly sensual bodies to match. Having been around for millions of years, it is tempting to imagine their long-evolved existence as one that is beyond all the things that seem to hold us humans back. • Philip Hoare is the author of several books, including Leviathan, The Sea Inside, and Albert and the Whale | ['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'society/sexuality', 'environment/whales', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/reproduction', 'science/biology', 'science/science', 'society/society', 'world/lgbt-rights', 'world/world', 'books/hermanmelville', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'campaign/email/global-dispatch', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philip-hoare', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2024-03-01T12:50:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk/2013/jun/13/met-office-uk-bad-weather-cause | Met Office brainstorms UK bad weather | Washout summers. Flash floods. Freezing winters. Snow in May. Droughts. There is a growing sense that something is happening to our weather. But is it simply down to natural variability, or is climate change to blame? To try to answer the question the Met Office is hosting an unprecedented meeting of climate scientists and meteorologists next week to debate the possible causes of the UK's "disappointing" weather over recent years, the Guardian has learned. Tuesday's meeting at the forecaster's HQ in Exeter is being convened in response to this year's cool spring, which, according to official records, was the coldest in 50 years. The one-day gathering will be led by Stephen Belcher, head of the Met Office Hadley Centre and professor of meteorology at the University of Reading, and will include up to 20 experts from the UK's leading climate research institutions. The "roundtable workshop" will attempt to outline the "dynamical drivers of the cold spring of 2013", but attendees are expected also to debate the "disappointing summers of the last seven years". Official records show that above-average temperatures in summer last occurred in 2006, a season that had above-average sunshine hours, and below-average rainfall. The only summer since then to give us average conditions nationally was in 2010. The meeting will also discuss the washout summer of 2012 and the freezing winter of 2010-11. The Met Office said it had never held a formal meeting in this way to discuss possible causes behind the UK's unusual weather of recent years. Scientists are normally reluctant to attribute anomalous weather to climate change because climate is typically defined as a regional average pattern of weather witnessed over a period of 30 or more years. However, the attendees will discuss a range of possible causes, including melting Arctic sea ice, changes to ocean currents in the north Atlantic, and alterations to the jet stream. They will examine the current state of the science regarding these possible drivers and identify what further research is needed, and a discussion about whether climate models need to be revised to take into account any recent changes to weather patterns, not just in the UK but across the rest of Europe. This week, the National Farmers Union said that 30% less wheat than normal was being grown in the UK this year due to the recent weather. In addition to this year's cold spring, 2012 was the second wettest year in England since 1910, according to the Met Office. Peter Stott, who leads the Met Office's climate monitoring and attribution team, said there were "tentative indications in recently published papers that melting Arctic sea ice is affecting the position and behaviour of the jet stream". But the recent unpredictability could be caused by "natural variability or something more long term". It was still too soon to be sure. One attendee at the meeting, Doug Parker, professor of meteorology at the University of Leeds, said: "We are universally finding that the links between the weather and climate communities are increasing and overlapping. Most climate issues reduce down to questions about what weather events are like, and the representation of short-term weather events is a key challenge in climate modelling. People are increasingly conscious that there is a change [to our weather]. There have been informal discussions in our communities about this for a while now. The key question is whether this is down to natural variability alone, or whether climate change is now projecting on to, and adding to, natural variability. I am going to the meeting with my eyes and ears open." A Met Office spokesman said: "We have seen a run of unusual seasons in the UK and northern Europe, such as the cold winter of 2010, last year's wet weather and the cold spring this year. This may be nothing more than a run of natural variability, but there may be other factors impacting our weather there is emerging research which suggests there is a link between declining Arctic sea ice and European climate – but exactly how this process might work and how important it may be among a host of other factors remains unclear." | ['uk/met-office', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'science/meteorology', 'science/science', 'tone/news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/drought', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/spring', 'environment/summer', 'environment/winter', 'type/article', 'profile/leohickman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-06-13T18:13:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/jan/03/country-diary-the-old-twin-peaks-are-now-a-land-of-opportunity | Country diary: The old Twin Peaks are now a land of opportunity | The growl of high-street traffic had barely faded as we walked uphill, away from the town centre, when we saw the kestrel. She was sitting on a leafless branch of a cherry tree, feathers fluffed, her back turned towards the icy wind. She seemed reluctant to fly as we drew closer. Cautiously sidling around her, we could see that her pale eyelids were closed; dozing in the early morning sunshine, perhaps digesting her last meal. Then her head swivelled and our eyes met; mirrors of polished jet glared down at us. A shimmy of plumage, to smooth ruffled feathers, and she was away, chestnut wings scything across the grassy hillside. Willington grew around a coalmine that closed in 1967. For 120 years, a jagged mountain of colliery waste, known locally as Twin Peaks, stood on this spot. Earlier generations called it Dante’s, a reference, some say, to coal spoil tips’ potential to spontaneously combust and become an inferno. Many would have experienced hellish conditions, hewing coal in labyrinthine mine tunnels under it. Miner and poet Richard Watson’s words, “Large rubbish heaps along the hillside show / the vast extent of hollow ground below”, chiselled into a commemorative stone, testify to their toil. In the early 70s, Twin Peaks was reduced to a gently regraded grassy hill, creating an open public space, a pleasant place to spend a morning watching birds or even, in summer, enjoying a picnic, just 10 minutes’ walk from the town centre. Now it’s known as Willington Woods. Oaks and hawthorns were planted by community groups and schoolchildren in 2005, more trees added later by a local hospice. This morning a noisy flock of fieldfares plundered a fine crop of haws. Much of the hillside remains open grassland, clothed in winter with a deep thatch of dead grass, riddled with tunnels of field voles; a land of opportunity for a hunting kestrel. From our kestrel’s-eye view on the hilltop we had a vast, panoramic view of the Wear valley beyond. Below, in the town, sunlight glinted from solar panels on house roofs that would once have been wreathed in coal smoke, rising from chimneys on winter mornings like this. • Country Diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/birds', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-01-03T05:30:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2008/nov/25/brazil-forests | Troops sent to Amazon after violent protests at Brazil logging crackdown | Federal troops will be deployed in a remote Amazon town after hundreds of protesters, angry at the government's crackdown on deforestation, ransacked the local offices of Brazil's environmental protection agency. The demonstrators invaded the headquarters of Ibama, the environmental agency, on Sunday night, setting fire to vehicles, smashing computers and destroying documents. The action was triggered when government officials impounded 14 lorries carrying around 400 cubic metres of wood they claim was illegally removed from an indigenous reserve near the Amazon town of Paragominas. After attacking the Ibama officers, the protestors made off with the lorries, while environmental agents took refuge in a local hotel. The riot was eventually broken up by military police using tear gas and pepper spray. "We will hunt down the stolen lorries," one environmental agent, Marco Vidal, who is stationed in Paragominas, told the government news agency, Agencia Brasil. The temperature has been rising in remote Amazon towns like Paragominas since the government launched an anti-deforestation drive, called "Arc of Fire", earlier this year. Many locals are angry at the impact the initiative is having on the local economy, with many saw mills being forced to close. In February locals burned cars in the streets and attacked the town hall in Tailandia, another Amazon town, as a protest against the crackdown. Located in the northeast of Para state, the region around Paragominas is a notorious hotspot for illegal deforestation and violence. Members of the environmental group Greenpeace recently invested in a bulletproof pick-up truck to use while travelling in the region. Brazil's environment minister, Carlos Minc, said the government would "intensify" its actions in the region. "We won't be intimidated," he said. In an interview with the Guardian earlier this year, Brazil's minister for strategic affairs, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, said the country needed to offer alternative employment to the Amazon's 25m inhabitants in order to protect the rainforest. The proponent of controversial plans to industrialise parts of the Amazon, Unger said Brazil needed to adopt "a form of environmental protection which is less and less the result of a police operation and more and more the consequence of a working model of economic and social organisation." He criticised environmentalists who demanded the protection of the rainforest without considering those living there. "What has happened in some parts of the rich world is that concern about the tropical rainforest has become... a form of escapism," he said. | ['environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'world/world', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/tomphillips'] | environment/amazon-rainforest | BIODIVERSITY | 2008-11-25T13:10:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2020/may/01/stealth-plunder-of-argentinian-waters-raises-fears-over-marine-monitoring | Stealth plunder of Argentinian waters raises fears over marine monitoring | An “armada” of more than 100 fishing vessels are illegally plundering south Atlantic waters close to Argentina, environmental groups say, raising concerns that the coronavirus lockdown has weakened already fragile marine protections. The incursion of the ships, mostly from east Asia, appears to have been carried out by stealth. The vessels waited until nightfall, shut down satellite tracking systems in coordination and then moved into the squid-rich waters of Argentina’s exclusive economic zone, Greenpeace said. The ships were detected in Mar del Plata on the radar of a legal vessel, which reported the incident to coastguard officials and fishing authorities. By one estimate, the ships – each capable of taking 50 tonnes per day – could in less than three weeks exceed the Argentinian fleet’s quota for the entire season. The incident has prompted questions in parliament and underlined how commercial interests are trying to capitalise on the relaxation of environmental monitoring and enforcement during the pandemic. “Most people think that the global pandemic means that nature is finally having a chance to heal. But this is not what we are seeing in the unregulated waters of the South Atlantic ocean,” said Luisina Vueso, from Greenpeace’s Protect the Oceans campaign. “Just one look at this shocking radar image shows you that this armada … is taking advantage of the lack of governance in the high seas to empty our oceans of life.” Similar concerns have been raised in other areas of the world. In the Amazon, deforestation is accelerating and more illegal miners are invading indigenous territories following the Brazilian government’s admission that it would have fewer rangers on the ground. On the savannahs of east Africa, conservation groups warn of a rise in wildlife poaching. And in the US, oil companies have lobbied to develop wells inside national parks and for the criminalisation of pipeline protesters. The oceans pose an even greater worry, environmental groups say, because even before the pandemic there was very little regulation of fishing and mining in international waters. This is the least patrolled domain in the world. Monitoring has declined further since the Covid-19 outbreak. This month the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd reluctantly suspended its campaign to protect the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California because it was unable to secure fuel due to the pandemic. Industrial tuna fishing companies have persuaded maritime organisations to remove onboard monitors, reduce port inspections and loosen trans-shipment requirements. The Canadian government has followed several countries in removing observers from all fishing vessels until the end of May, which means no oversight of what is caught and discarded. This has alarmed ocean conservationists and some of the more responsible fishing companies. The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation said the lower level of surveillance would “open the door to increased illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and in doing so could undermine the recovery and resilience of many important fish stocks globally.” Frédéric Le Manach, the scientific director of the ocean protection group Bloom Association, said fishing fleets around the world were pushing for fewer restraints on their activities, which could have disastrous implications. “The pandemic is a good excuse for industrial fisheries because without observers you can do exactly what you want,” he said. “But it would be a major mistake to allow weaker regulations at a time of crisis because once you do that it is hard to go back. If anything we need stronger monitoring during this crisis. This could be the moment when we put CCTV cameras onboard every fishing ship. This would be a major step forward.” Fishing fleets are lobbying for weaker rules so they can compete on a level playing field. The nationalist undercurrent was apparent in the UK recently when five European supertrawlers entered British waters. This is legal but it provoked accusations that they were taking advantage of the lockdown, because there were fewer such vessels this time last year. Vueso said the worsening free-for-all showed the need for a global ocean treaty that would create more sanctuaries and coordinate management of the high seas and punishment of violators. “The solution is not to just add more patrolling to Argentine waters if hundreds of vessels from different nationalities are operating illegally in the area,” he said. “A strong treaty would also increase international collaboration to crack down on vessels like these that even during a global lockdown will seek to take advantage of any opportunity to plunder our ocean.” In the tuna-rich waters of the coral triangle in south-east Asia, illegal fishing has long been rife, and locals expect it to grow in the pandemic. Last month Indonesian maritime authorities seized three Philippine and two Vietnamese illegal fishing vessels. “We are prepared for any increase in illegal vessels operating in [Indonesian waters] amid the spread of Covid-19. That is why we are not decreasing our operations as illegal fishing is still rampant,” the government said. | ['environment/fishing', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/conservation', 'world/argentina', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-04-30T23:01:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2024/feb/06/california-storms-threaten-flooding-landslides | California storms ease after record rainfall leaves threat of landslides | The powerful atmospheric river that brought record amounts of rain to California and led to nearly 400 mudslides in recent days began to ease on Tuesday, but forecasters said the risk for floods and landslides remained. The intense weather left a trail of destruction as it made its way across the state, with violent winds and rain causing downed trees and destructive mudslides that damaged homes and buried vehicles. At least three people were killed by falling trees. The slow-moving storm parked itself over southern California on Monday, dumping a historic amount of rain on parts of Los Angeles. Downtown Los Angeles received 2.93in (7.44cm) of rain on Monday, surpassing a record for the day set in 1901. The National Weather Service (NWS) said more than 10in (25cm) of rain had fallen since Sunday across the Los Angeles area, the nation’s second-largest city, with much more expected before the downpour was due to taper off later in the week. The city’s mayor, Karen Bass, described it as a “historic storm” with “unprecedented rain”. Nearly a foot of rain was measured over a 24-hour period on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). “We’re talking about one of the wettest storm systems to impact the greater Los Angeles area” since records began, Ariel Cohen, chief NWS meteorologist in LA, told an evening news conference. “Going back to the 1870s, this is one of the top three.” Southern California was expected to see scattered showers and some possible thunderstorms with light to moderate rain on Tuesday, but there was still the threat that many places could see brief, fierce downpours dumping 0.5 to 1in ( 1.3 to 3cm) of rain in an hour. Authorities warned people to remain on high alert and most of southern California remained under flood watches. Swollen and fast-moving creeks and rivers “increase the risk for drowning and the need for swift water rescues”, the weather service said. Firefighters across southern California rescued people from rivers and flooded roads in recent days. The Los Angeles fire department said 1,000 firefighters had dealt more than 100 reports of flooding and rescues of motorists stranded in vehicles on inundated roadways, including a dog and its owner pulled from the LA river. Crews reported rescuing 16 people and five cats in LA county, authorities said. The storm first plowed through northern California over the weekend, killing three people who were crushed by falling trees, then lingered over the south. It was the second storm fueled by an atmospheric river to hit the state over the span of days. On Monday, it deluged Los Angeles with rain, sending mud and boulders down hillsides dotted with multimillion-dollar homes, turning streets into rushing rivers. Some residents rushed to evacuate and people living in homeless encampments in many parts of the city scrambled for safety. Near the Hollywood Hills, floodwaters carried mud, rocks and household objects downhill through Studio City, city officials said. Sixteen people were evacuated and several homes were red-tagged. “It looks like a river that’s been here for years,” said Keki Mingus, whose neighbors’ homes were damaged. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” The University of California, Los Angeles, located on the west side of the city, received more than 11.8in (30cm) – more than three times the average amount that falls in the entire month of February, the UCLA climate scientist Chad Thackeray reported. Clothes, books and even refrigerators cascaded down roads alongside debris pulled from damaged homes, and the tony Beverly Crest neighborhood was inundated with mud after two landslides converged on the area. The atmospheric river is so far projected to have caused as much as $11bn in damage and economic losses, according to a preliminary estimate from Accuweather. The danger was not over despite a projected dip in the rainfall, warned Cohen. “The ground is extremely saturated, supersaturated,” he said at a news conference. “It’s not able to hold any additional water before sliding. It’s not going to take much rain for additional landslides, mudslides, rockslides and other debris flows to occur.” Crews have responded to 383 mudslides since the storm began, and seven buildings have been deemed uninhabitable, officials said. The city’s emergency shelters were full, Mayor Bass said on Wednesday. The city does not yet have the total number of homes that were damaged by the storm. As the storm hovered over LA, shelters added beds for the city’s homeless population of nearly 75,000 people. Among those who died were two men killed by fallen trees on Sunday in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento, and in Boulder Creek in Santa Cruz county. Police were investigating the death of another man in Yuba City, about 100 miles (160km ) north-east of San Francisco, who was found under a redwood tree in his backyard. Associated Press contributed reporting | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/los-angeles', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/flooding', 'world/landslides', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'us-news/west-coast', 'profile/dani-anguiano', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-02-06T22:25:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/jun/01/bruno-pereira-dom-phillips-deaths-amazon-2022-guardian-forbidden-stories-project | One year after the deaths of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, their work must go on | Forest defenders should not be killed for exposing crimes. Journalists should not be killed for reporting facts. But, one year ago, the Guardian was devastated by the awful news that in the Amazon rainforest, two lives had been taken on the frontline of the battle to protect the planet. Bruno Araújo Pereira, a renowned defender of the rights of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples, and Dom Phillips, an outstanding reporter, long-term Guardian contributor and friend to many who work here, disappeared while researching a book on how to save the rainforest. In the weeks that followed, when their bodies were discovered and our worst fears of their deaths confirmed, everyone at the Guardian was horrified. And from that horror was born a determination to continue the work they were doing, covering what our global environment writer, Jonathan Watts, has called “the global war against nature”. Today, we launch the Bruno and Dom project, a year-long collaborative investigation coordinated by Forbidden Stories that involves more than 50 journalists from 16 media organisations in 10 countries around the world. Together, we have worked with three aims in mind. First, to honour and pursue the work of Bruno and Dom. Bruno was totally committed to the traditional peoples of the Amazon and defending their ways of life, and Dom’s brave and humane journalism did so much to bring the stories of Brazil and Latin America to a global audience. We have picked up the threads of their unfinished stories, chased down leads and tried to carry on doing what they can no longer do. Second, to remind everyone of the beauty, importance and fragility of the Amazon. Watts, who moved to live in the rainforest in 2021 and is the Guardian’s first journalist to be permanently based there, has written about it being the heart of the world – “not the lungs, as is often mistakenly claimed”. But now it beats much less strongly than it did, and than it must, if human beings on this planet are to have a future. Third, to suggest ideas for how to save the Amazon, and, in time, inspire positive change. This was a central focus in all of Dom’s work, and something that much Guardian journalism strives for. The Bruno and Dom project, over four days of publishing, will include: The latest in the criminal investigation into their deaths, including the perspective of friends and family. Three men are currently being held in prison, and police have named a fourth as the alleged mastermind, while the former head of Brazil’s Indigenous protection agency under President Jair Bolsonaro has been charged on the basis that he ignored warnings over the risk of bloodshed in the Javari valley. The last photographs taken of Bruno and Dom before they were killed, and what they tell us. A wider exploration of how organised crime, including illegal fishing, hunting, logging and mining, is taking over the Amazon. An investigation into the global companies making billions from extracting raw materials from the rainforest, including how beef is eating up the Amazon, and the extent of deforestation. A detailed analysis of solutions for how to save the rainforest. The Guardian and Forbidden Stories, an international consortium of investigative journalists that pursues the work of assassinated journalists or those under threat, know only too well that what happened to Bruno and Dom is not an isolated crime. At least 67 journalists and media workers were killed in 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, while Global Witness has found that three people are killed every week trying to protect their land from extractive forces, with Brazil one of the deadliest countries in the world for land and environmental defenders, many of them from Indigenous communities. We hope you will read, reflect on and share the Bruno and Dom project, with the spirit of defiance that has inspired it. The work must go on. Katharine Viner is editor-in-chief of the Guardian | ['environment/series/the-bruno-and-dom-project', 'environment/environment', 'world/dom-phillips-and-bruno-pereira', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'type/article', 'profile/katharineviner', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-01T12:00:33Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2019/sep/10/apple-watch-series-5-launched-with-always-on-screen | Apple Watch Series 5 launched with always-on screen | Apple has launched a new version of its popular smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 5, with an always-on display. Unveiled on stage at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, on Tuesday, the new version features a similar design to the Apple Watch Series 4 launched this time last year but with a new screen that can remain on all the time. To enable the always-on display, which many other smartwatches have had for several generations, Apple said it is using the first LTPO display, which it claims allows the screen to refresh dynamically from as high as 60Hz to 1Hz, alongside a new display controller and ambient light sensor. Apple said the Series 5 still has 18-hour battery life with the screen continuously on. The watch again comes in 44mm and 42mm sizes, with options for 4G connected versions, and Apple’s ECG heart monitor. There are also a series of new colours, straps and case options, including titanium and ceramic ones. The new watchOS 6, announced in June, will also enable more functionality independent of the iPhone. Apple is also continuing its health focus for the watch, which now includes menstrual cycle tracking as part of watchOS 6. It has also launched a research app, with three health research studies – hearing, women’s health, and heart and movement. The app will allow anyone to enrol and will roll out in the US later this year. Apple said it cannot access information that directly identifies you through the app. The Apple Watch has become a sleeper hit, capturing the lion’s share of the small but increasingly important smartwatch market almost immediately on launch in 2015. Since then the line has increased sales year by year, providing an extra revenue stream alongside the firm’s AirPods wireless earbuds, as people continue to hold on to their smartphones for longer and longer. Apple sold 43m Apple Watches over the last two years, according to data from IDC, accounting for nearly 50% of the global smartwatch market. The new Apple Watch Series 5 will start at £399 in the UK or $399 in the US, with 4G models costing from £499 or $499, shipping on 20 September. Apple is also keeping the older Series 3 available and dropping its price to £199 in the UK, $199 in the US. | ['technology/apple-watch', 'technology/smartwatches', 'technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/apple', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/consumer-tech--commissioning-'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-09-10T18:24:27Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2005/jan/27/environment.science | Oil firms fund climate change 'denial' | Lobby groups funded by the US oil industry are targeting Britain in a bid to play down the threat of climate change and derail action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, leading scientists have warned. Bob May, president of the Royal Society, says that "a lobby of professional sceptics who opposed action to tackle climate change" is turning its attention to Britain because of its high profile in the debate. Writing in the Life section of today's Guardian, Professor May says the government's decision to make global warming a focus of its G8 presidency has made it a target. So has the high profile of its chief scientific adviser, David King, who described climate change as a bigger threat than terrorism. Prof May's warning coincides with a meeting of climate change sceptics today at the Royal Institution in London organised by a British group, the Scientific Alliance, which has links to US oil company ExxonMobil through a collaboration with a US institute. Last month the Scientific Alliance published a joint report with the George C Marshall Institute in Washington that claimed to "undermine" climate change claims. The Marshall institute received £51,000 from ExxonMobil for its "global climate change programme" in 2003 and an undisclosed sum this month. Prof May's warning comes as British scientists, in the journal Nature, show that emissions of carbon dioxide could have a more dramatic effect on climate than thought. They say the average temperature could rise 11C, even if atmospheric carbon dioxide were limited to the levels expected in 2050. David Frame, who coordinated the climate prediction experiment, said: "If the real world response were anywhere near the upper end of our range, even today's levels of greenhouse gases could already be dangerously high." Emission limits such as those in the Kyoto protocol would hit oil firms because the bulk of greenhouse gases come from burning fossil fuel products. Prof May writes that during the 1990s, parts of the US oil industry funded sceptics who opposed action to tackle climate change. A Scientific Alliance spokesman said today's meeting was sponsored but funders did not influence policies. ExxonMobil said it was not involved. One adviser is Sallie Baliunas, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Centre, who is linked to the Marshall Institute. In 1998 Dr Baliunas co-wrote an article that argued for the release of more carbon dioxide. It was mass-mailed to US scientists with a petition asking them to reject Kyoto. · Tony Blair yesterday attempted to urge George Bush to sign a climate change accord. At the World Economic Forum he said climate change was "not universally accepted", but evidence of its danger had been "clearly and persuasively advocated" by a very large number of "independent voices". | ['world/world', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'business/oil', 'society/society', 'business/business', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'type/article', 'profile/davidadam'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2005-01-27T16:56:34Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
books/2010/jun/01/monty-don-schama-hay-festival | Monty Don calls on Hay festival audience to fight for their back yard | Nimbyism isn't such a bad thing, celebrity gardener Monty Don told an audience at the Guardian Hay festival yesterday evening: after all, "if we can't care about our back yards we can't care about anything". Speaking with historian Simon Schama and National Trust director general Fiona Reynolds about the "spirit" of the British landscape, Don admitted that one of his personal "bugbears" was criticism of nimbyism - the largely middle-class not-in-my-back-yard phenomenon of local protests, often against wind farms. "We're passionate about the places we live, where we know the flowers and the stones and the neighbours," said Don. "And we should fight for it and defend it." Asked by a member of the audience about his views on onshore wind turbines, Don said he was "torn betwixt and between" on the subject. "They can be beautiful. They're probably necessary. But they can be very intrusive," he said. "It needs to be a case by case basis [and you need to] situate them with care, with respect to place." Reynolds agreed. "It's all about scale and location. I wouldn't say no. Smaller-scale, single turbines can fit very well but big horizontal landscapes are ruined by wind turbines," she responded. "It upsets me that it's seen as a dichotomy. If you're against wind turbines you're against anything green, when there are so many alternatives – wood fuel, for example." Don, Schama and Reynolds all agreed that there is something uniquely British about our relationship with the landscape. "Not many places in the world respond as we do, in such a possessive way," said Don. "I think it's because we are the most sophisticated post-industrial society, and we've lost our peasant sensibility … I went around the world and the thing that struck me was that by a long chalk the Brits are more interested in gardening than anyone else, and technically better at it … We value the process, we value the skill of gardening. We have this obsession with expertise." Reynolds agreed: "there is something almost urgent about our need for beauty, and beauty as expressed through landscape" – while Schama, like Don, linked the strength of feeling about the British landscape to the industrial revolution. "It was a hugely traumatic experience, the enclosure, the displacement of millions of people from what they still imagined to be the ancient cycles of the seasons … into new industrial towns," he said, adding that the "saving grace" of what happened was the establishment of allotments and parks in towns. "We had town parks before lots of the rest of the world," said Schama. "And despite the fact we're over-sophisticated, leading a televised life, there is still the sheer physical immediacy of sticking your hands in loamy stuff. And, god, it's better than a glass of whisky." Schama also attributed the British love of a May garden to the desire for rebirth after troubled times. "It's about getting out of a bad place into a place of fruitfulness, and Britain has gone through a lot of trouble – the industrial revolution, two world wars. The two things that soldiers were supposed to dream about in the wars were their mother and their garden. There was a sense that, however much [badness], there still was a May garden. When there stops being a May garden, it stops being England." But Don insisted that we need to fight to maintain our landscapes because "they don't just hang around and defend themselves". "They need to be defended. They still are [disappearing]. The countryside and the landscape are under threat all the time," he said. "But I think there's a shift I've recognised literally in the last year – that that's enough. That because of the expenses scandal and the financial crisis, there's a sense that none of that's good. But some things are good." "It's a redefinition of what riches are," agreed Schama. "They can be a bloody stock portfolio or you can be watching your raspberries mature. I know what I'd rather have." | ['books/guardian-hay-festival', 'books/books', 'culture/culture', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/news', 'culture/simon-schama', 'type/article', 'profile/alisonflood'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2010-06-01T11:43:15Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/jul/09/one-in-three-fish-caught-never-makes-it-to-the-plate-un-report | One in three fish caught never makes it to the plate – UN report | One in three fish caught around the world never makes it to the plate, either being thrown back overboard or rotting before it can be eaten, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Its biannual report on the state of the world’s fisheries, released on Monday, also shows that total fish production has reached a record high thanks to more fish farming, particularly in China, with over half the fish eaten in the world now coming from aquaculture. In contrast, the amount of wild caught fish has barely changed since the late 1980s and a third of commercial fish species are overfished, the FAO says. Fish farms will continue to expand and the FAO projects that almost 20% more fish will be eaten by 2030, helping sustain the growing global population. However, farmed fish can harm wild populations because often their feed, made from wild fish such as sardines and anchovies, is caught at sea and they can cause pollution. Fish are a crucial source of nutrition for billions of people around the globe, but overfishing is rife in some regions, with two-thirds of species overexploited in the Mediterranean and Black Seas and the Southeast Pacific. Previous analyses that include estimates for illegal fishing indicate that wild fish stocks are declining faster than FAO data suggest and that half the world’s oceans are now industrially fished. “Since 1961 the annual global growth in fish consumption has been twice as high as population growth, demonstrating that the fisheries sector is crucial in meeting the FAO’s goal of a world without hunger and malnutrition,” said José Graziano da Silva, FAO director general. Many challenges remain, he said, but recent initiatives to crack down on illegal fishing will mark “a turning point” in favour of long-term conservation. The FAO reports that 35% of global catches are wasted. About a quarter of these losses are bycatch or discards, mostly from trawlers, where unwanted fish are thrown back dead because they are too small or an unwanted species. But most of the losses are due to a lack of knowledge or equipment, such as refrigeration or ice-makers, needed to keep fish fresh. The FAO has worked with developing nations to cut losses, including the use of raised racks for fish drying, which resulted in a 50% cut in losses of fish from Lake Tanganyika in Africa. Around the Indian Ocean, better facilities for handling the crab harvest cut losses by 40%. Aquaculture now dominates the fish people eat, providing 53% of the total recorded by the FAO in 2016, the latest data available (excluding fish not used as human food). Farming also dominates the fishing economy, providing two-thirds of the $362bn (£274bn) earned from sales at the dockside. The FAO report sets out the huge scale of global fishing: it employs 60 million people and there are 4.6m fishing vessels on the planet. This huge effort is worrying in many places, the FAO says, with too many boats chasing too few fish. As a result, the number of species being overfished has trebled in the last 40 years. The report also states that climate change will drive fish away from warm tropical waters, where nations are often especially reliant on seafood, towards more temperate regions. Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe, said huge improvements were needed across the fishing industry. “Food waste on a hungry planet is outrageous,” he said. “The fact that one-third of all fish caught goes to waste is a huge cause for concern for global food security.” On overfishing, particularly in the Mediterranean, he said: “We know the situation, we have the solutions: setting fish catch limits to scientific advice and stopping illegal and destructive fishing. All we’re missing is political action.” Gustavsson added: “Aquaculture is far from being the magic bullet, as it is often unsustainable. Using 20m tonnes of fish like mackerel, sardines and anchovies to feed farmed fish instead of people is a blatant waste of food.” Prof Daniel Pauly, at the Sea Around Us research initiative at the University of British Columbia, Canada, has been very critical of previous FAO reports, which he says significantly underestimated the total catch by failing to account for illegal fishing. But he welcomed the new report for considering a much wider range of information: “The crisis of [overfishing] will be hard to solve. However, collaborations between different stakeholders may help turn around some of the negative trends. This is the best issue of [the FAO fisheries report] that I have ever read.” | ['environment/fishing', 'environment/food', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-07-09T07:00:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2015/jan/06/goodbye-smart-gadgets-hello-dumb-tech-apple-nokia | Goodbye smart gadgets. Hello dumb tech | This is going to be the year of the smartwatch. Thanks to several incredible boundary-smashing technological vaults, Apple will soon release a product that looks like a wristwatch but is really So Much More Than That. The Apple Watch will display your Facebook updates. It will tell you who is calling your phone. It will let you show photos to people, even if each photo is the size of a postage stamp and the only way to let anyone actually see it is to awkwardly hold your arm out in a berserk mockery of a CIA stress position while they grab it and squint. The Apple Watch apparently solves a problem. The problem? Sometimes people have to take their telephones out of their pockets. Why would you want to do that, when all the information in the world could be permanently located at the bottom of your arm, on a tiny screen that you have to navigate by twisting a crown so hopelessly minuscule that it makes you look like a drunk bear in boxing gloves trying to pick a needle off the deck of a listing ship? If the rise of the smartwatch has taught me anything, it is that I am perfectly happy with my dumbwatch. The one I can strap to my wrist and look at sometimes if I am not in the immediate vicinity of a clock. My watch can do one thing really well. The Apple Watch, meanwhile, will let you do a million things that you can already do elsewhere, but in a slightly more difficult way. Unless it’s run out of battery, that is, which it probably has because it’s an Apple product. No wonder dumb tech is starting to look so appealing. While Apple continues to break its neck trying to create solutions for problems that don’t exist, Nokia will be quietly rolling out the 215 – a bare-bones internet phone that costs $29 and holds its charge for a month. It has been designed as an ideal first phone for those in developing countries who previously haven’t been able to afford the means to get online. But at the same time, my mum would probably love it. Given the many hours of precious life that I have squandered playing Peggle on my iPhone lately, I quite like the sound of it too. I don’t think this is an age thing. I don’t think that I have suddenly hit that horrible threshold where all new technology becomes off-putting and intimidating just because you are too set in your ways to learn how to use it. I haven’t become my dad, ringing me up because he can’t find the “Add Image” button on WordPress. Or my mum, running Sonic the Hedgehog off the end of a cliff 20 times in a row because she can’t find the jump button. Or my gran, staring at a VCR with a stern look of defiant refusal on her face. I don’t think the natural next step of my life is a phone with giant light-up numbers, or cutlery with orthopaedic handles. I am just starting to realise, as others are, that everything doesn’t have to do everything. It is much more preferable to have something that can do one thing well. That is why sales of vinyl records hit a 21-year peak in 2014. It is why people would rather buy £20 AeroPress coffeemakers than a La Spaziale that costs a hundred times more and looks like a broken-down Terminator. It is why, God help me, I am toying with the idea of getting a landline instead of having to repeat every third word of every single conversation over and over against a noise that sounds like two jet planes having a laserfight in a hurricane. Quite often, usually at this time of year, publications become flooded with pieces about journalists who have decided to turn their backs on technology. They start off by unplugging their routers and consigning their iPads to the bin. They start to read books. They rediscover typewriters. They begin thwanging on about how engaged they feel. Then they start really getting into hummus and that’s the end of them. That is not what this is about. Technology is still brilliant, and completely necessary. If I didn’t have a map of the entire world inside my phone all the time, there’s a fairly reasonable chance that I would still be fruitlessly wandering around continental Europe, starved and frothing because I couldn’t find my way back to the hotel that I had checked into somewhere in the middle of 2012. If I couldn’t look up recipes from my phone, I guarantee that I would be dead from excessive oven-chip consumption by now. Try to part me from my phone, and I would probably have quite an ugly tantrum in front of you. But when you get to the point, as I did recently, where you are buying lightbulbs that can only be switched on and off from your phone, it is time for an intervention. Things like that – and smartwatches, and everything else – sound cool, but they just end up making things more complicated than they need to be. You can do without them. Your smartphone isn’t your entire life. Perhaps it’s time we all dumbed down a little. | ['technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'technology/apple', 'technology/nokia', 'technology/apple-watch', 'technology/iphone', 'technology/mobilephones', 'technology/telecoms', 'technology/smartphones', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/stuart-heritage', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-01-06T18:52:33Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
