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environment/2014/jan/17/shale-gas-transform-uk | Shale gas extraction 'will transform Britain' | The UK's push for shale gas will result in unavoidable changes to the countryside, the US energy secretary has warned. Ernest Moniz, who took over as energy chief for President Obama's second term, has overseen arguably the biggest changes to US energy production since the discovery of oil. He said the exploitation of shale gas and oil on a vast scale in the US had been "transformative", vastly reducing energy prices, boosting industry and lowering carbon emissions as more electricity production shifted from coal to gas. But he warned that any boost to the economy would come at a serious cost, as "you can't avoid" the fact that extracting gas on such a scale involves a massive industrial effort. "The one thing it's very hard to change is that this is a big industrial enterprise. That's one thing you can't avoid. That is something communities and governments have to cope with." UK ministers have sought to play down the environmental impacts of shale, which could involve the drilling of tens of thousands of wells throughout the countryside in order to tap the gas initially and then keep it flowing over years. Moniz said the UK could engineer a similar revolution to that of the US, given the sizeable shale resources that geologists believe exist in the country, if they can be recovered economically. "There is a big potential, a big resource," he said. He said that the US had experienced problems with air quality and pollution, but said this was mainly because of poor practices, such as "bad well completion, and issues with well casing". Using industry best practices could minimise this impact. Although shale has helped to cut emissions in the US in recent years – they rose again last year, perhaps partly in response to a bounce in gas prices that has kept some coal-fired power stations burning – that effect has not been replicated globally. That is because unburnt coal no longer required in the US has flooded world markets, resulting in a substantially increased use of the high-carbon fuel. In its Global Energy Outlook, published on Wednesday, BP predicted that global emissions would rise by 29% in the next two decades, despite a projected massive increase in the amount of shale gas produced, and the potential for switching from coal to gas. Moniz acknowledged that natural gas could be seen as "part of the solution, and part of the problem". He said, however, that it could be positive in helping to bring down US emissions owing to the switch from coal, when taken alongside President Obama's push for higher fuel efficiency for vehicles. Joss Garman, deputy political director of Greenpeace, said the UK and the US should be seeking to invest more in renewable energy as a way of cutting emissions and avoiding dangerous climate change. He told the Guardian: "By making oil and gas production so central to America's economic plans, President Obama's team are strengthening the very vested interests that have made it so difficult for successive Democrat administrations to achieve action on climate change over the last few decades. "It's now plain dangerous as well as unnecessary for the US and the rest of the world to keep drilling the last drops of dirty fuels, whether those fossil fuels are under the Arctic ice, or beneath the fields of the English countryside. Clean, affordable energy sources exist and should be used instead." Moniz also called for the US to put much more effort into adapting to the effects of climate change. He cited Hurricane Sandy as an example of the costly damage that can be inflicted. "We have spent more on recovery than on preparation [for the effects of climate change]," he said. A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "The government has been clear that wherever shale gas fracking is conducted it must be done in a safe and environmentally sound way. There are regulations in place to ensure on-site safety, prevent water contamination, air pollution and mitigate seismic activity. "The Environment Agency will assess the permitting requirements for each proposal on a site-by-site basis, considering the design of the operations and its proximity to ground and surface waters. The government believes that shale gas has the potential to provide the UK with greater energy security, growth and jobs." | ['environment/fracking', 'environment/shale-oil', 'environment/energy', 'money/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'us-news/us-news', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/fiona-harvey'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2014-01-17T22:30:34Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/article/2024/jul/10/las-vegas-heatwave-record-temperature | Las Vegas sets record for number of days over 115F amid its ‘most extreme heatwave in history’ | Las Vegas set a new record on Wednesday as it marked a fifth consecutive day over 115F (46C), amid a lingering hot spell that will continue scorching much of the US into the weekend. The blazing hot temperatures climbed to 115F shortly after 1pm at Harry Reid international airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days above 115F set in July 2005. The brutal milestone marks yet another record for the Nevada desert city this week: on Sunday, Las Vegas hit an all-time high of 120F (48.8C). Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking the city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented. “This is the most extreme heatwave in the history of record-keeping in Las Vegas since 1937,” said meteorologist John Adair, a veteran of three decades at the National Weather Service office in southern Nevada. Keith Bailey and Lee Doss met early Wednesday morning at Las Vegas park to beat the heat and exercise their dogs, Breakie, Ollie and Stanley. “If I don’t get out by 8.30 in the morning, then it’s not going to happen that day,” Bailey said, wearing a sunhat while the dogs played in the grass. Alyse Sobosan said this July has been the hottest in the 15 years she has lived in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t step outside during the day if she can help it, and she waits until 9pm or later to walk her dogs. “It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live your life.” The extended heatwave comes with serious dangers, health officials have emphasized. “Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District. While hotels and casinos kept visitors cool with giant AC units, the scorching heat presented acute danger for homeless residents and others without access to safe environments. Officials have set up emergency cooling centers at community centers across southern Nevada. Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the region to deploy what city spokesperson Madeleine Skains called “polar pods”. The pods, first deployed in Phoenix, can be filled with water and ice to immerse a medical patient in cold water on the way to a hospital. The intense heatwave hitting Vegas has been searing much of the US west in recent days, with several places setting heat records and reporting fatalities. In Oregon, the city of Portland saw record daily temperatures on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Salem set a new record, hitting 103F on Sunday. The excessive temperatures are suspected to have caused at least eight deaths in the state, the state medical examiner’s office said on Tuesday. In California, the heat was blamed for a motorcyclist’s death in the Death Valley national park. Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134F in July 1913 in Death Valley, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130F, recorded there in July 2021. On Tuesday, tourists visiting the park queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer that was reading 120F. Phoenix, Arizona, which has averaged the hottest temperature ever for the first eight days of July in records dating to 1885, tied the daily record on Tuesday of 116F set in 1958. Triple-digit temperatures were also recorded in Idaho. Reno, Nevada, broke its daily record with 104F on Tuesday, and was suffering through the longest streak ever of days hitting 105F or higher. Before this week, the city – at an elevation of 4,500 ft (1,372 meters) – had never been that hot for more than two consecutive days in records dating to 1888. On the other side of the country, the east coast was also facing extreme heat. An excessive heat warning remained in place Wednesday for the Philadelphia area, northern Delaware and nearly all of New Jersey, where temperatures hovered around 90F (32C) for most the region. The US heatwave comes as the global temperature in June set a record for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5C (2.7FF) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by the human-caused climate crisis, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say. Extreme heat is exacerbating the threat of wildfires across the US west, where a longstanding drought has dried out vegetation that fuels the blazes. A new fire in Oregon, dubbed the Larch Creek fire, quickly grew to more than 5 sq miles (12 sq km) on Tuesday evening as flames tore through grassland in Wasco county. Evacuations were ordered for remote homes about 15 miles (24km) south of the Dalles. In California, firefighters were battling least 18 wildfires Tuesday, including a 42-sq-mile blaze that prompted evacuation orders for about 200 residences in the mountains of Santa Barbara county. That blaze, called the Lake fire, was only 16% contained, and forecasters warned of a “volatile combination” of high heat, low humidity and north-west winds developing late in the day. And north-east of Los Angeles, the 2-sq-mile Vista fire chewed through trees in the San Bernardino national forest and sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the region. The National Weather Service said it was extending the excessive heat warnings across most of the south-west US through Saturday morning. “It’s not over yet,” the service in Reno said. | ['us-news/las-vegas', 'environment/extreme-heat', 'us-news/nevada', 'us-news/west-coast', 'us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/oregon', 'us-news/arizona', 'us-news/phoenix', 'us-news/idaho', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/extreme-heat | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-07-10T22:19:08Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2022/aug/01/home-buyback-scheme-receives-443-applications-from-flood-hit-queensland-property-owners | Home buyback scheme receives 443 applications from flood-hit Queensland property owners | About 2,000 homes remain uninhabitable months after one of Queensland’s worst flood seasons, with the state government considering applications to buy back 443 properties and turn them into public space. Severe weather during the 2021-22 disaster season affected about 9,000 properties, peaking when Brisbane recorded its highest six-day rainfall total on record in February. Two-thirds of the affected properties have now been repaired or have works under way. On Monday, Queensland Reconstruction Authority chief executive, Brendan Moon, described the number of major inundations as unprecedented. “We cannot remember a time where this has happened,” he said. Those worst affected have been offered options to either repair, retrofit or sell their homes through a government buyback scheme. The results of more than 3,000 surveys being undertaken will tell homeowners how high flood waters rose, and how high they could go in the future. “We have started talking to those 400 homeowners that have indicated they wish to be part of the voluntary house buyback and we expect the initial evaluations of properties to commence in the next three weeks,” Moon said. Of those seeking to have their homes bought-back, 70% are in the Ipswich and Brisbane areas, with Goodna East given priority due to the severity of flooding in the Ipswich suburb. Last week the government released a Deloitte report into the south-east Queensland floods that estimated damages of $7.7bn to the state in social, financial and economic losses. But the common thread of all these events is the toll they have on people’s mental health, State Recovery coordinator, Maj Gen Jake Ellwood, said. He told the story of an Ipswich man who had lived in the same property that had flooded a number of times in the past 30 years. “When I spoke to him on the 15th of March he was sure he had this cracked, he was going to build back [and] he knew how he was going to do it,” he said. “Then I went back in June and it was a different story. He was very vulnerable, and he just didn’t know what he was going to do.” “None of this is simple – and it affects people.” The state’s disaster response was first tested in November, when heavy rainfall resulted in flooding in southern and western parts of the state, a recovery and resilience plan released on Monday said. In January, areas around Maryborough and Gympie suffered major inundation associated with Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth. There was more unseasonable rain after the Brisbane floods, with some areas being hit for a fourth time in May. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning The plan also identified a knowledge gap of creek systems and their impact on catchment flooding. Heavy rainfall over small areas can cause rapid localised flooding that often catches people off guard, it said. “It was clear to me going out to different communities that there was a feeling that there could have been more warning,” Ellwood said. “We have an opportunity now I think with technology to actually improve what we have.” Ellwood said that response would need to improve as the climate crisis escalates. “As the threat we face evolves, in terms of magnitude and frequency, it’s going to be vitally important that our response evolves as well,” he said. Emergency Management Inspector General, Alistair Dawson, is also undertaking a separate review into the state’s emergency alert systems, preparation and disaster response. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/flooding', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'australia-news/housing', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joe-hinchliffe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-08-01T10:25:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2024/oct/02/hurricane-helene-destruction-timeline | Hurricane Helene: a visual timeline of storm’s devastation | Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida’s Gulf coast on Thursday night with winds above 140mph (225km/h) and a 15ft (4.5m) storm surge. The storm caused deadly flooding as it dumped almost unprecedented amounts of rain through Georgia and the Carolinas, to Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. Dozens were killed, communities wrecked or changed forever, and early estimates by insurance experts calculate losses at up to $160bn. Before unleashing its full fury on the continental US, Helene, the eighth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, spent several days building up strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Here is the timeline of one of the most deadly and costly hurricanes in recent memory: Monday 23 September The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami warned that a broad area of pressure over the north-western Caribbean Sea, producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms, had “a high chance” of tropical development over the following two days. It posted tropical storm warnings for western Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, while noting the motion of the developing weather system was uncertain. Tuesday 24 September After being classified as a tropical storm, Helen’s forecast track began to come into focus. An NHC advisory projected it “accelerating toward the north-eastern Gulf coast through Thursday” after causing heavy rain, considerable flooding and mudslides across western Cuba overnight. Anticipating a severe impact, Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, expanded an existing emergency order to 61 of his state’s 67 counties, while Brian Kemp, Georgia’s governor, did the same for all 159 of his. Wednesday 25 September Helene, upgraded during the morning to a category 1 hurricane, dumped substantial quantities of rain over the Mexican province of Quintana Roo, churning up beaches and flooding hotel rooms in the popular tourist towns of Cozumel and Cancún. After sideswiping the Yucatán coast, Helene made a turn north, with the NHC stating it was “expected to rapidly intensify and grow in size over the eastern Gulf of Mexico”. Hurricane warnings were posted for Florida’s Big Bend, along with the first alerts for flash and urban flooding across much of the south-eastern US as far as the southern Appalachians and Tennessee Valley. Thursday 26 September Fueled by the ultra-warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Helene bulked up at a rapid pace through the day into a category 4 hurricane, with winds above 130mph, as it closed in on landfall on Florida’s Gulf coast. The NHC said the storm surge and wind combination would be “catastrophic”, and warned the storm’s sheer size meant life-threatening conditions would penetrate far inland. Helene made landfall at Keaton Beach, Florida, at 11.10pm. Friday 27 September Residents along the Gulf coast awoke, if they were able to sleep, to scenes of devastation and destruction, with entire coastal communities swept away by the storm surge and countless buildings blown apart. First responders conducted thousands of water rescues in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, and large areas of metropolitan Atlanta were flooded. Although downgraded again to a tropical storm, the center of Helene continued to cause havoc as it passed from Georgia into the Carolinas. More than 50 patients and staff were airlifted from the roof of a flooded hospital in Erwin, Tennessee. Saturday 28 September The scale of the emergency in North Carolina began to emerge, with authorities declaring that all roads in the west of the state could be considered closed due to flooding, damage, debris and fallen trees and power lines. The town of Asheville was largely underwater and cut off, with a local sheriff, Quentin Miller, declaring: “To say this caught us off-guard would be an understatement.” The NHC issued its final bulletin on the now dissipated storm but warned widespread and significant river flooding was still ongoing across the southern Appalachians, and lengthy power outages were expected. | ['us-news/hurricane-helene', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'us-news/south-carolina', 'us-news/state-of-georgia', 'us-news/tennessee', 'us-news/virginia', 'us-news/kentucky', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-10-02T14:52:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
australia-news/2015/jul/01/australias-largest-woodlands-will-not-be-protected-if-it-prevents-mining | Australia's largest woodlands 'will not be protected if it prevents mining' | Environmental recognition of the Great Western Woodlands, the largest remaining temperate woodlands in the world, will not be supported if it impinges on mining, the Western Australia mining minister, Bill Marmion, has said. The woodlands cover 16m hectares (39m acres) from Kalgoorlie, 600km east of Perth, to Esperance and the Nullarbor Plain. They’re home to 3,000 species of flowering plants – about 20% of all those identified in Australia – and 25% of all known eucalypt species. But despite its ecological significance only about 12% is protected, with most falling on unallocated crown land. At a business forum hosted by the local chamber of commerce and industry in Kalgoorlie on Monday, Marmion said: “The Great Western Woodlands is a vast area, a vast area and any sort of recognition which would put constraints on mining in the area would be absolutely devastating for Western Australia. “Of course there is the danger that when you give something greater recognition, that recognition gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So I can’t see any government, of any persuasion, ever supporting that sort of approach. “Admittedly I’m sure there are some green groups that would. Hopefully they’ll never get into government.” According to the ABC Marmion, who was in Kalgoorlie before a regional cabinet meeting on Tuesday, offered the comments in response to a question about “green encroachment” on the mining town. Peter Robertson, a campaigner for the Wilderness Society of WA, said Marmion’s comments were “disappointing, narrow-minded, but not surprising”. Robertson added: “Ever since Bill Marmion was made mining minister he has shown himself to be single-mindedly, even narrow-mindedly, concerned with furthering the interests of the mining industry to the exclusion of all other interests and concerns.” There are already dozens of mines within the footprint of the woodlands and it was possible for further environmental recognition to coexist with the mining industry, Robertson said. But some areas such as the Helena and Aurora Range, a banded limestone formation 200km east of Kalgoorlie, should be protected from destruction. Marmion has asked the Environmental Protection Authority to reassess a proposal by Polaris Metals to dig two open-cut iron ore mines in the Helena and Aurora range, which the EPA in January 2015 declared “environmentally unacceptable”. The EPA report notes it recommended the area be made into a class A reserve as far back as 2007, because it is a biodiversity hotspot and a “high priority for conservation”. The Barnett government has developed a biodiversity and conservation strategy for the Great Western Woodlands, and allocated $3.8m to projects that met its “strategic priorities”, but none of those priorities include further formal protection. In June 2014 at a regional cabinet meeting in Esperance, the WA government was briefed on a proposal to convert 500,000 hectares of unallocated crown land within the woodland into farmland. That proposal is yet to be finalised, but the Wilderness Society has warned that clearing the area for farmland could release 40m tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Robertson said because about 60% of the Great Western Woodland was classified as unallocated crown land, it was difficult to mount an argument for protection. “We basically have the situation where, because it’s unallocated crown land, we’re saying the state does not value this, so developers and mining companies can come along and think the area has no value,” he said. “It’s the lowest level of protection, but we are dealing with what is just about the most ecologically important area of the state.” | ['australia-news/western-australia', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/mining', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/calla-wahlquist'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2015-07-01T06:43:28Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2011/aug/25/hurricane-irene-america-east-coast | Hurricane Irene: America's east coast hunkers down | Officials are considering whether to evacuate low-lying areas of Manhattan after hurricane Irene barrelled out of the Bahamas towards a wide swath of the eastern US. Irene, which achieved gusts of up to 128mph on Thursday, is forecast to maintain or even increase its intensity as it progresses. The storm could hit North Carolina's Outer Banks on Saturday morning with winds of around 115mph. It is predicted to travel up the east coast, spewing rain over parts of Virginia and Washington DC, New Jersey and New York City before reaching Maine on Monday afternoon. North Carolina is expected to bear the brunt of Irene, and most of the coast was on hurricane watch with the National Hurricane Centre warning to expect dangerous storm surges where the storm makes landfall. But a much greater area of the eastern US, from the Carolinas up to Maine, could also feel the effects, federal officials warned. "North Carolina looks like the greatest threat right now," Craig Fugate, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said. "But the rest of the eastern seaboard is well within the path of the storm. It is going to bring in all of the north-east corridor for heavy rains, high winds and potential flooding." Residents were warned to expect power cuts due to fallen trees as well as flooding. "You can expect at a minimum 5 to 10 inches of rain, and with hurricane force winds inland you are going to get a lot of treefall and a lot of flooding," said Bill Read, of the National Hurricane Centre. As of Thursday, Irene was the strongest storm to threaten the Atlantic coast since 2005. It is also cutting a course that could take it much farther inland than any other storm since 1985.As it travels north, federal officials from North Carolina to Maine began warning residents in low-lying and coastal areas to prepare to evacuate. Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray urged residents to study emergency evacuation routes and said the mostly low-lying city would make sandbags available on Friday and Saturday. Officials cancelled the much anticipated dedication of a new memorial to Martin Luther King, which had been scheduled to take place on Sunday, the anniversary of his I Have A Dream speech. As many as 300,000 people had been expected to attend the ceremony on the Mall. In New York City, mayor Michael Bloomberg said that residents living in low-lying areas in downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island should start moving out on Friday, before Irene is expected to hit. He earlier advised residents to begin packing small bags with food and water, medicines, important documents and other essentials in case they are ordered to evacuate. Hospitals began running checks on emergency generators, medicines and other supplies. City police mobilised 50 small boats to use in the event of floods. (See the New York City evacuation map [large PDF].) At least two major league baseball teams – the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies – adjusted their weekend schedules, playing double headers on Saturday to avoid Sunday games. Fugate warned that even if Irene decreases in intensity it could still cause significant disruption and damage to property. "You don't really need hurricane-force winds. Even winds blowing 40mph, or 50 and 60mph, if they are blowing for hours, can cause trees to come down and widespread power outages," he said. Hurricane Irene has already caused considerable damage in the southern Bahamas as it made its way to the US. Officials reported that at least 40 homes were badly damaged on the island of Mayaguana. | ['us-news/hurricane-irene', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/northcarolina', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | us-news/hurricane-irene | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-08-26T01:17:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sport/2018/may/23/ustralia-commonwealth-games-unwilling-to-share-the-dream | Australia becomes the latest host country unwilling to ‘share its dream’ | Marina Hyde | After the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne 61 athletes and officials defected. Heroes, every one of them, in an era when switching from east to west – or vice versa – made the humans themselves prized trophies, coveted propaganda wins in the endless Cold War dick-measuring contest. Following last month’s Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast it has been revealed that around 200 athletes and officials have outstayed their visas and are now seeking asylum. (Another 50 remain in the country illegally.) It is not called defecting today, you’ll note, even if it is from the sort of places that first world countries like Australia love to define themselves against. Maybe defecting sounds too noble, too morally rooted, too hard to disparage. “Asylum seeking” is preferred, coming pre-loaded with all of the grim associations politicians have foisted on the term in the past couple of decades of international migration and refugee crises. It is a quick skip from “asylum seeking” to “grasping”, and oh look! Australia’s home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, has already described the athletes seeking protection as “freeloaders”. Let’s see that in action. “Australians hate being taken for a ride by freeloaders,” declared Dutton. That was not the official slogan for the Games, incidentally. For whatever reason they went with “Share the dream”. As usual the first lesson here is never to believe what a country tells you about itself during a sporting mega-event. It is almost always a terrible – and terribly lucrative – lie. It is much more instructive to look at all the branding and all the soft-power statecraft and all the backpatting and literally believe the opposite. (London 2012 being a case in point. The message of that Games was “We’re a united nation with only a wry and well-adjusted sense of nostalgia”. A few years later all that can be said is “LOL are we?!”) We are about to go through something similar with Russia for the World Cup, which is already explaining how inclusive it is. Indeed the Kremlin is currently pushing the idea that the delay in renewing the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s visa reminds us that while Russia may be a soft touch, the UK is anything but. According to a Putin spokesman, Russian businesses in the UK often encounter “unfriendly and unscrupulous actions”. We can only apologise. It does sound like a pattern of unreasonable behaviour – and the Kremlin is thanked for the lesson in international warmth. I guess none of us really understands diplomatic tenderness until we come home to the welcoming smell of novichok on our doorknob. Still, let us not detract from Russia’s Fifa-mandated embrace of gay rights. “You can kiss all you like,” claims the tenuously woke Russian World Cup ambassador Alexei Smertin, “and hug one another, within the bounds of normal reason.” Course you can – just for the duration of the tournament, though. Speaking to the Independent this week, the head of the Russian LGBT sport federation puts things in perspective. “By emphasising the safety of foreign LGBT fans, authorities have managed to present homosexuality as something foreign, un-Russian,” Alexander Agapov said. “Clearly they will do everything to make sure the World Cup passes trouble-free but when it does, the discrimination, the homophobia and the laws will remain.” Or, as the State Duma deputy, Vitaly Milonov, had it: “We have never persecuted people on account of their satanic sexual perversions.” Tell you who has, though – 69% of Commonwealth countries whose athletes were competing at the Gold Coast Games, some of whose athletes are now seeking asylum. Weirdly, many of the athletes on whose back the Games was built have a dream that does not involve them being criminalised for their sexuality. And yet, we surely knew they were there at the Games all along. Tom Daley, for one, made a point of drawing attention to the persecution and oppression of gay people in 37 out of 53 countries represented by his fellow competitors. Alas, the pose of inclusivity is akin to Cinderella’s night at the ball. At the stroke of midnight on the final day of any tournament, it vanishes. Whatever nonsense is spoken at the time, there is no “halo effect” to these multibillion-dollar events if barely a month later athletes seeking protection via legal channels are described as “freeloaders” by a government. Politicians love to piggyback on sport – indeed, it would be interesting to learn how many of them “freeloaded” at the Commonwealth Games, although there is always another name for it when you are at the top of the pile and not the bottom. Representing the proud government, perhaps. But if you want to leech athletes’ success to burnish you somehow as a host nation, then why be surprised when they take you at your word? Maybe countries should not bid for events if they cannot handle people believing the marketing. They should certainly display less of a fundamental misunderstanding about sport. Sport has long been a means of escape in more ways than one. Countless great athletes have explained the chance their talent gave them to get away from the worlds into which they were born. For many it is an intrinsic part of the dream – the social mobility, the path away from the streets, the ticket out. This sense of sport as a transformational journey is almost the dominant mode of communication for modern broadcasters, whose montages would be lost without it. This person started off training on a dirt track. This person lived eight to a room. This person could be imprisoned and tortured for being gay. Wait – what do you mean they want to share our dream? | ['sport/sport-politics', 'football/world-cup-2018', 'football/world-cup-football', 'sport/commonwealth-games-2018', 'sport/commonwealth-games', 'sport/sport', 'tone/comment', 'sport/australia-sport', 'football/football', 'sport/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/marinahyde', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/commonwealth-games-2018 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-05-23T11:18:18Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2019/jun/24/german-greens-rise-nation-divided | German Greens are on the rise. But the nation is divided | Anna Lehmann | The Greens in Germany could hardly believe it. Leading party members were bouncing up and down when the public broadcasters sent the first, still uncertain results on the evening of the European Union elections. The green column rose to 20% and above, close to the black column of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, which ended up with 22.6%. Party manager Michael Kellner was beaming as the numbers came in. Over the course of the evening it became clear that the Green party had nearly doubled its seats in the European parliament and had overtaken the Social Democrats, the former “people’s party”. A historic victory for us, a historic disaster for them. All over Europe, the Green parties enjoyed modest gains, but nowhere did they gain so many votes as in Germany. Last week they even came out on top in one national opinion poll, overtaking Merkel’s conservatives for the first time. The success of the German Greens is surely linked to the weakness of the governing coalition of Christian and Social Democrats. Both parties struggle with image problems, partly connected to their leadership. The head of the Social Democrats, Andrea Nahles, has just stepped down following the party’s disastrous showing in the European elections. She was the party’s 10th leader in 15 years. But the Green wave cannot be explained away by its rivals’ failings. For decades denounced as eco-nerds and tree-huggers, the Greens have now conquered the progressive middle class and captured the zeitgeist. Green issues such as environmental protection, climate emergency and clean energy are mainstream. Vegetarianism and organic food are popular lifestyle choices. An extremely hot summer and the diesel scandal caused by German carmaker Volkswagen made even more people wonder whether the philosophy of unlimited growth and endless use of natural resources should be questioned. All across Europe, pupils are skipping lessons and demonstrating for their future – and the Greens are riding the wave while other political parties are simply swimming in unknown waters. A third of German voters under the age of 30 voted Green in the European elections. By comparison, 13% of the same age group voted for the Christian Democrats and 10% for the Social Democrats. It isn’t hard to predict which party will grow in the future and which parties could shrink. But there’s another reason the Greens have gained popularity. After the summer of 2015, when hundreds of thousands of refugees migrated to Germany, the new far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) grew stronger, fostering resentment and fear against migrants. Although some Green politicians pledged to help deportations, the party overall managed to stand up for a liberal migration policy and for being uncompromisingly pro-European. They are the antithesis of the growing nationalism, EU scepticism and anti-migration sentiment that is that is prevalent on the continent. So in a society that is deeply divided, the success of the Greens and the growth of the far right are two sides of the same coin. The AfD won 11% of the votes in the European election. Compared with the national election in 2017, the party lost a few percent – and compared with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, or Matteo Salvini’s League in Italy, its results were moderate. But in the eastern German states, Saxony and Brandenburg, the AfD became the dominant party – apart from in Leipzig, the biggest town in Saxony, where the Greens became the strongest party for the first time in 30 years. Twenty kilometres away from Leipzig, in the neat little village of Kieritzsch, one in two voters chose the AfD. It may have something to do with Kieritzsch being situated on the edge of an opencast mine. By 2038, coal-fired power production is meant to end in Germany and the mines will be shut down. The Greens want to speed up this process. The AfD, on the other hand, denies that climate change is manmade, and would keep the plant. Because of their successes in big cities, the Greens are actually contributing to deeper divisions between urban and sparsely populated areas, between young and old, and between those who embrace globalisation and those who fear it. So if they want to reconcile the different groups, the Greens have to focus on social issues as well, such as how to pay, and who will pay, for the transition from dirty to clean energy; from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric vehicles. Will it be chiefly the people in areas that today depend on coal plants and mines, or the owners of diesel cars? When Emmanuel Macron in France proclaimed a tax on fuel he faced a nationwide movement of gilets jaunes. His experience shows that green and social questions have to be looked at together. So the Greens have to focus harder on social politics. A few weeks ago they presented their model of a basic income for all families with children. To achieve this they would have to form an alliance with the Social Democrats and the leftwing Die Linke. The Greens feel strong enough to ignore their approaches at the moment and leave all options open. That won’t work in the long run. If the Greens fail to reconcile social and environmental matters, they risk being seen as part of a complacent elite, and will be fought by those who don’t feel represented. A fight like this, that leaves the political system as well as society wrecked, can be seen in Britain. Beware. • Anna Lehmann is an editor on the Berlin-based daily newspaper Die Tageszeitung | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/green-politics', 'tone/comment', 'world/angela-merkel', 'world/germany', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'politics/2019-european-parliamentary-elections', 'world/eu', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'profile/anna-lehmann', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-06-24T05:00:07Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2020/mar/27/the-guardian-view-on-empty-supermarket-shelves-panic-is-not-the-problem | The Guardian view on empty supermarket shelves: panic is not the problem | Until a couple of weeks ago, the idea of waiting in an Ocado queue of 73,735 shoppers, or of supermarkets rationing milk and baked beans, would have sounded like satire. For too many people in the UK, food scarcity is the norm, with mothers and fathers going hungry to ensure their children are fed. But others have grown used to an absurd abundance: strawberries and peaches in midwinter, or 20 types of mustard alongside three score of pasta. When such bounty overflows, it seems self-evident that supplies are both plentiful and reliable – until suddenly they aren’t. In fact, warns Tim Lang in his new book, Feeding Britain, our food system is “stretched, open to disruption and far from resilient”. It is easy to castigate panic buyers for empty shelves. But while shopping responsibly will help others to get the food they need, only a few people are squirrelling away vast stocks. Research firm Kantar says the average spend per supermarket trip has risen by 16% to £22.13 month on month – not surprising when households realised they were likely to need lunches at home, including for children no longer in school, and could have to self-isolate for a fortnight. The underlying problem is that just-in-time supply chains can struggle to cope with even relatively small shifts, and that a handful of retailers dominate the market. The top eight account for more than 90% of all grocery sales in Britain, with Tesco alone accounting for 27%. The efficiencies that have kept food prices low, and the long and complex global chains that bring us such variety, come at a price. Border closures due to the virus as well as sickness could yet hit agriculture and delivery. Farmers say they face huge labour shortages, though Britain, France and others are discussing new “land armies” to bring in crops normally harvested by migrant workers. Some countries are imposing limits on exports of staples to ensure they can feed their own populations. Only half the food we consume in Britain is produced here. The hardest hit will be those who suffer at the best of times. Food charities have warned that millions will need food aid in the coming days. The government says military planners are organising a food delivery system for the 1.5 million people most vulnerable to coronavirus, and is developing a scheme to support the 1.6 million children who rely on free school meals – probably in the form of supermarket vouchers. This reliance on big retailers is shortsighted. While officials consult with business bosses, local authorities such as Newham in London have the information, experience and resources to reach people in need, but say they cannot get the cash they require. Other efforts, both commercial and social, need support, like the independent shops (in many cases still well stocked) which are launching local delivery services, or the restaurants offering to help feed the isolated. Relying on market forces has created many of the problems we now face. The pandemic is exposing our food system’s fragility: a crucial warning in a world where other shocks – notably from climate change – will be heading our way. In a time of crisis, we must adapt fast. But there are still choices. This could be an opportunity to diversify our supply chain, promote sustainable agriculture, benefit local businesses and find new ways of serving communities. If it instead entrenches the hold of the supermarket giants it will not only be a missed opportunity, but will also leave us in a more precarious position to face the next crisis. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/coronavirus-outbreak', 'business/supermarkets', 'environment/food', 'business/retail', 'business/fooddrinks', 'food/food', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'science/infectiousdiseases', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tone/editorials', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-03-27T18:03:25Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2016/jun/25/illegal-logging-amazon-timber-tougher-laws-british-products | Hardwood from illegal logging makes its way into UK stores | British shoppers could be unknowingly buying wooden furniture, flooring and even food items that are byproducts of destructive illegal logging in the Amazon, environmental campaigners are warning. Friends of the Earth is calling on ministers to make companies reveal the source of their products in order to stop the black market trade. Last week human rights watchdog Global Witness revealed that 185 environmental activists were killed in 2015, many of whom had been trying to stop illegal logging in the Amazon. An estimated 80% of Brazilian hardwood is illegally logged. Vast areas of forest in Brazil, the Philippines and Colombia are cut down by criminal gangs. Multinational companies then use the land for palm-oil production, mining or cattle-grazing, while the wood is sold off, according to Patrick Alley, co-founder of Global Witness. Local activists – often villagers or indigenous people – are at the forefront of campaigns against these activities, but they are attacked and harassed by security forces and the gangs, Alley said. The worst-hit country was Brazil where 50 activists were killed last year, mostly in Amazonia; 33 died in the Philippines and 26 in Colombia. Friends of the Earth campaigner Alison Dilworth said companies and governments often did not acknowledge that local communities had any rights to their land. “The outrages committed against environmental activists in many parts of the world shows how threatened the environment is from large-scale deforestation and illegal logging,” she said. “It’s time governments pressed for more supply-chain transparency so we can identify which companies and what products on supermarket shelves are directly implicated with deforestation and human rights abuses.” Yet it is very difficult for consumers to establish whether or not a product contains palm oil from looking at the packaging. “What’s lacking here is due diligence by companies on their supply chains,” Alley said. “It’s too easy for companies not to ask questions about the land they are using. They should include due diligence on what happens to local people in the area where they operate.” Richard George, Head of Forests for Greenpeace UK, said it remained almost impossible for consumers to tell whether hardwood had been obtained legitimately. “There has been a strong link between commodities like palm oil and tropical timber, land-grabbing and the murder of environmental activists,” he said. “But it’s in South America where illegal loggers are waging the most intensive war on indigenous peoples and local communities. Much of that illegal timber is logged for export to Europe, and it is almost impossible to tell whether rare tropical hardwoods like Ipe were logged legitimately or not. If, as either a concerned consumer or a responsible timber importer, you have even the slightest doubt about the provenance of a South American hardwood product, walk away.” Britain adopted EU regulations in 2013, with the Timber and Timber Products (Placing on the Market) Regulations preventing illegally logged Brazilian mahogany, teak and other hardwood from being used in the UK. In the last two years, 132 investigations have been conducted by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, although no company has been fined. Anyone importing timber or using imported timber has to keep detailed records of the source of the wood. David Hopkins, the managing director of the Timber Trade Federation (TTF), said that responsible timber importers and companies that use Brazilian hardwood in their products had to follow a strict audit process. “Palm oil is a high-value cash crop,” he said. “You can harvest the oil on a regular basis, whereas trees take 40 years to grow. It’s in mayonnaise, shampoo, every consumer foodstuff you’re likely to buy. People clear tracts of forest and replant them quickly but they have to do it fast, and when people stand up to them, that’s when violence occurs. “The forestry industries get tagged with this, and there is a danger that they enter the supply chain, but if your livelihood depends on timber, you chop down fewer trees and use them in a more efficient manner and keep trees standing.” Kitchen work surfaces, decking, flooring and window frames should all be marked with an FSC logo, showing that it meets standards approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, Hopkins said. The TTF is introducing technology that will allow suppliers to test hardwood to establish its species and validate claims from suppliers in Brazil and elsewhere. | ['environment/deforestation', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'world/brazil', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/palm-oil', 'environment/food', 'type/article', 'profile/james-tapper', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2016-06-25T23:05:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/apr/26/david-attenborough-backs-school-climate-strikes-outrage-greta-thunberg | 'Outrage is justified': David Attenborough backs school climate strikers | The outrage of the students striking from school over climate change inaction is “certainly justified”, according to Sir David Attenborough, who said older generations had done terrible damage to the planet. In an interview with the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, the broadcaster and naturalist dismissed critics of the widely praised global movement of school strikes as cynics. “[Young people] understand the simple discoveries of science about our dependence upon the natural world,” he said. “My generation is no great example for understanding – we have done terrible things.” The protests by young people were enormously encouraging, Attenborough said. “That is the one big reason I have for feeling we are making progress. If we were not making progress with young people, we are done.” However, asked about the world his great-grandchildren will live in, he said: “I don’t spend time thinking about that because I can’t bear it. I’m just coming up to 93, and so I don’t have many more years around here. I find it difficult to think beyond that because the signs aren’t good.” On Friday, the youth strikes will continue with protests expected in 485 towns and cities in 72 countries, according to the Fridays for Future website. Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager whose solo strike sparked the worldwide action, told politicians this week: “You lied to us. You gave us false hope.” “Their outrage is certainly justified, there is no doubt about that,” Attenborough told Figueres, who delivered the landmark Paris climate change agreement in 2015. “There will be cynics who try to dismiss [the school strikers] and say they don’t understand the world and how it works,” Attenborough said in the interview, released in a podcast on Friday by Figueres’s Global Optimism group. “Young people may lack experience but they also have clear sight.” “They can see perhaps more clearly than the rest of us who have been around for some time,’” he said. “We older ones should take notice of what they say.” Global warming is already increasing the frequency of damaging extreme weather. The world’s scientists say sharp falls in carbon emissions are urgently needed to deliver a 50% cut by 2030 and avoid worse droughts, floods, extreme heatwaves and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. However, emissions are still rising. Wildlife is also being annihilated by human actions, with animal populations having fallen by an average of 60% since 1970. Attenborough recently presented a primetime BBC documentary, Climate Change - The Facts, which was watched live by almost 3 million people in the UK. “The scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies,” he said in the show. Attenborough told Figueres action to stop climate change and the destruction of the wildlife was essential: “We have no option, if we want to survive. We have a [moral] obligation on our shoulders and it would be to our deep eternal shame if we fail to acknowledge that.” Figueres, who works with Global Optimism to create social and environmental change, said: “Greta and the other young people are justifiably furious with us. They say we have been at this for 30 years and we still haven’t solved this. Young people are calling us adults to account.” “We now know we can do it: we know we have the technology, the finance [and] the policies,” she said. “The outrage is about how is it possible that, knowing that we can do it, we are not doing it fast enough?” Figueres said that sense of outrage needed to be harnessed to speed up the required transformation to a zero-emission world. She has also backed the Extinction Rebellion protests that ended on Thursday after a week of peaceful direct action in the UK. “Civil disobedience happens when the injustice gets too great,” she said. “That is where we are.” Thunberg resumed her strike outside the Swedish parliament on Friday for the 36th week. The youth strikes now span the globe, stretching from Australia, Japan and Pakistan to Germany, the UK and US. In Islamabad, protesters held homemade banners reading “Don’t burn our future” and “Raise your voice not sea level”. In Bilbao, Spain, another read: “The planet is screaming in pain and we are deaf.” | ['environment/activism', 'tv-and-radio/david-attenborough', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'world/world', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/school-climate-strikes', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/school-climate-strikes | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-04-26T11:00:18Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
