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us-news/2015/aug/13/california-el-nino-drought-rain-snowpack | California drought will persist despite 'significant and strengthening' El Niño | Rain could come to drought-stricken California this fall, as one of the strongest El Niño weather patterns in recorded history looks set to hit the state, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Thursday. The NWS’s Climate Prediction Center said that current measurements were stronger than those detected ahead of the 1997 El Niño, which doubled rainfall in southern California. El Niño is a complex weather pattern resulting from variations in ocean temperatures, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center, warned that even if El Niño did bring increased rain, the effect on the drought would be limited. “One season of above normal rain and snow is very unlikely to erase four years of drought,” Halpert said. The National Weather Service measured increased temperatures in the Pacific ocean in July, which indicate “a significant and strengthening El Niño”. The 1997 El Niño triggered one of the most severe storm systems in the state’s recent history, doubling the average rainfall from December 1997 to February 1998. To truly benefit the state, rain and snow would need to reach northern California to fill some of the state’s primary reservoirs and increase the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Kevin Werner, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s western region climate services, said that El Niño tends to bring above normal precipitation to southern California, but is not proven to have such effects on northern California. “This is important because most of the water resources in the state originate from the much wetter mountain areas in the central and northern part of California along with the upper Colorado river basin,” Werner said. While the weather system typically brings rain, it is also tied to mudslides and flooding. The National Weather Service said that all of its models predict that the weather system will continue into spring 2016, peaking in late fall or early winter of 2015. This El Niño has already caused drought conditions in Australia, Indonesia and parts if the the Philippines. | ['us-news/us-weather', 'us-news/california-drought', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'us-news/california', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amanda-holpuch'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2015-08-13T17:38:44Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2021/oct/04/india-at-least-eight-dead-after-farm-protesters-attack-ministers-convoy | India: nine people die in farmers’ protests against new laws | Nine people have been killed in violent clashes during a protest by hundreds of farmers in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, in a deadly escalation of year-long demonstrations against contentious agriculture laws. The farmers had gathered for a demonstration on Sunday in Lakhimpur Kheri district, where the junior home affairs minister Ajay Mishra and the state’s deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya, were due to visit. There are conflicting reports of how four farmers, three BJP party workers, a driver and a journalist died as chaotic scenes broke out around vehicles that were part of Mishra’s convoy. Farmers at the scene alleged that a car thought to be owned by Mishra’s son ran over four protesters, killing them. Mishra said his son was not present in the car when the incident took place. He said a car driven by “our driver” lost control and hit the farmers after they threw stones at the vehicle and attacked it with sticks and a sword. The son, Ashish Mishra, also denied being present and said he had been at home when the collision with the farmers happened. He told an India television news channel that his car and two others had been sent out with party workers who were to greet the state’s deputy chief minister, while he stayed behind. Mishra told local media the protesters had killed three workers from the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) – the ruling party at the national level and in Uttar Pradesh – and one driver. On Monday, a journalist’s body was also recovered from the scene, bringing the death toll to nine. Police have registered a criminal complaint against 14 people, including the minister’s son, in connection with the death of the four farmers. The BJP also lodged a criminal complaint against the protesting farmers over the death of its members and the car driver. Farmers opposed to a series of new farm laws they say will destroy their livelihoods had gathered to try to blockade a visit by Mishra, who had recently made inflammatory comments about the protests. Tensions remained high in the Lakhimpur Kheri area on Monday, as farmers gathered to protest again and mobile internet services were shut down. The leader of the Congress party, Priyanka Gandhi, who had attempted to visit the area, was arrested and detained by police on the grounds of unlawful assembly, and other opposition leaders were also blocked from entering. Farmers across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka held protests on Monday. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, described the incident as “unfortunate” and ordered a judicial inquiry into events. “The government will ensure that the matter is thoroughly investigated and the involvement of antisocial elements is brought to light. We will take strict action against those involved,” he said in a tweet. There are fears that the incident will further inflame tensions between the farmers and the BJP government, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi. It comes just a few days after farmers marked the first anniversary of the passing of the new farm laws, referred to by protesting farmers as “black laws”. The BJP government says the laws will help modernise agriculture in India, which is heavily subsidised, suffers huge losses and takes a heavy environmental toll. But farmers, who make up almost two-thirds of India’s workforce, say the new legislation will destroy their livelihoods and leave them at the mercy of large corporations. Since November, through the cold winter, baking summer, monsoons and India’s deadly Covid-19 second wave in April, tens of thousands of farmers have remained camped out on highways along the edge of the capital, Delhi, demanding that the laws be repealed, in one of the biggest challenges to the BJP government. The farm laws remain suspended due to the powerful backlash from the farming community but the Modi government has said it will not bow to demands and repeal the laws. This was not the first time that the farmer protests have been shrouded in violence. Last year, farmers marching into the capital were met with water cannon and teargas, and were charged at by police with wooden batons. In another protest in February, farmers broke through police barricades and entered into the centre of Delhi, where many broke into the historic monument the Red Fort. One farmer died after his tractor overturned. The farmers have shown no signs of backing down in their protests. A nationwide strike was organised by the farmers’ unions last week to mark the anniversary and various rallies have been planned in the buildup to the Uttar Pradesh state elections next year, which are highly significant for the BJP, which has a large voter base in the state. | ['world/india', 'world/world', 'world/south-and-central-asia', 'environment/farming', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/hannah-ellis-petersen', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-10-04T13:40:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2009/mar/10/youtube-performing-rights-society-music | YouTube rights row over music videos could spread to MySpace | The dispute between YouTube and the Performing Rights Society for Music that prompted the website to remove music videos could spread to MySpace UK and other music sites, industry sources said today. MySpace UK and other sites are struggling to renegotiate their own licences with PRS, which pays royalties to artists. One source close to the negotiations said that the launch of MySpace UK's comprehensive music service later this year could be thrown into jeopardy unless it secured an economically viable licence with PRS. "A lot of service providers are negotiating and renewing licences with PRS right now, but the rates are widely known to be uneconomical," said the source. "Nobody could run an online business on those terms." MediaGuardian.co.uk contacted MySpace UK, but the company declined to comment. The streaming service Pandora was forced to cut off its service for UK users on 15 January after it failed to renegotiate its licence with PRS. Imeem, which reportedly received $15m in funding from Warner Music last year, and RealNetworks are also understood to be renegotiating. Meanwhile, YouTube and PRS are due to meet in London this afternoon and both say they are determined to resolve the deadlock. PRS is understood to be basing its royalty claims on the results of the 2007 UK Copyright Tribunal, but the source said the rates PRS were demanding were so high that a free-to-view, ad-based service would not be able to charge advertisers enough to cover royalty payments on each video. YouTube, which began to remove videos last night, repeated its claim that the rates are not sustainable except for sites that charge subscription access. "However, we want to share the revenue generated from music videos on YouTube with the music industry," said a spokesman. "But at the rate set by the Copyright Tribunal - which is the rate PRS is seeking - YouTube would be losing money with each stream. "It's simply unsustainable for our business." A PRS spokeswoman said the ultimate aim of the talks were to come to an agreement, while YouTube said withdrawing videos from UK users was "not a breakdown in talks, but something that had to happen for talks to continue". Technology and internet lawyer Kolvin Stone, of Fox Williams, said that YouTube could not afford to subsidise music video because of its own extremely high running costs for bandwidth. "YouTube has had trouble with PRS and this is good negotiating practice," said Stone. "They had to come up with something and by publicising this, lots of performers and artists will be contacting PRS to ask why they are no longer profiting from a YouTube deal." He said that while the outcome of the copyright tribunal may suit paid-for services such as the iTunes Store, it won't work for free, advertising-backed services, "because the revenues just aren't the same - they might be a percentage of a penny". "The model has been set up on one basis but ... that model needs to change. Consumers are so used to free content that ad-backed services are here to stay, and more content owners have to change to fit their revenue models around the internet." Stone said that if PRS were forced to compromise its royalty fees, it would not necessarily be bad news for performers and artists. "The web 2.0 model is all about scale, and if artists are able to get scale and reach new audiences around the world, they can ultimately make more money from sales and gigs. It's about charging less but for more consumers, and driving revenue from other means." • 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". | ['technology/youtube', 'media/socialnetworking', 'music/music', 'technology/technology', 'media/media', 'technology/myspace', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/internet', 'media/digital-media', 'media/pda', 'type/article', 'profile/jemimakiss'] | technology/digitalvideo | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2009-03-10T12:37:25Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
world/2012/oct/31/chris-christie-usa | Chris Christie sparks speculation at political centre of the storm | The aftermath of superstorm Sandy has produced one of the strangest political pairings of the year, bringing together Barack Obama and one of Mitt Romney's most prominent supporters, Republican governor of New Jersey Chris Christie. The 50-year-old governor has emerged as the public face of the storm: energetic, emotional and efficient, a seemingly permanent presence on television screens over the last few days. Already well-known in the political world, he is now a national figure. With Sandy still too raw for anyone to start make political points, there has been no backlash from Republicans about his alliance with Obama only six days from election day. Christie has said politics do not matter to him at the moment. But on Monday, even before Christie lavishly praised the president's handling of the storm as "outstanding", the right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh called the governor "fat" and "a fool". Christie was a keynote speaker for Romney at the Republican convention in Tampa this summer and has been out on the campaign trail regularly on his behalf. And yet he not only praised Obama but, unlike mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York, also agreed to host the president on a tour of the stricken parts of his state. So what is going on? Has Christie secretly harboured a grudge against Romney and grabbed the opportunity to try to sink his campaign? Or is he just being pragmatic, thinking locally, looking for maximum federal aid from Obama? One scenario is that although Christie has loyally campaigned publicly for Romney he privately does not really like him much. Evidence for this? When he delivered his keynote speech to the convention, delegates had anticipated a rousing build-up of Romney and a demolition job on Obama. In the end, in a televised address watched by tens of millions, he barely mentioned Romney, did not mention Obama at all and spoke mainly about himself. In all the interviews that Christie has given over the last few days, his response comes across as mainly emotional, the guy from Newark, New Jersey, overcome by the destruction of the beloved shoreline he knew from his youth. It could be as simple as this. The most Machiavellian of the scenarios is that Christie, who was pressed by many Republicans to stand for the White House this year but declined, is thinking that if Romney was to get elected next week, Romney might then go on to win again in 2016. Christie's first crack at the White House would then be 2020 and, given the normal tendency of the electorate to give another party a chance, he might be facing a strongly favoured Democrat. Better for him that Romney fails next week, leaving the way open for a Christie run in 2016. If the Republicans lose next week, they might just decide to move to the centre and that is where Christie has positioned himself, to the left of the present-day Republican party. The final and most plausible of the scenarios is that Christie is thinking not about 2016 but 2013 when he faces re-election for governor against a potentially strong Democratic field, of whom Newark mayor, Cory Booker, a strong orator, is favourite to face him in what is a traditionally Democratic-leaning state. It could be that, like all politicians, Christie holds in his head all these scenarios, emotional about the distress and damage before his eyes, and pragmatic too, but also thinking strategically to next year or even 2016. | ['us-news/chris-christie', 'world/world', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/new-york', 'us-news/hurricane-sandy', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/mittromney', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/ewenmacaskill', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-10-31T17:26:28Z | 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'] | us-news/hurricane-helene | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2024-10-02T14:52:17Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
music/2016/dec/08/top-10-classical-music-of-2016-andrew-clements | Andrew Clements' top 10 classical music of 2016 | 1 Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are now almost annual visitors to the Proms, with every appearance seeming to mark a further stage in the development of this remarkable musical partnership. But their visit to the Royal Albert Hall this summer was even more memorable than usual, for they brought with them a very special guest soloist. Martha Argerich may have celebrated her 75th birthday in June, but age shows no signs of dulling the edge of her brilliance; she remains unique – the most thrilling pianist of our time. Her performance of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto had all the wit, sparkle and grandeur anyone could possibly want and with every keyboard run and arpeggio etched with diamond precision, her technical command was breathtaking. Barenboim ensured that the orchestra provided the perfect platform for such exceptional playing, before joining Argerich for an encore – Schubert’s A major Rondo for piano duet. Here were two great musicians, friends since they were both child prodigies in Buenos Aires, delighting in each other’s astonishing talent. There were more treats to come after the interval, for the Wagner sequence that Barenboim conducted not only provided further evidence of what a refined and responsive ensemble the WEDO has become under his guidance, but also a reminder that he has very few peers as a Wagner interpreter today. Whether encapsulating the whole drama of Tannhäuser in a thrilling and spacious account of its overture, or conjuring up the fierce, dark sound world of Götterdämmerung in Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Funeral March, it was unforgettable. Read the full review 2 Oedipe Royal Opera House, London Eighty years after its premiere, one of the 20th century’s most singular operatic masterpieces finally reached a British stage. George Enescu’s work sometimes shuttles between opera and oratorio, but the best of the sinewy score is unmistakably dramatic, and the Royal Opera’s production, staged by the Fura dels Baus team led by Alex Ollé, with Johan Reuter in the title role, was musically and theatrically an unmissable triumph for the company. Read a full review 3 Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla Symphony Hall, Birmingham In what effectively had been her audition for the job in January, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s new music director had already demonstrated what an immense talent she is. After that Gražinytė-Tyla’s first concert in her new role, which was repeated the following evening at the Proms in London, was a thrilling affirmation that the orchestra had – once again – got its appointment exactly right. Read a full review. 4 Kevin Volans CBSO Centre, Birmingham Birmingham Contemporary Music Group devoted its last concert of the year to two major Volans premieres. One was his latest piano concerto, the fourth, written for soloist Barry Douglas, the other was his 12th String Quartet, a 35-minute journey through a musical landscape of irregular pulsings, pizzicatos and sudden glassy chords, in which the two parallel strands in Volans’ music, the folk traditions of his native South Africa and the post-1945 experimental tradition, are magically interwoven. Read a full review. 5 Catalogue d’Oiseaux Aldeburgh festival Pierre-Laurent Aimard marked the end of his tenure as Aldeburgh festival’s artistic director with a day-long performance of the biggest solo-piano work by his former teacher Olivier Messiaen. Beginning as the sun rose over the Suffolk marshes, and ending at Snape Maltings just before midnight, Aimard presented the 13 pieces as a dawn-to-dusk tour de force, which included an evening recital at the RSPB Minsmere reserve, where real birdsong vied with Messiaen’s transcriptions. Read a full review. 6 Myths and Rituals Royal Festival Hall, London In what was generally a rather lacklustre year for London’s orchestras, the Philharmonia’s Stravinsky series, curated by chief conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, stood out for its freshness and originality. Some of Stravinsky’s greatest and most neglected masterpieces were included, often in ingenious concert stagings, and if some of those did not work quite as convincingly as they might have done, the musical performances under Salonen were always of the highest quality. Read a full review. 7 Blank Out Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam Michel van der Aa’s theatre pieces have steadily increased in their theatrical ambition, and this latest, another of his explorations of the nature and limitations of memory, is easily his most sophisticated so far, a virtuoso demonstration of his mastery of audio and video techniques. Live and prerecorded 3D images interact as the protagonist, in an astonishing performance from Miah Persson, tries to come to terms with the drowning of her son years before. Read a full review. 8 Become Ocean Symphony Hall, Birmingham By the time Ludovic Morlot and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra gave its UK premiere, John Luther Adams’s 40-minute orchestral piece had already won a Pulitzer prize, firmly establishing Adams among the leading US composers working today. Become Ocean is built on an epic scale, a musical arch of steadily increasing intensity in which pulsing symmetries abound, but which never for a moment seems contrived. Read a full review. 9 La Commedia Barbican, London A few months before Louis Andriessen’s latest opera, Theatre of the World, received its its stage premiere in Amsterdam, its predecessor from 2008 finally reached London. Performed without the Hal Hartley film that originally accompanied it, La Commedia, a gleefully allusive take on Dante, occupied that teasing borderland between concert hall and opera house. It was an exuberant, joyous musical experience. Read a full review. 10 The Golden Dragon Opera House, Buxton The quality of Peter Eötvös’s stage works over the past two decades has been rather uneven. But The Golden Dragon, based on Roland Schimmelpfennig’s play, is a tragicomic delight, a chamber opera with just five singers taking on a host of gender-swapping roles, that is both genuinely funny, and searingly serious; Music Theatre Wales’s hugely accomplished production gets a full UK tour next spring. Read a full review. | ['music/classical-music-and-opera', 'culture/series/best-culture-2016', 'culture/culture', 'music/music', 'music/opera', 'music/daniel-barenboim', 'culture/royal-opera-house', 'music/city-of-birmingham-symphony-orchestra', 'music/philharmonia-orchestra', 'music/proms', 'music/music-festivals', 'music/series/best-music-of-2016', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'music/mirga-grazinyte-tyla', 'profile/andrewclements', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/arts', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture'] | music/series/best-music-of-2016 | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2016-12-08T07:00:09Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