media/2006/jun/16/worldcup2006.advertising | Nike wavers on Ronaldo ad | Nike is getting cold feet about airing its Ronaldo World Cup ad following the striker's poor performance in Brazil's opening match at the tournament in Germany. Brazil are due to face fellow Group F team Australia in their second game on Sunday, when the ad, part of Nike's "Joga bonito" campaign, is thought to have been earmarked to air. However, Nike is now have having second thoughts about running the ad because of the poor form shown by Ronaldo in Brazil's World Cup opener against Croatia on Tuesday, according to industry sources. A spokeswoman for Nike said: "A number of ad spots, eg: Rooney "Heart", Ronaldinho "Joy" and Brazil "Team" have been filmed as part of the Joga Bonito campaign and are being hosted on joga.com. "A spot has been filmed with Ronaldo, but to date, it is not confirmed when it will run." The final advert in Nike's World Cup campaign pays tribute to the skills of Ronaldo, just as the star has been barraged by criticism that he is no longer worth his place in the Brazil team. Created by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, the 60-second ad features a series of clips of the star's career highlights. The commercial is the last of seven developed for Nike's World Cup campaign. The campaign, "Joga bonito" - Portugese for play beautifully - kicked off in March and aimed to celebrate the fun, style and passion of football. Nike's Ronaldo ad opens with Eric Cantona - who also fronted the brand's "Secret tournament" campaign for the 2002 World Cup - introducing viewers to the Brazilian star. Talking in superlatives, he calls the Real Madrid footballer "boy wonder, the king, the miracle man, the keeper's nightmare, the phenomenon" and "the unstoppable number nine". Yet one critic described his performance in Brazil's opening match against Croatia on Tuesday as akin to a "groggy heavyweight boxer having been landed a sucker punch", adding that he "needs some more time getting fit before starting a World Cup game". Nike's ad closes with Cantona addressing the public, saying: "Here's to Ronaldo, ladies and gentleman, stay tuned for more." Brazilian coach Carlos Parreira has said the star's lack of fitness is uniquely due to his recuperation from his injury and has named him as a definite starter to play Australia on Sunday. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/media', 'football/worldcup2006', 'media/advertising', 'football/football', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'football/world-cup-football', 'type/article'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2006-06-16T11:17:17Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/2014/jan/31/sellafield-radiation-alarm-radon-gas-nuclear-reprocessing | Sellafield radiation alarm triggered by rise in 'naturally occurring' radon gas | Fears of a radioactive leak at the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria on Friday morning were triggered by a rise in the natural background levels of radon gas, investigators have said. Operators of the nuclear reprocessing facility told thousands of non-essential staff to stay at home after a perimeter alarm at the north end of the site measured higher than normal levels of radiation. Managers at Sellafield said that radiation picked up by the monitoring device was extremely low and posed no danger to the workforce or public, and that the decision to limit staff on the site had not interfered with normal running of the site. In a statement, the company said: "Sellafield Ltd can confirm that the radioactivity detected by one of our in-air monitors overnight is not attributable to any issue or problem with any of our operations on site. "Our in-air monitors are extremely sensitive and pick up on any abnormality. Overnight the monitoring system initially indicated elevated levels of activity. Following investigation and analysis, we can now confirm these levels to be naturally occurring background radon." The government's safety watchdog, the Office for Nuclear Regulation, had its incident suite on standby in case the situation turned into a full-scale emergency, while the government's technical adviser, Mike Finnerty, was called in to consult on the investigation. Radioactive radon gas is emitted naturally from certain rocks and seeps up through the ground, though levels are typically not very high in Cumbria. The spike in radon gas at the site might have been caused by a low pressure weather system coming in from the west. Officials at the site are investigating why only one radioactive monitor at the edge of the site picked up the higher radiation level. None of the radiation detectors in and on buildings at site went off. A Sellafield spokesman told the Guardian that staff would not be called back to work on Friday but were expected to return as usual over the weekend or Monday, depending on their shifts. Gary Smith, the national secretary for energy at the GMB union, said the majority of Sellafield's workforce had been told not to turn up for work on Friday morning. The site employs more than 10,000 people. The unusual radiation reading at the perimeter fence had been detected at 2am, he said. The statement from Sellafield continued: "The number one priority for us is, at all times, safe secure stewardship of the Sellafield site, which is the most complex and challenging nuclear site in Europe. "As such we act in a safety conscious manner, and take cautious, conservative decisions, such as the one taken overnight to ask non-safety essential staff to stay at home this morning, rather than come to the site. "All of our plants and storage facilities were quickly confirmed as operating normally, and we were always confident that the issue posed no risk to the workforce or public because the levels being detected, whilst above background radiation levels, were still low. This view was reinforced by the fact that none of our other installed monitors were picking up any kind of increased levels – however, we take such issues so seriously that we investigated fully to confirm that everything was okay." Additional reporting: Adam Vaughan, Leila Haddou and Rob Edwards | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2014-01-31T14:52:43Z | true | ENERGY |
politics/2019/dec/19/leaked-nhs-dossier-inquiry-focuses-on-personal-gmail-account | Leaked NHS dossier inquiry focuses on personal Gmail accounts | Britain’s security agencies are investigating whether hackers from a hostile state successfully targeted a personal Gmail account to access an explosive cache of correspondence that was seized on by Labour during the election campaign. The leak inquiry into how the 451-page dossier got into the public domain is focused on the Department for International Trade. Jeremy Corbyn said during the campaign that the documents proved the NHS was “on the table” in future US trade talks. Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, warned ministerial special advisers at a meeting on Tuesday not to use personal Gmail accounts because “foreign powers” were targeting them. Special advisers are not supposed to use personal accounts for government business but, in practice, some communications are conducted via private accounts, where security may be weaker because they are outside official networks. It is not clear which country – if any – is behind the alleged hack, but independent analysts have already suggested that the cache was originally disseminated online by a Russian operation known as Secondary Infektion. One source said the investigation was focused on events that may have taken place a few months ago. An official spokesperson said the government was looking into the matter and added that the investigation involved the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a division of GCHQ, saying: “It would be inappropriate to comment further.” Downing Street blocked an analysis of the threat posed by Russia to the British democratic system written by MPs from the all-party intelligence and security committee from being published during the election campaign. Immediately after the Conservatives were returned to power with an overall majority, No 10 said that the document had been approved for release, but claimed that publication had to wait for the committee to be formally reconstituted. Existing guidance from the NCSC aimed at individuals involved in politics tells them to use a “strong and separate” password for their email accounts, and to use additional means of authentication, such as via a mobile phone, because of the risk that they will be targeted by hackers. During the election campaign, Graphika, a social media research firm, examined the history of the cache of emails before they were picked up by the Labour leader in a dramatic press conference at the end of November. Graphika said the full cache of emails was posted on Reddit by an anonymous Twitter user called Gregoriator, who in their initial writing made grammatical errors that matched those made by the Russian Secondary Infektion operation. A Twitter user with the same name then tried unsuccessfully to disseminate it by tweeting it to various public figures including Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians and even to celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Bette Midler in October. Graphika said the approach used matched amplification techniques deployed by Secondary Infektion, the name given to a Russian information operation exposed by Facebook earlier this year, operating across six languages and dozens of platforms. Labour has not said how the full documents ended up in the hands of Corbyn, but a pressure group Global Justice Now has said it was alerted to their existence online after the party leader obtained a heavily redacted version of them. The opposition party has also pointed out that their authenticity was never denied. | ['politics/general-election-2019', 'technology/hacking', 'uk/gchq', 'politics/dominic-cummings', 'uk/uk', 'politics/labour', 'politics/politics', 'politics/jeremy-corbyn', 'society/nhs', 'politics/conservatives', 'world/russia', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uksecurity', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dan-sabbagh', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-12-19T20:11:23Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2007/jul/25/alotofhotair | A lot of hot air | Put a jumper on ... patio heaters big-up your carbon footprint for no reason. There are now 1.2m patio heaters in use according to research from the Energy Saving Trust. These figures are set to double "in the near future". Apparently, Yorkshire and Humberside, has the most householders "planning to buy a patio heater" which is a bit like aspiring to buy a very energy intensive tumble dryer that can really big-up your carbon footprint, for almost no reason. Friends of the Earth say that using a heat lamp for one hour uses the same energy as making 400 cups of tea. Every gas cylinder used (which is the equivalent of about 13 hours of heat) emits 35kg of CO2 - the same as making 5,200 cups of tea. No surprise then that what really wound me up about Wimbledon this year, constant rain aside, was John Inverdale presenting the day's highlights outside beneath a duo of hulking heat umbrellas. What's more he consistently made smug reference to them, in an 'oooh, I'm so nice and toasty under my heat lamps' kind of way. Is he attempting to morph into Jeremy Clarkson? Whatever way you looked at it, his consistent plugging of these canister-monsters was provocative. Perhaps he doesn't believe in climate change or at least the anthropogenic contribution? Thankfully he is not on the board of Wyevale garden centres, which are not stocking heat umbrellas anymore. This looks like responsible retailing to me. Predictably, as soon as Wyevale announced it was out of love with heat umbrellas, Calor gas went on the offensive. It wasn't exactly a charm offensive. An expert was produced to set the record straight against "vilified" heat umbrellas when patio heaters contribute just 0.002 per cent of the UK's annual emissions. Yet, if they're so paltry why does Calor gas provide an offsetting mechanism? | ['environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/lucysiegle'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2007-07-25T07:00:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2023/feb/18/climate-crisis-brings-whiff-of-danger-to-french-perfume-capital | Climate crisis brings whiff of danger to French perfume capital | When heatwaves used to hit the French town of Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, townspeople didn’t water their flowers. Instead, they marched along the town’s cobblestone streets, in a procession towards the church. “They were calling for rain from the spirits,” says Carole Biancalana, a fourth-generation perfume flower producer whose grandmother participated in the rain ceremonies. “But I don’t think this procession would cut it in today’s climate.” Since the 17th century, Grasse has been known worldwide for its fragrant flowers. Situated just inland from the French Riviera, Grasse enjoys a microclimate that allows fields of may rose, tuberose, lavender and jasmine to blossom. Today, the region produces flowers for some of the world’s biggest luxury brands, including Dior and Chanel, who spend significant amounts on raw materials from the region – Grasse’s jasmine sells for a higher price than gold. Around the world, Grasse’s producers are recognised as leaders in the industry: in 2018, Unesco placed the region’s perfume culture on its intangible cultural heritage list. But climate change is threatening this tradition. Extreme weather patterns such as droughts, heatwaves, and excessive rainfall have made growing flowers increasingly difficult. Last summer, Grasse faced extreme droughts, resulting in some producers losing nearly half of their harvest. High temperatures affect the future quality of roses and prohibit some flowers, such as tuberose, from growing. Biancalana felt these impacts directly: this year, her tuberose harvest dropped by 40%. “The elders here keep telling us there are no more seasons,” says Biancalana, noting that winters are now warmer, with unseasonal cold spells in the spring. She jokes: “We can’t count on the spirits anymore.” Grasse is not alone. Around the world, primary materials for perfumes are threatened by increasingly extreme weather patterns. Vanilla, a key material for the industry, has taken a particular hit. Grown primarily on the African continent, vanilla crops have been struck by heatwaves in recent years. In 2017, a cyclone in Madagascar destroyed 30% of crops, pushing the price to more than $600 (£502) a kilo. “Climate change may not have an impact on the smell of perfume,” says Benoit Verdier, the co-founder of the custom perfume house Ex Nihilo Paris. “But it will affect the price.” Ex Nihilo has watched the costs for raw materials like vanilla and saffron soar as a result of the limited supply caused by climate-induced droughts and disasters. Though they have not yet increased the price of their perfumes, rising costs for raw materials might force them to. As a result, they are considering turning towards synthetic alternatives. “The romantic view of perfume is for it to be natural,” says Verdier. “There is mysticism around a place like Grasse, it gets people dreaming. But it isn’t always more sustainable.” Crops for perfumes require a lot of water and land. Shipping raw materials around the world also results in significant carbon emissions. “It’s more sustainable to make perfume in the laboratory,” says Verdier. Producers in Grasse disagree. “We actually consume very little water,” says Biancalana, noting that producers in the region use drip irrigation, which has historically accounted for only 5% of the region’s water use. Producers in the region have made significant efforts to ensure their crops are environmentally friendly. In 2006, Biancalana founded Les Fleurs d’Exception du Pays de Grasse, an association that brings together producers from the region. One of their key mandates is that all producers be organic to ensure the protection of biodiversity, which they believe is one of their greatest weapons against climate change. “What can we do, how can we adapt, who should we ask for support, what research needs to be done?” says Armelle Janody, the president of the association. “These are the questions we are asking.” But to find answers, the association needs support. Currently, there have been few scientific studies on how climate change is impacting crops in the region. “We are observing changes but we do not have scientific studies on what is objectively happening,” says Janody. Leaders in the industry have already begun supporting local producers by investing in research and adaptation techniques, which they know is critical for their companies’ futures. But while producers welcome this support, some are wary of the potential strings attached. “The question for us is how to have industry support without losing our autonomy and sovereignty,” says Janody, who fears companies could demand greater control over the means of production under the pretence of supporting climate adaptation. “These brands want to associate their perfumes with our history and our heritage, yet they come in and want to change everything. We do not want to be servants to the industry.” For producers, it’s not just their agricultural practices that are at stake: it’s their culture and way of life. The perfume industry has been at the beating heart of Grasse’s identity for centuries. Since 1946, the town has paid tribute to the region’s jasmine in an August ceremony that spans an entire weekend. “This is so much more than just a job,” says Biancalana, whose family has been working the same fields for more than a hundred years. “We have a moral duty to our ancestors and to our territory. People here have always been ready to fight. That’s not going to change because of climate change.” | ['world/france', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/melissa-godin', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/environmentnews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-02-18T09:00:35Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2013/jun/27/conservation-victoria-logging-endangered-species | Conservationists fear Victoria's cuts to logging green tape | The Victorian government has amended the state's logging laws in a move conservationists fear will transfer control to the timber industry and could doom endangered species such as the Leadbeater's Possum. The Sustainable Forests (Timber) Amendment Bill, which passed the lower house on Thursday, reduces the regulations binding VicForests, the state-backed forestry business. The bill removes the second part of the two-stage process that VicForests has to go through in order to secure and log tracts of Victoria's native forests. Once allocated an area of forest to log, VicForests will no longer need to show the government a plan of exactly where and when it will harvest timber. The bill also relaxes scrutiny of the timber allocation to VicForests by scrapping a mandatory five-year review of the decision and removing the current 15-year time limit, meaning that native forest could potentially be cut down indefinitely. The Victorian government said that the amendment will provide clarity and long-term certainty to VicForests, while not diminishing environmental standards. However, conservationists claim that the move will lock Victoria into the long-term logging of its native forests and reduce regulatory oversight of VicForests. There are fears that widespread logging of old-growth forests in the central highlands region of Victoria will wipe out the endangered Leadbeater's Possum, the state's faunal emblem. On Monday, community activist group MyEnvironment challenged a supreme court decision that allowed VicForests to log three areas of native forest near Toolangi. The court of appeal hearing saw QC Julian Burnside, acting on behalf of MyEnvironment, claim that VicForests should be banned from the three areas, or coupes, due to provisions that protect the Leadbeater's Possum habitat. Felicity Millner, a lawyer at the Environmental Defenders Office, which is also handling the MyEnvironment case, told Guardian Australia she had deep concerns over the new logging laws. "The amendment provides less oversight of VicForests and less opportunity for the government to intervene," she said. "The problem is whether it's really sustainable to log native forest for decades." "It also locks taxpayers into contracts for native forest logging for the long term. It reduces options for the future and the taxpayers will have to foot the bill for any compensation for VicForests if the government changes its mind." The Wilderness Society claimed that the timber amendment will "likely secure the extinction" of the Leadbeater's Possum. "If the state government is serious about protecting the (Leadbeater's) Possum, it would immediately suspend logging in all known habitat, and avoid locking in long-term logging contracts, which this bill would allow for," said Luke Chamberlain, The Wilderness Society's Victorian campaigns manager. The state government has dismissed concerns over the bill, claiming that it merely puts logging on a similar regulatory footing as the mining industry. It reduces red tape and compliance, which we've committed too, and it provides better resource security," Peter Walsh, Victoria's agriculture minister, told Guardian Australia. "(The concerns) are absolutely not true. It leaves in place the same environmental standards and it doesn't give out longer contracts. The government will still be able to assess long contracts. It just means VicForests can make vital investment decisions around machinery and other matters." Labor said that it broadly supported the bill although it unsuccessfully pushed for a committee to analyse the bill, given the current review of VicForests by Victoria's auditor general. "The parliament is being asked to give an instrument more authority while it is going through a performance review," John Lenders, shadow agriculture minister, told Guardian Australia. "I'm not saying that they can't do their job properly, but when we are being asked to sign off on arrangements for perpetuity, we'd like more than the government's word on it." | ['environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-06-27T07:47:55Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2010/apr/12/shell-oil-sands-shareholders-review-campaign | Shell fights shareholders' campaign for oil sands review | Shell has dismissed shareholder calls for a review of its controversial oil sands developments. A group of institutional investors, led by campaign group FairPensions, had tabled a special resolution ahead of the Anglo-Dutch company's annual meeting next month. They want Shell to review the commercial and environmental viability of going ahead with its new projects in Canada's boreal forests. But the Anglo-Dutch oil company today urged other investors to vote down the resolution. "Whilst the issues raised by the group of shareholders ... are valid and appreciated ... it would set a precedent which, if applied more generally to the company's major investment opportunities, would add unnecessary costs and duplication of effort." The letter to shareholders, giving notice of the meeting in the Hague on 18 May, added that the company had already provided all the non commercially sensitive information to shareholders about its oil sands projects. BP, whose annual meeting takes place on Thursday, is facing similar pressure from shareholders over its own oil sands activities. Shell's next development phase of its Athabasca joint venture will soon add 100,000 barrels per day. This will take production from oil sands mining to 4% of its total production. About 0.6% of its current production comes from in situ operations, where the oil is recovered from beneath the ground by drilling. The campaign led by FairPensions, whose supporters include the Co-operative and trade union Unison, argue that the projects are too big an environmental and economic liability. They also argue that climate change caused by oil sands development could put at risk shareholders' other investments. The issue of oil sands has soared up the political and environmental agenda since the Copenhagen summit highlighted the need for a clampdown on carbon-intensive activities. | ['business/royaldutchshell', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/business', 'business/oil', 'uk/uk', 'environment/oil', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/timwebb', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2010-04-12T20:29:33Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/2015/may/13/india-child-labour-reforms-dangerous-invest | India's child labour 'reforms' could make it a dangerous place to invest | Something momentous is happening in India – and not many outsiders are noticing. Prime minster Narendra Modi’s government has recently announced significant changes to the laws governing India’s labour market. These “reforms” appear to be to aimed at stimulating economic growth and inward investment by removing “red tape” from entrepreneurs. So far, so little out of the neo-liberal ordinary. However, removing “red tape” will mean taking away basic protections for some of the most vulnerable workers. This will include dismantling labour inspections, restricting trade unions, moving employment law violations from criminal to civil code, removing penalties for gender-based discrimination and ending the country’s absolute ban on child labour. Indian society, in particular a new coalition the Working People’s Charter Secretariat, has begun to protest. They are fearful of a “race to the bottom” among businesses and between states to cut costs by reducing wages and terms and conditions. Civil society has also warned of increased exploitation of children, by making legal many of the forms of child labour and exploitation that have so long blighted India’s vast “informal” economy. These proposed changes are particularly depressing coming so soon after India’s compulsory education law promised a reinvigorated effort to end child labour. India is already rife with labour rights abuses. Bonded labour, recognised as a form of slavery under both Indian and international law, affects millions, perhaps most notoriously in agriculture and brick production. Child labour and slavery remain a pernicious problem. Other forms of forced and child labour have recently emerged in export-oriented industries: the child labour found in the manufacture of sporting goods in Punjab would become legal under the proposed “reforms”; forced labour of girls and young women, notably in the spinning mills of Tamil Nadu, forms part of the supply chains that provide cheap clothes to northern hemisphere high streets. Those affected by these slavery abuses – poor girls and young women, Dalits and people from other minority groups – are precisely the people that the lawsgoverning India’s labour market are meant to protect. If the government were to increase the capacity of the overburdened courts, and root out corruption and prejudice in the police, it would begin to transform the promises of those laws into a reality for all Indians. Instead the path it has chosen appears quite different. The proposed reforms, taken together, are arguably unconstitutional, flouting article 23 of the Indian constitution, which prohibits trafficking and forced labour. Future generations may come to regard this as a seminal moment in Indian history, when an Indian government repudiated the ideals enshrined in the constitution by the founders of the republic – and instead substituted a legal basis for the exploitation of vulnerable citizens. Ironically, this embrace of the excesses of 19th century “robber baron” capitalism occurs just as the growing international discourse on ethical trade runs counter. A core concept of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is that governments have the responsibility to protect human rights and businesses have the responsibility to respect human rights. With the growing awareness of forced labour and trafficking as issues of international business and trade, and with legal requirements in the UK and US for companies to report on their supply chains, any business leader with a conscience must consider investing in India carefully in the aftermath of Modi’s proposed reforms. They must think whether they could ever fulfil their responsibilities to respect workers’ rights in the sort of political economy that India would become. And they must worry about how they would face their employees, customers, shareholders – and even their own families – when the truth of such Indian supply chains are exposed. If nothing else, self-interest must be an issue: it can only be a matter of time before the citizens of Europe and the US press their leaders into excluding from their markets the products of slavery, and hold criminally liable those executives who knowingly seek profit from the enslavement of others. Modi’s current plans could put him on the wrong side of history, ultimately overseeing India’s gradual isolation from international trade. This would be a tragedy. India can still become, as the founders of the modern state envisaged, a beacon in the struggle for human rights across the world. The child rights and business hub is sponsored by Unicef. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox. | ['sustainable-business/series/child-rights-and-business', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'world/india', 'law/child-labour', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'world/ethics', 'law/law', 'world/world', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'tone/comment', 'profile/aidan-mcquade'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-05-13T14:41:16Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