politics/2019/apr/29/report-backs-per-mile-road-charging-scheme-for-london | Report backs per-mile road charging scheme for London | London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) and congestion charge should be scrapped in favour of a per-mile charging scheme based on the impact of vehicle journeys, according to a thinktank report backed by politicians and business groups in the capital. Using digital platforms and a new app, users would be quoted a price before their journey, which would vary depending upon the vehicle emissions, levels of congestion and pollution, and what public transport was available. The Centre for London said it would be a more sophisticated approach to road charging and reflect the true impact of each individual journey. Driving costs would be integrated with the wider transport system via a new app, which the thinktank proposed would be run by Transport for London, and show the alternatives. While the report said the new ultra-low emission zone was a much-needed environmental measure, it said a single app-based system would be simpler and fairer and reduce pollution – a conclusion backed by the RAC Foundation. Its director Steve Gooding said: “No one would challenge the urgent need to tackle congestion and reduce emissions so the easier things are made for drivers to comply the quicker change will be accepted.” Business group London First backed the proposal. Richard Dilks, transport director, said: “London paved the way for congestion charging 16 years ago and, as charging for road use becomes more commonplace in big cities across the world, we need to plan to stay one step ahead.” Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the London Assembly transport committee said: “An intelligent use of our crowded roads must involve moving to a system of charging per mile for trips made in areas of high demand and poor air quality. We need a radical overhaul.” A spokesperson for the mayor, Sadiq Khan, said that as set out in the mayor’s transport strategy, TfL would “continue to review how the latest technology can ensure existing and future charging schemes reflect the changing needs of our city, including how best to tackle congestion and air pollution”. | ['politics/congestioncharging', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/london', 'environment/environment', 'uk/transport', 'politics/transport', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/gwyntopham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-04-28T23:01:37Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2024/mar/25/climate-conscious-investors-put-nuclear-dead-last-on-list-of-desirable-australian-ventures | Climate-conscious investors put nuclear dead last on list of desirable Australian ventures | Nuclear energy ranks last on the list of climate technologies that big institutional investors want exposure to, according to a survey of climate conscious investors with $37tn under management. Fewer than one in 10 investors were exploring new investments in nuclear technology in the survey of the Investor Group on Climate Change, whose 100 members include super funds and asset managers looking after the funds of 15 million Australians. The survey found a rebound in confidence in Australia’s climate policy but a growing appetite for clear timelines for the phase-out of coal, oil and gas. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup The opposition, led by Peter Dutton, plans to propose locating nuclear power plants on the site of retiring coal power plants, claiming that this would save having to build new transmission infrastructure for renewables. But the plan has been widely panned. The energy department has estimated it would cost $387bn to go nuclear, and Dutton faces opposition from his own state colleagues. Australia’s big private electricity generators have dismissed nuclear energy as a viable source of power for their customers for at least another decade, and likely more. In the yearly survey by the Investor Group on Climate Change investors were asked which energy and climate solutions they believed had good long-term returns. Nuclear energy was ranked last of 14 possible responses, along with sustainable oceans. “This is due to nuclear energy’s very high cost, and the lack of maturity and deployment in next generation technologies,” a policy brief on the survey said, citing the CSIRO’s gencost report. The five most popular options were: renewable energy (backed by 47% of respondents); nature solutions, including biodiversity or nature capital (34%); energy storage (32%); low carbon transport (32%); and industry/materials, including critical minerals (32%). In 2021 about 70% of investors cited policy and regulatory uncertainty as a barrier to investing in climate solutions, a figure that dropped to 40% in the 2023 data released on Monday. Asked to nominate the policies they wanted the government to prioritise, most investors (56%) called for sector-by-sector decarbonisation plans to keep global heating under the 1.5C threshold. There was also majority support for improved carbon pricing through the safeguard mechanism (54%), funding support for new technology (53%), and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies (51%). The policy brief said “emerging priorities” included mandatory climate-related disclosures, timelines for the phase-out of coal, oil and gas, and clear policies to build resilience and adapt to the physical damages of climate change. Erwin Jackson, Investor Group on Climate Change’s managing director of policy, said: “Investors have given the government a pretty good report card. “They’re also sending the message that credible, investible and durable policy frameworks put in place today will support strong investor and beneficiary returns into the future, enhance Australia’s economic competitiveness, and help attract international capital. “We must have a fair and fast transition to net zero emissions, but we must also adapt. “Investors look forward to working with governments on initiatives that can incentivise and remove barriers for private sector investment in adaptation across the economy.” In the 2023 budget the Albanese government gave $2bn to help establish Australia’s hydrogen industry and a further $1bn for households. In February Anthony Albanese raised expectations of another major energy package in this year’s budget, telling the Hunter Nexus dinner that Australia “must be prepared to think big” to help regions diversify their economies and achieve the energy transition. Albanese said that “every nation needs to decarbonise and electrify” and this was “a race that Australia can win”. “No nation is better placed than Australia to achieve this transition here at home – and power it in the world,” he said. “This is a task that traverses far more than energy policy, or industry policy. “This is a whole-of-nation opportunity and it demands a whole-of-economy approach.” | ['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/investing', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/anthony-albanese', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/paul-karp', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-politics'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2024-03-24T14:00:10Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2017/dec/15/bp-returns-solar-power-stake-lightsource | BP returns to solar power with $200m stake in Lightsource | BP has paid $200m (£149m) for a 43% stake in Europe’s biggest solar developer, marking its return to the sector from which it withdrew six years ago. The investment in the London-based Lightsource marks a turnaround for the British oil firm, which rebranded as Beyond Petroleum in 2000 but shut its alternative energy headquarters nine years later. “We’re excited to be coming back to solar, but in a new and very different way,” said BP’s chief executive, Bob Dudley. Dev Sanyal, the firm’s chief executive for alternative energy, said BP was returning to solar because the sector had matured and the model had shifted from manufacturing panels to developing solar farms. “[Solar] is really an important part of the overall energy mix. It will constitute around 10% of global power in the next 20 years and is growing around 15% per annum. We like the fundamentals of the industry and we like the fundamentals of the company,” he said. The solar firm will be renamed Lightsource BP and BP will take two seats on the company’s board. Nick Boyle, founder and chief executive of Lightsource, said in many countries solar had moved from relying on government support to being able to compete on its own. “In the last couple of years, we’ve hit that interesting inflection point where unsubsidised solar has become a direct competitor and something that actually beat other forms of electricity generation,” he said. “Whereas before the market was very different and needed support, now we are in a completely new world.” The company will focus on building solar projects in the US, India, Europe and the Middle East. While the $200m stake is a small fraction of BP’s $15bn-17bn total spend this year, Sanyal said it was a substantial investment. The company employs 8,000 people in its alternative energy business, which is mostly centred on wind power in the US and biofuels in Brazil. Asked if the investment marked a return to the Beyond Petroleum strategy pushed under the former chair John Browne, Sanyal said: “We want to play our full role in the low carbon transition.” BP is not alone in diversifying away from oil and gas. The Anglo-Dutch firm Shell has been buying electric car infrastructure companies, France’s Total has been acquiring battery storage firms and Norway’s Statoil is pioneering floating windfarms. • Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk, or sign up to the daily Business Today email here. | ['business/bp', 'environment/solarpower', 'business/mergers-and-acquisitions', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/business', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/oil', 'business/commodities', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-12-15T14:18:39Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2011/jan/14/undercover-police-officer-germany-row | Undercover police officer 'could be prosecuted in Germany' | The row over the deployment of Mark Kennedy deepened today as another German politician entered the fray to suggest the undercover police officer could be prosecuted in Germany. Hans-Christian Ströbele, a Green party MP, has tabled a question for the German government demanding to know whether Kennedy committed any crimes in Germany or incited others to do so. If it is proven he did, he must be brought to justice, said the politician. Ströbele said today: "We are demanding the German government reveal what this agent, this British agent, was investigating for the British authorities in Germany – and also what he was working on for the German authorities. We are urgently demanding information on whether he had ever committed any violent acts, or provoked anyone else to behave violently, and whether he ever committed any criminal offences. "If it turns out to be true that he committed crimes, charges should be brought against him and he should be put on trial." Not just Kennedy but also his superiors should be prosecuted if there was evidence of criminality, he added. Ströbele said Kennedy was also at risk of civil actions brought by German-based activists. Women who feel he tricked them into bed could potentially demand damages, as well as others who think Kennedy hurt them physically or emotionally, said the politician. So far two of Ströbele's constituents who knew Kennedy have written to him asking for information on Kennedy's deployment in Germany. Another question was filed with the German parliament today by Andrej Hunko, MP for the leftwing Linke party, suggesting activists convicted in Germany over the past seven years had a right to know whether Kennedy had been involved in their prosecution. Jason Kirkpatrick, a Berlin-based filmmaker who knew Kennedy, said the undercover officer often visited Berlin over the past six years, and was a regular visitor to a tattoo parlour called Für Immer in the eastern district of Friedrichshain. But what unsettles Kirkpatrick and other German-based activists is the suspicion that the German authorities sanctioned Kennedy's work in Germany. This inkling came around a year ago, when Kennedy apparently started to show a sudden interest in the anti-fascist movement. "One day late 2009, early 2010, Mark asked me out of the blue if I knew any places in Germany with Nazi issues. He said he had a 'crew' in England who could come and sort them out," claims Kirkpatrick. "I was shocked to hear him talk of violence like that." Kirkpatrick reasons that the British police authorities can have had no legitimate interest in German anti-fascists, and believes Kennedy was therefore also under the instruction of the German authorities. But when Hunko asked a series of questions about Kennedy's German deployment just before Christmas, the German government refused to respond for "operational" reasons. Under German law, both Ströbele's and Hunko's new questions must be answered by next Wednesday. If the German government refuses to answer them, Ströbele says he will appeal to the highest German court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the federal constitutional court. He is also lodging demands with the Geheimdienst-Kontrollgremium, a body set up to investigate complaints about the German secret service. | ['uk/mark-kennedy', 'uk/police', 'world/germany', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'world/europe-news', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'type/article', 'profile/helenpidd', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-14T16:49:42Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
politics/2022/mar/09/keir-starmer-says-pms-failed-energy-policy-is-causing-bills-to-rocket | Keir Starmer says PM’s ‘failed energy policy’ is causing bills to rocket | Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of presiding over a “failed energy policy” that is resulting in rocketing bills, as he called for the government to invest in nuclear and renewable energy sources and insulate homes to reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas. The Labour leader used prime minister’s questions to repeatedly link the impact of the invasion of Ukraine to the cost of living crisis, an issue where many Conservative MPs want to see more robust action from ministers. Starmer called for more direct help to cut energy bills, including a windfall tax on oil companies, but also demanded urgent action to reduce reliance on hydrocarbons, including an end to a de facto ban on new onshore wind projects. Johnson argued against a windfall tax and said existing efforts to help with energy bills were generous. Starmer responded with derision, saying: “I don’t think the prime minister understands the mess he’s in.” The government, Starmer said, should be “starting a new era of energy policy, never again at the mercy of a dictator”, including more nuclear power, “sprinting” for more renewables, and rapid moves to insulate homes. “So why is the prime minister offering the same failed energy policy that cast us into the security crisis and allowed bills to rocket?” Starmer asked. Johnson argued the government had already introduced “unprecedented measures” to help with bills, including a one-off £200 loan to offset energy costs and £150 for some households towards council tax. Johnson dismissed the idea of a windfall tax, saying: “The net result of that would be to see the oil companies put their prices up yet higher, and make it more difficult for them to do what we need them to do … and that is divesting from dependence on Russian oil and gas. That is the way forward for this country – it is to take a sober, responsible approach.” But Starmer noted that average energy bills were due to rise by £700 in April, with the £200 loan not arriving till October, by which point bills were likely to rise another £1,000. “It’s a total mess,” Starmer said. “So I ask again: when is the prime minister going to force the chancellor to U-turn?” After Johnson ruled out the idea of a windfall tax on the high profits from oil companies assisted by rising prices, Starmer said the prime minister was “protecting energy profits, not working people”. The Labour leader said: “Britain can’t afford another crisis like this. We need to improve our long-term energy security. That starts with supporting new nuclear and renewables.” The government had, he said, “effectively banned new onshore wind”, asking: “Will the prime minister relax planning laws, end the block on onshore wind, and stop supporting policies that make us so dependent on foreign gas?” Saying that the UK had the least energy-efficient housing stock in Europe, Starmer called for an “urgent national mission” to insulate homes, saying this could save households £400 a year in bills. “All the government has is a failed policy,” Starmer said. “Taking all their announcements together, it will take 75 years to deliver the upgrades that we need. That’s a lifetime, when we need urgent action. When is the prime minister going to get on with it?” Johnson argued that the UK was “the Saudi Arabia of wind power”, and blamed the lack of new nuclear power on Labour governments, which were last in power in 2010. | ['politics/pmqs', 'business/cost-of-living-crisis', 'politics/keir-starmer', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'money/energy', 'world/russia', 'world/ukraine', 'money/household-bills', 'politics/labour', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'politics/politics', 'environment/energy', 'politics/conservatives', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'uk/uk', 'business/energy-industry', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterwalker', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2022-03-09T13:42:21Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/sep/27/children-set-for-more-climate-disasters-than-their-grandparents-research-shows | Children set for more climate disasters than their grandparents, research shows | People born today will suffer many times more extreme heatwaves and other climate disasters over their lifetimes than their grandparents, research has shown. The study is the first to assess the contrasting experience of climate extremes by different age groups and starkly highlights the intergenerational injustice posed by the climate crisis. The analysis showed that a child born in 2020 will endure an average of 30 extreme heatwaves in their lifetime, even if countries fulfil their current pledges to cut future carbon emissions. That is seven times more heatwaves than someone born in 1960. Today’s babies will also grow up to experience twice as many droughts and wildfires and three times more river floods and crop failures than someone who is 60 years old today. However, rapidly cutting global emissions to keep global heating to 1.5C would almost halve the heatwaves today’s children will experience, while keeping under 2C would reduce the number by a quarter. A vital task of the UN’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November is to deliver pledges of bigger emissions cuts from the most polluting countries and climate justice will be an important element of the negotiations. Developing countries, and the youth strike protesters who have taken to the streets around the world, point out that those who did least to cause the climate crisis are suffering the most. “Our results highlight a severe threat to the safety of young generations and call for drastic emission reductions to safeguard their future,” said Prof Wim Thiery, at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and who led the research. He said people under 40 today were set to live “unprecedented” lives, ie suffering heatwaves, droughts, floods and crop failures that would have been virtually impossible – 0.01% chance – without global heating. Dr Katja Frieler, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and part of the study team, said: “The good news is we can take much of the climate burden from our children’s shoulders if we limit warming to 1.5C by phasing out fossil fuel use. This is a huge opportunity.” Leo Hickman, editor of Carbon Brief, said: “These new findings reinforce our 2019 analysis which showed that today’s children will need to emit eight times less CO2 over the course of their lifetime than their grandparents, if global warming is to be kept below 1.5C. Climate change is already exacerbating many injustices, but the intergenerational injustice of climate change is particularly stark.” The research, published in the journal Science, combined extreme event projections from sophisticated computer climate models, detailed population and life expectancy data, and global temperature trajectories from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The scientists said the increases in climate impacts calculated for today’s young people were likely to be underestimates, as multiple extremes within a year had to be grouped together and the greater intensity of events was not accounted for. There was significant regional variation in the results. For example, the 53 million children born in Europe and central Asia between 2016 and 2020 will experience about four times more extreme events in their lifetimes under current emissions pledges, but the 172 million children of the same age in sub-Saharan Africa face 5.7 times more extreme events. “This highlights a disproportionate climate change burden for young generations in the global south,” the researchers said. Dohyeon Kim, an activist from South Korea who took part in the global climate strike on Friday, said: “Countries of the global north need to push governments to put justice and equity at the heart of climate action, both in terms of climate [aid] and setting more ambitious pledges that take into consideration historical responsibilities.” The analysis found that only those aged under 40 years today will live to see the consequences of the choices made on emissions cuts. Those who are older will have died before the impacts of those choices become apparent in the world. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'world/extreme-weather', 'society/children', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-09-26T23:01:24Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/sweden-recycled-cotton-technology-fashion-composting | Sweden reveals world's first garment made entirely from recycled cotton | In 2010, the world consumed a record 69.7m tonnes of clothes. That's up from 47.4m tonnes just 10 years earlier, according to statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The unwieldy figures translate to approximately 10kg of clothes per person in 2013, up from 6.7kg 10 years earlier. That may not sound like a lot but the world population is growing, as are our western habits. Our apparel consumption is likely to keep increasing, an alarming thought as most worn-out clothing goes straight to the landfill or other unsustainable destinations. "Until now old clothes have often been used as filler material for underneath wall-to-wall carpeting, but when the carpeting is removed or the building is knocked down, the material goes to the landfill anyway," says Lewis Perkins, senior vice president of the San Francisco-based Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute, which develops sustainable new uses for discarded products. Now several companies are trying to change that equation. Scientists at Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology have developed a way of recreating cotton, which not only accounts for roughly a third of the world's textile consumption but is also in danger of becoming a scarce resource as the world's increasing population needs more land for food production. In June, a group of collaborating Swedish companies presented the world's first garment made entirely from recycled cotton: a yellow dress that looks no different from the fashion range at H&M or Zara. "The scalability of this process is enormous," says Henrik Norlin, business development manager at re:newcell, the company that made the pioneering material. "The technology allows us to recycle all materials that contain cellulose." This is how it works: old cotton clothes are brought to a factory and shredded then turned onto a porridge-like substance. After non-recyclable pieces like zippers and buttons have been removed, the porridge is broken down to the molecule level and turned into a fibre substance to be used for thread, resulting in rayon fabric. "We can recycle fabrics that contain a mix of cotton and other materials but get the best results when recycling pure cotton," says Norlin. Re:newcell is now preparing to build its first fabric-recycling factory, which will open its doors within the next 18 months. "It will be able to process 2,000 tonnes per year, allowing us to show the scalability of the process," says Norlin. Re:newcell will then add factories in other European countries like Britain and Germany, that produce large amounts of cast off clothing. The company is also forming partnerships with textile companies, which will buy Re:newscell's pulp rather than the typical rolls of fabric. One of the companies already involved is SKS Textile, based in the Swedish city of Borås. With other companies involved in the research and development behind the yellow dress, SKS Textile was responsible for making it. Chief executive Urban Olsson explains that SKS is working with the public sector, primarily the county-led healthcare system, to supply healthcare workers with uniforms made from the recycled fabric. Japanese company Teijin has developed a similar technology that polymerises polyester, turns it into polyester chips and then turns those chips into new fibres of equal quality. The result is a new polyester fabric that's just as good as the fabric in the discarded clothes. According to Teijin, the process reduces CO2 emissions by 77% compared to polyester made from petroleum. Though the new garments do require virgin polyester – that is, non-recycled content – the process also reduces the consumption of petroleum, the raw material from which polyester is made. The prospect of clothes recycling makes fast fashion seem a lesser environmental crime, and from a sustainability perspective the Swedish cotton recycling scores particularly well as it uses no new ingredients other than timber, whose cellulose fibres can be added to the existing cotton ones. Some clothing manufacturers, including Levi's, already incorporate discarded clothing into new items. But, cautions Perkins, recycling of fabric often involves dangerous materials such as heavy metals. (Norlin says that Re:newcell's process is completely clean.) And because rayon is much harder to recycle than cotton, the recycling doesn't go full circle. A better approach, argues Perkins, would be to compost the clothes. "The dyes are a problem, which is why we need innovation in dyes," he says. "But in the future we could even add valuable nutrients to clothes, which would benefit the soil when we compost them." Recycling or composting: plenty of innovation will take place in the near future. And Norlin predicts that clothes recycling will take a similar trajectory to paper recycling: "Early on in paper recycling, only a small share of paper was recycled. Now most paper is recycled and yields good results. We could see fabric do the same thing." The fashion hub is funded by H&M. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/fashion', 'fashion/fashion', 'education/fashion-and-textiles', 'environment/environment', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog', 'sustainable-business/waste-and-recycling', 'sustainable-business/resource-efficiency', 'environment/recycling', 'sustainable-business/innovation', 'world/sweden', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/sustainable-fashion', 'profile/elisabeth-braw'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-08-06T12:29:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2009/jul/30/computer-games-expert-nuclear-weapons | Wanted: computer games expert to help develop nuclear weapons | If you're the kind of guy who gets his kicks from killing Koreans, atomising aliens and blowing up beautiful islands in pursuit of "total domination", your country needs you. The government's Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston in Berkshire is advertising for a "virtual reality specialist" to use "serious gaming" to help train nuclear weapons scientists. One of the qualifications required is experience of computer games with good graphics like Crysis, the job advert says. Crysis, marketed by the California-based company Electronic Arts, is a "first person shooter" game in which players become part of an elite group of US soldiers on a mission to an island in the South China Sea. They rapidly become embroiled in a bloody battle with North Koreans, then monsters from outer space. Players have access to a daunting arsenal of deadly high-tech weapons, and wear a futuristic "nano suit" to make them more lethal. In the latest version, Crysis Warhead, they help Sergeant "Psycho" Sykes, find "unique and all-new environments they can explore and blow up", according to a blurb for the game. However, computer gaming experts question the wisdom of seeking out war games enthusiasts for a nuclear bomb factory. Mathias Fuchs, the leader of a creative games programme at the University of Salford near Manchester, warns that AWE may get more than it bargained for. The rule-breaking and "creative craziness" characteristic of gamers might not make them ideal candidates for working with nuclear warheads, he said. When his students were asked to design a game to encourage interest in Manchester Art Gallery, they came up with a scenario based on a virtual art theft. "The anarchic approach to objectives may turn out to be very surprising to Aldermaston if they get gamers involved," Fuchs told the Guardian. "A mathematician or a physicist might be more useful." Computer simulations are being increasingly used as training tools by the military in the UK and the US. Submariners, for example, can pretend to launch nuclear-armed Trident missiles, and practise dealing with fires and other emergencies. John Ainslie, the co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, argued that the world would be a lot safer if nuclear scientists stuck to virtual reality. "The trouble is that instead of killing cartoon North Koreans, they are fashioning weapons that could actually wipe out the whole country," he said. An AWE spokesman insisted that it had no interest in the content of Crysis. "We are simply interested in the expertise behind the software tool used to create it," he said. "This type of software has applications for creating virtual reality environments which can be used for safety and incident response training." | ['games/games', 'technology/technology', 'environment/environment', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'uk/uk', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/rob-edwards'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2009-07-30T11:12:16Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/european-circular-economy-package-fails-radical-note | New European circular economy package fails to hit radical note needed | Can policy intervention help lay the foundations for circular economy delivery? And if so, what should such an enabling framework look like? Judging by the mixed reaction to one early contender, the European Commission's circular economy package, and the latest soundings from UK parliament on the issue, reaching a consensus on this issue seems near impossible. Last month the Commission set out its circular economy stall, with a raft of policy levers and targets – some binding, some aspirational. The thrust of the European package however appears to rely on squeezing the best out of a linear economy for the 28 EU member states, rather than risking more radical step change. Landfill bans and higher recycling targets for municipal waste and packaging materials sit at the core of the package. Recycling is the resource recovery loop least favoured by circular innovators as it disregards the tighter, more aspirational loops of product redesign, repair, remanufacture and reuse. According to Joan Marc Simon, who co-ordinates Europe's zero waste network, if you're talking circular, recycling should be the last option. "The core of a circular economy framework lies on reusability of materials and products. This requires better product design, but also process redesign. It requires blending product and waste policy with elements of the sharing economy and adapting current taxation systems to a new scenario in which reusing goods is easier and cheaper than using disposable products," he says. It's a view shared by Piotr Barczak, waste policy officer at the European Environmental Bureau. "For this to be a truly circular economy package, it would need to link up with the policies that determine how products are made and encourage longer life products. This would help end overconsumption, overproduction and poor product design." Barczak says the package should have contained a more ambitious resource productivity objective, plus more incentives and requirements for good product design. The absence of waste prevention targets and specific measures to target reuse further weakens an already watered down framework, he adds. Marc Simon agrees, and feels the Commission could have done a lot more to prioritise reuse – simply stipulating a combined recycling/reuse target suggests a policy fail, as recycling applies to materials while reuse applies to products. On a wider level, such a legislative approach is potentially damaging as it risks locking an economy into waste treatment infrastructure that effectively downcycles materials. Any educational message around circularity is also lost. "Waste targets got the attention with the European Commission circular economy package and so it becomes a recycling issue," notes Susanne Baker, senior climate and environment policy adviser at the manufacturers' organisation EEF. A systems change Part of the problem is that any political discussion around enabling circular economy action tends to slip into a waste conversation very quickly. A circular economy parliamentary debate held at Westminster earlier this week, co-hosted by Resource Event, the Green Alliance and British Standards Institution, was dominated by arguments on how the UK's disjointed recycling system could be fixed, rather than how to ignite full systemic change throughout the whole economy. This is leading some to question whether policy intervention is the best tool to help us break out of institutionalised mindsets and practices. James Greyson, an independent circular economy analyst, argues that the circular economy relies on disruptive technologies and mechanisms breaking through – and that too much regulation could be in danger of smothering that. "People always say that targets provide certainty … but for system level change they're actually optional," he maintains. "Targets can be self-defeating if the certainty they offer is that we're still attempting change incrementally with top down rules where everyone's role is to comply. Higher targets always look difficult so the risk is that people end up using their creative energy to work around them. Clever policy can instead harness people's creative energy to find all kinds of amazing solutions that do more and go faster than any target that can be agreed politically." Baker isn't keen on targets, even if they are circular-led, for similar reasons. She believes there isn't enough data on UK waste arisings to even consider drawing up meaningful goals on this front. This lack of knowledge around material and product flows is likely to become a pressing issue, as it forms part of a wider circular economy data challenge around opening up intellectual property rights and patents to accelerate the development and adoption of alternative business models. That said, some believe the outer loop of the circular economy is a good place to start. Dustin Benton, head of resource stewardship at the Green Alliance argues that in England, where municipal waste is a local, fractured issue governed by political boundaries, designing a standardised waste collection and recycling network that can help return materials to productive use is a pragmatic first step to make the country "circular economy ready". The Green Alliance is shortly planning to release more radical proposals for Scotland, a country which wants to position itself as a global circular economy leader. The report is due out later this month and it will be interesting to see how much it compares to the European Commission's attempt in terms of ambition. The circular economy hub is funded by Philips. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'world/europe-news', 'world/european-commission', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'profile/maxine-perella'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-07-17T16:17:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
music/2013/nov/14/paul-mccartney-vladimir-putin-release-arctic-30 | Paul McCartney urges Putin to release Arctic 30 | Paul McCartney has posted a letter he has written to Vladimir Putin online, which urges the Russian president to release the 28 Greenpeace activists and journalists who were arrested after a protest at an oil-drilling rig in September. Posting on his personal blog, the former Beatle expressed his hope to have the "misunderstanding resolved" and requested that the protesters, who face charges of hooliganism, be home in time for Christmas. He assures that Greenpeace are peaceful protesters, stating that "non-violence is an essential part of who they are". Originally sent on 14 October, McCartney, who expresses his concerns in a polite and restrained tone, shares his concerns that the Arctic 30, who were this week moved from Murmansk to pre-trial detention centres in Saint Petersburg, are being "portrayed in some quarters as being anti-Russian, that they were doing the bidding of western governments, and that they threatened the safety of the people working on that Arctic oil platform." "I see you yourself have said that they are not pirates – well, that's something everybody can agree on. Just as importantly, they don't think they are above the law. They say they are willing to answer for what they actually did, so could there be a way out of this, one that benefits everybody? Vladimir, millions of people in dozens of countries would be hugely grateful if you were to intervene to bring about an end to this affair. I understand of course that the Russian courts and the Russian Presidency are separate. Nevertheless I wonder if you may be able to use whatever influence you have to reunite the detainees with their families?" Referencing the 1968 track Back in the USSR, the singer goes on to say that the track was written back when "It wasn't fashionable to English people to say nice things about your country." "That song had one of my favourite Beatles lines in it: "Been away so long I hardly knew the place, gee it's good to be back home," he added. In an introductory paragraph on his website, McCartney says that while Putin had not yet responded a month after the letter was sent, the Russian Ambassador to Britain had explained that the current situation of the detainees "is not properly represented in the world media". The letter concludes in hope that Putin would meet with McCartney in Moscow, "when our schedules allow". | ['music/paulmccartney', 'environment/arctic-30-protesters', 'world/vladimir-putin', 'music/music', 'culture/culture', 'world/world', 'world/russia', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'environment/activism', 'environment/greenpeace', 'tone/news', 'type/article'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2013-11-15T08:45:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
science/2017/nov/30/weatherwatch-solar-flares-safety-implications-aircraft | Weatherwatch: solar flares have safety implications for aircraft | Space weather, determined mainly by solar activity, rarely troubles us on Earth. We are not bothered if satellites are buffeted by solar winds, unless they stop working. However, extreme solar events may cause real problems down here. Giant, once-a-century solar storms are a known threat to power grids, but aircraft may be at risk from far more frequent events according to a new study of data from a neutron storm in February 1956. There is a steady background drizzle of neutrons, but when a large solar flare strikes the Earth’s atmosphere it can produce a cloudburst of them. We are shielded from most of the neutrons by the atmosphere, but radiation is more intense the higher you go. During the event in 1956, monitors showed 50 times the base level of neutrons at sea level. Airliners at the time mainly flew below 20,000 feet and were at little risk. Clive Dyer, of University of Surrey Space Centre, one of the report’s authors, says modern airliners, which cruise at twice the altitude of the earlier aircraft, would be exposed to 15 times as much radiation. A neutron storm like the event in 1956 would expose passengers to radiation equivalent to the annual working limit for air crews, and could also cause critical flight electronics to fail. Such storms occur in clusters, and Dyer warns they can occur as often as seven times a century. A warning system could direct planes to fly at lower altitudes to avoid dangerous neutron showers. | ['science/sun', 'world/air-transport', 'news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/autumn', 'science/astronomy', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2017-11-30T21:30:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/blog/2013/feb/11/whale-oil-fuel-ships | Whale oil to fuel whaling ships is a gruesome and surreal proposition | It is a fantastically surreal propostion. An Icelandic whaler, Kristján Loftsson, is powering his whaling ships using "biofuel" composed of 80% diesel – and 20% whale oil. Loftsson claims the oil is additionally friendly to the environment as it is rendered out of whale blubber using heat from Iceland's volcanic vents. The story might seem a bizarre development even in the Alice in Wonderland world of modern whaling, where Japanese whaling fleets claim to be conducting "scientific research" and the US, while striking a vehemently anti-whaling stance, nonetheless supports aboriginal hunting of bowhead whales that might otherwise live as long as 200 years. Yet Loftsson's scheme has a remarkable resonance with the urtext of whaling: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, written in 1851. Chapter 96, The Try-Works, includes a darkly poetic riff on the industrial process of rendering whale blubber on board ship. There's a gruesome description of the relentless operation of vast iron vats, known as trypots, set on brick kilns, and stoked by the whalemen using scraps of whale fat as tinder. Melville finds a fearful elegance in the process: "Like a plethoric burning martyr, or a self-consuming misanthrope, once ignited, the whale supplies his own fuel and burns by his own body." (You can listen to a clip of it here.) Melville goes on, in a passage that has since been used to heighten the echoes between the whale-oil industry of his age and our own desperate thirst for mineral oil: " The rushing Pequod, freighted with savages and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging in that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander's soul." (In his nicely argued The Ahab Parallax, Randy Kennedy pointed out further politico-economic comparisons between Ahab's mad pursuit and the Deepwater Horizon oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico, that also killed countless cetaceans). It's not the first time animal fat has been used to feed the whale hunt: 20th-century whaling operations in the Southern Ocean made similar use of penguins, throwing the oil-rich animals on fires as living kindling. How ironic that Loftsson should find satisfaction in his claims to environmental efficency, blithely ignorant of the deeper paradoxes. It's a dying industry even for Japan, if another recent report, from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, is to be believed: the country's whaling fleet is subsidised by government funds, like those scraps under the trypots – a total of $205m since 1987 – and cannot ultimately sustain itself. Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the international charity devoted to monitoring the changing fortunes of cetaceans, has already weighed in. Chief executive Chris Butler-Stroud called Loftsson's gambit "a completely absurd, perverse and unethical move by an industry that is already steeped in the blood of whales, and which is now prepared to use the remains of dead whales to keep its own vessels afloat". But the entirely rational might see the proposition as elegantly, if horrifically, efficient. Loftsson's is nothing less than the ultimate greenwash. Meanwhile, the cynical might look to a further century before Melville, to another literary solution to these and other pressing problems: Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, in which he addresses the problem of burdensome children in poverty-stricken Ireland by suggesting their parents cook and eat them. | ['environment/blog', 'environment/whaling', 'environment/whales', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'books/hermanmelville', 'books/books', 'tone/blog', 'environment/cetaceans', 'type/article', 'profile/philip-hoare'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2013-02-11T15:56:31Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
music/2011/nov/15/clash-paul-simonon-arrested-greenpeace | The Clash's Paul Simonon arrested while working as undercover Greenpeace activist | Clash bassist Paul Simonon has revealed he was arrested earlier this year, while working as an undercover Greenpeace activist on board one of their ships. Simonon spent several weeks on the MV Esperanza, masquerading as a cook. Simonon was one of 18 activists arrested in June, after the Esperanza launched speedboats at the Leiv Eriksson oil rig off the coast of Greenland. Greenpeace was protesting against the Arctic rig, whose owners had allegedly refused to disclose their oil-spill disaster plan. "It's obvious why Cairn [Energy] won't tell the world how it would clean up a BP-style oil spill here in the Arctic, and that's because it can't be done," campaigner Ben Ayliffe explained at the time. "We stormed the oil rig," Simonon said. "They said if you don't get off … we're going to phone the authorities in Greenland and say you've hijacked the oil rig, and the police will come and arrest you. And that's pretty much what happened." According to Greenpeace, Simonon joined the mission weeks before. He first approached the group's UK action coordinator Frank Heweston, asking if he could "make a stand against Arctic oil drilling" by becoming part of a ship's crew. Heweston agreed on the condition that Simonon go undercover. "Paul the assistant cook" was embraced by his peers, recalled third mate Martti Leinonen, as a "quiet, humble and funny guy". "He worked really hard, cooking even on Sundays, which is usually the cook's day off." After the Esperanza protesters were arrested, Simonon spent two weeks in a cell – still keeping his identity a secret. "The food was so bad, we finally got the guards to agree to let Paul cook," Leinonen said. "He makes excellent vegetarian food." Although he is no longer a member of the Esperanza crew, Simonon paid tribute to his former associates at a gig earlier this week. Together with Damon Albarn and the rest of the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Simonon performed for Greenpeace supporters on the deck of the Rainbow Warrior II, moored in the Thames. | ['music/clash', 'music/music', 'music/popandrock', 'music/punk', 'culture/culture', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'world/arctic', 'world/greenland', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/seanmichaels', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-11-15T10:37:17Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