global-development/2014/mar/12/pakistan-drought-ngos-blame-government-child-deaths-sindh | Pakistan drought: government accused over child deaths in Sindh province | NGOs in Pakistan say the death of at least 132 children in a drought in Sindh province might have been avoided had the government responded sooner. As government aid begins to arrive in the area, local activists have linked the crisis to long-term failures to provide proper health care and infrastructure in the region. The deaths occurred in the Thar desert, part of Tharparkar district, some 350km (200 miles) from Karachi, which runs up to the border with India. Local organisations working with some of the poorest people in the area claim many of those affected by the drought are members of the Dalit caste. Known in Pakistan as the scheduled class, Dalits suffer heavy discrimination under the caste system common across south Asia. According to the Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network (PDSN), "animals started dying in the desert in October last year but the government didn't act until reports of children dying in the Mithi taluka hospital." Hospital sources told the media last week that 38 children died of malnutrition in the Mithi taluka hospital in December. There were more deaths in the first three months of 2014, including those of three children on Monday. The chief minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, has ordered an inquiry into the delay in distributing relief to people in Tharparkar. The severe drought was caused by below average rainfall during last year's monsoon season. However, some experts believe there are deeper, structural reasons for the severe malnutrition suffered in the region. "Malnutrition is not just limited to Tharparkar, the situation in the entire Sindh province is alarming," says Arif Jabbar Khan, Oxfam's country director for Pakistan. "57% of children under the age of five are stunted and 72% of households are food insecure." When rainfall is below average, the region usually recieves subsidised food and animal fodder by August. This time, however, the chief minister did not begin relief efforts until November. On a visit to the drought-hit area, Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister, announced a 1 billion Pakistani rupee aid package (£6.15m) and ordered an investigation into corruption in wheat distribution. The remote district, which has a population of about 1.5 million people, consists of more than 2,000 small villages. Health infrastructure is poor and there are few road links to more developed parts of Pakistan. Poverty is high and food scarce. Javed Jabbar, the founder of Baanhn Beli, a non-governmental organisation that has been working in Tharparkar since 1985, believes there should be a non-partisan inquiry into the failure to react more quickly to signs of the building crisis: "Elected representatives must be held responsible for not reporting to the chief minister." He believes a lack of investment in health in the region is partly to blame for the deaths, pointing to long-standing vacancies in government-run hospitals and rural centres. "The Nawabshah Medical College is an all women's college, and yet there are just a handful of female doctors working in Nagarparkar. I think those who study medicine should be made to sign a bond that after completion of their studies they will serve in these difficult areas, especially women. The root cause of this crisis is maternal health which has a direct bearing on the infant health." "Malnutrition is not a new or sudden phenomenon, and neither is drought, but it had remained under the radar for too long," says Dr DS Akram, a paediatrician who has been working in the region since the 1990s. Oxfam say that there is no shortage of food. According to Khan, "Missing public policy action and persistent economic inequalities are the main causes of malnutrition, which – if not addressed – may aggravate the situation in future in the entire province." Campaigners are concerned that lack of long-term development in the area has a disproportionate impact on the Dalit community. Because of the remote nature of the affected region, it is difficult to know with complete certainty how many have died. The PDSN's Dr Sono Khangarani believes the true number may be as high as 190: "Not everyone brought their children to the hospital, one cannot give an exact figure. But since most deaths are of children belonging to the poorest of the poor, one can conclude the children belong to Dalits." Drought in the wider area is not a recent phenomenon. There have been periods where there has been insufficient rains for several years in a row. In 2010 floods hit the Sindh region, part of a pattern of extreme weatherseen across Pakistan in recent years. The Sindh region, like the rest of Pakistan, faces environmental uncertainty. Even 15 years ago, experts were warning that persistent drought in Pakistan was shrinking the country's GDP because of poor agricultural performance. Last summer, leading meteorologists warned that the country can expect longer, more intense and more frequent weather events in the future. On Tuesday evening, the Sindh government changed the brief of the relief and revenue minister Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman. He will continue as revenue minister only. Taj Haider, a senior Pakistan People's Party leader, is now the relief commissioner. | ['global-development/global-development', 'global-development/malnutrition', 'global-development/hunger', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'world/pakistan', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/zofeen-t-ebrahim'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2014-03-12T17:58:38Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2016/may/25/coastal-flooding-prosperity-economic-growth-environment | Coastal flooding: a sign of the damage our economy is wreaking on our fragile environment | In January this year, I visited friends in Miami. One of the most urgent topics of conversation was about what they saw as the greatest problem faced by the city – rising water levels, and a long-standing reluctance on the part of government and business to take the necessary steps to control the extensive damage. From inundated homes, shops and roads, to fresh water pollution and sewage being forced upwards, the impacts are widespread. In a Christian Aid report (pdf) published last week, Miami ranked ninth in a list of cities most at risk from future coastal flooding as a result of sea level rises. Supported by data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, projections for the year 2017 suggest that Kolkata and Mumbai, both in India, are most exposed to coastal flooding. Bar Miami, the top ten cities are all in Asia. As global water levels rise, as parts of Florida experience the heaviest rain since records began, as the flooding and salination of farmland in Bangladesh increases, the risk to coastal cities can be seen for what it is – a sign of the apparently inexorable effects of a high-carbon economy on a fragile environment. But what is also clear from the Christian Aid research is how ecological disaster intensifies inequality. In prosperous nations it is the poorest who are most at risk from environmental changes such as those Miami faces because they have the least means to cope with or move away from the problem. In developing countries, coastal cities and their surrounding regions have even less in the way of defence. Business as usual – that familiar and illusory process – will simply deepen the gulf separating the economically secure from the insecure, at least in the short term. In the long run, to paraphrase Keynes, we are all insecure. There are measures that can be, and are being, taken with the help of NGOs and other civil society groups to limit the damage. During last year’s flooding in Myanmar and Bangladesh, for example, Oxfam distributed water, hygiene kits and cash grants, and worked with other international NGOs to coordinate the humanitarian response. But the underlying question is becoming more and more pressing: what is it about our prevailing global model of economic growth that apparently blinds us to the cost of the high-carbon system? A process of so-called growth that inexorably increases the distance between rich and poor in one way or another ought to look nonsensical to us. Economic activity is still so often defined in terms of an unending upward spiral of consumption in a materially limited environment. Are we looking hard enough at the contradictions here? Are we asking what kind of economies are sustainable? The launch this week of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, headed by Professor Tim Jackson who wrote the groundbreaking 2011 report Prosperity Without Growth, looks to galvanise a more urgent discussion of these issues. It is not a demand for economic stagnation, nor a matter of having some sort of anti-business agenda – this is lazy criticism – but for the question to be clearly put: what does prosperity mean in a world of environmental limits? The old paradigm of economic development and prosperity assured us that infinitely expanding consumer choice increased and guaranteed our free agency. It is time to wake up to the fact that this paradigm makes us passive to processes outside our control and condemns us in the long term to a losing battle with the limited material world we share. If we want to be genuinely free agents, we need to turn this model on its head. | ['sustainable-business/series/extreme-weather', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/sea-level', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'inequality/inequality', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'profile/rowanwilliams', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-professional-networks'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2016-05-25T04:00:29Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2017/jan/19/goldcrest-combs-the-gorse-for-slim-pickings | Goldcrest combs the gorse for slim pickings | This patch of hawthorn scrub had been laden with scarlet berries until well into December. Then redwing flocks passed through and today its twigs were bare. Apart from a few rosehips, some already shredded by greenfinches, which use their powerful beaks to extract the flinty seeds, the dangling bunches of guelder-rose fruits were the only remaining flecks of scarlet in the landscape. It is a mystery why birds always leave until last these shiny, succulent, berries. In mild winters some remain untouched until they wither in spring. That’s unlikely this year. The first real test of winter for many birds, especially those that are not seed eaters, may be about to begin. I noticed something moving in the gorse on the edge of the scrub. A shadow flickered through the sunlit bush – a goldcrest, with a crown as yellow as the flowers around it. It was several more minutes before the bird came into full view among the prickly leaves, a slight, tweezer-beaked, bundle of feathers in a threatening forest of green skewers that were almost as long as its body. The goldcrest was aware of my presence but unconcerned, continuing its search, most likely for spiders, at times coming so close to me that I could have reached out and touched it. This tiny bird, our smallest native species, never rested for an instant. Sometimes it hung upside down from twigs, sometimes it flicked its wings in little darting flights between branches, all the while probing every nook and cranny and somehow avoiding those needle-sharp gorse spines. As an experiment, I left the goldcrest to its foraging and moved to the next gorse bush, beginning what I thought was a thorough search of the flowers and spines. In 10 minutes of careful scrutiny and pricked fingers I found just one small fly and some shreds of spiders’ web. How any of these tiny birds survive the final winter months, as food becomes scarcer and hard weather sets in, is a source of wonder. The sun was dipping towards the horizon and today this goldcrest’s feeding opportunities were coming to an end. Follow Country diary on Twitter: @gdncountrydiary | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/birds', 'environment/forests', 'environment/insects', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/winter', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/philgates', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-01-19T05:30:28Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/jun/06/pollution-warnings-healthier-short-term | Pollution warnings keep us healthier – but only in the short term | Can telling people about air pollution lessen the impact? A new air quality index was launched in Hong Kong at the end of 2013. This included forecasts and information for vulnerable people; doctors were enlisted to advise their patients too. A new analysis of seven years of data showed that the start of the index was followed by a 16% reduction in the number of children treated in hospital with respiratory infections and pneumonia. This was attributed to parents following official advice to keep their children indoors during smogs. However, the benefit was short-lived and lasted for only about a year. Other studies have also found that people are willing to adapt their lives for short periods to protect themselves but not in the longer term. No effect was seen in elderly people. This was thought to be due to low literacy rates and difficulties in reaching them with information. Others have criticised indices for focusing on smogs rather than the more harmful exposure to low levels of air pollution every day. Asking people to adapt to poor air pollution may help but we need to solve the problem at source. Our lives should not be further compromised by adapting what we do because of the quality of our air. | ['environment/series/pollutionwatch', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'world/hong-kong', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/gary-fuller', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-06-06T20:30:42Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
sustainable-business/supply-chain-sustainable-companies | The supply chain is an essential part of the sustainability jigsaw | Larger organisations are increasingly accountable to shareholders and the government for their social and environmental impacts, but invariably the bulk of that impact lies outside internal practices and instead with the consumer and the supply chain. And so our most enlightened conglomerates are determined to find ways to influence the consumer in making more sustainable choices; and give greater consideration to their supply chain's sustainability credentials. Influencing the supply chain, not just the first level but throughout the chain, is an essential part of the sustainability jigsaw. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it is the responsibility of all organisations, both private and public sector, to ensure sustainability is embedded throughout the supply chain. Of course price and other considerations will invariably take priority, but it would be remiss not to take account of sustainable business practices. Unfortunately too many organisations make this aspect far too complicated and include inappropriate questions. Sustainability, in its full holistic sense, covers a multitude of different factors and a one-size fits all approach just does not work. What is needed, in addition to normal contract criteria, is just a couple of lines: 'We endeavour to ensure we work with organisations that operate in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Can you demonstrate how you fit this criteria?' This open question should be accompanied by the opportunity for the potential supplier to upload relevant documentation to proove their responsible business credentials. Unfortunately, apart from a few exceptions, most organisations are failing to influence a sector that is fundamental to the British economy – the SME sector – as procurement departments seem incapable of adopting a rigorous and yet pragmatic approach to the realities of operating a small business. The SME sector, in the main, is too busy trying to survive and has not yet adopted as many sustainable business practices as perhaps it could. It is a sector that should be given at least as much consideration as consumers because, after all, these small business owners and managers are clearly also consumers. Encourage SMEs to adopt a different mind set and you potentially also influence a large percentage of the working population because these small businesses often have very close relations with their employees. Let's take an example: four friends from university have set up Graphic Devils, a very progressive and successful graphic design company working from serviced offices. Their Environmental Policy might look something like this: 'We aim to reduce our environmental impact as much as possible. In particular we operate the following policies: Wear warm clothing in winter to avoid excessive use of heating. Switch off lights and computers and other equipment when not in use. Avoid printing or print double-sided when possible. Re-use where possible including scrap paper and use refillable ink cartridges; Only boil the minimum amount of water when making hot drinks. Walk, cycle or use public transport when attending meetings if possible.' It sounds pretty basic doesn't it? But it is totally suitable for this small business. We call this the Appropriate Size Type Impact (ASTI) principle and our auditors are trained to use this approach when auditing businesses to The Responsible Business Standard. And there lies the problem, because most pre qualification questionnaires (PPQ) and tender documents either completely lack any sustainability questions, or the questions are totally inappropriate for the size and type of the contract, and therefore the size and type of the business. Would you really expect Graphic Devils to have ISO14001 or a biodiversity policy? No. Neither are appropriate. But that is exactly the sort of question a small company might be faced with, whereas our two sentences would give the company the opportunity to demonstrate their embedded social and environmental credentials. Maybe Graphic Devils are actively involved with their local wildlife trust; or they've installed some planters in the communal courtyard and planted vegetables for everyone to share; or they do regular voluntary work with the local children's hospice. So, in the instance given, Graphic Devils might not fit the PQQ or contract criteria, and yet in reality they really are a very socially and environmentally responsible business. Perhaps we should start a campaign that all contracts, or at least all public sector contracts, stop asking for inappropriate policies and certifications but do include two little sentences – and ensure they take the submitted evidence in to account when awarding contracts: We endeavour to ensure we work with organisations that operate in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Can you demonstrate how you fit this criteria? Jill Poet is managing director of the Organisation for Responsible Businesses (ORB). This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox | ['sustainable-business/low-carbon', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'tone/blog', 'sustainable-business/strategy', 'sustainable-business/series/social-impact', 'type/article', 'profile/jill-poet'] | sustainable-business/low-carbon | EMISSIONS | 2012-01-10T10:23:38Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2009/sep/01/10-10-hospital | 10:10: Milk, meals and medi-link cut hospital trust's footprint | With around 12,000 staff, more than 1,600 beds and one of the busiest emergency departments in the UK, it is the volume of people rather than its premises that make up the bulk of carbon emissions for the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust. But in the past year the trust introduced a series of carbon-reduction measures that have now earned it both the regional and national Health and Social Care awards for low carbon. One key initiative was to reduce the amount of travel required of staff and patients moving between the trust's two busy campuses, says John Simpson, the trust's director of estates and facilities. "In partnership with the council we have put on a free medi-link bus service, which runs every 10 minutes," he says. This links in with Nottingham's tram system and its park-and-ride scheme, transporting 1.2 million passengers in its first year. The service has proved successful and when a 750-space multistorey carpark was closed for structural reasons it provided a well-established alternative transport infrastructure that helped prevent 800,000 car journeys, or the equivalent of 300 tonnes of CO2 a year. Another less obvious transport reduction strategy comes down to the food miles the trust's hospitals produce. By introducing a sustainable procurement initiative each of the 7,000 pints of milk consumed by the hospitals each week