lifeandstyle/2014/oct/16/australian-fish-need-proper-labels-for-easy-identification-says-new-group | Australian fish need proper labels for easy identification, says new group | In Australia, more than two-thirds of barramundi eaten is imported from Asia, much of the flathead sold is likely to be an unrelated species imported from South America, and shark, sold as “flake”, could be anything from gummy to a threatened species. Peak environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Australian Marine Conservation Society and Taronga Zoo, have formed an alliance to demand more accurate fish labelling to help consumers understand what they are buying and where it comes from. They launched the “Label My Fish” campaign in Sydney on Thursday to highlight that while 72% of seafood Australians eat is imported, consumers often had no way of knowing that when ordering from restaurants. The campaign claims poor practices in some fisheries overseas is threatening species, destroying habitats and undermining workers’ rights, and that people should be able to easily identify Australian fish, subject to more stringent quality controls. David Ritter, chief executive of Greenpeace, said Australians were “genuinely shocked” when they realised they might be eating an endangered or unidentified species. He said some shark species contained high levels of mercury, but poor labelling meant people were unaware of the species they were eating, potentially placing pregnant women and young children at risk. “Politicians have the power to change the law and protect the environment and public health,” Ritter said. “The Australian fishing industry is one of the most sustainable in the world and a simple legislative change is all that’s needed.” John Hart, chief executive of the Restaurant & Catering Industry Association, said forcing restaurants to label the source of all seafood items on their menu would be costly and onerous. “Most seafood suppliers can’t guarantee a particular product with any certainty, so menus would have to be changed every week if this sort of regulation was imposed, costing industry somewhere between $100m and $300m if it’s enacted,” he said. “We’ve continued to advocate that the seafood industry should adopt a promotional campaign advertising the quality of Australian seafood because, after all, that’s what this is all about.” Senator Richard Colbeck, parliamentary secretary to the minister for agriculture and responsible for fisheries, agreed that the labelling would be a burden. “The government is committed to reducing red tape and is concerned that mandatory country of origin labelling for seafood may be costly and impractical for the restaurant and catering sector to implement,” he said. Labelling would have to take into account physical menus as well as those on websites and social media accounts, he said. But Rob Fish, head of the Northern Territory Seafood Council, said many restaurants changed their menus frequently anyway. He questioned the cost estimate of making the changes because it assumed all restaurants sold seafood. He said changes were easy to make to online menus, and some cost burden was inevitable with any legislative change. While supermarkets have adopted country of origin labelling since 2006, he said, legislation meant restaurants were exempt and that there was no compelling reason for that. “We know over 70% of people buying fish assume it to be Australian and with that comes trust that the product is fished sustainably and is safe,” Fish said. “We need to remove the exemption provided to restaurants because they’re not volunteering to do it of their own accord.” Last month Fish called for the name “barramundi” – an Aboriginal word meaning “large-scaled fish” – to be used for the Australian product only, and said the imported fish should instead be labelled “sea bass” or “Asian perch”. A Senate inquiry into seafood labelling is under way, and is due to report on 4 December. | ['food/seafood', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/melissa-davey'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-10-16T04:07:08Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2009/may/21/letter-nuclear-power | Letter: Pointless waste of nuclear plants | So the nuclear industry's flagship £1.8bn reprocessing plant has still not completed work it should have finished five years ago (Thorp nuclear plant may close for years, 19 May). High time this completely pointless plant was closed down for good. All the long-suffering taxpayer has to show for Sellafield's operations is an embarrassing stockpile of 100 tonnes of weapons-useable plutonium and some of the most dangerous nuclear waste in the world, neither of which we have any idea what to do with. Another £2bn has been frittered away on the Sellafield Mox plant, to add to the £75bn bill for cleaning up the rest of the mess created by this industry. The Mox plant should have been producing 120 tonnes of fuel every year, but has not even managed 10 tonnes in seven years. It should also be noted that Thorp's reprocessed fuel does not reduce in any way the total amount of radioactive waste the UK has to deal with. Meanwhile, in Finland a reactor similar to the ones EDF wants to build at Sizewell and Hinkley is three years late and 50% over budget. And in France a second new reactor is already nine months late and 20% over budget. It is difficult to comprehend why any government would want to trust this failed industry yet again. We should be launching a local energy revolution to tackle climate change and fuel poverty. A policy based on decentralised energy would be cheaper, create more jobs, and could be implemented in time to meet our climate change commitments without creating dangerous waste and threatening nuclear weapons proliferation. Cllr George Regan Chair, Nuclear Free Local Authorities UK and Ireland | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/nuclear-waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-05-20T23:01:00Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2022/nov/09/france-to-require-all-large-car-parks-to-be-covered-by-solar-panels | France to require all large car parks to be covered by solar panels | All large car parks in France will be covered by solar panels under new legislation approved as part of president Emmanuel Macron’s renewable energy drive. Legislation approved by the French Senate this week requires existing and new car parks with space for at least 80 vehicles to be covered by solar panels. The owners of car parks with between 80 and 400 spaces have five years to comply with the measures, while operators of those with more than 400 will have just three years. At least half of the area of the larger sites must be covered by solar panels. The French government believes the measure could generate up to 11 gigawatts of power. Politicians had originally applied the bill to car parks larger than 2,500 sq metres before deciding to opt for car parking spaces. French politicians are also examining proposals to build large solar farms on empty land by motorways and railways as well as on farmland. The former UK prime minister Liz Truss considered blocking solar farms being built on agricultural land. The sight of parked cars under the shade of solar panels is not unfamiliar in France. Renewables Infrastructure Group, one of the UK’s largest specialist green energy investors, has invested in a large solar car park in Borgo on Corsica. Macron has thrown his weight behind nuclear energy over the past year and in September announced plans to boost France’s renewable energy industry. He visited the country’s first offshore windfarm off the port of Saint-Nazaire off the west coast and hopes to speed up the build times of windfarms and solar parks. The move comes as European nations examine their domestic energy supplies in the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Technical problems and maintenance on the powerhouse French nuclear fleet has exacerbated the problem while the national operator EDF was forced to cut its output in the summer when French rivers became too warm. The government has also launched a communication campaign, “Every gesture counts”, encouraging individuals and industry to cut their energy usage, and the Eiffel Tower lights are being turned off more than an hour earlier. The French government plans to spend €45bn shielding households and businesses from energy price shocks. Separately on Wednesday, ScottishPower announced it would increase its five-year investment target by £400m to £10.4bn by 2025. The UK solar and windfarm developer hopes to generate 1,000 jobs in the next 12 months. | ['world/france', 'environment/solarpower', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'world/emmanuel-macron', 'environment/windpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2022-11-09T18:08:43Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2009/jul/31/isle-of-wight-vestas-wind | Police asked to ensure the Vestas protesters receive enough food | Police on the Isle of Wight will be asked to ensure food reaches men occupying the Vestas wind turbine factory tomorrow, after lawyers advised that the company could be breaking the law by preventing supplies from getting through. Around 10 workers have staged a sit-in at the Danish-owned plant in Newport for almost two weeks. They complain the management are attempting to starve them out of the facility, and claim they have been given only sporadic meals – sometimes just a small sandwich and slice of pizza per day. Attempts by their supporters to throw them additional food parcels have been impeded by security staff and one worker emerged on Thursday to be told by ambulance staff that his blood sugar levels were dangerously low. Union officials will meet with police tomorrow to lodge an official complaint after Louise Christian, the human rights lawyer, advised that in preventing food from getting through, Vestas and its security firm were committing a criminal offence under the Protection from Harrassment Act (1997). Christian added police have an obligation under the Human Rights Act to ensure Vestas was not preventing access to sufficient food. "This advice confirms our concerns about the rights of the Vestas workers to decent food and we will be making immediate representations to the police in Newport to stop the private company from blockading these essential supplies," said Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT union. "We will not allow the company and their private guards to starve the workers out. With the closure now pushed back it is even more important that the workers inside get nutritional meals on a regular basis." The Newport factory, the only major manufacturer of wind turbine blades in the UK, was due to close today with the loss of around 625 jobs. Vestas said "complications" arising from the industrial dispute had led it to extend its consultation period until at least 10 August. Peter Kruse, a vice-president at the company, said the men were being catered for. "We do not starve people," he said. Vestas failed its legal attempt to secure a possession order from the local country court this week, a move that would have enabled bailiffs to be called. A judge at Newport County Court told lawyers for the company that papers had not been properly served on the men and adjourned the hearing until Tuesday. Kruse said there was nothing the UK government could do to save the factory, which is being abandoned because there is "not enough in the pipeline" in terms of projected growth in the UK onshore market. "They can't create a big enough market overnight with the click of a finger," he said. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'law/human-rights', 'world/protest', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'world/world', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'law/law', 'type/article', 'profile/paullewis', 'profile/tom-roberts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2009-07-31T19:32:27Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2007/nov/05/greenlist.corporatesocialresponsibility3 | Hall of shame | Six of the 10 largest companies on the globe come from one of the oldest and historically most carbon-intensive sectors in business: oil and gas. Between them, the oil majors shown in our table account for 91% of the total emissions of CO2. That says a lot about the scale of the challenge we face in moving to a low-carbon world. ExxonMobil takes the dubious prize for the highest emissions, responsible for 146m tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum, equivalent to the annual emissions of the United Arab Emirates. ExxonMobil is also the worst off ender when it comes to total emissions relative to sales, a staggering 436 tonnes per $1m. By contrast, BP is nearly twice as efficient in its operations, emitting 261 tonnes of carbon dioxide per $1m in sales. Three of the remaining top 10 companies come from the car-manufacturing sector. General Motors has the highest emissions at 12m tonnes per annum. DaimlerChrysler and Toyota both emit a modest 7m tonnes each. In relative terms DaimlerChrysler is slightly more efficient, emitting 35 tonnes of carbon dioxide per $1m of sales, compared with 36 for Toyota. Could this be a sign that others in the car-manufacturing sector are following Toyota's well-documented lead in tackling climate change and sustainability? Between them, the top 10 companies emit the same amount of carbon dioxide per annum as the entire UK. This is a significant amount of carbon dioxide, and in the case of four of the top 10 companies — Exxon, Chevron, Toyota and ConocoPhilips — individual emissions are heading in the wrong direction, with overall greenhouse gas emissions increasing between 2005 and 2006. This is at a time when scientists, politicians and economists have reached consensus that we need a serious reduction in global carbon emissions, and we need it now. As ever, these figures come with the usual health warnings. First, it is reported voluntarily, which makes it possible for different companies to measure and report their carbon dioxide emissions in different ways. Second, the data only includes carbon dioxide emissions up to the point of sale. None of the emissions resulting from consuming oil and gas, driving cars or using any of Wal-Mart's or Asda's thousands of product lines are included. Quibbles around the quality of data aside, it would seem that half of our top 10 companies are definitely laggards when it comes to best practice in carbon management. Five of the 10 — Exxon, DaimlerChrysler, Chevron, Total and ConocoPhilips — do not appear to have published targets to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. If a business is serious about tackling climate change, then public commitments to absolute carbon reductions — not relative reductions per unit of production/sales — are needed. More effort required For those companies with published targets, the scale of ambition is varied. General Motors has set itself a target of an 8% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2010, with Toyota taking a lead with a creditable target of a 20% reduction in the same period. Wal-Mart is also committed to a 20% reduction, but over the next seven years. This level of aspiration is absolutely what is required in the short term, but by 2050 we need to see cuts in the order of 60%, ideally 90%, if we are to stand a chance of stabilising our climate. We also need to see significant investment in sustainable technologies. Business-as-usual investment patterns will not deliver a low-carbon, sustainable economy. It is therefore disappointing to see that half of our top 10 don't publish separate figures for investment in new, sustainable technologies. Of those noble five companies publicly disclosing investment in sustainable technologies, again, we see Toyota taking a lead, with a laudable 13.8% of total annual capital investment being spent on sustainable options such as the use of renewable fuels and "eco-drive" technologies. By contrast, it is questionable whether Shell's 1.1% investment is up to the scale of the challenge. With 6.8% of annual capital investment allocated to sustainable technologies such as alternative energy, BP leads the oil majors in its investment in the future. Although Wal-Mart is only investing 3.1% of its overall capital expenditure on sustainable technologies, any investment h ere is significant given the influence of the world's biggest retailer on what and how we buy. Wal-Mart's well-publicised sustainability ambitions will have a direct influence on global consumption patterns. By reducing the carbon required to bring everyday products to market and, hopefully in the longer-term, taking some carbon villains off the shelves, Wal-Mart is making a meaningful contribution to a sustainable future. However, in order to deliver the pace and scale of change required to guarantee a low carbon future, we need to see all the largest companies on the globe commit to stretching reduction targets, as well as to double-digit investment figures in new, sustainable technologies. Some of the carbon-hungry business models seen in our top 10 businesses are not part of a sustainable future. Carbon is becoming the new currency of business. Those businesses that use it wisely will be rewarded. Those that overspend will, along with their business models, be consigned to history. · Dr Sally Uren is director of Forum for the Future's business programme. Forum for the Future advises the Guardian on sustainability. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/greenlist', 'theguardian/greenlist/greenlistfeatures'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2007-11-05T13:06:18Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2018/mar/22/tathra-bushfire-nsw-rural-fire-service-says-power-lines-likely-cause | Tathra bushfire: NSW Rural Fire Service says power lines likely cause | Power lines were the likely cause of the devastating bushfire that swept through the small town of Tathra on the New South Wales south coast on Sunday, a preliminary investigation has found. The investigation by the Rural Fire Service has found “electrical infrastructure on Reedy Swamp Road” as the likely cause. The finding, outlined in a three-paragraph media statement on Thursday afternoon, will prompt renewed questions about the maintenance of power infrastructure by the NSW government-owned company, Essential Energy. Earlier on Thursday, the Electrical Trades Union said there were “serious questions to answer” over cuts to funding for power line maintenance in the state. The union alleged that, over the last seven years, Essential Energy had sacked almost 40% of its workforce, underspent on its operating expenditure by $129m and slashed capital expenditure by 38% since 2012 due to restrictions imposed by the Australian Energy Regulator. The ETU’s NSW assistant secretary, Justin Page, said the funding cuts “may be placing the public at serious risk”. “The NSW government has been focused on cutting costs at Essential Energy, including slashing maintenance and capital works expenditure, while at the same time maximising profit,” he said. “The NSW government, as owner of this ageing and complex network, and the Australian Energy Regulator should be focused on safety and reliability ahead of cost cutting, which is not currently the case, leading to potential impacts on network reliability and public safety.” Residents are continuing a staggered return to their homes in the bushfire-ravaged town on NSW’s far south coast. The fire destroyed 65 houses and 35 caravans and cabins, and damaged 48 houses. There were 810 saved or untouched. Some 166 people have been rehoused in temporary accommodation by Family and Community Services. Hundreds more are staying with friends and family, awaiting permission to return to their homes. The removal of asbestos in affected homes is expected to begin on Thursday and extend into next week. The remainder of the clean-up in the town could take until the end of April. Those who have lost their homes may have to spend up to 18 months in temporary accommodation, according to the recovery coordinator, Euan Ferguson. “We are not talking months. Generally, this is a 12-18 months process at best,” he told the ABC on Thursday. “There will be some frustrations.” Two inquiries into the fire will now be held. One will be headed by former federal police chief Mick Keelty and another will held in the coroner’s court. The handling of the fire has prompted numerous questions. Poor mobile reception hampered efforts to get warnings to residents, as did a loss of power. The site is a notorious black spot for mobile phone coverage and has been earmarked as a priority site for upgrades under the federal government’s mobile black spot program. Despite that, no infrastructure upgrades have yet been made. The Rural Fire Service has also been forced to defend its decision to reject two offers of help during the fire’s early stages, made by its urban firefighting counterpart, Fire and Rescue NSW. The decision has prompted a furious war of words between the union representing Fire and Rescue members and the RFS. Essential Energy has been contacted for a response. | ['australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/wildfires', 'society/emergency-services', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/south-coast', 'profile/christopher-knaus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-03-22T07:38:34Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2016/mar/08/solar-energy-pioneer-monica-oliphant-on-charting-her-own-path-in-science | Solar energy pioneer Monica Oliphant on charting her own path in science | It was 1973 and Monica Oliphant, a recently widowed mother of two, was washing the dishes one night when she first heard about the potential for solar energy. “[It was] at the time of the Arab oil crisis, and I heard on the radio someone saying, if we had solar energy, we wouldn’t have to fight over oil. That was the 70s and I managed to get work in this area. That was tremendously exciting.” While the word “pioneer” gets bandied around a lot, it seems apt when talking to 75-year-old Oliphant. Recently named South Australia’s senior Australian of the year, her long and brilliant career was recognised last year when she was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia for her work in the renewable energy sector as a research scientist, particularly in solar photovoltaics and power generation. It is even more inspiring considering she studied in the male-dominated area of physics in the early 60s, and went on to carved her own path in the energy sector, all while raising a family single-handedly. As a child, Oliphant had a keen interest in astronomy. She remembers joining a group called the moon watch group, which tracked the Sputnik and explorer satellites, and she had a holiday job at Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra. But she realised the sector wasn’t for her; it was “too abstract”. She did enjoy science and maths, and went on to study physics. She was the only female physics graduate at the University of Adelaide. “There weren’t many in the physics areas when I did honours in physics at Adelaide [University]. I was the only female in my group in 1960 but I never felt I was any different to anyone else in class,” she says. At university she met her husband and fellow physicist Michael Oliphant, son of pre-eminent scientist and former South Australian governor Sir Mark Oliphant. She began working in the male-dominated electricity supply sector at the Electricity Trust of South Australia (ETSA), after completing her studies. “People would ask me where I worked and I’d say, and they’d ask, ‘Are you a receptionist?’” Oliphant stopped working for a time to raise children, but then Michael died of cancer in 1971. He was 35. “My husband died a couple of weeks before my second daughter was born. There was a big mortgage so I had to go back to work. I had to survive financially”, she says. “I wanted to be independent, and I had a five-year-old and newborn to support, so I moved back to Adelaide and got part-time work as a research assistant.” She worked in atomic research at the University of Adelaide and later Flinders University. By 1973, she had become fascinated with solar photovoltaics and renewable energy, and she spent 18 years focusing on renewables at ETSA. There was very little formal childcare in the early 70s, even for women who were single parents. “I only worked part-time initially. There wasn’t much childcare available, so I mainly improvised, but being at a university was helpful.” These days she looks at her adult daughters, both working mothers, and sees that there are still challenges for working women. “My two daughters have husbands, they have been able to have access to childcare but they work enormously hard and they are stressed out in their daily living. It’s not easy. I don’t think it’s easy for females to manipulate both a job and home life.” Oliphant’s career flourished, she says, mainly because she was left alone to pursue her own interests. “I reckon I was the employee from hell but I wanted to do these things and if it wasn’t in the work plan, I would say, ‘maybe I can get funding.’ I would do what I wanted, and they let me. Then I would get funding, so they couldn’t stop me. They thought it was easier to let me go and I probably wouldn’t do much harm.” She had no formal mentors. “The people I worked with were always helpful, but I didn’t have anyone in particular to work with, except for the people in the Australian Solar Energy Society.” Oliphant was also president of the International Solar Energy Society from 2008 to 2009 and it remains one of her career highlights. Much of Oliphant’s work would turn out to be ahead of its time including work in the early 1990s with public housing and examining the impact of energy efficiency of low-income families. “Back then the residential sector was regarded as too diverse and small to be looked at. Monitoring household energy use became mainstreamed shortly afterwards. So there was a lot of interesting work done then. It was enjoyable.” Currently an adjunct associate professor with the division of information technology, engineering and the environment at the University of South Australia, Oliphant remains active in the renewable energy sector. She is working on several projects. “One is on community-owned solar – trying to increase penetration within the community. I have [also] just finished ... a feasibility study on the potential to have a UN university on renewable energy and training in China.” That feasibility study took her and a group of international scientists to Malaysia, Russia and China. The team are currently waiting to see if their work is accepted. She is also the patron of the Corena Fund, a not-for-profit citizen group that collectively funds new renewable energy installations. “I’m fairly busy and I’m having an enjoyable time. If you are involved in something that [you] really believe in and you love, it keeps you going.” | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/social-equality', 'environment/environment', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'lifeandstyle/women', 'world/international-womens-day', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'profile/brigiddelaney'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-03-07T22:35:18Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/aug/03/whaley-bridge-residents-allowed-to-return-for-15-minutes | Thunderstorms threaten Whaley Bridge dam as more homes evacuated | Thunderstorms are threatening to bring more unwanted rainfall to a Derbyshire town where a damaged dam is thought to be at risk of collapse. Dozens more homes have been evacuated in Whaley Bridge before bad weather expected from Sunday afternoon, as emergency workers continue their efforts to prevent the dam giving way. Fifty-five homes in the Horwich End area of Whaley Bridge were cleared on Saturday evening, two days after 1,500 residents left town. Water levels at the Toddbrook reservoir in Whaley Bridge have been reduced by 1.3 metres since Thursday, but the condition of the structure remains “critical”. Police said the additional evacuations were undertaken because of “a potential increase in risk of adverse weather in coming days and the ongoing risk of the Toddbrook reservoir breaching”. Derbyshire police allowed one person from each of the 400 Whaley Bridge properties evacuated on Thursday to return for a 15-minute visit on Saturday to pick up pets and other essentials. At the Horwich End traffic lights on the Buxton side of the town, cars queued to get through the police blockade. Officers have stopped people entering the steep-sided village since Thursday afternoon when a month-and-a-half’s rain fell on the Derbyshire hills in just 48 hours, causing damage to the 180-year-old dam at Toddbrook reservoir. Engineers deemed there was a “substantial risk to life” should the reservoir fail, prompting the evacuation of the lower quarter of the town. Ania Hill had been worrying about her cat, Slippers, ever since the evacuation. She was relieved to find him alive but distressed. He had not gone hungry after a neighbour managed to throw him food through the letterbox. “He was quite upset, I’ve had to put him in the dark in the boot to calm him down,” she said after her personal rescue mission. Police had stipulated that only one person per household would be allowed through the cordon. Visits were to be timed, with residents signing in and out. But in practice, many people had brought a friend or spouse and took longer than their allotted 15 minutes, as an RAF Chinook helicopter ferried bags of aggregate to drop on the damaged dam. Gail and Martin Shaw, who live on Buxton Road, the main road through the town, took the opportunity to return home and move more belongings – furniture and Gail’s collection of ornaments – upstairs. Like many residents, they take seriously the warning from engineers who said on Friday night that they remained very concerned about the integrity of the structure, despite an extensive pumping operation having reduced water levels in Toddbrook reservoir. They were also worried about looters after Martin returned on Friday night to see two men trying to break into his shed. “It was two fellas, their trousers all wet – I think they must have entered the village via the River Goyt, which runs right behind our house,” said Martin. Derbyshire police said it would look into the claims of looting, with a press officer saying she was unaware of problems of that nature following the mass evacuation. Fred Salmon, who runs the Bike Factory shop in the centre of the town, arrived with his van, hoping to bundle as many bicycles in the back as he could. Another woman, rushing too much to give her name, speed-walked to her house to pick up her passport: she was off on holiday later in the day. Dan Curley, the landlord of the Cock pub on Buxton Road, was finally allowed back to fetch his spectacles, having spent the first 36 hours after the evacuation with a splitting headache. Peter Drinkwater was among those allowed to return to his terraced cottage. “Until the evacuation, I’d never spent a night away from the house in 37 years,” he said after retrieving a selection of clothes and medication. His daughter, Cathryn Swann, said: “It feels really eerie down there. The police had told us to come straight back if we heard any rumbling sounds, and of course there was rumbling anyway from all the aggregate being dropped on to the dam. I panicked a couple of times, but thankfully we’re OK.” Ruth George, the local Labour MP, who lives just outside Whaley Bridge, arrived to find out the latest news. She said she had written to Boris Johnson on Friday night after his visit. He told residents that he had flown over the dam and thought it was “dodgy but stable” and assured them they would all be rehoused should the worst happen. In her letter to the prime minister, George asked him to ensure a proper investigation into why the reservoir dam had been damaged and to ensure it could not happen again. “It’s not just about the emergency situation, as important as that is,” she wrote. “Whaley Bridge as a town needs to be able to feel safe for the long term and we need to know what the options are.” She commended the emergency services but warned that the situation remained critical. “We’re expecting lots and lots of rain over the next few days so I can quite understand the authorities not being prepared to say it’s safe until those storms have gone.” Edwina Currie, a former Conservative MP who lives in one of the higher parts of the town, said: “Our reservoir is looking like it’s in intensive care at the moment. There are pipes everywhere giving it the treatment it needs. But we are a sturdy lot up here and you won’t hear us complaining.” The environment minister Thérèse Coffey said the situation remained in a “critical stage” on Saturday as she issued a message to residents. “I cannot emphasise enough how patient they need to be,” Coffey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Of course this is a distressing and worrying time for them, but if that dam were to breach it would lead to a loss of life if there were people there. There’s no doubt about that.” | ['environment/flooding', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'uk/weather', 'uk-news/north-of-england', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenpidd', 'profile/nigel-bunyan', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2019-08-04T09:10:32Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/article/2024/jul/21/the-guardian-view-on-gb-energy-a-good-idea-turns-up-just-in-time | The Guardian view on GB Energy: a good idea turns up just in time | Editorial | Sir Keir Starmer’s legislative plan to green Britain has arrived not a moment too soon. Last week, the government’s advisers warned that only a third of the carbon reductions required by law would be met under existing plans. The Climate Change Committee said that, for the first time since setting itself carbon-reduction targets, the UK is not on track to meet its goal. It is supposed to reduce emissions in 2030 by 68% compared with 1990 levels, to meet net zero by 2050. The UK should, says the committee, now be in a phase of rapid investment and delivery. But the Tories’ turn against net zero policies has meant little progress on the rollout of low-carbon technology. That is why Labour’s king’s speech, which put the environment at the centre of policymaking, was so welcome. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, won the argument that the urgency of the climate emergency needed a bigger, more interventionist state. Greening the economy solely through market mechanisms has not unleashed its potential. To change this, Labour confirmed bills to set up state-owned Great British Energy; to modernise the crown estate so the seabed is investment-ready for offshore renewables; and to reform planning so that key infrastructure such as grid upgrades don’t get tied up in arguments with local communities. Mr Miliband had promised the kind of expansion in clean energy that the committee says is now required. That means much more solar and wind energy secured by GB Energy “which will own, manage and operate clean power projects”. There are some valid doubts about whether its limited budget – £8.3bn over five years – will mean GB Energy is just a co-investor in schemes rather than a serious rival to private investors. Without well-funded state intervention, the Common Wealth thinktank points out, the government would end up with the current market model of “uncoordinated [investment], replete with barriers and delays and vulnerable to policy errors”. Mr Miliband won’t deliver a green transition – and good jobs – by sticking to the status quo. He also has to meet two challenges. One is electoral: the Green party came second to Labour in dozens of seats and will capitalise on any failure to make good on the party’s climate pledges. The second is that without sufficient action, acts of civil disobedience are likely to spread. To demonstrate its superiority, GB Energy must translate low-cost clean energy generation into lower bills. This means probably adopting a policy like the New Economics Foundation’s “energy guarantee” to protect essential needs, reduce bills and cut carbon emissions. This scheme seeks to provide energy for free, or at low cost, while applying a premium to higher levels of usage – which would incentivise investment in energy efficiency and renewables. Political parties can modify perceptions by creating a plausible narrative that alters the way the public construes salient issues. Thoughtful critics say that may not be enough. Helen Thompson, professor of political economy at Cambridge University, remains sceptical of Labour’s raised expectations and about the utility of its goal to fully decarbonise electricity generation by 2030. She argues that without the state spending large sums of money to electrify the country’s heating and transportation systems with green energy, Britain would still be exposed to inflationary oil and gas price shocks. That is an argument – as Mr Miliband would say – to go big, not go small, when it comes to the climate emergency. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/energy', 'politics/edmiliband', 'politics/labour', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2024-07-21T17:30:11Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/mar/19/frucool-beer-barrel-local-british-carbon-money-saving | Ed Gillespie: A barrel of local beer is cheap, low-carbon and tasty. What's not to like? | "Enough is back!" was the rallying cry at the green marketing conference I spoke at last week. Everyone's favourite rambunctious environmentalist Jonathon Porritt was there, expertly wielding twin arguments about the urgency of the climate situation ("it's much, much worse than we thought") and the culpability of the marketing profession like a pair of metaphorical nunchuks. After chastising the assembled marketers for fuelling our avaricious consumer hunger, he then challenged them to imagine a world in which "less" might conceivably be "more". The conclusion was we must now take the communications genius that developed campaigns for companies to flog us more stuff, and apply it to the ideas and concepts that might actually give us a foothold to wriggle our way out of the fiscal and ecological cesspit we're currently drowning in. Did somebody mention Frucool? Maverick serial "Manifestist" John Grant then suggested that every pound spent in the UK economy equates roughly to a kilo of carbon being emitted. Saving money in the face of government impeachments for us to step out and splurge is therefore not only subversive, but also like offsetting our emissions. Now frankly, I agree with the twisted folks at Cheat Neutral that carbon offsetting is like a "get out of climate change jail free/guiltlessly unfaithful shag card". It allows us to carry on regardless, while sticking our fingers up at the moral responsibility to reduce our emissions - or avoid "accidentally" sleeping with people other than our partners). But if John is right, not spending money at the present time is a little holier than thou. You haven't even done the naughty bit (some spurting short-haul flight/casual infidelity/buying some useless piece of junk for the sake of it), so you haven't generated the carbon, but you've still assuaged your conscience by offsetting. Dosh saved, climate change decelerated, relationship intact and a feelgood factor to boot. Is this the birth of positive offsetting - for things you haven't even done? However, all this Frucool piety was thirsty work and I gathered my work clan for some away days in Norfolk. I was in charge of liquid libations to keep the troops happy and the ideas flowing. And what could be more Frucool than a whole barrel of ale? At just over a quid a pint our nine gallon barrel of locally made St Peter's Organic Best was considerably cheaper than the pub (average price of a UK pint is now £2.75). As well as being relatively cheap, our barrel kept our beer miles low - a beer drunk, and made from ingredients sourced, locally may accumulate only 600 beer miles compared to the 24,000 potentially involved in a beer brewed in Germany and imported to the UK – a huge difference in carbon footprints. So far so frugal. But is ale cool? Well, it is certainly being supped by a bigger constituency of tipplers than its traditional bearded clientele. Almost 400 breweries around the country are churning out a bewildering and brilliant array of beers, and for the first time in years sales are on the rise, while those of "Euro-fizz" lagers are in decline. There's a strong Frucool case to be made for real ale. Individually-owned microbreweries, producing lovingly crafted distinctive, seasonal and artisanal beers with local labour and ingredients that are usually at least 20p a pint cheaper than a standard lager: it's almost the complete antithesis of the generic multinational uber-brewery approach of beer solely as a profit-making product. I think it's time to roll out the Frucool barrel. • Ed Gillespie is a director at communications agency Futerra and has travelled the world without planes for his Slow Traveller series | ['environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'tone/blog', 'environment/food', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'food/beer', 'type/article', 'profile/ed-gillespie'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2009-03-19T11:04:48Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2019/apr/01/lord-howe-island-coral-bleaching-most-severe-weve-ever-seen-scientists-say | Lord Howe Island coral bleaching 'most severe we've ever seen', scientists say | Researchers have documented what they are describing as the most severe coral bleaching to hit the world’s southern-most reef at Lord Howe Island. Scientists from Newcastle University, James Cook University, the University of New South Wales and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have spent the past two weeks surveying corals around the island in the far south Pacific Ocean after they were alerted to bleaching in isolated areas. Bill Leggat, a coral biologist at Newcastle University, said the worst of the bleaching was in shallow water closer to the shoreline. “It’s quite variable but where it’s severe it is actually quite severe,” he said. “Some of the sites are looking at 80-90% bleaching going very close inshore.” Other reef sites the scientists surveyed showed bleaching levels of 50%, 30% and some areas with as little as 5% bleaching. Lord Howe Island was named a Unesco world heritage site in 1982. It is habitat for species that are found nowhere else on earth. The bleaching has occurred over the past summer, with March the peak month of the year for coral bleaching due to warmer ocean temperatures. Scientists have documented three bleaching events at Lord Howe Island in the past but it has been some years since it last occurred. Leggat said although the bleaching was isolated to shallow areas, for scientists to be documenting 90% bleaching in some parts signalled the latest event “is really quite severe”. “As far as we know it’s the most severe we’ve ever seen it on Lord Howe Island,” he said. “Our concern now is we’re going to start seeing coral mortality.” Leggat said some areas still remained healthy but researchers doing surveys last week could see the bleaching was progressing. They will return in April to conduct fresh surveys to assess whether it has caused coral mortality. While much of Australia’s focus on coral bleaching has been centred on the Great Barrier Reef, it is a worldwide occurrence due to climate change. “Reefs around the world are being affected everywhere,” Leggat said. “We’re starting to see beaching in sites where wouldn’t have previously expected to see it.” | ['australia-news/lord-howe-island', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/coral', 'environment/marine-life', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-04-01T03:33:02Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/jul/29/thorn-tree-langley-bush-broze-age-parish-gibbet-poets-pagans-heretics | Thorn tree tangle of pagans and poets | Odd, the durable significance of some places. You can understand a mountain or cliff or sprawling forest – places that awe the eye on the ground, horizon or map. More enigmatic are the little places. Slid away, unremarkable but exquisite in appearance or legacy, for reasons frequently forgotten but strangely lingering. This one, historically, a bronze age grave, then Roman shrine, then outdoor court, place of execution, parish marker, gypsy haunt, poet’s muse. Today, the name of a road and the title of a plaque. This is Langley Bush, lost in a field near Peterborough. The site stands slightly proud in fields yellow with summer. Old trees, of Southey Wood and Castor Hanglands, surround it. The bush, actually a hawthorn tree, on its little coaster mound looks like a bonsai sculpture, immediately singular in that way a tree can be when isolated. It commands inspection, analysis. This one is so branch frantic it looks blurred, as if blown by the wind. The site has witnessed a transgression of belief systems. Excavation of this supposed pagan grave once yielded a worked stone dedicated to a Roman deity. The stone later marked a junction of four parishes. From Anglo-Saxon times the place had been an open-air court. The first thorn at this spot was recorded in 948. A gibbet stood here until 1721, choking life from heretic, traitor and criminal. Centuries of discussion, decision and death, right here. Then Langley Bush entranced John Clare, the poet born not far away, in the village of Helpston. O Langley Bush! The shepherd’s sacred shade, began his poem named for this place. Clare often castigated civilisation’s constraints on the countryside. He wrote of it here in his journal of 1824, lamenting the bush’s unceremonious removal following the area’s enclosures. Langley Bush was “destroyd”, he wrote. And so, the modern context. The John Clare society planted another shrub, in 1996, which now sits beneath pylon drapes, still behind a fence. Clare loved Langley Bush; it was a fallen Eden to him. He ignored that gibbet past. Hopefully, history will ignore the modern ephemera that colour the fringes of this otherwise fine place with sour modern words: fly tip, filthy duvet, Budweiser, baby wipe. Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/forests', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'books/john-clare', 'books/poetry', 'uk/roman-britain', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'education/historyandhistoryofart', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/simon-ingram', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-07-29T04:30:27Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/nov/29/french-nuclear-power-worst-situation-ever-former-edf-director | French nuclear power in 'worst situation ever', says former EDF director | The French nuclear industry is in its “worst situation ever” because of a spate of plant closures in France and the complexities it faces with the UK’s Hinkley Point C power station, according to a former Électricité de France director. Gérard Magnin, who called Hinkley “very risky” when he resigned as a board member over the project in July, told the Guardian that with more than a dozen French reactors closed over safety checks and routine maintenance, circumstances for the state-owned EDF had deteriorated since he stepped down. The closures have seen Britain this week exporting electricity to France for the first time in four years. An industry report on Tuesday also warned that the offline reactors could lead to a “tense situation” for energy supply in France, in the event of a cold snap this winter. The situation is likely to be exacerbated by damage during Storm Angus to the main cable that carries electricity back and forth between the UK and France. It is believed a boat dropping anchor during the storm may have been responsible but National Grid is investigating the cause and working to repair the Interconnexion France-Angleterre, which is buried in the seabed and heavily armoured. The operator said that four of the eight cables in the interconnector had been damaged, reducing its capacity from 2,000MW to 1,000MW until February next year. It added that due to the French reactor closures, it had already factored in a reduction in energy supplies from France this winter. Magnin said that instead of backing new nuclear, the UK and France should capitalise on falling wind and solar power costs and help individuals and communities to build and run their own renewable energy projects. He founded an association of cities switching to green energy, joined the EDF board in 2014, and is now director of a renewable energy co-op in France. “The most surprising [thing] for me is the attitude of the UK government which accepts the higher cost of electricity ... in a time where the costs of renewables is decreasing dramatically,” he said. “In 10 years [when Hinkley Point C is due to be completed], the cost of renewables will have fallen again a lot.” Of the Hinkley C design, known as the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), Magnin said: “A lot of people in EDF have known for a long time the EPR has no future – too sophisticated, too expensive – but they assume their commitments and try to save the face of France.” The UK’s business department conceded in September that by the time Hinkley is operational the price of electricity guaranteed to EDF will be above the comparable costs for large-scale solar and onshore windfarms. Officials argued that using renewables instead would cost more in grid upgrades and balancing the intermittent nature of wind and solar. But in a comment article for the Guardian, Magnin said renewables would still be able to match new nuclear. “Renewable energies are becoming competitive with fossil fuels and new nuclear, such as Hinkley Point, where EDF will try to build the most expensive reactors in the world and provide electricity at an unprecedented cost,” he wrote. A spokesman for EDF said the company was confident its reactors in France would restart soon after tests were complete. He added: “EDF has full confidence in the EPR design which is why we and our Chinese partners CGN have invested £18bn (£14.4bn) in our project at Hinkley Point C. Final testing is underway for our EPR unit in Taishan in China which is due to be operational next year. As our chairman Jean-Bernard Lévy said recently, the EPR is a technology of the future, combining performance, safety and predictability.” On Wednesday the European commission is due to publish plans on how it will support an increasing amount of renewable energy on Europe’s grids, and how it will meet its climate change commitments under the Paris Agreement. Approximately seven or eight draft pieces of legislation are expected in the “winter package”, plus funding for cleaner energy, but green groups fear renewables will lose the priority they get on electricity grids. Magnin said that the EU’s climate targets are used in France as a way to maintain a status quo which sees nuclear – a low-carbon power source – provide around three quarters of the country’s electricity. “Climate change issues are used as arguments to maintain the current system,” he said. Wind and solar provide less than 4% of France’s electricity, but Magnin said the European commission and governments should support community-owned green energy projects to grow that share. Such an approach would overcome opposition to renewable power sources, and secure funding, he said. Separately on Tuesday, the EU association of national grids issued a warning that France was faced with its lowest supply of power from nuclear in a decade because of plants being taken offline for safety checks. Entsoe (the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) said that further reactors would be taken offline, potentially leaving France dependent on imports in December and February, depending on how cold the weather is. But it said that Europe as a whole had sufficient power plants to cope with normal and severe conditions over the winter. “Identifying the problems facing France and the UK this winter only goes to highlight the importance of investing in new capacity. Events across the Channel have shown that relying on old capacity is risky, with France’s nuclear plants proving as unreliable as our coal-fired ones,” said Dr Jonathan Marshall, an energy analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a UK-based thinktank. “At home, turning to old and dirty coal plants is not a long-term solution, so encouraging investment in new lower-carbon kit – solar, wind and a small amount of new gas capacity – should be at the top of the government’s list of priorities.” | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'uk/uk', 'environment/energy', 'world/france', 'business/edf', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-11-29T12:53:18Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2011/jan/11/spying-undercover-officers | Spying: undercover operatives' tales revealed | Officer A, 1993-1997 Officer A worked among anti-racist groups in the UK, claiming to have taken part in violence against members of the public and police officers. During his time undercover he said he had sexual relationships with at least two of his female targets as a way of obtaining information. "My role was to provide intelligence about protests and demonstrations, particularly those that had the potential to become violent," he told the Observer last year. His deployment, which lasted four years, ended amid fears that his role within groups protesting about deaths in police custody and bungled investigations into racist murders would be revealed during the public inquiry by Sir William Macpherson into the death of south London teenager Stephen Lawrence. Martin Hogbin, 1997-2000 Hogbin was national co-ordinator for the Campaign Against Arms Trade. He joined CAAT as a volunteer in 1997 and in 2000 joined the staff as national campaign and events co-ordinator. He was later accused of supplying information to a company linked to BAE's security department, but denied the allegation. Asked about his past by the Guardian in 2009, Hogbin said: "I couldn't possibly comment." He added that he had attended demonstrations because he thought the arms trade was "wrong". Chris Penhaligon Penhaligon (not pictured, not his real name) worked at Greenpeace from 2003-2008, reporting to Special Branch. In his book, One Blood, he reveals how he infiltrated the campaign group and took a leading role in its action unit for almost five years. The ex-paratrooper and police protection officer says he joined Greenpeace's surveillance operations, spending days in hiding outside power stations. He also said he drove a lorry which dumped coal outside Defra in central London. He also took part in his last assignment, attending an international meeting of Greenpeace activists in Turkey, returning with almost 500 photographs of key figures. Toby Kendall (Ken Tobias), 2008 The former Oxford student used the name Ken Tobias when he volunteered to help environmental group Plane Stupid. But in April 2008 he was exposed as a corporate spy who worked as "an analyst" for C2-i International, the UK's premier "special risk management" and investigation company. He was also accused of acting as an agent provocateur and of planting stories to discredit activists. Suspicions were aroused because he always turned up first to meetings, always pushed for direct action and was too well dressed. Activists discovered his real name and found a Bebo page with a photo revealing Kendall was 24 and the revelation that he liked war and revenge movies. There was also a link to a corporate networking site, where "Ken" claimed to be an analyst at C2i International, working in "security and investigations". C2i said Kendall worked on his own and infiltration of Plane Stupid was not sanctioned. Matilda Gifford, 2009 Environmental campaigner Matilda Gifford, 24, secretly recorded a three-hour meeting with detectives in which they tried to recruit her as a paid spy. During two meetings, the officers indicated that she could receive tens of thousands of pounds for information about Plane Stupid. They also told her that police had infiltrated a number of environmental groups and were running hundreds of informants. [Update inserted 21 January 2011: Matilda Gifford has asked us to note that – as this item suggests – she rejected the police offer.] | ['environment/activism', 'world/world', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'world/espionage', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-11T22:12:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
global-development/2014/dec/15/lima-deal-global-climate-justice | Is the Lima deal a travesty of global climate justice? | John Vidal | At one point on Saturday night it looked quite likely that the Lima climate talks would collapse in disarray. Instead of the harmony expected between China and the US following their pre-talks pact, the world’s two largest economies were squaring off; workmen were dismantling the venue; old faultlines between rich and poor countries were opening up again and some countries’ delegations were rushing to catch their planes. In the end, after a marathon 32-hour session where everyone stared into the abyss of total failure, a modicum of compromise prevailed. Some deft changes of emphasis in the revised text and the inclusion of key words such as “loss” and “damage” proved just enough for diplomats to bodge a last-minute compromise. There were cheers and tears as the most modest of agreements was reached. The Peruvian president of the UN climate change convention, or Cop20, could say without irony: “With this text, we all win without exception.” Not so. Countries may technically still be on track to negotiate a final agreement in Paris next year, but the gaps between them are growing rather than closing and the stakes are getting higher every month. We have now reached the point where everyone can see clearly that whatever ambition there once was to respect science and try to hold temperatures to an overall 2C rise has been ditched. We also know that developing countries will not get anything like the money they need to adapt their economies and infrastructure to climate change and that those countries that have been historically responsible for getting the world into its current climate mess will be able to do much what they like. As it stands, 21 years of tortuous negotiations may have actually taken developing countries backwards on tackling climate change. From an imperfect but legally binding UN treaty struck in 1992, in which industrialised countries accepted responsibility and agreed to make modest but specific cuts over a defined period, we now have the prospect of a less than legally binding global deal where everyone is obliged to do something but where the poor may have to do the most and the rich will be free to do little. In 1992, rich countries were obliged to lead and to help the poor, but we now have a situation where those who had little or no historical responsibility for climate change are likely to cut emissions the most. This travesty of global climate justice, say many developing countries, is largely the fault of the US, which, backed by Britain and others industrialised countries like Canada and Australia, has helped build up distrust in developing countries by continually trying to deregulate the international climate change regime by weakening the rules, shifting responsibility to the south and making derisory offers of financial help. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, made an impassioned speech in Lima warning that the world was “on a course leading to tragedy”, but inside the conference halls the US negotiators were not giving an inch during the negotiations, and the emissions cuts that the US proposed would put the world on a path for a global temperature increase well beyond the already dangerous 2C. Countries now have little time to resolve fundamental issues, and success in Paris is not at all certain. All countries will be asked to submit their plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, known as intended nationally determined contributions, to the UN by 31 March. The UN will then crunch the figures and a few weeks before the talks open we will know just how far away countries are to limiting temperature increase to below 1.5C or 2C. As it stands, we may be on track for 4C of warming. But with more than 100 countries supporting the ambitious goal of phasing out all man-made carbon emissions by 2050, Paris will see a massive showdown. From now on, the stakes only get higher. Led by China, Africa and the least developed countries see weak and unjust climate targets from rich industrialised countries and, over the next year, they will exert as much pressure as they can to establish a fair and equitable way to share out what is left of the global carbon budget. But as Lima showed, they are now working together and are unlikely to sign up to what they think is a meaningless deal. The other problem ducked in Lima was finance. Developing nations wanted rich countries to set a clear timetable to scale up the funds available to help them adapt. But the final text merely “requested” that rich countries “enhance the available quantitative and qualitative elements of a pathway” towards 2020. Because the industrialised countries have already promised to secure $100bn a year after 2020, developing countries will want cast-iron assurances about how this will be achieved. Given that rich countries have so far pledged only about $10bn to run over the next five years, the gap may be too great and the likelihood of failure in Paris is high. Unless the rich countries take care in the negotiations, at some point it will become clear to developing countries that no deal may prove better than any deal. | ['global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/cop-20-un-climate-change-conference-lima', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'tone/blog', 'profile/johnvidal'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-12-15T17:05:31Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2022/may/25/volkswagen-settles-uk-dieselgate-claims-with-193m-payout | Volkswagen settles initial ‘dieselgate’ claims with £193m payout | Volkswagen has agreed to pay £193m to settle 91,000 legal claims in England and Wales linked to the “dieselgate” emissions scandal that rocked the German carmaker. The claimants will receive average payments of more than £2,100 each after joining the action that alleged cars made by Volkswagen group, including its Audi, Seat and Skoda brands, emitted more nitrogen dioxide than the company claimed. The high court in London dismissed the proceedings on Wednesday after the settlement. The carmaker will also pay out an amount thought to be in the tens of millions of pounds to cover the claimants’ legal costs, as well as other fees thought to include the costs levied by investors who backed the legal actions. Similar legal actions involving VW are underway in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The dieselgate scandal erupted in 2015 after Volkswagen was found to have installed illegal “defeat devices” to cheat emissions tests. It has become one of the costliest corporate scandals in history. The company has spent more than €30bn (£26bn) in legal fees and payouts to customers, including a $15bn (£12bn) settlement in the US. A fraud trial of the former VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn has been delayed because of his ill health. Volkswagen did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. In a press release it said settlement was the “prudent course of action commercially” to avoid the legal cost of a six-month trial and possible appeals. The company believes too much time has passed since the scandal emerged in 2015 for other owners to bring claims, although there are two other UK claims in the early stages of litigation. A series of other carmakers face litigation for similar claims in the UK, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Stellantis, Nissan, Renault, Ford and Volvo. The total number of UK claimants in the country is thought to be well over 1 million. Philip Haarmann, VW’s chief legal officer, said: “The Volkswagen Group is pleased that we have been able to conclude this long running litigation in England and Wales. The settlement is another important milestone as the Volkswagen Group continues to move beyond the deeply regrettable events leading up to September 2015.” Volkswagen has already paid out billions in settlements across the world related to dieselgate, but the matter has taken longer in England and Wales because of a different system that does not easily allow for US-style “class actions”, under which lawyers can take action on behalf of a whole group of claimants without needing their explicit approval. Instead, the law firms involved have to spend time and money finding claimants and persuading them to sign up. The firms involved were Slater and Gordon, Leigh Day and PGMBM. Tony Winterburn, a partner at PGMBM, said: “This is a good day for the claimants and is the culmination of five years of hard-fought litigation.” Shazia Yamin, a partner at Leigh Day, said: “The settlement of this case is important because it was the first case to get going and the first to be settled. It’s a big moment for consumers. “It’s a really important milestone that when consumers join these claims there can be something at the end.” • This article was amended on 26 May 2022 to remove “UK” from the headline; as it said in the text, the £193m settlement involved England and Wales. | ['business/vw-volkswagen', 'business/automotive-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/air-pollution', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jolly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-05-25T15:40:25Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2018/sep/10/hurricane-florence-virginia-south-carolina-evacuations | Hurricane Florence: over 1m ordered to evacuate in Virginia and Carolinas | More than a million people living along the coastlines of Virginia and the Carolinas have been ordered to evacuate their homes on Tuesday, as parts of America’s mid-Atlantic coast brace for what could be the most powerful storm to ever hit the region. Hurricane Florence is expected to bring potentially catastrophic winds, flooding and storm surge. Forecasters predict it will make landfall late on Thursday. Currently rated as a category 4 storm – the second most powerful on the national weather service’s (NWS) classification system – Florence would be the first storm in recorded history to make landfall at that magnitude so far north if it remains on its most likely track. In its latest advisory on Tuesday morning, the US national hurricane center (NHC) said the storm is close to category 5 in strength, and had slightly increased in speed as it headed toward the east coast. It is expected to be an extremely dangerous major hurricane ahead of its potential landfall. “The bottom line is that there is high confidence that Florence will be a large and extremely dangerous hurricane, regardless of its exact intensity,” the hurricane center said. The NHC, which is based in Miami, said the storm’s center was located about 410 miles (660 kilometers) south of Bermuda and about 975 miles (1570 kilometers) east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina. Florence “is particularly big, particularly strong and ... there’s nothing stopping it”, the South Carolina governor Henry McMaster said at a news conference on Monday. “And when it hits the Gulf Stream in warmer water, it’s going to [intensify] even more.” McMaster ordered the evacuation of coastal areas to start at noon on Tuesday as Florence approaches. He said the storm surge could reach as high as 10ft (3m) and estimated that 1 million residents would be leaving the coast. “We know this evacuation order I’m issuing is going to be inconvenient,” McMaster said of the decision. “But we’re willing to suffer some inconvenience.” He added that the disruption was worth the effort to save lives. “This is a big, big hurricane,” McMaster said, noting that wind speeds are predicted to be more violent than in either of the the region’s two most damaging storms of the past 30 years. Virginia’s governor ordered a mandatory evacuation for some residents of low-lying coastal areas beginning on Tuesday morning. State officials say 245,000 people live in the affected area, but officials warned the storm could affect the entire state. McMaster declared a state of emergency on Saturday. The governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland have done the same. The designation gives officials the power to order evacuations, establish shelters, prohibit travel and impose curfews. “Take steps now,” said North Carolina governor Roy Cooper over the weekend. On Monday he said: “We do know that we’re in the bull’s-eye.” On Monday afternoon, Donald Trump cancelled a scheduled appearance for Friday in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was due to campaign for Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith. He sent a volley of tweets, calling on east coast residents to “be safe”. The NWS is predicting “life-threatening” storm surge and inland freshwater flooding, with some models predicting upwards of 2ft of rainfall. With winds of up to 150mph forecast, Florence will likely fell tree limbs and trigger power outages. Some forecasters are concerned that the storm appears likely to slow dramatically at about the time of landfall, like 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, which stalled out Houston, dropping huge amounts of rain over several days. That storm brought $125bn in damage last summer, mostly in Texas. Florence stands a significant chance of joining 2017’s Harvey and Irma as just the third storm to make landfall on the US mainland at category 4 strength (or higher) since 2005. When storms of that magnitude hit the lower 48 states, they usually travel through the warmer waters of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and rarely make landfall so far north up the eastern Atlantic coast. The last storm to hit the Carolinas as a category 4 was Hurricane Hugo nearly 30 years ago in 1989. Florida governor Rick Scott, whose state experiences the most hurricane-force storms in the US, pledged resources, expertise and guidance to the three states in which emergencies have been declared. Officials in North Carolina had already issued mandatory evacuation orders for coastal Dare county and Hatteras Island over the weekend. On Tuesday those orders were extended to Pamlico and Tyrell counties. The governor also waived certain restrictions for trucks and heavy vehicles to help farmers harvest crops and move livestock before the storm, officials said. “North Carolina is no stranger to hurricanes,” Cooper said Monday, at least partially alluding to the devastating effects of Hurricane Matthew, which struck the Carolinas as a category 1 storm in October 2016 killing 34 in the US, after cutting a vicious path across the Caribbean, killing more than 1,000 in Haiti. Off the state’s coast, large sea swells and dangerous rip currents were already apparent over the weekend, foreshadowing the storm’s arrival. Beachgoers have been warned to avoid the ocean, and ferries that service the state’s coast have been canceled. In Virginia, home to the world’s largest sea base, the US navy has ordered all ships to sea in preparation for the storm, where they can more safely ride out the violent wind and waves. | ['world/hurricanes', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'us-news/south-carolina', 'us-news/virginia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricane-florence', 'profile/jamiles-lartey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-09-11T11:43:56Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2009/may/11/nuclear-power-plants-centrica-edf | Centrica and EDF to build new generation of nuclear plants | Centrica will help build a new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK, as part of a deal with EDF announced this morning. The firm, which owns British Gas, has formed a partnership with the French energy company to construct, develop and build at least four new reactors. Two of the new plants are expected to be sited alongside the existing reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk and Hinkley Point in Somerset. The alliance was announced alongside confirmation that Centrica has taken a 20% stake in British Energy, owned by EDF, for £2.3bn. Centrica said the deal will help it to diversify its energy sources. "We are delighted to have successfully concluded an agreement with EDF as a world leader in nuclear power," said Roger Carr, chairman of Centrica. "The deal represents good value for Centrica shareholders, improves the strategic balance of our business and further underpins our green energy credentials." EDF acquired British Energy, which runs eight nuclear power stations in the UK, in September for £12.4bn. The French company plans to play a major role in the construction of a new wave of nuclear power stations across Britain. The government has already said that nuclear power stations must be built to address the looming threat of energy shortages as British Energy's plants approach the end of their working lives. This policy has been criticised by environmental groups, who dispute ministers' claims that it will have a significant impact on carbon emissions. EDF hopes to build its first nuclear power plant in Britain by the end of 2017, at Hinkley Point. The alliance announced today gives Centrica a 20% stake in each new reactor. They will be European pressurised reactors (EPRs) – a third-generation design developed in France. And in another move that may hasten the arrival of a new British nuclear power plant, EDF is inviting expressions of interest for its vacant land at Heysham or Dungeness. Both are possible sites for a new nuclear power plant, and EDF must sell one plot to satisfy the European commission's competition authorities. Shares in Centrica rose by nearly 4% this morning, as major shareholders welcomed the deal with EDF. "I see this transaction as a major step forward for Centrica and one that I am confident will deliver considerable value for its shareholders," said Neil Woodford, head of investment at Invesco Perpetual, which owns about 4.5% of the company. "The partnership with EDF also promises to be a driving force in revitalising the UK nuclear industry – a vital project if the UK is to meet its long-term climate-change obligations and energy security needs." The £2.3bn price tag is a 6% discount on the price EDF paid for British Energy last year. Centrica has also agreed to sell its 51% stake in Belgian generation and supply business SPE to EDF for £1.2bn. Centrica has been under pressure to invest more in power generation, as its reliance on the wholesale gas and electricity markets leaves it exposed to fluctuating prices. Its biggest asset is the huge Morecambe Bay gasfield, but reserves there are running low. One analyst said yesterday that the deal will "even out" its earnings stream. "You should look at it as a hedge against the vagaries." | ['business/centrica', 'business/edf', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/graemewearden', 'profile/richardwachman'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-05-11T08:34:33Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2024/feb/08/iran-backed-hackers-interrupt-uae-tv-streaming-services-with-deepfake-news | Iran-backed hackers interrupt UAE TV streaming services with deepfake news | Iranian state-backed hackers interrupted TV streaming services in the United Arab Emirates to broadcast a deepfake newsreader delivering a report on the war in Gaza, according to analysts at Microsoft. The tech company said a hacking operation run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a key branch of the Iranian armed forces, had disrupted streaming platforms in the UAE with an AI-generated news broadcast branded “For Humanity”. The fake news anchor introduced unverified images that claimed to show Palestinians injured and killed from Israeli military operations in Gaza. Analysts at Microsoft said the hacking group, known as Cotton Sandstorm, published videos on the Telegram messaging platform showing it hacking into three online streaming services and disrupting news channels with the fake newscaster. According to the Khaleej Times, a UAE-based news service, Dubai residents using a HK1RBOXX set-top box were interrupted in December with a message stating: “We have no choice but to hack to deliver this message to you,” followed by the AI-generated anchor introducing “graphic” footage, as well as a ticker showing the number of people killed and wounded in Gaza so far. Microsoft also cited reports of disruptions in Canada and the UK, with the channels affected including the BBC, although the BBC was not hacked directly. Microsoft said in a blogpost accompanying a report on Iranian cyber-espionage: “This marked the first Iranian influence operation Microsoft has detected where AI played a key component in its messaging and is one example of the fast and significant expansion in the scope of Iranian operations since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.” “The disruption reached audiences in the UAE, UK, and Canada.” Breakthroughs in generative AI – the term for technology that can swiftly produce convincing text, voice and image from simple hand-typed prompts – have triggered a rise in deepfake content online, from explicit false images of Taylor Swift to robocalls featuring Joe Biden’s AI-generated voice. Deepfake is the term for a hoax using AI to create a phoney image, most commonly fake videos of people. Experts fear AI-made material could be deployed at scale to disrupt elections this year, including the US presidential election. Iran targeted the 2020 US election with a cyber-campaign that included sending intimidating emails to voters purporting to be from members of the far-right Proud Boys group, setting up a website inciting violence against the FBI director, Christopher Wray, and others, and spreading disinformation about voting infrastructure. Microsoft said: “As we look forward to the 2024 US presidential election, Iranian activities could build on what happened in 2020 when they impersonated American extremists and incited violence against US government officials.” Microsoft said Iranian state-backed actors had launched a series of cyber-attacks and online attempts to manipulate opinion since the 7 October Hamas attacks. The tactics include exaggerating the impact of claimed cyber-attacks, leaking personal data from an Israeli university, and attacking targets in pro-Israel Albania, Bahrain – a signatory to the Abraham accords formalising relations with Israel – and the US. | ['technology/hacking', 'technology/cyberwar', 'technology/deepfake', 'us-news/series/ai-and-the-us-election', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'world/united-arab-emirates', 'world/iran', 'world/middleeast', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/danmilmo', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-02-08T12:17:37Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2017/sep/11/escape-hurricane-irma-not-option-caribbean-islands-poverty | Escape from hurricane Irma was not an option for most of us in the Caribbean | Gabrielle Thongs | The winds and rain came first, usual for this time of year. Crops drown in the sodden earth, the price of vegetables and fruits in the market rises and, as the rain and wind beat down on the tin roofs and wooden frames of many of our homes, communities bear down for more. Torrential storms, gushing flood waters and devastated infrastructure come next, and lives are lost in their wake. Evacuation is not an option for most citizens of the Caribbean. Instead of escape, survival is a matter of endurance. What were predictable changes to the wet or dry months in the Caribbean are now increasingly irregular weather patterns, bringing serious weather events that demand more resources and attention to mitigate escalating damage, including loss of life. There is widespread agreement in the region, based on meteorological data as well as lived experience, that Caribbean seasons, noteworthy for shifts in temperature and precipitation, are changing. As residents in the region, sometimes we wonder if “change” is a powerful enough word to represent the realities of rising seas and battering rains, coastal erosion and habitat loss, new agricultural stresses and higher food import bills, as well as the loss of human life. Despite broad consensus, we must be clear that climate change is not the only villain. Regional underdevelopment and global economic polarisation exacerbate the effects of disasters. The colossal convergence of clouds formed by the churning of warm waters in the Atlantic basin has generated three fully formed hurricanes since tropical storm Harvey passed through the eastern Caribbean in mid-August: hurricanes Irma, Jose and Katia. The Atlantic basin has not seen activity of this nature since 2010 when category three hurricanes Igor and Karl joined category four Julia to bring disastrous impacts to Caribbean islands. None of these previous hurricanes, however, were nearly as devastating as Irma’s category five assault, which has resulted in 28 confirmed deaths across the Caribbean so far – and thousands will be displaced. Those whose lives have been washed away, leaving them without shelter, include street dwellers, homeless people, squatters and others living precariously in rural, hillside, and coastal areas, which are prone to landslides, collapse and flooding. Also vulnerable are elderly people, children and people who are mobility-impaired or sick and may more quickly succumb to the health effects of mould, poor nutrition and lack of clean drinking water, exacerbated by constraints in accessing medical help. In addition to flood losses in residential, agricultural, and commercial areas, winds destabilise transport and communication infrastructure, while storm surges dismantle much needed economic, social, and environmental assets on coastlines. Disasters, as we know them, are a function of magnitude, exposure, and vulnerability. On its own, Irma has characteristics that could make it one of the Caribbean’s most damaging hurricanes on record, due in part to the low levels of economic development that hamper the region’s ability to cope with natural hazards. Irma’s path of destruction has affected more than 10 Caribbean countries, a significantly higher number of islands than those affected by hurricanes Igor, Julia, and Karl combined. While Igor, Julia, and Karl directly affected islands including Bermuda and Cape Verde, Irma made landfall on Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the US Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, St Kitts, Nevis, and Guadeloupe among others. Bermuda and Cape Verde have substantially higher GDPs and GDP per capita than Barbuda and Anguilla, which strongly correlate to higher resilience and much better coping mechanisms. For example, in Barbuda Irma destroyed more than 90% of the housing stock and telecommunications infrastructure; large and extended families, including one group of seven, were reliant on rooftop rescues by emergency responders. Similar incidents have been reported from Anguilla and other islands. By comparison, although serious damage was reported in Bermuda and Cape Verde, nothing nearly as devastating as this occurred. These two islands can expect to return to normal life much more quickly than the islands with fewer economic resources. Clearly, the impacts of such storms and the course of the subsequent recovery are determined by a country’s preparedness and capacity to respond. At both the national and community levels, development provides protective armour. As we look to the future, we must heed the lessons taught by these hurricanes. While it is not possible to modify the hazard of a hurricane such as Irma in itself, there are ways to reduce the disastrous effects, and increase coping capacities and resilience of those affected. With dwindling funding for disaster risk reduction in the Caribbean, there is a growing need to encourage self-protective resilience. Education and communication are crucial tools, and we must develop new techniques to identify the most vulnerable communities, groups and households. The climate chaos represented by the increased magnitude and heightened form of storm activity in the Atlantic basin is becoming the norm for the Caribbean. The regional realities of this chaos have been masked by the discourse of “climate change”, which suggests a more manageable and gradual process. In June and July tropical storms Bret and Don also passed through the Caribbean as far south as Trinidad, an island that had previously seen a total of only four tropical storms since records began in 1851. The mismanagement of natural resources and failure to protect the environment pose a grave threat to many of us living in small-island developing states and less economically developed countries. Ultimately, just as the health of the oceans and atmosphere are related to one another, so the current plight of countries on the periphery is the best indicator of the future of the core. • Dr Gabrielle Thongs specialises in disaster planning and spatial modelling at the University of the West Indies. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'weather/caribbean', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/hurricane-irma', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'weather/index/northandcentralamerica', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/gabrielle-thongs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | world/hurricane-irma | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-09-11T13:18:54Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2020/sep/14/oregon-prison-evacuations-pepper-spray-wildfires | Oregon prisoners evacuated due to fires are being pepper sprayed by guards | Guards at an Oregon state prison are under fire for repeatedly deploying pepper spray in a facility where evacuated prisoners were already suffering amid historic wildfires and the worst air quality in the world. Oregon last week evacuated four state prisons because of encroaching wildfires, forcing thousands of prisoners into one facility that had reported more than 100 cases of Covid-19. Prisoners at the Oregon state penitentiary (OSP) in Salem told the Guardian that in the days since, violence and conflicts between prisoners have escalated, with authorities responding with a chemical spray that has exacerbated people’s respiratory problems and Covid risks. Prisoners said there was coughing across the institution due to smoke and soot, poor air quality and the deployment of “OC spray”, a law enforcement chemical used for riot control. Prisoners said they have had difficulties getting medical attention and that it was difficult to escape the toxic conditions. An OSP spokesperson said guards deployed pepper spray “to gain compliance”. “These officers just pull out their cans of OC spray and start spraying everywhere,” said Bryan MacDonald, 39, who was evacuated from Oregon state correctional institution (OSCI) prison in the fire zone last week and placed at OSP four miles away. MacDonald said several fights among prisoners have broken out: “At two different points, I couldn’t breathe … When I got sprayed, I had to stick my face into a sink to rinse it off.” Advocates warn that at OSP, the ongoing coughing and continued use of pepper spray could increase risks of Covid-19 spreading, which was already a major concern due to the mixing of four prison populations. Last Monday, the Oregon corrections department evacuated 1,450 people to OSP, which had more than 2,000 prisoners before the evacuations and has reported at least 143 Covid infections. Evacuees were sleeping on floors in makeshift quarters, and prisoners reported long waits for food, unsanitary conditions and no social distancing. When authorities brought OSCI residents to OSP, prisoners and their advocates warned that conflicts would arise between the two populations due to various gang affiliations, differing security levels and racial tensions. It didn’t take long for fights and assaults to break out in dining areas and elsewhere, prisoners said. “I was scared. I didn’t think they were going to put us in that kind of situation, because the [department of corrections] is supposed to protect us,” said Parker Vanek, 23, who was also evacuated from OSCI to OSP. “The pepper spray got on everyone. Everyone was coughing and sneezing. There was just so much in the air.” A department spokeswoman, Vanessa Vanderzee, said OSP had “several altercations” last week when prisoners “from different facilities had to share the same area”. OSP has since worked to identify “potential conflicts” and separate people, she said on Monday, adding that altercations stopped in the last two days. Vanderzee said there were “no reported medical complications from exposure” to pepper spray and that all affected prisoners were offered a shower and clean clothing and were observed for 30 minutes after exposure. Several prisoners affected by pepper spray, however, disputed her statement, saying they were forced to wear the same clothes for a week and had no access to showers for days. MacDonald said the facility does not have a modern air circulation system and was keeping windows open: “We have smoke on the inside from the fire.” He said some people were skipping meals because they were too afraid of breathing in the pepper spray. In 2018, a dozen Oregon prisoners sued the state alleging that the prisons denied medical treatment after deploying pepper spray and saying the chemical made people feel like they were choking and burning. Lynn James-Jackson said her husband, Tacuma Jackson, who is incarcerated at OSP and suffers from Crohn’s disease and heart problems, was experiencing severe chest and throat pains and that after his conditions worsened due to pepper spray, he was placed outside on the yard to escape the chemicals. That only further exposed him to the bad air, she said. “My eyes and lungs are still burning and soot is still floating all inside the prison,” he wrote in one message to her, shared with the Guardian, adding that his vision was affected. “I am wearing a mask but it isn’t built for smoke … My anxiety is in full gear. God help us all.” James-Jackson said she was worried her husband wouldn’t survive: “I feel like there’s nothing I can do.” An Oregon state representative, Janelle Bynum, met with prison officials to discuss OSP, and in a summary to other lawmakers wrote there were “constant fights because of the cramped and stressful living conditions”, adding, “People [are] fearful that there will be a riot and they will be shot from the armed guards in the towers.” Tara Herivel, an attorney who has fought for Oregon prisoners’ releases during Covid, said the mixing of populations could lead to a “superspreader” event. “We’re almost guaranteeing that we’re bringing Covid-19 back to our prison,” added MacDonald, whose prison did not have a major outbreak. He said the state should at least release residents of OSCI who are nearing the end of their sentences. Six prisoners have died of Covid in Oregon so far. In California, where 59 prisoners have died from the virus, the biggest outbreak behind bars was a result of mass transfers between prisons similar to the Oregon moves this week. Oregon’s governor, Kate Brown, has declined to approve mass releases due to Covid or fires and said last week she would continue making “case by case” decisions. John Persinger, a 44-year-old evacuee at OSP, said he was concerned about elderly and at-risk prisoners suffering through the smoke and pepper spray. “It’s a state of emergency. At what point does the governor say, ‘You know what? I need to do something.’ “I’m in prison being held accountable for my behaviors,” he added. “There has to be accountability for the conditions here.” | ['us-news/oregon', 'us-news/us-prisons', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sam-levin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-09-14T23:57:19Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2023/oct/20/nsw-floods-just-11-of-applications-approved-for-buybacks-and-no-homes-retrofitted-nearly-20-months-on | NSW floods: just 11% of applications approved for buybacks and no homes retrofitted nearly 20 months on | Only one in 10 flood-affected homeowners in the New South Wales northern rivers who applied for assistance have received a guarantee their house will be bought by the government, and not a single person has had their home retrofitted or raised. Nearly 20 months after the flood disaster, figures obtained by Guardian Australia reveal just 11% of the 5,001 applications made in the Tweed, Byron and Lismore councils under the government’s $700m recovery program had been approved for a buyback. The cost of each buyback is on average $583,567. The figures, from the end of September, reveal a large disparity between the number of buybacks approved in Lismore and in the Byron shire, which is home to Mullumbimby and other towns that were hit hard by the floods. The former Coalition state government announced the $700m Resilient Homes Program after flooding wiped out parts of the northern rivers early last year. The commonwealth pitched in 50% of the funding. Eligible homes will be bought by the government, raised or flood-proofed through a process called retrofitting. The data reveals that of the 2,685 applications made in Lismore for assistance under the program by the end of September, 440 or 16% had resulted in a buyback. Just four buybacks had been approved in the Byron shire – fewer than 1% of the 977 applications made. In the nearby Tweed shire, there had been about 117 buybacks approved – about 9% of the 1,339 applications. No house raises or retrofits had been approved at all. The figures were obtained by the Greens through questions on notice in NSW parliament. In its answers, the government said participants in the Resilient Homes Program were prioritised based on the threat of future floods with a “significant risk to life”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup The government was also asked to provide the initial and ongoing cost of each of the temporary “pod” homes that were set up to house displaced people after the floods. In response, it claimed it could not calculate an average cost because “various pod styles, sizes, providers and contractors” were used. In a statement, a spokesperson for the NSW government said analysis had shown a need for more buybacks across the northern rivers, leading to about 1,100 homes being prioritised for buyback under the scheme. “To date 632 home buyback offers have been approved and 359 offers have been accepted across the northern rivers, which is more than half of the homes eligible for a buyback,” the spokesperson said. The data was released a week after the Byron Flood Emergency Action Group wrote to the local federal MP, Justine Elliot, urging her to advocate for more commonwealth funding for the Resilient Homes Program. The letter reiterated community concerns first reported by Guardian Australia that few people in the Byron shire would qualify for support because of a change to the eligibility criteria. “This revision has caused immense distress, confusion and despair amongst community members who have either taken on large financial burdens or have yet to return to their homes whilst waiting for the promised financial support,” the letter said. In its answers to the questions on notice, the government conceded everyone who was recorded as having applied for the Resilient Homes Program would qualify for assistance if the criteria were “changed to only reflect impacts from the 2022 event”. This was because homeowners had to have been affected by the floods in order to register for the scheme. The data released in parliament shows 5,001 homeowners had been able to register even though the government only recorded 4,050 homes as having flooded. The Mullumbimby resident Dale Emerson, who sent the letter to Elliot on behalf of the group, described the administration of the Resilient Homes Program as “a script from Utopia”, referring to the ABC television series that satirises Australian bureaucrats. “They haven’t been connecting to what the community is really experiencing,” he said. Contacted by Guardian Australia, Elliot said she had raised the letter with the relevant state and federal ministers but the state government was responsible for the program’s delivery and operation. “In relation to additional recovery support, I’m advised that the federal government hasn’t received a formal request from the NSW state government,” she said. “We stand ready to assist and work with them.” The NSW premier, Chris Minns, told parliament a month ago that his government would seek additional funds from the federal government. In June, a group of northern rivers MPs including Labor’s Janelle Saffin and the Greens’ Tamara Smith wrote to the premier urging him to implement a second tranche of funding for the program they said had been promised, to take the total to $1.5bn. Smith on Thursday said the funding shortfall illustrated the “human cost” of the “political decision” to leave flood survivors without the support that they “desperately needed”. The Greens candidate for Richmond, Mandy Nolan, who is hoping to snatch Elliot’s seat from Labor, said it was a government “failure” that 19 months after the floods so few people had been helped. “It’s unthinkable that after six months of Labor being in power at a state and federal level they seemingly haven’t even had a conversation about funding the flood recovery,” she said. The Minns government committed $100m to a “new community restoration fund” for the northern rivers in the state budget it delivered last month, with some of this money to go towards a “second instalment” of the Resilient Homes Program. | ['australia-news/housing', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/byron-bay', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2021', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/catie-mcleod', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2021 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-10-19T14:00:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2019/feb/08/olympics-medals-recycled-gadgets-electronic-waste | Tokyo 2020 medals to be made from discarded smartphones and laptops | All medals at next summer’s Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo will be made from recycled electronic waste, including discarded smartphones, digital cameras and other handheld games and laptops, organizers revealed on Friday. Officials said they expect to collect enough obsolete electronic devices by the end of March to extract the amount of gold, silver and bronze that will be required to manufacture all the medals that will be awarded next year. The organizing committee said municipal authorities had already collected 47,488 tons of junked devices by November, roughly 19 months after the project was launched with targets of 30.3kg of gold, 4,100kg of silver and 2,700kg of bronze. The goal for bronze was reached in June, while more than 90% of the gold and 85% of the silver has been collected, officials said. “It is estimated that the remaining amounts of metal required to manufacture all Olympic and Paralympic medals can be extracted from the devices already donated,” the organizers said in a statement. The concept has been implemented in previous Olympics, most recently at Rio 2016, where an estimated 30% of the silver and bronze medals were wrought from recycled materials. But organizers noted the current project will mark the first time citizens have been proactively involved with the donation of consumer electronics. The designs for the Tokyo 2020 medals will be unveiled later this year. | ['sport/olympic-games-2020', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'sport/olympic-games', 'environment/waste', 'sport/sport', 'sport/us-sport', 'type/article', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-sport', 'profile/guardian-sport', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-sport'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-02-08T20:50:08Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/2008/may/29/shanks.recycling | Shanks goes green as profits double | The chief executive of Shanks Group today committed the British waste management company to recycling more of its rubbish as it reported that profits in its UK business had more than doubled. Britain is one of the biggest users of landfill sites in Europe but taxes have made it more expensive to bury waste, while a European Union directive has reduced the amount of waste that councils can send to landfill sites. Local authorities have become increasingly reliant on the private sector to handle household waste, creating a booming market involving billions of pounds in government-backed private finance initiative projects. The landfill tax on waste rose to £24 a tonne of waste last month and is set to increase to £48 by 2010, raising demand for environmentally friendly waste disposal, such as recycling. This has boosted Shanks's UK business and profits soared 109% to £6.9m in the year to the end of March. Group headline pre-tax profit rose 11% to £44.8m. Tom Drury, group chief executive, said: "From being very cheap, landfill is getting expensive and will get more expensive as the government raises the [landfill tax]. "For companies like Shanks, it is now economic to use our European model to recycle and reprocess the waste." Shanks dumps just under three-quarters of its waste in UK landfill sites and recycles about 27%. However, Drury said the company was keen to import techniques used in greener Dutch and Belgian subsidiaries, which recycle 83% and 51% of their waste respectively. He added that Shanks was planning to build about half a dozen recycling and reprocessing centres in the UK. Shanks is also keen to increase the use of a natural waste treatment process, known as anaerobic digestion, in which micro-organisms digest organic waste to produce methane, which can be used as fuel to generate electricity. However, Michael Warhurst, senior waste and resources campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said waste management companies had little incentive to increase recycling while still making big profits from landfill sites. "The waste industry has been very conservative and has tended to push things it is used to, such as landfills," he said. "Then they say let's go for incineration, which doesn't make sense from a climate point of view and is very expensive for local government, but the waste industry makes quite a nice profit from it. "There is money [in recycling]; it is just a question of whether the waste management industry can change their mindsets towards quality recycling." | ['business/business', 'business/shanksgroup', 'environment/waste', 'environment/recycling', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/nickhuber'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-05-29T17:01:16Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2007/apr/18/energy.politics | Alder Hey QC to investigate Sellafield bodies case | The QC who led the inquiry into the "baby-harvesting" scandal at Alder Hey hospital is to investigate the unauthorised use of body tissue from Sellafield nuclear workers, the government announced today. Reacting swiftly to the overnight revelation that 65 deceased workers had had body parts taken without permission, the trade and industry secretary, Alistair Darling, announced a formal inquiry under Michael Redfern QC to MPs today. Mr Darling warned that there was a great deal of confusion around the 65 cases, saying there was "no audit trail" in most cases, and it was "not clear what procedures were followed." The minister announced that the inquiry would look at why tissue was taken, if next of kin were informed, if proper procedures were followed and how the subsequent data was used. Mr Darling said that BNFL had so far identified 65 cases - all dealing with people who had worked at Sellafield, although one had subsequently transferred to the Capenhurst nuclear plant in Cheshire. Although reports today talked of body parts such as hearts, lungs and organs, Mr Darling referred mainly throughout his statement to "tissue", although he also confirmed that organs had been taken. But he warned that examination of the records so far did not provide information showing who asked for the body parts, or for what purpose they were used, or who - if anyone - consented to their use. The minister suggested that since some of the samples were requested after coroners' inquiries or post mortems, it was possible that the families knew of the analyses - but the inquiry would need to establish that. Mr Darling told MPs that the tissue involved would have been destroyed during testing. Charles Hendry, the shadow trade and industry secretary, welcomed the inquiry, saying that Mr Redfern had "exceptional expertise and authority". Mr Darling informed the House of Commons that 23 of the 65 cases had come about after requests following a coroner's inquiry, and a further 33 requests for tissues were made following post mortems. One biopsy had also been made on a living patient, he added, while in four cases there was no record of why the analysis was made. Mr Darling told MPs: "It's important to tell the house the limited nature of the records that are held by BNFL. "These are medical records that show what analysis was done on organs removed following post-mortem examination. "Because they are medical records which dealt with the analysis carried out at Sellafield, they do not provide an audit trail which would show in every case who asked for such an examination under what authority and for what purpose. "Nor do they disclose whether or not the appropriate consent from next of kin was received. "Some records have more information than others but at this stage it is simply not clear what procedures were followed in every case. "From the information I have, I can tell the house that 23 such requests for further examination and analysis were made following a coroner's inquest. "A further 33 requests appear to follow a coroner's post mortem. Three requests were made associated with legal proceedings and there was one request made by an individual prior to death," said Mr Darling. The total number could still go higher as the investigation proceeds; the GMB union claims samples were taken from up to 70 former employees. British Nuclear Group, which owns Sellafield, confirmed autopsy material had been used for "legally correct" purposes such as inquests. The GMB's national officer, Gary Smith, said this morning: "Our chief concern is for the families of those who died during this period and the anguish they face. "We need information from the company and we expect a quick reply to clarify what has happened." The cases date from the early 1960s to the early 1990s. MPs demanded to know whether samples had been taken from workers from other nuclear plants, or from nuclear submarines. The independent MP, Richard Taylor, a GP, said from his own experience that procedures for requesting body tissue from next of kin were "abysmally low" as recently as the 1970s. | ['environment/energy', 'politics/politics', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'society/health', 'environment/environment', 'society/society', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'uk/immigration', 'type/article', 'profile/matthewtempest'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2007-04-18T14:48:08Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2023/nov/17/solar-energy-could-power-all-health-facilities-in-poorer-countries-and-save-lives-experts-say | Solar energy could power all health facilities in poorer countries and save lives, experts say | All healthcare facilities in poorer countries could be electrified using solar energy within five years for less than $5bn, putting an end to the risk of life from power outages, experts will argue at Cop28 this month. “I would like the international community to commit to a deadline and funding to electrify all healthcare facilities,” said Salvatore Vinci, an adviser on sustainable energy at the World Health Organization and a member of its Cop28 delegation. “We have solutions now that were not available 10 years ago – there is no reason why babies should be dying today because there is not electricity to power their incubators. “It’s a low-hanging fruit. There is nothing stopping us,” he said. About 1 billion people around the world do not have access to a healthcare facility with a stable electricity connection, including 433 million in low-income countries who rely on facilities with no electricity at all, according to the WHO’s Energising Health: Accelerating Electricity Access in Healthcare Facilities report, which was published in January, and co-authored by Vinci. Electricity is the lifeblood of a functioning healthcare facility, not only powering devices such as ventilators and cardiac monitors, but providing basics amenities such as lighting. Without these basic facilities, even routine conditions can be deadly or lead to complications. Healthcare facilities in countries vulnerable to the impact of extreme weather events will often experience outages because of storms and flooding. “We don’t know how many people die each year because of power outages. Nobody puts ‘power outage’ as a cause of death on a death certificate,” said Hippolite Amadi, bioengineering professor at Imperial College London. “As we speak, patients in low- and middle-income countries are dying due to power outages and poor lighting. They’re dying because their life-support machines were switched off, or because they have been given the wrong medication by staff who cannot see what they are doing, or because the surgeon working in the dark made a mistake.” While lack of lighting puts maternal and surgery patients at the biggest immediate risk, an unreliable energy source makes long-term treatments, such as kidney dialysis, untenable. As the burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) rises in the global south, the strain on poorly electrified facilities will increase. In Central African Republic – the African country whose citizens are most likely to die prematurely from an NCD – more than 60% of healthcare facilities report having no access to electricity. “The best surgeon in the world cannot do good work if he cannot see what he is doing,” said Emmanuel Makasa, an orthopaedic surgeon in Zambia, who at times has had to work using a torch or the light from his mobile phone. “You would never ask a tailor to work in the dark, why would you expect it from a doctor?” In Zambia, 60% of the rural population do not have access to a healthcare facility with electricity, according to the government, and even in large hospitals connected to the national grid the electricity supply is temperamental, said Makasa. “Sometimes the lights in the operating theatre switch off without warning, and that means that ventilators and life-support machines switch off too,” he said. Recently, he purchased a surgical headlight produced by an international organisation, Lifebox. “It means we go into surgery with less worries, there is nothing worse than losing a patient or getting a bad surgery outcome due to a power cut. “In Africa, we’re always looking for innovations. We wonder how we live in a land of sunlight, a potential energy source, and we still have these problems,” Makasa said. “We live in a land of plenty, but we are starving.” Amadi worked to electrify maternal healthcare centres in Nigeria’s Niger state as early as 2009. In October, his solar-powered neonatal ventilator won a prestigious Nigerian award and earned praise from the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for “keeping Nigerian children alive”. “Before we implemented the solar energy system the mortality rate in [one of our hospitals] was between 35 and 45 per 1,000 deliveries [of babies],” said Mohammed Gana of Niger state’s health ministry, a former colleague of Amadi. “Now we’re hovering between 10 and 15.” Niger state’s health ministry is aiming to electrify all its healthcare facilities using solar energy within the next year. “In the last 10 years the cost of photovoltaic modules has decreased by 90%, and the cost of batteries has decreased by 60% on average,” said Vinci. “We can go and deploy a cost-effective and reliable solar energy system at a facility in a matter of a few days. We don’t need to wait any more.” | ['global-development/global-development', 'global-development/global-health', 'environment/energy', 'global-development/access-to-energy', 'world/africa', 'society/health', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'world/world', 'technology/technology', 'society/hospitals', 'society/society', 'global-development/series/health-and-climate', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/weronika-strzyzynska', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-11-17T06:00:36Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2023/aug/30/the-massacre-of-tasmanias-forests-could-be-stopped-at-any-time-where-are-australias-leaders | The massacre of Tasmania’s forests could be stopped at any time. Where are Australia’s leaders? | Bob Brown | After the photo of the “single-rider” tree trunk being trucked out of Tasmania’s Florentine Valley forest gained worldwide notoriety, I took a walk in the forest, guided by the Wilderness Society’s Alice Hardinge. The loggers stopped work when we arrived and the boss was furious. The already logged area was studded with stumps more than 2 metres across which, according to Sustainable Timber Tasmania’s management plan, should have been saved from the chainsaws. These are Eucalyptus regnans, the tallest flowering trees on Earth. They are the next generation reaching up to surpass 100 metres in height and to host centuries of wildlife including the Tasmanian masked owl, wedge-tailed eagles, white goshawks and an array of marsupials. Scattered among the mass of debris on the logged forest floor are young E regnans, 20cm or 30cm across, that until a few weeks ago were destined to grow for four or six centuries and eventually become giants like their ancestors, dominating the valley’s rainforests. Not considered worth even woodchipping, this newest generation of trees will be incinerated when STT, at taxpayers’ expense, comes back next year for a “regeneration burn”. Every remnant, even the remaining native spiral-shelled snails, will be burned to a cinder. We walked over a giant stump and beneath a still-standing massive tree into the intact magical fernery behind. One tree fern (Dicksonia antarctica) had three lush tops coming from a “wall” of trunk which was embossed with a myriad of smaller ferns and lichens. I had never seen such a large fern buttress. Another fern, leaning and more exposed to the light, had its trunk carpeted with green and yellow mosses and tiny plants. I couldn’t reach around its stem. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup On a fault in this limestone country beneath snowy Mt Field, the fernery ran like a narrow ribbon through the towering forest. It could have been there for millions of years. Elsewhere D antarctica are abundant and can grow up to 15 metres high. Many of us have enjoyed them on the south-east mainland and elsewhere in Tasmania, such as the Liffey Falls, takayna, the Styx valley and the Royal Botanical Gardens. But the Florentine’s fabulous natural fernery took the prize. It would require a seriously planned future footway for minimal-impact visitors to experience its splendour. As we emerged back into the logged area the police arrived and, threatened with arrest for trespassing in this beautiful but doomed public forest, we walked out and drove home as the bulldozers fired up again. Last Saturday I returned to the fernery and found it destroyed, razed to the ground. Splintered branches, fern fronds and its myriad of littler ferns were now smashed into the mud. The greater fern buttress was upturned and the top of it pulverised into the bulldozer tracks. Trees to the north were tagged with blue ribbons, perhaps indicating that a cameo area there will be spared. But the magnificent heart of the fernery has been eradicated for ever. The clearfell logging is expanding south and west but two forlorn trees have been left standing because the loggers have come under public surveillance. When they firebomb the area those trees are likely to burn too. At any time the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, or Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, could stop this needless massacre of nature. To purloin a line from Shakespeare: “O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!” Bob Brown is a former senator and leader of the Australian Greens and is patron of the Bob Brown Foundation | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/tasmania', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/bob-brown', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/logging-and-land-clearing | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-08-30T01:02:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2005/sep/09/hurricanekatrina.usa2 | Bush names day of mourning for Katrina victims | President George Bush yesterday announced a national day of mourning for Hurricane Katrina victims, as authorities in New Orleans began the grim task of searching for corpses in the ravaged city with 25,000 body bags at the ready. Under pressure to demonstrate his leadership of the relief and reconstruction effort, Mr Bush dispatched his vice president, Dick Cheney, to tour the stricken area and promised to fasttrack cash payments to every displaced family. He designated next Friday as a day of prayer and remembrance. A similar event was held to commemorate victims of 9/11. But 12 days after Katrina wrought havoc on the US Gulf coast, there is still no official estimate of how many people died. So far the focus has been on rescuing the living rather than counting or collecting the putrefying bodies lying in the city's floodwaters. But the official house-to-house search for bodies began mid-morning, with a temporary mortuary set up about 50 miles away in St Gabriel ready to receive 500-1,000 bodies a day, with refrigeration trucks on site to hold the corpses. Asked if authorities expected to fill every body bag, a spokes-man for the state department of health and hospitals said: "We don't know what to expect ... It means we are prepared." In New Orleans, emergency workers were urging the estimated 10,000 residents who remain to leave. But officials warned that the hazards posed by fires, waterborne diseases and gas leaks mean the city will eventually have to use force on those who resist. "We need everyone out so we can continue with the work of restoring this city," said coastguard vice admiral Thad Allen. The floodwaters are thick with sewage-related bacteria in amounts at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety limits, including E coli, and cholera-like bacteria. Local industries have been decimated, from small fishing concerns to giants like Nasa, which yesterday said that $1bn dollars of damage to a fuel tank facility in New Orleans could set back its shuttle launch programme. As the relief operation for those made homeless by the disaster continued, the US yesterday asked Nato to take on a bigger role transporting European aid to areas hit by Katrina. European nations have made substantial offers of food, medicine, bedding and other help, and some have expressed surprise that the US has not reacted quicker to take up their aid offers. The disaster generated a small piece of history as the Mexican army crossed into US territory for the first time in more than 150 years to deliver aid to refugees in southern Texas. In Washington, the White House sought to demonstrate renewed vigour, while Congress rubber-stamped a $51.8bn (£28.2) relief package for victims. Mr Bush, beset by a fresh poll showing that two-thirds of Americans felt he could have acted more promptly, promised to "cut through the red tape" to ensure that displaced people receive an immediate $2,000 hand-out. He warned that helping hundreds of thousands of people pick up the pieces of their lives "is going to place many demands on our nation". Mr Cheney, touring the ruins of the Mississippi coastlines and surveying the overwhelmed levees, sought to deflect criticism over who was to blame for the slow response, saying that the relief effort was making progress. Standing outside a damaged house in the town of Gulfport, Mississippi, Mr Cheney said he had "enormous confidence" in the beleaguered Fema (Federal Emergency Management Agency) director, Michael Brown, who has borne the brunt of criticism for the slow and ineffective response. "The progress we're making is significant," he said. New Orleans now feels like a city under occupation, with heavily armed national guardsmen on almost every street corner in the historic French Quarter of the city. | ['world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/jamiewilson'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-09T01:45:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/georgemonbiot/2011/mar/23/budget-green-fuel-duty-planning | Budget 2011: George Osborne's plans are a disaster for the environment | The "greenest government ever" has delivered the blackest budget in living memory. It provides a roaring incentive to use more oil, just as we might be heading towards an oil crisis. It has given the green light to the aviation industry to keep expanding, despite the government's promise to limit its impact. It has made a mockery of green investment. Perhaps most disturbingly, it has ripped up the social contract which has prevailed in this country since 1947, which ensured that developers, through the planning laws, were accountable to the people. Let's begin with that last item, because everything about it is extraordinary. The first question is what on earth it is doing in a budget statement? The budget is supposed to concern the government's finances, where's the connection to planning legislation? The likely explanation is that the government has decided this is the best place to bury bad news; it is sneaking it through while we're distracted by the fiscal measures. It describes the policy as "introduc[ing] a new presumption in favour of sustainable development, so that the default answer to development is 'yes'". Notice the slip up? It starts off as "sustainable development", creating the impression that Osborne is talking about solar panels and bird hides. Seven words later, you realise he means everything. It is, in other words, the opposite of sustainable. So much for the promise by the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, of more local control over development; this presents yet another barrier to communities trying to prevent Tesco from trashing their towns. Osborne has abolished the fuel duty escalator, cut fuel tax for vehicles, frozen air passenger duty rates and dismissed – on the untested assumption that it would contravene international law – a tax on planes that would have discouraged airlines from running them half-empty. These measures send the clearest possible signal that he has no intention of reforming our planet-trashing, resource-guzzling transport systems, before they run into the wall of peak oil and climate change. This is populism of the crudest kind, which might delight the Mail and the Sun, but shows that, for all his talk of tough choices and difficult decisions, the chancellor is a chicken. Talking of which, he has bumped the date when the Green Investment Bank will start borrowing to the start of financial year 2015-2016, which happens to be the end of this government's term in office (if it doesn't come sooner). In other words, Osborne will not, unless he remains chancellor beyond that point, take responsibility for a measure that will contribute to the national debt, but prefers to pass it on to his successors. Decisive action on greening the economy is deferred yet again. This budget is perverse, regressive, destructive, cowardly. It's a charter for corporations, which gives two fingers to the public interest. It demonstrates what many of us had suspected but had hoped was not true: that the government was lying when it promised to protect the environment. www.monbiot.com | ['environment/georgemonbiot', 'tone/blog', 'environment/environment', 'uk/budget-2011', 'uk/budget', 'business/business', 'money/petrol-prices', 'environment/green-economy', 'politics/planning', 'environment/green-politics', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/green-investment-bank', 'type/article', 'profile/georgemonbiot'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2011-03-23T17:59:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2014/mar/25/us-expands-gas-exports-in-bid-to-punish-putin-for-crimea | US expands gas exports in bid to punish Putin for Crimea | Congress moved to punish Vladimir Putin for the annexation of Crimea on Tuesday by expanding America’s exports of natural gas to challenge Russia’s energy dominance. In the first of three hearings on natural gas exports this week, the Senate energy committee was told repeatedly that exporting US gas to Europe - or even Asia - would end Putin’s “energy blackmail” by lowering prices and providing an alternative to Russia as Europe’s big energy supplier. “America should be an energy superpower,” Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat who chairs the Senate energy committee said. “The last thing Putin and his cronies want is competition from America in the energy race.” The full Senate was due later on Tuesday to debate a $1bn aid package for Ukraine that could also bring more calls for expanding exports of liquified natural gas (LNG). Landrieu was one of nine US officials sanctioned by Putin last week. She continued in Tuesday’s hearing to push for America to open up exports of LNG. “We should use our energy prowess to break the tyrants who use their energy stockpiles to crush hopes of freedom and democracy,” Landrieu told the committee. Lithuania’s energy minister, Jaroslav Neverovič, agreed. “Accelerating America’s entry into the global natural gas market is a win-win,” he said. The crisis in Ukraine gave new momentum to the oil and gas industry - and members of Congress from energy states - to expand fossil fuel exports. Fracking technology has left America awash in cheap natural gas, with prices kept low because of a glut in refining capacity. Since the crisis erupted, Congress has introduced three bills to speed up gas exports, two brought by Democrats in the Senate, and one by a Republican in the House. The Obama administration has been steadily granting permits for new facilities to liquify and export natural gas over the last year. It approved a seventh licence for LNG exports on Monday - but there are still about two dozen more projects in the pipeline, and critics accuse the Obama administration of stalling approvals. But as the hearing was told on Tuesday, even if the administration were to give an immediate go-ahead to all the export projects, it is unlikely any will be up and running and exporting LNG before the end of 2015. Even then they will fall far short of replacing Russian gas supply to Ukraine or Europe, the committee was told. “No amount of US exports can begin to replace Russia,” Edwin Chow, senior energy fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told the hearing. “Export of LNG is not a silver bullet for Europe.” In an interview before the hearing, Chow said approving more LNG exports would have no immediate effect on the current crisis over Ukraine or European gas supply. “They are using yet another argument to bolster a position they had to begin with. They were already in favour of expediting LNG approvals,” he said. But he added: “In the short to medium term, it would have zero impact on Ukraine.” Ukraine does not at the moment have an LNG receiving terminal, and such facilities typically take years to build. The US is unlikely to begin exporting LNG before late 2015 at the earliest - and most of those shipments are committed in advance to markets in Japan and India including the Jordan Cove facility approved on Monday. Environmental groups meanwhile are opposed to opening up LNG exports, because it would lead to an expansion of fracking. Manufacturing and chemical companies say expanding gas exports would drive up domestic gas prices. The Michigan Democrat, Debbie Stabenow, told the committee she was concerned exports would lead to higher energy costs and undermine a “manufacturing renaissance” that was creating jobs. “While the natural gas industry might benefit with LNG exports, other industries may lose out because of the high energy costs,” she said. “I don’t believe in stopping exports or capping exports but I do believe in moving forward in a thoughtful way.” | ['environment/gas', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/ukraine', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/russia', 'environment/fracking', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2014-03-25T17:29:29Z | true | ENERGY |