us-news/2022/feb/06/americans-exposed-toxic-bpa-fda-study | Americans exposed to toxic BPA at levels far above what EU considers safe – study | A comprehensive review of recent studies into a chemical often used in plastics and resins has revealed that the average American is exposed to levels of the dangerous compound that are 5,000 times higher than what the European Union now considers safe. The main exposure route for bisphenol-A (BPA) is via plastic and metal food packaging, and that has prompted a call for strong new limits on its use. In a petition sent last week to the US Food and Drug Administration, consumer advocates and food safety scientists led by the Environmental Defense Fund warned that the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) December review clearly shows that BPA exposure levels in the US represent a “high health risk” for Americans of all ages. “The FDA has an obligation to protect us from toxic chemicals that can come in contact with our food,” said Maricel Maffini, a petition co-author. “These new findings should be a wakeup call to the FDA and all of us that our health is in jeopardy unless we take swift action to limit the amount of BPA that can come into contact with our food.” The chemical mimics estrogen and is linked to a range of serious health problems, including cancer, immunotoxicity, neurological toxicity, mammary gland disease, behavioral changes and decreased sperm counts, among others. Male and female brains in mammals are physically different, and Maffini noted a study that found BPA exposure altered male brains to look more like female brains. EFSA’s research pointed to evidence suggesting harm from BPA exposure can occur at levels 100,000 times lower than previously thought, and scientists have found immune system disruptions occur at particularly low levels. “What we are seeing now is that the levels that we thought were safe – they don’t seem to be safe, and the levels that we identify as causing problems in the immune system are incredibly low,” Maffini said. In food packaging, BPA is typically used to line metal cans to prevent corrosion, though plenty of safer alternatives exist, Maffini said. It’s also mixed into polycarbonate plastic, which is a clear, shatterproof material used in multi-use water bottles, containers that hold pre-prepared foods or containers used to hold ingredients during food prep, among other uses. The petition asks that those applications be prohibited. The FDA has 180 days to respond to the petition, though it can take longer on complex issues, Maffini said. Consumer groups’ petitions have led to some success in recent years. The FDA agreed with a 2016 petition led by the Environmental Defense Fund to ban the use of long-chain PFAS in food packaging, though it has yet to respond to a 2021 petition to ban all PFAS. A 2015 EDF-led petition to prohibit seven carcinogenic food flavorings resulted in the FDA banning the substances in 2018. However, the FDA’s science and position on BPA has often been at odds with that of academic scientists, consumer advocates, the US National Toxicology Program, and the FDA’s own advisory committees, Maffini said. While those groups have consistently found BPA to present a dangerous health threat, the FDA has downplayed the dangers and often relied on inadequate scientific methods to arrive at its conclusions, Maffini said. However, the FDA banned BPA from baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula packaging in 2012. The agency said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on pending petitions. | ['us-news/us-news', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'society/health', 'world/food-safety', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tom-perkins', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-02-06T11:00:24Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2008/nov/24/netbytes-freecycle | Recycling that works in a gift economy | "What goes around comes around" is an American saying, and a Justin Timberlake song. It also describes the workings of Freecycle, an organisation that uses Yahoo Groups to recycle items that would otherwise end up as landfill. It's not really a charity, though it can work that way. It is, rather, an example of a gift economy. Its tagline is: "Changing the world one gift at a time." Most of us have accumulated items we no longer need, and eBay is a good way to recycle them, for those willing to make the effort. The rest of us could give them away, if we knew someone who wanted them. Freecycle solves that problem. Post a message describing an item, and there's a good chance someone will offer to collect it. While you are giving things away, you will doubtless browse the items on offer. See something you need? Go for it. Often you will get several people offering to take something off your hands, so you can choose whoever seems most deserving. You may prefer to give things to people who are also giving things away. Swapping isn't allowed, but you can end up with things you want while disposing of things you don't. Freecycle works best in small areas, since this makes it simpler and cheaper to collect goods. You can check for a local group on the Freecycle website. It covers almost 6 million members in more than 85 countries. If there isn't a group nearby, you can start one. Freecycle was started by Deron Beal in Tucson, Arizona, in 2003, following on from a project to reduce waste. It's a non-profit organisation, with the work being done by local volunteers. However, it seems some participants have been upset by Freecycle accepting sponsorship, by legal injunctions to protect the Freecycle Network (TFN) trademark, and what they see as unnecessary secrecy. A few have defected. In July, for example, Jeri Zerr posted an Open Letter to Deron Beal and said: "I have decided to opt the St Louis Metropolitan group out of TFN and over to the ReUseIt Network." ReUseIt appears to have identical aims to Freecycle — the idea has been widely copied — and also works via Yahoo Groups. It's worth checking to see if there's a similar group in your area. However, you may find that Freecycle has much better coverage. For example, I live in Greater London, which has about 40 Freecycle groups (Islington has four), whereas ReUseIt has one. The imbalance in messages is even greater in Freecycle's favour. Freecycle groups need some control because it doesn't want people giving away pornography, drugs (including tobacco and alcohol), medicines, weapons etc — things that might be dangerous. Also, "posting oneself or another person from the human species is not allowed". Freecycle groups also need the local organisers to stamp out abuse, spam and other undesirable actions. And if a group is run well, local users need neither know nor care where the idea came from. | ['technology/series/netbytes', 'technology/technology', 'environment/recycling', 'technology/internet', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/jackschofield'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2008-11-24T13:06:41Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/article/2024/jul/25/offshore-wind-to-power-20m-homes-within-five-years-starmer-to-pledge | Starmer to pledge to develop enough offshore wind to power 20m homes | Keir Starmer will promise to build enough offshore wind turbines to power 20m homes by using taxpayer money to develop parts of the seabed owned by the crown estate. The prime minister will announce details of the government’s energy generation company, known as Great British Energy, during a visit to the north-west designed to highlight the government’s promises on green energy. The energy company will be given £8.3bn of public money over the course of the parliament to invest in green technologies, with a target of 20-30GW of new offshore wind developments reaching seabed lease stage by 2030. Ministers are hoping that investment will help persuade companies to spend another £60bn in an attempt to hit the government’s target of decarbonising Britain’s power sector by 2030. Starmer said: “This innovative partnership between Great British Energy and the crown estate is an important step toward our mission for clean energy by 2030, and bringing down energy bills for good. “This agreement will drive up to £60bn in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business.” “This new partnership will help accelerate the deployment of clean energy we need, help generate good jobs in our country and generate wealth for the taxpayer.” Labour is also in discussions with the Scottish government and the devolved management of the crown estate in Scotland about support for local projects. Great British Energy forms the centrepiece of the government’s green agenda, under which ministers are promising to deliver clean power by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. The company is modelled on nationalised energy champions such as EDF in France or Sweden’s Vattenfall, though it will not have anything like the spending power of either. It will be created through an act of parliament, which the government hopes will be passed and enacted within months. While GB Energy will ultimately invest in a range of cutting-edge technologies such as carbon capture, tidal power and small nuclear reactors, its initial focus will be on offshore wind. Under the plan being launched on Thursday, the company will spend money on activities such as scoping out the seabed and making sure there are connections to the onshore grid to allow private developers to build thousands of new turbines at pace. The publicly owned company will then keep a stake in the project, using the proceeds either to return money to the government or to invest in further energy projects in the future. Some of the returns however will be used to fund the royal family, which the crown estate was set up for. Even without Thursday’s announcement, the crown estate already had a target to begin the development of 20 and 30GW of additional offshore wind power by 2030 – more than double what the UK has already installed. Officials say, however, that without the additional funding and expertise provided by GB Energy it is unlikely to be able to hit that target. In an article for the Guardian, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said: “The crown estate, which has a £16bn portfolio of land and seabed and returns its profits to the government, will bring its long-established expertise having enabled the UK as world leader in offshore wind and the new borrowing powers recently announced by government. “Great British Energy will bring the strategic industrial policy that the state can provide, as well as its own ability to invest.” While in opposition, Labour promised to spend £28bn a year on green investment, but reduced that ambition by half as it came under pressure not to promise anything that might require higher taxes. The move disappointed many green experts, economists and industrialists when Rachel Reeves announced the cut early this year. She was determined to avoid accusations of “tax and spend”, despite the verdict of economists that borrowing for these purposes would generate money in the medium term. However, the government’s deal with the crown estate, which will have new powers to borrow money and invest, allows Miliband to sidestep some of the Treasury’s strict public finance rules. Jess Ralston, head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank, said: “The involvement of the crown estate could be an interesting way of getting round Treasury limitations. The crown estate is already a trusted body in the green energy space, with relationships already with many developers, bringing some certainty to investments.” Officials are also hoping the link to the royal family will help win support for the new scheme from even Conservative voters, saying they want to ensure the institution is seen as non-partisan and therefore survives any future change of government. Mathew Lawrence, the head of the thinktank Common Wealth, said: “By giving it greater planning and investment scope, the [deal with the crown estate] will help supercharge GB Energy and develop homegrown clean power.” But he also urged ministers to allow the company to supply customers directly, something the government has so far ruled out. “By adding a retail option, so that GB Energy can supply households directly, we can ensure the benefits of the deal are passed directly on to households,” he said. • This article was amended on 31 July 2024. An earlier version said that Labour was to pledge that 20-30GW of wind power developments would be completed by 2030. In fact, the pledge is for the developments to have the relevant seabed licences in place by that year. | ['environment/energy', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'uk-news/crown-estate', 'politics/keir-starmer', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kiran-stacey', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2024-07-25T04:00:39Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2005/sep/18/usa.hurricanekatrina | After the flood | 'Fats Domino Missing'. Amid the chaos and suffering of hurricane-hit New Orleans, here were three words which telegraphed that an entire musical tradition was also under threat of being swept away. Not just the lovingly preserved buildings and riverboats of a hundred years ago, when outlandish local talents like Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton spawned jazz, but also living blues and soul legends like Domino, Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas, and the thousands of professionals who have kept alive Louisiana's glorious gumbo of brass bands, cajun, zydeco and swamp blues. A shaken 77-year-old Domino, famed for a string of hits such as 'Blueberry Hill' and 'Walking to New Orleans', was plucked from his home two days after the storm, his survival confirmed by one of his daughters after she spotted a photo in a local paper. Toussaint, too, survived, having holed up in the Superdome. Irma Thomas had escaped to Baton Rouge, though her popular club, The Lion's Den, remains under water. Other luminaries appeared on NBC's telethon fundraiser of 1 September, when jazz giants Wynton and Branford Marsalis played alongside the Neville Brothers soul clan, as music and movie stars implored the US public to donate. It was left to Chicago-born rap star Kanye West bluntly to articulate widespread sentiments not heard on TV: 'A lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way - and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!' declared West, as his fellow star, Mike Myers, looked on aghast. 'George Bush doesn't care about black people,' concluded West, a comment that's now become a T-shirt. Though New Orleans' French Quarter, the heart of the city's tourist industry, survived pretty much intact, the homes of most of its musicians are submerged - like most residents, the likes of the Neville family and local rap star Juvenile have 'lost everything'. Wynton Marsalis, the torch bearer of the jazz tradition, quickly assembled the New York benefit. His accompanying statement made it clear, however, that issues surrounding the tragedy aren't going away, calling for his home town to be rebuilt 'with 2005 consciousness, which means without accommodating the ignorance of racism, the deplorable poverty, and the lack of education that have been allowed to fester in many great American cities since slavery... New Orleans are blues people. We are resilient, so we are sure that our city will come back.' | ['us-news/us-news', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/world', 'music/music', 'tone/features', 'culture/culture', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/musicmonthly', 'theobserver/musicmonthly/features'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-17T23:22:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2013/nov/20/climate-institute-urges-coalition-to-reconsider-global-carbon-permits | Climate Institute urges Coalition to reconsider global carbon permits | A leading climate thinktank has joined the business community in urging the Coalition to reconsider its ban on using international carbon permits to help meet Australia’s greenhouse gas reduction goals. The Climate Institute is urging the environment minister, Greg Hunt, to set aside an “insurance” buffer in his “Direct Action” climate fund to buy international permits if – as has been predicted by most independent studies – it is insufficient to buy the permits required to meet Australia’s target. Last week the Business Council of Australia, which also supports Australia buying international permits, urged the government to get the Productivity Commission to assess how expensive it will be to achieve all Australia’s greenhouse abatement domestically. Both organisations were responding to Hunt’s call for submissions to inform an inquiry into the proposed $3.2bn Direct Action Fund, which will run competitive government tenders to buy greenhouse emission reductions from companies and organisations willing to make them. Many studies have queried whether the fund contains enough money to buy the necessary emission reductions and have raised even bigger questions about whether it can be “scaled up” to reach the deeper emission reductions that will inevitably be required after 2020 and probably before. Two independent modelling exercises conducted recently found Direct Action allocated far too little money to its proposed "reverse auctions" for greenhouse gas abatement to achieve even Australia's minimum commitment of a 5% reduction in emissions by 2020 compared with 2000 levels. Modelling by Reputex climate analytics, commissioned by the environment group WWF-Australia, found that the money set aside by the Coalition to buy abatement was likely to fall short by $5.9bn a year between 2015 and 2020, or between $20bn and $35bn in total. Modelling by Sinclair Knight Merz/MMA and Monash University's Centre of Policy Studies, commissioned by the Climate Institute, which used assumptions more generous to the Coalition, found the Coalition would have to find at least another $4bn for its climate policy, or break its pledge to cut emissions by 5% by 2020 and instead allow them to increase by 9%. Like the Business Council, the Climate Institute is urging an independent study by the Productivity Commission to determine whether Direct Action can work with the money available. It says this should happen before the government repeals the existing carbon pricing scheme. The government insists it has allocated enough money to meet the 5% emission reduction target, but the prime minister, Tony Abbott, has said no more money will be forthcoming. And the government has also moved away from what had been since 2009 a bipartisan commitment to reduce emissions by more than 5% under agreed benchmarks for action taken in other countries around the world. According to calculations by the Climate Institute if the government fails to repeal the existing carbon tax laws and proposes no alternative cap on Australia’s emissions, the “default mechanism” in the laws would actually deliver a 15% reduction in emissions by 2020. “The current carbon laws, by default, will put us more in line with the actions of other major economies like the USA and China … Before the effective current laws are repealed, the government needs to demonstrate its policy can achieve as much,” said the Climate Institute's deputy chief executive, Erwin Jackson. The Climate Institute has also suggested the government will need to introduce tough regulations alongside its “emissions reduction fund” to meet the greenhouse reduction goals, including vehicle emission standards, land clearing regulations, energy efficiency regulations and tougher rules for the use of HFCs – synthetic gases use in refrigeration which are thousands of times more powerful as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Labor and the Greens say they intend to block the government’s carbon tax repeal bills in the Senate, meaning it is possible the repeal may have to wait until the new senators take their positions next July. | ['environment/emissionstrading', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/carbon-tax', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lenore-taylor'] | environment/carbon-tax | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-11-20T13:00:03Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2021/jun/04/arctic-sea-ice-thinning-twice-as-fast-as-thought-study-finds | Arctic sea ice thinning twice as fast as thought, study finds | Sea ice across much of the Arctic is thinning twice as fast as previously thought, researchers have found. Arctic ice is melting as the climate crisis drives up temperatures, resulting in a vicious circle in which more dark water is exposed to the sun’s heat, leading to even more heating of the planet. The faster ice loss means the shorter north-eastern shipping passage from China to Europe will become easier to navigate, but it also means new oil and gas extraction is more feasible. Calculating the thickness of sea ice from satellite radar data is difficult because the amount of snow cover on top varies significantly. Until now, the snow data used came from measurements by Soviet expeditions on ice floes between 1954 and 1991. But the climate crisis has drastically changed the Arctic, meaning this information is out of date. The new research used novel computer models to produce detailed snow cover estimates from 2002 to 2018. The models tracked temperature, snowfall and ice floe movement to assess the accumulation of snow. Using this data to calculate sea ice thickness showed it is thinning twice as fast as previously estimated in the seas around the central Arctic, which make up the bulk of the polar region. Robbie Mallett of University College London, who led the study, said: “Sea ice thickness is a sensitive indicator of the health of the Arctic – and, when the Arctic warms, the world warms. “Thicker ice acts as an insulating blanket, stopping the ocean from warming up the atmosphere in winter and protecting the ocean from the sunshine in summer. Thinner ice is also less likely to survive during the Arctic summer melt.” Changes in the Arctic are also increasingly believed to influence extreme weather such as heatwaves and floods around the northern hemisphere. The rapid thinning of sea ice has consequences for human activities in the Arctic as well. The newly exposed waters enabled storms to hit coastal communities and erode coasts, Mallett said. The opening of the shorter north-eastern shipping route around Siberia means less fuel is needed to transport goods between China and Europe, leading to lower carbon emissions. In February, a cargo ship made a round trip for the first time in winter. “However, this also raises the risk of fuel spillages in the Arctic, the consequences of which could be dire,” said Mallett. “There’s also a lot of interest in oil and gas extraction from the Russian shelf seas,” Mallett said. But the research revealed much greater annual variability in ice thickness than estimated before. “Knowing the thickness of the ice is pretty critical to planning those activities, so the enhanced variability is generally bad news for those planning to work in the Arctic,” he said. The Soviet-era data was hard won, Mallett said. “They sent these brave guys out and they sat on these drifting stations and floated around the Arctic, sometimes for years at a time, measuring the snow depth.” But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identified the lack of more recent data as a key knowledge gap in 2019. Sea ice thickness is calculated from satellite radar data that measures how high the ice sits above the sea surface. Snow on top of the ice is invisible to the radar signals but it weighs the ice down, so it is critical to know the depth of snow. “Sea ice has begun forming later and later in the year, so the snow on top has less time to accumulate,” said Mallett. “Our calculations account for this declining snow depth for the first time.” The research is published in the journal The Cryosphere. “We are still learning about the changes to the Arctic environment, and one of the big unknowns – or less well-knowns – is snow cover,” said Walt Meier, at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, and not involved in the new research. “The approach in the study is a significant improvement over older methods, and the results fit with other changes we’re seeing with Arctic sea ice, including earlier melt onset, lower summer ice cover, and later freeze-up.” Prof Julienne Stroeve, at UCL, said: “There are [still] a number of uncertainties but we believe our new calculations are a major step forward. We hope this work can be used to improve climate models that forecast the effects of long-term climate change in the Arctic – a region that is warming at three times the global rate and whose ice is essential for keeping the planet cool.” | ['world/arctic', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/sea-level', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/poles', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-06-04T05:01:30Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2005/sep/02/hurricanekatrina.usa7 | Refugees swamp city aid centres | Irma Plummer, the mayor's emergency coordinator, had tears in her eyes and her voice was breaking as she asked God to help Baton Rouge. "You have reminded us of how strong you are and we yield and acknowledge that," Ms Plummer said, her eyes tightly shut. "Right now, Father, we pray first for your protection and your grace which is unceasing and unfailing ... I don't even know what to ask for today, Lord. I don't even know what will beset us today." Around her, Baton Rouge's civic leaders, men and women in blue, grey and khaki uniforms, held hands and bowed their heads, their faces lit from below by the array of computers in the municipal emergency operations centre. Their troubles were written on the wall above them. A list of 13 emergency shelters, with a total capacity of 10,000 people all had the word FULL written alongside them. Louisiana's state capital, itself recovering from Hurricane Katrina, is being inundated by the human wave coming from the submerged city of New Orleans. Overnight, Baton Rouge doubled in size from a quarter to half a million. Councilman Mike Walker stood up and spelt out what the writing on the wall meant. "The Baton Rouge we lived in and grew up in is no longer. These people are here to stay, because they have nowhere to go, and they'll have nowhere to go back to for years," said Mr Walker, a big 56-year-old man, who said he had seen "nothing like it in my life". He added: "Instead of water flooding in, we've got people flooding in. The people levee has broken." In the city outside, the human tide was rising visibly. The streets were full of displaced people roaming in groups, and the city authorities were showing signs of nerves. Police armed with shotguns and automatic rifles cleared out a city government centre and the surrounding streets near the biggest refugee centre, in a show of force apparently aimed at deterring looting and unrest, but which also served to stoke unease. Baton Rouge officials were yesterday trying to change the electronic information boards along the motorway leading from New Orleans in the east, so that they would inform incoming travellers that the city was full. Part of the problem was well-meaning motorists. "Everyone who has a vehicle is picking people up on the causeway and dropping them in town," said the police chief, Jeff Leduff. "Last night, we had 3,000 people turn up at LSU [Louisiana State University, now serving as a medical centre]. "We may have to barricade our hospitals. We put up barricades on the River Centre [the biggest relief station] to say there is no more room." At LSU, helicopters were landing on a sports field to ferry in more casualties. Jamie Roques, the medical coordinator of a clinic set up for people with special needs, said: "It's like nothing we've ever seen." As many were heading to Texas, authorities there were reported to be turning back refugees hoping to shelter in the Houston Astrodome sports arena. The human waves emanating from New Orleans were sweeping back and forward across the state in the search for a haven, and in the process, Louisiana was being swamped. | ['world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/refugees', 'type/article', 'profile/julianborger'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2005-09-01T23:02:52Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2023/jan/12/energy-house-20-tests-tech-that-aims-to-make-homes-greener-and-cheaper-to-run | The new-build ‘homes’ where energy scientists play God with the weather | The temperature is almost -6C and despite the snow, workers are frantically putting the finishing touches to a pair of detached houses that look ready to move into. But all is not as it seems in the energy industry equivalent of The Truman Show. The new builds are nestled inside Energy House 2.0, a £16m temperature-controlled chamber at the University of Salford being unveiled on Thursday. It is hoped the research facility will play an important role in testing the technologies that will make our homes greener and cheaper to run, at a time when households are being crippled by sky-high energy bills. Inside the chamber, scientists can play God, sending the temperature plummeting to -20C or to the shock high of 40C experienced for the first time in the UK last summer. They can also batter the houses with gale force winds or, courtesy of a snow machine, manufacture a blizzard to test its energy performance. Richard Fitton, a professor in building performance at the University of Salford, says the initial research project – a partnership with UK housebuilders Bellway and Barratt Developments and the construction product manufacturer Saint-Gobain – would help to answer “difficult questions about how we reach zero carbon target in future housing”. It comes as the industry gears up for government standards that require a significant reduction in carbon emissions for new-build homes from 2025. “The facility will help us to stress test these buildings under extreme hot and cold climates to provide data on energy efficiency and overheating in homes,” says Fitton. “The buildings are in there for an initial period of two years but we will keep them for as long as they are useful. It goes against sustainability to knock buildings down.” The chamber is housed within a “super-insulated” steel frame, plumbed with £6m of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment. Usually it takes months or years to collect the data needed to evaluate the performance of a new design or technology, but because researchers can precisely control the environment, they can gather that data in a few weeks. Experiments scheduled for the coming months include having people “living” Big Brother-style inside them with access to facilities including flushable loos, showers, broadband and even Sky TV. “This research will give me the answer to what are the best systems to put in new houses, including what happens when we put people inside … because that’s when it could all go a little bit off,” adds Fitton. Unusually, perhaps, the small development features houses built side-by-side by rival builders, with Bellway and Barratt agreeing to share their findings at the end of the year-long project. The eHome2 is a concept house devised by Barratt and Saint-Gobain. Next door, Bellway’s house, called the Future Home, is a three-bed detached property based on its Coppersmith model. All UK properties on the market require a certificate outlining the energy performance, from A (most efficient) to G (least efficient). At the moment, the Coppersmith house has a B rating and running costs of £761 a year for heating, hot water, lighting, pumps and fans. By comparison, the Future Home is rated A, with running annual costs reduced to £11 thanks to the solar panels. Compared with the bitter temperature outside, the Bellway home gives you a warm hug as you step inside, although it feels a bit topsy turvy as ultra-slim infrared radiators are perched on the ceiling rather than the wall and an air source heat pump has been stowed in the loft in what is a UK first. The windows are triple-glazed and upstairs there is a prototype shower that recovers heat from the wastewater. Jamie Bursnell, Bellway’s group innovation and technical manager, says it is “treading on new ground here”, with the firm trying to “find the balance between lowering carbon emissions and keeping running costs as low as possible”. The main difference between the two houses is that, while the Bellway house is built from “real” bricks, the Barratt one is a timber frame made of 36cm-thick insulation-filled panels covered in a thin cladding that mimics a brick finish. The timber-frame house would secure a coveted A rating on an energy performance certificate, and Oliver Novakovic, Barratt’s technical and innovation director, says if you wanted to get the same energy efficiency in a traditional build the walls would need to be 55cm thick. Two competing heating systems are being tested inside: an electric-based system utilising infrared panels, some of which are disguised as ceiling coving, as well as a water-based system that uses heated skirting boards combined with an air source heat pump. “As we put these really warm coats on to our homes, we don’t need as much energy to heat them,” says Novakovic. “So the big question we’re asking is, do we do it with heat pumps and hot water or with electricity?” Experts will examine how houses can work in tandem with the electric car parked outside, for example storing energy produced by solar panels in the vehicle’s battery. The university is also home to the original Energy House project, which built an early 20th-century two-up, two-down terrace house inside an environmental chamber to test retrofit technologies. Prof Will Swan, the director of Energy House Labs at the University of Salford, described Energy House 2.0 as a “critical” piece of new research infrastructure. “The growing challenges of climate change and the cost of living crisis mean we need to consider how we build and operate our homes,” says Swan. “As the cost of gas and electricity keeps going up and up this work is even more important to create a sustainable and economically viable future for this country and the world.” | ['environment/energyefficiency', 'business/housingmarket', 'environment/energy', 'environment/ethical-living', 'money/energy', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/household-bills', 'business/realestate', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'money/money', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/zoewood', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-01-12T08:11:13Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2023/apr/26/share-your-recent-experience-of-using-a-heat-pump-in-the-uk | Share your experience of using a heat pump in the UK | Helping homes to cut their carbon emissions is no easy task. The government aims to have 600,000 heat pumps a year installed by 2028 to replace gas boilers, but so far only a third of the £5,000 grants meant to help households pay for a new heat pump have been taken up. We’d like to hear from people who took the plunge and warmed their homes with a heat pump for the first time over the last winter. Were you glad that you made the switch from a gas boiler? Or did the experience leave you cold? Whether you love your heat pump, or regret it entirely, we’d like to hear about your experience below. | ['environment/energy', 'money/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/callout', 'campaign/callout/callout-heat-pumps', 'profile/guardian-community-team', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-communities-and-social'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2023-04-26T15:25:59Z | true | ENERGY |
business/2013/jan/28/blacklist-construction-firms-environmental-protests | Blacklist used by construction firms to disrupt environmental protests | Hundreds of environmental activists were on a secret "blacklist" used by construction firms in an attempt to disrupt high-profile protests against road building and other developments. Files on more than 200 campaigners were held alongside a list of more than 3,000 construction workers who had raised legitimate health and safety concerns or belonged to a trade union. Last week MPs said the list had deprived thousands of people of work and driven some families to destitution. Evidence of the growing scale of the operation carried out by the Consulting Association has led to renewed calls for an official inquiry. Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, told the Guardian: "This is greatly concerning and we still don't know what the full scale of the blacklisting scandal was. In light of this new evidence, it is crucial that a full investigation of blacklisting commences." During a debate on blacklisting in parliament last week, Umunna said more than half of the top 20 construction firms in the UK were involved. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which raided the Consulting Association in 2009, said some of the details on the list appeared to have been provided by the security services or police. Umunna said: "Very serious allegations have been raised, including by a serving ICO official who is himself a former police officer, that information contained on blacklist files came from police and security services. This only reinforces the need for a full investigation into blacklisting so we can get to the full truth of what went on." Details of the environmental blacklist emerged during evidence from Ian Kerr, the Consulting Association chief officer, to a committee of MPs (pdf) that construction firms wanted information on the protesters after being "badly hit" by their campaigns. "In the mid-90s the industry was literally taken unaware by the people who came along and built tree houses, cut the hydraulic lines on the equipment and put sand in the tanks, because at the time it was quite easy to win a contract and put a route through an area," Kerr told the Scottish affairs committee in November. "There wasn't a lot of attention paid to what got knocked down and what site of special scientific interest was filled in along the way." He said the construction industry had held a forum to discuss the issue, which led the Consulting Association to amass files on more than 200 protesters. It is unclear exactly what details were held on environmental protestors. Information on a separate blacklist of more than 3,000 construction workers is said to have forced thousands of workers into long-term unemployment and is alleged to have come from a variety of sources including press cuttings, the construction firms, police or security officials and, in some cases, other union members. Last week MPs called the blacklisting a "secret, insidious, shameful practice" and warned it might still be going on. John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, said: "This goes on today, just because you're a trade unionist, you stand up for health and safety or simply because you want to ensure justice and fairness at work. I want the inquiry to examine all those things in the past, but I want an inquiry that opens up the doors and invites people to come forward with evidence." Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, said it was "national scandal". "Construction companies have been allowed to get away with a conspiracy to spy on thousands of ordinary construction workers and destroy their careers. "Lives have been ruined and families have been torn apart just because workers have raised safety concerns in Britain's most dangerous industry, or just because they exercised their human rights to belong to a trade union." | ['business/construction', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2013-01-28T16:06:33Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2021/dec/09/coastal-ghana-hit-by-climate-crisis | ‘We have to use a boat to commute’: coastal Ghana hit by climate crisis | Waves have taken the landscape John Afedzie knew so well. “The waters came closer in the last few months, but now they have destroyed parts of schools and homes. The waves have taken the whole of the village. One needs to use a boat to commute now because of the rising sea levels,” he says. Afedzie lives in Keta, one of Ghana’s coastal towns, where a month ago high tide brought seawater flooding into 1,027 houses, according to the government, leaving him among about 3,000 people made homeless overnight. Keta has been slowly eroded by rising sea levels and storms for years. But before dawn on 7 November, people woke to walls of seawater surging through their properties, flooding homes, schools, businesses and churches. That morning Keta, and neighbouring Fuveme and Salakope joined Vodza, Adzido, Abutiakope and Kedzikope – villages and towns that once dotted the west African country’s shore but have all but disappeared under water. “It started Saturday evening. We saw that the water was getting closer, but we didn’t know it would flood this place. By Sunday at dawn, the water was everywhere. All our things were affected by the flood,” says Janet Nubueke, from Keta. The people, she says, will continue to move away from the water as long as the sea continues to be a threat. They are asking the government to relocate them. With a coastline spanning about 340 miles (550km) of the Gulf of Guinea and a quarter of its population living on the coast, Ghana is being permanently altered by coastal erosion. The country’s economic powerhouse is along the coast, including 80% of its industry, oil and gas production, thermal and hydroelectric power generation, as well as agriculture and fishing. A study by Unesco found that 37% of Ghana’s coastal land had been badly hit by erosion and flooding between 2005 and 2017. Construction of a sea-defence wall began in 1999 under the administration of the late President Jerry Rawlings but was not completed because of a change in government and subsequent neglect by political leaders. Several studies suggest that sea-defence walls could play an essential role in mitigating the erosion of sandy soil along the coast and that stabilising the shoreline to prevent inhabited areas being flooded is feasible. But many people, still living in makeshift shelters and waiting to find new homes, have no confidence that the political will is there to complete the project. With climate crisis experts warning that extreme weather and natural disasters will only become more frequent, the people left in what remains of Keta are living from day to day, fearing the next storm or higher than usual tide. Sign up for a different view with our Global Dispatch newsletter – a roundup of our top stories from around the world, recommended reads, and thoughts from our team on key development and human rights issues, delivered to your inbox every two weeks: | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/ghana', 'environment/coastlines', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/sea-level', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/flooding', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/environment', 'inequality/inequality', 'environment/oceans', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-12-09T07:30:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2009/sep/21/mining-mining | Siberians sell coal to the Welsh | The local mine is a mere three miles away and is clearly visible from the offices of the Brecon Mountain Railway in Merthyr Tydfil. But regulations about how it can be transported mean that coal for the railway's newly converted steam train comes not from the south Wales valleys but from Siberia, 3,000 miles away. Coal from the Ffos-y-Fran opencast mine in Merthyr has to be moved by rail rather than road. As there is no rail link from the mine to the railway, coal for the converted engine comes from the wilds of Siberia via rail to the ports, then container ship to Hull, then by road to Merthyr. The railway owner, Jayne Hills, said: "It seems ludicrous that we could get coal from three miles away but instead are being forced to import it from 3,000 miles away. I dread to think what the carbon footprint must be like of moving that coal but we have no choice." Hills said it was even more galling because the local coal was perfect for use in a steam locomotive. It generates steam quickly and maintains its heat. The railway would like to convert another of its locomotives to steam from oil but is reluctant to do so in case it becomes impossible to get the coal. "Being from Merthyr, where everyone has a relative who was a coal miner, or knew somebody who was a miner, this seems just crazy," she said. The mine operator, Miller Argent, said it was not just the railway that had to source coal from faraway locations despite there being a mine close by. Local coal merchants who supply homes, pubs, schools and hospitals were also having to look elsewhere for their supply because the mine's planning permission stipulated it could only move coal by rail. The joint managing director, James Poyner, said: "Welsh dry steam coal used to power the world's railways and ships. It seems odd that local people and businesses are not allowed access to it." Up to 20,000 tonnes of coal a week is dug at the site and the bulk of it goes to the Aberthaw power station, near Cardiff. The company has its own sidings, connected to a branch line and then to the main line so that coal can be moved farther afield. But the Brecon railway and others have found that it makes more sense to go to the Siberians rather than try to get the Merthyr coal back to their area. Miller Argent is now applying for permission to move a relatively small amount of coal by road rather than rail, though some residents have objected because they don't want more lorries on the road. | ['business/mining', 'environment/mining', 'environment/coal', 'uk/wales', 'uk/transport', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'uk/rail-transport', 'type/article', 'profile/stevenmorris'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2009-09-21T11:56:06Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/dec/04/terrawatch-roman-records-show-lasting-effects-of-pollution | Terrawatch: Roman records show lasting effects of pollution | All over the world lakes are in trouble. An excess of nutrients – from fertilisers, detergents and sewage – is upsetting the balance of life, leading to algal blooms and bottom-water dead-zones. Many places are now trying to clean up their act, but how long does it take for a lake to recover? Sediment cores drilled from a Swiss lake reveal how long it took for the lake to bounce back after the Romans departed, and indicate we might have to wait centuries for today’s polluted lakes to become properly fresh again. The Roman city of Aventicum, on the shores of Lake Murten in Switzerland, grew rapidly from around AD30, supporting around 20,000 people during its heyday in the first and second centuries. But now sediments from the lake bed reveal that the land clearance and intensive agriculture associated with the growth of Aventicum resulted in huge nutrient runoff into the lake, wiping out ecosystems and plunging the lake into crisis. During the third century the Romans abandoned Aventicum and the sediments show that life returned to the lake after about 50 years. But the findings, which are published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, reveal that it took around 300 years for the lake to fully recover. | ['environment/pollution', 'science/series/terrawatch', 'world/switzerland', 'science/geology', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-12-04T21:30:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
commentisfree/2011/mar/07/food-sustainability-diet-environmental-impact | The next food fight must be for sustainable eating | Valentine Warner | Some might argue we have too much on our plates with the multiple ongoing debates around food trends. But could it be that food campaigns are missing the scale of the problem? Food is responsible for 30% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. The Brazilian savannah is being destroyed faster than the Amazon due to soy production – most of which is fed to the animals we eat. Over in Borneo, ancient tropical forests are being felled to plant palm trees to provide palm oil for our bread and low-fat spread. Daily reports of rising food prices – not to mention civil unrest arising from food insecurity – mean that what we eat matters more than ever before. Taking personal responsibility for our eating habits and understanding as much as possible about the food we eat is a matter of urgency. Progress has been slowly made in the last few years: the fair trade and organic movements have helped many of us to understand how our shopping baskets can improve the conditions of producers around the world. The Fish Fight campaign spearheaded by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and others is achieving promising concessions, with EU commissioner Maria Damanaki proposing to ban discards. And living as I do in a wasteful country, I have some empathy and respect for freeganism. The issue of sustainable diet may be complex, extending beyond the systems and structures of food production. But on a micro level, maintaining a diet in which processed food is kept to a minimum (it is resource-intensive to produce and unhealthy to boot) is a simple and effective solution. By knowing your ingredients, you can feed a family for far less than by buying the equivalent amount of ready-made meals. Farmed livestock can be consumed in moderation. Eating seasonally also makes a big difference – there's a myriad of reasons why we should all be eating more fruit and veg. But despite the UK's "age of the foodie", British households appear to be losing cooking skills faster than ever. A modern mantra I hear a lot is, "I just don't have the time to cook". I'm not sure this is true. I think we just don't know what to cook. We have stopped understanding ingredients and now rely on far less variety throughout the year, leading to a dependence on imports and a lack of understanding of how to cook the very things that would help reduce the negative impact on our planet (and if you don't know what's in season there are many ways to find out). And what about all those other bits of the animal that are not prime cuts? Eat those too and we would slaughter fewer animals. Livewell, a study by the WWF, aims to show how undertaking those simple steps needn't mean a miserly mung bean-filled existence: the charity's advice was to eat fish if you want to – but make sure it's certified by the marine stewardship council (MSC). The provenance for other ingredients, such as palm oil, should also be checked for sustainability. Hardly a herculean task. If you are a meat eater, enjoy it while remembering that purple sprouting broccoli coupled with garlic anchovies and a fried egg could be tastier – and more sustainable than a burger. Likewise, replacing half of the amount of meat you'd normally include in your curry or stew with vegetables makes for a more environmentally friendly meal. Katherine Hibbert argued persuasively here for us to try to use every bit of what we buy to eat. Forty per cent of food ending up in landfill or the bin is unacceptable and completely avoidable: planning ahead with what is in your fridge would lead to far less impulse buying. We have forgotten that we can change something bigger than our waistlines with the food choices we make: treat the environment well and eat with care, and the body will follow. After all, can you really call yourself an adult if you can't prepare yourself a meal? Cutting carbon emissions and adjusting our diets is no mean feat; it is a difficult challenge that will take time and concerted effort. Understanding ingredients will not just help your meals taste better, it's the best way to reduce the environmental impact of our food. The natural world is fine without us; the same cannot be said the other way around. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/food', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/fair-trade', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'food/food', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/valentine-warner'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2011-03-07T14:33:00Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