are now sourced through contracts with local farmers, says Simpson, as are £300,000 worth of local produce and £300,000 worth of meat. This has reduced its food miles by at least 90,000 miles, making the trust the biggest purchaser of local food in the NHS. And in addition to food, even pharmaceuticals and equipment procured now have to meet stringent energy standards. The trust is also now testing a waste segregation scheme aimed at reducing incineration and landfill waste. Even clinical waste can now be recycled into plastic blocks for reuse in making building hoardings. Further cuts are have been made through a green IT scheme, says Simpson. "Energy-saving programs shut down PCs and printers when they are not being used," he says. And the trust has been replacing bulbs and switches with low-energy lighting that turns on and off automatically, saving an estimated 300,000 kWh a year. Other measures designed to reduce the energy demands of its premises have also been brought in, including a wood fuel and biomass burner for generating renewable electricity and heat for its central processing unit and carbon-neutral kitchen, where the hospital meals are prepared. Other buildings make use of greywater harvesting (or reusing water from places such as sinks in efficient ways), solar panels and roofs covered in a grass-like plant called sedum, as well as extensive insulation and double-glazing. CO2 reductions Energy: audit not yet complete Electricity: audit not yet complete Transport: 33% Measures Free public transport between campuses, closing down multistorey carpark, sourcing food locally, and low-energy equipment and pharmaceuticals. Use of solar panels, sun pipes, sedum roofing, insulation and double-glazing in buildings. A renewable wood burner for electricity and heating, low-energy lighting and computer programs and extensive sorting and recycling of waste. • This article was amended on 2 September. It originally said that Nottingham's free medi-link bus service proved so successful that the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust closed down a 750-space multistorey carpark. In fact the multistorey car park was closed due to structural issues. | ['environment/10-10', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'society/nhs', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'profile/duncangrahamrowe'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2009-09-01T10:05:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2005/sep/05/conservationandendangeredspecies.uknews | Trawlers destroying Britain's precious deep water coral | Precious coral reefs in deep water to the west of Ireland and Scotland are being destroyed by trawlers, a marine scientist will warn today. Jason Hall-Spencer, of the University of Plymouth, sailed on a German research ship equipped with a French robot submersible to explore an extraordinary world more than 1,000 metres below the north Atlantic. He will tell the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Dublin that huge nets dragged by powerful fishing boats are smashing up completely unexpected undersea communities of extraordinary age and beauty. "It's like bulldozing the pyramids. You are getting rid of something that takes a very, very long time to recover," he says. "Few people realise that we have such interesting, precious and dramatic habitats right on our doorstep. Some of these areas have yet to be explored, but even before we have a chance to see these treasures, they are being bulldozed by deep water trawling. It is crucial that we take steps to protect the coral reefs before it is too late." For years, deep sea fishing boats have been dragging broken lumps of coral, some more than 8,000 years old, to the surface. But new technology has now supplied research scientists with a new way of directly observing brilliantly coloured corals playing host to species hitherto unknown to science. The reefs survive at huge depths, on the lower slopes of Rockall and other seamounts, or on boulders dropped by glaciers at the end of the last ice age. "Most people and all the textbooks say that coral reefs occur in the tropics, where there is enough sunlight and water clarity to feed the microscopic plants that occur in the corals," Dr Hall-Spencer says. "These corals don't require light ... We have found these corals down to 3km depth now, and in very cold waters." Heavy trawl doors and cables drop on to delicate structures and smash them, damaging the nets and destroying the habitat. The challenge is to identify the reefs at risk, and protect them. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'science/science', 'uk/uk', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'uk/scotland', 'world/ireland', 'environment/coral', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'profile/timradford'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2005-09-04T23:00:58Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
books/2019/dec/06/word-of-week-greenwash-why-not-good-thing | 'Greenwashing': the go-to solution of hedge funds and oil companies | This week the TCI hedge fund announced that it would dump investments in companies that refused to disclose their carbon emissions and did not provide a plan for their reduction. And it accused fund manager BlackRock of “greenwash” for not requiring the same. Well, everybody loves green things and washing, so why is a combination of them bad? As a noun, “greenwash” has since 1987 meant commercial propaganda that propagates an environmentally virtuous public image – such as ads for oil companies featuring cute wildlife. Before that, the verb “greenwashing” was sometimes used as a term for money laundering on behalf of drug cartels, because the US dollars being laundered were “greenbacks”. Both senses imply the removal of a stain, and “greenwash” was coined on analogy with “whitewash”, the figurative use of which – to mean the erasure of flaws – is first attributed to the Tory leader Viscount Bolingbroke in 1730. Observers who recall David Cameron’s promise to run the “greenest government ever”, as well as Boris Johnson’s current claim that getting to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will be a top priority if he wins the election, might suppose that Bolingbroke’s modern heirs are also leaders in greenwashing. • Steven Poole’s A Word for Every Day of the Year is published by Quercus. | ['books/series/steven-poole-s-word-of-the-week', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/politics', 'books/books', 'environment/environment', 'books/referenceandlanguages', 'uk/uk', 'culture/culture', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/stevenpoole', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/guardianreview', 'theguardian/guardianreview/saturdayreviewsfeatres', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/review'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2019-12-06T07:00:35Z | true | EMISSIONS |
world/2013/oct/15/iran-powerpoint-timetable-nuclear-talks | Iran presents 'timetable' to end nuclear talks deadlock | The Iranian delegation to international talks in Geneva has presented proposals which it claims will end the longstanding deadlock over its nuclear programme. Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, gave an hour-long PowerPoint presentation of the proposals, entitled "Closing an unnecessary crisis: Opening new horizons", to senior diplomats from the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, and China at the Palace of Nations in Geneva on Tuesday. The presentation was not made public, but it is believed to lay out a timetable for a confidence-building deal that would place limits on Iran's nuclear programme in return for relief from sanctions and international recognition of the country's right to enrich uranium. The presentation marked the opening gambit in the first round of negotiations between the new Iranian government of President Hassan Rouhani and the six-nation negotiating group chaired by the EU foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton. All sides have described the talks as the most constructive for years. Unlike previous negotiations, the two days of talks are being carried out in English, as Zarif and his deputy, Abbas Araqchi, are fluent, so they moved at at least twice the speed, without the need for interpreters. Speaking to reporters after the presentation, Araqchi said: "We believe our proposal has the capacity to make a breakthrough." He said the Iranian plan set out a timeline of six months to get to a deal and that Iran hoped the next step, a new round of talks on the details of a deal, would take place within a month. Ashton's spokesman, Michael Mann, said: "We heard a presentation this morning from foreign minister Zarif. It was very useful. Talks are reconvening this afternoon to look at further details." However, immediately after the morning session of talks, Zarif went straight to his hotel because of a backache, telling reporters he was in too much pain to talk. He has claimed the condition was brought on by attacks from the conservative press in Tehran, which he said had misquoted him as saying the recent thaw with the US was a mistake. The continuing twinges forced Zarif to lie down for much of the flight from Tehran, on which he brought a doctor to help keep the pain under control. The backache was apparently not the only reminder of the pressures back home. According to one Iranian report, Zarif's delegation received a phone call from Tehran on Tuesday morning with last-minute changes to the Iranian proposal. Asked about the foreign minister's condition, Araqchi said: "He's not alright at all. He is suffering a lot." He said Zarif had gone back to the hotel but would not leave Geneva. The afternoon session at the Palace of Nations will be led by Araqchi on the Iranian side and the foreign ministry political directors from the six-nation group. Speaking before the talks began, a senior US official said the aim was to make progress towards an interim confidence-building deal that would defuse tensions and buy time for a more comprehensive solution to the standoff. The official said that Araqchi's announcement days before Geneva that Iran would not contemplate shipping out enriched uranium as part of a deal was not a critical problem. "There's a variety of ways of dealing with that," she said. "To get to a comprehensive agreement is very, very difficult with highly technical issues that have to be resolved. We are looking for a confidence-building step that will put some time on the clock," the official said. "The aim is to rebuild trust … to constrain the programme and even take it back a notch." She pointed out that the US delegation included financial experts; evidence that Washington was ready to talk about scaling down sanctions in response to Iranian concessions. "If they are ready to go, we are ready to go," she said. Meanwhile, Israel convened its security cabinet on Monday night to discuss how to respond to the diplomacy in Geneva. It issued a statement saying: "Now is an opportune moment to reach a genuine diplomatic solution that peacefully ends Iran's nuclear weapons programme. However, this opportunity can be realised only if the international community continues to put pressure on Iran and does not ease the sanctions prematurely." | ['world/iran', 'world/middleeast', 'world/world', 'world/switzerland', 'world/hassan-rouhani', 'us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'tone/news', 'world/israel', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/nuclear-weapons', 'type/article', 'profile/julianborger', 'profile/harrietsherwood'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2013-10-15T13:42:54Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/2014/dec/23/circular-economy-the-top-5-stories-of-2014 | Circular economy: the top five stories of 2014 | In a recent Guardian Sustainable Business survey, readers identified the circular economy as one of the hottest sustainability topics for 2015. From Scotland to Japan, coffee to shallots, here’s what was most read in 2014. Take this quiz to put your circular economy knowledge to the test and find out what you’ve learned over the last 12 months. 1. Berlin duo launch a supermarket with no packaging Shrink-wrapped shallots and polystyrene-packed peppers are a thing of the past at Original Unverpackt, a German concept store selling groceries without the packaging. 2. Ex-Starbucks entrepreneur wants you to eat your coffee By making it possible to eat coffee cherries, startup Coffee Flour aims to reduce waste and create a new food source. 3. Waste-free, Willy Wonka packaging is coming but are consumers ready for it? From edible water bottles to yoghurt encased in fruit-flavoured skins, the packaging industry is getting creative, but psychological barriers persist. 4. Scotland’s sustainable solution for recycling disposable nappies After the success of a kerbside pick-up scheme, two recycling firms aim to deal with the mountain of used nappies. 5. Japan’s disposable home culture is an environmental and financial headache Fifteen years after being built, the average home in Japan is worth nothing, creating a perverse market where construction is booming without the number of home increasing Get involved! Let us know your favourite circular economy story from 2014. Tweet us @GuardianSustBiz with #GSB2014. To get in touch with ideas for coverage in 2015, email hannah.gould@theguardian.com The circular economy hub is funded by Philips. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled ‘brought to you by’. Find out more here. This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/series/sustainable-business-predictions-2015', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/waste', 'food/coffee', 'business/starbucks', 'environment/recycling', 'sustainable-business/waste-and-recycling', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/hannah-gould'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-12-23T13:50:45Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2023/mar/29/spring-has-sprung-in-the-uk-but-dont-be-surprised-by-more-wintry-weather | Spring has sprung in the UK but don’t be surprised by more wintry weather | Astronomers mark the start of spring as the vernal equinox, which fell on 20 March this year. But an extra dollop of wintry weather may arrive long after spring has supposedly sprung. On the night of 22-23 March 2013, Britain experienced its severest snowfall for years. Up to 41cm was recorded by the Met Office in the north of England, with drifts of more than 2 metres reported in places. April is snowier than you might think. According to the Met Office, the UK averages 2.3 snowy days in April, compared with 1.7 in November. While much of this is concentrated in the Highlands of Scotland, April snow can reach further south. On 26 April 1981 heavy snowfall covered much of England and Wales. Okehampton, in Devon, recorded 25cm of snow, and blizzard conditions disrupted electricity supplies, roads and railways. Snow can appear later in spring and right into summer, though usually more as a short-lived curiosity than anything more serious. When conditions are warmer, it is sometimes unclear whether snow has actually fallen or if it is light hail. Sometimes, though, there is no doubt. On 2 June 1975, a cricket match between Derbyshire and Lancashire at Buxton was called off after an 2.5cm of snow settled on the outfield. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'world/snow', 'environment/spring', 'environment/winter', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-03-29T05:00:26Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
business/2016/apr/26/bp-spending-cuts-profits-fall-80-percent-oil-prices | BP prepares deeper spending cuts as profits fall 80% | BP has said it is prepared to slash capital spending if oil prices continue to slide, as the company announced an 80% fall in profits. The oil and gas company said it had already cut spending in the first quarter of the year, and expected to spend a total of $17bn (£11.7bn) in 2016. However, this could be cut to $15bn “in the event of continued low oil prices”. BP cut spending three times in 2015 to $19bn as it faced the worst downturn in the oil sector for at least three decades. Despite reporting record losses, cutting thousands of jobs, and freezing employees’ pay, the company’s chief executive, Bob Dudley, was awarded a £14m pay package for last year. Shareholders were left incensed by the decision, and staged a major revolt at BP’s annual meeting two weeks ago, with almost 60% voting against Dudley’s pay. Oil prices touched a near-13-year low in the first quarter of 2016 contributing to a sharp fall in BP’s profits over the period. It said net profit fell to $532m from $2.6bn in the the first quarter of 2015. However, the results were better than had been expected and BP shares rose just over 3% to 372p. Announcing the first-quarter results, Dudley said he expected oil prices to start to recover by the end of the year. “Market fundamentals continue to suggest that the combination of robust demand and weak supply growth will move global oil markets closer into balance by the end of the year,” Dudley said. Six years on from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP made $1.1bn (£756m) of payments in the first quarter. Eleven people were killed in the disaster in April 2010, with 17 others injured. BP left its first-quarter dividend unchanged at 10 cents per share. | ['business/bp', 'business/business', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/oil', 'business/bob-dudley', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'environment/environment', 'environment/oil', 'environment/oil-spills', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/angela-monaghan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2016-04-26T08:24:43Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2022/jul/28/climate-targets-at-risk-as-countries-lag-in-updating-emission-goals-say-campaigners | Climate targets at risk as countries lag in updating emission goals, say campaigners | International climate targets could be at risk because only a handful of countries have updated their emission reduction goals since last year’s Cop26 summit, campaigners have warned. Just 16 out of 197 member countries of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have updated their plans for how to meet climate goals – known as nationally determined contributions or NDCs. Countries are expected to submit updated plans by 23 September. Labour has criticised the UK government, which holds this year’s Cop presidency, for setting a poor example as it has not yet submitted a new NDC. Campaigners fear it may be hard to make progress at the Cop27 summit in Egypt in November when so many NDCs have not yet been updated. Mia Moisio from NewClimate Institute said: “The lack of progress on new climate targets in 2022 is alarming and most major emitters seem to have no intention to update their NDC. “With less than four months left to Cop27, all governments need move into a higher gear of climate action. For developed countries, this also means substantially increasing their climate finance contributions, without which their credibility will be at stake during the negotiations.” The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy recently diverted £100m away from international climate finance, which critics say could have been used to encourage more ambitious climate targets. That is despite the ODI thinktank, formerly the Overseas Development Institute, having said the UK was only providing 55% of its “fair share” on climate finance in 2020, a figure that it predicts will rise to 63% by 2025. There are concerns that the government may be distracted by the Tory leadership contest, keeping politicians from enacting the commitments made at Cop26. Many declarations still do not have many signatories. For example, the deforestation declaration, hailed as a landmark agreement, has had just four more nations sign up to it since the summit: the Vatican, Nicaragua, Singapore and Turkmenistan. Labour has accused the government of “wasting time” and has urged it to persuade other nations to update their NDCs and set an example by investing in green technology. Kerry McCarthy, the shadow minister for climate change, said: “This government is meant to be in the driving seat during the Cop26 presidency. Instead it has been asleep at the wheel. “This zombie government has failed to persuade the vast majority of nations to update their climate targets, and is refusing to use the tools available to it to make this happen. “Britain should be leading the way, proving that investing in green technologies is the best way to bring down bills, improve energy security and grow the economy. Ministers need to get their act together by supporting green solutions at home and encouraging other countries to do the same.” The government has been contacted for comment. • This article was amended on 2 August 2022. An earlier version said that the UK “is currently only providing 71% of its ‘fair share’ on climate finance”, attributing this figure to the ODI thinktank. That was actually a predicted figure for 2025, which the ODI subsequently revised to 63%. The most recent actual figure available is for 2020, when the figure was 55%. The article has been updated to reflect this. | ['environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/cop27', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/conservative-leadership', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2022-07-28T15:00:09Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