news/article/2024/may/09/theophrastus-greek-philosopher-who-was-perhaps-the-first-weather-forecaster | The Greek philosopher who was perhaps the first weather forecaster | “A dry May and a leaking June” is one of many traditional weather sayings that can be traced back to a work by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus. His book On Signs, written in the fourth century BC, was the first attempt to gather weather lore into a single volume. Aristotle created a theory of weather in his book Meteorology, but his successor attempted to give guidance on practical weather prediction, making him perhaps the first published weather forecaster. One of Theophrastus’s principles was that weather divides into complementary halves so that one condition is typically followed by its opposite. Hence a wet winter precedes dry spring and a dry May goes before a wet June. Theophrastus also recorded dozens of signs indicating wind, storms, rain and other conditions ahead. Some are fairly obvious, such as the observation that being surrounded by lightning means rain is imminent. Others are less so, such the flight of cranes being a predictor of fair weather. Theophrastus rarely explains the supposed connections between signs and the weather they portend, and of course many of his signs are unreliable. But On Signs was sufficiently reliable that it took more than two millennia, until the 18th century, for meteorologists to develop better and more scientific methods than those laid down by the original forecaster. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'books/philosophy', 'world/greece', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-05-09T05:00:41Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
news/2011/dec/18/weatherwatch-plain-english-forecasts | Weatherwatch: Plain English for 'a rash of beefy showers' | The Plain English Campaign has done much to save us from jargon and impenetrable language from government departments and companies. It was a surprise then that the Met Office won a 2011 Golden Bull Award for its weather forecasts. Among the phrases that the campaign objected to were "excess surface water" and "temperatures really struggling", both of which seem to be clear in their meaning and helpful to drivers and people going outdoors. One description last week, "a rash of beefy showers", was also found objectionable, although seems to exactly describe certain weather conditions. There is a tension between being correct scientifically and colourful language in weather forecasting. Describing the conditions in ways people understand can be demanding. The Met Office defended its use of the phrase "the probabilities of precipitation" by saying that this covered failing snow, hail and drizzle as well as rain. At this time of year half of degree can make the difference between rain and a heavy snowfall so "precipitation" is a fudge. Foreigners learning English are told that one of their most useful skills on arriving in Britain will be their ability to converse about the weather. One website helpfully offers 63 terms that might be needed for this task, including "slushy", "wind chill factor" and "raining cats and dogs." This last phrase is not used on the weather forecasts but the important point is that everybody knows what it means. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-12-18T22:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/oct/09/eco-warrior-swampy-on-extinction-rebellion-it-gives-me-hope | Eco-warrior Swampy on Extinction Rebellion: 'It gives me hope' | More than two decades after Britain saw its first widespread environmental protests, Extinction Rebellion is the latest in the vanguard. But while campaign groups have come and gone, it’s business as usual for Daniel Hooper, the veteran eco-warrior known as Swampy who says the latest protests give him “hope”. Hooper became a national figure after living underground for a week in a tunnel protesting against the rerouting of the A30 in Devon in the 1990s. Hooper, who now lives in West Wales, was also involved in a series of high-profile environmental campaigns, also targeting the M11 Newbury bypass and Manchester airport. But after being out of the headlines for years he was in court on Tuesday charged with obstructing traffic in a blockade of an oil refinery in Wales. He told ITV News: “My beliefs are the same as they always were and I did have a quiet 10 years, almost to the point where you have apathy towards how we can change things, then Extinction Rebellion started happening. “You think there is hope and I believe there is hope and now everyone needs to think about what we are doing, governments needs to change, companies need to change. “We need people’s assembly to decide what to do, this is a state of emergency.” Hooper, who is 46, had earlier been fined £40 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £32 surcharge after appearing before magistrates in Haverfordwest. He pleaded guilty to wilful obstruction of a highway after blocking a road to the Valero Pembroke refinery during a protest last month. Hooper was one of many of a new generation of environmental protesters to emerge in the 90s. Rather than the climate crisis focus of the current generation, their campaigns targeted what they saw as unnecessary development, especially of roads. Hooper rose to to prominence during the A30 protests but the clashes between activists and police over the building of the Newbury bypass in 1996, which required the destruction of 10,000 mature trees, ensured that their concerns cemented the place of environmental issues on the national political agenda. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-10-09T01:58:18Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
education/2005/jan/06/schools.uk2 | IBO launches tsunami appeal | The International Baccalaureate Organization today launched an appeal for funds to help rebuild schools in the areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami. The not-for-profit organisation behind the qualification, which is taught at 58 schools in areas affected by the disaster, will use the $2m (£1.07m) it hopes to raise to pay for materials to rebuild damaged schools. None of its member schools were affected, largely because they were located away from the coastline areas that were swamped by waves on Boxing Day. However, with 200,000 students taking the exam every year in 110 countries, the IBO believes it will be able to raise significant funds to help with the long-term rebuilding of the coastline. Every IB student has to undertake community work as part of their assessment. The money raised will pay for materials that will allow pupils to help rebuild damaged schools, assist displaced children and support other local voluntary projects in the area. The director general of the IBO, George Walker, said: "Schools in the most affected areas have highlighted their desire to start work as soon as possible. The tsunami appeal will focus on longer-term redevelopment projects, identified and supported by IB schools in the region." IBO staff have contributed $5,000 (£2,671) to kick off the campaign and IB students around the world and expected to take part in fundraising drives to raise the rest. | ['education/schools', 'education/education', 'uk/uk', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/pollycurtis'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-01-06T14:52:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2022/dec/04/government-chaos-delays-uk-sahara-energy-link | £18bn project to link UK to huge wind and solar farm in Sahara delayed by a year | An £18bn project to connect Britain with a huge wind and solar farm in the Sahara through an undersea cable has been delayed by at least a year because of political ructions in Westminster. The energy startup Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s electricity supplies through a 3,800km (2,360-mile) cable linking Morocco with the UK, powering 7m homes by 2030. The project had been expected to begin generating power by 2027. However, that target date now appears unlikely. The Xlinks’ executive chair, Sir Dave Lewis, a former chief executive of Tesco, warned that the recent political turmoil that has seen off three prime ministers in less than six months has stalled its progress. He has been trying to secure a government “contract for difference” – a mechanism under which public subsidies are used to offer low-carbon generators, such as windfarms, a fixed price for power. The arrangement aims to encourage investment by making revenues more predictable. Lewis told the Guardian: “We spent a long time with the then business secretary [Kwasi Kwarteng] who said: ‘We like it a lot but it needs to go through Treasury.’ There was a review with Treasury, Cabinet Office and the business department, which was very positive. “Then we came back to them to start the detail and the political world exploded and, as a result, everything stopped. And everybody has changed, so it’s sort of like you’re starting again. “Time is important for the UK to meet its net zero ambitions, to secure energy supplies and to reduce bills. We have lost a year.” Xlinks was founded in 2019 by its chief executive, Simon Morrish, who has grown the environmental services business Ground Control across the UK. When the Morocco-UK link is complete, Xlinks expects to generate 20 hours of reliable renewable energy a day using the Sahara’s sunshine and breezy night-time conditions. The plan is to build almost 12m solar panels and 530 windfarms over the 960 sq km area of desert. The site, in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region, will also have 20 gigawatt hours of battery storage. The cable transporting power from the site will hug the Moroccan coastline, then pass alongside Portugal, northern Spain and France before looping around the Isles of Scilly to terminate at Alverdiscott in north Devon, where Xlinks has already agreed to 1.8 gigawatt connections. Morocco has an established wind, solar and hydroelectric power industry, and its solar intensity, a measure of generation power, is second only to Egypt and double that of the UK, according to data from Xlinks. The power lines will be laid by the world’s largest cable-laying ship and buried beneath the seabed to mitigate the risk of damage from fishing boats. The company is in the process of studying the seabed and gaining offshore permits. Xlinks hopes to land a strike price of £48 per megawatt hour, lower than the £92.50 agreed for the delayed Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The company argues that despite the scale of the project, it can be more reliable for the security of UK energy supplies than domestic options because UK wind power can be hugely variable. Last week National Grid issued, and later cancelled preparations to launch its emergency winter plan after low wind and solar power left supplies tight. Lewis has personally invested in the Xlinks project, along with Octopus Energy and its founder Greg Jackson. Growing demand for renewable power has stretched supplies across the industry. In response, its sister company XLCC plans to build two factories to manufacture cables in Hunterston on the west coast of Scotland and another at a yet to be announced site in north-east England. The first received planning permission in June, and is expected to create 900 jobs. Lewis, who worked for the consumer goods company Unilever for 27 years, became Tesco’s chief executive in 2014. He quickly had to tackle an accounting black hole and is credited with turning around Britain’s largest retailer before leaving in 2020. He is now chair of Haleon, the consumer goods company spun off from GlaxoSmithKline earlier this year. • This article was amended on 5 and 7 December 2022. Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s electricity, not energy as an earlier version said; and the map was changed to accurately represent the borders of Morocco. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/environment', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'world/morocco', 'uk/uk', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-12-04T23:42:12Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2014/apr/21/direct-action-legislation-faces-rough-reception-in-the-senate | Direct Action legislation faces rough reception from Palmer and the Senate | Australia could be left without a climate change policy as Senate opposition to the Coalition's "direct action" plan intensifies. Clive Palmer, whose Palmer United party bloc will control four Senate votes from July, declared on Monday that its centrepiece “emissions reduction fund” was a “token gesture” and a “waste of money” and that his senators would vote against it. The fund has also been rejected by the Family First senator-elect, Bob Day, as “a waste of money”. And the spending has been questioned by Liberal Democratic party senator-elect David Leyonhjelm who says "even if [the science of global warming] is eventually confirmed government spending in Australia will not make the slightest bit of difference" and DLP senator John Madigan who has said he wonders “whether [the government] is just trying to look like they are trying to do something about global warming which they don’t really believe in”. But independent senator Nick Xenophon wants changes to toughen “direct action” and ensure it is effective, with measures such as stringent emissions baselines for big emitters, which some industry groups are resisting. The Coalition has said it intends to put legislation implementing “direct action” though the parliament in May and is likely to release the final details of the policy this week. The environment minister, Greg Hunt, has previously said he could, as a last resort, tie the emissions reduction fund to budget appropriations bills, which cannot be amended in the Senate. The attitude of the crossbench senators is likely to leave the fate of the alternative climate change plan in the hands of the Labor party or the Greens, who have both rejected it as ineffective. "On one hand the government makes broken promises, yet on the other hand they commit to campaigns that waste money like direct action," Palmer said in a statement on Monday. Palmer, whose wholly owned Queensland Nickel has now paid most of its carbon tax bill, had always been non-committal about direct action. The Senate uncertainty comes as a handpicked advisory group warned the government it would need to offer 15-year contracts under Direct Action to effectively reduce greenhouse emissions – three times longer than the Coalition has proposed. A “green paper” issued by Hunt, proposed the emission reduction fund – which has so far been funded for just three years – would offer five-year contracts to companies and organisations competing in a competitive tender for the fund’s grants. But Danny Price – chosen by Hunt as an “eminent economist” to co-chair the expert reference group advising him on the scheme – told Guardian Australia five years was “way too short”. “Contracts will need to be 15 years at least to attract the major capital-intensive projects with lifetimes of well over a decade,” Price said, saying the issue was “one of the biggest threats” to the effectiveness of Direct Action. The government is expected to release a white paper next week outlining its final decisions about the design of the emissions reduction fund, which is supposed to start in July – the date from which the government is decreeing the carbon tax be repealed, even if it takes the Senate longer to actually repeal the law. So far the emissions reduction fund has been allocated $300m, $500m and $750m over the next three years. It was originally slated to spend $1bn a year after that, but this money has not been confirmed or included in the budget. Banks and big business have also warned the government five-year contracts would deter many projects and drive up the amount the government would have to pay to buy emission reductions. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-tax', 'environment/emissionstrading', 'australia-news/coalition', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/carbon-tax | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-04-21T13:43:34Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2022/oct/01/climate-and-cost-of-living-campaigners-descend-on-london-on-same-day | Just Stop Oil activists blockade four London bridges | Thousands of supporters of Just Stop Oil have blocked four bridges across the Thames. Protesters blocked Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge with sit-down protests after marching from 25 points around the centre of London. Just Stop Oil’s activists said protesters would converge on Westminster, where a crowd led by a samba band had already gathered in Parliament Square. Hundreds had earlier sat on Westminster Bridge, blocking traffic, and moved after police warned them they would be arrested if they stayed. Among those sitting on Westminster Bridge was Esme Garlake, 26, from London. “I think we are at a real turning point now where the inequalities in our society are so obvious,” she said. “Today is the day of the energy bills [price rise] coming out and so different groups and grassroots movements are starting to realise that we have to come together to demand social change and climate action.” Garlake was sat next to her mother, Marilyn Garlake, 59, from Oxford, who said she saw synergies between activism for the climate and cost of living crises. “A tipping point is being reached now,” she said. “If you look at what’s happening with the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis, everything is coming together, and we have a government that is refusing to take the action that’s needed and making the situation worse.” The climate activists took to the streets in London as cost of living campaigners Enough Is Enough also held rallies. The protests come as 200,000 union members walked out of work, with rail unions RMT, Aslef and TSSA, and postal workers’ union the CWU, striking over pay and conditions. Enough Is Enough, which has been supported by senior figures in the RMT and CWU, as well as prominent leftwing MPs, claims 800,000 people have signed up to support its demands. It has called for pay rises above inflation, cuts to energy bills, a massive drive to build new homes, support for people who cannot afford food, and more taxes on the richest. Its campaign comes as the government has slashed taxes on the highest earners, and has hinted about massive real-terms cuts to benefits. On Saturday, the group held rallies in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Norwich. Just Stop Oil has come into the autumn after a spring and summer of non-violent civil disobedience protests against England’s fuel distribution network. As part of a coalition of groups, including Insulate Britain, Animal Rebellion, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, it has broadened its demands from an end to all new oil infrastructure to include more taxes on the rich and support with energy bills. Corbyn, the former Labour leader, drew rapturous applause as he denounced the government’s plans to cut taxes for the richest and benefits for the poorest. “Our strength is our organisation, our strength is our unity,” Corbyn said. “So let’s stand up for what we believe in.” Dave Ward, the general secretary of the CWU, said the campaign would pressure the Labour party “into the right place to stand up for working people”. “Everybody’s job who cares about people in this country to have a fair deal for everything, we have got to build collectivism,” Ward said. “Are you ready for that? Enough is enough. Let’s get out there: let’s protest, let’s rally. We are going to make change.” Figures within the Enough Is Enough campaign have told the Guardian there was no coordination between the two groups before Saturday’s protests. | ['business/cost-of-living-crisis', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'politics/tradeunions', 'politics/politics', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'uk-news/rmt', 'politics/jeremy-corbyn', 'environment/activism', 'environment/just-stop-oil', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/extinction-rebellion | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-10-01T16:36:08Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
business/2024/apr/11/uk-aviation-supplier-lifts-lid-turn-human-waste-fuel-wizz-air | UK startup lifts lid on plan to turn human waste into jet fuel | Aircraft could one day take off on fuel made from human waste under plans revealed by Wizz Air and the British sustainable aviation company Firefly to build a commercial refinery in Essex. Firefly, based in Bristol, said it had developed a process to convert treated sewage into sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. The low-cost airline Wizz said it was investing by placing an order – potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds – for up to 525,000 tonnes of Firefly’s waste-based fuel over the next 15 years. Firefly has now signed agreements with industrial partners for a pilot refinery in Harwich that would take “biosolids” from Anglian Water and turn it into aircraft fuel. Airlines will have to ensure that a minimum proportion of fuel burned is certified sustainable in the coming decade, with the EU mandating at least 20% SAF by 2035, and the UK expected soon to announce a mandatory 10% by 2030. There are various ways of making SAF but most are much more expensive than normal kerosene jet fuel, with a limited supply of waste feedstocks such as used cooking oil. Firefly’s chief operations officer, Paul Hilditch, said converted sewage should be cheaper and more abundant, providing up to 5% of airlines’ fuel needs in the UK. The process uses biosolids, the water industry term for the final product in the treatment process. “It’s crumbly – like compost or wet chocolate cake,” he said. “There’s millions of tonnes of the stuff. And it has no intrinsic value.” The company has produced small test quantities of SAF that he said were “chemically indistinguishable” from jet fuel, with a residue that can be used as a soil enhancer. The fuel is still in a regulatory testing process, and Firefly is still to secure the investment it needs to build a full-scale factory. However, its chief executive, James Hygate, said it was confident it could be delivering commercial supplies of SAF by 2028-29. He said the first facility in Harwich would serve London airports and there was potential for two more in the UK. “We’re turning sewage into jet fuel and I can’t think of many things that are cooler than that,” he commented. Wizz Air’s corporate and ESG officer, Yvonne Moynihan, said: “Alongside fleet renewal and operational efficiency, SAF plays a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions from aviation.” She said Wizz’s investment in Firefly was a “perfect pair-up for a low-cost airline” and the carrier aspired to use 10% SAF across its entire operation by 2030, although it would need “a significant ramp-up of production and deployment”. The UK government has said it expects five commercial plants to produce SAF in the UK to be under construction by 2025. However, campaigners have said even using human waste for aviation was not truly sustainable. Matt Finch, of the thinktank Transport & Environment UK, said sewage could also be used to make biomethane and there was direct competition for its use: “What’s the best use of this biomass hasn’t been clarified … It’s another conundrum.” About 87% of UK water companies’ biosolids are currently spread on farmland. Cait Hewitt, of the Aviation Environment Foundation, said: “It’s not to be sniffed at, given that this is truly unavoidable waste, but not great either given it’s already in use as fertiliser.” She said any test for the carbon credentials of alternative fuels should ask: “Has the producer done something to draw down additional CO2 from the atmosphere? Otherwise it’s nothing near a net zero solution.” Hilditch said the use of biosolids for muckspreading on farms was of low value, and the residue from the sewage-to-fuel process would still be available to improve soil. Many other countries simply incinerated human waste, meaning that converting it to jet fuel could also have other benefits in terms of efficient disposal, he added. “It’s not just the UK of course. Anywhere in the world where there are people, there’s poo.” | ['business/theairlineindustry', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/airline-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'uk/bristol', 'uk/uk', 'world/air-transport', 'environment/travel-and-transport', 'business/travelleisure', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2024-04-11T16:29:12Z | true | ENERGY |
news/2014/aug/28/world-weatherwatch-tropical-storm-cristobal | World Weatherwatch | The latest development in the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season brought disruption to the Caribbean last weekend, in the form of Tropical Storm Cristobal. Whilst wind speeds of around 45-50mph presented relatively few problems, the volume of rain produced by Cristobal resulted in significant flooding. The Turks and Caicos Islands were particularly badly affected with an estimated 12 inches of rain. Two deaths were linked to the storm in the Dominican Republic whilst two people were swept away by flood water in Haiti. The storm did not directly affect the mainland US but dangerous seas and rip-currents impacted the Atlantic Seaboard as Cristobal strengthened into a category 1 hurricane. The cool northerly winds across the UK during the second half of August also affected much of northern and central Europe up to last weekend. Daytime highs struggled to only 19 or 20C across parts of central France and Germany, countries where average daytime highs in late August are normally around 25 to 28C. Whilst these low temperatures are quite common in August during wet and cloudy conditions, they actually occurred in dry, sunny weather, testament to just how cool the northerly winds were. Night-time minimum temperatures were even more noteworthy with some rural areas of central France dropping to 2 or 3C. Even into northern parts of Spain, the overnight temperatures dropped to lows of just 5 or 6C. In contrast to last week's cool weather in northern Europe, very high temperatures affected many parts of north-west Africa this week, particularly in Morocco. Southerly winds brought in extremely hot air from central portions of Africa with the mercury in Morocco soaring to 47C. These searing winds continued to blow northwards, resulting in hot weather in southern Spain. The areas around Cordoba and Seville saw temperatures rising to 42C on Wednesday. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/natural-disasters', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-08-28T20:30:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/aug/10/critical-time-for-our-oceans-and-forests | Critical time for our oceans and forests | Letters | Your timely editorial about the need to improve our knowledge of the ocean (8 August) rightly stresses the responsibility of political leaders to create the means to find out more about the 70% of the planet covered by the ocean. But it is not only in the physical, biological and chemical sciences that we must improve our knowledge. There are large gaps in our knowledge about the economic and social aspects of human interactions with the sea. In 2002 the UN general assembly accepted the need for “a regular process for the global reporting and assessment of the marine environment, including socioeconomic aspects”, as recommended by the 2002 Johannesburg world summit on sustainable development. Implementing this immense and novel project has been a slow and, at times, difficult task. Later this year World Ocean Assessment I will be presented to the general assembly. In 55 chapters, this reviews all aspects (environmental, social and economic) of the ways in which the ocean supports life, its role in providing food security, the other ways in which humans exploit the ocean, our current ways of studying the seas, the status of marine biodiversity in all parts of the ocean (including special studies of crucial species and habitats), the problems of assessing humans’ impacts on, and benefits from, the ocean and, most importantly, the gaps that exist both in our knowledge and in the capacities to learn about the seas and manage human impacts on them. This will provide governments and intergovernmental organisations, both global and regional, with a common basis on which to take decisions on how to deal with the critical issues concerning the ocean, including filling the knowledge gaps to which you draw attention. Alan Simcock Joint coordinator, UN group of experts of the regular process (World Ocean Assessment I) • You are absolutely right to focus on the plight of the indigenous tribes living in the Peruvian Amazon (Environment, 29 July). Unless President Humala puts the rights of these vulnerable people above industrial gain, we will see them eradicated by deforestation and illegal mining, and the biodiversity of the region greatly compromised. Making the Sierra del Divisor a protected zone will go some way towards honouring this government’s commitment to eradicate deforestation completely by 2021 and show its genuine commitment to the environment and our battle against climate change. It must act now. Nigel Rosser Charlbury, Oxfordshire | ['environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/forests', 'world/unitednations', 'world/peru', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-08-10T18:21:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2013/nov/15/looting-typhoon-haiyan-philippines-new-orleans-haiti | The real story of 'looting' after a disaster like typhoon Haiyan | Richard Seymour | At some point, the natural disaster as a category will have to be interred and obituaried. It isn't just that the climate is partially manmade. All such disasters, insofar as they befall human communities, are socially constituted. We have known for some time, for example, that famine is the result not simply of crop failure, but of political and market failure. It is planned human responses, as much as the natural event itself, that produces the disaster. So it is in the Philippines after typhoon Haiyan. The winds, reading 195mph, tore up the previously solid streets of towns and cities, killing thousands: there is no reliable count, for who has tallied up every rotting corpse on every devasted street? Major towns were almost totally submerged in storm waters. But the immediate aftermath is where there is an opportunity to prevent death by disease, starvation and injury. And there the tale becomes depressingly familiar. The agonisingly slow delivery of aid. Desperate survivors scratching out messages pleading for help, seemingly getting none. Soon, the panic about social breakdown provides a justification for militarising the disaster zones. And at the centre of it all, a morally loaded narrative about "looters". Consider the following examples. September 2005, following hurricane Katrina. A panic about looters, amid a swirl of toxic rumours of rampant violence and rape by young black men, leads to white property-owners in the areas surrounding New Orleans taking up arms. Those identified as looters, it is noted, tend to be black. Police snipers kill presumed looters. The looters narrative was used to justify suspending rescue attempts while simultaneously obstructing the passage of survivors from New Orleans, the better to build up forces to impose martial law on the city's luckless captive inhabitants. January 2010, following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, police opened fire on people assumed to be looters. The representative of the major humanitarian charity in Haiti, Partners In Health, argues that the panic about a security threat is based on racism and untruth. But the result of this is that aid is obstructed and martial law is imposed. November 2013. Among survivors of Haiyan struggling to get near aid, or to break open government stocks of rice, eight people fearful of starving to death were killed when a wall collapsed on them. These people are also called looters. National newspapers upbraid the looters for the ugly face they present to the deliverers of humanitarian aid. Troops, police and US marines are deployed against them. De facto martial law is already in place. This has been denounced by the country's left and labour movement. These narratives about "looting", though they never withstand scrutiny, tap into animating myths about human civilisation being only a few hot meals away from total breakdown. By mobilising that common sense, often in a racialised way, they exert real effects in organising violent interventions into disaster zones. And it is worth someone asking why that is almost invariably the preference. Rebecca Solnit has demonstrated that, contrary to a conventional myth, human society does not collapse into a Hobbesian state of nature in the event of disaster. On the contrary, people tend to pull together and become more cooperative – a certain baseline communism takes over. In the aftermath of 9/11, one of the important stories that was neglected at the time, only later to be patronised in a docudrama, was the spontaneous boat lift which transported half a million people off Manhattan island. This is not to claim that there will be no panicked reactions, no desperate and doomed measures, no antisocial actions in the wake of catastrophe. Nor is it to deny that in New Orleans, Port-au-Prince and Tacloban groups of people have collectively and individually sought to redistribute and take control of vital supplies. Indeed, there seems to be no good reason why they shouldn't. It is to say that normal life is characterised by at least as much cruelty and indifferent self-seeking behaviour as occurs in emergencies, and sees far fewer examples of outright altruism. It is to say that much of what is called looting is really a rational survival strategy combined with a political protest. The crucial question is always who gets to dominate in the aftermath of crises, what is the political economy of reconstruction, in whose social interests it will take place. The rich will always mobilise to defend their interests. In New Orleans, the state was able to use the crisis to transform the city's class and race relations – union-busting, privatisation and a real-estate boom followed. In Haiti, the earthquake was used to redouble the dominance of the sweatshop owners and their external backers. And in the Philippines, the ten most powerful families who control more than half of all listed corporate assets will seek to advance their goals. The looting myth which repeats itself so often can be seen as part of an ensemble of techniques for taking control of crisis situations. It displaces the collective responses of affected populations, which threaten to challenge existing authority structures and property arrangements. It neutralises their attempts to serve their own interests and render them passive, dependent and thus governable. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/philippines', 'tone/comment', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'global-development/aid', 'society/society', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/haiti', 'type/article', 'profile/richard-seymour'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-11-15T14:00:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2015/sep/16/arctic-sea-ice-shrinks-to-fourth-lowest-extent-on-record | Arctic sea ice shrinks to fourth lowest extent on record | Ice coverage in the Arctic this year shrunk to its fourth lowest extent on record, US scientists have announced.The National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, said the ice reached a low of 4.41m sq km (1.70m sq miles) on 11 September in what experts said was a clear indicator of climate change. Sea ice melt is closely tied to warmer weather over the region, which can be affected by climate change and short-term weather variability. The weather patterns recorded over the summer were favourable to a low ice extent, the NSIDC said. The lowest sea ice extent ever recorded was in 2012, followed by 2007 and 2011 respectively. This year’s date comes four days earlier than the average minimum from 1981 to 2010. In March it was reported that last winter’s sea ice maximum hit a record low. Dr Jeremy Wilkinson, senior scientist at the British Antarctic Survey said: “This is undoubtedly an indicator of climate change. Even though it’s the fourth lowest on record it’s an ongoing downward trend that has been monitored for many years. For sea ice to melt you need a warmer atmosphere and a warmer ocean so these changes reflect the changes in the ocean and the atmosphere.” Wilkinson added: “The beauty of monitoring sea ice extent is that you can see it very clearly from space so you can record it very accurately. We have a very long track record.” Satellites have been monitoring the Arctic sea ice since the 1970s. Prof Andrew Shepherd, director of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds, told the Guardian that it was also important to establish the sea ice thickness, which cannot be picked by satellites over the summer months. It will start to be recorded next week. “What also matters is how thick the ice is, how cool winter was, which means sea ice can grow over the winter period which makes it more stable going into summer,” he said. In 2013, the Arctic sea ice experienced an unexpected revival, with the ice volume recorded increasing by 41%. Researchers said it did not indicate a wider recovery of the ice cap, but suggested that if global warming was tackled the potential for long-term recovery was more likely than previously thought. On Monday the Met Office predicted that 2015 and 2016 will be the hottest yet reported, with 2014 having previously broken the global record. The news comes with less than two weeks left in the window of time for drilling oil in the region. After a summer of setbacks, oil giant Shell was given final permission a month ago by Barack Obama, who has faced sharp criticism for the decision. Greenpeace spokesman, Ben Ayliffe, said: “We don’t need any more satellite images of shrinking sea ice to tell us that urgent action is needed to protect the far north. It’s time for governments, business and people the world over to respond and the most obvious place to start is by calling a halt to Shell’s reckless search for Arctic oil.” NSIDC is yet to provide a full analysis of this year’s melt, noting that there is a chance that changing wind patterns or low season melt could see the ice recede further. | ['environment/sea-ice', 'environment/environment', 'environment/poles', 'world/arctic', 'world/world', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/emma-e-howard'] | environment/poles | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-09-16T12:22:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2019/jul/21/six-of-the-best-wireless-headphones-under-one-hundred-pounds-sennheiser-marshall-anker-lindy-anke | Six of the best: wireless headphones under £100 | While you can pay hundreds of pounds for a pair of audiophile or status headphones, if you’re mainly going to be wearing them in the gym, listening to a podcast or leaving them on the bus then you’re probably wasting your money. Moreover, the price of technologies like Bluetooth and noise cancellation is falling and you can pick up a pair featuring both of these useful features for mid-range prices. Here’s our review of some popular models… Anker Soundcore Life 2 £66; noise-cancelling; over-ear; 30 hours battery life Pearl-effect construction looks dated and the feel is a little rickety – although they come with a carrying case, which should help protect them. They are oversized which makes them a good choice for those with a bigger head – for example, if you take a large-sized cycle helmet you won’t have to extend the arms. The super spongy over-ear cups are comfy. With the noise-cancellation engaged you lose a little pep but overall the sound is punchy and detailed – optimised for modern, bass-heavy, meticulously engineered R&B but they add zing to most genres. Verdict: Perfect for big-headed R&B aficionados. SoundMAGIC P22BT £34; on-ear; 19 hours battery life Relatively massive buttons make these a good choice for the big-fingered and, uniquely in this selection, the controls are located on the left earcup which could be an advantage for the left-handed. An on-ear design, they feel light and comfortable. Reflecting the lower price, construction does feel a little plasticky and flimsy. One useful feature is the numbered notches on the arms, which should ensure reliable fit after you have folded and stored them. The sound is a little flat and lacks definition at times – can flatten and distort heavy bass. Verdict: You get a lot more than you pay for; a good choice for those prone to losing things. Sennheiser HD 4.40 £90; over-ear; 25 hours battery life The closed-back, around-ear design fits snugly and will adapt to a range of head sizes. They feel well made and the matt black finish is simple. Bluetooth pairing was prompt and the connection solid. They don’t feature noise-cancelling, which makes them less suitable for use on public transport and for tuning out office chatter – background noise is still evident even with the sound turned up high. As well as the lack of noise-cancelling, battery life is relatively short but that’s still a couple of days’ continuous use. The sound is detailed and dynamic, and remains on-point even at full volume. If you like your bass booming you may be disappointed but if your tastes are eclectic and you also listen to a lot of acoustic or retro music, these headphones offer the best sound. Verdict: Best choice for home listening and for music lovers with diverse taste. Marshall Major III Wireless £130, widely available for £99; aptX; 30 hours battery life These take design cues from the brand’s stage amplifiers – although the generous use of grained brown leatherette also gives them a hint of Biggles. All functions are controlled from one multidirectional brass stud. The headphones clamp to your head a little tightly – in common with the other on-ear pairs, you may find the pressure on your ears over medium use (say the length of a podcast) a little uncomfortable. The drivers, however, deliver punchy, engaging, detailed sound across a wide range of music. Verdict: For people with small- to medium-sized heads who like retro design. Lindy BNX-60 £90; noise-cancelling; aptX; over-ear; 30 hours battery life Nice, understated matt black design and solid construction from this German audio company – probably the best-looking and the most comfy. A dial on the right ear cup makes for more precise volume adjustment than the buttons featured on other models. The noise-cancelling is less effective than that of the Anker Soundcore headphones – there’s a background hum and faint pressure on the eardrum when used without music. With music playing, flicking the noise-cancelling button between off and on has a dramatic effect on the sound – which is either too dull and bassy or has too much mid-range. We also tried a pair of Lindy BNX-100s – which for an extra £30 have really effective noise-cancelling and superior sound. Verdict: Great looking, but the noise-cancelling technology is overactive. Audio-Technica SR30BT £89; over-ear; 70 hours battery life These headphones are very light and comfortable, if a touch basic-looking. The Bluetooth setup is quick and stable. They boast a generous 70 hours of battery life – possibly enough to last all week. The sound is detailed, reproducing a range of music – electronic, R&B, acoustic – with punch and clarity. Verdict: Expensive but time between charges could be a valuable feature. | ['technology/headphones', 'technology/bluetooth', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/iantucker', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/new-review', 'theobserver/new-review/discover', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-new-review'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2019-07-21T06:00:13Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