world/2019/oct/02/french-citizens-panel-to-advise-on-climate-crisis-strategies | French citizens' panel to advise on climate crisis strategies | A sample group of 150 French citizens — from unemployed people to pensioners and factory workers — will this week begin advising the French president Emmanuel Macron on how France can cut carbon emissions to tackle the climate emergency. The panel was chosen by selecting people, aged from 16 to over 65, from towns and villages across France. More than 25,000 automatically generated calls were made to mobile numbers and landlines to find a representative “sample of national life”. Coming from various backgrounds and professions, the citizens are not experts on environmental issues but are expected to have views on the difficulties of combating the climate change and to offer ideas. They will be asked to consider the role of individuals, and society as a whole – covering housing, work, transport, food, shopping and methods of production — and suggest solutions for cutting emissions, which will be put before parliament. Julien Blanchet, who is overseeing the process, said the citizens would represent “the diversity of the French population”. Environmental campaigners said the process, which will run until February, should not be used as an excuse to delay urgent climate action. Macron, the French president, had promised to appoint a citizens’ consultation body after he faced a crisis in climate policy last year when the anti-government gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters took to the streets against a new carbon tax intended to urge motorists to change their behaviour. People in the countryside said it was deeply unfair to raise taxes on fuel use where there was no alternative transport to private cars, and while vast corporations were not doing enough. The tax was later abandoned. Macron has presented himself as a world leader on the climate emergency. But despite France’s ambitious promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in reality the country is far from delivering its goals, the French independent advisory council on climate has warned. Everyday life in France does not match political promises – particularly with regard to transport, car use and building renovation – and the government is seen as not doing enough to meet a net-zero emissions target for 2050. The citizens’ panel will advise on how France can cut carbon emissions by 40% before 2030, in terms of building construction and housing, transport methods, food production and consumption At their first meeting, the participants will be briefed by climate experts and will then meet over several weekends until the end of January. Of the thousands of French people contacted by phone to join the consultation, 30% quickly expressed interest, 35% asked to consider the idea, and 35% refused. | ['world/france', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'technology/technology', 'world/emmanuel-macron', 'science/science', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angeliquechrisafis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2019-10-02T15:10:26Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2021/jun/01/uk-ranked-last-in-europe-for-bathing-water-quality-in-2020 | UK ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020 | Swimmers in the UK hoping to enjoy waters certified clean and healthy this summer have been let down again. Only 110 coastal and inland sites were judged excellent in the latest bathing water quality data from Europe’s environmental watchdog. Most of the UK’s bathing sites were not classified in 2020, however, because Covid-19 restrictions prevented sampling. This meant that out of 640 sites, 457 received no verdict in the rankings, compiled annually by the European Environment Agency and published on Tuesday. Twelve sites where a verdict could be delivered were found to be poor, 29 of sufficient quality and 32 good. The lack of data pushed the UK to the bottom of the European league table, rivalled only by Poland, where just 22% of sites were rated excellent, in the 31-country rankings of EU member states plus Albania and Switzerland. The other 29 countries all had at least 50% of the monitored bathing sites classified as excellent quality, and for the vast majority – 24 countries – the figure was at least 70%. Cyprus, Greece, Malta, Croatia and Austria led the pack with 95% or more of their sites qualifying as excellent. All of Cyprus’s sites received top marks. The 2020 data will be the last to include the UK. The EEA includes EU member states and non-members such as Turkey, Iceland and Switzerland, but the UK has chosen to opt out of EEA membership post-Brexit, meaning no such comparisons will be possible in future. The UK has performed poorly in bathing water quality for years, regularly appearing near the bottom of the table while other countries, including eastern European states, have made marked improvements. A Guardian investigation last year found that water companies had poured raw sewage into rivers on more than 20,000 occasions in 2019, and dumped thousands of tonnes of raw sewage on beaches. A government spokesperson said: “The quality of bathing waters in England has improved significantly in the last 20 years. The latest data from 2019 shows that that 72% achieved the highest standard of Excellent, while 98.3% passed the minimum standard. “Visitors to coastal and inland swimming spots have over 400 bathing waters to choose from and can find out more information of the Environment Agency’s ‘Swimfo’ website.” Overall, the EEA said 83% of coastal and inland sites around Europe were found to be excellent in 2020, broadly in line with recent years. Only 1.3% of the sites tested, or 296 across the continent, were judged to be of poor quality, down from about 2% in 2013. Coastal sites fared better than inland sites, with 85% and 78% respectively classified as excellent. About 6% of the sites normally monitored across Europe could not be reached because of Covid-19 restrictions. Countries also tend to leave out many bathing sites that are used in practice, so the true picture could be different, especially for inland sites, and people could be put at risk if the bathing places they use are not monitored. Lidija Globevnik, a project leader for bathing water at the European Topics Centre and an author of the report, said: “There are many sites that are not identified as bathing waters, but people still swim there. There should be higher attention paid by the authorities to observe these sites, and act if there is a problem.” She said the climate crisis was also having an impact on bathing water and on inland sites especially, because dry spells reduce the amount of water in rivers and lakes, which could concentrate pollutants from agricultural runoff and other sources. “There is not enough water in some places, which means a proliferation of bacteria in inland waters and higher risks,” she said. “This can be managed better through looking at agriculture, hydrology and water extraction. These all need to be carefully managed.” The European Commission has recently launched a review of the bathing water directive as part of its zero-pollution action plan. The current rules could be updated, and an online public consultation is planned for suggestions on the improvements needed. Virginijus Sinkevičius, the European commissioner for the environment, fisheries and oceans, said: “Bathing water quality in Europe remains high and it’s good news for Europeans who will be heading to beaches and bathing sites this summer. This is the result of more than 40 years of the bathing water directive, hard work by dedicated professionals and cooperation. The zero pollution action plan adopted in May will help to keep the waters healthy and safe, and our seas and rivers clean.” The Covid-19 pandemic had no impact on the quality of water, but led to many bathing sites being closed or access limited because of social distancing requirements, although many people were driven to take up wild swimming. Hans Bruyninckx, the executive director of the EEA, said: “The quality of European bathing water remains high after four decades of action aimed at preventing and reducing pollution. EU law has not only helped raise the overall quality, but also helped identify areas where specific action is needed.” | ['environment/water', 'environment/pollution', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'environment/rivers', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-06-01T10:00:49Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
media/2009/mar/30/spoof-financial-times | John Vidal on the spoof edition of the Financial Times | The first clue was the dateline - April 1 - but the 12-page pink paper that looked exactly like the Financial Times and which was handed out to more than 15,000 people at London railway and bus stations on Friday was not an April Fools' joke so much as a blistering attack on the UK media and PR industry in the run-up to this week's G20 summit. From a front page lead story on how civilisation is "more or less" unlikely to collapse this century to a masthead on "the Age of Stupid - All the latest, very early", and complete with fake Foreign Office mandarin letters and advertisements for RBS, the publication was clearly professionally written, subbed and laid out, which is what you would expect from two professional journalists who asked to remain anonymous but who say they put thousands of pounds of their own money into the publication. It took the pair "about a month" to write about 150,000 words at the same time as working full time and they say the publication, called Not The Financial Times, was partly designed to show other journalists that they seldom write objectively. "We like to think that we are objective. But, in reality, what we write is framed by the opinions of powerful people," says the editor, who uses the name Raoul Djukanovic and claims to have worked for Reuters and the New York Times. While most of the stories recalled Private Eye or Guardian-style April Fools' Day spoofs, several pieces expressed the deep dissatisfation that many G20 and other protesters feel about the UK media and their role in propping up what they say is a disreputable political and financial system which prioritises growth and profit over ecology, rights and justice. In the Corrections column, the spoof FT apologised to readers for neglecting to inform them of investors' hostility to action on climate change, the manipulation of climate talks and greenwash advertising. A lengthy analysis of how news is made ended in a blistering attack on the PR industry. A leader column railed against news that is "largely directed by the vested interests of political parties and capital ... commercial considerations influence too greatly how newspapers and other media gather, edit and represent news." It went on to accuse the press of ignoring political alternatives. "Swept along by prevailing currents, journalists tend to adopt official narratives even if they personally disagree," says Djukanovic. "Modern pressures of work compound this. Much comes down to priorities." A story about kickback-fuelled arms sales could either be reported as Britain's aerospace industry receiving a boost, or as a dent to credibility on human rights. "Three guesses which angle won in newsrooms," says the FT2020 journalist. "You don't have to censor the news for effective PR. You just have to bury the truth." There's nothing new about satirising newspapers, but protesters have only recently used them to make political points. The most famous spoof was probably the 20,000 print run of Evading Standards, a skit on London's Evening Standard, in 1997. The issue was seized by the police and three people were charged with incitement to affray. According to the journalist Gibby Zobel, who covered the story: "The use of the masthead with the statue of Eros and a joke advert for the Metropolitan Police breached copyright. But the spoofers sued the Met for wrongful arrest and were awarded five-figure costs. The money funded the next edition, and Evading Standards made a return for the demonstration in the City of London with an appropriate thanks in the small print. "In 1978 a New York Times spoof was produced by striking journalists, including Watergate's Carl Bernstein. Many other hacks in dispute have done the same, from London's Time Out to the Morning Star," says Gobel. Relations between the media and protesters have often been stormy. In the last decade rightwing newspapers widely attacked anti-capitalist and environmental protesters. Police news teams have fed tips to newspapers about individual protesters. "You are part of the problem," has been a common refrain of protesters who have more or less excluded journalists from meetings and events. But, in the last two years, environmental protesters have fought back at what they call "blatantly misleading" journalism, gaining corrections or apologies from the Evening Standard, the Sunday Times, the Observer, the Sun and the Telegraph and some backing from the PCC, the press regulator. "There is now a better understanding of the roles of the press. We have learned not to trust certain people," says a spokesman for one protest group, who gave an assumed name. In fact the authors of this week's FT spoof clearly have respect for the real newspaper. "Frankly the FT is more honest than most, both about its bias and the state of the world. We would all be better informed if we read news wires and the blizzards of factoids they aggregate. But who's got time for that?" asks Djukanovic. A spokesman for the FT said: "We will continue to focus on reporting and analysing the G20 summit next week. It's not the FT, no comment." | ['media/newspapers', 'media/pressandpublishing', 'media/financialtimes', 'media/media', 'type/article', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/g20', 'world/world', 'tone/features', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mediaguardian', 'theguardian/mediaguardian/mediaguardian1'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2009-03-29T23:01:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
commentisfree/libertycentral/2011/jan/23/environmental-activists-policemen-spying | Are environmental activists really a spying priority? | Annie Machon | The cascade of revelations about secret policemen, starting with PC Mark Kennedy/environmental activist "Mark Stone", has highlighted the identity crisis afflicting the British security establishment. Private undercover police units are having their James Bond moment – cider shaken, not stirred – while MI5 has become ever more plod-like, yet without the accompanying oversight. How has this happened to our democracy without any public debate? From the late 19th century the Metropolitan Police Special Branch investigated terrorism while MI5, established in 1909, was a counter-intelligence unit focusing on espionage and political "subversion". The switch began in 1992 when Dame Stella Rimington, then head of MI5, effected a Whitehall coup and stole primacy for investigating Irish terrorism from the Met. As a result MI5 magically discovered that subversion was not such a threat after all – this revelation only three years after the Berlin Wall came down – and transferred all its staff over to the new, sexy counter-terrorism sections. Since then, MI5 has been eagerly building its counter-terrorism empire, despite this being more obviously evidential police work. Special Branch was relegated to a supporting role, dabbling in organised crime and animal rights activists, but not terribly excited about either. Its prestige had been seriously tarnished. It also had a group of experienced undercover cops – known then as the Special Duties Section – with time on their hands. It should therefore come as little surprise that Acpo, the private limited company comprising senior police officers across the country, came up with the brilliant idea of using this skill-set against UK "domestic extremists". Acpo set up the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). This first focused primarily on animal rights activists, but mission creep rapidly set in and the unit's role expanded into peaceful protest groups. When this unaccountable, Stasi-like unit was revealed it rightly caused an outcry, especially as the term "domestic extremist" is not recognised under UK law, and cannot legally be used as justification to aggressively invade an individual's privacy because of their legitimate political beliefs and activism. So, plod has become increasingly spooky. What of the spooks? As I mentioned, they have been aggressively hoovering up the prestigious counter-terrorism work. But, despite what the Americans have hysterically asserted since 9/11, terrorism is not some unique form of "eviltude". It is a crime – a hideous, shocking one, but still a crime that should be investigated, with evidence gathered, due process applied and the suspects on trial in front of a jury. A mature democracy that respects human rights and the rule of law should not intern suspects or render them to secret prisons and torture them for years. And yet this is precisely what our spooks are now allegedly doing – particularly when colluding with their US counterparts. Also, MI5 and MI6 operate outside any realistic democratic oversight and control. The remit of the intelligence and security committee in parliament only covers the policy, administration and finance of the spies. Since the committee's inception in 1994 it has repeatedly failed to meaningfully address more serious questions about the spies' role. The spooks are effectively above the law, while at the same time protected by the draconian Official Secrets Act. This makes the abuses of the NPOIU seem almost quaint. So what to do? A good first step might be to have an informed discussion about the realistic threats to the UK. The police and spies huddle behind the protective phrase "national security". But what does this mean? The core idea should be safeguarding the nation's integrity. A group of well-meaning environmental protesters should not even be on the radar. And, no matter how awful, the occasional terrorist attack is not an existential threat to the fabric of the nation in the way of, say, the planned Nazi invasion in 1940. Nor is it even close to the sustained bombing of government, infrastructure and military targets by the Provisional IRA in the 70s-90s. Once we understand the real threats, we as a nation can discuss the steps to take to protect ourselves; what measures should be taken and what liberties occasionally and legally compromised, and what democratic accountability exists to ensure that the security forces do not exceed their remit and work within the law. | ['commentisfree/libertycentral', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'law/uk-civil-liberties', 'environment/activism', 'world/surveillance', 'uk/police', 'law/law', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uksecurity', 'politics/terrorism', 'politics/politics', 'uk/mi5', 'uk/mi6', 'world/protest', 'tone/comment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'world/espionage', 'type/article', 'profile/machon-annie'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2011-01-23T14:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2009/aug/26/climate-camp-guide | Climate Camp and the police | The last place activists expected to find themselves is inside the secret HQ of the police's riot-squad training centre. But that's where four Climate Campers ended up last Thursday, being welcomed by the police, handed cups of tea and given a tour that was "so surreal", according to one camper, that she expected to wake up and find it was all a dream. Over the last three years Climate Camp, like all direct action groups, has had a consistently thorny relationship with the police. By the 2008 camp at Kingsnorth power station, things had been ratcheted up to an extraordinary degree; to get in, you had to queue for up to an hour before having your bags searched, while getting out again involved waiting around for random officers to decide whether they liked your face or not. The atmosphere was as hostile and intimidating as it gets. So when, in the build-up to this year's camp, the police extended their welcoming invite, the activists half thought it was a wind-up. "It really was weird," says Frances Wright, a member of the Climate Camp legal team. "When you've been charged by the police, when you've had the sort of experiences with them that most of us have had, you get a kind of physical reaction to them, you want to get away from them. So meeting them at Gravesend station and stepping, voluntarily, into a police minivan, in order to be carried off to one of their operation centres, was just really, really surreal." The police have, of course, been on an all-out charm offensive ever since the appalling scenes captured on video at easter's G20 protests in the City of London. They have appointed a woman silver commander of this week's Climate Camp operation, and liaised far more willingly with the activists. "We all sat in the canteen as they made a little speech about their general public order policing strategies," Wright explains. "Then one of our lot gave a really good talk about what it's like to be facing a line of police wearing visors and waving batons. He really didn't pull any punches and it was odd, because they didn't really react much. "Then they took us on a tour round the centre. They showed us their mocked-up stadium and the mocked-up underground train, where they do their exercises. The stadium was actually the size of a badminton court, with seats up one side, and they only had one train carriage. But it was all very odd. "One policeman took off his overalls, and showed us what they wear underneath – like cotton long-johns but with that padding that skateboarders have on their knees added in all over. And they let us hold the shields. That was actually quite horrible – they're very heavy, you wouldn't want one of those coming into the side of your head." So has it advanced relations between activists and the police force? Probably not, judging by some of the flak that Climate Camp attracted as a result of last week's visit, and judging by the YouTube video they put up on Monday telling police to please just stay away. But the police are now in an interesting position. They've spelled out their strategy, they've bent over backwards to look like your friendly neighbourhood copper. Today, the video cameras will be waiting for the slightest slip-up. | ['environment/climate-camp', 'tone/features', 'uk/police', 'environment/environment', 'environment/activism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'profile/bibivanderzee', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2009-08-25T23:05:04Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
global/2009/jul/24/wind-turbine-factory-protest | Wind turbine factory pickets stage new kind of protest | Huddled around a smoking brazier early today , the fluorescent-vested union officials looked perfectly at home. But surrounding them on the traffic island at the far end of Newport's St Cross industrial estate, on the Isle of Wight, was a scene that looked a little different from the usual picket line. Battered army surplus boots stuck out of the handful of colourful tents, a half-drunk bottle of South African chardonnay lay on the grass, and the gazebo hastily bought from the local B&Q contained the expected tea, coffee and biscuits, but also two cartons of soya milk. On a grass mound outside the HQ of wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems, which is set to shut down with the loss of up to 600 jobs, a new kind of industrial dispute has taken shape. About 25 workers have occupied the plant in an attempt to prevent the closure, scheduled for 31 July, supported by a unique "red and green" coalition. This is a protest significant not just for the way in which it has seen environmental campaigners, socialist activists and trade unionists join forces, but also for the way in which members of a previously non-unionised workforce in the largely conservative island community have been mobilised in a way they never dreamed of. Tonight, about 300 people marched from the town centre to the plant for a rally to show their support for the action. Inside, the men, who since their arrival on Monday have been sleeping shifts on office floors, take it in turns to go out on a balcony to wave at supporters or pass the time with a keyboard discovered under a desk. "People have been putting on headphones, playing prerecorded tracks and pretending to be DJs," said Ian Terry, 23, one of the occupiers. A game invented to kill time involves throwing and catching balls while seated on increasingly far apart office chairs in the corridor. Since Thursday morning, Vestas' management has been providing them with two meals a day, so far centred on cheese sandwiches but the men said they were still hungry. Tobacco has been provided by their workmates outside, who throw tennis balls stuffed with goodies. Those that land short are scooped up using a pole of joined-together broom handles, with a sticky ball of tape attached. Spirits are high, according to Terry. "The atmosphere is brilliant," he said. "I think it's amazing what people have done. We know there are different groups with different opinions on certain things but they're all singing from the same hymn sheet and support is just snowballing." Outside Sean McDonagh, 32, a team leader at the plant, marvelled at the cultural shift of the last week. "For so long, management kept us down; they've broken us and bullied us," he said. "To move up the ladder you had to do anything the management wanted. If you didn't want to do that they didn't want to know. People were too scared to stand up for themselves, because they were worried they'd lose their jobs. It's good money, and that's really what the management has worked on." All that has changed after the arrival, last month, of a handful of socialist environmental campaigners from the group Workers' Climate Action. By night, they camped at a farm near Cowes and by day set about hanging around the gates of Vestas' two plants at shift-change times, handing out leaflets. Initially, they were met with scepticism, but gradually a small number of workers began to be convinced that action could make a difference. Last week an occupation committee formed and by Monday evening the men had taken their places inside the plant. Vestas, the world's biggest wind turbine maker, claimed tonight that "outsiders" were involved in the occupation of the closure-threatened factory but the real blame lay with "faceless nimbys" who opposed wind schemes in Britain, leading to them having to close the factory. The Denmark-based company, which will go to court on Wednesday seeking a possession order to stop the occupation, also said that green activists should support the switch of manufacturing from the UK to America which was its main market, explaining that having to send the blades by ship across the Atlantic raised the carbon footprint of Vestas. Peter Kruse, a spokesman for Vestas at its head office in Copenhagen, said the company had been surprised by the occupation and would do all it could to bring it to a peaceful end. He refused to say whether the company would change its mind but said that even with some government aid it "can't make ends meet". Campaigners rejected the claims that anyone other than Vestas staff were involved in the sit-in and blamed the company for changing its mind, from an expansion of the plant to closure. But Kruse said the company could not sustain a business at Newport because of the credit crunch, a weakening of the pound and a lack of political action. Later, the Vestas man said he recognised the government was doing "a lot for us". Back on the traffic island, Jonathan Neale, of the Campaign Against Climate Change, said the coalition gathered there was like nothing he had ever seen in Britain. "I grew up in the southern US and I remember when the civil rights movement started. This feels like 1960." | ['environment/vestas', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'politics/tradeunions', 'business/job-losses', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'tone/news', 'uk/uk', 'business/business', 'politics/politics', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'world/protest', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/rachelwilliams', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2009-07-24T18:59:54Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2018/jul/30/boy-14-referred-to-anti-extremism-scheme-over-fracking-activism | Boy, 14, referred to anti-extremism scheme over fracking activism | A 14-year-old A* student was referred to the UK government’s anti-extremism programme following concerns he was being “groomed” for environmental activism by anti-frackers. Campaigners said that the decision to refer him to the Prevent programme was “incredibly alarming” and “offensive”. The boy, known by the pseudonym Aaron, was targeted via social media after signing an online petition, according to a report on preventing extremism in Greater Manchester commissioned in the aftermath of last year’s Manchester Arena attack. The main activist stopped only when police made them the subject of an abduction notice, the report claimed. This prohibited them from making contact with a named child. A breach of such a notice is a criminal offence. Aaron was initially encouraged by local activists to participate in protests and hand out leaflets, but the approaches became “progressively more aggressive to the point where Aaron was on the periphery of engaging in criminal behaviour and frequently reported to the police as missing by his parents”, the report said. Fracking for shale gas has become a hugely divisive issue since the government started to encourage exploration. Protest camps have been set up all over the country by demonstrators intent on disrupting the process, including one camp at Barton Moss in Salford in Greater Manchester in 2013. Aaron began to use the ”dark web” to engage with activists to discuss fracking, according to the report by the Greater Manchester Preventing Hateful Extremism and Promoting Social Cohesion Commission. The commission found mental health and learning difficulties were a common feature in the cases they examined. His parents were so worried that they extensively monitored his online activity and accepted help from Channel, an individualised, multi-agency, support package offered as part of the government’s anti-extremism Prevent programme. Aaron had a number of underlying vulnerabilities, including potentially undiagnosed autistic spectrum disorder and was socially isolated and prone to self-harm, the report said. The family was initially offered a “therapeutic long-term intervention”. But the report said that despite the best efforts of the therapeutic team, the intervention had minimal impact on his behaviour: his school attendance continued to be poor and visits to rallies and engagement with the activists continued. “Having explored a number of avenues, with limited success, a decision was made to issue an abduction notice to the main protagonist of the social media lobbying. These notices prohibit an individual from making contact with a named child and a breach is a criminal offence,” the report said. “Within two hours of the notice being issued, Aaron was ‘de-friended’ on social media by all those individuals who had encouraged his activist behaviour. When Aaron tried to access his activist ‘friends’, he received no responses and as such, while the underlying vulnerabilities still remain and continue to be monitored, the threat in terms of his involvement in extremist activity, which had been becoming more intense, was resolved.” The report suggests that police and other partners should learn “from other crime types such as child sexual exploitation” and translate the tactics into other arenas should be translated into other arenas. “The impact of social media in terms of ‘grooming’ of vulnerable and isolated individuals cannot be [overestimated]. In this case, the parents were extremely adept at monitoring social media activity. This is not the norm,” the report’s authors said, recommending more work should be done locally and nationally to increase the awareness of the impact and influence of social media. A few months later, Aaron is more settled at school, his attendance has improved and he is engaging with appropriate peers, the report claimed. Baroness Jenny Jones, a Green peer, said that she was troubled by environmental activism classed as extremism. “Of course we must protect vulnerable young people from those advocating violence or activities designed to harm others, and it is right for an investigation to take place and for appropriate safeguards to be put in place,” she said. “But that is different from blocking involvement in the democratic process. It is incredibly alarming to see anti-fracking activism categorised by police in the same way as extremism. This case sets a concerning precedent for the future of peaceful protest in the UK.” Kevin Blowe, coordinator of the Network for Police Monitoring pressure group, said that the case was “profoundly disquieting”. “Opposition to fracking falls a considerable distance outside of the report’s own definition of what constitutes ‘hateful extremism’,” he added. “The idea that encouraging others to get involved in politics and campaigning - the exercise of fundamental democratic values on an issue of profound local and national concern - is somehow akin to sexual exploitation or ‘grooming’ is simply offensive. “It speaks volumes about everything that is wrong with Prevent and how it is used to stifle political dissent.” | ['world/activism', 'world/protest', 'uk/greater-manchester', 'environment/fracking', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helenpidd', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/fracking | ENERGY | 2018-07-30T11:00:27Z | true | ENERGY |
food/2018/nov/10/brown-ripe-banana-katsu-curry-recipe-tom-hunt-waste-not | Brown is beautiful: some ripe banana recipes | Waste Not | In Britain, we throw away 1.4m bananas every day – and that’s not to mention the unfathomable numbers that get wasted in supermarkets and on farms: all destroyed for being too wonky, too straight or for minor imperfections and brown spots. If we could acquire a taste for brown bananas, things would be different. They are sweet, tasty and energy-rich, so next time buy a blemished bunch: you’ll likely be saving them from being wasted, and may even get a discount, if you ask nicely. If you can’t quite bring yourself to eat a squishy fruit raw, it still makes a great ingredient. Bake a banana bread, use as a binder instead of eggs in cakes and muffins, boil up into a Jamaican jam, or go to town and turn them into a katsu curry. Brown banana katsu curry with breaded cauliflower steaks Brown bananas bring a sweetness to the katsu sauce, making it all the more comforting and delicious. I’ve chosen breaded cauliflower, but the sauce goes well with any breaded seasonal vegetable, tofu or meat. Experiment with what you have available – this is a really fun curry to make yourself. Prep 15 min Cook 30 min Serves 2 1 onion, peeled and diced 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped Oil, for frying 1 tsp turmeric 1 tbsp curry powder 500ml vegetable stock 1 tbsp tomato ketchup 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 green apple, diced 1 brown banana, skin on, finely sliced 1 small cauliflower 30g flour 1 egg, beaten 150g breadcrumbs To serve Rice 1 spring onion, sliced Sesame seeds To make the curry sauce, fry the onion and garlic in oil for three minutes, add the turmeric and curry powder, then fry for two minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the stock, ketchup, soy sauce, apple and banana. Simmer for 15 minutes, then blend and season to taste. To make the breaded cauliflower, remove the leaves and cut slabs from the centre of the cauliflower to make two, 2cm-thick “steaks”. Choose a few small leaves and return the rest, including the remaining cauliflower, to the fridge for a future meal. Lay out three wide bowls. Put the flour in one, the beaten egg in the second and breadcrumbs in the third. Dust each cauliflower steak first with flour, then with egg, and finally with the breadcrumbs. Heat a saucepan or wok with a good glug of oil and, when hot, fry the breaded cauliflower on each side until golden brown. Meanwhile, steam or boil the cauliflower leaves for four minutes, until tender. Serve the breaded cauliflower on rice, topped with the brown banana katsu curry sauce, scatter with sliced spring onions and sesame seeds, and serve the steamed leaves on the side. Note: If you have any leftover egg, flour and breadcrumbs, mix them together and make an omelette to serve alongside the curry. | ['food/series/waste-not', 'food/food', 'tone/recipes', 'tone/features', 'environment/food-waste', 'environment/environment', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/waste', 'food/fruit', 'type/article', 'profile/tom-hunt', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/feast', 'theguardian/feast/feast', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/feast'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2018-11-10T06:00:37Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/desalination-boom-california-drought-reverse-osmosis | A desalination boom in California could help it deal with 'exceptional' drought | Adaptation to changing weather patterns is a principal driver that underpins a multi-decade opportunity when considering investments in the water sector. As the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns leads governments and municipalities to look at new water infrastructure investments, drought-ravaged California could be a large potential contributor to the 19% annual growth expectations in global desalination market. With an approximate global capacity of nearly 80m cubic meters per day, about 1% of fresh water consumed globally is derived from desalination. Traditionally this technique has been associated with the oil rich Gulf States such as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, where low energy costs have driven thermal desalination which is based on evaporation and the subsequent condensation of the steam as potable water. Energy consumption, traditionally high with desalination, has been significantly reduced in the past two decades, partly due to the widespread uptake of reverse osmosis technology (RO). This process removes the salt by filtration, using membrane technology. RO now accounts for nearly 60% of global desalination capacity. The International Desalination Association (IDA) has challenged the industry to achieve a further reduction of 20% in energy requirements for seawater desalination by 2015 – to be achieved through a combination of the integration of renewable energy, the use of lower pressure solutions and potential advances in membrane technologies. Incumbent technology providers to the industry include membrane manufacturers such as industrial and chemical giants Siemens and Dow Chemical, as well as smaller players including Japanese group Kubota or US filtration membrane specialist Pall Corporation and the Treatment Technologies division of French water specialist Veolia Environnement. Other demonstration stage technologies are under development at institutions such as Stanford and MIT and aim to achieve similar desalination results with significant energy savings. The US is currently the second largest global desalination market by installed capacity (led by RO) for industrial applications. However, in the last decade, the rate of capacity expansion in the US has fallen behind Spain, Saudi Arabia (where 70% of all drinking water comes from desalination) and the UAE. But will this continue? So far, California is enduring its hottest year on record, contributing to the state's worst level of drought in the past 40 years, according to a report this month from the National Climatic Data Center. Nearly one-third of the state is now in "exceptional" drought, witnessed in particular in the San Francisco Bay area, parts of Silicon Valley and the farmlands of central California. A May report from the University of California-Davis estimated that "water shortages would cause the fallowing of 410,000 acres, the loss of 14,500 jobs and cost the (agricultural) industry $1.7bn in the state's most productive agricultural region". So what is being done? Historically, more water has been pumped from the State Water project, a facility comprising storage reservoirs, pumping stations and other canals which provide water supplies for 25 million Californians and 750,000 acres of irrigated farmland. However, local authorities are turning to the potential of desalination, despite entrenched views about high costs associated with the technology. According to a 2013 study from the state Department of Water Resources, desalinated water typically costs about $3 per cubic meter, approximately double that of water obtained from building a new reservoir or recycling wastewater. Meanwhile technological developments in reverse osmosis in particular, look likely to bring the cost down to less than $1 per cubic meter, largely due to its lower energy requirement. In California alone, 15 desalination projects are proposed along the coast from Carlsbad to Los Angeles and up to San Francisco Bay. In Carlsbad, Poseidon Resources is nearing completion of a $1bn plant that is expected to produce up to 190,000 cubic meters (50m gallons) of fresh water a day, fulfilling about 7% of the region's water demand. This facility will lessen the region's dependence on the Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, both increasingly unreliable in terms of supply. Furthermore, in recent months, Santa Barbara's City Council voted to spend nearly $1m to hire an engineering firm, law firm and lobbyist to try to restart the city's shuttered desalination plant by 2016, while in Monterey County, restrictions on withdrawals from the Carmel River have led American Water to begin studies into three possible locations to build a desalination plant to replace lost volumes. In Los Angeles, leaders of the West Basin Municipal Water District, which serves about 100,000 people, have built a pilot plant in Redondo Beach and are studying plans for a $300m desalination plant by 2020. The IDA emphasises that environmental safeguards have become increasingly important in the siting and permitting of new plants and that monitoring programmes are being more widely utilised. Lower energy consumption also reduces a plant's carbon footprint, and in addition, new technologies are being used successfully to lessen disruptions to marine life during the intake and outfall processes. Studies such as the International Desalintion Association's Blue Paper on Desalination and the Gulf have raised awareness of steps to leverage best practices and mitigate potential environmental effects of desalination. Desalination is not a solve-all solution; it can harm marine life and remains costly. But as drought continues to affect water supplies internationally, it will be fascinating to follow the growth of this industry. Simon Gottelier runs the water strategy at Impax The water hub is funded by SABMiller. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. Join the community of sustainability professionals and experts. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'guardian-professional/sustainability', 'environment/water', 'environment/drought', 'environment/flooding', 'tone/blog', 'technology/technology', 'us-news/california', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'type/article'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-06-30T12:05:25Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2015/feb/24/irobot-roomba-880-review-robotic-vacuum-cleaner-thats-almost-a-pet | iRobot Roomba 880 review: a robotic vacuum cleaner that's almost a pet | In science fiction, robots are usually attempting to take over the world and kill us all. In real life, it turns out they can be rather useful for cleaning the lounge carpet. Terminator – of dust! The iRobot Roomba 880 is the current king of the robotic vacuums, but is it any good and how does it compare to a standard vacuum? What is that thing against the wall? The Roomba certainly doesn’t look like vacuum. The puck-shaped disc is approximately the size of a car’s steering wheel in diameter and the height of a mug. On the top are four buttons and a handle, with a big central “clean” power button and four other buttons with which to set the clock, cleaning schedule, return the robot to its dock, or concentrate on a single, troublesome spot. Hasta la vista, dog hair... Programming Programming the robot for a schedule is easy. Select the day, input a time and press “OK”. As long as the clock is set correctly, the Roomba will trundle off on a cleaning run and return to base when it has finished, or run out of battery. In testing, I experienced a couple of issues with the clock going wrong, once caused by a power surge, and once when the Roomba got trapped in a room and ran out of battery. It lost time when it was recharged and I failed to notice, which meant it turned on in the middle of the night and woke everyone up. The Roomba 880 is capable of cleaning several rooms on one charge, and will spend a maximum of 25 minutes in each room before moving on. Two “Virtual Wall Lighthouses” are included in the box. They simulate a wall in doorways, preventing the robot from passing into the next room until it has finished in the first, and then help it find its way back to the charging base. Once the robot has finished cleaning, or when the bin is full or the battery runs low, it will automatically return to the charging dock. Cleaning Disappointingly, on its first outing the robot doesn’t clean as well as a human with a decent, ordinary vacuum cleaner. But Roomba is designed to clean once a day rather than once a week, which means the first run takes a while because the bin is small and has to be emptied several times. After a couple of days the bin only needs emptying once or twice a week, depending on the floor type and size of the cleaning area. In a medium-sized two-bedroom flat, I ended up emptying the bin and cleaning the filters once a week. The spinning bush and central suction band do a solid job of cleaning even the edges of a room. Some spots that Roomba can’t reach will need to be cleaned with a handheld vacuum – including stairs – but overall the cleaning is quite impressive. The 880 also comes with a remote control, which can be used to steer it towards a particularly dirty patch. It can also be used to steer the robot away if it gets stuck under something, though generally it can get under most furniture without an issue. If the brush gets tangled up with cables or loose paper, the main suction channel can be removed and cleaned by releasing a few screws or clips – a two minute job. Maintenance The drop sensors, the bin, the air filters and the front wheel need regular maintenance: iRobot recommends once a week, but you can probably get away with less than that. The air filters need cleaning by just tapping on the side when the robot’s bin is emptied. Price The iRobot Roomba 880 costs £600, which is at least £300 more than most other normal vacuum cleaners. Verdict The iRobot Roomba 880 is a much better vacuum cleaner than you’d expect. As a robot it does what it says on the tin – cleans the floor when you set it to and returns to base afterwards. It requires little in the way of maintenance and just gets on with the job. But it does take on a life of its own. I have become surprisingly attached to it, like a little robotic cleaning pet. When it has caught and screwed up bits of paper or got stuck somewhere, I’ve felt more sorry for it than annoyed. I’ve then made a special effort to keep things off the floor, which is all round a good thing. Whether the 880 is worth the cost over a traditional vacuum cleaner comes down to how much you dislike vacuuming. Cheaper Roomba models are available which are more in line with the cost of a traditional cleaner, plus it probably works out cheaper than hiring a human cleaner. For those that are very tidy and constantly clean, the Roomba probably isn’t for you, but for the rest of us, robotic vacuum cleaners are finally worth buying. I’m even thinking about buying another one for upstairs. Pros: hassle-free cleaning, that just-vacuumed feeling without the effort every day, easy to maintain and programme, remote control, effective cleaning Cons: expensive, will need another cleaner for the stairs and odd bits, needs filters changing | ['technology/robots', 'technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2015-02-24T10:34:18Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/2019/feb/11/bourke-cotton-farmers-to-challenge-water-laws-they-are-accused-of-breaching | Bourke cotton farmers to challenge water laws they are accused of breaching | A landmark trial of prominent Bourke cotton farmers accused of illegal pumping from the Barwon-Darling when the river was low is set to become a test of the robustness of New South Wales’s water laws. Michael Elliott SC foreshadowed in the NSW Land and Environment Court today that the defendants, Peter and Jane Harris, would challenge every aspect of the state’s water laws they are accused of breaching, including the accuracy of the government’s water gauges and administrative procedures followed. The Harrises are charged with breaching an approval associated with their water licence for Beemery farm, a large property on the banks of the Barwon River. The water licence they held entitled them to pump water from the Barwon River for irrigation using up to four pumps. But an associated approval said they could pump only when the flows in the Barwon-Darling system, as measured at the Bourke weir, exceeded 4,894 megalitres a day. If the river flow fell below that flow rate they were to cease pumping. In 2017 the ABC’s Four Corners program alleged that some cotton farmers along the Barwon-Darling were illegally pumping water during low flow events and pumping during embargoes which are designed to protect environmental flows as they pass down the river. The Harrises were named in the program as having taken water during low flow events, in breach of the state’s water laws. Each offence comes with a $247,500 maximum penalty. Outlining his case, counsel for the prosecution, Scott Aspinall, said the Harrises had three 664mm pumps operating. Each was capable of pumping between 100 and 140 megalitres a day from the Barwon – the equivalent of 50 to 60 Olympic swimming pools of water each. Between 22 June and 30 June 2016 – when the offences are said to have occurred – Aspinall said there were records showing that the Harrises were pumping water despite the flows at the Bourke gauge having fallen to as low as 2,500 megalitres. Over the eight-day period covered by the charges, the river flow was, at best, 3,800 megalitres a day, which was more than 1,000 megalitres below the minimum flow to allow pumping, he said. “The charge is that approximately 1.8 gigalitres was taken in contravention of the condition of the approval,” Aspinall said. The Four Corners report has led to intense scrutiny of the NSW government’s poor record of enforcement of its water laws, particularly against big irrigators. After a scathing independent inquiry by Ken Matthews, who recommended some matters be referred to the corruption watchdog, the government created a new independent regulatory body, the Natural Resources Regulator, to enforce the laws. In March 2018 WaterNSW finally launched two prosecutions for breaches that occurred during 2016. Anthony Barlow, from Mungindi, pleaded guilty just before Christmas and is awaiting sentencing. The Harrises, however, chose to fight their charges. In the first day of the hearing, Elliott, for the Harrises, foreshadowed calling an expert witness, Dr Daniel Martins, to challenge the accuracy of the flows at the Bourke gauge. This measurement is central to the charges. There