environment/2008/jun/23/travelandtransport.workandcareers | Green worker: Flying responsibly | When environmental groups began calling foul over carbon offsetting - that great get-out-of-jail-free card that claimed you could still fly and be green - one of their main concerns was the message it conveyed: that carbon offsetting made it fine to carry on flying as before. To save the planet, they said, people and businesses needed to fly less. However, if you really, unavoidably have to take a business flight, carbon offsetting can still be a valid conscience pacifier. Well, as long as you do your research and avoid the more suspect schemes. But, while carbon offsetting has grabbed the headlines, there are other ways to reduce the effects of essential flights. (Although the following should only be considered when video-conferencing, taking the train, and all other imaginable greener alternatives are out of the question.) Firstly, travel light. Airlines charge you if you go over your baggage limit because it requires more fuel to carry heavier bags. And the more fuel used, the more emissions produced. You could follow this line of argument further and go on a diet, but that may be going a bit far. Using the same travel-light logic, you could also fly in a lighter plane. You may get a funny look from the travel agent - if anyone still books flights through a travel agent - but ask what type of plane you'll be travelling in. The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, for example, is made from lightweight plastic, which supposedly makes it 20% more fuel efficient. Another thing you can do is book daytime flights. According to scientists at the University of Reading, flying at night or in the winter is more environmentally damaging. The reasons are complex and to do with condensation trails trapping heat at night, but reflecting it away from the earth in the day. Researchers found that, although night flights only account for 25% of air traffic, they contribute 60% to 80% of the global warming caused by flying. There's also the slightly questionable theory that it is more eco to fly economy than business class. This is because airlines rely on business passengers, who generally pay more for their seats, to make flights profitable. Without business-class passengers, airlines would be forced to raise standard ticket prices, less people would fly and there would be less pollution. If you follow that logic, then fly economy. Your boss will be more than happy with the cost saving, I'm sure. · Adharanand Finn is the author of Make a Difference at Work. To order a copy for £8.99 with free UK p&p, go to guardianbookshop.co.uk | ['environment/travel-and-transport', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'money/work-and-careers', 'travel/green', 'travel/travel', 'money/money', 'environment/series/greenworker', 'uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'profile/adharanandfinn', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/officehours', 'theguardian/officehours/features'] | environment/carbon-offset-projects | EMISSIONS | 2008-06-22T23:01:00Z | true | EMISSIONS |
us-news/2015/nov/18/congress-vote-ban-microbeads-beauty-soap-toiletries-plastic | Congress to vote on bill to ban microbead hygiene products in US | US lawmakers are to decide whether to ban personal care products containing microbeads – minuscule pieces of plastic considered harmful to the environment – after proposed legislation was approved by a bipartisan committee. Microbeads, typically under 5mm in size, are used as abrasive exfoliants in products such as toothpastes and facial cleaners. They often evade water filtration systems and flow into rivers, lakes and streams, where they can be mistaken for food by fish. Pollutants can bind to the plastic, causing toxic material to infect fish and, potentially, the humans that consume them. The US House energy and commerce committee has unanimously approved the Microbead Free Waters Act of 2015, which was introduced by Frank Pallone, a Democrat, and Fred Upton, a Republican who acts as committee chairman. The bill would start the phaseout of microbeads from products in the US from 1 July 2017. The federal legislation, if passed, will follow action taken by several states. Last month, California finalised a bill that phases out microbeads from 2020. This follows action taken by Illinois last year, which became the first state to ban the production, manufacture or sale of personal care products containing microbeads. “Most people buying these everyday products are unaware of the damaging effects they are having on the environment,” said Pallone. “However, they are being washed down the drain and reaching our waterways, so we must make sure that these soaps and toothpastes don’t contain synthetic plastic that will ultimately contaminate our environment.” Upton added that microbeads are “big time pollution” and that he was concerned about their impact upon the Great Lakes, which contain 20% of the world’s freshwater. Research conducted in 2013 by the State University of New York found that the lakes were riddled with microbeads, with Lake Ontario containing an estimated 1.1m plastic particles per square kilometer. Separate research by Oregon State University found that a stunning 8tn microbeads a day are being emitted into bodies of water in the US. This plastic adds to the vast quantity of plastic floating throughout the world’s oceans, with a recent study finding that up to 90% of the planet’s seabirds have pieces of plastic in their guts. The plastic comes from a variety of sources, including drinks bottles and discarded plastic bags, and stubbornly remains in the environment unless physically removed. Much of this plastic waste accumulates in five large ocean gyres across the world. These gyres, which are circular currents that consolidate plastic in a single area, include the well-known ‘great Pacific garbage patch’, which covers an area roughly equivalent to Texas. An audacious crowd-funded attempt to tackle this huge garbage patch is under way, with cleanup trials recently taking place off the coast of the Netherlands. | ['us-news/us-congress', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'society/hygiene', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-11-18T22:06:29Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2012/mar/25/weatherwatch-drought-history-crops | Weatherwatch: Britain is not quite the rain sodden place it is assumed to be | Nothing short of a deluge of biblical proportions can now break the drought across large parts of southern Britain. Suddenly this country is not quite the rain sodden place that it is often assumed to be. But before the first world war droughts were far more common in Britain, and on a far worse scale than anything seen in living memory. A succession of dry years between 1890 and 1909 became known as the Long Drought and brought a host of woes. Water supplies were rationed, in some cases restricted to four hours each day; water was transported by train in milk churns to the worst hit places and was even sold by the bucket. Crops failed, canal traffic was brought to a halt, factories and many businesses were forced to close and diseases such as typhoid broke out from polluted waters. A water famine in 1895 in London lasted 10 weeks and led to hundreds of thousands of people having their water supplies cut off without warning. Some people became so desperate they drank the water collected in their toilet cisterns. The local water companies blamed the shortages on the drought and wasteful consumers, but their angry customers mobilised into the country's first consumer movement and pointed the blame at the water companies for failings very familiar today – burst water pipes and lack of adequate reservoirs. The big fear now though, is that a repeat of the Long Drought today would cause an even bigger disaster. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'environment/drought', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremy-plester', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-03-25T21:30:02Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
world/2024/mar/28/china-cyber-attack-hack-new-zealand-us-uk-no-sanctions-why | Why didn’t New Zealand impose sanctions on China? | Politicians, journalists and critics of Beijing were among those targeted by cyber-attacks run by groups backed by China, western intelligence services said this week. The separate cyber-attacks hit the US, UK and New Zealand – all members of the Five Eyes alliance. The network of five countries, which also includes Canada and Australia, share security related intelligence. While Beijing rejected claims of its involvement, the US and UK chose to take further steps against those entities they said were involved, but New Zealand took a different tack. How did the US and UK respond to the alleged hacking? The US and UK have imposed sanctions on individuals and groups that they say were involved in the extensive cyber espionage campaign. The US government announced sanctions on Monday against hackers that it alleges were responsible for operating the scheme. The US treasury’s office of foreign assets control stated that it sanctioned Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Ltd, which it calls a front for the Chinese ministry of state security that has “served as cover for multiple malicious cyberoperations”. The UK sanctioned two individuals and a front company linked to the cyber-espionage group APT31, which is associated with the Chinese ministry of state security. And how did New Zealand respond? New Zealand called out China’s involvement publicly, but it stopped short of imposing sanctions. New Zealand’s defence minister, Judith Collins, said the country would not follow in the footsteps of the UK and US, because it does not have broader law allowing for autonomous sanctions. Parliament would have to pass legislation to do so. The foreign affairs minister, Winston Peters, said in a statement to the Guardian: “We consider that this public attribution, which is a rare step in itself, is an appropriate response given the nature of the intrusion and its level of impact. “Private diplomatic dialogue is an important and valuable step in outlining our concerns. But it does not preclude New Zealand from taking further actions, such as making public statements, where it is in our national interest to do so.” Robert Patman, a professor of international relations at the University of Otago, agreed that publicly naming China, was a rare and “striking” move. “To name China – a superpower – publicly as engaging in foreign interference in New Zealand domestic political affairs is quite a serious charge,” Patman said. Has New Zealand ever imposed sanctions before? Yes, it imposed sanctions on Russia in 2022 in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine. It was the first time that New Zealand levied sanctions individually on a country, and followed similar actions from its allies in Europe and the US. New Zealand had previously only been able to implement sanctions when the United Nations security council imposed them. Owing to Russia’s veto power at the council, then prime minister Jacinda Ardern said her government would be forced to introduce the new legislation – the Russia Sanctions Act. “The Russia Sanctions Act was a historical moment for parliament,” says Jason Young, the director of the New Zealand contemporary China research centre. “It is a very unique set of circumstances – it’s not normal for New Zealand to sanction countries independently when there’s a challenge or issue in the relationship.” Might New Zealand impose sanctions on China in the future? The likelihood of New Zealand introducing legislation to allow it to impose sanctions in relation to China is slim, due to its complicated relationship with Beijing and the differences in severity of China’s actions compared with Russia. China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner, with nearly 30% of New Zealand’s exports flowing into China. While the smaller nation has become more vocal in recent years over issues of human rights, the international rules-based order and concern about the potential militarisation of the Pacific, it has typically taken a more conciliatory tone towards China than its Five Eyes partners. “Governments of a small trade-dependent economy have to think very carefully about the proportionality of their response to issues in a relationship with their largest trade partner,” Young said, adding that New Zealand’s approach was to try to engage with China first, when it is in its best interests to do so. But New Zealand’s public calling out of China shows the country is taking the matter seriously, even if it does not pursue sanctions, he said. “It would be out of the ordinary, I think, for us to then pass legislation through parliament to sanction [China]. The only time [New Zealand] has done that was about the invasion of a country, so I’m not saying this is not serious, but it is a question of proportionality.” New Zealand does not view China as a systemic threat, as the US does, and while it is under no illusions that it is an assertive and authoritarian country, this could account for the nation’s more measured response compared with its Five Eyes partners, Patman said. “New Zealand’s approach to Five Eyes is unity but not uniformity … and we have quite a distinctive relationship with China.” But China should be on alert, Patman said, as New Zealand’s dependency on its trade begins to wane, and the smaller nation becomes less willing to fall into a “master-servant” relationship with the super-power. In recent months, New Zealand has stepped up its interest in joining the non-nuclear pillar of Aukus – a security partnership between Australia, the UK, and US prompted by China’s growing influence in the Pacific region and one about which China has expressed “serious concerns”. A repeat, or escalation, of cyber-intrusion from China could propel New Zealand into Aukus and force it to consider sanctions, Patman said. “Otherwise, many people in this country would start arguing that New Zealand is not serious about defending its sovereignty and a liberal democracy under attack from authoritarianism,” Patman said. | ['world/newzealand', 'world/china', 'world/asia-pacific', 'technology/hacking', 'type/article', 'tone/explainers', 'tone/news', 'profile/eva-corlett', 'profile/jonathan-yerushalmy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/new-zealand'] | technology/hacking | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2024-03-28T02:02:32Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
global-development/2015/jun/06/poor-nations-cash-tackle-climate-change | Africa sounds the alarm over crucial climate summit | The world’s least-developed countries have accused richer nations of failing to provide financial backing for a strong new global climate treaty. With little negotiating time left ahead of the UN climate summit in Paris later this year, diplomats from nearly 200 countries meeting in Bonn have reportedly made little progress, raising the possibility of a last-minute diplomatic fiasco, as happened in Copenhagen in 2009. The mistrust between countries that built up in Copenhagen now threatens the Paris talks, said Tosi Mpanu-Mpanu of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is chairman of the 48-strong least-developed countries group. “The [UN] process is flawed by a complete lack of trust and confidence between rich and poor countries,” he said. “We need time. Because of this lack of trust we have no other way of proceeding. We have to go ahead with baby steps. We are not making much progress, but we are going in the right direction. There are so many issues. It’s a process of attrition. “Every year there is a watering down of the commitments. It feels every year that we are losing out. Twenty countries contribute 80% of emissions, the rest 20%. Yet we in Africa are being asked to cut emissions. OK, we say, but help us. Give us finance, technology.” Concern is growing that rich countries, which have together pledged to mobilise $100bn a year to help countries adapt to climate change, are so far unwilling to discuss how the money will be raised, said Martin Khor, director of the South Centre, a leading intergovernmental thinktank of developing countries. “The developing countries are disappointed that there seems to be little hope that the $100bn will materialise. They have no idea what will be available, so they cannot plan ahead. If countries really wanted a [strong] deal, they would be talking about finance by now,” said Khor. Amjad Abdulla of the Maldives, chief negotiator for the 39-member Alliance of Small Island States – countries highly vulnerable to sea-level rises and extreme weather events – said: “We have an enormous task. We need to speed up the work. The ambition for a good deal has not gone. Our target is still to negotiate to hold temperatures to a 1.5C rise. But achieving it is going to be difficult and may require dramatic efforts by humanity.” Jan Kowalzig, climate change policy officer with Oxfam, said: “The French government [which will chair the Paris meeting] is becoming extremely nervous. It has to show success. Everyone recognises the talks are going too slowly, but the US completely refuses to put anything on the table about finance. The developed countries are not ready to talk about it. Informally, they recognise they need to make concessions, but the big danger is that the $100bn becomes a clever accountancy plan. The developing countries would see through that. A few powerful countries would be happy with a weak deal. The US, China, Japan and India are not very interested in a strong deal because they would be bound by it.” With only around 10 days’ worth of negotiations remaining after the Bonn talks close next week, no discussion has started on three vital issues: whether rich countries should compensate poor ones for the loss and damage done by extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change; how deep the overall emission cuts should be; and how countries should fairly share the burden of cuts. So far, 36 countries, including the world’s biggest emitters, China and the US, have pledged to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, but, given the scale of current commitments, the world is on a path to a 3-4C temperature rise. However, more than 150 smaller countries have yet to submit their carbon pledges. Kofi Annan, UN secretary general from 1997 to 2006, urged all countries to “seize the climate moment”. He added: “Climate change is the greatest challenge facing humanity today. The effects are being felt all over the planet, but not equally. In Africa, millions already feel the consequences of global warming. Yet millions more have never reaped the benefits that citizens in countries with high-carbon economies have long taken for granted. “Climate justice demands that the world seizes the climate moment. The window of opportunity for avoiding a climate catastrophe is open, but it is closing – and closing fast,” Annan said at the launch of the latest Africa Progress Panel report. Leading environment and development NGOs urged David Cameron to act on his climate pledges and use the G7 conference in Berlin to support a global goal to reduce overall carbon emissions to zero. “The Paris climate conference is the biggest opportunity in a generation to create momentum for a safer and more prosperous world. He can use it to build trust in developing countries by supporting a roadmap to $100bn of climate finance and support goals for a global goal to reduce overall carbon emissions to zero by 2050,” said the heads of Christian Aid, WWF, the RSPB and others. | ['global-development/global-development', 'environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'world/kofi-annan', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/johnvidal', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews'] | environment/cop-21-un-climate-change-conference-paris | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2015-06-06T09:31:32Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