technology/article/2024/may/10/tesla-protest-germany-factory | Eight hundred protesters attempt to storm German Tesla factory | Hundreds of protesters opposed to the expansion of a Tesla plant in Grünheide, near Berlin, clashed with police on Friday as some of them attempted to storm the electric vehicle manufacturing facility. About 800 people took part in the protest, according to the organizing group Disrupt Tesla, which claims the expansion would damage the environment. Tesla has attracted intense backlash since the company opened the factory in March 2022, and later announced plans to expand into a nearby forest to increase its production capability. In February, the town where the factory is located voted against the plans in a referendum that was not legally binding. Since then, protesters have been stationed in an encampment nearby in protest. The same facility was shut down for a week in March after suspected arson disabled its power. A separate protest collective called Volcano Group claimed responsibility for the fire, calling for the “complete destruction of the gigafactory”. Video of Friday’s action showed dozens of people wearing blue caps and masks coming from a nearby wooded area and attempting to storm the company’s premises with police officers trying to prevent them, including by force. At least one protester was detained. “Why do the police let the leftwing protestors off so easily?” the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, wrote on his social medial platform X, adding that the demonstrators did not manage to break through. Tesla, which dissolved its press department in 2020, did not respond to request for comment. The group also wants to highlight environmental destruction in countries such as Argentina or Bolivia brought about by lithium mining, according to a Disrupt Tesla spokesperson, Ole Becker. Lithium is a key resource for electric vehicle batteries. “We are here today to draw attention to the Tesla factory in Grünheide for the environmental destruction here,” Becker told Reuters. The police confirmed that the protesters tried to enter the plant’s premises, but were stopped, with several people taken into custody, and that it received a few reports of injuries. “We protect the freedom of assembly,” said a Brandenburg police spokesperson, Mario Heinemann, “but we are also responsible for public order and safety. That means we will also intervene when necessary.” Some of the demonstrators damaged a few Tesla cars using pyrotechnics and paint at a nearby car storage site, the police spokesperson added. Tesla earlier this week said it would shut the factory for one day on Friday, without specifying a reason. | ['technology/tesla', 'world/germany', 'technology/technology', 'technology/elon-musk', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kari-paul', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-tech'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2024-05-10T19:54:31Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2023/jun/08/maps-kakhovka-dam-collapse-threatens-ukraine-bread-basket | Maps show how Kakhovka dam collapse threatens Ukraine’s bread basket | The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam has led to fears that a depleted reservoir will leave three critical regions in Ukraine’s bread basket without a key water supply. This has led to warnings about the region and wider world’s food supply, with Ukraine accounting for 40% of global trade in sunflower meal, 35% of sunflower oil, and 5% of wheat, barley and corn exports. A series of canals run from the Kakhovka reservoir, all of which help irrigate swathes of agricultural land in southern Ukraine. If the reservoir dries up, this water supply will be reduced. The most significant of these canals are the North Crimean and Kakhovsky canals, which run from just north of the broken dam. The North Crimean canal supplies water to western Kherson before flowing down to Crimea. Its entrance is just before the dam and satellite imagery from 6 June already shows increased greenery within its reservoir – a sign of the water level decreasing. The Kakhovsky canal irrigates most of the Kherson region’s fields before entering Zaporizhzhia. Dnipro region is also supported by the Dnipro-Kryvyi Rih canal which runs north of the Kakhovka reservoir, while a separate canal system provides drinking water and irrigation to the city of Zaporizhzhia. Satellite imagery of the area directly south of the reservoir, around these canals, shows mile upon mile of agricultural land. The circular formations are caused by a centre-pivot irrigation system that waters crops with equipment that rotates around a pivot. Ukraine’s most important crops are corn, wheat, sunflower seed and barley. All of these yields are already down by at least a fifth in 2023-24, according to the US Department of Agriculture. There are fears that declining levels in the Kakhovka reservoir will mean less water feeding through to the network of canals used to irrigate these crops. With the exception of corn, which has its biggest yields in northern Ukraine, the other three crops are centred in the south. Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia are some of the most important regions for wheat and both rely on canals that run from the reservoir. Dnipro is similarly important for sunflower seed. While Odesa and Mykolaiv have the biggest yields for barley, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are all still big producers of this crop. Already images from the village of Marianske in Dnipro, taken on 7 June, show how reservoir levels have fallen. The Ukrainian agrarian and food ministry has warned that agricultural land in these regions could be so heavily affected that they could turn into “deserts”. “The terrorist act at the Kakhovskaya HPP [hydropower plant] has left 94% of irrigation systems in Kherson region, 74% in Zaporizhzhia, and 30% in Dnipropetrovsk without a source of water,” the ministry said in a statement. “The destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP will mean that the fields in the south of Ukraine may turn into deserts as early as next year.” | ['world/ukraine', 'global-development/food-security', 'environment/farming', 'world/russia', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tone/features', 'profile/ashley-kirk', 'profile/lucy-swan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-06-08T12:29:38Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/article/2024/jul/31/labour-tries-to-attract-clean-energy-contracts-with-record-15bn-for-auction | Labour tries to attract clean energy contracts with record £1.5bn for auction | The Labour government will make record amounts of funding available to clean energy developers after it increased the value of its summer subsidy auction by 50%, to £1.5bn. The addition, compared with figures previously announced, means the total budget is seven times the amount available at last year’s auction, the government said. The move aims to reignite investment in the UK’s clean energy industry after the previous government failed to award a single new offshore wind contract last year or remove the blocks on onshore wind. The government said that increasing the auction round would provide high quality jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands and coastal communities, while protecting household bills from rises in the global market for fossil fuel by providing more clean energy. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said: “Last year’s auction round was a catastrophe, with zero offshore wind secured, and delaying our move away from expensive fossil fuels to energy independence.” “Instead, we are backing industry to build in Britain, with this year’s auction getting its biggest budget yet. This will restore the UK as a global leader for green technologies and deliver the infrastructure we need to boost our energy independence, protect bill payers, and become a clean energy superpower,” he added. Offshore wind projects will compete for up to £1.1bn of funding this summer, up from the £800m set by the previous government. This could bring forward investment in 6-7 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, according to analysts at Jefferies, or enough to power almost 5m homes. Onshore wind and solar projects will compete for a share of £185m, a rise of £65m from previously announced figures. Ministers will also more than double the funding available to nascent clean energy technologies, such as floating offshore wind and tidal power projects, to a total of £270m. Miliband set out plans for the investment boom after senior executives warned that Labour’s clean energy targets may already be in jeopardy just weeks after the party came to power with the promise to double onshore wind, triple solar power, and quadruple offshore wind by 2030. Damien Zachlod, the managing director of the UK arm of the German energy company EnBW, which is developing offshore wind projects with BP, said: “How close we get to the government’s 2030 offshore wind target depends on whatever happens in the next 18 to 24 months.” Keith Anderson, the chief executive of Scottish Power, which is expected to compete for two offshore wind contracts in the auction, said: “The auction needed a reset after last year and we welcome the increased budget, which is an important investment signal to the industry to make Britain a clean energy superpower, secure more low-cost offshore wind and spur economic growth.” The contracts guarantee new renewable energy projects at set price for each unit of clean electricity they generate, which is paid for by energy bills. But the way the contracts are set up means they are not expected to raise costs for consumers. If wholesale electricity market prices fall below the price agreed in the contract, then households face extra charges to top up the difference. But increasingly the cost of renewable energy has fallen below the market price for electricity, meaning these contracts actually pay money back to bill payers. The reset was revealed as new government data confirmed a record breaking year for renewable energy generation in 2023. Official figures show that renewables provided 46.4% of the UK’s electricity last year, compared with 36.7% from fossil fuels. Wind power was the UK’s biggest source of clean power, according to the data, after generating a record 28.1% of electricity in 2023, beating the previous record of 24.7% in 2022. A record 17% of the UK’s electricity was produced by offshore wind compared with 13.8% in 2022, the figures show, while onshore wind provided a record 11.2% compared with 10.8% in 2022. | ['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2024-07-30T23:01:07Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2021/jul/21/germany-floods-one-hundred-fifty-five-still-missing-hope-further-rescue-fade | Germany floods: 155 still missing as hopes of further rescues fade | At least 155 people remain missing a week after record rainfall caused devastating floods in western Germany, as the president of the country’s disaster relief organisation said she “did not expect” rescuers to find any more survivors. “We are currently still searching for missed ones as we are clearing debris or pumping out cellars,” said Sabine Lackner of the federal agency for technical relief, a volunteering organisation belonging to the German ministry of the interior. “But sadly at this stage it is very likely that victims can only be recovered and not rescued,” Lackner told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. A week after slow-moving weather system released two months’ worth of rain in two days over western Germany, the number of fatalities has risen to at least 171, of which 123 have been confirmed in the hilly Ahrweiler district in Rhineland-Palatinate. Another 764 people have been injured, and 155 people are still recorded as missing. In the wine-growing Ahr valley and regions in neighbouring North-Rhine Westphalia approximately 40,000 people are believed to have been affected by the floods. The catastrophic flash floods have left thousands of people in western Germany without access to drinking water, electricity and gas. The full extent of damage to the area’s infrastructure has only emerged since the waters fully subsided over the last few days. In Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, a spa town that serves as the capital of the Ahrweiler district, about 19,000 people are now without gas used to heat water and homes, after pipelines were wiped out along with the bridges to which they were attached. “Kilometres of pipelines and control stations are just gone,” a spokesperson for the regional energy provider EMV said, adding it would take several months to rebuild the infrastructure. The Marburger Bund, a trade union representing physicians in Germany, has voiced concern about the shortage of medical staff and supplies in the affected areas, with 20 medical practices closed due to the floods in Rhineland-Palatinate alone. Train tracks built alongside rivers have been washed out, with the national rail company, Deutsche Bahn, reporting that 373 miles (600km) of tracks and 80 stations were impassable and could take years to fully rebuild. The German Insurance Association has estimated the floods to have caused damages amounting to €4bn to €5bn. Floods in 2002, when the river Elbe breached its banks in eastern Germany, caused €4.65bn worth of damage. On Wednesday, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, and her cabinet approved emergency financial aid worth €200m for people affected by the flood, with state governments expected to match the federal aid programme, and a larger package to rebuild essential infrastructure expected at a later point. “The citizens are not to blame for what happened,” said the finance minister, Olaf Scholz. “It is something to be attributed to mankind as a whole, and climate change.” | ['world/germany', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/flooding', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/philip-oltermann', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-07-21T16:45:15Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2019/dec/11/dont-invest-in-brazilian-meat-warn-deforestation-campaigners | Don't invest in Brazilian meat, warn deforestation campaigners | An international group of 30 non-profit groups published an open letter on Wednesday warning investors considering buying shares in two Brazilian meat giants of their exposure to deforestation. Billions of dollars of shares held by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) in JBS and Marfrig – two of the world’s biggest meat companies – will reportedly go on sale next year. The letter says that both companies have been linked to destruction of the Amazon forest – where deforestation soared this year while fires in August reached a nine-year record. BNDES declined to comment. Signed by Global Witness, Greenpeace Brasil and the Rainforest Action Network, amongst others, the letter follows a report on Tuesday by the Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Réporter Brasil which showed that over the summer Amazon fires were three times more common in beef farming zones. Some 70% of cleared Amazon rainforest is estimated to have been converted to pasture, the letter said. Brazilian companies JBS and Marfrig are two of the biggest buyers of cattle in the area. “There is increasing recognition by central banks, stock exchanges, consumers and the public that climate change has become a material issue for the financial system,” the letter said. “This serves as a caution.” “There are some real gaps in the information that JBS and Marfrig are supplying on their supply chain,” said Shona Hawkes, senior policy advisor, forests at Global Witness. “Investors need to insist on that information.” Some cattle are born, raised and reared on the same farm – these are called direct suppliers, or “full cycle” farms. But many pass through numerous ranches – or “indirect suppliers” – before slaughter, with some specialising on fattening, others in rearing. This is proving to be a serious weakness for deforestation monitoring by the big Brazilian meat companies. In an email, Marfrig’s director of sustainability Paulo Pianez said the company’s efforts to meet its zero deforestation commitment include a real-time fire alert and a supplier monitoring platform. “Marfrig constantly develops technologies to mitigate risks, while permanently engaging suppliers and ensuring transparency for all stakeholders,” he said. Pianez also said only 47% of its cattle came from “full cycle” farms. Its annual report from auditors DNV.GL said: “Marfrig’s indirect suppliers are not systematically verified … Marfrig argues that the lack of a nationally implemented public traceability policy makes it difficult to implement such a verification.” JBS’s audit from the same company made a similar observation. “Regarding indirect suppliers, JBS and the industry in general does not yet have in place a verification system in these cases,” it said. The company said in an email that its Amazon monitoring system covers more than 280,000 sq miles, assesses more than 50,000 farms every day and has blocked more than 8,000 supplying farms due to non-compliance. “JBS is committed to eradicating deforestation, ensuring sustainable livestock practices and improving the livelihoods of farmers in the Amazon region,” a company spokesperson said in an email. “We urge those who share the common goal of ending deforestation to seek solutions rather than criticism.” The groups signing this letter argued that neither company has done enough. “Buying shares in these companies means running a big risk in being involved in deforestation in the Amazon,” said Christian Russau, from Germany’s Association of Ethical Shareholders. “We in Europe are also responsible.” | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/meat-industry', 'environment/farming', 'environment/food', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dom-phillips', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-12-11T14:02:19Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/blog/2009/dec/10/viscount-monckton-ukip | Has Ukip got more than it bargained for in recruiting Viscount Monckton? | Goerge Monbiot | Lucky old UK Independence party (Ukip). With great fanfare in Copenhagen, Viscount Monckton of Brenchley – the man who believes that action on climate change is a conspiracy to create a communist world government – announced this morning that he was joining them. He has made this momentous move, he tells us, because he has "become fed up with the hive mentality of British political discourse". British political discourse will doubtless miss him sorely, but does Ukip know what it is taking on? I know that this party has become the last refuge of a marvellous collection of cranks and fabulists. In fact this seems to be its main role: care in the community for political eccentrics. But when even Rod Liddle, who is no friend of environmentalists, ridicules Monckton's views in his Spectator blog, you can't help fearing that Ukip might be out of its depth. Liddle linked to a speech Monckton delivered in October to something called the Minnesota Free Market Institute. In the speech, Monckton maintains that: • He has read the treaty that will be signed at Copenhagen next week. That's quite a feat of clairvoyance. • The treaty says that "a world government is going to be created". • Greenpeace is "about to impose a communist world government on the world" and President Obama, who sympathises with that aim, will sign up to it. These are not the first of Viscount Monckton's interesting statements. He has claimed, in a letter to two US senators, that he is a member of the House of Lords. He did once put himself forward for election among his peers. His score? Nul points. He maintains that he is a Nobel peace laureate, on the grounds that he is an "IPCC reviewer" (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the peace prize with Al Gore in 2007). On the same grounds, everyone who sent an unsolicited letter to the IPCC could claim a share in the prize. But in Monckton's case, he got a gold pin made for himself to prove it. He contends that he won the Falklands war for Britain by persuading the British government to use biological warfare. Now, on the CV attached to his announcement of his Ukip candidacy, he claims to be "responsible for invention and development of a broad-spectrum cure for infectious diseases. Patents have now been filed. Patients have been cured of various infectious diseases, including Graves' disease, multiple sclerosis, influenza, food poisoning, and HIV." He spoils it all a little by boasting during one interview about telling "stories that aren't actually true". But why let a trifling matter like that cast a shadow over Ukip's brilliant coup? In one new member they have landed a Nobel laureate, member of the House of Lords, saviour of the British armed forces and inventor of the universal cure. They should be feeling very pleased with themselves. Or very scared. monbiot.com • This article was amended on 16 April 2010 to remove a quote about Viscount Monckton that may have been capable of being read as a reference to his physical condition, a meaning which we absolutely did not intend to convey. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/ukip', 'politics/politics', 'tone/blog', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'type/article', 'profile/georgemonbiot'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2009-12-10T14:16:26Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
lifeandstyle/2018/nov/10/hannah-jane-parkinson-joy-of-small-things-air-pollution | I crave great big gulps of fresh air – how do I leave this clogged-up city? | Hannah Jane Parkinson | It must look as though I am a thief, or at the very least up to no good. You see, I can no longer expose my lower face to the streets of London. When I was younger, and Converse soles beat city streets, I’d hop from bar to bar exposing many things: legs, torso, an adolescent need for acceptance, a too-high tolerance for alcohol. Now, walking on city pavements, it feels as though I have put an exhaust pipe in my mouth and sucked hard, like the final cigarette I had. I have gone from mocking tourists who wear masks – looking as though they are about to embark on vigorous floorboard sanding – to browsing shops for similar. Of course, the campaign for clean air has been significantly harmed by white people with dreadlocks and dudes with This Machine Kills Fascists stickers. But fill in your postcode on a government website and it will tell you exactly how much your child will be choked on her way to school, the daily filth fillings her lungs. Not to be a downer, but the World Health Organisation has estimated that air pollution kills 7 million people a year worldwide. OK, that is quite a downer. For those of us who live in cities, arriving in the countryside is… well, I imagine it is how footballers feel when they sleep in hyperbaric chambers. Like being held underwater, guttering, choking, drowning, to quote Wilfred Owen, and then bobbing up cork-like. The country roads I moaned about on trips as a kid, the stench of cow pat, the scratches from brambles, are a small price to pay now for the absence of diesel taste on the tongue. How much I love the wind whipping up the salty ether of the Cumbrian coast and dissipating the tense, muscular knots of responsibility. A Canadian company is even selling compressed air from the Rocky Mountains. The jars hold (apparently) about 160 breaths and cost $32, about £20. Orders are big from India and China. Quitting fags made me crave better and bigger breaths because when the cilia in my windpipe started to work again, I realised what I had been missing. You don’t know what you haven’t got until it returns. Finland, I have learned, has the best air quality in the world. Of course it does. Finland is the best at everything. Finland is the straight-A student who never even bothers to revise. I want to go to Finland then, sit on the edge of a lake with my feet in the water and gulp for eternity. | ['lifeandstyle/series/the-joy-of-small-things', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'environment/pollution', 'world/world-health-organization', 'environment/environment', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/hannah-jane-parkinson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/weekend', 'theguardian/weekend/back', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/weekend'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-11-10T09:00:38Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2021/may/08/weatherwatch-britain-rediscovers-warm-clothes-groups-meet-outside-spring | Weatherwatch: Britain rediscovers warm clothes as groups meet outside | Anyone who has taken advantage of the UK government’s easing of restrictions in allowing groups of six people to meet outside will have needed to take precautions to stay warm. Any kind of exercise, walking, cycling or gardening warms you up but most people have no previous experience of sitting still outside, particularly in the record-breaking cold spring weather of the last few weeks. Under any normal circumstances sensible people would go indoors but because of Covid restrictions it has been illegal. As a result of these privations there has been a proliferation of advice about how to stay warm while sitting still. None of the suggestions are particularly ingenious; they involve covering as much skin as possible in warm garments. There are even practical hints like the right sort of gloves to wear while texting, presumably to tell the seventh person who could not come what fun you are having. Experience shows that people learn quickly. Meeting old friends and family is not so pleasant if you cannot stop shivering. People who dressed smartly and fashionably on their first outing and survived the hypothermia that resulted look chunkier next time. Thermal underwear has been rediscovered and the wise are wearing roughly twice as many clothes. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/environment', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'environment/spring', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-05-08T05:00:41Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2021/jul/07/aspinpall-plans-to-rewild-elephants-thrown-into-doubt-by-kenya | Elephants might not fly: confusion over Carrie Johnson charity’s rewilding plan | Confusion has erupted over plans to fly a herd of elephants from Kent to Kenya, after the Kenyan wildlife service said it had not been contacted or consulted about the operation. On Monday, the Aspinall Foundation announced ambitious plans to transport 13 savanna elephants, born and bred in captivity, almost 4,500 miles from their home at Howletts Wild Animal Park to a site in the east African country, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). The wildlife charity, where the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, has a top corporate role in communications, said it would be a world-first operation to “rewild” the mammals. But on Wednesday, Kenya’s ministry of tourism and wildlife tweeted its concern about newspaper reports of the plan and said it had not been contacted. In a statement, the ministry said it had “noted with concern an article published in the Daily Mail, UK, stating that a herd of 13 elephants will be relocated from Kent Wildlife Park in the UK to Kenya in what is referred to as a ‘world first rewilding project’ by the publication”. “The ministry wants to state that neither them nor the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) have been contacted or consulted on this matter. “Relocation and rehabilitation of an animal from a zoo is not easy and is an expensive affair.” The Guardian has been told that the director general of the KWS received a proposal for the relocation on Tuesday, although informal discussions did take place last year. The decision to transport the elephants will require formal approval from the Kenyan government, which has not been given, and will be subjected to national and international guidelines on wildlife introductions. Of the 13 elephants, a dozen were born at the park in Kent, while one was born in Israel. As part of the announcement, the Aspinall Foundation said they would be held in an enclosure for six months upon their arrival so vets could monitor their reaction to the different climate and diseases. Meanwhile, the Charity Commission continues to investigate the Aspinall Foundation and Howletts Wild Animal Trust, which manages the private zoo that houses the elephants, over possible conflicts of interest and misuse of charitable resources. Elephant specialists and conservationists have privately expressed their concerns about the plan to transport animals, highlighting that Kenya already has about 35,000 elephants and funds to transport the mammals might be better spent on other projects. Both the Aspinall Foundation charity and Howletts Wild Animal Trust, which manages two parks in Kent, are still under investigation by the Charity Commission in the UK. It confirmed both inquiries were active but were unable to comment on their findings. A spokesperson for the Aspinall Foundation said they were perplexed by the announcement from the Kenyan ministry of tourism and that it had been in consultation with the KWS since last year. They acknowledged there was a process for obtaining permission to transport the elephants and were looking forward to working towards formal approval from the Kenyan government. | ['environment/wildlife', 'environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'world/kenya', 'world/africa', 'uk-news/carrie-symonds', 'world/world', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/rewilding', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/series/the-age-of-extinction | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-07-07T16:57:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2018/dec/23/sunda-strait-tsunami-is-latest-in-a-series-of-indonesian-disasters-in-2018 | Sunda Strait tsunami is latest in a series of Indonesian disasters in 2018 | The tsunami that struck Indonesia’s Sunda Strait on Saturday night was the latest in a series of disasters in the vast archipelago nation this year. Other tragedies have included earthquakes that flattened parts of the tourist island of Lombok, and an earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands on Sulawesi island. Nearly 200 people died when a Lion Air passenger plane crashed into the Java Sea in October. Lombok earthquake More than 100 people died when an earthquake devastated the tourist island of Lombok near Bali in August. Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4-magnitude quake on 29 July that killed 17 people and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of the volcano, Mount Rinjani. Sulawesi and Sumatra ferry disasters At least 31 people perished when a ferry travelling from Sulawesi to Selayar island sank in July. It came the day officials called off the search for 164 people presumed drowned when a wooden ferry sank on 18 June in a deep volcanic crater lake on the island of Sumatra. Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami In September an earthquake hit the area around Palu on the island of Sulawesi in northern Indonesia. The 7.5-magnitude earthquake spawned a tsunami and together the two natural disasters devastated the region reducing large parts of Palu and other towns to rubble. There were 170 aftershocks which hampered rescue efforts and it took days to mobilise heavy equipment to help the rescue effort on the island. The official death toll is more than 2,000 but it is feared this figure could finally rise to 5,000. Our correspondent Kate Lamb travelled to Sulawesi in the aftermath of the disaster and this is among her reports. Lion Air crash Almost 200 people died in October when Lion Air flight JT610 travelling from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka crashed into the sea a few minutes after leaving the capital city. Questions were raised about the reliability of the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet after reports that it flew erratically the previous day. An examination of the plane’s black box showed that it had experienced problems with its airspeed indicators on its previous four flights. Sunda Strait tsunami Officials fear the death toll from Saturday’s disaster could rise with at least 200 already dead and hundreds injured. Experts think the tsunami was caused by an eruption of the infamous Krakatoa volcano, which triggered landslides and set off the deadly wave. They also believe high tides at full moon may have played a part. | ['world/indonesia-tsunami-december-2018', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'world/indonesia', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/martinfarrer', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign'] | world/tsunamis | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-12-23T06:35:37Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2021/nov/23/climate-activist-sentenced-to-12-months-in-jail-over-coal-train-blockade-in-nsw | Climate activist sentenced to 12 months in jail over coal train blockade in NSW | A Blockade Australia activist has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for blockading coal trains in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Eric Serge Herbert will serve a minimum of six months behind bars for his protests, after he was sentenced at Newcastle local court on Monday. Blockade Australia said in a statement he had stopped a coal train for five hours by “climbing on top of it”. “Sergeio’s action was taken to oppose the role Australia plays in the climate and ecological crisis,” the statement said. Herbert was arrested the following week, as he was walking in a national park on Kooragang Island. He was charged with causing obstruction of a railway locomotive or rolling stock, attempting to hinder the working of mining equipment, and attempting to assist in the obstruction of a rail locomotive or rolling stock. Blockade Australia said in the statement it was facing “extreme measures” by authorities to shut down its protest efforts, with at least 28 people arrested in November in relation to direct action taken by the group. NSW police formed Strike Force Tuohy to actively work towards preventing and disrupting any illegal climate protests in Newcastle and the Hunter. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning In announcing the new strike force, the assistant commissioner Peter McKenna said that environmental activists could face up to 25 years in prison for their actions. The group recently completed two weeks of “nonviolent direct action” at the coal port in Newcastle, targeting the freight networks and exports surrounding the Port of Newcastle, with 20 protests over 11 consecutive days. Herbert had previously received minor fines and charges. Earlier this year, Herbert chained himself to a car used to chauffeur politicians to parliament for federal budget sittings, and was fined $100 by an ACT magistrate. He was sentenced to six months probation in 2019 after locking himself to a car outside a Queensland government building for several hours. | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/coal', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/activism', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/mostafa-rachwani-', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2021-11-22T23:06:38Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/veolia-transforming-rubbish-energy | Veolia: turning rubbish into energy | When it comes to carbon footprint reduction, the UK's leading recycling and waste management company truly leads by example. Between 2008 and 2011 Veolia Environmental Services grew its business and reduced its emissions at the same time. Veolia turns waste into a resource through reuse, recycling and energy recovery using a network of material recovery facilities (MRFs), hazardous waste facilities and energy recovery facilities (ERFs). In 2012 the company opened new facilities in each of these categories, bringing its total number of ERFs to seven. Energy recovery facilities use leading technology to transform waste into electricity for the National Grid. Veolia also converts landfill gas to energy. The combined energy generated from the company's ERFs and landfill sites is 1.3m MWH, enough to power more than 319,000 homes, boosting UK energy security and reducing fossil fuel usage in the process. Converting landfill gas to energy further reduces carbon emissions as landfill gas contains a mix of CO2 and methane, which is 21 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas. Veolia powers more than 70% of its UK sites with renewable energy. It also invested more than £3m in low-carbon hybrid and CNG vehicles designed to reduce fuel consumption, and introduced a Driving Efficiently and Safely scheme to conserve fuel by 6%. The company's greenhouse gas tracker tool helps it – and customers – measure and reduce their carbon emissions. This comprehensive approach to carbon reduction is based on cutting-edge technology, powerful customer partnerships and rigorous employee training. The results are impressive. Between 2008 and 2011 Veolia increased turnover by 2%, while its direct emissions were trending down by more than 15%. Over the same period its avoided emissions were up 27%. In 2012 Veolia's strategy to reduce its carbon footprint and save natural resources was rewarded with Business in the Community's Climate Change award. Lorna Thorpe is part of the wordworks network The Guardian Sustainable Business Sustainability Case Studies contain articles on all the initiatives that met the criteria for the GSB Awards, demonstrating elements of genuine innovation and forward thinking. Become a GSB Member for regular updates from the network | ['sustainable-business/series/sustainability-case-studies', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/carbon-case-studies', 'sustainable-business/series/guardian-sustainable-business-awards-longlist-2013', 'type/article'] | sustainable-business/series/carbon-case-studies | EMISSIONS | 2013-05-17T08:56:35Z | true | EMISSIONS |