are also likely to be questions about why the gauge was moved and whether its location 6km upstream from the weir affects its readings. There is also likely to be a challenge over the way the government converted the old water licences granted under the 1912 Water Act into the new modern licences which were created in 2012, under the Barwon-Darling Water sharing plan. In evidence on the first day, WaterNSW’s expert hydrologist, Glen McDermott, said that under the official standards used to measure water flow, gauges had to be within +/-10% accuracy and that the Bourke gauge was rated as +/-5%. He said it did not particularly matter where the gauge was located in the weir pool, provided it was calibrated correctly because the flow rate in the entire weir pool would be the same. The hearing continues on Tuesday. | ['australia-news/murray-darling-basin', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/water', 'environment/farming', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/new-south-wales-politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/anne-davies', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-02-11T08:09:36Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2021/jun/09/mice-floods-and-the-climate-crisis-why-your-insurance-wont-cover-society-wide-catastrophes | Mice, floods and the climate crisis: why your insurance won’t cover society-wide catastrophes | Richard Denniss | No matter how much you pay for your home or car insurance, if your property is damaged by mouse plague, nuclear radiation, war or rising sea levels you are almost certainly on your own. If you’re lucky, your insurance might cover you against storms but maybe not against floods (you know the difference, right?). Likewise, your insurance almost certainly doesn’t cover you against storm surges or a dam bursting. Australians spend more than $10bn for non-life insurance products each year, even though there’s only a one in 500 chance your house will catch fire. That’s why there’s so much profit to be made in insurance. If a forecaster says something’s likely to happen, then it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to get insurance against it. Insurance is like a lottery in reverse; lots of people lose a little bit of money paying for premiums they don’t claim against, a few people get a fair bit of money, and the insurer makes a lot of money for handing one group of people’s money to the other. As with gambling, the house always wins. Which brings me back to mice, nuclear power stations and climate change. There is a plague of mice rampaging from Queensland through northern New South Wales. Some farmers and small business owners have lost their entire income. So far the cost is estimated to be about $1bn but unless the mice eat through your wiring and burn your house down, insurance almost certainly won’t cover any losses. While insurance companies make their profit out of our fear of an individual catastrophe, they would lose their entire business if they insured against society-wide catastrophe. We take it for granted that insurance companies will pay out if an accident hits our car or house but most people rarely think about what will happen if catastrophe hits us all at once. Which is why the small print on insurance premiums is so small. The Fukushima nuclear disaster is likely to cost the Japanese government more than $500bn in damages and compensation simply because no private company would build a nuclear plant if it were liable for those costs, and no private insurance company would ever take on such a large risk. If there was an accident at Lucas Heights in Sydney, people would need to rely on government support as their insurance explicitly doesn’t cover the costs. For the same reasons, a growing number of insurers are reluctant to insure Australians living in the tropics against storm damage. Just as no bookmaker will take a $10bn bet on the flip of a coin, no insurance company will take a bet that nuclear power stations won’t have accidents or that sea levels aren’t going to rise in the next 50 years. While you can still get cyclone insurance in northern Australia, the prices are rising rapidly as global temperatures rise and tropical cyclone intensity increases. In response, the Morrison government announced a $10bn “reinsurance pool” to help lower insurance premiums for northern Australians. But not even the insurance industry thinks that will work. According to the chief executive of Suncorp, Steve Johnston, “disaster mitigation, rather than disaster clean-up, is where Australia should focus. It is a sad fact that 97 cents of every dollar of disaster funding goes to recovery and rebuild. The remaining 3 cents spent on preparation and mitigation is but a small drop in a rapidly filling bucket.” While we could force insurance companies to cover all Australians for the risks of mice, nuclear accidents and tropical cyclones, that wouldn’t make the risks go away, it would just redistribute the cost. Just as forcing insurance companies to provide insurance to young people with powerful cars and poor driving records would inevitably drive up the cost of everybody else’s insurance, so too would requiring insurance companies to offer insurance to those who face the almost inevitable costs of climate change. Just as the best form of health insurance is a healthy diet and regular exercise, the best way to keep insurance premiums down is to prevent climate change and the disasters it causes. If we want to subsidise the cost of insurance for vulnerable groups, we can choose to do that but, if we take that route, it makes sense to not just ask who should benefit, but who should pay. According to Australia Institute research 65% of Australians support a levy on fossil fuel exports to help pay for climate disasters (only 21% are opposed). Such a levy wouldn’t directly help with the costs of a mouse plague, but it would mean governments could provide a lot more help to the latest victims if they wanted to. • Richard Denniss is chief economist at the independent thinktank the Australia Institute | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'business/insurance', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/flooding', 'world/extreme-weather', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/richard-denniss', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-06-09T03:27:13Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2018/oct/11/hurricane-michael-explained-biggest-florida-storm-all-you-need-to-know-extreme-weather | Hurricane Michael: everything you need to know on the record-breaking storm | Hurricane Michael lashed the Carolinas on Thursday after it claimed at least six lives and tore a trail of carnage through Florida and Georgia. Here is what you need to know about one of the strongest storms ever to strike the United States. It broke records Michael, with sustained winds of 155mph (135 knots), is the first category 4 hurricane to make landfall on Florida’s Panhandle and the fourth strongest storm ever to strike the United States. Only three category 5 storms have made a US landfall: the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 (160 kts), Hurricane Camille (1969: 152 kts) and Hurricane Andrew (1992: 145 kts). It came from nowhere As recently as Sunday morning, Michael was a badly organised system of rain clouds “meandering off the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula”, according to the National Hurricane Centre. It powered up quickly into a tropical storm by Sunday night then sprinted north across the Gulf of Mexico, leaping from a category 2 to 4 hurricane in just hours on Tuesday night, a record-setting pace. It was a late arrival While cyclones can and do form any time during the six-month Atlantic hurricane season that runs from 1 June to 30 November, it is unusual for a late-season hurricane to pack such power, and even rarer for one to make landfall. Historically, the strongest storms have formed during the season’s peak summer months of August and September when ocean temperatures are warmer. It was predicted Michael is the 12th named storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season (storms are traditionally allocated a name when they reach the status of a tropical storm). Although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) announced in August it was lowering its expectation to a “below normal” season, it still predicted nine to 13 named storms, up to two of them category 3 or higher, by season’s end. It’s going to cost Hurricane Katrina (2005) and Hurricane Harvey (2017) share top billing as the most costly US storms, both weighing in at $125bn, the NHC says. It’s too soon to calculate Michael’s economic impact but the scale of devastation makes it certain to challenge for a top-five place, perhaps above Hurricane Sandy (2012: $65bn). AccuWeather predicts losses will exceed $30bn. It’s heading for retirement There will never be another Hurricane Michael. The National Hurricane Centre rotates storm names annually and adopts a boy-girl-boy-girl list of consecutive storm names in any given year. At the end of each season it removes and replaces the names of any particularly deadly or costly storms. Michael, and last month’s Florence, will be retired this year in the same way as Harvey, Irma and Maria were in 2017. | ['us-news/hurricane-michael', 'world/hurricanes', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-10-11T20:33:11Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/oct/09/secrecy-around-air-pollution-controls-in-cars-faces-legal-challenge | Secrecy around air pollution controls in cars faces legal challenge | New EU rules that allow car manufacturers to keep pollution control systems secret from the public should be declared illegal, according to environmental lawyers. The systems can legally cut emissions controls under certain conditions on the road, meaning more pollution is produced. But keeping these strategies secret risks another “dieselgate” scandal, according to ClientEarth lawyers, who announced on Monday that they are seeking to challenge the regulation in the European Union’s court of justice. In the dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen were caught cheating emissions rules by using software to hoodwink lab-based tests. New stricter tests came into force in September in the EU, including an on-the-road component. However, manufacturers say the emissions controls must still be ramped down at certain temperatures to protect engines. Car makers must declare such strategies to national regulators but they claim that making them public would breach their commercial confidentiality. ClientEarth disagrees, arguing that such secrecy violates EU law. “Dieselgate uncovered the huge lack of political will to hold car manufacturers to account for dangerous and illegal emissions,” said ClientEarth lawyer Anaïs Berthier. “To allow industry to continue keeping information on its emissions secret now sounds like a bad joke.” “This information must be public, so individuals and NGOs can monitor whether car manufacturers are complying with vehicle emissions rules and if national authorities are keeping the industry on the straight and narrow,” she said. Until recently, virtually all diesel cars emitted far more nitrogen dioxide on the road than in lab tests, resulting in higher levels of pollution across the world. In the UK, where 23,500 people are estimated to die early due to NO2 pollution each year, ClientEarth has twice defeated the government in the courts over the adequacy of ministers’ air pollution plans and the most recent plan was declared “woefully inadequate” by city leaders and “inexcusable” by doctors. ClientEarth lawyers argue that the confidentiality provision of EU Regulation (2017/1154) should be annulled by the EU court of justice. They believe the confidentiality rules violate EU laws governing access to environmental information and the international Aarhus Convention, which is designed to ensure public access to environmental information. A spokesman for the European commission said: “The commission has already taken robust action to limit the continuous exposure to harmful air pollution and to ensure that citizens are well informed.” Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, which represents the car industry in the UK, said: “The UK automotive industry is investing billions of pounds in new technology to reduce emissions and pass the toughest emission testing regime in the world. Manufacturers must, however, guard all their intellectual property, including information on the emission control systems provided to [national] Type Approval Authorities, as this will be commercially sensitive.” However, ClientEarth lawyer Ugo Taddei said national authorities had failed to protect the public in the past: “To avoid a new dieselgate, tackle the widespread emission tampering practices and put an end to their detrimental and unacceptable health impacts across Europe, we need transparency, not tests carried out by discredited authorities and reckless manufacturers behind closed doors.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'technology/motoring', 'business/automotive-industry', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'technology/technology', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-10-09T12:16:09Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
australia-news/2019/mar/25/morrison-government-set-to-offer-taxpayer-backing-for-queensland-power | Morrison government set to offer taxpayer backing for Queensland power | The energy minister, Angus Taylor, has signalled to restive Queensland Nationals that taxpayer backing for a dispatchable energy project is on the way as one of the rebel MPs has warned a decision is necessary before the election. With cabinet set to consider energy among a range of issues on Tuesday, with the budget looming and the federal election now only weeks way, Taylor told journalists it was “critically important” that Queensland see more competition in power generation, and more dispatchable supply. “We want to see more dispatchable supply and competition in the marketplace,” Taylor said on Monday. “It is critically important that it happens in Queensland.” Six Queensland Nationals have demanded their leader, Michael McCormack, and Taylor take “immediate action” to underwrite new power station construction in regional Queensland – a concerted push launched at the beginning of March that fractured the government, because Liberals believe a taxpayer-backed coal commitment would derail their chances in the coming contest. The Nationals desisted from public campaigning in the lead up to the state election in New South Wales last weekend, but with some state Nationals thumped in Saturday’s contest, and with their own federal reckoning looming, government MPs are now pressing senior figures for a commitment on an energy project in Queensland. The former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce warned on Saturday night as the NSW results came in that his party would pursue more aggressive product differentiation, sending a “different message in regional areas” from the Liberal party. If the Nationals failed to differentiate, the party would risk another round of punishment in the federal contest, Joyce said. “The Liberal party, as we go into this federal election, has to understand there are different constituencies, and we have to stand up for ours, or what was reflected at a state election will be reflected at a federal election.” The Queensland National Keith Pitt, who is one of the group of six, welcomed Taylor’s public signal on Monday, and declared action was necessary in the state “because we have a state monopoly which is driving up people’s power prices”. Asked whether the government needed to deliver a specific commitment on a new power generation project for the state before the election, Pitt said: “Clearly we have to tell the people supporting us what it is we intend to do for them.” The Morrison government has developed a program where taxpayers underwrite new power generation. Taylor has confirmed more than 60 proposals are currently before the government for consideration, including around 10 coal projects. The government has indicated it will give support to the battery of the nation hydro project in Tasmania, but is yet to release a shortlist of other projects it intends to back. The energy minister has been dead batting questions for months about when the shortlist will be released, and continued to do that on Monday. “We’ll announce it when we are ready,” Taylor said. The energy minister said more dispatchable power was needed in Queensland to boost competition “because what we’ve got up there is a Queensland government that is gouging – it is taking $1.65bn from the marketplace”. While many of the Nationals want coal, Morrison has already signalled the government is unlikely to pursue a new coal project in Queensland because the state Labor government won’t approve a new power station. “For such a project to proceed, it would require the approval of a Queensland state government,” Morrison said in the middle of March. “The Queensland state government has no intention of approving any such projects. At all.” Morrison said his focus was on “things that actually will happen” and “not in hypothetical debates”. If the government won’t support new coal for the state, logically, other options include gas or pumped hydro, or firmed renewables. | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/coal', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/national-party', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'australia-news/barnaby-joyce', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/coal | ENERGY | 2019-03-25T04:57:02Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/oct/19/uk-deregulation-alarming-lack-progress-30x30-nature-target-aoe | UK shows ‘alarming lack of progress’ in hitting vital 30x30 nature target | The UK will miss its key nature pledge to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 unless it scraps plans to deregulate environmental protections, a new report has warned. The UK is one of more than 100 countries committed to protecting “30x30” as a way to halt the destruction of the natural world. However, just 3.22% of land in England and 8% of the sea is being properly protected and managed for nature, according to the report from the environmental charities coalition Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL). Campaigners say there has been an “alarming lack of progress” since the government made the pledge in 2020, when it automatically included national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) in its calculations. In the past year, just another 0.22% more land in England has been protected and another 4% more of the sea. This is despite the UK leading calls for other countries to meet the 30x30 target at the Cop15 nature meeting in Montreal this December, where the next decade of UN targets will be drawn up. Plans to liberalise planning laws, repeal EU environmental protections and scrap legislation to promote nature-friendly farming were pushing England – and the rest of the UK – in the wrong direction, the report said. A “deregulatory agenda is being pursued that puts the very heart of the 30x30 commitment at risk”, it said. “At this rate of progress, 30x30 will remain an empty promise that does not change the state of nature.” Craig Bennett, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said: “This report shows an alarming lack of progress. Pursuing a dangerous agenda of deregulation and weakening support for nature-friendly farming will make the path to 30x30 even harder, threatening our soil health and pollinators, undermining our food security, and wiping out vulnerable species, like hedgehogs and turtle doves.” The report said the Habitats Regulations, which derive from EU environment law, should be the backbone of 30x30 but were being undermined on multiple fronts. It criticises plans by Liz Truss to repeal hundreds of EU environment laws by the end of 2023. Government proposals to create “investment zones” with “liberalised” planning laws would also result in weaker nature protection in those areas, it said. While the analysis looked at England alone, the UK needs to achieve 30x30 as a single entity, so requires the cooperation of governments in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland to reach the target. Richard Benwell, head of WCL, said 30x30 was a “brilliant environmental promise and the government still has the chance to set an international lead in restoring nature. Unfortunately, our figures show that in the race to halt nature’s decline by 2030, the government is limping backwards. At this rate, the government’s prospects of effectively protecting 30% of the land and sea for nature by 2030 are vanishing.” Since the last report in 2021, the government has added just three new sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) – Swanscombe peninsula, Dearne Valley Wetlands and Cotswold Water Park – which account for the 0.22% increase in protected land. SSSIs are among the most important nature sites in England but only 38% are “in favourable condition”. The report also found there has been no significant improvement in the monitoring or management of existing protected areas. The report recommends the government strengthen protection of national parks and AONBs, which cover 28% of UK land and which the government includes in its calculations to reach the 30x30 target. However, most UK national parks and AONBs provide “negligible benefits” for wildlife, according to the British Ecological Society’s Protected Areas and Nature Recovery report. The reasons for this include poor farming practices, pollution and the spread of non-native species. The report said protected areas were underfunded and as a result had had to make compromises that leave wildlife worse off. The WCL report also said existing protected sites, including SSSIs, should be brought into good condition with a legally binding target to make sure 75% of them were in favourable condition by 2042. The 75% target was made in 2018 as part of the 25-year environment plan, but it is not legally binding. For the sea, five highly protected marine area (HPMA) sites recently earmarked in a pilot project should be created, and more need to be designated so they cover at least 10% of England’s seas by 2030. Existing marine protected areas should be improved and damaging practices such as bottom trawling should be banned. Beccy Speight, chief executive of the RSPB, said: “Recent events would indicate that the UK government may be actually dismantling the fundamental building blocks needed to achieve this target by proposing plans to scrap the laws that protect nature, and funding for nature friendly farmers.” The news comes as Truss is accused by wildlife charities and former ministers of an “attack on nature” by prioritising economic growth and tearing up important wildlife protections in doing so. A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to halting the decline of nature by 2030 and will not undermine our obligations to the environment in pursuit of growth. A strong environment and a strong economy go hand in hand. We have legislated through the Environment Act and will continue to improve our regulations, marine protections and wildlife laws in line with our ambitious vision.” | ['environment/series/the-age-of-extinction', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/farming', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/phoebe-weston', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-10-18T23:01:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
us-news/2023/apr/03/california-snowpack-storms-drought | Drought-ravaged California sees one of the largest snowpacks on record | California’s winter of extreme storms has brought the drought-ravaged state one of the largest snowpacks on record, with officials saying on Monday that they expect it could be the greatest documented in 70 years. As of Monday the state’s snowpack stands at 237% of the annual average, the department of water resources (DWR) announced at a press conference. “It’s looking like this year’s statewide snowpack will probably most likely be either the first or second biggest snowpack on record dating back to 1950,” said Sean de Guzman with DWR, who described it as the deepest snowpack he had ever measured. While the dozen or so atmospheric river storms and several “bomb cyclones” that hit California in recent months brought deadly flooding and snowstorms, they also had a positive effect by allowing reservoirs to refill and alleviating drought in much of the state. But California is still grappling with the aftermath of the storms, which broke levees, tore down trees and knocked out power lines, and officials are preparing for more problems in the months ahead. As the snowpack melts in the spring and summer, even more significant flooding is expected, said Karla Nemeth, the DWR director. Flooding will pose a particular challenge in the Tulare Lake Basin, where the formerly dried out body of water, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, has returned amid the record rain. Officials are focused on public safety and flood protection and are keeping a close eye on the central valley and the Tulare Basin, she said. The state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, recently signed an executive order to help the flood response in the basin. “With historic rain and snowpack creating immense challenges for this region, our first priority is protecting lives and livelihoods impacted by this devastating flooding,” Newsom said. “State officials are on the ground to assist communities, support the local emergency response under way and prepare for the surge of snowmelt runoff in the months ahead.” Even after this year’s deluge, the drought is not entirely over for the state, officials have warned. Newsom described California as being “mostly but not completely” out of drought at a recent news conference. While he rolled back some of the most severe drought restrictions last week, he has not yet lifted the drought emergency. The state is in a unique moment, Nemeth said, and still must manage its water efficiently. “Even though we have this extraordinary snowpack, we know that the droughts are getting deeper and more frequent and that means we have to use water efficiently no matter what our hydrologic conditions,” she said. “When we have these very significant water years, we need to do more to make sure we can capture that supply put it into reservoirs and move it underground.” | ['us-news/california', 'us-news/us-weather', 'world/snow', 'environment/flooding', 'campaign/email/us-morning-newsletter', 'world/extreme-weather', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dani-anguiano', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-04-03T21:35:22Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2015/feb/16/balfour-beatty-sells-stake-windfarm-system-thanet | Balfour Beatty sells Thanet windfarm transmission system stake | Balfour Beatty has sold 80% of the transmission system for a windfarm off the coast of Kent to an infrastructure investment fund. Sale of the stake in the Thanet offshore transmission project (Thanet Ofto) to Equitix will release £40m to Balfour Beatty. Thanet Ofto connects the 300MW Thanet windfarm to the onshore transmission grid. The farm produces enough electricity for about 200,000 homes a year from 100 turbine generators. Balfour will continue to operate and maintain the system under a 20-year licence. The company started work on Thanet Ofto after it was named preferred bidder in 2010. The deal was completed for £164m last December but Balfour Beatty said that sum included the contract to operate the facility. Balfour Beatty last month increased the estimated value of its infrastructure investments to £1.3bn from £1.05bn in June 2014 as part of a business review under its new chief executive, Leo Quinn. He took over after a string of profit warnings caused by project overruns, rising costs and underpricing of contracts. Quinn said: “This disposal validates the directors’ valuation of the investments portfolio, which was updated last month, and clearly demonstrates the investment business’s ongoing ability to deliver significant value for the group. “The Ofto sector remains a key market, which is why we have retained 20% ownership in Thanet, and we look forward to working with our partner, Equitix, to ensure the long-term success of this project.” A spokesman for Balfour Beatty said it was normal for the company to sell stakes in projects to release funds for further investment while retaining operation and maintenance work. | ['business/balfourbeatty', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/construction', 'environment/windpower', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sean-farrell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2015-02-16T08:59:32Z | true | ENERGY |
big-energy-debate/2014/sep/05/conflict-middle-east-energy-security-putin | Why Middle East conflict is a bigger threat to UK energy security than Putin | With much of the media focus over recent weeks on the political crisis in Ukraine and EU and US sanctions against Russia, Europe’s future energy security seems further adrift than ever. But Europe’s biggest problem isn’t this winter’s gas supplies; it is our economy’s continued reliance on imported fossil fuels – oil in particular. Some of the most important dynamics affecting oil markets today are happening in the Middle East. For those of us following energy markets closely, news of political turmoil in the Middle East are a familiar part of our work. But the past few years have been rather exceptional. It’s not just the increasingly diverse sources of regional and domestic conflict in the area and the rising number of Middle Eastern oil and gas producers that are unprecedented, but how the oil markets have responded to conflict. Losses from Libya and from Iran under intensified sanctions since mid-2012 have so far accounted for the largest portion of supply disruptions from the region over the past two years, with smaller additional losses from Iraq, Yemen and Sudan, and war-torn Syria. Add to that future losses through lagging investment today, and we’re storing up a problem. The remarkable levels of price stability for crude oil along the world’s most important benchmarks, in the face of large disruptions in supply from some of the Middle East’s key suppliers, have left many observers somewhat stunned. Oil markets have proven themselves to be remarkably resilient. But this is not a good time to “chill out about oil prices”. One of the key underlying factors in that resilience – the surge in new oil supply from fracking fields and oil sands in North America – has left the market in an unsettling sense of false security, fostered by proponents who believe the US will become the “new Middle East”. But the balance we are seeing is, naturally, a fragile one. One of the oil market’s longest known uncertainties, that of a match between projected demand and supply for oil, is today more uncertain than ever. Global supply outlooks remain heavily optimistic on the US ability to deliver over the coming decade, relying overwhelmingly on unconventional plays for what looks like a historical supply surge for more years to come. Worryingly, these optimistic forecasts flow into investment decisions made by alternative energy producers. The decisions over where and whether to invest by oil market heavyweight Saudi Arabia, and also medium-sized producers such as Kuwait and the UAE, are important drivers of tomorrow’s oil prices. These countries are already facing uncertainty from within their own region; after all, we don’t yet know how much more oil we can expect to be exported from Libya, Iran or Iraq. Assuming we are getting things wrong, we may see higher oil prices – not just tomorrow but for the weeks and years afterwards. This means higher energy prices in the UK, in Europe and in other Western consumer markets leading to higher living costs, higher rates of inflation, and a potential drain on our economy. By then, even a surge in new European gas supplies will not help us. Laura El-Katiri is a research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and a teaching fellow in the department of financial and management studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. More stories like this: • Why we need European state aid to support the energy market • There is still a future for North Sea oil and gas • How I launched a renewable energy start up This article is part of the Guardian’s #bigenergydebate series. Click here to find out more about this project and our partners. | ['big-energy-debate/big-energy-debate', 'environment/energy', 'money/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'business/energy-industry', 'technology/energy', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'travel/middleeast', 'world/middleeast', 'world/iraq', 'world/iran', 'world/yemen', 'world/syria', 'world/libya', 'environment/shale-oil', 'world/vladimir-putin', 'world/russia', 'tone/blog', 'type/article'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2014-09-05T08:41:11Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2010/oct/29/country-diary-northumberland | Country diary: Northumberland | For many years I have been collecting sea coal from our north-east coast's bleak beaches. After strong winds, there can still be pickings worth gathering at Druridge Bay. Small pieces of timber, impregnated with salt, burn well on our living room fire. Autumn is here now, and trees surrounding our large field are already showing a few drooping skeletal heads of dead leaves. There are birds and several rabbits in the hedgerows and when I walk down the field they are more tolerant of my presence now because, unfortunately, I am no longer accompanied by a dog. Last week one covey of young game birds hopped about only 10 yards ahead of me for several minutes before, reluctantly, flying on to the muddied ploughed field over the neighbouring hedge. I support the two remaining weekly buses which come through our village to take passengers to Morpeth or Hexham. The drivers of these buses are country men and always crawl to a halt if there is a party of dithering birds, usually partridges or pheasants, pecking grit on the tarmac ahead of them. The hedgerows are now choked with autumn rosebay willowherb and dying wild roses, and there are not many cattle or sheep enjoying the freedom of the fields. Many farm animals now spend more time confined in byres during winter months. We have enjoyed early apples and pears: these fruits should be eaten soon after picking as they may not keep well. Later varieties, harvested before the first frosts, can be stored into winter months. Always pick apples and pears carefully to avoid bruising and put them, if possible, on a tray lined with newspaper in a well ventilated sheltered place. Should any of the fruits begin to show signs of rot, remove them immediately. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sea-level', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/veronicaheath', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2010-10-28T23:05:07Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2019/aug/19/heres-what-i-learned-from-my-privileged-western-failure-to-go-plastic-free-for-a-month | Here's what I learned from my privileged, western failure to go plastic-free for a month | Van Badham | My “plastic-free” July began with an idea to retain every piece of plastic waste I consumed, and port it around over the month in a bag with me wherever I went. Had I stuck to this plan – despite deliberate and even desperate efforts to excise plastic waste from my life – I’d now be limping around like Skinner, from Howard Barker’s The Castle. She’s a witch punished for a murder by having her victim’s corpse strapped to her back. Even without the bag, my plastic use weighs heavily on my conscience. Anti-plastic advocates often cite a visual moment of realisation of the size of the plastic problem. There’s an infamously life-changing photograph of an albatross chick with its stomach split from swallowed bottle lids, another of a seahorse with a Q-tip curled into its tail. A year ago, I discovered 30 separate bits of plastic waste in what is supposed to be my organic vegetable garden, and I’ve been minimising my plastic waste ever since. I bought the books – the excellent Waste Not by Erin Rhoads and Less Stuff by Lindsay Miles are encouraging, Australian and familiar. I’m a beeswax-wraps and bamboo-toothbrush user, I “make do and mend” my clothes, I store bulk-bought snacks in glass jars. But there are no illusions in our house that taking mere individual responsibility for what is a collective problem can ever solve it – one household makes negligible difference when 340 million global tons of plastic are produced in a single year. The enraging history of plastic also includes how its corporate makers avoided bans and regulation by aggressively mobilising anti-litter campaigns in the 1980s – a sleight-of-hand blaming of citizens for the garbage mountains that their own companies were pumping out. Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning But my partner accepted my logic that, as activists, an ongoing awareness of where and how we use plastic would attune us to thinking through what a policy response to the plastic crisis might be. The challenge set was not to change our tastes, just to ditch the plastic parts of them. Our advantages are many. We live in a regional community that still has market gardens, local producers and specialty shops. We have the vegetable garden, our own fruit trees. I work from home, I’m good at craft, I can cook, I make my own sauces and jams. Reducing our plastic use meant rejecting the sole local supplier of store-bought bread, so I taught myself to bake my own. I replaced plastic-packaged cola with one that’s homemade. Already, instead of a premixed cleaning spray, I ferment lemon scraps in vinegar for a month and spray that around. But these simple replacements have a petrochemical trail. Locally, vinegar comes only in plastic. The spray bottle is plastic. Maybe the container the bread yeast comes in contains plastic; packaging that seems innocuous – from teabags to tin cans – often does … and pretty soon I was too damn depressed to look closely. Plastic is ubiquitous. All the seedlings for my garden are sold in plastic pots. At the local organic vegetable market, the harried grocer displays capsicums, cauliflower and potatoes naked, but sells them in fastened plastic bags. This is an improvement on the supermarket, where the “organic” vegetables are sold as bricks from a styrofoam and cling-film plastic wall. At the local butcher, I asked if they could wrap the sausages in butcher’s paper instead of plastic. “Nah, we don’t use it,” she responded, as if I’d come in asking for a new wheel for my penny farthing or for a crank to start up my car. Dairy was a disastrous prospect. The supermarket sells seven brands of cream; they’re all made locally – and every single one comes in a plastic container. I ordered silicon containers to freeze leftovers in – they arrived padded with plastic bubbles. A tin pot of cream deodorant came wrapped in plastic security stickers. Imaginative schemes for waste minimisation were met with pre-emptive defeat; the attempt to cater a dinner party from a medieval (!) cookbook demanded ingredients that only came plasticised. I tried to reenact what I remembered of my nanna’s depression-mindset, zero-waste home … but no victory over plastic ever seemed unpunished. Cardboard-boxed Velvet soap is cheap, cleans everything … and, apparently, contains palm oil. Opening my cupboard doors onto paper sacks of flours and sugar was heartening precisely to the point I discovered that some shitting mice had trashed the lot. Of this last catastrophe, my partner’s mother made the gentle point that if the purchase – of, say, plastic storage containers - is for lifetime use, then it can’t be considered plastic “waste”. But as every plastic lid, bag and bottle reminds, every piece of it is with all of us for more than a lifetime. Yes, there are people whose skills in planning combine with their access to resources and they manage waste down to a monthly thimbleful. But not only are the majority of us incapable of their thrift, their example can’t just magic the plastic away. What I learned from my month of privileged, cashed-up western failure is that it’s going to take the regulation of plastic production, distribution and supply by global governments to make anywhere “plastic-free”. Single-use-plastic-bag bans are not enough. Recycling is not enough. Governments must legislate to enforce the use of alternatives, starting yesterday. A dead albatross is hanging around our necks, it’s full of plastic waste … but we’re the ones who will choke on the stuff. • Van Badham is a Guardian Australia columnist | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/recycling', 'society/plastic-free', 'environment/waste', 'environment/plastic-bags', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/van-badham', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-08-19T04:18:06Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
technology/2014/mar/29/audi-builds-hi-tech-virtual-cockpit-into-the-new-tt | Audi builds hi-tech 'virtual cockpit' into the new TT | The design of Audi's celebrated TT took just four weeks to create in 1995. Now the German automotive giant has spent five years updating it for the smartphone generation. Audi’s TT sports car started life as concept developed in the mid 1990s – a sporty coupe built atop Audi’s common platform underpinning the Golf among others. An update to the TT was released in 2006, which brought the coupe into line with Audi's range at the time, with a slightly sharper look and better performance. Now, after a five-year design process that included three years of painstaking discussion and workshops agonising over every little detail, a new TT is ready. On the outside it is sharper, more taught, aggressive and masculine looking; “an intentional shift to position the TT as a legitimate sports car behind the R8 in the Audi line up,” according to Dany Garand, lead exterior designer of the TT. “We certainly didn’t get the design you see today in one shot; it was the process of many designs and refinements,” Garand told the Guardian. But while the exterior design is what most people will see of the new third-generation TT, the most radical change is on the inside. A virtual cockpit for the smartphone generation Audi has dragged the car out of the analogue world, doing away with the traditional line up of fixed needles, gauges and dials that sit in front of the driver. Instead information like the car’s speed, fuel level and revolutions per minute is beamed from a high resolution LCD screen to create a customisable virtual cockpit. “We said, OK – you’ve got big tube mode [the traditional dials and gauges] – but now we’ve gone digital we can make smaller dials, provide more information and make the experience far better,” said Maximilian Kandlar, interior designer of the 2014 TT. The virtual cockpit puts everything in front of the driver. Two separate systems – one isolated “safety” system, which displays things like the rev counter and speedo, and the internet-connected infotainment system – are fused onto one screen. The standard view displays the familiar dials and gauges found in most cars, but the central fuel monitor can be swapped out for a list of music tracks, a list of contacts or calls from a Bluetooth phone, or a mini satellite-view map pulled live from Google Earth. 12.3in of Google Earth right in front of the driver The speedo and rev counter can be shrunk to small dials in the bottom left and right of the screen, which all. Maps or the music player can take over the 12.3in screen putting the visual right in the driver's eyeline, including the track, artist or album illustrated with album artwork. Based on QNX, the Unix-like operating system used by most car manufacturers, the software is powered by two of the fastest automotive-grade Nvidia Tegra 3 processors - similar to those found in new smartphones and tablets – which enable smoother and higher quality graphics. 'Don't overwhelm the driver with hundreds of buttons' The complex four-button “quattro logic” used by Audi for years has been replaced by a two-button, left and right click interface with compressed menus, making it faster to navigate between functions. “Our vision was to create a fast and direct interaction, but not overwhelm the driver with information or hundreds of buttons,” said Dr. Andre Ebner, head of Audi’s development of onboard systems. Audi has also built in a universal search function, operating a bit like Google search on an Android device or Apple’s spotlight. Most features can be accessed from just three characters written out on the touch-sensitive pad with a finger or typed using the rotary virtual keyboard, including music tracks, places, contacts and radio stations. ‘I have to talk to Peter, call Peter’ Drivers can also control almost any function using natural language voice control, much like Apple’s personal digital assistant Siri or Google’s voice search. “You can just say ‘I have to talk to Peter, call Peter’ and then just say ‘yes’ when the system asks if you want to phone Peter,” said Ebner. “There’s no more fixed and clunky dialogues – just talk to it like you would a human.” Audi has launched the TT and its new virtual cockpit just ahead of the in-car information system evolution that is about to be unleashed on new cars, powered by the likes of Apple’s CarPlay, Google’s Open Automotive Alliance and the Connected Car Consortium’s MirrorLink. Most cars fitted with this new kind of system will be available from 2015, with only a handful like Volvo and Ferrari making it to market this year. • Battle for the car: will Google, Apple or Microsoft dominate the future of the car? | ['technology/technology', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/motoring', 'technology/blackberry-corporation', 'technology/mapping-technologies', 'technology/software', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-03-29T07:00:43Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