uk-news/2017/dec/05/penzance-wins-first-plastic-free-status-award-to-help-clean-up-beaches | Penzance wins first plastic-free status award to help clean up beaches | A Cornish town has become the first community in the UK to be awarded “plastic-free” status after dozens of residents and business people backed a grassroots scheme aimed at helping clean up oceans and beaches. As part of a campaign being run by the marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), Penzance has been given “plastic-free coastlines approved” status. Shops, cafes and visitor attractions have reduced single-use plastics and children and adults have taken part in beach cleans. The town’s status was confirmed after the town council voted to support the initiative. Another 100 communities across the UK are taking part in SAS’s plastic-free coastlines scheme and working towards the status, which has been inspired by the fair trade and transition town schemes. Rachel Yates, an SAS regional representative in Penzance, said she had been impressed by how keen people were to take part. “Everybody you speak to wants to do something,” she said. “People are contacting us asking what they can do. We haven’t had to chase people.” Among those who have signed up to Plastic Free Penzance is the Cornish Hen Deli. Owner Sarah Shaw said she was using biodegradable pots, wooden cutlery, paper straws and cornstarch plates for outside catering jobs. She said: “It’s hugely important because one of the reasons a lot of people live down here is the connection to the sea and the elements. You’re so much more aware of what’s going on that the thought of not doing something about it is awful.” Flo Gibson, manager of the Jubilee open-air pool cafe, said reducing plastics was becoming easier. She said: “People are becoming more aware of plastic and the negative effects. Suppliers are also a lot more aware.” Plastic Free Penzance’s next moves include setting up a plastic-free clinic to spread the word further and speaking to holiday home owners. They will also lobby local supermarket managers, although the emphasis is on changing behaviour on a local level and leaving national campaigning to SAS leaders. To win the plastic free coastlines approved status, Penzance had to complete five objectives set out by SAS such as setting up a steering group and organising beach cleans. Its status was confirmed after Penzance town council passed a motion on Monday pledging to support all plastic-free initiatives in the area and to lead by example through removing single-use plastics from their own premises. | ['uk-news/cornwall', 'environment/plastic', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/pollution', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/stevenmorris', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-12-05T13:49:55Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2017/jan/06/diesel-cars-are-10-times-more-toxic-than-trucks-and-buses-data-shows | Diesel cars emit 10 times more toxic pollution than trucks and buses, data shows | Modern diesel cars produce 10 times more toxic air pollution than heavy trucks and buses, new European data has revealed. The stark difference in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) is due to the much stricter testing applied to large vehicles in the EU, according to the researchers behind a new report. They say the same strict measures must be applied to cars. NOx pollution is responsible for tens of thousands of early deaths across Europe, with the UK suffering a particularly high toll. Much of the pollution is produced by diesel cars, which on the road emit about six times more than allowed in the official lab-based tests. Following the Volkswagen “dieselgate” scandal, the car tests are due to be toughened, but campaigners say the reforms do not go far enough. The new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), a research group that played a key role in exposing Volkswagen’s cheating, compared the emissions from trucks and buses in realistic driving conditions with those of cars. It found that heavy-duty vehicles tested in Germany and Finland emitted about 210mg NOx per kilometre driven, less than half the 500mg/km pumped out by modern diesel cars that meet the highest “Euro 6” standard. However, the buses and trucks have larger engines and burn more diesel per kilometre, meaning that cars produce 10 times more NOx per litre of fuel. The ICCT analysis showed that manufacturers were able to ensure that heavy duty vehicles kept below pollution limits when on the road, but that emissions from cars soar once in the real world. Official EU tests for cars are currently limited to laboratory measurements of prototype vehicles. “In contrast, for measurement of NOx emissions from trucks and buses, mobile testing devices became mandatory in 2013. As a consequence, randomly selected vehicles can be tested under real-world driving conditions,” said Peter Mock, managing director of ICCT in Europe. Changes to the car testing regime in the EU are due to start in September, with mobile devices, called portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS), attached to vehicles as they drive on real roads. But Mock warned: “Manufacturers will still be allowed to carefully select special prototype cars for emissions testing. Instead, it would be much better to measure the emissions of ordinary mass-production vehicles, obtained from customers who have had been driving them in an ordinary way.” Such a system is used in the US where the dieselgate scandal first emerged. It will also be put forward for discussion by the European commission on 17 January in Brussels, but the ICCT said it faces resistance from some vehicle manufacturers and EU member states. In December, the European commission started legal action against the UK and six other EU states for failing to act against car emissions cheating in the wake of the dieselgate scandal. But later the same month, a draft European parliament inquiry found the European commission itself guilty of maladministration for failing to act quickly enough on evidence that defeat devices were being used to game emissions tests. Evidence that some diesel cars emitted up to four times more NOx pollution than a bus was revealed in 2015. Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP and a lead negotiator on the EU’s air quality law, said “It is disgraceful that car manufacturers have failed to reduce deadly emissions when the technology to do so is affordable and readily available. The dramatic reduction in NOx emissions from heavier vehicles is a result of far stricter EU tests, in place since 2011, that reflect real-world driving conditions. If buses and trucks can comply with these limits, there’s no reason cars can’t as well.” • The headline on this article was amended on 19 January 2017 to more precisely reflect the details of the article. | ['environment/pollution', 'business/automotive-industry', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'business/vw-volkswagen', 'society/health', 'world/europe-news', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/air-pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-01-06T06:01:10Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
science/2021/feb/21/foot-and-mouth-20-years-on-what-an-animal-virus-epidemic-taught-uk-science | Foot and mouth 20 years on: what an animal virus epidemic taught UK science | Christine Middlemiss was a young vet working in Scotland in February 2001 when foot and mouth disease struck Britain. Having grown up on a farm, and having later worked in veterinary care in Cumbria, she volunteered to help battle an affliction that would eventually take a terrible toll on UK livestock. “I volunteered as a temporary veterinary inspector at 4pm and was told to report to a farm in Cumbria by 8am the next day,” Middlemiss told the Observer last week. “I got there and was given an A5 piece of paper with instructions about what I had to do. That was all the recorded advice that was available at the time.” It was one of her duties to examine cattle on farms and then give the heart-rending news to farmers and their families that the herds they had built up over decades were infected and would have to be culled. Her experiences on the outbreak’s frontline exactly 20 years ago made their mark – for Middlemiss is now the chief veterinary officer for the United Kingdom and in charge of protecting the nation’s farm animals from future outbreaks of foot and mouth and other devastating illnesses. “What I vividly recall is the support we got from the farmers at the time, despite the terrible news we often had to give them,” recalled Middlemiss. “I would be supervising the culling of a herd, their livelihood, and yet they kept coming over to ask me if I was all right, had I eaten and would I like a sandwich. That was in the middle of what was a real heartache for them. It was remarkable.” The first case of foot and mouth – a highly infectious, frequently fatal ailment that affects cloven-footed animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs – was reported in Essex on 19 February 2001, with a second being diagnosed in Northumberland only four days later. It was immediately clear the disease had already spread across the country with most evidence indicating that infected animal products had been imported from the far east and had been used as animal feed on pig farms, passing on the virus. “Pigs are a real problem,” said Middlemiss. “When they become infected they produce a huge amount of virus. They act like virus factories. That is one of the reasons that the infection spread so quickly.” As the number of cases mounted dramatically over the following weeks, more and more animals had to be slaughtered and their carcasses burned. Britain was transfixed by grim television and newspaper images of pyres of animal corpses being incinerated across the countryside. Vast tracts of land were turned into crematoria and a foul-smelling haze settled over the landscape. The general election, scheduled for 3 May, had to be delayed; the tourist trade in many areas, particularly the Lake District, suffered badly; public rights of way across the country were closed; and a complete ban was imposed on the sale of British pigs, sheep and cattle. It took more than seven months of culling and burning to bring the disease under control and the impact on British agriculture was devastating. Nationally, more than six million pigs, cattle and sheep were slaughtered on more than 10,000 farms before the disease was brought under control by the end of September. The total cost to the nation was estimated to be more than £8bn. “I initially volunteered for three weeks but ended up working for six months as an inspector,” said Middlemiss. “There were some really hard times but equally we felt a sense of purpose – that we were working to get this under control to limit the suffering. And I really learned the importance of communications, of making sure farmers and communities knew what we were doing and why we were doing it.” Several other critical lessons were learned. Feeding farm animals with swill – untreated kitchen waste and scraps – is now banned and movements of livestock are now far more strictly recorded and controlled than they were 20 years ago. In addition, the development of gene-sequencing technologies has allowed veterinary scientists to track the movement of virus variants and to work out patterns of infection with much greater confidence. That was to prove invaluable when foot and mouth reappeared in 2007. Crucially this outbreak was halted before it spread beyond a handful of farms. Middlemiss said: “With gene sequencing, we could see how the genetics of the virus changed with each infection. We could work out links between cases rather than having to rely on speaking to individuals about their movements. It told us very quickly in 2007 that we had beaten the disease. “And it is not just foot and mouth control that has benefited from subsequent improved contingency planning. Dealing with other diseases such as avian influenza has also been boosted from the lessons we learned in 2001.” Her experiences of the foot and mouth outbreak 20 years ago obviously made their mark on Middlemiss – though they were not the very worst that she has endured as a vet. “In terms of scale it was the worst, but there have been times when you get really involved with an animal and that has consequences. I have treated dogs for cancer, established a bond between myself and the animal and then, when the treatment hasn’t worked, I have had to put it to sleep. You really have to learn how to manage your own emotions then.” | ['science/science', 'environment/farming', 'society/vaccines', 'uk/footandmouth', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'environment/farm-animals', 'environment/environment', 'science/agriculture', 'world/world', 'science/infectiousdiseases', 'society/health', 'science/microbiology', 'science/medical-research', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/robinmckie', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-02-21T07:45:55Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/apr/12/fresh-wave-of-youth-climate-action-protests-expected-across-britain | Fresh wave of youth climate action protests expected across Britain | A fresh wave of youth strikes for climate action will hit towns and cities across the UK on Friday, as a government report revealed that the nation is set to miss its emissions targets. More than 60 demonstrations involving tens of thousands of young people are expected from Parliament Square in London to sites in Leeds, Manchester and Brighton. They follow the global strike on 15 March, when more than 1 million young people across the world took action to demand rapid action to tackle the climate crisis. The movement began when Swedish student Greta Thunberg started a solo school strike in August. The protests have been widely praised, although some have criticised the students for skipping school. On Friday, many UK students will already be on holiday. “Young people in the UK are sending those in power a clear message: we won’t accept anything less than urgent climate action,” said Anna Taylor, 18, from London and co-founder of the UK Student Climate Network. “Our futures, the health of our environment and the lives of those around the world already suffering the devastation of the climate crisis are not up for debate. We need [leaders] to act to protect people and planet.” On Wednesday, Green party MP Caroline Lucas challenged Theresa May to join the leaders of all the other major parties who have already agreed to meet Thunberg when she visits the UK on 23 April. Thunberg has already met UN secretary general António Guterres, the pope and addressed the Davos summit. The prime minister declined to say she would meet Thunberg, saying: “I often hear young people tell of the importance of climate change.” May added: “This government has a fine record on climate change.” However, a government report published on Thursday showed the UK is now set to miss its 2025 and 2030 emissions targets by an even larger margin than before. “Many policies which will affect the 2020s and beyond have not yet been developed to the point at which they can be included in these projections,” it said. “With our young people coming out on to the streets in record numbers calling for a structural change to tackle the climate crisis, the public will not forgive failure on this scale,” said Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour’s shadow business secretary. Concern about climate change is higher than ever amongst UK students – 91% – according to a rolling opinion poll for the National Union of Students, which began in 2014. In Cambridge, several hundred school children plan to lie on the ground in a “die-in” protest to demand urgent action against climate change. They will wear blue to highlight the impacts of flooding and sea level rise on future generations and on the people of Mozambique and Zimbabwe who were hit by Cyclone Idai in March. Rowan Williams, former head of the Anglican church and master of Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge, will join the protest. “It’s a great sign of hope that so many of our young people are willing to stand up and be counted. This is their world, and our generation has come close to wrecking it,” he said. Ella Hone, at Chesterton Community College, said: “This Friday is my 12th birthday, so as a present I would like people to understand how important it is not only to me, but to everyone. Climate change is affecting all life on earth [and] we desperately need to stop it.” While the once-a-month strikes are expected to be large in the UK, Brazil, India and the Baltic nations on Friday, elsewhere weekly strikes have continued, particularly in Germany and Belgium. Luisa Neubauer, a youth striker from Hamburg, said 20,000 were expected to protest again on Friday. Neubauer has put the demands for climate action to Germany’s economy environment ministers. “We still don’t see that our government has understood what historical and global responsibility it carries,” she said. “So we really don’t have a choice but to keep going. For us young generations it’s an existential question.” Around the world, strikes are expected in 500 towns and cities in 70 countries on Friday, according to the Fridays for Future website. “These striking school children might not be able to vote yet, but they’re certainly changing the face and pace of the debate – this is exactly what we’ve all been waiting for,” said Helen Clarkson, CEO of The Climate Group, which has agreements from 200 multinational companies and 220 state and regional governments to take significant climate action. “For the last 20 to 30 years, the environmental movement has been waiting for the public to care about climate change,” she said. “[The young people] taking to the streets to protest, are bringing exactly the energy and urgency that is needed to transform the conversation.” Extinction Rebellion activists have said they will “shut down London” on Monday by blocking roads in the capital, as part of global protests by that movement. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/greta-thunberg', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/school-climate-strikes', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-04-12T05:00:40Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
global-development/2023/dec/01/gender-equality-goals-under-threat-in-climate-crisis-hit-countries-says-un | Gender equality goals under threat in climate crisis-hit countries, says UN | The climate crisis threatens the chances of gender equality being achieved in the countries most vulnerable to global heating, the UN has said. As Cop28 opens in Dubai, UNFPA, the UN’s reproductive and maternal health agency, released data showing that the 14 countries most at risk from the effects of the climate crisis are also those where women and girls are more likely to die in childbirth, marry early, experience gender-based violence or be displaced by disaster. “The climate crisis affects everybody but there are subgroups least able to adapt,” said Angela Baschieri, UNFPA’s technical lead on climate action. “It puts pressure on the most impoverished and further drives existing inequality.” Disasters, such as floods or cyclones, disproportionately affect women by disrupting sexual and reproductive health services, Baschieri said, pointing to South Sudan, which has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world – 1,223 deaths for every 100,000 live births – and is among the countries most affected by global heating. Health systems that can withstand climate shocks and continue providing sexual and reproductive healthcare are vital for the wellbeing of women and girls, she added. However, only a third of national climate action plans mention them. As well as decreasing women’s access to medical care, disasters can exacerbate gender-based violence. “We have seen an increase in gender-based violence during the recent floods in Pakistan and the droughts in Uganda,” said Bridget Burns, the director of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (Wedo). “We often concentrate on the externality of disasters, for example by focusing on death rates,” Burns said. “But we don’t look at the long-term impacts that instabilities have on communities. It is usually women who act as shock absorbers during crisis.” Mwanahamisi Singano, Wedo’s senior global policy lead, who got involved in climate advocacy through her work supporting female farmers in Tanzania, said: “Women can’t just be discussed as victims of climate change, we have to be engaged from a point of knowledge. “Most farm labourers throughout the global south are women but they are unlikely to own the land on which they work. Female subsistence farmers do not have the support or resources they need to adapt to climate change. It doesn’t even make economic sense for them to borrow money and invest in irrigation systems on land owned by their husbands or fathers.” She added: “Women can’t just be treated as case studies but as sources of expertise. Women need access to decision-making and negotiating processes, so the rights of farmers and women in the communities are translated into policy decisions.” | ['global-development/womens-rights-and-gender-equality', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/gender', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop28', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/weronika-strzyzynska', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development'] | environment/cop28 | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2023-12-01T13:00:17Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/2022/apr/06/scott-morrison-refuses-queenslands-request-to-split-741m-flood-resilience-funding | Scott Morrison refuses Queensland’s request to split $741m flood resilience funding | The Insurance Council of Australia says the federal government cannot “wash its hands of responsibility” for natural disaster resilience after Scott Morrison refused a Queensland government request to help fund a $741m flood response. The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, wrote to Morrison on 19 March asking to go halves in the package – which was designed to pay for retrofitting, house raising or the voluntary buyback of flood-damaged homes. In a response received on Monday night, the prime minster said the programs would not be supported by the commonwealth. Morrison said such measures were “outside the scope” of federal disaster recovery programs and the responsibility of state and local governments. “These programs can and should be directly funded and delivered by the Queensland government in the same way that the commonwealth fully funds significant elements of our own contribution,” Morrison wrote. On Wednesday, the Insurance Council of Australia released a statement that criticised the federal government’s decision not to help fund the resilience package. In February, the ICA released a report calling for $726m to be invested jointly by the Queensland and federal governments over five years. It had welcomed the resilience funding when it was announced by the Queensland government. “As severe rain and flooding continues to impact the east coast, the failure of the federal government to match Queensland’s investment in measures to improve household and community protections against extreme weather is disappointing and short-sighted,” the ICA’s chief executive, Andrew Hall, said. “If Australia is to get serious about improving our resilience to flood, bushfire and cyclone, all levels of government must contribute. “Australians – particularly those still impacted by the ongoing rain and flooding – want governments to come together to provide better protections against worsening extreme weather, not wash their hands of responsibility.” The rejection prompted an angry statement from the Queensland treasurer and acting premier, Cameron Dick, who said Morrison’s response effectively said “it’s not his problem”. “Every Queenslander needs to know that this letter shows that Scott Morrison does not care about flood victims who need help from all levels of government,” Dick said. “It doesn’t matter if your home floods two, three or four times over, Scott Morrison wants no part in creating an ongoing solution. “Every expert report, including his own royal commission into natural disasters, says that the federal government should be funding disaster resilience, but this prime minister will not take responsibility and do his job to fund it.” | ['australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/queensland-politics', 'australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/scott-morrison', 'australia-news/annastacia-palaszczuk', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-04-06T00:29:46Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