australia-news/2017/mar/16/malcolm-turnbull-says-snowy-hydro-plan-will-outdo-south-australian-battery-storage | Malcolm Turnbull says Snowy Hydro plan will outdo South Australian battery storage | Malcolm Turnbull has used his expansion plans for the Snowy Hydro to try to outdo South Australia on battery storage, saying it would provide 20 times the capacity of the battery system proposed by the premier, Jay Weatherill. The prime minister visited the Snowy Hydro power station on Thursday to spruik the benefits of the expansion plan on the same day his energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, had an onscreen altercation with Weatherill at the launch of a virtual power station. The Turnbull government continues to be at odds with the Labor states over energy policy, with the prime minister criticising South Australia for its high use of renewables and Victoria for its gas exploration moratorium. Turnbull said his plan to develop pumped hydro would effectively turn Snowy Hydro into a giant energy storage system. “In one hour it could produce 20 times the 100Mwh expected from the battery proposed by the South Australian government but would deliver it constantly for almost a week (or 350,000 Mwh over seven days),” Turnbull said. If the plan to add pumped hydro storage to the Snowy Hydro company goes ahead, it is expected to cost $2bn and create 500 jobs. But, initially, the Turnbull government is providing $500,000 for a feasibility plan completed by the end of the year. Snowy Hydro is jointly owned by the federal government, the New South Wales government and the Victorian government. Turnbull promised the federal government would contribute “on a commercial basis” if the other shareholders did not want to contribute and he underlined it would make money for the company. “We would look forward to the other shareholders contributing to it but, if they don’t wish to contribute additional equity and they would rather the commonwealth government did that, we are very happy to contribute equity on a commercial basis into this project,” Turnbull said. “That is our commitment.” While Turnbull said the NSW government was enthusiastic about the plan, the Victorian energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, told the ABC on Thursday morning that she had not been briefed. But Turnbull said the states, as shareholders, were fully briefed. “The news is what we heard on the radio and what we woke up to this morning,” D’Ambrosio said. “This is the way the prime minister is leading this country, so-called.” Asked if Victoria would part fund the Snowy Hydro, D’Ambrosio said, “We don’t have problems keeping the lights on in Victoria.” The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said he hoped the Snowy Hydro plan spelt an end to Turnbull “bagging out the states”. “If it actually means Malcolm Turnbull is going to do something, then I expect that would be welcomed by every single Victorian,” Andrews said. “I would certainly welcome creating new jobs potentially and providing additional power.” The initial $500,000 in commonwealth funding will allow the company to review the geological studies and technology required to build 27km tunnels required to expand the facility. “These projects were designed and engineered decades ago by the men and women who built this,” Turnbull said. “The capacity was there, all that was missing was leadership and money. My government has both.” The expanded system would add 2,000MW to the hydro scheme’s 4,100 MW capacity, enough to power 500,000 homes but would be stored in the system. The construction would include new tunnels and energy turbines to pump water uphill during off-peak times so it can be generate electricity by flowing downhill when demand is high. Turnbull said that, subject to environmental approvals and finance, work would begin in 2018. Prof Ken Baldwin, director of the ANU Energy Change Institute, said the expansion of pumped hydro storage was welcome but it needed to be part of a national energy plan following the imminent release of the Finkel report. “The announcement of a revitalised Snowy Hydro scheme for energy storage is welcome and comes hard on the heels of the South Australian government’s recent energy initiative that also incorporates storage,” Baldwin said. “However, what is urgently needed is a national energy plan for these initiatives to plug into. The energy sector has been paralysed by a decade of government policy uncertainty and is now creaking under the strain as technological advances overwhelm it.” The chief executive of the Snowy Hydro scheme, Paul Broad, said Snowy Hydro was already acting to balance the volatility of the system. “If frequency drops too much, you start getting brownouts,” Broad said. “We are a first-world country. We haven’t had that for a long time in our country. This upgrade at Snowy will sustain that for a generation.” Bill Shorten said Labor wanted to examine the plan but said it was worth exploring. “Like so many of Mr Turnbull’s ideas, it asks more questions than it answers,” Shorten said. “Is it really just going to be $2bn or will the cost to Australians be much higher? Have we got all the technical solutions worked out? How long will this measure take? Is it five years or 10 years? Is this just a feasibility plan for an unfunded scheme which will take the best part of a decade to come to fruition?” | ['australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/hydropower', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/south-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gabrielle-chan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-03-16T06:22:45Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/feb/18/indigenous-peoples-face-rise-in-rights-abuses-during-covid-pandemic-report-aoe | Indigenous peoples face rise in rights abuses during pandemic, report finds | Indigenous communities in some of the world’s most forested tropical countries have faced a wave of human rights abuses during the Covid-19 pandemic as governments prioritise extractive industries in economic recovery plans, according to a new report. New mines, infrastructure projects and agricultural plantations in Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Indonesia and Peru are driving land grabs and violence against indigenous peoples as governments seek to revive economies hit by the pandemic, research by the NGO Forest Peoples Programme has found. Social and environmental protections for indigenous communities have been set aside in the five countries in favour of new projects, leading to a rise in violence and deforestation on and around indigenous lands, according to the report produced by the NGO, Yale Law School researchers and the School of Law at Middlesex University London. The authors warn that raw materials from the new extractive projects are likely to filter into global supply chains and enter western markets. They have called on businesses to strengthen protections for human rights and tropical forests. “Indigenous peoples are seeing their rights stripped away as the lands that have long been their homes are stripped away as well,” said James Silk, Binger clinical professor of human rights at Yale Law School and co-author of the report. “Corporations in the extractive industries have aggressively pushed governments to let them exploit resources on indigenous lands, promising economic revitalisation, but ignoring the devastating effect on indigenous communities. The result is a cascade of human rights violations and accelerating contributions to global warming.” The report, titled Rolling Back Social and Environmental Safeguards in the Time of Covid-19, was produced in collaboration with affected communities. It found that the governments in Brazil, Colombia, DRC, Indonesia and Peru were prioritising the expansion of logging, industrial agriculture and the energy sector in or near indigenous territories. Domestic and international laws that prohibit land grabs were not being enforced by the state, resulting in a rise in deforestation in 2020 that was likely to continue this year, the researchers said. Indigenous people who try to assert their rights are facing increased threat of criminal prosecution and arrest, according to the report. “Indigenous groups started contacting organisations like the Forest Peoples Programme early on in the pandemic. Governments were prioritising big oil, mining projects and infrastructure projects at a time when lockdowns were happening. Communities were unable to protect themselves,” Cathal Doyle of the School of Law at Middlesex University said. “Studies repeatedly show that the best, most conserved biodiversity and forests are in lands where you have indigenous communities. We’re dependent on them for addressing the existential crises that we face in the coming decades,” he continued. “Research is coming out talking about the importance of these forests and for preventing future pandemics. So it’s ironic that we seem to be going down the path of destroying them as a result of a pandemic.” According to the World Bank, while indigenous peoples make up about 6% of the global population, they safeguard 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/africa', 'world/indonesia', 'world/colombia', 'world/congo', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'law/human-rights', 'global-development/human-rights', 'world/peru', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/conservation', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-age-of-extinction'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-02-18T15:00:37Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2013/may/20/moore-oklahoma-tornado-photos-residents | Moore, Oklahoma hit by massive tornado: photos from residents | The second day of a massive storm system slammed the suburbs of Oklahoma City and Tulsa Monday. The National Weather Service had forecast more of the same brutal storms that struck the area Sunday, weather that included a massive tornado and baseball-sized hail. Moore was hit hard by a tornado in 1999. The storm had the highest winds ever recorded near the earth's surface. The tornado that hit Monday is said to be at least two or three times the size of that storm. Residents of the towns of Moore and Norman took cover as the storm devastated the area. Here are tweets and photos from the ground as this story continues to develop: Storm trackers were also on the scene: | ['world/natural-disasters', 'world/tornadoes', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/katie-rogers'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-05-20T22:44:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2018/mar/29/wind-and-solar-made-more-electricity-than-nuclear-for-first-time-in-uk | Wind and solar make more electricity than nuclear for first time in UK | Windfarms and solar panels produced more electricity than the UK’s eight nuclear power stations for the first time at the end of last year, official figures show. Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions also continued to fall, dropping 3% in 2017, as coal use fell and the use of renewables climbed. Energy experienced the biggest drop in emissions of any UK sector, of 8%, while pollution from transport and businesses stayed flat. Energy industry chiefs said the figures showed that the government should rethink its ban on onshore wind subsidies, a move that ministers have hinted could happen soon. Lawrence Slade, chief executive of the big six lobby group Energy UK, said: “We need to keep up the pace ... by ensuring that the lowest cost renewables are no longer excluded from the market.” Across the whole year, low-carbon sources of power – wind, solar, biomass and nuclear – provided a record 50.4% of electricity, up from 45.7% in 2016. But in the fourth quarter of 2017, high wind speeds, new renewables installations and lower nuclear output saw wind and solar becoming the second biggest source of power for the first time. Wind and solar generated 18.33 terawatt hours (TWh), with nuclear on 16.69TWh, the figures published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show. But renewables still have a long way to go to catch up with gas, the UK’s top source of electricity at 36.12TWh, which saw its share of generation fall slightly. Greenpeace said the figures showed the government should capitalise on its lead in renewables and “stop wasting time and money propping up nuclear power”. Horizon Nuclear Power, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, is in talks with Whitehall officials for a financial support package from the government, which it says it needs by midsummer. By contrast, large-scale solar and onshore wind projects are not eligible for support, after the Conservative government cut subsidies in 2015. However the energy minister, Claire Perry, recently told House Magazine that “we will have another auction that brings forward wind and solar, we just haven’t yet said when”. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2018-03-29T14:36:55Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2024/apr/10/shoplifting-crackdown-to-include-55m-for-facial-recognition-tools-in-england-and-wales | Shoplifting crackdown to include £55m for facial recognition tools in England and Wales | The government is investing more than £55m in expanding facial recognition systems – including vans that will scan crowded high streets – as part of a renewed crackdown on shoplifting. The scheme was announced alongside plans for tougher punishments for serial or abusive shoplifters in England and Wales, including being forced to wear a tag to ensure they do not revisit the scene of their crime, under a new standalone criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker. The new law, under which perpetrators could be sent to prison for up to six months and receive unlimited fines, will be introduced via an amendment to the criminal justice bill that is working its way through parliament. The change could happen as early as the summer. The government said it would invest £55.5m over the next four years. The plan includes £4m for mobile units that can be deployed on high streets using live facial recognition in crowded areas to identify people wanted by the police – including repeat shoplifters. That investment follows the development of Project Pegasus under which some of the UK’s biggest retailers, including Marks & Spencer, Boots and Primark run their CCTV images through police databases using facial recognition technology. Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties at campaign group Big Brother Watch, said the government’s investment in facial recognition technology was “an abysmal waste of public money”. “This Orwellian tech has no place in Britain,” she said, adding: “Criminals should be brought to justice, but papering over the cracks of broken policing with Orwellian tech is not the solution. It is completely absurd to inflict mass surveillance on the general public under the premise of fighting theft while police are failing to even turn up to 40% of violent shoplifting incidents or to properly investigate many more serious crimes.” The £55.5m will come out of a £240m investment in police producticity over four years announced in the budget, while the £4m on more mobile units will be spent over the next year. Backing for a specific retail worker assault offence marks a U-turn for the government, which previously blocked a Labour-backed amendment to the criminal justice bill that would have made the assault of a retail worker a specific criminal offence carrying a sentence of 12 months behind bars or a fine of up to £10,000. Chris Philp, the policing minister, said at the time the move could lead to a problem of “equity between retail workers and other public-facing workers”. However, retailers have demanded action against what they say is an epidemic of retail crime driven by organised by gangs targeting vulnerable stores. In October 90 retail leaders, including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and WH Smith, wrote to the government demanding action on rising retail crime. Last week the Co-op Group, which has been at the forefront of a campaign to create a specific crime for assault on a retail worker, said it had lost £70m from shoplifting after a 44% surge in retail crime last year to about 1,000 incidents a day. Paul Gerrard, the campaigns and public affairs director of Co-op, said: “I’m glad that after six years of hard campaigning we have got to the point where this offence will become law.” He said that in Scotland, where a similar law is already in place, the arrest rate for retail crime was 60% compared with just 10% in England. Sharon White, the outgoing chair of the John Lewis Partnership, which owns Waitrose supermarkets and department stores, said: “Retail crime is never victimless – it costs retailers over £1bn every year and can have a huge impact on the shop workers involved. “We’ve long called for violence towards retail workers to be recognised as a standalone offence so welcome this announcement.” Rishi Sunak said his government was backing a change in the law as “shoplifting and violence and abuse towards retail workers continues to rise”. “I am sending a message to those criminals – whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves – who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shop workers, enough is enough.” | ['business/retail', 'uk/ukcrime', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'business/business', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/england', 'uk/wales', 'law/law', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sarahbutler', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-04-10T06:00:40Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
politics/2013/oct/21/hugh-muir-diary-ed-davey-nuclear | Hugh Muir's diary: the past is a foreign country, especially for energy secretary Ed Davey | • A big day for the government as energy secretary Ed Davey plights his troth to nuclear power. The coalition is excited. He's excited. But he once saw things very differently. There's that quote from him in 2006, launching the Lib Dem energy policy, when he said: "A new generation of nuclear power stations will cost taxpayers and consumers tens of billions of pounds. In addition to posing safety and environmental risks, nuclear power will only be possible with vast taxpayer subsidies or a rigged market ... People don't want nuclear." That seemed clear enough then, and it seemed clear enough today, when Damian Carrington, the Guardian's head of environment, found the page on Davey's website and flagged it up on Twitter. Ain't life full of surprises. Within the hour, the page had disappeared. • Yes, with the announcement that Hinkley Point, Somerset will house the first nuclear power station to be built in the UK for 20 years, the future seems bright. Still, the past is a bit murky. Today, leading the excitement as MC at the press conference unveiling the deal, Stephen Lovegrove, the permanent secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, reached for the historical parallels. There is a proud legacy, he said, stretching all the way back to Calder Hall, the world's first "commercial nuclear reactor". Which reflects the official story but is not the whole story. For if one consults Calder Hall: The Story of Britain's First Atomic Power Station, published in 1956 by the government's Atomic Energy Research Establishment, one learns that the primary purpose for that installation was actually plutonium production for nuclear warheads. The electricity was a spin-off. "Major plants built for military purposes such as Calder Hall are being used as prototypes for civil plants," wrote author Kenneth Jay. Is this their Year Zero? • A holiday atmosphere around the windy Docklands as ExCel gets ready for this year's World Travel Market. But there is also nervousness about no-shows, because although Barbara Cassani (Go Fly founder and leader of Britain's Olympic bid) is billed to reveal her recipes for success, commercial titans like Karren Brady have been paraded as star turns in the past – plans that did not materialise. Boris Johnson has already pleaded a prior engagement and delegates wait to see if Maria Miller, the culture secretary, will make the trip east. Sir Stuart Rose, formerly boss of Marks & Spencer (and now Ocado), will be there, though, and one expects Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. His nomination of Robert Mugabe as African envoy of tourism earlier this year made him a bit of a target for demonstrators, so Rifai will be hoping for a quieter time among his peers. • A quick visit to pot-kettle corner, where we find PM Dave and Ed Miliband under heavy fire: vote Labour, get Ed; vote Tory, get Cameron – both prospects derided as "gruesome". This from Neil "liar and a cheat" Hamilton, firing up the Ukip faithful in Marlborough. He never was a great one for irony. • Meanwhile, another spasm from the paper that hates Britain. The Daily Mail, high on indignation, takes aim – with apparent justification – at Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski. He is alleged to have browbeaten a one-legged man in a wheelchair close to parliament, withholding any largesse and instead telling him to "get a job". So far, so Dickensian. We can all boo and hiss at that. But this is the Mail, so at the end of the report the attack comes from every direction. "In July, he announced that he was bisexual and in a relationship with a man, two years after divorcing his wife Kate." These things are relevant in the land of bile and rage. • Finally, after his triumphant tour of China, Boris Johnson has never seemed more dangerous. Especially now that he has his own personal lightsaber, as wielded by Darth Vader and others in Star Wars. Registered as a gift from producer George Lucas. Just right for biffing PM Dave. Twitter:@hugh_muir | ['politics/series/diary', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'tone/features', 'politics/ed-davey', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'type/article', 'profile/hughmuir', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2013-10-21T22:00:00Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2023/oct/29/uk-police-urged-to-double-use-of-facial-recognition-software | Police urged to double use of facial recognition software | Police are being encouraged to double their use of retrospective facial recognition software to track down offenders over the next six months. Policing minister Chris Philp has written to force leaders in England and Ales suggesting the target of exceeding 200,000 searches of still images against the police national database by May using facial recognition technology. He also is encouraging police to operate live facial recognition (LFR) cameras more widely, before a global artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit next week at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. Philp said the advances would allow police to “stay one step ahead of criminals” and make Britain’s streets safer. Earlier this week, Essex police revealed it had begun trialling LFR on high streets in Chelmsford and Southend. The force said it had already made three arrests, including one on suspicion of rape, after five positive alerts. The campaign group Big Brother Watch has described the deployment of the technology by the police as “dangerous authoritarian surveillance” and warned that it is a “serious threat to civil liberties in the UK”. Philp has also previously said he is going to make UK passport photos searchable by police. He plans to integrate data from the police national database (PND), the Passport Office and other national databases to help police find a match with the “click of one button”. At the time, civil liberty campaigners said the plans would be an “Orwellian nightmare” that amounted to a “gross violation of British privacy principles”. In response to the plans, a cross-party group of MPs and peers this month also called for an “immediate stop” to the use of live facial recognition surveillance by police and private companies. The software uses biometric measures of a person’s face and works even if part of their face is covered. The live form of the technology captures footage of crowds and compares it with a watch list of wanted suspects, alerting officers when there is a potential match. Former Brexit secretary David Davis, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, Green MP Caroline Lucas and former Labour shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti were among 65 members of the Commons and Lords who backed a call for a halt to its deployment. The joint statement was also backed by 31 groups including Big Brother Watch, Liberty, Amnesty International and the Race Equality Foundation. Announcing his support for the cessation of its use on 6 October, Davis tweeted: “Live facial recognition has never been given explicit approval by parliament. It is a suspicionless mass surveillance tool that has no place in Britain.” The Home Office rejects such concerns, with officials saying that facial recognition camera use is strictly governed by data protection, equality and human rights laws, and can only be used for a policing purpose where it is necessary and proportionate. The department says AI surveillance methods such as facial recognition can help police accurately identify those wanted for serious crimes, as well assist in finding missing people. It argues that AI could free up police time and resources, allowing more officers to be based in communities. Police put up notices in areas where they will be using live facial recognition, the Home Office said. If the system does not make a match against a watch list, a person’s data is deleted immediately and automatically. It pointed out that live facial recognition technology has already been used successfully, including at last month’s Arsenal v Tottenham north London derby at the Emirates Stadium when police caught three wanted suspects, including one for sexual offences. Philp said: “AI technology is a powerful tool for good, with huge opportunities to advance policing and cut crime. “Facial recognition, including live facial recognition, has a sound legal basis that has been confirmed by the courts and has already enabled a large number of serious criminals to be caught, including for murder and sexual offences.” • This article and headline were amended on 31 October 2023. An earlier version said that the move to double the use of facial recognition software was in the UK instead of in England and Wales. | ['technology/facial-recognition', 'uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'campaign/email/morning-briefing', 'world/surveillance', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | technology/facial-recognition | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-10-28T23:01:27Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sustainable-business/2015/jan/23/carpet-bikes-recycling-difference | The technology turning carpets into bikes | A bike may not not be the obvious product you’d think of if someone asked you what to do with worn-out carpet, but think again. It may have fallen out of fashion in recent times, but carpet remains a wonderful way to warm a home. The catch, of course, is that it wears out. Thanks to its bulky nature and combination of different materials, which makes recycling tricky, it adds huge volumes to landfills. Carpet America Recovery Effort (Care) estimates that 5bn tonnes of carpet – almost 1 tonne per person on the globe – ends up in landfill each year. Imagine if it could be put to better use. Now it can. For the past several months, carpets have found a highly unconventional second life as bikes. Jenny McIver and her husband Rich – New Zealanders who have recently returned home after several years in New York City – run Wishbone Design, a product design company. Together they have developed a technology that allows them to turn carpets into rigid tubular shapes and so form children’s bikes. Not just that: the Wishbone Bike Recycled Edition can be expanded as the child grows, saving additional space in landfill. “The nylon carpet fibres are shaved from the backing,” explains McIver. “Then both the nylon fibre and polypropylene backing are separately recycled via a proprietary process, which shreds, cleans and heats the raw material into liquid form. We add glass fibre for strength and rigidity.” The result is engineered resin pellets that can be injection-moulded into strong organic forms. “But we don’t stop there,” says McIver. “This is the first bicycle ever to be made using gas-assisted injection moulding, which allows us to create complex, single-piece tubular forms that achieve very high strength and rigidity.” The couple spent almost three years developing the technology and design, introducing the mass-produced bike last year – the world’s first bike made entirely from post-consumer recycled material. In concrete terms, that means nylon from used carpet – two kilos of it per bike. Customers particularly love the design aesthetic and the adjustable frame, says McIver, which fits children from 12 months to six years. The Wishbone Bike Recycled Edition may be the most glamorous end for a worn-out floor covering, but it is not the only way to recycle a carpet. Particularly in the US, carpet recycling is advancing quickly. Thanks to Care, a partnership between the government and private companies, 30% of used carpet now returns to the market as carpet fibre, backings, new carpet, cushions and engineered resins, a common component in durable goods. Care reports that in 2012, the latest year surveyed, 1.6m tonnes of carpet was diverted from American landfills and recycled, the highest figure ever. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, carpet giant Desso has a different approach to diverting carpet from landfill. Partnering with Dutch drinking-water companies, Desso has developed a pioneering technology that extracts chalk from water that can then be used as a stabiliser in Desso’s carpet tile backing. Desso’s EcoBase backing now contains on average 50% recycled content and can be recycled in Desso’s own production. A cradle-to-cradle carpet, as it were. “The backing that is more commonly used is made from oil-residue material, but that material isn’t easily recyclable due to an inconsistent material composition,” says Anette Timmer, Desso’s communications director. “When disassembling carpet tiles as we do within our plant, it’s key to regain the pure material streams, which makes it more economically viable for use in the new life cycle.” The problem is that recycling carpet costs money. Care warns would-be recyclers that they can’t just leave their rugs outside for collection. Transporting carpet is expensive and so is the complicated procedure of separating its components. If Desso carpet and Wishbone bikes are to become commonplace, consumers have to be ready to pay to have their carpet transported away, even when it’s much easier to put it in the bin. At the same time, while recycling rates have now reached an impressive 63% in Austria, 62% in Germany and 58% in Belgium, the EU average remains at 39%. If members states are to reach the 50% recycling target by 2020, they’d do well to facilitate easier salvaging of the bulky carpet. For her part, Jenny McIver believes there are plenty of second carpet lives waiting to be discovered. This year Wishbone is launching a new model of the Recycled Edition Wishbone Bike using both recycled nylon and polypropylene – carpet yarn. “We’re also designing a larger recycled bike,” she says. “Cycling is a lifestyle choice for the future. It’s a real joy creating truly innovative designs for such a passionate and growing community.” The circular economy hub is funded by Philips. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'lifeandstyle/cycling', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'artanddesign/design', 'artanddesign/artanddesign', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'type/article'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2015-01-23T13:11:34Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
money/2024/mar/01/uk-tax-polluting-suv-green-thinktank-environment | UK a ‘tax haven’ for polluting SUVs, says green thinktank | Low taxation on petrol SUVs in the UK compared with much of Europe is inviting a glut of large, polluting luxury cars, according to an analysis by a green thinktank. The tax paid when buying a new petrol or diesel SUV in the UK is only a fraction of the levies in neighbouring countries, including France and the Netherlands, and lower than many others in Europe, making it a “tax haven” for the bigger, less environmentally friendly vehicles, the report from Transport & Environment (T&E) found. Britain’s first-year vehicle excise duty (VED) charge does relatively little to incentivise the purchase of less damaging cars, with the difference in buying a petrol SUV or a battery electric equivalent smaller in the UK than under most of Europe’s comparable acquisition taxes. The first-year VED for a medium-large SUV, such as the BMW X5, costs £1,565 in the UK compared with a €60,000 (£51,400) tax in France, which also has a further surcharge on heavier cars. Car sales figures from last year showed higher-polluting vehicles had a vastly bigger market share in the UK than across the Channel. Car widths in the UK now outstrip the average sizes in most of Europe, T&E added, bigger than the minimum on-street parking space. Vehicles emitting between 160g CO2/km and 199g CO2/km were 9.3% of private registrations, while cars with emissions above 200g CO2/km took another 6.1%. In France, new cars in the same bands were just 0.7% of sales. While there are incentives for company cars to be fully electric in the UK, the tax incentives for other owners to go green are diminishing, with the government planning to introduce annual VED for electric vehicles from 2025, a measure announced in Jeremy Hunt’s 2022 autumn budget. Before next week’s budget, T&E urged the UK to revise its tax system to discourage the growth of new SUV sales, which grew 23% in 2023, including increasing the initial VED paid on the purchase of the most polluting cars and introducing a new weight-based element to the tax to target the heaviest cars. Ralph Palmer, T&E’s UK electric vehicle and fleets officer, said: “The UK government is missing out on an equitable and easily actionable source of revenue by not targeting wealthy buyers of oversized, over-polluting SUVs. “The result is that the UK risks becoming a tax haven for larger and more polluting cars, despite the harm they cause to the environment and other road users. “Bringing the UK’s taxes on larger, luxury, more polluting cars more in line with other European countries will help make green alternatives more appealing to new car buyers.” A government spokesperson said: “We want all new cars and vans to be zero emissions by 2035. We have already invested over £2bn to support this transition. “Since 2017, the number of new EV registrations per year has increased by 1,730%, and sales of used pure electric cars have reached a record high.” Other tax measures in the UK include a higher supplementary rate in subsequent years for vehicles costing £40,000 or more, as well as fuel duty on petrol and diesel. How much drivers pay in tax to buy a new SUV BMW X5 (emissions of 196gm CO2/km) France €60,000 Netherlands €32,870 UK €1,805 Land Rover Discovery Sport (184g CO2/km) France €30,624 Netherlands €26,282 UK €1,199 Nissan Qashqai (142g CO2/km) France €1,172 Netherlands €8,770 UK €294 Source: T&E | ['money/cartax', 'business/business', 'money/money', 'uk/uk', 'money/motoring', 'money/tax', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'world/europe-news', 'world/france', 'world/netherlands', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-03-01T08:00:53Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
film/2022/aug/31/the-territory-review-portrait-of-heroic-indigenous-defender-of-amazon-land | The Territory review – portrait of heroic indigenous defender of Amazon land | Watching this gripping documentary shot in the Brazilian Amazon, you wonder if our electoral system could learn a thing or two from the Indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people. Voting for a new leader, elders elect 18-year-old Bitaté, a young activist who radiates energy, idealism and intelligence (often while wearing a Harry Potter T-shirt). He doesn’t feel ready for the responsibility: “I’m scared of disappointing people.” (I can think of a politician or two who might benefit from a bit of Bitaté’s introspection). The stakes could not be higher. The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau are fighting for their survival, under threat from farmers seizing their land with impunity. According to environmental activist Neidinha Bandeira, protecting the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau is key to saving the Amazon. Their territory is a barrier against deforestation: “Lose them, lose the rainforest.” (Is it any wonder Bitaté is feeling the pressure?) Bandeira is another hero of the film, a battle-hardened activist who is the target of daily death threats. Her biggest fear is thugs coming for her kids. (This actually happens in the film.) The film’s director Alex Pritz does the job of a mediator here, by also giving us the perspective of the farmers settling illegally on indigenous land. There is Martins, who cuts a path through the forest with his chainsaw, building a cabin on Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau territory. The way he sees it, the Indigenous people are non-productive: “They don’t farm, they don’t create, they just live there.” The film is grimly depressing in places. I covered my eyes during Google Earth time-lapse sequences showing the pace of deforestation in the Amazon; the violence of it is too much. And yet, there is Bitaté: still a teenager, he’s already a skilled communicator. At an Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau community meeting, voices among the older generation lobby for tooling up to fight the settlers as they did in the past. Bitaté wins the day with his argument that, instead, they should resist using cameras as weapons. He sets up community media and surveillance teams, gathering evidence of settler activity. It’s impossible not to feel a surge of hope watching him in action. • The Territory is released on 2 September in cinemas. | ['film/film', 'film/documentary', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'world/world', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'culture/culture', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/cathclarke', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-31T10:00:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
society/2022/dec/28/reluctance-to-clean-is-not-limited-to-men | Reluctance to clean is not limited to men | Brief letters | Re your report (Philosophers tackle ancient mystery of why women clean and men don’t notice, 22 December), I have witnessed affordance perception in action with my husband, but I doubt it is gendered: our daughter has inherited his inability to see what needs doing, while our son sees what needs doing. He is actually tidier than I am (which admittedly is not saying much). My own inaction with regard to cleaning is down to not being bothered, something both genders can be prone to. Sadly, my daughter has inherited my placidity and her father’s affordance perception. Isn’t it time we moved away from gendering just about anything? Verene Lack London • Re your article (Hill walkers in UK urged not to rely on smartphones, 27 December), I remember, while sailing off the south coast many years ago, coming across a sailor firmly stuck on a sandbank. Asked whether he had (and had consulted) a chart, he said he had only a road atlas and thought the sea was the same depth all over. Helen Howes Raveningham, Norfolk • Prof Mahesh Anand “also wants researchers on other planets to learn from mistakes made on Earth” (Moon rivers? UK scientists at heart of mission to extract water from lunar rock, 26 December). So there is life on other planets. Why has nobody told us? Peter Hanson Whitestone, Devon • How about a full colour annual of articles from your long read series? I am sure it would work as a present. Dr Nigel Mellor Newcastle upon Tyne • You report that the “Hardy Tree” has fallen (27 December). Not all that hardy, then. Pete Bibby Sheffield • Thank you, Ben Jennings (Cartoon, 25 December). You made my year by summing up our year. Jude Carr London | ['society/women', 'lifeandstyle/family', 'society/society', 'lifeandstyle/walking', 'science/science', 'books/thomashardy', 'environment/forests', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-12-28T17:33:26Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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