food/2021/mar/02/eating-meat-raises-risk-of-heart-disease-diabetes-and-pneumonia | Eating meat ‘raises risk of heart disease, diabetes and pneumonia’ | Eating meat regularly increases a person’s risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia and other serious illnesses, research has found. It is already known that intake of red and processed meat heightens the risk of being diagnosed with bowel cancer. But these findings are the first to assess whether meat consumption is linked to any of the 25 non-cancerous illnesses that most commonly lead to people being admitted to hospital in the UK. The academics from Oxford University who published the study found that consumption of red meat, processed meat and poultry meat such as chicken and turkey, either alone or together, at least three times a week was linked to a greater risk of nine different illnesses. Their results add to the growing evidence from researchers and the World Health Organization that eating too much meat, especially red and processed meat, can damage health. The findings, published in the journal BMC Medicine, are based on analysis of the health records of 474,985 middle-aged Britons. The researchers examined details provided about their diets with information from their medical records about hospital admissions and also mortality data for an average of eight years. The study concluded: “On average, participants who reported consuming meat regularly (three or more times per week) had more adverse health behaviours and characteristics than participants who consumed meat less regularly. “Higher consumption of unprocessed red and processed meat combined was associated with higher risks of ischaemic heart disease, pneumonia, diverticular disease, colon polyps and diabetes, and higher consumption of poultry meat was associated with higher risks of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, gastritis and duodenitis, diverticular disease, gallbladder disease and diabetes.” The academics, led by Dr Keren Papier from the university’s Nuffield department of population health, found that every 70 grams of unprocessed red meat and processed meat thata person consumed daily raised their risk of heart disease by 15% and of diabetes by 30% after taking into account other lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and alcohol consumption, and body mass index. Those meats may raise the risk of heart disease because they contain saturated fatty acids, which can increase low-density lipoprotein, or “bad” cholesterol, which is known to put people at greater risk of heart problems. Similarly, every 30 grams of poultry meat eaten daily increased the risk of developing gastro-oesophageal reflux by 17% and of diabetes by 14%, they found. It was mainly meat-eaters who were overweight or obese who were running these risks, it emerged during the study. Most of the increased risks of disease identified were reduced once participants’ BMI was taken into account. “Differences in BMI across the categories of meat consumption appear to account for a substantial part of the increased risks,” the article in BMC Medicine says. Eating meat regularly did reduce the risk of someone suffering from iron-deficiency anaemia, though. “We have long known that unprocessed red meat and processed meat consumption is likely to be carcinogenic and this research is the first to assess the risk of 25 non-cancerous health conditions in relation to meat intake in one study,” said Papier. Further research was needed into whether the differences in risk she and her team observed reflected “causal relationships [with meat intake] and, if so, the extent to which these diseases could be prevented by decreasing meat consumption”, she added. Public Health England said that anyone who eats more than 90g of red or processed meat a day should cut down to 70g. Dr Alison Tedstone, the agency’s chief nutritionist, said: “Globally the evidence suggests that people who eat red and processed meat should limit their intake. While it can form part of a healthy diet, eating too much has been linked to increased risk of developing bowel cancer.” For the sake of their health, people should follow the guidelines for a healthy, balanced diet set out in PHE’s Eatwell Guide, she added. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition first declared in 2010 that eating too much red or processed meat probably increased the risk of bowel cancer. Prof Robert Pickard, a member of the Food Advisory Board, which responded on behalf of the meat industry, said: “Overall, it is important to think about the balance of foods that make up a varied and healthy diet – plenty of whole grains, fruit and vegetables and limited amounts of foods high in saturated fat, salt and sugar – rather than focusing on one particular food alone. Red meat can form part of a healthier dietary pattern, and is included in the government’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide.” • This article was amended on 5 March 2021 to clarify that the percentage risks of developing heart disease or diabetes are based on researchers having already taken account of lifestyle factors and body mass index. | ['food/meat', 'food/food', 'environment/meat-industry', 'society/health', 'environment/food', 'society/society', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'education/oxforduniversity', 'society/diabetes', 'society/heart-disease', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/deniscampbell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-03-02T14:20:41Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2010/feb/04/bp-boss-urges-dash-for-gas | Dash for gas is UK's best energy strategy, says BP chief | Britain's offshore wind revolution, launched with great fanfare by Gordon Brown last month, may struggle to get halfway to its ambitious goals and should be scaled down in favour of a new dash for gas to keep the lights on over the next 10 years, BP warned last night. Tony Hayward, chief executive of the UK's largest oil company, said that British government ministers risked being seduced by "headline-grabbing options" such as offshore wind and clean coal in a bid to bolster energy security and meet climate-change goals. BP makes billions of pounds a year from oil and gas, but is also investing in onshore wind farms in America. Talking to the Guardian exclusively, the BP boss said he was not calling for the third round of wind licensing in the deep waters of the North Sea to be shelved. But he did believe that the heavily subsidised move into wind power should be slowed down, because it would not deliver anything like the targets set for it: possibly 15 gigawatts of power rather than the 25GW the wind industry expects. And in a speech due to be delivered to the London Business school today, he says: "Energy efficiency, gas-fired power, lighter cars and biofuels all offer relatively low-cost routes, while other headline-grabbing options are not the most cost-effective. "With today's technology, carbon capture to make clean coal, for example, is very expensive. Offshore wind is also costly – for example in comparison to onshore wind, which is now a big business for BP in the United States – and indeed to nuclear." Hayward told the Guardian that wind power, like nuclear energy, was nowhere near being commercially viable and would rely for some time on "sovereign" intervention by governments. Instead, he said, there should be more emphasis put on gas, which was very commercial, using a mixture of what remained of UK North Sea supplies and imports. The BP man believed the UK should drop its "paranoid" concerns about gas imports from Russia and accept that piped and liquefied natural gas from overseas sources offered a better solution to help beat global warming and energy insecurity in the short term. "There is a lot of gas in the world. There are a lot of diverse sources of gas in the world. The paranoia has been about Russia, but it is misplaced. We have approximately zero Russian gas in the UK [imported currently] and if you look at Europe, the imports of Russian gas into Europe have halved since 1980." Hayward, whose Russian TNK-BP joint venture is a major part of the wider oil company's business, said the fear of Russia using energy as a political weapon was "massively exaggerated". He believed Britain should not be concerned even if Siberian gas accounted for 10% of Britain's imports, as long as 90% came from a diverse group of suppliers such as Norway, Qatar and Algeria, as they already did. The BP chief executive was speaking on the day the UK energy regulator said the power sector needed a massive shake-up. Ofgem expressed concerns about an undue reliance on gas imports and raised the possibility of higher subsidies for wind and other renewables. But Hayward, in remarks that will be seen by supporters of clean technology as partly self-serving, argued it would be a mistake to rush into a big change in energy priorities of this kind. He believes that the UK needs to build up a new supply chain and skills to serve pioneering offshore wind projects in deep waters and the building of new nuclear power stations after a break of 15 years. "Certainly with offshore wind and nuclear, you learn a lot as you go along. That's very important, and I have question marks about whether that would be true with the [ambitious] objectives that have been set for wind. "I am a great supporter of nuclear. The country will need to rebuild the skills. It will take 20 years, so they are all the right things for the long term. "Shaping the energy policy is [about] what takes precedence over what ... we need to make certain through gas that we can keep the lights on over the next 10 years." The BP chief executive did agree with Ofgem's Alistair Buchanan that the UK had reached a critical point in its energy history and needed to change the market model with increased government involvement. "It has been true throughout history that at certain points in time government has had to intervene to shift the boundaries of the market to allow the right market structure to evolve," said Hayward. He added: "We did not displace coal with gas in the 1960s and 1970s without a massive government intervention ... we are probably at one of those points again." | ['business/bp', 'business/gas', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'world/russia', 'tone/news', 'business/energy-industry', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'profile/deborahhargreaves', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2010-02-04T00:05:01Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2008/nov/24/youtube-digital-video-san-francisco | YouTube Live: Stars of online video take a real world bow | The video-sharing website YouTube paused momentarily on its march towards global domination this weekend to celebrate those whose lives have been transformed by access to a computer and an unquenchable need to speak to the world. People like William Sledd, a former shop assistant at Gap who has been catapulted to celebrity by the success of a few homemade videos in which he discusses the social mores and fashion mistakes of modern society. "This stuff is lot easier to do when you are at home on your own," he observed, moving uneasily through the audience of 3,000 as he introduced a fashion segment at YouTube Live. He was as stilted in the flesh as he is uninhibited in the films that are among the site's most watched. Sledd was one of the YouTube "stars" gathered in San Francisco at the weekend for what the company described as a "celebration of ... the vibrant communities that exist on the site, including bedroom vloggers, budding creatives, underground athletes and world-famous musicians". Katy Perry, whose worldwide hit "I Kissed a Girl" first found an audience on YouTube, was there. So was Beardyman, the Brighton-based human beatbox, and Lucas Cruikshank, the 15-year-old creator of Fred, a hyperactive child whose adventures have made him the website's most popular character. Joining such luminaries were the great and good of YouTube: Chad Hurley, one of site's originators, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, which bought the company two years ago for more than $1.5bn (£1bn). At this moment in its arc of internet domination, there are plenty of people who dislike Google, and by extension YouTube, and any such antipathy would have been fuelled on this occasion such as this. It was too corporate and too slick, an Emmys for the Emo generation. What works in the intimate context of a video - the sly campness of Sledd, the energy of Fred, and the over-the-top guitar virtuosity of Funtwo, a Korean guitarist - seemed diminished in the gathering at Herbst Pavilion. Yet if the cynics were unimpressed, the converted were ecstatic. The agnostics, too, could hardly fail to notice that if YouTube Live was a bloodless affair, it did not diminish what remains a powerful idea. Yet four years after YouTube was founded, it is still short of making money for its owners. It has, however, led to hundreds of rags-to-riches stories. Sledd was selling jeans in Kentucky before he was catapulted into mainstream US culture. Juan Mann was another of the website's stars who made the journey to San Francisco for YouTube Live. In 2004, Mann - not his real name - was, by his own account, aimless and friendless when he walked into Sydney's Pitt Street shopping centre carrying a sign which announced he was offering free hugs to all-comers. Two years later a film of his hugging escapades was uploaded onto the internet and quickly became a global phenomenon. "One week I was washing dishes in Sydney, the next week I was the Oprah Winfrey Show," he said, offering the Guardian a hug. "I have friends, I have a fiancee, I have a purpose. And I have never washed dishes since. Unless they were my own, of course." | ['technology/youtube', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/internet', 'us-news/us-news', 'technology/technology', 'world/world', 'media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lawrencedonegan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-11-24T00:01:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/2023/jul/11/queensland-identifies-renewable-energy-zones-as-part-of-62bn-super-grid-plan | Queensland identifies ‘renewable energy zones’ as part of $62bn ‘super grid’ plan | The Queensland government has identified 12 “renewable energy zones” across the state that will form the backbone of its $62bn plan to decarbonise its electricity supply. In plans to be released on Tuesday, the Palaszczuk government says it wants wind, solar and pumped-hydro projects to be concentrated in these zones and connected to a “super grid” of renewable power, storage and transmission lines by 2035 – just 12 years from now. Last year the state announced a target to generate 80% of its electricity from renewables by 2035 and to end its reliance on coal for power by the same year. Queensland is Australia’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for almost a third of national emissions. Electricity generation makes up one-third of Queensland’s emissions. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Queensland’s minister for energy, renewables and hydrogen, Mick de Brenni, told the Guardian the new renewable energy zones would help secure community support for “the biggest economic transition project that Queensland has ever embarked upon”. “Our nation needs Queensland to succeed,” he said. “There’s work to be done by governments to lead communities through a process and to develop that support for change. “We want to establish Queensland’s transition as a best-practice case study for the nation.” The 12 proposed zones are split into three regions. Southern Queensland is earmarked for five zones, with four in central Queensland and three in the north of the state. About 22GW of new solar and wind projects will need to be connected by 2035 within the zones to meet its renewable targets, the government says. The state currently has 16GW of electricity generation, including 8GW of coal and 3.6GW of utility-scale solar and wind. By the end of the year, the Queensland government wants legislation put in place to allow the energy minister to designate the renewable energy zones. The government’s draft Renewable Energy Zone Roadmap sets out how the state will coordinate the massive effort, including establishing local consultation groups, expert panels and dedicated assessments of the potential for projects and jobs in each zone. It will be released for consultation on Tuesday. “This hasn’t been done anywhere else to this level of sophistication,” said de Brenni. “The transition in Australia is 10 years behind where it needs to be. “We’re taking deliberate steps to make sure we can meet our targets and our global obligations on time. This takes us from targets and concepts to real lines on maps and real projects, real contracts and real workers.” In the state’s far north, concerns have been raised about windfarm developments in environmentally significant areas. De Brenni said concentrating the renewable energy boom to 12 areas would reduce the risk of misplaced projects and “bring a level of accountability to workers, the community and the environment”. De Brenni claimed environmentalists could “take comfort” that the government’s approach would minimise “the overall transition’s footprint”. He said the renewable energy zones would signal to industry “that we’re serious about renewable energy and they need to get on board”. David Copeman, the director of the Queensland Conservation Council, said the new roadmap “must rapidly turn into the plans we need to speed up the construction of new renewables, to bring down both emissions and electricity prices, and protect threatened species habitat”. He said: “It’s essential that traditional owners and communities are involved in designing their own energy future and protecting our biodiversity and rich cultural heritage.” Alison Smith, chief executive of the Local Government Association of Queensland, said if communities were hosting major renewable energy generation, “it’s only right that they benefit from their fair share of the economic and social benefits that will come from these large-scale projects. “But that means locking in social licence with upfront, detailed guarantees of improved liveability in these areas, not to their detriment, damage or destruction for the benefit of proponents.” The renewable energy zone consultation will close on 22 September. | ['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2023-07-10T15:00:16Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2024/oct/21/millions-teenagers-africa-undiagnosed-asthma-urbanisation-adolescent-health-researchers-medication-tests | Millions of teenagers in Africa have undiagnosed asthma – study | Millions of teenagers in Africa are suffering from asthma with no formal diagnosis as the continent undergoes rapid urbanisation, researchers have found. The study, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, involved 27,000 pupils from urban areas in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. It found more than 3,000 reported asthma symptoms, but only about 600 had a formal diagnosis. Many of the children reported missing school or having their sleep disrupted by wheezing. “If our data are generalisable, there are millions of adolescents with undiagnosed asthma symptoms in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Dr Gioia Mosler of Queen Mary University of London, the study’s research manager. The team that led the study, whose research on the impact of pollution on lung health was instrumental in introducing the ultra low-emission zone (Ulez) in London, said there was an urgent need for medicines and diagnostic tests in the region. Rates of asthma have increased in sub-Saharan Africa over the past few decades, a trend attributed to rapid urbanisation which exposes children to more risk factors such as air pollution. The climate crisis was also likely to have an impact, experts said. The Achieving Control of Asthma in Children and Adolescents in Africa (Acacia) study recruited pupils aged between 12 and 14. Screening revealed that while 12% reported asthma symptoms, only 20% of that group had received a formal diagnosis of asthma. Lung function tests suggested nearly half of undiagnosed participants with severe symptoms were “very likely” to have asthma. Even among those who had received a formal diagnosis, about a third were not using any medicine to control their condition, according to the study. Dr Rebecca Nantanda of Makerere University in Kampala, who led the research in Uganda, said: “Undiagnosed and poorly controlled asthma greatly impacts on the physical and psychosocial wellbeing of the affected children and their caregivers. The high burden of severe undiagnosed asthma revealed by the Acacia study requires urgent attention, including access to medicines and diagnostics.” Prof Jonathan Grigg of Queen Mary University of London, said asthma was made worse by exposure to small particles of pollutants, with the impact of the climate crisis yet to become clear. “In some areas in sub-Saharan Africa, climate change is likely to result in increased exposure of these vulnerable children to dust and natural fires. “On the other hand, climate change mitigation will, hopefully, reduce exposure to fossil fuel-derived particles in this region. “The pharmaceutical industry has been hesitant to support asthma research and initiatives. For example, companies may feel that they cannot support research in countries where they do not intend to market their asthma product,” he said. “Innovations such as handheld wheeze detectors and asthma clinics delivered at schools also have the potential to substantially reduce the burden of asthma.” | ['global-development/series/a-common-condition', 'global-development/global-development', 'global-development/global-health', 'society/asthma', 'world/africa', 'world/world', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kat-lay', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2024-10-21T22:30:47Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
politics/2019/nov/20/lib-dems-manifesto-pledges-5bn-duty-rise-for-frequent-flyers | Lib Dems launch manifesto with pledge to invest 'remain bonus' | Jo Swinson has told voters that the Conservatives and Labour are “gambling with your future” over Brexit, as she launched a Liberal Democrat manifesto featuring significant spending and investment pledges, financed by what the party says would be an economic boost from staying in the EU. Speaking at a launch event in a nightclub in north London, Swinson sought to present the Lib Dems as a clear alternative to the two main parties with a promise of more than £60bn extra spending a year in the next parliament, focused on areas such as schools, mental health and childcare. The party is also pledging £130bn in infrastructure spending, £80bn of which would go to environmental projects. The manifesto promises to introduce higher air passenger duties for frequent flyers, raising nearly £5bn a year by 2024/25. A key sell in the Lib Dem manifesto is what the party calls the “remain bonus”, brought by higher GDP from cancelling Brexit and forecast to rise to £14bn a year over the parliament. Swinson, who has taken a central role in a campaign marketing the Lib Dems heavily as the anti-Brexit party, leaned on this theme to introduce the manifesto, and again attack the Tories and Labour. “There is no form of Brexit, that will be good for the future of our country,” she said. “[Brexit] would put our jobs at risk, hurt our NHS, reduce our environmental protections, threaten workers’ rights and it would make us less safe. “Whether Brexit is done by Boris Johnson or sorted by Jeremy Corbyn, they are both gambling with your future.” Swinson has sought to attract remain-minded voters from both the main parties, presenting herself as a possible prime minister. However, she faces some pressure in the remaining weeks of the campaign, with the Lib Dems having dropped to about 15% in the polls, and previous internal party expectations of up to 80 seats potentially won being drastically scaled back. She told Lib Dem activists at the launch: “Don’t let anyone tell you that it doesn’t get better than Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn, that we are destined to stand alone in the world, that we must face the biggest challenges on our own, that Brexit is inevitable. None of that is a given.” The flight tax would be levied only on international trips and would not add to the costs of people who travel by plane only once or twice a year. The bulk of the extra public spending would involve £10bn in additional money for schools, announced in advance, as well as more funding for health and social care, childcare and tackling in-work poverty. A costings document released with the manifesto shows what the party says would be almost £64bn in extra government income by 2024/25, £14bn of which would be a net “remain bonus” – extra GDP balanced against payments into the EU budget. The next biggest revenue earner would be almost £8bn from a 1p addition to income tax to fund social care and the NHS, with other money gained from returning corporation tax to the level of 20% (up from the general rate of 19%) and from amending capital gains tax. The costings document shows the party expects revenues of almost £1.5bn a year in duties on cannabis and savings on law enforcement after it decriminalises the drug. The £80bn of investment in green projects would include areas such as home insulation and sustainable transport. There is also an aim of spending 10% of the transport budget on walking and cycling. Capital spending would be assessed on government balance sheets about how much “net worth” is added, allowing for greater spending within the same borrowing limits, which the party has pledged to keep to 1% of GDP a year. Infrastructure projects would be assessed by an independent body as to whether they constitute value for money. In extracts of the manifesto released overnight, the party promised to extend the scope of free school meals, increase schools spending by more than £10bn a year within the next parliament, and recruit 20,000 more teachers. | ['politics/liberaldemocrats', 'politics/general-election-2019', 'politics/taxandspending', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'education/schools', 'environment/green-politics', 'education/education', 'politics/education', 'society/policy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterwalker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2019-11-20T18:47:46Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2022/may/20/ancient-forest-found-bottom-huge-sinkhole-china-guangxi | Ancient forest found at bottom of huge sinkhole in China | An ancient forest has been found at the bottom of a giant sinkhole in China, with trees up to 40 metres (130ft) tall. Scientists believe it could contain undiscovered plant and animal species. Cave explorers in the Guangxi region of southern China alerted scientists when they found the sinkhole, which had a primitive forest inside. Among 30 sinkholes in Leye County this is the largest, at 306 metres long, 150 metres wide and 192 metres deep. Zhang Yuanhai, a senior engineer at the Institute of Karst Geology of the China Geological Survey, told the state news agency Xinhua that the site had three caves in its walls and a well-preserved primitive forest at the bottom. Scientists trekked for hours to reach the base of the sinkhole to see what it contained. Chen Lixin, who led the expedition team, said that as well as the trees there was dense undergrowth on the floor that came up to his shoulders. “I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science until now,” he said. The sinkhole-filled landscape is known as a karst landscape, formed primarily by the dissolution of bedrock by groundwater. This means dramatic sinkholes and caves are created throughout the area. This one is rare, however, as it is deep but shaped so enough light filters in, which means the large trees can grow. | ['environment/forests', 'world/china', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/plants', 'world/sinkholes', 'world/asia-pacific', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-05-20T12:11:20Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
sport/2021/sep/23/world-rugby-to-introduce-new-guidelines-to-reduce-contact-training | World Rugby to introduce new guidelines to reduce contact training | World Rugby will introduce fresh guidelines designed to reduce the amount of contact training done by rugby players. The game’s governing body, which worked with the representative body International Rugby Players (IRP), hopes a six-point checklist will help to reduce training-related injuries and improve performance by limiting players’ contact load between matches. The guidelines recommend restricting midweek contact training to two days broken down into three categories: 15 minutes per week of full-contact training during which players are unrestrained and operate at high speed in body to body collisions, 40 minutes of controlled contact utilising tackle shields and pads, running at reduced speeds, and 30 minutes of live set-piece training with lineouts, scrums and mauls at a high intensity. A global survey of 600 players revealed that elite professionals undergo at most 19 minutes of full contact training in the week before a Test match. “There is a misconception that there is a lot of contact training but it’s less than you would assume,” said Joe Schmidt, the former Ireland coach and now World Rugby’s director of rugby. “It’s 19 minutes at the elite and 21 minutes across the professional level. We feel we can reduce it even further.” “Being a professional coach for 20 years, I found that we did very little contact training. The amount of weeks I coached where we didn’t do any full contact in a week would be more often than not.” The former All Black centre Conrad Smith, speaking as the IRP’s head of player welfare, concurred: “I never had a training injury for my whole 15 years of playing and I never witnessed a lot of training injuries. I never met these limits, 15 minutes [of contact training] would have been the maximum for me.” World Rugby has come under pressure from lobbying groups. Last December the former England and Lions hooker Steve Thompson led a group of retired players in a landmark legal case against WR, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union after being diagnosed with early-onset dementia. The group also released a set of 15 changes to try to minimise long-term brain injuries.The second item on the list was the demand for a reduction in contact training, citing the National Football League (NFL) which placed limits on full-contact training back in 2011. According to Éanna Falvey, WR’s chief medical officer, this is not a neat comparison as the NFL is contested by 32 teams that are more easily regulated. Furthermore, 70 to 80% of NFL player injuries occur during training compared to 30 to 40%in rugby. However, a study released this year by the University of South Wales found that rugby players can experience a reduction in blood flow to the brain and cognitive function as a result of the cumulative effect of repetitive contact and not one-off incidents of concussion, further emphasising the need for a reduction in full-contact where possible. Even without the guidelines, World Rugby argues that the game is a much safer environment than it was when Thompson was playing in the first two decades of the professional era. This is less true at lower levels which is why WR has provided a six-point checklist for coaches to better protect their players by identifying and planning for the four “contact elements”. These are the volume of full-contact in minutes, the intensity of the collisions, the density of the impacts within the timeframe and the unpredictability of the hits. | ['sport/rugby-union', 'sport/world-rugby', 'sport/concussion-in-sport', 'sport/sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/concussion-in-sport | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-09-22T23:01:32Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2011/jan/03/china-claims-new-nuclear-technology | China claims new nuclear technology | China's ambitions to lead the world in nuclear power were boosted today by reports that its scientists had mastered a key technique in the reprocessing of spent uranium. State media claimed the technology overcame a supply bottleneck and ensured China would have sufficient nuclear fuel for at least 3,000 years. The breakthrough would be a boon to the domestic industry, which is in the early stages of what looks likely to be the most spectacular burst of reactor-building in world history. Due to surging demand for energy and growing concerns about pollution, China's nuclear-power generating capacity is projected to increase up to tenfold in the next 10 years. By 2030 China could be on course to overtake the US as the world's leading atomic energy producer. The technology, developed and tested at the number 404 factory of the China National Nuclear Corporation, situated in the Gobi desert, enables recycling of irradiated fuel, according to China Central Television. How this differs from existing reprocessing methods in other countries is unclear, but the state broadcaster said that with this technique a kilo of uranium could produce close to 60 times more power than was now possible in China. If proven this method would extend the "usage life" of the 171,400 tonnes of the country's known uranium deposits, which previously were forecast to last less than 70 years. Reprocessing can also provide fissile material for weapons, though details have not yet been disclosed about the potential impact on China's nuclear arsenal. China first tested an atomic bomb in 1964, but it was slow to adopt nuclear power because of the cheapness and abundance of domestic coal, and the government was reluctant to depend on expensive foreign technology and uranium imports. But in recent years growing wealth and shifting environmental priorities have prompted a change. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, China now has 13 operating reactors and 26 more facilities under construction. China National Nuclear Corporation said last year it planned to invest 800bn yuan (£78bn) in the industry by 2020. China has already been replicating the technology of its foreign suppliers and is moving to design its own reactors and reprocessing plants. The next step is construction and overseas sales. | ['world/china', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-01-03T18:31:46Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2014/jan/02/uk-braced-further-floods-storms-atlantic | UK braced for more severe weather as further storms appear on the horizon | Britain will be battered by a fresh wave of "exceptional weather", with gale-force winds and driving rain creating a risk of widespread flooding, the environment secretary has warned. Owen Paterson was speaking after a meeting of the government's Cobra committee on Thursday about the UK's flood response. He said emergency agencies and power companies were on high alert. By Thursday night, the Environment Agency had issued a string of severe weather warnings – indicating threat to life and property – for coastal areas at the greatest risk of flooding. Large swaths of the British coastline, from the Isles of Scilly to Wales and Scotland, were at risk of severe flooding, forecasters warned, as a further storm front was due to sweep in from the Atlantic on Friday and again on Sunday. Pete Fox, head of strategy at the EA, said: "We are expecting flooding along the west and south coasts of England and Wales, due to a combination of strong winds, large waves and high tides, from the early hours of Friday and into the weekend. "Coastal paths and promenades could be highly dangerous as there is an increased risk of being swept out to sea. People are warned to stay away from the shoreline." Waves up to 9 metres high are set to crash into the coast of Cornwall and Devon on Friday, with 65mph winds creating hazardous conditions across seafronts. The Police Service of Northern Ireland last night advised residents in part of east Belfast to pack their bags for possible evacuation amid fears of a tidal surge. High water and heavy rain is predicted for midday on Friday, Saturday and Sunday across Northern Ireland and officers asked members of the public to avoid coastal paths and to drive with extreme caution. High-risk areas include the densely packed residential streets of Sydenham and Victoria Park in east Belfast and around the docks. The storm warnings came as a search for a 27-year-old man swept out to sea was called off after a body was found on Thursday morning at Porthleven Sands, Cornwall. The man, from Surrey, was swept off his feet in the sea while celebrating the new year with friends at Loe Bar. A woman died in an accident along the coast, in Croyde, north Devon, after going swimming in the sea while on holiday with her family on New Year's Eve. In Dorset, a search was under way for a man believed to have fallen into the River Stour, near Iford Bridge, Christchurch. Paterson said ministers would make sure energy and transport companies were "absolutely prepared for the bad weather coming" to avoid the Christmas misery that left 150,000 homes without power and thousands of people struggling to get home. "With a number of flood warnings in place today and more rain and high winds forecast for tomorrow, I have today chaired a Cobra meeting to make sure that across central government departments we are ensuring that local councils, utilities and transport companies are as prepared and ready to respond as possible," he said. The EA said the flood risk extended along the coastline from north-west England, through Wales and south-west and southern England. Areas particularly at risk included the Isles of Scilly, the north and south coasts of Devon and Cornwall, Dorset and the Welsh coast. There were severe weather warnings in place for the rivers Taw and Torridge on the Devonshire coast, where forecasters said that there would be flooding at numerous locations due to "high spring tides and significant surge combined with large waves from the south-west". Flood warnings were also in place in the Midlands, the north-west, Scotland and Northern Ireland. There were also 229 less serious flood alerts issued, covering most of the UK. Another concern for emergency services were the gale-force winds, forecast to reach up to 60mph for west and south England on Friday, getting up to 50mph inland, including in London. Forecasters expect to bring some respite, before another low-pressure weather front moves in from the Atlantic on Sunday. Dan Williams, from the Met Office, said the danger was from the "strong winds combining with astronomical tides" along the coastlines. "The far bigger warning is for wind. We're talking about gale-force wind across the board for the UK. That means we've got strong winds that can push water around and big tides as well." The worsening of the conditions prompted Devon and Cornwall police to warn people not to enter the sea or even walk along promenades. A police spokeswoman said: "There are people who enjoy swimming in all weathers as well as those who may underestimate the danger a rough sea can pose. During the current bad weather we would appeal to everyone to use common sense and not put themselves in unnecessary danger. "In addition, people who enjoy walking on beaches and rocky areas should take care not to allow themselves or their pets to get too close to waves." The weather warnings come as firefighters in England and Wales prepared to stage a fresh strike Friday morning, concerned with their long-running dispute with the government over pensions. Members of the Fire Brigades Union will walk out for two hours at 6.30am, creating the ninth stoppage since September. Under the terms of an agreement between the FBU, central government and fire services, strikers will return to work if there is a major emergency that could put large numbers of peopleat serious risk. | ['uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/josh-halliday', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-01-02T23:47:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
money/2018/apr/10/smart-meter-solar-power-income-fault | Our Green Star energy meter is anything but smart | We have a problem with our energy supplier, Green Star. In February it offered us the free installation of a smart meter, and it seemed like a good idea to go ahead. A young man changed both the electricity and gas meters. He was only here for a very short time, even though he initially expressed concern that it would be impossible to fit a new gas meter because of the lead piping attached to the old one. A week later, on a sunny day, I noticed that our wireless “Sunny Boy” meter was recording no energy generated by our eight solar panels. Further investigation revealed that the inverter, that processes the energy produced, had stopped working due to a “voltage error”. It happened at the exact time that the smart meter installation was going on, so I feel it is safe to assume that the two incidents are connected. Since then, I have been trying to get Green Star to come and rectify the problem. I keep getting told that the matter will be addressed in the next seven days but nothing happens. We are losing out on the income that the panels should be producing. NB, Leicester Green Star Energy – one of the challenger suppliers – told us that of the many smart meters the installation company has fitted, this is the first time it has seen such an issue. It confirmed that the inverter cut out as a safety feature. It has now sent a team member to visit your home to reset the safety device. This did not work, so it has arranged for an engineer to attend. It has also apologised for failing to respond quickly enough and said that it will make up any income lost as a result, although given that the sun has barely appeared in the last few months, that won’t be a huge amount. On a wider issue, I would strongly advise readers to be cautious of having a smart meter installed, unless you get a written guarantee that it will be a second generation, Smets2 version. It emerged in February that only 80 of these improved meters that allow easy switching, and better remote reading, had so far been installed in the UK. Over 9m of the Smets1 meters are in UK homes, but users have found that after they switched supplier, they lost the meter’s smart functions. The meter then had to be read manually. The whole thing is a giant, expensive mess. Last month, the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, opened an investigation into the smart meter programme, which has cost £11bn so far — scandalously paid for by all of us through higher electricity bills. We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a -daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to terms and conditions | ['money/energy', 'money/household-bills', 'environment/solarpower', 'money/money', 'money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions', 'tone/features', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/consumer-rights-money', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/milesbrignall', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/money', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2018-04-10T06:00:21Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/jan/26/indigenous-communities-use-drones-to-protect-amazon-river-dolphins | How drones are being used to protect the Amazon's dolphins | The drone is hovering above the Amazon river, but its battery is running low. André Coelho, the chief pilot, steers it back to safety with skills perfected by playing video games. Long hours practising on Need for Speed have become a surprising asset in the effort to conserve the dolphins that live in the river. Marcelo Oliveira, a conservation specialist at WWF Brazil, stands on the bow of the boat with arms aloft. He plucks the white drone from the air, changes the battery, and swiftly sends it back into the sky. Later, scientists will examine the video it has recorded for signs of the two species of dolphins that inhabit the river: the pink and bulbous boto, and the smaller, prettier tucuxi. Exactly how many live in the basin is a mystery. Some studies have tentatively pointed to a decline of the pink dolphins in specific areas of the Amazon, but both species of dolphins are categorised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “data deficient”. Scientists at the Mamirauá Institute, based in the remote Amazonian town of Tefé, have teamed up with WWF Brazil to use drones to collect aerial footage of the river. These videos will help plug a data gap; conservationists have found it is difficult to argue in favour of a species you know nothing about. “We need to base everything – all the decisions and everything we push – on hard data and hard science,” says Miriam Marmontel, a scientist at the Mamirauá Institute, when we speak on the institute’s floating base that evening. She believes there are at least 10,000 botos out there, but that the real number could be as high as 100,000. “This data builds slowly. It’s scary because there’s a lot of work going into it and you can’t really say anything. We need to focus on what’s really critical to help us get to a real status that can influence policy. We need numbers, we need information on mortality and reproduction. Those are crucial.” Marmontel’s biggest concern is that dolphins are becoming entangled in the nets of local fishermen. She’s found bodies to prove it – pink corpses floating in the lake with scars caused by gill nets. Scientists have also raised the alarm over fishermen killing botos as bait for piracatinga, a large carrion-eating fish popular in Colombia. Mercury contamination from goldmining is also a concern, as is the Brazilian government’s plan to build dams throughout the Amazon basin. According to a recent paper published in Nature, 140 dams have already been built or are under construction, with plans for a further 428. These would be impassable obstacles to dolphins, isolating communities and decreasing genetic diversity. “The threats are there. They’re just under construction,” says Oliveira. The scientists want to use the information they collect to persuade the IUCN to list the boto and the tucuxi as either “vulnerable” or “endangered”. Funding agencies and governments want urgency and evidence: without an IUCN categorisation, it is difficult to raise the money for protection measures. They hope their drone monitoring will do the trick. During three trips to the Amazon last year, the team has recorded about 70 samples that will contribute to a more accurate estimate of dolphin populations in the Amazon basin. When the team reaches land, they will count the dolphins by examining video footage – a method cheaper, more efficient, and more accurate than counting manually from a boat. To persuade IUCN to update the dolphins’ status, scientists across the South American region are also planning to use satellite tagging, thermal monitoring and ultrasound. Early next year, researchers from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador will meet to combine their monitoring efforts, creating the most accurate database on Amazon river dolphins to date. They plan to present it to the IUCN by the end of 2018. Despite their efforts, the database will still only cover a tiny proportion of the enormous region. Whether the IUCN finds this data sufficient to upgrade the status of the dolphin remains to be seen. | ['environment/dolphins', 'environment/cetaceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/brazil', 'technology/drones-non-military', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cetaceans | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-01-26T13:19:21Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
media/2010/jun/14/world-cup-2010-tv-ratings | TV ratings - 11 June: 4.3m tune in for World Cup opening game | Football dominated proceedings on Friday 11 June as the FIFA World Cup opened at Soccer City in Johannesburg to great fanfare and much blowing of the vuvuzela. ITV secured a predictably commanding share during the day as 4.3 million viewers tuned in to witness the stalemate between hosts South Africa and a strong Mexico side – a 46% audience share on average, with a 50% share tuning in for the 3pm kickoff. ITV also secured 2.2 million viewers for the opening ceremony, almost a 30% share on average. While BBC One had secured the 7:30pm fixture and attracted an average of more than 7 million viewers during the match, Emmerdale and the first of a Coronation Street two-parter provided stern competition on ITV1 even after the commencement of play. Emmerdale comfortably overshadowed the BBC's match build-up, pulling in 34.1% of viewers to BBC One's average of 24.1% between 7 and 7:30pm. Coronation Street also outpaced the first half-hour of the goalless draw between Uruguay and France, drawing 7.2 million viewers (35.2%). The soap's second part, airing at 8:30pm, offered strong competition to the football coverage, finding 28.2% of the audience share compared with BBC One's 32.5% for the slot. ITV scored a victory in the late evening World Cup highlights, attracting 835,000 compared with the 454,000 watching BBC Two's earlier offering. A British-oriented plot in American crime drama The Mentalist saw the show top Channel 5's ratings for the day, securing 1.7 million viewers and outperforming reality show When Romeo met Juliet, which attracted 0.6 million. Five main terrestrial analogue networks BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel Five (available in all UK homes with TV, except Five, which reaches about 95%) BBC1 10:35pm: Friday Night with Jonathan Ross - 3.157 million/22.6% BBC2 8pm: Gardeners' World - 1.342 million/5.9% ITV1 8:30pm: Dickinson's Real Deal - 3.826 million/18.5% Channel 4 9pm: Big Brother – 2.187 million/ 10% Five 10pm: CSI: NY – 1.144 million/6.3% Freeview/digital terrestrial TV free-to-air networks Available in 23.4m UK homes – 91.4% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 Fiver 6.30pm: Home and Away – 500,000/3.1% ITV2 10pm: The Isle of Wight Festival: Live – 267,000/1.7% E4 5:30pm: Friends - 267,000/2% BBC3 10:35pm: England's Worst Ever Football Team – 472,000/3.8% Cable and satellite pay-TV networks Available in 12.4m UK homes – 48.2% of total – as of 31/12/09. Source: Ofcom digital progress report, Q4 2009 Living 7pm: Ghost Whisperer – 24,000/0.1% All ratings are unofficial overnight figures, including live and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, HD, +1 or other – unless otherwise stated • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". | ['media/tvratings', 'media/television', 'media/media', 'media/worldcupthemedia', 'football/worldcup2010', 'sport/sport', 'football/football', 'tone/news', 'football/world-cup-football', 'type/article'] | media/worldcupthemedia | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-06-14T11:50:33Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
media/2020/dec/15/abc-breached-impartiality-rules-in-four-corners-report-about-water-rights-watchdog-finds | ABC breached impartiality rules in Four Corners report about water rights, watchdog finds | The broadcasting watchdog has found the ABC breached impartiality guidelines in a Four Corners report about water rights buybacks in the Murrumbidgee valley by not including enough of the government’s perspective – even though officials refused to give interviews. The July 2019 program looked at the federal government’s water grants for farmers under the Murray-Darling basin plan. It examined whether the water grants were a “colossal waste of taxpayer money” and whether “multimillion-dollar subsidies have been secretly handed to big business”. The program immediately raised the ire of the agriculture lobby: the National Farmers’ Federation accused the ABC of inaccurate reporting and Cotton Australia said it misrepresented the Murray-Darling basin plan. The NFF complained to the Australian Communications and Media Authority that the program included inaccurate statements, misled viewers by omitting key information, and lacked impartiality by unfairly favouring critical views. Acma’s investigation found that while Cash Splash was not inaccurate it did breach the ABC’s own impartiality standards. The watchdog said while it was acceptable for Four Corners to present critical commentary, the program did not present enough of the other side of the debate. Acma’s chair, Nerida O’Loughlin, said the program omitted key information about the operation of the schemes which meant the viewers couldn’t make up their own minds. “Australian audiences expect the ABC to give proper treatment to differing perspectives when exploring controversial issues,” O’Loughlin said. “Unfortunately, on this occasion, this did not occur. Although the producers of the program explored legitimate criticisms, Four Corners had a responsibility to acknowledge other perspectives on the matter of contention in a meaningful way.” The ABC told Acma that the environment minister, Sussan Ley, and bureaucrats from the relevant department had declined on-camera interviews and told producers that no one from the government would comment for the story. Officials did give briefings but shifted responsibility to other departments, the ABC said. Acma acknowledged the refusal of officials to take part but said that shouldn’t have prevented the program from presenting their perspective. “The decisions by government officials and ministers to decline interviews, and the restrictions placed on the ABC’s use of information provided in background briefings, constrained its ability to represent these perspectives on the program, both in a general sense about the Infrastructure Scheme, and in responding to particular points of criticism,” the Acma said. “However, the Acma is not persuaded that the refusals by government officials and the minister to participate prevented the ABC from presenting the principal relevant perspective on the matters of contention.” The program did feature interviews with farmers and irrigators with first-hand experience of the scheme and included the views of a range of former government insiders, experts and lawyers, the ABC said. Acma said the program should have acknowledged “in a meaningful way” that “aspects of the infrastructure scheme were contested and other views existed”. “For example, while the program referred to government views about water returned to the environment, there was no detailed explanation of what those views were,” the report said. The ABC has “respectfully disagrees” with the finding and has warned that it “risks suppressing investigative or ‘accountability’ journalism through a distorted application of the standards under the code”. “The code does not require that a balance of perspectives on matters of contention be presented in a single program, nor does it oblige journalism of this nature to take steps to moderate the impact of a deliberate decision not to participate,” the ABC said after the Acma report was handed down on Tuesday. “A full diversity of perspectives on the issues raised were subsequently canvassed in other ABC programs, including from stakeholders who had refused to participate in the original story.” The industry lobbied against this Four Corners report even before it went to air. As Guardian Australia reported last year the NFF was instructing members how to complain about it well in advance and the NSW Irrigators’ Council wrote to parliamentarians to “provide some balance to the ABC Four Corners’ Show last night” – but sent the email days before the show was aired. The NFF said on Tuesday the Acma investigation was a vindication of its concerns but criticised the length of time it took to report. “To a mere lay person, a core tenet of journalism is presenting two sides of the story,” said the NFF chief executive, Tony Mahar. “In this case, our tax-payer funded, national broadcaster has failed miserably. “Disturbingly, by not being impartial and by unduly favouring one perspective, the ABC has called into question the integrity and the motives of farmers who accessed the now-complete grants program.” | ['media/australian-broadcasting-corporation', 'media/australia-media', 'media/media', 'australia-news/murray-darling-basin', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'media/television', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/sussan-ley', 'environment/farming', 'australia-news/rural-australia', 'type/article', 'profile/amanda-meade', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2020-12-15T03:59:14Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2013/feb/24/weatherwatch-avalanches-history-scotland-alps | Weatherwatch: A brief history of lethal avalanches | Avalanches in the Scottish Highlands have claimed the lives of seven people so far this year, one of the worst winters on record for avalanches in Scotland. In fact, there are around 400 to 500 avalanches reported in Scotland's main mountain climbing areas each year, and in the worst season in recent times, the winter of 1994-95, there were 13 deaths in the Highlands, more than in Canada in the same period. An avalanche can rush down a slope with up to one million tons of snow at over 120mph – the fastest measured one was 217mph at Glärnisch, Switzerland on 6 March 1898, which swept 4 miles down into a valley and up the side of a mountain opposite, although no one was killed. Avalanches have also caused huge disasters in history and when Hannibal tried to invade Rome by crossing the Italian Alps in 218 BC, he lost 16,000 troops in avalanches. During the First World War, fighting between Austrian and Italian armies dug in across the Tyrol Alps set off lethal avalanches triggered by explosions. "The most frightening enemy was nature itself… entire platoons were hit, smothered, buried without a trace, without a cry, with no other sound other than that made by the gigantic white mass itself," wrote an eyewitness. About 60,000 men were thought to have been killed in the avalanches, and bodies of those buried soldiers are still uncovered from thawing glaciers and snow fields in the Alps. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'world/avalanches', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/firstworldwar', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2013-02-24T22:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