money/2015/jul/09/how-do-i-become-a-hedgelayer | How do I become … a hedgelayer | Just outside the pretty village of Waltham Saint Lawrence in Berkshire lies the sprawling Tudor park of Shottesbrooke. The estate meadow is huge and verdant, and rolls east towards a dark wood a quarter of a mile away. Bordering the field is a tightly woven boundary of young trees, half-felled and intersected with lean branches sticking up from the ground. “We did this one a couple of weeks ago,” says Clive Leeke, parking his pick-up truck alongside it. He produces a small sack from under the truck’s tarpaulin cover, pulling a curved blade from inside. It’s maybe 8in in length. “A billhook.” He reaches in again. “And a bosher.” He’s holding a rudimentary mallet fashioned from a small piece of tree trunk, a protruding branch acting as a handle. “It’s more commonly known as a mell, but it’s what we bosh the stakes in with,” he laughs. “That’s the basic kit. It’s a pretty low start-up cost for a business, really.” Leeke, 60, is a hedgelayer, a role he’s performed for the past 25 years. His interest in the craft was first piqued at the age of six, after seeing a pleacher – the colloquial term for someone doing the job – working on a roadside in rural Oxfordshire. It was a rare sight in post-war Britain, when hedgelaying was a largely dormant industry. His family moved house shortly afterwards, and “lo and behold, there were some hedgelaying tools left in the shed”. After school, he took up horticulture and garden design as a way of using his creative skills. Working freelance, his summers were busy, but the cold winter months were quiet. “Hedgelaying just came back to my mind,” he says. In the winter of 1989, he took a place on a six-week course – found in the back pages of an Oxfordshire newspaper – and began badgering his gardening clients into letting him lay their hedges. He set up his company, Hedgecraft, a year later. Leeke now works across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and London for clients such as the National Trust, the Arboricultural Association and the Royal Estate, as well as taking private work. His entry into the industry was typical; training under a professional – he himself teaches to competition “craftsman” level – and apprenticing is still the best way of pursuing the job as a career. Formal qualifications are largely non-existent: the National Hedgelaying Society runs an accreditation scheme, but it’s not obligatory. Preceded only by dry-stone walling, the craft has been practised across Britain, almost unchanged, since Roman times, but peaked with the mass partitioning of common land in the 18th century under the 1773 Enclosure Act. “It’s something that’s been really actively done for 300 years,” Leeke says. “The only difference now is that we occasionally use a chainsaw.” Styles of hedgelaying vary across the UK – there are around 60 officially recognised by the society, of which 30 are Welsh – but the basic principles are the same. Living trees – usually maple, hazel, blackthorn, or dogwood in Leeke’s case – are partly cut, bent and woven together horizontally, creating a barrier that strengthens as it grows. Leeke specialises in two: the Midland, a robust style devised for mixed farming and livestock control; and south of England, a neater, pruned form that commonly borders the grasslands of the Berkshire and South Downs. Wandering cattle are less of an issue than they once were, but a well-laid hedge still has ecological, as well as aesthetic, benefits. When a pleached hedge begins to take form, Leeke says, “you’re giving a whole new range of birds a nesting site, as well as creating a motorway for invertebrates to travel along”. The main work is done between November and May, when the bare hedges are laid. Leeke and his small team – he takes on two seasonal assistants each year – try to achieve the “magic length” of a chain (22 yards) a day, though bad weather is an inevitable hindrance. Leeke charges £200 a day and tends to work five days a week for the entire season – making around £25,000 in the laying period. An apprentice, on the other hand, can expect to earn around £10 an hour when starting out. The workload is lighter in the summer, when the boundaries are trimmed, weeded and shaped, but Leeke supplements his work with coppicing (he manages a small area of hazel woodland, where the stakes and binders for his hedges are produced), pond maintenance, and teaching courses in hedgelaying and scything. “There’s been this huge resurgence of interest,” he says of the latter. “I’ve got 28 courses this summer.” A pause. “Poldark probably helped a bit.” Fundamentally, the appeal of the job lies in its cultural and practical legacy; a well-tended hedge can easily outlive its maker. “It’s about standing back after you’ve done the work and thinking: ‘We’ve achieved something that’s actually going to stay there’. It’s alive,” he says. “A living creation.” | ['money/series/how-do-i-become-a', 'money/work-and-careers', 'money/job-hunting', 'money/money', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/forests', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2015-07-09T06:00:06Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
business/2015/nov/10/renewable-energy-investment-predicted-to-surge | Renewable energy investment predicted to surge | Between the tropics and probably as far as the 33rd parallel, the sun could soon be a major source of energy for households and businesses alike. Countries such as Mexico and Indonesia, long dependent on cheap home-produced oil and coal, are realising that a solar panel on every roof can reduce poverty by lowering energy costs as well as minimising the destabilising weather effects from higher CO2 emissions. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its World Energy Outlook 2015, the tumbling cost of installing photovoltaics, as much as a commitment to limiting climate change, is persuading these populous countries to switch to renewables. It predicts a cumulative $7.4trn global investment in renewable energy by 2040. Indonesia has forged ahead by limiting investment subsidies that have underpinned coal, oil and gas production for decades. China is also beginning to make the switch to renewables while moving away from dirty, energy-intensive industries. The result, says the IEA, could limit the demand for oil and keep the price relatively low for the rest of the decade. By 2030, the share of low-carbon power generation could grow to almost 45%, putting a lid on power emissions and containing a 40% rise in energy demand. But global investment in renewable energy may not be as large as it seems. The IEA’s $7.4trn figure represents only 15% of the total investment in global energy supply by 2040. So oil, coal and gas are still a major part of the energy mix 25 years from now. And predictions of a low oil price – possibly no more than $80 a barrel stretching beyond 2020 – could be upset by India. By 2040, the IEA says, the country’s energy demand will almost match that of the US, even though demand per head will remain 40% below the world average. Without a push to adopt renewables, India’s galloping demand for energy could send oil and gas prices spiralling up and scupper any hopes of limiting CO2 emissions. Should it invest in solar farms, India must persuade hundreds of millions of car drivers to ditch their petrol vehicles and thousands of road hauliers their diesel trucks, a stumbling block that could be beyond its democratically elected leaders. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/energy', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'business/oil', 'business/gas', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/phillipinman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2015-11-10T18:59:12Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2018/mar/13/rain-or-shine-new-solar-cell-captures-energy-from-raindrops | Rain or shine: new solar cell captures energy from raindrops | A solar panel that can generate electricity from falling raindrops has been invented, enabling power to flow even when skies cloud over or the sun has set. Solar power installation is soaring globally thanks to costs plunging 90% in the past decade, making it the cheapest electricity in many parts of the world. But the power output can plummet under grey skies and researchers are working to squeeze even more electricity from panels. The new device, demonstrated in a laboratory at Soochow University in China, places two transparent polymer layers on top of a solar photovoltaic (PV) cell. When raindrops fall on to the layers and then roll off, the friction generates a static electricity charge. “Our device can always generate electricity in any daytime weather,” said Baoquan Sun, at Soochow University. “In addition, this device even provides electricity at night if there is rain.” Other researchers have recently created similar devices on solar panels, known as triboelectric nanogenerators (Tengs), but the new design is significantly simpler and more efficient as one of the polymer layers acts as the electrode for both the Teng and the solar cell. “Due to our unique device design, it becomes a lightweight device,” said Sun, whose team’s work is published in the journal ACS Nano. “In future, we are exploring integrating these into mobile and flexible devices, such as electronic clothes. However, the output power efficiency needs to be further improved before practical application.” Sun said the field was developing fast and expects to produce a prototype product in three to five years. Other scientists in China have also used Tengs on solar cells to harvest some power from the wind, an approach Sun said could be added to his device. The top layer of the Teng is also grooved to help focus more light on the solar cell. “The idea is interesting – a hybrid device that harvests kinetic energy from water without destroying the output of the solar cell during sunny times,” said Varun Sivaram, at the Council on Foreign Relations, US, and author of a new book on solar power. “There’s lots of nice engineering, like using one layer to do double duty as a component of the Teng as well as trap light for the solar cell.” However, Varun said the power the device generates from falling rain needs to be significantly higher to start making an overall difference to a solar panel’s output. “It’s really not clear whether this is a big deal or not – I suspect it’s not.” Prof Keith Barnham, at Imperial College London, said the hybrid device gave an important advantage in making it more compact and efficient. But he said: “Wind power is clearly the most effective and complementary power source to PV – and it works equally well in the rain!” Other innovations in solar panel design include using the mineral perovskite as a flexible and efficient material, using so-called “quantum dots” and researching artificial photosynthesis, which uses sunlight to produce liquid and gas fuels. | ['environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damiancarrington', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2018-03-13T13:15:18Z | true | ENERGY |
film/2011/jan/16/gasland-review-dick-cheney-oil | Gasland – review | This quiet, hard-hitting documentary began when director Josh Fox wondered why a company was offering his family $100,000 to drill for gas on the lands around their house in rural Pennsylvania. Discovering the pollution being wreaked locally, he set out on a journey of discovery that took him across America, where gas companies everywhere are destroying the environment and poisoning people by using hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") to drill for gas. Fox makes lucid a complicated story, and behind it lies Dick Cheney who, as CEO of Halliburton, oversaw the development of the devastating engineering equipment used in fracking and then, as vice-president, chaired a federal Energy Task Force that brought about legislation making gas drilling exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act and helping to neutralise the Environmental Protection Agency. Cheney, the great outdoorsman, nearly killed a friend while hunting. That was nothing, however, compared with what he's been doing to thousands of his fellow countrymen. He deserves to be in the dock alongside the Soviet politicians responsible for Chernobyl. Essential viewing. | ['film/documentary', 'us-news/dick-cheney', 'us-news/richard-nixon', 'business/oil', 'environment/oil', 'film/film', 'culture/culture', 'tone/reviews', 'type/article', 'profile/philipfrench', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/new-review', 'theobserver/new-review/critics'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2011-01-16T00:05:43Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2021/sep/13/uk-to-offer-265m-in-subsidies-for-renewable-energy-developers | UK to offer £265m in subsidies for renewable energy developers | Renewable energy developers will compete for a share in a £265m subsidy pot as the government aims to support a record number of projects in the sector through a milestone subsidy scheme later this year. Under the scheme, offshore wind developers will compete for contracts worth up to £200m a year, and onshore wind and solar farms will be in line for their first subsidies in more than five years. Alongside the £200m funding pot for offshore windfarms, there will be a further £55m available to emerging renewable technologies such as tidal power, of which £24m will be earmarked for floating offshore wind farms. The government will also make £10m available to developers of onshore wind and solar farms for the first time since it slashed subsidies in 2015, or enough to deliver up to 5GW of renewable energy capacity. Dan McGrail, chief executive of the trade organisation Renewable UK, said the scheme could bring forward private investment of over £20bn in a boost to jobs and the UK supply chain, while reducing energy bills and helping the UK to meet its climate targets. “The sector had called on government to increase the ambition for new renewable energy capacity at the upcoming auction and that is reflected in today’s announcement,” he said. The government has referred to the upcoming auction as the “biggest ever renewable support scheme” – despite offering less than the £325m and £290m offered in 2015 and 2017 respectively – because the falling cost of renewables means it may secure more renewable energy capacity than the government’s first three auctions combined. Renewable energy developers will compete for the funds in a reverse auction scheduled for December, in which the lowest-cost projects will secure a contract that guarantees the price for the clean electricity they generate. In the last auction, offshore wind costs tumbled by a third to record lows of about £40 per megawatt-hour, well below the price of electricity in the wholesale energy market, meaning households are unlikely to face higher charges on their energy bills. Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the energy minister, said the latest round of the support scheme would “support the next generation of renewable electricity projects needed to power our homes” and help meet the UK’s climate targets. Boris Johnson set out plans almost a year ago to support 40GW of offshore wind farms by 2030, or enough to power the equivalent of every home in the UK, as part of the government’s plan to “build back greener” from Covid-19. The prime minister’s “10-point plan” also includes funding for low-carbon hydrogen and millions of electric vehicles on British roads, as well as a goal to replace gas boilers by installing up to 600,000 electric heat pumps a year by 2028. Heat pumps are considered an important tool in cutting carbon emissions from the UK’s housing stock, which is responsible for about 14% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to a reliance on gas heating and poorly insulated homes. But the UK’s rollout is “seriously lagging” behind other European countries including Poland, Slovakia and Estonia, according to a recent analysis of industry data by Greenpeace. Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s policy director, said that if the government “wants a chance to catch up, it needs a proper strategy and enough cash” to make the cost of installing a heat pump – and upgrading energy efficiency – the same as replacing a gas boiler. A government spokesman said the strategy paper will set out how the government plans to help the upfront costs of heat pumps to fall in the coming years while keeping “fairness and affordability for both households and taxpayers at the heart of our plans”. | ['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/renewableenergy | ENERGY | 2021-09-12T23:01:05Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2017/jul/13/eu-calls-for-immediate-ban-on-logging-in-bialowieza-forest-poland | EU calls for immediate ban on logging in Poland's Białowieża forest | Europe’s last major parcel of primeval woodland could be set for a reprieve after the EU asked the European court to authorise an immediate ban on logging in Poland’s Białowieża forest. Around 80,000 cubic metres of forest have been cleared since the Polish government tripled logging operations around the Unesco world heritage site last year. The European commission said that it had acted because the increased logging of trees over a century-old “poses a major threat to the integrity of this ... site.” EU environment commissioner, Karmenu Vella told the Guardian: “We have asked that Polish authorities cease and desist operations immediately. These actions are clear, practical steps that the European commission has taken to protect one of the last remaining primeval forests in Europe.” Environmentalists applauded the move, with WWF Poland’s Dariusz Gatkowski calling for the commission “to quickly implement today’s positive decision and take Poland to court, fulfilling its role as guardian of Europe’s natural heritage and the laws that protect it.” Agata Szafraniuk of the ClientEarth legal firm, said: “Decisive and immediate action is the only way to avoid irreversible damage to this ancient forest. We hope that the court of justice will impose the ban on logging, as a matter of urgency, before breaking for the summer holiday, which starts on July 21st.” Last week, Unesco threatened to put Białowieża on its list of world heritage sites in danger unless Poland halted the deforestation, which has felled 30,000 cubic metres of coppice in just the first four months of 2017. But quick compliance from the Polish government is thought unlikely, after the country’s environment ministry tweeted that it was “delighted” at the prospect of a court case yesterday. A second tweet said: “We have hard data on the #Buszowska (Białowieża) forest and we will be pleased to present it before the tribunal.” Last month, Poland’s environment minister, Jan Szyszko, called for the site to be stripped of its Unesco status, despite fears of a collapse in its biodiversity, which includes wolves, lynx and Europe’s largest bison population. The Polish government argues that increased tree fells are needed to contain a bark beetle outbreak in Białowieża, although the science behind its case has been denounced by many of the world’s environmental scientists. Campaigners trying to block the Białowieża logging say that armed foresters in camouflage units are now routinely stopping and searching young people in the area after a spate of lock-ins around tree-clearing machines. Ariel Brunner, the senior policy chief for BirdLife Europe said: “The tragedy of Białowieża is more than just the devastation of nature, it is the spine-chilling destruction of memory and an affront to democracy and legality. In taking a clear and strong stance on the ecological destruction of Białowieża, the European commission has today shown its ‘heart of oak’.” | ['environment/forests', 'environment/logging-and-land-clearing', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/unesco', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'world/poland', 'world/europe-news', 'world/european-commission', 'world/eu', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/arthurneslen', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/forests | BIODIVERSITY | 2017-07-13T12:36:20Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