travel/2013/sep/21/boston-city-guide-insiders-tour | Boston city guide: an insider's tour | Friends told me that I would feel at home in Boston because of its strong European influence, and they were right. When I first arrived in the city 16 years ago, from France, I discovered a place full of history and style, fell in love with it right away, and never left. Boston is one of the oldest cities in the US. With its red-brick buildings, brownstones and those prestigious universities, the city's culture and architecture are reminiscent of those of an English town. The streets are narrow and compact, which makes it an excellent city to walk around. Follow, for example, the red line painted on the footpaths of the meandering Freedom Trail, which will lead you to 16 historical sites over the course of a few hours, encompassing two and a half centuries of the US's most significant past. In the city's North End you will walk by the 17th-century colonial home of American patriot Paul Revere. Continue a little further on Tremont Street and you'll discover the equally historic cemetery, King's Chapel Burying Ground, beside King's Chapel, the oldest in the city. Another enjoyable way to discover the area is on wheels. Hubway, the city bike scheme, is similar to the Vélib' in Paris or the Boris bikes in London: riders can pick up and drop off a bike at different stations across the city (and also neighbouring towns). Continue your visit with a stop at one of the city's museums, such as the recently renovated Institute of Contemporary Art, or the stately Museum of Fine Arts in Fenway. And with its courtyard garden, new Renzo Piano-designed extension and outstanding private collection of art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museumcorrect "was designed as a work of art in totality". The Charles river, which separates Boston from Cambridge, is a central feature of the city; it's flanked by paths on each side for the runners and cyclists who make use of them. Season permitting, you can even choose to go down the river itself – canoes and kayaks can be easily rented at several locations. If you happen to visit in October, go to the Head of the Charles Regatta, the world's largest rowing event: over the course of a weekend, nearly 300,000 spectators gather to cheer on the 9,000 competing rowers. Since you will almost certainly cross the river to Cambridge, make a stop at Upstairs on the Square for lunch or dinner. This storied restaurant houses two dining rooms: an upscale, gilt-laden fantasy land on the third floor, where it offers a five- or seven-course tasting menu ($72/$95); and in an equally flamboyant room on the second floor you can dine on lobster pizza for $19 or whole-milk ricotta homemade cavatelli with sweet pea and smoked ham for $14. During Sunday brunch, expect the arrival of the renowned Harvard Krokodiloes, a group of a cappella singers formed of tuxedo-clad undergraduates from the university. When in Harvard Square, I always pay a visit to Formaggio Kitchen to stock up on a selection of the best imported cheese and cured meats in town, including bresaola, jamón Ibérico and speck. Then it's to the Hi-Rise Bread Company for a baguette and a loaf of country bread. Boston's location on the Atlantic coast means that, of course, the seafood is excellent. For delicious oysters, lobster, clam chowder and other seafood delicacies, I'd recommend Island Creek Oyster Bar in Kenmore Square. It has one of the best raw bars in town; the oysters are local to New England (Wellfleet and Chatham in Massachusetts, or from Rhode Island) and are sold by the piece for $3. It also serves a delicious halibut ceviche with cucumber, lime and coriander for $9, and a shellfish platter for four to share, for $80. North End, near the harbour, is the neighbourhood to visit for authentic Italian food. Try Mike's Pastry shop for cannoli or tiramisu, before heading to DePasquale's Homemade Pasta Shoppe for freshly made pumpkin ravioli and orecchiette to take home. For a completely different atmosphere, and a more elegant dining experience, I'd suggest Clio or L'Espalier near Newbury Street, one of the city's upscale shopping streets. Both impress with imaginative food. At L'Espalier, try the chilled Casco Bay lobster salad with cucumber gazpacho gelée, pickled grapes, almond and compressed cucumbers, or the sweet corn bisque with roasted new onion and popcorn powder – it's outstanding. However, the restaurant I keep coming back to is Bergamot in Somerville, for its excellent service and seasonal ingredients. During the city's restaurant week, a choice of any appetizer, main and dessert can be had for $38. The charcuterie is house-made, and its salads and desserts stand out – as I'm French, I find the hazelnut clafoutis, served with peaches, whipped ricotta, brown butter and peach sorbet, impossible to resist. During the summer, farmer's markets pop up in parts of town, selling fresh vegetables and fruit. Copley Square, in downtown Boston, hosts a market on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Sundays from May to October, SoWa Open Market, in the South End, includes arts and crafts designers, a farmer's market, and a wide selection of food trucks.Stop for a lunch of kale salad, sweet corn and poblano fritters at Mei Mei Street Kitchen. There are several beautiful parks in the city. Swan boats are a highlight at Boston Common, near the historic Beacon Hill neighbourhood; while south of the city are the Arnold Arboretum and Jamaica Pond, which is good for a long walk, especially in spring and fall, with its cherry blossoms and changing leaf colours. Finally, takea trip to the north shore beaches (Crane Beach or Plum Island), or to Cape Cod and its islands – Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Go off-season, in spring or fall, and you might have the sandy beaches and parks to yourself. Béatrice Peltre, food writer and stylist based in Boston. She blogs at La Tartine Gourmande • For more information on holidays in the USA, visit DiscoverAmerica.com | ['travel/boston', 'travel/new-england', 'travel/road-trips', 'travel/series/road-trips-usa-east-coast', 'travel/city-breaks', 'travel/travelfoodanddrink', 'travel/beach', 'travel/usa', 'travel/northandcentralamerica', 'travel/travel', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/beatrice-peltre', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/special-supplement', 'theguardian/special-supplement/special-supplement'] | travel/series/road-trips-usa-east-coast | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2013-09-20T23:10:00Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/2019/oct/24/louisiana-cancer-alley-plastics-facility-william-barber | 'Evil economics': William Barber condemns proposed plastics facility in Cancer Alley | For the second time in two months the moral revival campaigner and civil rights leader the Rev William Barber has visited an area of toxic pollution in Louisiana known colloquially as “Cancer Alley” as he places the fight for clean air there at the centre of a national protest movement. The North Carolina-based activist, thrust on to the national stage after the success of the Moral Mondays protests in his home state, joined a group of local demonstrators in St James parish, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, on Wednesday as they rallied against a proposed plastics manufacturing facility nearby. The sprawling, $9.4bn site in the parish’s fifth ward, pushed by the Taiwanese petrochemicals giant Formosa, would consist of 14 separate plants across 2,300 acres of land and, if approved, would be allowed to roughly double the amount of toxic emissions in the parish from 1.6m lb to 3.2m. The proposed construction, known as the Sunshine Project, has won the support of local and state officials, including Louisiana’s Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, with the promise of 1,200 permanent jobs as well as thousands of temporary construction jobs. It would be built in the parish’s fifth district, which is 85% African American. On Wednesday evening Barber argued the project was backed by “evil economics”. “It comes down to greed,” Barber said. “You could take an area like Cancer Alley and focus on things that would fix the environment and put people to work cleaning up the mess. But it’s almost as if people decide ‘we just want money’. And then they decide who can we make the money off of that will give us the least resistance. It’s evil economics.” Formosa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Barber last visited the region in July as part of a series of Guardian co-sponsored town hall events in New Orleans and Reserve, which is the focus of a year-long series, Cancer Town. Reserve, in neighbouring St John the Baptist parish, has the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxicity anywhere in the US, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The primary cause of this elevated risk is emissions from a synthetic rubber plant, the Pontchartrain Works facility, operated by the Japanese chemicals giant Denka. The plant is the only place in America to emit the compound chloroprene, listed by the EPA as a “likely carcinogen”. Earlier in the month Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released a detailed environmental justice platform which referenced pollution in Reserve and Cancer Alley. On Wednesday, Barber said he had been in contact with a number of the leading Democratic candidates, including Warren and the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, renewing his call for them to visit polluted sites in southern Louisiana. Barber briefly broke off from an interview with the Guardian to call Warren’s personal cellphone, leaving a voicemail: “We really need to bring the campaign through Cancer Alley. We need to bring worldwide and national attention to what’s going on here. And how it is the direct relationship between policy and justice, racism and economic greed,” he said. The march on Wednesday was part of a two-week campaign throughout the region, which began last Tuesday. Numbers have ebbed and flowed over the days of activism as organizers hope for a large turnout at the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge next Wednesday. Barber will return to the city for that march. “If you go into these parishes where [the petrochemical industry] already exists, people understand there is a problem, so I think we have public opinion on our side,” said Anne Rolfes, executive director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, a not-for-profit environmental justice group involved in the protests. “The gap that we have is people believing they can do something about it and I think that part of this is building excitement, building camaraderie, and then really looking at our strategies and our tactical plans for succeeding,” she said. Barber said his continued visits to the region were having a profound effect on his campaigning. “When I hear the deep faith of the people here. When I see people like Robert Taylor [a leading campaigner in Reserve], who could be my grandfather, and he’s standing up with power in his voice and commitment in his body, his heart, you know, that is inspiring. I’m humbled that they would even call and say: ‘Would you do something with us?’” | ['us-news/series/cancer-town', 'us-news/louisiana', 'environment/pollution', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'environment/plastic', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/laughland-oliver', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-10-24T16:43:48Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2014/sep/22/greenpeace-worker-refused-entry-india | Greenpeace worker refused entry to India | Greenpeace has accused the Indian government of a systematic crackdown on its activities after one of the charity’s staff was turned back by immigration officials at Delhi airport and returned to the UK despite having a valid visa. The decision to refuse British national Ben Hargreaves entry to attend a meeting follows a ban on donations from Greenpeace International being transferred into Greenpeace India’s account. The ban was introduced by prime minister Narendra Modi’s rightwing government in June. The ban, which the Delhi high court ordered the government to lift this month, was imposed after a leaked Indian intelligence report described the organisation as “a threat to national economic security”. Samit Aich, executive director of Greenpeace India, told the Guardian: “We have seen for the last couple of months a definite move to scuttle Greenpeace’s work in India by various ways and means. Ben had a valid visa and was unceremoniously told to go back [to England]. This is clearly a symptom of a systematic clampdown of on Greenpeace in India.” Greenpeace claims the leaked intelligence report, which cited the charity’s protests against nuclear and coal plants and accused it of causing an annual reduction in India’s GDP of 2-3%, contained fabricated information, and says its funds were frozen without any explanation or evidence of wrongdoing. Aich said the Indian government was unhappy that Greenpeace had stepped up its campaign to protect community rights and ancient forests in the Mahan region of Madhya Pradesh, where it says plans for a coal mine proposed by a UK-registered company, Essar, threaten people’s livelihoods and biodiversity. Aich said the charity’s campaigning was validated by a ruling by India’s supreme court last month that all coal mining licences awarded since 1993, including the one covering Mahan, were illegal, amid claims of corruption, mismanagement and underpricing. Hargreaves, who had previously travelled to India without any problems, was given no reason for his deportation, and Greenpeace said other British nationals from the charity had been detained and interrogated at Indian airports. The charity’s UK executive director, John Sauven, has written to the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, requesting an explanation for the treatment of Hargreaves and other British nationals from the Indian minister for external affairs. “We fail to understand why Ben wasn’t allowed to return to India when he has all the appropriate permits,” said Sauven. “This is not the first time that our staff have been subjected to unfair treatment as they tried to enter the country – this is unacceptable. We are a legitimate part of global civil society. It’s very disturbing that the authorities in the world’s largest democracy should act in such an arbitrary way.” The Indian high commission in London did not respond to the Guardian’s request for a comment. | ['environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/india', 'world/world', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/haroonsiddique', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/greenpeace | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-09-22T17:02:35Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
world/2010/jul/28/afghan-casualties-wikileaks-nato-amnesty | Letters: Afghan casualties | Your observation that "some aspects of the coalition's recording of civilian deaths appear unreliable" (Editorial, 26 July) is an understatement. WikiLeaks' Afghan documents bear out Amnesty's long-standing concerns that neither Nato nor the US have coherent, consistent systems for accounting for the numerous civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The documents support our concerns about improper reporting of civilian casualties, insufficient investigations into casualties that are recorded, and poor co-ordination between different national forces about incidents and investigations. The WikiLeaks disclosure must now galvanise the Nato and US command structures into effectively protecting civilians. Killings must be investigated in a transparent, consistent and coherent way across all forces, providing justice and compensation for victims and their families. As the WikiLeaks documents show, it is the Taliban and other insurgent groups that have killed the majority of civilians in Afghanistan. But coalition forces have proven reckless with their methods and accounting. This needs to end. Tim Hancock Amnesty International UK | ['world/afghanistan', 'tone/letters', 'world/world', 'media/wikileaks', 'media/media', 'world/nato', 'world/taliban', 'world/amnesty-international', 'world/the-war-logs', 'world/war-logs', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | world/the-war-logs | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2010-07-27T23:05:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
sport/2019/oct/10/david-pocock-and-wallabies-teammates-lead-sporting-charge-on-carbon-emissions | David Pocock and Wallabies teammates lead sporting charge on carbon emissions | Andrew Stafford | Wallabies flanker David Pocock, along with Rugby World Cup teammates Bernard Foley and Dane Haylett-Petty, have announced their partnership with a scheme that aims to compensate for the carbon emissions associated with travel. Earlier this year, musician Heidi Lenffer, from Australian band Cloud Control, launched FEAT. (Future Energy Artists), an initiative that would allow Australian musicians to invest in a solar farm in south-east Queensland. Lenffer was concerned about the carbon emissions generated by her group’s touring schedule and what she saw as her own contribution to the climate emergency. Now, FEAT. is opening up to other sectors and individuals. When FEAT. was announced, Pocock responded via Instagram – “he was putting enthusiastic emoji responses on a lot of our posts,” Lenffer says – and contacted another songwriter, Jack River, who put the two of them in touch. “As an athlete, you’re in a somewhat similar position to artists in that there’s no escaping what you do requires travel, and I’m very conscious of my personal contribution,” says Pocock, who will captain the Wallabies in their final World Cup pool game against Georgia in Japan on Friday. “To see what FEAT. was doing, and to see people like Heidi getting on with it and trying to harness that energy into actually building the future we know is coming and we all want to see, but need to speed up, that was really exciting.” Lenffer says that while FEAT. started and would always be identified with the musical community, she was keen for the scheme to expand and be inclusive. “We see allies in other industries as being critical to the success of what we’re trying to do,” she says. Money invested in FEAT. is being used to buy ownership stakes in a solar farm called Brigalow, near the town of Pittsworth on the Darling Downs. The floor price for investment is low, just $5. The farm will power the equivalent of over 11,000 homes for 30 years. Pocock presented the scheme to his teammates, trying to impress upon them the carbon footprint of a major sporting tour. “It’s like any slice of the population. There are some guys who were interested in it, others didn’t really see it as an issue,” he says. “I just presented the guys with what FEAT. was doing, giving them an idea of the Wallabies’ emissions this year and suggesting we team with them as a way of investing an equivalent amount into renewable energy.” He convinced Foley and Haylett-Perry to come on board. “They’re excited about seeing solutions to these problems that we’re facing … It’s ridiculous to think that changing lightbulbs and that sort of thing is enough. Those days are over. We need a big system change.” Pocock has been a vocal campaigner about the climate emergency, and has extended that to direct action: in 2014, he was arrested in a protest against Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine in northern New South Wales. He extended his support to the wave of school strikes started by Greta Thunberg. “If you look at social change, it very seldom just happens. It ends up taking a percentage of the population actually willing to give up their freedoms and engage in civil disobedience,” he says. He also highlighted how global heating was already impacting on world sport, with a sharp message for rugby’s governing bodies. “I’m not playing rugby in Australia next year, but round one of Super Rugby is in January next year,” he says. “Can you imagine, in the last weekend of January, playing 80 minutes of rugby? That’s the way that change is going to happen in sport, when a few players get together – and our players’ unions – and say, hang on, this is an issue that’s going to affect our sport.” Asked what he would say to those who tell him to “stick to sport” – and many have – Pocock says, “first and foremost, we’re all humans, and this is a much bigger issue than sport … It’s an existential threat. Rugby is a big part of my life and I’m doing absolutely everything I can to be playing at my best to be contributing to the Wallabies working towards us winning the World Cup and taking it back to Australia, that’s what we’re all working for. “But I really believe that sport is at its best when it’s challenging society to be more inclusive, to be more forward thinking, and hopefully this is an area where sport can play more of a role, because we certainly aren’t getting the leadership from our politicians. “When young people who are too young to vote tell us their futures are on the line, you’ve got to listen to them. They’re not making it up, they’re listening to the best of the available scientific projections. Ignoring the issue doesn’t make it go away, unfortunately.” • Read more about FEAT. | ['sport/rugby-world-cup-2019', 'sport/australia-rugby-union-team', 'australia-news/david-pocock', 'sport/rugby-world-cup', 'sport/rugby-union', 'sport/sport', 'sport/australia-sport', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/andrew-stafford', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-sport'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2019-10-09T17:00:22Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2009/may/21/space-water-recycled-nasa | Space crew says cheers with recycled urine | At the international space station, it was one small sip for man and a giant gulp of recycled urine for mankind. A first for space was celebrated yesterday with astronauts drinking water that had been recycled from their urine, sweat, and water condensed from exhaled air. The crew, aboard the space station, said "cheers," clicked drinking bags and toasted Nasa workers on the ground who were sipping their own version of recycled drinking water. "The taste is great," said the American astronaut Michael Barratt. Then as Gennady Padalka, the Russian, tried to catch little bubbles of the clear water floating in front of him, Barratt called the taste "worth chasing". He said the water came with labels that said: "Drink this when real water is over 200 miles away." The urine recycling system is intended to serve outposts on the moon and Mars. It also will save Nasa money cutting down on shipping so much water to the station by space shuttle or cargo rocket. And the space station is about to house six rather than three people. The recycling system was brought up to the space station in November by the space shuttle Endeavour, but it could not be used until samples were tested, and a valve fixed on Monday. "This is something that had been the stuff of science fiction," Barratt said before taking his sip. Nasa's deputy space shuttle manager, LeRoy Cain, called it "a huge milestone". The system moves urine to a tank, where the water is boiled off and the vapour collected. The contaminants are then thrown away, said Marybeth Edeen, the space station's national lab manager, who was in charge of the system. The water vapour is mixed with water from air condensation, and filtered. With six crew aboard the system can make about 22 litres (six gallons) from urine in about six hours, Edeen said. The notion of drinking recycled urine could be viewed as distasteful, but normal sewerage systems do this, providing a longer time period between urine and tap, Edeen said. In space, it takes about a week, she added. The technology Nasa developed for the space system had been used for rapid water purification after the 2004 Asian tsunami. Wednesday's urine celebration included some toilet humour. "We are happy to have this water work through the system – we're happy to have it work through our systems," Barratt said. Meanwhile, on Russia's side of the space station, moisture in the air – and not urine – was being turned into drinking water. | ['science/science', 'technology/technology', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'science/space', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'science/nasa', 'type/article'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2009-05-21T17:58:46Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2016/aug/11/solar-and-wind-cheaper-than-new-nuclear-by-the-time-hinkley-is-built | Solar and wind 'cheaper than new nuclear' by the time Hinkley is built | The government expects solar and wind power to be cheaper than new nuclear power by the time Hinkley Point C is completed, its own projections show. Theresa May’s government last month made a surprise decision to delay a deal on Hinkley, prompting a renewed look at what alternatives could power Britain if ministers this autumn fail to back new reactors in Somerset. An unpublished report by the energy department shows that it expects onshore wind power and large-scale solar to cost around £50-75 per megawatt hour of power generated in 2025. New nuclear is anticipated to be around £85-125/MWh, in line with the guaranteed price of £92.50/MWh that the government has offered Hinkley’s developer, EDF. On previous forecasts, made in 2010 and 2013, the two renewable technologies were expected to be more expensive than nuclear or around the same cost. This is the first time the government has shown it expects them to be a cheaper option. The figures were revealed in a National Audit Office (NAO) report on nuclear in July. “The [energy] department’s forecasts for the levelised cost of electricity of wind and solar in 2025 have decreased since 2010. The cost forecast for gas has not changed, while for nuclear it has increased,” the NAO said. The NAO cited the forecasts as coming from the energy department in March 2016. The department said the NAO had been provided with an early draft of its report, and the full version would be published soon. Niall Stuart, chief executive of the trade body Scottish Renewables, said: “These numbers speak for themselves: onshore wind and solar will be significantly better value than all other large scale sources of power in the UK by 2025. “It is time to start backing the two technologies to deliver the clean power we need to hit our climate change targets and the cheap electricity required to keep bills down for consumers.” Molly Scott Cato, a Green party MEP, said: “These latest figures confirm what many of us have been saying for years: that the Hinkley project is a dud. “The cost of renewables is tumbling and Hinkley will become a giant white elephant as it struggles to compete with cheaper renewable options. Research has shown that solar power would be a less costly way of generating the equivalent amount of power, and now the government’s own projections show that onshore wind too will be cheaper than nuclear by the time Hinkley is built.” Since coming to power in May 2015, the government ended onshore wind subsidies and allowed communities to veto turbines near them, as well as axing and cutting various subsidies for solar. Government data published on Thursday showed that renewables generated 25.1% of the UK’s electricity in the first quarter of this year. Around half of that came from on and offshore wind combined. At the weekend, high winds in Scotland helped windfarms match the entire country’s electricity needs for a day. Scotland has some of the biggest onshore windfarms in the UK, and a target of generating 100% of electricity from renewables by 2020. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'environment/energy', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2016-08-11T10:31:31Z | true | ENERGY |
uk-news/2019/feb/06/sidmouth-fatberg-crews-begin-work-remove-mass-congealed-oil-grease-nasties-devon | Crews begin work to remove Sidmouth's monster fatberg | The first chunk of the Sidmouth fatberg, a monstrous mass of congealed oils, grease, wet wipes and other nasties lurking under the seafront of the Devon resort, has been brought to the surface at the start of an eight-week cleanup operation. A hunk of the 64-metre long object was hauled up into the light in a yellow plastic bucket. A wet wipe – a key component of fatbergs – poked out of one side of the grey-white mess, a cotton bud from another. Charlie Ewart, a sewer worker, said he and his colleagues could not wait to get rid of the fatberg, which has been gathering unnoticed beneath the Esplanade, a few metres from the sea, for years. “We’re looking forward to getting it out,” he said. “It’s quite eerie down there in the sewer and and you have to keep an eye out for rats. But it’s a challenge. Somebody’s got to do it.” The smell – a heady combination of rotting meat mixed with the odour of an unclean toilet – does not bother Ewart and his mates. “When you’ve been in the industry for a while you don’t smell it. You get immune.” Sidmouth’s fatberg, the size of six double-decker buses, has provoked interest around the world. Visitors have arrived in the town to examine the spot and try to pick up a whiff. South West Water opened a pop-up shop to explain what is happening and warn people of the dangers of dropping things they shouldn’t down the toilet and sink. Hundreds of people visited and took part in games and competitions. One resident was inspired to write a poem about it. But now the task of getting rid of the fatberg has begun. Experts are winched down a small manhole into the sewer, which was built in Victorian or regency times. They have to be careful of the water levels. Work was hampered on Wednesday after rain showers meant that they were suddenly faced with 2.5 metres of water. The gases are also a problem. The methane levels are high and oxygen low and Ewart and his colleagues wear full breathing apparatus and carry gas detectors to make sure they are not in danger. Detectors are also in place on the surface and alarms will beep if gas is detected above ground. Ewart and the team hack at the fatberg with small shovels and a mattock – a lighter version of a pickaxe. Special lorries fitted with high-pressure, sewer-jetting equipment will help get the fatberg moving and suck it out. South West Water’s director of wastewater, Andrew Roantree, said the discovery of the fatberg – which was found about four metres below the surface – had been greeted with a mixture of interest, concern and horror in the town. He also revealed that since December the beast – which is how some think of it – had shifted. “The guys were quite surprised,” he said. “It has moved. Something has happened – it could have got bigger or the flow in the sewer may have shuffled it a bit.” Happily, there has been little or no odour and the cleanliness of the bathing water has not been affected. Scientists from the University of Exeter will take samples of the fatberg to analyse exactly what it is made of. Roantree said he was keen to find out how much plastic – a component of the wet wipe – was in it. South West Water has used the Sidmouth fatberg as an educational tool. The wet wipes tend to create a matrix that other elements get caught up in, gradually creating a hard mass. Roantree said the company spent about £5m a year on clearing 8,500 blockages of all shapes and sizes from across its region. He said he was keen to get over the message that only the “three Ps” – poo, pee and paper – should end up in a toilet. “On average we deal with a blockage every hour. This fatberg is a massive manifestation of that problem,” he said. The hope is that by the summer, when the regency town fills with tourists again, the unwelcome visitor will be long gone. | ['uk/uk', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'uk-news/devon', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-02-06T12:39:55Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development-professionals-network/2014/feb/27/urban-planning-development-goals | Letters: include urban planning in development goals | None of the eight millennium development goals address urban planning, yet the way cities are structured has an impact on housing, industry, health, safety, food security, access to basic services and the ability to adapt to climate change. It therefore makes sense to include urban planning in every development goal. The approach should be to upgrade existing infrastructure and settlements through urban renewal. Traditional urban planning principles still apply, but we need a whole new logic to respond to the scale of urbanisation, because planning should be dynamic. The planning needs of past years are different from the needs of today. Urban planners should look beyond the traditional model to help build a better environment. Olufemi Oyedele in Abuja, Nigeria | ['working-in-development/working-in-development', 'global-development-professionals-network/series/cities-in-development', 'global-development-professionals-network/series/views-and-reviews', 'cities/urbanisation', 'society/regeneration', 'cities/cities', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'society/society', 'global-development/global-development', 'tone/letters', 'global-development-professionals-network/policy-advocacy', 'type/article'] | environment/sustainable-development | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-02-27T17:00:00Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
world/2013/nov/17/climate-rallies-draw-thousands | Climate rallies held across Australia | An estimated 60,000 people have attended rallies across Australia in one of the largest ever displays of support for action on climate change. Labor and Greens politicians, alongside volunteer firefighters and environmental activists, took turns at the Climate Action Day to lambast the Coalition government, which will table bills in parliament on Monday to dismantle carbon pricing. Around 25,000 people gathered on Sunday in the Melbourne sunshine, with Labor's environment spokesman, Mark Butler, reaffirming to the crowd that the opposition would not back down in its support for carbon pricing. "In Australia, unlike in most other countries, there's an atmosphere of denialism and scepticism," he said. "So many in our media and so many of our politicians, who should know better, deny that the science is settled. "This isn't the time to move backwards. You'll hear a lot this week from Tony Abbott about his mandate. He'll tell all of you to get out of the way as he tries to slam Australia into reverse. But we won't be taking a backwards step, not this week, not this year, or next year or ever." The Greens' deputy leader, Adam Bandt, told the gathering that Australia needed a "Churchill rather than a Chamberlain" on climate, while Peter Marshall of the United Firefighters Union said an increase in the number of severe bushfires meant there were "no climate sceptics on the end of a fire hose" among volunteer fire crews. Tim Flannery, head of the Climate Commission, which was axed by the Coalition after it took power, urged the crowd to use "every effort within the law to slow the uptake of fossil fuels". "If we let we let the world get warmer it'll have an impact on fire weather and the ocean is going to expand," he said. "These are pretty simple propositions, they aren't propositions for argument by anyone. They need to be accepted as the facts and we need to move forward with the risk in our mind." About 10,000 people attended a rain-drenched rally in Sydney addressed by the Labor deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek. About 5,000 turned up in Brisbane and across Australia more than 130 events were held in capital cities and regional towns, organisers said. The rallies, by early estimates from organisers, will have attracted more people than the Walk Against Warming events in 2006, in which 40,000 people urged then-prime minister John Howard to do more on the issue of climate change. Activist group GetUp, along with environmental lobby groups Australian Conservation Foundation and Greenpeace, organised the events. Sam Mclean, GetUp's national director, denied that the Coalition had the broad support of the public for its aim of scrapping carbon pricing in favour of its Direct Action policy, in which businesses will be offered incentives to reduce emissions. "In any analysis of the election Tony Abbott has no mandate to go backwards on climate change," Mclean said. "Our own polling has shown that 69% of people want stronger action on climate change. We need to know what Tony Abbott will do, because the policy he has outlined so far is a joke." | ['australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/carbon-tax', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/carbon-tax | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2013-11-17T06:52:09Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2009/dec/11/dawa-steven-sherpa-nepal | Dawa Steven Sherpa: The west must help Nepal, not for aid but for justice | Himalayan mountaineers will drop down to sea-level in Copenhagen today to bring the dire effects of climate change in Nepal to the world's attention at the UN climate summit. Nepali ministers, who earlier this month held a cabinet in the shadow of Everest at 5,252m, will join the Sherpas including Apa Sherpa who has summited the world's highest mountain a record-breaking 19 times, and the WWF climate ambassador Dawa Steven Sherpa. The march through the streets of Copenhagen has been organised to coincide with International Mountain Day and a side event at the Bella Centre conference hall looking at the potential problems and solutions to glacial melt in the Himalayas, including changing crop patterns and innovative pest control. Some 1.3 billion people in Asia depend on water that originates from glaciers in the Himalayas, and as temperatures rise the supply of water could be seriously threatened. In an interview with the Guardian en route to Copenhagen, Dawa Steven Sherpa said that he had seen great changes in Nepal. "Nepal is one of the earliest victims of climate change and whatever is going to happen in the rest of the world is already happening in Nepal, for example forest fires, droughts, floods. They are all happening in Nepal already and this because of Nepal's extreme geographical circumstances. The average temperature rise in Nepal is twice that of the global average so we're already seeing everything that is going to happen in the world. But Nepal has a carbon emission contribution of 0.02% which is practically nothing. We are not to blame, yet we are the first victims," he said. Glaciers have started to melt more rapidly in recent years, he said, which has made climbing more dangerous and threatened his own village, Khumjung, with the icy waters gathering at the base of the rapidly melting Imja glacier. "The Imja lake is one of the most talked about at the moment. It is the fastest receding glaciers in the Himalayas. Some studies show it is receding by up to 74 metres a year and it is directly upstream from the homeland of the Sherpas, the Khumbu, if that glacial lake bursts and comes down, it's going to wash out everything in its path. It's said to be about 1.6km in length, and 92 metres at its deepest point. So that's a lot of water. And when it comes down it's going to wash away everything." He said was travelling to Copenhagen to call on world leaders to commit to a strong deal. "The west should come in and help us with our problems. Not because it's charity or aid, but because it's justice," he said. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/copenhagen', 'world/nepal', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/glaciers', 'environment/mountains', 'tone/news', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/wwf', 'type/article', 'profile/felicitycarus'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-12-11T12:46:08Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2024/jan/09/edf-energy-uk-nuclear-power-plants | EDF Energy plans to extend life of four UK nuclear power plants | EDF is planning to extend the life of four nuclear power stations in the UK and increase investment in its British nuclear fleet. The French energy company, which manages Britain’s eight nuclear power stations, said it would make a decision on whether to extend the life of the four plants with advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGR) – Torness, Heysham 1 and 2, and Hartlepool – by the end of the year. This would require regulatory approval. A spokesperson for the company said it would depend on plant inspections, adding the extensions would not be long but “incremental”. Last March, EDF extended lifetimes at Hartlepool and Heysham 1 by a further two years to March 2026. Heysham 2 and Torness power stations are now due to stay operational until March 2028. The French state-owned firm is also looking into running its Sizewell B plant on the Suffolk coast for 20 years longer than scheduled, until 2055. It is the UK’s only pressurised water reactor plant and has a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts (GW). A final decision will be taken next year. EDF said it would invest a further £1.3bn in its whole UK nuclear fleet, which employs 5,000 people, between 2024 and 2026, taking the total invested to nearly £9bn since 2009. It plans to hire more than 1,000 people at its UK nuclear operations this year. Mark Hartley, the managing director of EDF’s nuclear operations business, said: “Looking ahead, our aim is to maintain the output of the four AGR stations for as long as possible and extend Sizewell B by a further 20 years out to 2055.” EDF Energy, its UK arm, operates Britain’s five nuclear power stations that generate electricity. A further three are defuelling (Hunterston B, Hinkley Point B and Dungeness B), the first stage of decommissioning. The output of EDF’s UK nuclear fleet was 37.3 terawatt hours (TWh) last year, 15% lower than the year before because of station closures and statutory outages. The company aims to maintain output at 2023 levels until at least 2026. EDF will also build the Sizewell C nuclear power plant on the Suffolk coast. A legal challenge brought by a campaign group against the government’s decision to build the 3.2GW plant was rejected last summer. Tom Greatrex, the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: “EDF’s … ambition to extend the four AGR stations further if possible, should be widely welcomed – as it will cut gas imports, cut carbon and relieve winter pressures on our shaky grid. “While lifetime extensions will help in the short term, they won’t address the medium and long-term issues of a fleet getting close to retirement – what we now need is for the government to get Sizewell C to a final investment decision swiftly, and set out a plan for a new fleet of stations.” France’s energy minister said last week that the country needs more than the six new nuclear power stations that it has planned and may need to build 14 new plants in total. They will be built and operated by EDF. | ['business/energy-industry', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2024-01-09T12:09:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2006/nov/26/famine.conservation | Nicaragua's green lobby is leaving rainforest people 'utterly destitute' | For centuries the Miskito people have defended their Central American rainforest kingdom. They rebuffed invading of the Spanish settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries with the help of British muskets, from which they derived their name, and remained autonomous even when nominally absorbed into the newly formed state of Nicaragua in 1894. During the 1980s civil war, the Sandinista government accused the Miskitos of siding with Contra rebels, using that as a pretext to herd tens of thousands of the indigenous people into camps and destroy their villages. Those who survived rebuilt their communities after the war. Now this unique community, a mix of indigenous inhabitants and African slave descendants, are facing a new threat: environmentalism. A logging ban introduced earlier this year is devastating the economy and fraying the social fabric of remote communities that relied almost exclusively on forestry to survive. Villages such as Alamikamba, a collection of wooden houses on stilts in the sparsely populated North Atlantic autonomous region, which seems light years from the capital, Managua, have seen the livelihoods of loggers, boatmen and millers evaporate, leaving a cloud of depression and anxiety. 'I can't support my family any more,' said Georo Morris Fox, 29. The great-great-great-grandson of an English traveller lost his job classifying cedar trunks when the logging ban shut the local timber mill, the village's main employer. Mirna Morales, 33, a mother of four, lost her job as a secretary and her boatman husband no longer has logs to navigate, leaving the family penniless. 'We're surviving on rice and natural remedies,' she said. The Miskitos' plight reveals the complex dilemmas facing those who want to save forests from destruction. The value of conserving one of the most biologically diverse regions in the Americas, home to 12,000 varieties of plant and 1,400 animal species, including monkeys, macaws and herons, is unquestioned. And no one doubts urgent action is needed, since in the past 50 years half of the 12,000-square mile forest has been lost to logging and agriculture. The Miskitos played a part, but prominent businessmen, exploiting a weak state and rampant corruption, are thought to have been far more destructive. The issue is whether the logging ban will work and whether there is another way to protect the forests without hurting the Miskitos. Last May, dramatic and disturbing television images of rivers clogged with logs prompted the government to announce an emergency 10-year nationwide ban on cutting and exporting mahogany, cedar, pochote, pine, mangrove and ceiba. A 2003 forestry law had too many loopholes so a sweeping ban - allowing only the felling of trees that would be turned into finished wood products, such as furniture, doors and floors - was deemed the only solution. 'It is meant to act as a tourniquet to stop the haemorrhaging of the country's forests,' Jaime Morales Carazo, head of the parliamentary environmental commission, said in May. 'It's not a perfect law, but it's an emergency law and a temporary law.' Miskito leaders denounced the ban as an attack on their way of life and a violation of their autonomy. The only beneficiaries of the exception, on finished wood products, they said, were politically connected businessmen with furniture factories. Howard Wilson, head of the region's natural resource commission, called the ban a backward step for conservation. Surprisingly, some environmental groups have also criticised the ban, arguing that villagers who can no longer legally chop and mill selected trees will turn to illicit, uncontrolled logging and farming. 'When a truck full of logs rolls into Managua everyone - media, politicians, the people - becomes upset and says they are cutting down the country's forests, but when a truck full of cattle rolls in, nobody says a word,' said Jaime Guillen of the Rainforest Alliance. 'They don't ask where the cattle came from, which is probably pasture land that is a clear-cut and burned forest.' The alliance advocates training some Miskitos to select between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the trees and process them 'to maximise the value to the community. Forest management in the hands of the communities in the region is much easier to implement than simply restricting all logging,' said Guillen. | ['environment/environment', 'global-development/famine', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'world/world', 'world/nicaragua', 'type/article', 'profile/rorycarroll', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2006-11-26T23:37:08Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/datablog/2019/nov/09/coca-cola-world-biggest-plastics-polluter-again-datablog | Coca-Cola is world's biggest plastics polluter – again | Mona Chalabi | Coca-Cola has been named the world’s largest polluter of plastics for the second year in a row, according to an audit conducted by Break Free From Plastic. The environmental justice group asked 72,541 volunteers in 51 countries to collect plastic waste. Almost half (43%) of what they found were clearly marked consumer brands. Coca-Cola was named the world’s number one global plastic polluter, followed by Nestlé and Pepsico. Volunteers were able to select the locations for their clean-up efforts and so the final results may not be a perfect representation of global trends. Nonetheless, almost 12,000 Coca-Cola products were found in 37 countries across the world. There were some regional trends too. In the US, the biggest producers of plastic pollution were Nestlé, followed by Solo Cup Company and Starbucks. In Europe, Heineken was the third-largest plastic polluter. Volunteers found more than 59,000 plastic bags, 53,000 sachets and 29,000 plastic bottles. No one really knows how long plastics will take to decompose in our oceans but estimates suggest that it takes up to 450 years for a plastic bottle to break down. “Any time our packaging ends up in our oceans – or anywhere that it doesn’t belong – is unacceptable to us,” Coca-Cola said in a statement to the Intercept. “In partnership with others, we are working to address this critical global issue, both to help turn off the tap in terms of plastic waste entering our oceans and to help clean up the existing pollution.” | ['news/datablog', 'environment/plastic', 'business/cocacola', 'business/nestle', 'environment/environment', 'business/pepsico', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/mona-chalabi', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-11-09T10:00:07Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