travel/2017/jul/03/air-on-board-cruise-ships-is-twice-as-bad-as-at-piccadilly-circus | Air on board cruise ships 'is twice as bad as at Piccadilly Circus' | Passengers on cruise ships could be exposing themselves to dangerous levels of pollution, according to an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches team that found some public areas on the ships’ decks were more polluted than the world’s worst-affected cities. The undercover investigation, which will be broadcast tonight at 8pm, focused on the levels of “ultra-fine particles” found in the air on and around cruise ships, from the fuel the ships’ engines burn. These particles are so small – around a thousandth of the width of a human hair – that they can enter the bloodstream via the lungs. More than 1.9 million people from the UK travel on a cruise each year and there is growing concern among the scientific community about the health risks. Dispatches used a P-Trak ultrafine particle counter to measure the ultra-fine particulates suspended in the air on board P&O Cruises’ ship Oceana. The Oceana is more than 250 metres long, 15 storeys high and can carry more than 2,000 passengers. The device found 84,000 ultra-fine particulates per cubic centimetre on the deck downwind of, and directly next to, the Oceana’s funnels. That’s more than double the amount found at London’s Piccadilly Circus, where the number of ultra-fine particulates per cubic centimetre was 38,400. Speaking to the Guardian, Dr Matthew Loxham, a specialist in air pollution at the University of Southampton, said these were the levels of pollution you would expect to find in cities such as Delhi or Shanghai. As for the health risks, there is, he says, cause for concern. “From a scientific point of view, we know that pollution causes adverse health effects even in the short term,” he said. “On a ship deck, you’re exposed to higher levels of pollution so you may get symptons such as runny nose, cough, dry eyes or a higher risk of asthma attacks. For those that are pre-disposed, there may be a higher risk of stroke or heart attack.” However he added that it is difficult to quantify the increase in risk for individual passengers. “If you had a large enough number of people, you would be likely to see a quantifiable increase,” he said. “But it’s difficult to say with individuals. Asthmatics, particularly, might find it harder to breath, need their medication more, or find the air triggers an asthma attack.” Large ships run on heavy fuel oil, which is legally permitted to contain 3.5% sulphur – that’s 3,500 times what is permitted in road fuel. In EU ports and waters, ships are legally required to switch to a cleaner diesel, but even this, capped at 0.1% sulphur, is allowed to contain up to 100 times more sulphur than road fuel. Loxham said: “If the cruise ships are complying with the law and there is still this level of pollutants, the question really is: are these laws fit for purpose?” As well as impacting on the health of passengers, crew and those who live beside docks, cruise ships are also having an impact on the global environment. John Maggs, president of the Clean Shipping Coalition, told Dispatches: “Most large ships burn heavy fuel oil. It’s a residual product from the refining industry, so after the refiners have produced the petrol and diesel we put in our cars, they’re left with what is essentially a waste product. It’s called residual fuel, or heavy fuel oil.” From an environmental point of view, it’s bad because of the air pollution caused by the very high sulphur content. The shipping industry, however, has traditionally liked it because it’s much cheaper than other fuels.” Also speaking to the Dispatch team, Daniel Rieger of the German environment association NABU (Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union) said: “Ships cause not only greenhouse gas emissions, but also sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. Per day one cruise ship emits as much particulate matter as a million cars. So 30 cruise ships pollute as much as all the cars in the United Kingdom.” Responding to the Dispatches team, P&O Cruises said: “Since 2005 we have reduced our fuel consumption by … 28%, with the accompanying reduction in air emissions.” It added that the Oceana is to be fitted with exhaust gas cleaning systems, which are already “installed on 60 ships across its brands… This action significantly improves the quality of air emissions… Soot and particulate matter reductions in excess of 80% have been achieved.” P&O also said that in 2014 it had reduced CO2 emissions by 20% and “has renewed its goal to continue reducing the rate”. It said: “The health, safety and welfare of guests and crew across all our ships is our absolute highest priority… We recognise that there is a public interest… related to particulate matter and related health issues”. • Secrets of Your Cruise is broadcast on Channel 4 at 8pm on 3 July | ['travel/cruises', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'travel/travel', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/air-pollution', 'profile/will-coldwell', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-travel'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2017-07-03T16:08:13Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
news/2021/nov/20/when-stone-tools-were-considered-lightning-remnants-and-weapons-of-the-gods | When stone tools were considered lightning remnants – and weapons of the gods | Before modern archaeology, stone axes fashioned in the Neolithic era or earlier were known as thunderstones. They were believed to be created when lightning struck the ground, and to have magical properties. The first-century Roman writer Pliny called the stones ceraunia and said they were sought by the Magi, the priests of the Zoroastrian religion. He noted they resembled axe-heads but were of natural origin, being “found only in a place that has been struck by a thunderbolt”. Many ancient writers believed such stones provided protection against lightning and some Greek homes may still have an astropelékia (“lightning axe”) to protect the household. They were also supposed to ward off witchcraft, nightmares and other evils. In Scandinavia, they were thought to deter trolls. The belief that stone tools are actually lightning remnants has been recorded all over Europe, as well as parts of Africa and the far east. In Borneo, thunderstones were kept in rice barns to help preserve the grain. The ancient weather god Perkunos carried a weapon whose name means both “lightning” and “hammer”. The Greek supreme deity, Zeus, was normally depicted with a javelin-like thunderbolt, but occasionally shown with a stone axe. The association between lightning and Neolithic stone axes may also be the origin of the hammer wielded by the Norse thunder god, and more recently Marvel icon, Thor. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2021-11-20T06:00:20Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/2022/may/30/sony-linkbuds-review-novel-earbuds-that-let-the-outside-world-in | Sony LinkBuds review: novel earbuds that let the outside world in | Personal audio has taken a bizarre turn with Sony’s latest attempt to reinvent the earbud. The weird doughnut-shaped speaker with a hole in the middle allows you to listen to music without blocking out the world. The LinkBuds are the first in a new line of earbuds from Sony that aim to let you listen to music but also have awareness of what is going on around you. They cost £149 ($179/A$319) and compete with earbuds such as Apple’s standard AirPods and Google’s Pixel Buds A. Breaking the tradition for what earbuds should look like, they lack any form of tip, silicone or otherwise, and look like a Polo mint stuck to a mint imperial. The circular main body fits in your concha while the ring-shaped speaker sits outside your ear canal for an open fit. They only weigh 4.1g each and are kept in place by silicone wings in one of five included sizes, which tuck under the folds at the top of your concha. It’s a unique, low-profile fit that takes some getting used to. It was immediately comfortable in my right ear but took some adjustment for my smaller left ear. Once in place you can clearly hear the world around you through the hole in the middle of the speaker for full awareness on the street, park or in the office while you are listening to music. You can easily have full conversations without taking them out and can hear your own voice to stop you accidentally shouting on calls. My voice came through sounding clear and natural on the other end of calls, too. Music has good separation of instruments, balance and detail in the highs, treble and mid-bass, with a full equaliser to adjust to your sound preferences. However, the ring speaker struggles to produce deeper notes, which means some tracks sound a bit hollow, making them better suited to pop, rock and songs that don’t rely on thumping bass. The LinkBuds are discreet when kept at quiet listening volumes but crank up the volume to mask other people talking around you and they will be able to hear your music. Specifications Water resistance: IPX4 (sweat) Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2, SBC, AAC Battery life: 5.5 hours/2.5 hours talk, up to 17.5 hours with case Earbud weight: 4.1g Driver size: 12mm ring Charging case weight: 34g Case dimensions: 41.4 x 48.5 x 30.9mm Case charging: USB-C Connectivity, controls, battery The earbuds last up to 5.5 hours of music playback and clip into a small and pocketable case that can store an additional 12 hours of charge for a total of 17.5 hours. When low on battery, a 10-minute charge will be enough for up to 90 minutes of playback. The earbuds support standard Bluetooth 5.2 and the universal SBC and AAC audio formats but also have Fast Pair with Android and Swift Pair with Windows PC. They only connect to one device at a time but can seamlessly switch between them. Connection to various phones, tablets and watches was rock-solid. The LinkBuds have customisable controls for playback, volume and other options, which you can either tap twice or thrice on the earbud or even just on the side of your head to get the same effect. Each earbud can have different controls, which work well enough, but the selection is a little restrictive compared with the best competitors. The music pauses when you take out an earbud and starts again when put back. There’s also an automatic volume adjustment option that turns the music up or down depending on how loud your environment is. Sustainability Sony does not provide an expected lifespan for the batteries in the earbuds or case. Batteries in similar products typically last more than 500 full-charge cycles while maintaining at least 80% of their original capacity. The LinkBuds are not repairable and the battery cannot be replaced, ultimately making them disposable. The earbuds and case are made of recycled plastic. The company does not publish environmental impact reports for headphones. It publishes annual sustainability reports and its roadmap to have zero environmental impact by 2050. Price The Sony LinkBuds cost £149 ($179/A$319) and are available in white or grey. For comparison, the Apple AirPods 3 cost £169, Google Pixel Buds A-Series cost £100, and the Microsoft Surface Earbuds cost £199. Verdict The LinkBuds are an interesting new idea in the world of Bluetooth earbuds, one with a novel physical design that ensures full awareness of the outside world while playing music. They lack a bit of bass but otherwise sound good, particularly in quieter environments, making them perfectly suited to the office or similar. Voice calls are great, too. The fit is a bit weird at first but should suit those who do not like having tips inserted in their ear canals. They are great for running and other activities that require awareness of your surroundings but those who wear earbuds to block out distractions should look elsewhere. The battery can’t be replaced, however, ultimately making them disposable and losing a star. They certainly won’t suit everyone but those looking for a good open-fit alternative to Apple’s AirPods finally have a competitive option in the much more interesting Sony LinkBuds. Pros: open fit, decent sound, decent battery, great case, good connectivity, great call quality, sweat resistant, good app, Cons: no sound isolation at all, no noise-cancelling, limited control options, can only connect to one device at a time, cannot be repaired, expensive. Other reviews Apple AirPods 3 review: solid revamp with better fit and longer battery Surface Earbuds review: Microsoft’s AirPods rivals Samsung Galaxy Buds Live review: novel bean-shaped AirPod rivals Pixel Buds A-Series review: Google’s cheaper but good earbuds Sony WF-1000XM4 review: the best-sounding noise-cancelling earbuds | ['technology/sony', 'technology/technology', 'technology/bluetooth', 'technology/headphones', 'technology/gadgets', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/consumer-tech--commissioning-'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2022-05-30T06:00:21Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
commentisfree/2014/dec/17/ningaloo-australias-other-great-barrier-reef-worth-saving | Ningaloo: Australia's other Great Barrier Reef worth saving | James Woodford | Eight years ago in the crystal waters of Lefroy Bay at Ningaloo, off north-western Australia, I met marine mammal royalty and was forever forced to discard my misconception that Australia’s only true underwater paradise is the Great Barrier Reef. I had just rolled backwards, alone, into the water from a zodiac to check out a coral bommie surrounded by sand and seagrass. As the curtain of bubbles cleared from in front of my mask, I opened my eyes to discover a dugong was moving directly towards me. It did not cease swimming until we were face to face. We were so close to each other that the huge, rotund, grey animal could have reached out and wrapped me in its flippers. Time stopped. I looked straight at this near-mythical wild animal before collecting my thoughts enough to realise I knew so little about dugongs that I had no idea whether I was in any danger. In turn it looked at me with its beady eyes, and whisker-covered, vacuum-cleaner mouth, trying to work out the same thing. I decided to back away and my awkwardness must have alerted the creature that I was not of the sea and it best make itself scarce. The dugong surfaced briefly and then with a power that was belied by its bulk, it made one almighty flick of its tail and vanished. In the days that followed I joined researchers tagging whale sharks, I scuba dived with manta rays and spent hours snorkelling over coral reefs just off the beaches of one of the most arid and bleak coasts on Earth. But I have thought of that curious dugong many times in the past few weeks because, exactly a decade after the Western Australian government comprehensively protected Ningaloo, the future of Australia’s north western waters and numerous other marine locations are again at a crossroads. The federal government is now calling for submissions from the public about the management of ocean reserves right around the continent, including the Commonwealth waters around Ningaloo. The Australian Marine Science Association says the current federal government proposal for the Gascoyne Marine Reserve, which abuts Ningaloo Reef, primarily protects those areas that are of no interest to the fishing and oil industry. Elsewhere around Australia, scientists and environmentalists fear too much priority is being given by the current Commonwealth government to protecting fishing and mining businesses. Those businesses are lobbying to see the size of no-take and no-mining areas minimised. More broadly, scientists fear that the Abbott government is no friend of the ocean and that the remoteness and low media profile of much of Australia’s Commonwealth waters will mean changes may fly under the radar. Decades of research and work towards creating a globally significant network of marine protected areas will be for nothing. While the nation and the world’s attention has recently been focused on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, the rest of the continent’s waters have become a plaything for vested interests, particularly the petroleum industry and commercial fishing. Perhaps the biggest enemy of a national system of marine reserves is the public’s ignorance of the fact that there is so much else under Australia’s waters that is worth protecting in addition to the Great Barrier Reef. Afterall, very few Australians would be able to put their finger on a map to locate many of the marine treasures whose fate is to be imminently decided by the Abbott government – Rowley Shoals, Arafura Canyons, Geographe Bay, Perth Canyon, Bougainville and Marion Reefs. Part of the reason I ended up in the water with a dugong in 2006 was because I was researching a story on the impacts of the extension, in November 2004, of the Ningaloo Marine Park to encompass 300km of reef. At the time of my visit, there was a lot of fear about what the dramatically expanded marine park would mean. The then executive director of angling lobby group Recfishwest, Frank Prokop, told the ABC his organisation was disgusted with the government, and described the Ningaloo plan as pathetic and poorly considered. He said the economy of the region would be devastated because people would stop going there to fish. He was wrong. Today more than 180,000 tourists each year bring over $140m to the Ningaloo region. People still fish but they also bring sea kayaks, snorkelling gear and surfboards. Tourism in the region is continuing to grow significantly and the main draw card is Ningaloo. More and more people go to such places hoping not just to bag a trophy fish but also to snatch a trophy experience. And, as a nation, we need to ensure we have a cupboard brimming full of trophy marine reserves to drive a tourism economy based not on extraction but instead on exhilaration. James Woodford is Guardian Australia’s ocean correspondent. The position is a non-profit journalism project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. For more information on Woodford’s work for Guardian Australia, click here | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/james-woodford-australia'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2014-12-17T00:22:18Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2019/nov/03/greta-thunberg-asks-for-lift-back-across-atlantic-as-climate-meeting-shifts-to-madrid | Greta Thunberg asks for lift back across Atlantic as climate meeting shifts to Madrid | As delegates to the COP25 climate summit scramble to adjust to a last-minute change of venue from Santiago to Madrid, one of the highest-profile attendees has stuck out a metaphorical thumb on social media to ask for a lift across the Atlantic. Teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was speaking in California during a stop on her low-emissions journey from Sweden to Chile, tweeted that she was now in need of a ride to Spain. Thunberg, who refuses to fly because of the carbon emissions involved, had been travelling by boat, train and electric car when the new venue was announced. “It turns out I’ve travelled half around the world, the wrong way:)...If anyone could help me find transport I would be so grateful,” she tweeted from Los Angeles. Thunberg arrived in New York for the UN climate summit in August after a 14-day journey across the Atlantic in a sailing boat. Since then she has been travelling via train and an electric car borrowed from Arnold Schwarzenegger. She made headlines for her incendiary speech at the summit, where she berated the world’s leaders for their inaction on the climate emergency. “This is all wrong,” she said. “I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. “Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones.” The UN announced on Friday that Spain would host next month’s COP25, after Chile abandoned plans to hold it due to deadly anti-government protests. Some 25,000 delegates were expected to travel to Santiago for the event. Harjeet Singh, of environmental group ActionAid International, said moving the summit from Chile to Spain with only four weeks’ notice “presents real barriers to participation” for delegates from the southern hemisphere. “Hotels in Madrid are already full. Last-minute flights are expensive. Visas can be difficult to obtain at short notice. This sudden decision is likely to shift the balance of power towards the wealthier countries of the global north,” he added in a statement. It is the second time that UN authorities have had to scramble to find a new meeting place. Brazil originally welcomed the gathering then backed out after rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro took office in January. Reactions to Thunberg’s social media plea for transport were predictably mixed, varying from multiple offers of support to suggestions she should return to school to learn about air travel. Teresa Ribera, Spain’s ecological transition minister, said on Twitter on Saturday: “Dear Greta, it would be great to have you here in Madrid. You’ve made a long journey and help all of us to raise concern, open minds and enhance action. We would love to help you to cross the Atlantic back.” | ['environment/greta-thunberg', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/chile', 'world/spain', 'world/americas', 'world/europe-news', 'world/unitednations', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'environment/cop-25-un-climate-change-conference'] | environment/greta-thunberg | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-11-03T03:56:57Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2004/dec/28/indianoceantsunamidecember2004.naturaldisasters8 | '1,000 are still missing - we think most of them are corpses' | The two Ronald McDonald statues wedged tightly between the menu board and a massive pile of debris that had swept into the fast-food restaurant encapsulated the disaster that Patong Beach in Phuket had suffered. But the statues were not the only objects out of place in Patong Beach. Cars were stacked on top of each other, up to three high in places, while others had been swept into shops. Trees had been blown over like matchsticks, roofs crumpled as if made of paper. At one site, a Bar Open sign stood propped against a table but the bar behind had disappeared. "I just hope the staff managed to get out of these places before the tidal wave struck," said Terry Hilton from Bristol as he wandered along the front, picking his way carefully through the knee-deep carpet of rubbish, twisted metal and smashed wooden planks. "Because if they didn't, then they must have died. There is no way anyone could have survived being crushed by all this." By last night it was clear that many people had not managed to escape in time. Soontorn Rieulueng, the interior ministry official coordinating the rescue operation, said 866 people were confirmed dead in Thailand and up to 1,000 more were missing. "Some of these could be up in the hills - perhaps they are too afraid to come down," he told the Guardian. "But we think the majority are corpses and it's just a matter of time before we find them." Added to that were some 500 European tourists and hotel workers, who were reported missing on the small island of Khao Lak, off the west coast of Phuket last night by the French hotel group Accor. "At this stage, we have been able to identify 100 people who have been transferred to Bangkok but we have not heard news about several hundred other people," a spokeswoman said. At least eight of the dead have been confirmed as British but officials predict that will probably rise. More than 90 Britons suffered a variety of injuries. More dead are feared to be on the Phi Phi islands, 45 minutes by boat south-east of Phuket, while one British man said the lives of the badly injured people evacuated from the islands made famous by the film The Beach were at great risk. "They should have been brought here, to Phuket, and not to Krabi, where the hospitals are not so good," he tried to explain to a government official at the disaster coordination centre. "I am certain that if they are not moved some will die. Please contact the Red Cross or anyone else who might be able to help." As in Krabi, Patong's main hospital was overwhelmed. "Our emergency room usually has to handle about 60 people a day," the hospital's deputy director, Padungkiat Uthoksenee, said. "For the last two days we've had more than 10 times that number. "We ran out of even the most basic of medicine and equipment yesterday so I sent an urgent request to Bangkok for more supplies but they didn't send me what I asked for. Apparently there is not enough and everything has to be shared between all the affected areas." Nowhere was this better reflected than at the mortuary, which was struggling to process the 133 bodies taken there. Almost everything was being done in the open air. In one corner were eight coffins containing unidentified foreigners, marked only by anguished photographs of their faces. Next to them were a couple of western bodies which had become so bloated by seawater that they were too large to fit into the coffins. "We're not quite sure what we're going to do with those," Mr Padungkiat said. "I suppose we'll have to build some special ones." Further on was another pile of bodies. These were the new arrivals, still caked in mud and blood, their pained expressions horrendous to look at. Few tourists witnessed such unpleasantness, though. A number remained in the town, as if determined to defy nature and continue their holidays, but the majority were desperately seeking a flight off the island. The airport departure hall was packed, with most people resigned to a long wait for a seat. "Our hotel was devastated; there's no running water, no electricity and no food, so we can't go back there," said Michael Sproat from Greenwich, south-east London, travelling with his wife and in-laws. "If we can't get a flight out today and can't find a place to stay nearby, we'll just stay here until we can leave." | ['environment/environment', 'world/tsunami2004', 'world/natural-disasters', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/johnaglionby'] | world/tsunami2004 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-12-28T15:53:24Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