uk-news/2022/mar/21/part-of-the-way-to-stonehenge-to-be-restored-to-how-ancient-pilgrims-saw-it | Part of the way to Stonehenge to be restored to how ancient pilgrims saw it | Part of a ceremonial approach to the great circle of Stonehenge and a spot nearby where ancient hunter-gatherers shared feasts with the first British farmers have been saved from the threat of modern agriculture. The areas are to be restored as chalk grassland, which will benefit flora and fauna, including wild flowers, butterflies and hares, with the aim that they will eventually be opened to the public. One of the areas includes a stretch of the Avenue, a route that runs 1.5 miles from the banks of the River Avon to the main Stonehenge circle. If and when the new section is opened after restoration work, it will give modern visitors a better feel of what the approach to the circle must have been like for pilgrims thousands of years ago. The second acquisition is land that includes a Neolithic feasting pit at Coneybury, almost a mile south-east of the circle and close to another henge, built about 2,700BC, a little before Stonehenge. Bones of cattle raised by the early farmers and deer caught by hunter-gatherers were found in the pit, suggesting it was a place where the two groups gathered and shared food. The acquisition of the two sites by the National Trust, a total of about 170 hectares (420 acres), means that six monuments, including the stretch of the Avenue, the Coneybury pit and henge, have been removed from Historic England’s at-risk register. The conservation charity already looks after the final stretch of the Avenue just before it reaches the circle, but the acquisition means it will care for the whole of the route north of the A303. Nick Snashall, the trust’s archaeologist for the Stonehenge and Avebury world heritage site, said the areas would be returned to chalk grassland and, in the future, there could be further digs there and, hopefully, public access. She said both sites had in recent years been used for arable farming, with wheat the main crop, and had been damaged by ploughing. “Arable farming can be hugely damaging to archaeology, year after year erasing more and more of the story of the people who built and used the monuments in this landscape,” she said. “It’s fantastic news that we’ve been able to take the single most important step in protecting these sites in decades, by bringing this additional land into our care. By returning them to species-rich chalk grassland we’re both making a home for nature, and ensuring the stories this landscape holds will be here for everyone to discover and enjoy long into the future.” More than 80% of the UK’s chalk grassland has been lost since the second world war, with about half of the remaining grassland in Wiltshire. The National Trust cares for more than 800 hectares of the landscape surrounding the Stonehenge monument and, over the past 20 years, has carried out one of the largest grassland reversion programmes in Europe. It is now home to brown hares, skylarks and Adonis blue butterflies, as well as wildflowers such as sainfoin, cowslip and prickly poppy. Rebecca Burton, the regional director at the National Trust, said: “We have been working for years to revert more of the Stonehenge world heritage site to chalk grassland which, as well as protecting the archaeology, will allow nature to thrive. It will mean people will be able to experience a landscape that would have been more familiar to the builders of Stonehenge.” Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England, said: “Some of these sites close to Stonehenge were vulnerable to continued arable cultivation, including part of the Avenue. We are delighted that the National Trust has been able to secure the conservation ownership and control of this land, leading to the removal of six key monuments from our heritage at-risk register and the protection of other important archaeological remains. “This will also help facilitate wider access to the landscape, a further step towards one day in the future the exciting prospect for people to once again walk the ceremonial route along the Avenue.” | ['uk-news/stonehenge', 'environment/conservation', 'uk-news/england', 'science/archaeology', 'environment/environment', 'environment/biodiversity', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-03-21T06:01:17Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2020/jan/04/australias-bushfires-politics-has-to-change-forever-when-your-own-citizens-cannot-sleep-or-breathe | Australian politics has to change forever when your own citizens cannot sleep or breathe | Cynthia Banham | The night of New Year’s Eve was a kind of slow torture. I spent it in Vincentia on the New South Wales south coast, lying with my seven-year-old son, unable to breathe or sleep as thick brown smoke filled the house. As I listened to my child coughing, calling out from the depths of his nightmares words that sounded like “don’t die”, I prayed for the Princes Highway to reopen. I write this not because I believe for one minute that what I went through compares to anything people further south on Australia’s east coast experienced that night, or will this weekend, but because friends and family who live outside the region – whether in Sydney or other, unaffected parts of the country, such as Perth – asked me to. They simply cannot believe it when I tell them what horrors are unfolding down there. There is a way to understand, I tell them – tune into ABC Illawarra local radio. Then you’ll hear about the power outages, the food, fuel and water shortages, the stories of locals bringing water to families with children and babies trapped in cars fleeing Ulladulla and its surrounds, of supermarket staff at Milton guiding shoppers around darkened stores with head torches to find dried food because the refrigerated goods have all spoiled. But in all likelihood they won’t, so let me tell you what it was like, the final day of 2019, for my family. We were at a village on Jervis Bay, where we had planned to see in 2020 with my brother-in-law and his wife. We knew there was fire around but we didn’t understand the threat – who did? Everything changed at precisely 1.57pm, when the NSW Rural Fire Service emergency bushfire warning text message came through on our mobile phones – “people nth of Ulladulla & in Bay & Basin & Nowra areas – seek shelter as fire arrives”. “Where is Bay & Basin?” asked my sister-in-law, who is from Melbourne. “That’s here, where we are,” my husband said. They were at the shops, buying food for our celebration dinner, a meal we never cooked, as the night was spent formulating a fire plan, getting ready to evacuate, via the sea in kayaks if it came to that. It was hard to keep a level head as our hearts raced, our panic escalated, as ash fell, the sky blackened and night fell hours before actual sunset. Local ABC radio was our lifeline – and surely, after this summer, the federal government will increase the ABC’s funding? – and it was how we learnt the fire had reached Sussex Inlet on the southern side of St Georges Basin (12km away), where we heard that power and telecommunications would be lost during the night, that people in Lake Conjola were jumping into the lake to escape raging fires (30km away). What did we do? We gathered up woollen blankets, towels and bottled water and placed them outside on the deck. We assigned lifejackets (we had enough for the women and child). We opened all the gates, pulled out the kayaks. We filled the bath, readied the hoses. We dressed in the most appropriate clothes we had, inadequate though they were. We bought batteries from the service station for the radio and torches (the local Coles closed an hour after the RFS text message came through). We found Ziploc bags for our mobile phones, in case they fell into the sea. My husband and his brother organised shifts to stay awake throughout the night, to monitor the radio and sky either side of the house for the orange glow that we hoped would never come. Our plan, if it did, was to don lifejackets, take the women, child and dogs to the beach, and then the men would come back for the boats. Meanwhile my son clutched his little bag of crystals and two small soft toys. His uncle and aunt tried to distract him with a card game but, by 8pm, he was holding his hands to his ears, begging us to turn off the radio – the emergency warnings were upsetting him so – and that’s when I took him to bed. About 1am the RFS dropped the threat level to our area and, when in the morning the Live Traffic App informed us the road to Sydney had reopened, we threw our things into the car and fled. I feel guilty being so safe in Sydney, while the locals we left behind stay to defend their houses and their lives. Politics has to change forever as a result of this summer because our country has – there is simply no turning back now. We, on Australia’s east coast (and beyond) have seen what the consequences of not acting on climate change look like and it is terrifying. How many people will have died and lost their houses when this immediate crisis has passed? How many farmers will have lost their livelihoods? How many animals will have perished? How many species will have been brought closer to the brink of extinction? How many children will have lost their innocence? I am haunted by Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a book I read only a year ago, never imagining how soon I would see photos in the Australian media of the post-apocalyptic world he described, of refugees fleeing blackened landscapes, parents leading their children through the smoke, carrying their belongings in their arms, hoping for rescue on military convoys. We have no use for politicians who continue to pursue agendas that ignore the reality of our warming climate, that place our suffering planet in ever-greater jeopardy. It is time for a new generation of leaders to stand up. • Cynthia Banham is a Sydney-based author and journalist | ['tone/comment', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/bushfires', 'australia-news/south-coast', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/wildfires', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/cynthia-banham', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2020-01-04T05:57:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2013/nov/01/scientists-demand-apology-david-murray | Climate scientists want business leader to apologise for 'serious slur' | Climate scientists have called on one of Australia’s highest profile business leaders to apologise for accusing their profession of lacking integrity. The Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society described as a “serious slur” the remarks of David Murray, former head of the Commonwealth Bank and the inaugural chairman of Australia’s multi-billion dollar future fund. Murray told the ABC’s Lateline he believed there had been a “breakdown in integrity” in the science of climate change. Murray, who was in charge of $75bn of government assets during his final year as the future fund chairman, said “the climate problem is severely overstated”. He said he had seen no evidence of “integrity” among climate scientists. In an open letter, AMOS president Blair Trewin wrote: “The society regards the remarks of Mr Murray as being a serious slur on the integrity of the many Australian and international authors of the IPCC report, and views them as highly offensive to those authors and to the profession at large. The society calls upon Mr Murray to withdraw the remarks.” During the interview, host Emma Alberici pointed out the work of scientists who had contributed to the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Murray was asked what it would take to “convince him” on the science of climate change. Murray answered: “When I see some evidence of integrity amongst the scientists themselves. I often look at systems and behaviours as a way of judging something, and in this case, to watch the accusations that fly between these people suggests there’s been a breakdown in integrity in the science.” The letter from AMOS added: “The IPCC reports are an outstanding example of international science co-operation, rigour and transparency. They are subjected to multiple levels of review by experts both inside and outside the climate community, with all review comments and the authors’ responses to them being made publicly available.” In 2011, Murray was reported to have said there was “no correlation” between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming and that the world’s glaciers were not melting. The IPCC said in September it was “extremely likely” that human emissions of greenhouse gases had been the dominant force behind the global warming observed since the 1950s. The IPCC report also found that between 1993 and 2009 about 275bn tonnes of ice were melting from the world’s glaciers every year. During the interview, Murray confirmed he had been in early discussions with the government to head an inquiry into the finance industry. | ['science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-readfearn'] | environment/climate-change-scepticism | CLIMATE_DENIAL | 2013-11-01T07:14:09Z | true | CLIMATE_DENIAL |
environment/2022/feb/15/wood-burners-emit-more-particle-pollution-than-traffic-uk-data-shows | Wood burners emit more particle pollution than traffic, UK data shows | Wood burning in homes produces more small particle pollution than all road traffic in the UK, according to revised government data. The new data significantly cuts the estimated proportion of small particle pollution that comes from wood burners from 38% to 17%. But wood burning pollution remains a “major contributor” to particle pollution, another government report said. Road transport is responsible for 13% of particle pollution. The data shows tiny particle pollution, called PM2.5, produced by wood burning rose by a third from 2010 to 2020, when it reached 13,900 tonnes a year. This all comes from the 8% of homes that have wood burners, 95% of which have other sources of heating. The data revision was made after a survey of 50,000 homes provided updated information on the use of wood stoves. Particle pollution is well known to damage health and cause early deaths. “These toxins may enter the bloodstream and be transported around the body, lodging in the heart, brain and other organs,” the report said. “Therefore, exposure can result in serious impacts to health.” The report also found that since the late 2000s, significant decreases in particle pollution from coal burning, industry and vehicles have been “largely offset by increases in emissions from wood burning in domestic settings and [biomass] burning by industry”. “Even after this revision, home use of solid fuel is one of the top two sources of particle pollution in the UK, coming from just 8% of UK homes,” said Gary Fuller, at Imperial College London and a member of the Air Quality Expert Group that advises the government. “My in-box is filled with people who are concerned about the wood smoke that is filling the bedroom of their asthmatic child or ill elderly relative.” The government data on wood burning pollution is based on laboratory tests of stoves. Fuller said: “We need to remember the lessons from VW and dieselgate, where the air pollution produced in the real world was much greater than those in official tests. Data from New Zealand tells us that the same applies to wood burners, with the way that we light fires and the fuels that we use tending to lead to more air pollution than we expect from official tests.” “What is staggering is the increase between 2010 and 2020,” said Simon Birkett, of the campaign group Clean Air in London. “There’s still a really big problem. It’s a public health catastrophe, so wood-burning stoves need to be banned urgently. The first step should be to stop the sale or installation of them.” Other recent research has shown that wood-burning stoves in urban areas are responsible for almost half of people’s exposure to the cancer-causing chemicals found in air pollution particles. Even wood-burning stoves meeting the new “ecodesign” standard still emit 750 times more tiny particles than a modern HGV truck, another study found, while wood burners also triple the level of harmful pollution inside homes and should be sold with a health warning, according to scientists. The data revision was made after the government conducted a new survey of wood burning in 50,000 homes, the biggest to date. Its estimate of domestic wood consumption was substantially lower than the previous survey. The government said the reasons for the different results were likely to include previous assumptions that may be wrong, including that most new stoves were not replacements for old stoves and that users did not sometimes mix coal with their wood. Another factor was that the previous estimate included the “Beast from the East” cold period, which the new estimate did not. “However, it is clear that UK residential emissions from domestic combustion will continue to be a major contributor to the UK emissions of particulate matter,” the survey report concluded. The sector producing the biggest proportion of PM2.5 is manufacturing industries and construction, which is responsible for 27%. But Fuller said: “Lots of people live closer to home chimneys than they do to industrial sources and major motorways. This leads to greater exposure to wood burning pollution than we find for many other sources.” | ['environment/air-pollution', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2022-02-15T11:43:04Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sport/2023/jan/13/ecbs-mo-bobat-happy-for-steve-smith-to-gear-up-for-ashes-in-county-cricket | ECB’s Mo Bobat happy for Steve Smith to gear up for Ashes in county cricket | Mo Bobat, the performance director for men’s cricket at the ECB, has cautiously welcomed the possibility of Australia’s Steve Smith honing his skills with Sussex in the County Championship before the start of this summer’s Ashes series, suggesting the benefits of the move would outweigh any disadvantages. Discussions between Smith and Sussex are said to be advanced, and though Ben Stokes, England’s Test captain, reacted coolly to the idea Bobat was considerably more enthusiastic. “Any good player coming over to our domestic system, he’s going to raise the standard of it,” Bobat said. “In many ways it’s good – it’s good for our bowlers to bowl at Steve Smith, and it’s good for the young batters to see him play and get a chance to bat with him. “You could argue that it helps him prep and that might represent a disadvantage to England. I don’t spend too much time thinking about that. We tend to just worry about what we can control. If we play to potential we’re a match for anyone and we can challenge anyone.” Bobat also proposed an extensive shake-up of the central contract system to reflect the changing face of the modern game and in particular the number of players now representing England in various formats. England have used more than 40 players in full men’s internationals in only two of the last 90 years: 2021 and 2022, with the number reaching 50 for the first time last year. “A few of us need to get our heads together and really think about what central contracts look like moving forward,” he said. “We need to think about the value of Test contracts, relative to other opportunities out there; we need to think about white-ball being contracted. We need to think about the balance between retainers and fees and what that looks like; we need to think about the volume and number of players that we need to contract because we’re using so many more of them. “We need to be very cognisant of the earning opportunities of players and how we best manage their workload and their schedules. We’ve got pace-bowling development contracts and we’ve seen real value in those, and it might be that we can do something like that with disciplines that aren’t just pace bowling. Why couldn’t we be doing that with the young spinners or young batters? But we haven’t really started that piece of work.” The coaching team for the forthcoming Lions tour of Sri Lanka has been finalised, with the head coach Neil Killeen – who was named men’s elite pace bowling coach this week – leading a group that also includes Ian Bell and Min Patel. Graeme Swann will again join the squad as a mentor, having performed a similar role on the trip to the UAE last November. “When [director of elite men’s cricket] Rob Key first started, he and I spoke about trying to get some of the right personalities around our players, people who really embody the type of cricket we’re trying to play, and he was someone that certainly came to mind,” Bobat said. “He was always aggressive, had an impact with the way he batted and approached things in the field. It’s infectious. He brings great energy as well and you want to have that in the environment.” Nottinghamshire’s Haseeb Hameed will captain the side in their two Tests against Sri Lanka A, while Somerset’s Tom Abell will lead them through the three-game ODI series. | ['sport/england-cricket-team', 'sport/steve-smith', 'sport/ecb', 'sport/australia-cricket-team', 'sport/cricket', 'sport/sport', 'campaign/email/the-spin', 'sport/australia-sport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/simonburnton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-sport'] | sport/ecb | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2023-01-13T18:00:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/2022/oct/03/hurricane-ian-death-toll-florida | Flooding, outages, confusion: Florida reels as Hurricane Ian death toll rises | As Florida continues grappling with the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the state’s death roll mounts and stories of tragedy and delay emerge. Over 81 people are confirmed dead and that toll is expected to rise. Rescue crews working brutal shifts – sometimes 20 hours long – are still combing through the wreckage, and flooding continues in many parts of the state. Florida has mobilized more than 5,200 troops from its national guard. Operating from airboats and helicopters, those troops, the US Coast Guard and local fire, police and search-and-rescue agencies have been scouring afflicted areas for survivors, though their efforts have been slowed by lack of electricity, cellphone service and infrastructure. After cutting a swath of destruction through Cuba, Hurricane Ian made landfall in south-west Florida last Wednesday, 28 September, as a potent category 4 storm. Thousands of Floridians evacuated or sought refuge in emergency shelters. Ian brought violent storm surges and 20in of rain, meaning many residents who thought they were safe after surviving the storm’s winds then had to face terrifying flooding. “After a storm has passed, that 48-hour period offers the greatest opportunity to find survivors,” Miami fire department captain Ignatius Carroll Jr told the New York Times. As of Sunday, more than 1,600 people had been rescued, the Florida governor’s office said. The situation is an “emotional rollercoaster”, the city manager of Naples, Jay Boodheshwar, told CNN. “People need to take care of their emotional and mental health, because we’re really going to need to work together on this.” The tense mood in Florida has been heightened by debates over whether local authorities had sufficiently prepared for the storm or reacted quickly enough once it took aim at the state’s west coast. For example, Lee county, which has been especially hard hit, waited to issue an evacuation order until less than 24 hours before Ian made landfall. County officials had initially thought that the area would avoid the storm’s direct path. The county commissioner, Kevin Ruane, has defended the local government’s handling of the order. “As soon as we saw the model shift north-east, we did exactly what we could to encourage [evacuation],” Ruane said on Sunday. He said that some residents became “complacent” and didn’t seek shelters. Power line repair workers are laboring around the clock to restore electricity to the hundreds of thousands of homes that are without service. A utility official has said it could be weeks or months before parts of the state are back on the grid. Ninety-eight percent of Cape Coral’s power infrastructure was “obliterated”, the city’s fire chief and emergency management director told CNN. There are also more than 100 boil-water advisories across Florida, according to the state’s health department. Adjusted for inflation, Ian may be the second-most-costly storm to ever strike Florida, after 1992’s Andrew. A research firm, CoreLogic, has estimated that the storm will incur as much as $47bn in insured losses – $22bn to $32bn in wind damage and $6bn to $15bn in flood damage. “Hurricane Ian will forever change the real estate industry and city infrastructure,” an associate vice-president at the firm, Tom Larsen, asserted in a news release. “Insurers will go into bankruptcy, homeowners will be forced into delinquency, and insurance will become less accessible.” The storm was especially devastating in south-west Florida’s barrier islands. Ian destroyed the causeway connecting Sanibel Island from the mainland, cutting off residents from immediate supplies and aid. Local fire and police officials have also expressed trepidation about looting or violence, though so far there have not been any significant outbreaks of lawlessness. “After three or four days, people are frustrated, aggravated,” Vincent Pangallo, a member of a rescue team working in Fort Myers Beach, told the New York Times. “They think the power’s supposed to turn back on.” Pangallo added: “They become agitated. And they start going to see what they can get from their neighbor because their neighbor’s gone. And the next thing you know, looting begins.” “Do not disaster sightsee,” Florida’s emergency management division director, Kevin Guthrie, said on Monday. “Anyone going into an area just to see the damage needs to leave.” Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are visiting Puerto Rico and Florida this week to show the White House’s support. The Bidens will arrive in Florida on Wednesday. Climate scientists have concluded that global heating has strengthened storms, which feed on warm ocean water. Since 1980 there have been an increasing number of powerful category 4 and category 5 storms, the New York Times has reported. | ['us-news/hurricane-ian', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/florida', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/j-oliver-conroy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | us-news/hurricane-ian | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-10-03T20:10:50Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
science/2021/sep/13/success-of-past-rewilding-projects-shows-path-to-restoring-damaged-ecosystems | Success of past rewilding projects shows path to restoring damaged ecosystems | The news that scientists are planning to bring back woolly mammoths to the Arctic tundra, by splicing DNA from Asian elephants with that of their extinct ancestors, has raised a few eyebrows in the world of conservation science. However, the basic idea of reintroducing large mammals to a vulnerable ecosystem in order to restore and rebalance habitats depleted by our own destructive habits is now widely accepted. When we take big, influential creatures out of an ecosystem, we create an imbalance that allows the populations of other species to increase rapidly. For example, because bears, wolves and lynx have long been extinct in Britain, the numbers of native red and roe deer, and the non-native muntjac, have skyrocketed. This creates soil erosion and damage to woodlands and scrub, affecting scarce and specialised species such as the nightingale, and reducing new tree growth. In extreme cases, the effects of losing just one keystone species can be disastrous. As Raquel Filgueiras of Rewilding Europe explains, when they disappear, other species are simply not able to take over their role. As a result, she says, “ecosystems then degrade, and sometimes completely collapse”. The converse is also true. When we put these key species back into a broken ecosystem, we start to restore the balance between predators and prey, and change the composition of the local flora. While species reintroduction is not a magic wand that can solve every problem, it can certainly help reverse losses. Perhaps the best-known example is the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone national park in the US after an absence of almost 70 years. The idea was that the wolves would keep the elk population in check, preventing overgrazing. Ultimately, this would recreate a more diverse and complex habitat, in what scientists call a “trophic cascade”. The plan was hugely controversial at the start, but 25 years later it has clearly worked, with Yellowstone having a far richer and better-balanced ecosystem than before. Revenue from wildlife tourism has more than covered the scheme’s costs. On a smaller scale, the presence of predatory birds such as goshawks and white-tailed and golden eagles has a similarly beneficial effect by reducing the numbers of medium-sized predators. Benedict Macdonald, the author of the book Rebirding, has long championed schemes to restore Britain’s lost or returning wild creatures. In his forthcoming book, Cornerstones, which examines the impact of keystone species, he points out the benefits of the return to the New Forest of one of our most charismatic raptors. “Goshawks prey on medium-sized predators such as magpies, jays and crows, which raid songbirds’ nests for eggs and chicks. Keeping their numbers down allows those smaller birds to thrive.” Beneficiaries include red list species such as the hawfinch, mistle thrush and spotted flycatcher, which currently need all the help they can get. Perhaps the best-known keystone species is neither a predator nor a huge herbivore, but a rodent. Beavers – rightly known as “nature’s architects” – can transform a wetland ecosystem in a remarkably short time by damming a stream or river, adding levels of complexity. This allows a huge range of species – including the kingfisher, willow tit, otter, water vole, and damselflies and dragonflies – to thrive. There is, however, always opposition to these reintroductions, particularly from farmers and landowners. The argument over wolves is perhaps not so surprising, but even beavers have proved to be controversial: some farmers claim the dams lead to flooding in their fields. And although it’s a beautiful idea, it’s impossible to know at present exactly what impact the reintroduction of mammoths to the Siberian steppes would have. Would it have the dramatic restorative effect that the project is hoping for? It will be very interesting to find out. | ['environment/wildlife', 'science/extinct-wildlife', 'science/genetics', 'environment/conservation', 'science/palaeontology', 'science/science', 'science/biology', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'environment/rewilding', 'profile/stephenmoss1', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | science/extinct-wildlife | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-09-13T18:23:11Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2021/oct/24/tesco-website-hit-by-hackers-leaving-thousands-of-customers-frustrated | Tesco website hit by hackers, leaving thousands of customers frustrated | Tesco has been hit by hackers, leaving thousands of frustrated shoppers unable to buy groceries online at Britain’s biggest supermarket. The outage leaves its grocery website and app down for a second day, with people unable to book deliveries or amend existing orders. Tesco receives 1.3m online orders every week. A Tesco spokesperson said: “Since yesterday, we’ve been experiencing disruption to our online grocery website and app. An attempt was made to interfere with our systems, which has caused problems with the search function on the site. We’re working hard to fully restore all services and apologise for the inconvenience. “There is no reason to believe that this issue impacts customer data and we continue to take ongoing action to make sure all data stays safe.” Tesco was hacked previously in 2014, when it was forced to deactivate online customer accounts after more than 2,000 login details, including passwords, were posted online. A separate attack on Tesco’s banking arm resulted in the loss of £2.5m two years later. Cyber-attacks have become increasingly common and many companies and other organisations have been targeted globally. This summer, a cyber-attack on the Brazilian meat processor JBS, the largest in the world, forced it to temporarily stop production in the US, Australia and Canada. Shoppers voiced their frustration on social media. Some posted messages they had received from the supermarket telling them that because of the “current IT issue” Tesco was unable to access or change any orders at the moment. Sara Willman, a wholesale seller of flowers to florists in Wiltshire, tweeted that she had been told to send a direct message to cancel her order due, on Sunday, but later received a reply from Tesco saying that was not possible. “I understand you still have IT issues but much as I love gin I don’t need 2 bottles & some crisps this evening, when @asda saved the day with actual food this morning,” she said. Customers complained that there had been no update for 24 hours after Tesco had tweeted on Saturday: “We’re experiencing an issue with our website and app and are working hard to get things back up and running. We apologise for any inconvenience.” Several Tesco customers said they had placed incomplete orders to secure their delivery slots and were unable to add to them. A Tesco customer service member said via Twitter that if customers no longer wanted their order, the driver would take it back to the store for a refund. On Sunday morning, the company tweeted: “Our IT teams are doing their best and will have the website and app working as soon as possible. At the moment, we don’t have any updates or a timeframe as to when we can expect this to be. I am really sorry. TY – Cameron.” The rival supermarket Asda stepped in quickly on Saturday when it said on Twitter: “Hi there, hopefully we can help. We have slots available and some for the same day or tomorrow, if you go to our website or app it will allow you to place an order for items you need :).” | ['business/tesco', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/business', 'business/retail', 'uk/uk', 'technology/hacking', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/juliakollewe', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2021-10-24T10:22:54Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
australia-news/2021/mar/18/flood-warning-issued-for-sydney-and-nsw-coast-as-wet-weather-set-to-spread | Flood warning issued for Sydney and NSW coast as wet weather set to spread | Residents in Sydney and along the New South Wales coast have been urged to prepare for the chance of flooding with torrential downpours expected to continue and spread over the coming days. Between midnight and midday on Thursday, NSW State Emergency Service had already responded to 254 callouts for the mid-north coast where a severe weather warning was issued from Gosford stretching up to Yamba. A spokesperson for the SES said they conducted at least one flood rescue after a car got stuck in an overflowing creek in the Newcastle suburb of Gateshead. Flood watch alerts have also been issued for a large portion of coastal NSW, with heavy rain expected to spread to Sydney and the Illawarra region by the weekend. Sydney’s northern beaches recorded heavy rainfall, with falls of up to 48mm recorded at Mona Vale golf course, 41mm in Allenby Park, and 38mm in Rose Bay as of 6pm Thursday. It caused flooded roads and hazardous driving conditions. The rain was expected to intensify over the next two days, said senior forecaster Jordan Notara, with heavy rain on Friday afternoon and a forecast of between 60 to 100mm on Saturday. Further north, flooding caused a road to crack and collapse at Port Stephens, where rainfall of up to 100mm has been recorded. Earlier, the Bureau of Meteorology’s flood operations manager Justin Robinson said the Orara, Bellinger, Kalang, Nambucca, Hastings Manning and Gloucester rivers and their surrounding areas were among the most at risk of flooding. “We’re very concerned about the potential flooding on the inland and coastal rivers is basically from the mid-north coast, and then coming down into Sydney,” he said. “Unfortunately, as we come into the Sydney area we’re expecting the potential for flooding, especially as we move into the weekend.” The Hawkesbury, Nepean and Georges rivers were at risk for minor flooding. “We also expect there is a good potential for that localised flash flooding across the city metro area, and further south into the Illawarra coast,” Robinson said. Heavy rains pelted the area between Gosford and Yamba on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, with Coffs Harbour receiving 100mm and Nelson Bay hit with more than 150mm, creating havoc for local businesses. “This morning we noticed that there was a bit of a leak coming through one of the lights in the boss’s office,” said Penny Whatman, office manger at the Nelson Bay Golf Course. “Then it got more rain coming through, and then the whole ceiling collapsed.” Whatman said the majority of their administration building was now “saturated”. “There’s no point getting buckets, the hole is too big … it’s just torrential – just goes from heavy to heavier,” she said. “It’s just one of those extraordinary weather events that we get here every now and again, so not much you can do about it.” Dr Helen Kirkup, a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, said the area was more susceptible because of the La Niña summer. “The catchments are already pretty wet. It does mean it doesn’t take as much rainfall to flood anymore. When you start getting 100mm in three hours, it’s pretty intense.” NSW SES chief superintendent Greg Swindells urged residents to prepare for potential flooding and those planning to visit these areas in the coming days to reevaluate. “If it’s not required, put it off, and perhaps stay home and prepare your homes with any information that we give,” he said. “Never drive, walk or ride through floodwaters … it doesn’t matter how experienced you are as a driver or how big your vehicle may be, we can’t guarantee the integrity of floodwaters on road surfaces.” Swindells said the SES was prepared for a challenging weekend. “The northern zone command up there have all the volunteers on standby and ready, and we’ve moved resources that are required for what we believe we’ll need,” he said. | ['australia-news/australia-weather', 'weather/sydney', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/newcastle', 'australia-news/sydney', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2021', 'profile/matilda-boseley', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2021 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-03-18T09:17:12Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2017/mar/17/how-an-indigenous-renewable-energy-alliance-aims-to-cut-power-costs-and-disadvantage | How an Indigenous renewable energy alliance aims to cut power costs and disadvantage | Like so many of the Indigenous communities dotted across the Australian continent, the remote communities in north-west New South Wales are struggling. “These are not happy places,” says the Euahlayi elder Ghillar Michael Anderson. Many of the 300 or so residents of Anderson’s hometown of Goodooga rely on welfare, he says. Exorbitant electricity bills – up to $3,000 a quarter for some households – further exacerbate the poverty. “We’re always at the end of the power line, so the service that is there is quite extraordinary in terms of cost.” Many other communities rely on expensive, emissions-intensive diesel-powered generators to meet their electricity demands. “It’s a real problem and we need to make sure that we fix this,” Anderson says. To that end, Anderson and 24 other Indigenous leaders have formed the First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance, which aims to tackle high power costs and entrenched disadvantage – along with climate change – by pushing for renewable energy in Indigenous communities. The alliance, formed at the Community Energy Congress in Melbourne last month, will lobby government and partner with private enterprise and other community energy alliances to support Indigenous communities looking to transition to renewable energy. Anderson, who is a member of the alliance’s seven-member steering committee, says the move is an important step towards self-sufficiency for Indigenous communities. The renewable energy company 360 Energy Group, which is based in Melbourne, has stepped up with $10,000 and an offer of office space and knowhow to help get the alliance off the ground. Its director, Michael Anthony, sees immense potential for renewables – such as solar or wind power generation combined with battery storage – to empower remote communities. Renewables, he says, can “provide communities with a really strong, consistent, stable power solution at about half the cost of [current] solutions”. Whereas high energy prices often drive Indigenous people off their traditional lands, lower-cost renewables can help communities to thrive no matter how remote. “We can build a power station where the community exists,” Anthony says, “so people are able to successfully live in the environment the way they want to live and have access to power which enables them to better determine their economic future.” Only a handful of Indigenous communities have embarked on renewable energy projects in Australia. The Indigenous-owned and -operated company AllGrid Energy, for instance, has installed solar panels and battery storage systems to replace diesel generators in the Aboriginal communities of Ngurrara and Kurnturlpara in the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tableland. Within two months of the system being installed in May 2016, people were moving back to their homelands from Tennant Creek, the communities growing from just two permanent residents to about 40. The Murrawarri elder Fred Hooper, also on the alliance steering committee, is hoping that Australian Indigenous communities can follow the lead of other Indigenous communities around the world. In Canada’s First Nations communities, for instance, renewable energy projects are becoming commonplace. “It’s very inspiring,” he says. Melina Laboucan-Massimo, from the Lubicon Cree First Nation in Alberta, Canada, has led the push for her own community of Little Buffalo – which lies at the heart of the Peace river oil sands – to adopt renewable energy after a 2011 oil spill just 10km from the township. A 20.8kW solar installation, built and operated by locals, now powers the community health centre. Additional projects are being planned to wean the community off the propane heating and coal-powered electricity that it relies on. Laboucan-Massimo, who is a member of Canada’s Indigenous Clean Energy Network, has seen the benefits that alliances can provide. “It’s really important to share information,” she says, “because, when you’re dealing with companies, or utilities, it’s really good to know what’s being told to one community or what kind of deals are being offered.” The First Nations Renewable Energy Alliance will go one step further, working with community leaders and acting as a conduit between the communities and the businesses they are dealing with. This is essential, says Anderson, to avoid predatory practices they have seen in the past, with companies “playing on the psychology of poverty” to gain advantage. The alliance has drafted protocols and memoranda of understanding that will guide how companies engage with Indigenous communities for renewable energy projects. While lowering the cost of energy is a high priority for remote Indigenous communities, the environmental credentials of renewables are also an important consideration, says Hooper. “One of the best things about renewable energies is that it’s relying on natural sun from the sky, wind that’s blowing across the landscape and other renewable energies are not raping our mother earth of the precious resources that she holds,” he says. One of the next steps for the alliance will be to identify a community that can act as a test case for a renewables project. “Our experience is that if we can make it work for one community, it will work in every other community,” Anderson says. | ['sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'sustainable-business/series/innovations-in-renewables', 'australia-news/indigenous-australians', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'technology/technology', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/canada', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/dyani-lewis', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-gsb'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2017-03-16T22:53:06Z | true | ENERGY |
us-news/2016/aug/19/louisiana-recovery-costs-disease-zika-west-nile | Louisiana floods: state faces soaring recovery costs and disease concerns | As southern Louisiana sheds the last of the week’s historic floodwater, the region faces significant challenges: how to handle resulting disease, how to pay for the damage and how to prevent it all from happening again. But as the nation becomes aware of the extent of the damage – 40,000 homes affected and at least 13 people killed – politics have begun to creep into play. Some people have criticized Barack Obama for continuing his golfing vacation as the flood unfolded, while Donald Trump plans to visit the region on Friday, to the consternation of Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards. Many residents are only dimly aware, if at all, of those larger tableaux. Most remain focused on immediate matters like finding loved ones, burying pets and shoveling river silt from their living rooms. Or even more immediately, they search for food for themselves and their children in places where relief agencies have not yet arrived. “Our daily bread,” some people have taken to calling it. “They took those brown bags with such gratitude,” said Julie Ralph, who spent Thursday handing out lunches at Amite Baptist church in Denham Springs. The church itself was flooded and contaminated, so the food was prepared at the few dry homes in the area, then gathered at the church and distributed to anyone who could come. Several men with high-clearance trucks drove food to people who had no means of transportation. “One lady broke down crying,” Ralph said. The rivers and rainwater have receded, but the region is now haunted by small olive-drab patches of water here and there; puddled in a child’s splash pool, trapped in a trash can, or cupped in fallen magnolia leaves. All of it will offer a breeding ground to mosquitoes in a region where they are, even in the best circumstances, a plague. Locals fear the Zika virus and mosquito repellents long ago disappeared from supermarket shelves. So far those fears may be unfounded. According to the Louisiana department of health, four new cases of Zika were reported this week, but all were contracted during travel to affected areas. “Our surveillance activities include working with hospitals and other healthcare providers who notify us if and when a possible Zika case is diagnosed,” said Frank Welch, who heads the state’s Zika response team. “We also work with mosquito control agencies throughout the state who conduct mosquito testing in areas of known human cases to determine if mosquitos in those areas are carrying the virus.” The bigger threat comes from the West Nile virus, which struck the area a decade ago after Hurricane Katrina. Doctors are warning residents to watch out for symptoms: fever, headache, stiffness of the neck, shakiness. Meanwhile state officials gathered at the capitol on Thursday to sort out how to pay for the emergency response, which costs the state millions of dollars per day, and will likely run into the hundreds of millions. The state was strapped for cash and considering a short-term loan before the storm, and lawmakers met to discuss moving ahead with it as soon as possible. Some of the costs will be absorbed by help from the federal government, which has declared 20 of the state’s 64 parishes to be major disaster sites. More than 60,000 people have registered for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). According to local officials, who have pressed for years to build a diversionary canal near Baton Rouge, much of the calamity and cost could have been avoided. The canal project was blueprinted but has been delayed since the 1980s. Its proponents say it would have prevented at least a quarter of the flooding if the US Army Corps of Engineers had acted sooner. “We see it over and over again in government,” said US representative Garret Graves, who represents southern Louisiana. “We end up spending billions of dollars after, instead of millions before.” The proposed canal would shunt floodwater from the Amite and Comite rivers to the much larger Mississippi river. The Mississppi swells in spring with runoff from northern states, but by summertime when storms and hurricanes swamp local rivers, it has capacity to absorb the overflow. “Unfortunately we’ve had to go through 13 lives lost and tens of thousands of homes destroyed,” Graves said on Thursday. “Maybe now the bureaucracy at the Corps of Engineers will take action.” Much of local residents’ frustration has focused on Obama, whom they accused of indifference as he golfed with friends on Martha’s Vineyard. “We’ve seen this story before in Louisiana, and we don’t deserve a sequel,” the Baton Rouge Advocate published in an editorial. “In 2005, a fly-over by a vacationing President George W Bush became a symbol of official neglect for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The current president was among those making political hay out of Bush’s aloofness.” Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson traveled to Baton Rouge on Thursday and did update the president, according to the White House. At the opposite end of the political spectrum, an official working for the Trump campaign told the Associated Press that he planned to visit the affected region on Friday, along with running mate Mike Pence. At a rally Thursday in North Carolina, Trump paused during a speech to mention the flooding. “I would like to take a moment to talk about the heartbreak and devastation in Louisiana, a state that is very, very special to me,” he said. “We are one nation. When one state hurts, we all hurt. And we must all work together to lift each other up.” The news plainly irritated governor John Bel Edwards, who said his office had not been contacted by Trump. Edwards’ spokesman, Richard Carbo, said Trump was welcome to Louisiana, “but not for a photo-op”. Instead, he said, Trump should volunteer or make “a sizable donation to the Louisiana flood relief fund to help the victims of this storm”. | ['us-news/louisiana', 'environment/flooding', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthew-teague', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-08-19T13:02:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
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