sustainable-business/2015/jul/02/eu-the-most-far-reaching-reporting-standards | Will the EU propose the most far-reaching reporting standards yet? | One of the European commission’s more controversial decisions under president Jean-Claude Juncker’s Better Regulation initiative was to scrap the European Union’s circular economy package last year. MEPs and the outgoing environment commissioner Janez Potočnik protested vocally until the new first vice-president of the commission (and regulatory hawk) Frans Timmermans pledged to re-introduce a “more ambitious” circular economy package with a much broader economic scope than the previous one, which had focused mainly on recycling targets. Four commissioners will be responsible for the new package: Timmermans himself, along with the environment, internal market and competitiveness commissioners. They have launched a public consultation and are expected to publish new legislative proposals by the end of the year. Lifecycle footprints for every product? Viewed as the more environmentally active of the EU’s institutions, the European parliament has joint responsibility for crafting the legislation and has got ahead of the game by producing its own report and raft of recommendations on the circular economy – which the whole parliament will vote on next week. One of the parliament’s most radical proposals is that the EU develop and introduce a “binding lead-indicator and a series of sub-indicators” to measure resource intensity by 2019. These would apply at member-state and industry-level and aim to quantify the lifecycle impact of goods produced in or imported to the EU in every sector. They could well involve individual companies having to account for the footprints of all their products in the way they are required to audit their finances. This is ambitious and will be subject to much lobbying. Ambitious reporting The complexity of rolling out a series of mandatory reporting metrics (to be accompanied by targets) within five years across 28 countries cannot be understated. If adopted these could form the most far-reaching set of reporting standards the EU has ever proposed, applying to virtually every product that Europeans buy. The parliament’s circular economy lead, the centre-right MEP and former Finnish environment minister Sirpa Pietikäinen, is keen to emphasise the maxim that “what gets measured gets managed”. She is open to debate about the best metrics to pick, but firm that they must be mandatory. “As with accounting rules, the main point is to choose the set of indicators that most parties can agree to, and then to apply [them] across member states and different sectors. If each company reported their financial flows according to their own preferred system, and if this reporting was voluntary, none of that data would be comparable or meaningful.” Pietikäinen’s view is echoed across the political spectrum, with the Socialists and Democrats’ lead on the circular economy, Massimo Paolucci, believing strongly that “binding targets on resource efficiency are needed and that the eco-design directive must be reformed”. Room for improvement Catherine Bearder, a British Liberal Democrat MEP and champion of the circular economy, is more specific, saying that “domestic material consumption [the metric most commonly used by Eurostat] is a good starting block but there is room for improvement”. Even Nigel Farage’s Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group appears to support tougher EU action. But there are concerns over the risks of oversimplification. Dustin Benton, who advises the circular economy taskforce for the Green Alliance think tank, acknowledges weight-based metrics based on domestic material consumption (which simply look at the weight of total resources needed to generate a unit of national GDP) are insufficient and suggests we should be more honest about what metrics can and can’t do. “Businesses want to know which footprint to optimise for, but this is really a value judgment. Do you care about climate change more than local water scarcity? There’s no ‘always right’ answer. So we’ll need a range of metrics. We can make these relatively easy to calculate by using sector averages, or relatively hard by requiring companies to audit their supply chains and report to a statistics authority.” Matt Prescott meanwhile, former CEO of Robertsbridge and current managing director of Mint Environment, wants the EU to focus more on fostering business innovation: “The circular economy does not need KPIs, it needs encouragement and freedom to experiment, innovate and flourish.” Whatever happens, the parliamentary vote next week and the commission’s legislative proposal are only the beginning of a process that could define this commission’s work programme and Europe’s approach to sustainable development. | ['sustainable-business/series/circular-economy', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'business/euro', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'world/eu', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2015-07-02T11:08:33Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2018/jun/23/living-next-door-to-17-million-chickens-we-want-a-normal-life | Living next door to 17 million chickens: 'We want a normal life' | The locals call this area the Ryaba-land. That’s the name of the chicken brand Nasha Ryaba under which MHP – the largest poultry company in Ukraine and the owners of Vinnytsia farm - sells poultry meat in supermarkets. There are more chicken sheds than houses here. Even the village signs bear the MHP brand. There are, as is so often the case, tensions between the industrial farms and the villagers. But in this case, anger is focussed not just on the company, but on their funders – the big international development banks that hand out public money. Earlier this month residents of three of the villages – Zaozerne, Kleban and Olyanytsya – filed a complaint to two of the world’s largest development banks, protesting against the development of the giant poultry farms which they say have profoundly affected their health, their water, and their homes. The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have, between them, lent hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukraine’s largest poultry producer Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP). In 2015 it had received at least $200m (£150m) since 2010. MHP is mainly owned and run by Yuriy Kosiuk, who is a former deputy presidential chief of staff. Their flagship farm, Vinnytsia Poultry Farm (described on their website as the largest poultry producer in Europe), now houses over 17 million chickens. It plans to double its production by 2021. But according to the villagers who have filed the complaint, the farm is a source of misery, leading to heavy traffic that is damaging houses, and unpleasant smells. The villagers say water levels in their wells have fallen, and that they worry about the quality of the river water. They say they are concerned about the pesticides being sprayed on fields of grain for the chickens, and claim that there have been threats of violence against anyone who complains about the company. And meanwhile, they add, a forest that the company promised to plant around the site has never materialised. And now the poultry farm has almost completed the construction of another poultry unit – a set of 38 chicken houses, which hosts almost 1.5 million chickens – near Zaozerne village. Some of the villagers have organised petitions against the new construction, organised pickets, sued the company in court and even traveled to Kyiv and met with President Petro Poroshenko’s chief of staff Ihor Rainin in 2017. Nothing has helped. “We want to live a normal life, not to be poisoned like cockroaches here,” says Oksana Bazyliuk from Zaozerne village. “A big problem here is that the information that’s being disclosed by the company about its local operations and the impacts they will have and the impacts they are already having has been really lacking,” says Caitlin Daniel, attorney of the Global Communities programme at Accountability Counsel, an international non-profit organisation that is helping farmers with filing the complaint. “And it has lead to a lot of fear among the local people and a lot of questions that haven’t been answered.” But there is also enormous concern about the fact that public money is funding these kind of industrial farming ventures. “I’m concerned about the fact that international financial institutions, acting under development mandates, are supporting this type of business in Ukraine,” said Xavier Sol, director of Counter Balance, a coalition of European NGOs monitoring international investment banks. “There are various problems linked to the project, from the company’s refusal to engage in an open dialogue with the local population (and its lack of transparency and accountability) to environmental and social impacts of the project.” MHP told the Guardian that they make sure that any particularly heavy trucks do not go through the village, and also says that it is currently building new roads. “We have no relation to the disappearance of water in the wells, because we do not use water at all from the wells for the production needs of the poultry factory. Water is taken exclusively from the South Buh River. In addition, the plant operates cleaning facilities, so water is returned from the river in better quality than it was when we extracted it. Our attitude towards the environment and the health of residents is unequivocally serious and responsible.” In relation to the promised forest they said: “Unfortunately, we can not plant the forest on agricultural lands, this is prohibited by the legislation of Ukraine. Representatives of the company that communicate with communities in the Vinnytsia region have repeatedly provided explanations on this issue.” They added that “the company is in constant dialogue with the communities through public hearings, anonymous forms of appeals, and so on”. The Guardian contacted the International Finance Corporation but they were unable to comment. Anton Usov at EBRD said the bank has had two investment projects with MHP since 2015, which have “no relation to the current complaint”. But he added that since EBRA started work with MHP, the company has improved its dialogue with the local communities with the assistance of the EBRD specialists. “We were not just giving money for some operations, we made the company totally revise its social and environmental procedures,” Usov said. Back in the village, though, many of the worried residents say they are afraid to give their names to the Guardian. “The foreign institution is our last hope,” one local activist said. | ['environment/series/animals-farmed', 'environment/farming', 'environment/food', 'food/chicken', 'environment/environment', 'food/food', 'food/meat', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/oksana-grytsenko', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2018-06-23T07:00:03Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2022/aug/15/pounds-60m-in-uk-crops-left-to-rot-lack-of-workers-nfu-farming | Up to £60m in UK crops left to rot owing to lack of workers, says NFU | As much as £60m of food has been wasted on farms because of a labour shortage, according to the National Farmers’ Union, which found at least £22m of fruit and vegetables had been wasted so far this year. The NFU said 40% of respondents to a survey of its members said they had suffered crop losses as a result of labour shortages, with farms 14% short of the size of the workforce they needed on average. The problems were worsened by some staff not turning up for work or quitting early. As its survey represents only about a third of the UK’s horticulture sector, the NFU said as much as £60m of food could have been wasted. Tom Bradshaw, the union’s deputy president, said: “It’s nothing short of a travesty that quality, nutritious food is being wasted at a time when families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet because of soaring living costs. “At the same time, the prolonged dry weather and record temperatures have created a really challenging growing environment for our fruit and veg. Every crop is valuable – to the farm business and to the people whose plates they fill. We simply can’t afford to be leaving food unpicked.” More than half of those questioned – 56% – said production had fallen by almost a fifth on average partly as a result of the worker shortages. Growers expect a further decrease in production – of 4.4% – in 2023. Farmers have been struggling to find enough workers to pick crops amid high employment levels in the UK. Alternative work, including in warehouses and delivery, often offers higher pay and more job security. The struggle to find workers has led to pay increases and problems for businesses in hospitality, logistics and food production. Brexit has reduced access to temporary workers coming in from the EU, while war in Ukraine has disrupted flow from a country that has provided a large proportion of the UK’s harvest workers in recent years. Up to 38,000 visas have been made available under this year’s seasonal workers scheme, which offers short-term visas to those helping with food production. However, the farming industry say it needs 70,000 alone. The war in Ukraine led to men of combat age being blocked from leaving the country. This resulted in the British farming industry scrambling for workers from the UK or further afield. The NFU’s survey found less than 4% of seasonal workers come from the UK, as those permanently living here and seeking work often do not live close to farms and may find it difficult to move for seasonal work and live in temporary accommodation. More than two-thirds of farm workers come via the seasonal workers scheme. The latest concerns over UK fruit and vegetables follows fears for the potato crop, with half of England’s expected to fail because it cannot be irrigated. Even crops that are usually drought-tolerant, such as maize, have been failing. Milk production is also down nationally because of a lack of food for cows, and wildfires are putting large areas of farmland at risk. | ['environment/farming', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/environment', 'environment/meat-industry', 'business/business', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sarahbutler', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-08-15T15:01:49Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/cif-green/2009/sep/08/climate-change-developing-world-copenhagen | A green deal for rich and poor nations | Helen Clark | A few months ago, Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, stated explicitly that the continent's future depends on what comes out of the Copenhagen climate change negotiations. He argued that Africa needs a strong climate deal, and quickly, so that global emissions can be brought under control as soon as possible. He also called for strong mechanisms to help the continent move towards a low carbon growth path and to strengthen its resilience to unavoidable impacts. President Kagame hit the nail on the head. We know that the effects of climate change will hit the poorest and most vulnerable first and hardest. That is why the new climate change deal so many are working so hard for must also be a deal for development. Fighting poverty and protecting our planet must go hand-in-hand. Receding forests, expanding deserts, changing rainfall patterns, and rising sea levels trap people in hardship and undermine their future. Studies in Ethiopia show that children exposed to drought in early childhood are more likely to be malnourished five years later. Because of climate change, it is estimated that up to 600 million more people in Africa could face malnutrition as agricultural systems break down; an additional 1.8 billion people could face water shortage, especially in Asia; and more than 70 million Bangladeshis, 22 million Vietnamese, and six million Egyptians could be affected by climate-related flooding. Worse, new scientific evidence indicates that ocean temperatures are rising to record levels. That will put further stress on coastal ecosystems and on the people depending on them for their survival. Now is the time to push through both a vision and actions for a better, cleaner, and more sustainable world for us all. We have only one planet to live on. We must ensure that the way we live and develop is consistent with keeping its ecosystems in balance. We must all find a different, more sustainable way to grow our economies, and ensure that poor people and nations have the opportunity to create a better life for themselves. In the developed world, initiatives such as the 10:10 campaign to encourage individuals and organisations to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 all help to galvanise the general public to urge their political leaders to act. But while reductions are vitally important, we must look further into the future. While climate change presents great challenges, it also offers opportunities for us all to move towards sustainable development. If nations can make progress at the Copenhagen climate talks, that will lead to reductions in emissions; the development of less carbon-intensive production and consumption processes; directing climate financing to support global economic growth; and setting the world's poorer countries on inclusive and sustainable pathways out of poverty. The climate change talks must, at a minimum, take the following account of three developing country imperatives. First, these nations must be able to develop what their citizens need for a decent life. Unless people have at least basic access to water, sanitation, food and energy, as well as to institutions which work and a way to have a say in the decisions which affect their lives, they will not be able to cope with the additional burden of a changing climate. Second, these people need targeted support to develop the capacity to adapt to climate change – from the poor farmer who wants to grow more resilient crops, to the family whose home must be able to withstand increased flooding. This means helping countries to put climate change adaptation at the heart of all their efforts to tackle poverty, with proper attention paid to the needs of more vulnerable groups, including women and indigenous people. Third, developing countries need the support of partners to move along a low-carbon development pathway. They need better access to carbon financing to pay for that, and the skills to put that money to work where it is needed. That includes driving private and public finance towards cleaner investments in energy, transport and other infrastructure, and in industry. If developing countries are assisted in these ways, they will be able to contribute to global efforts to tackle climate change while also pursuing the development to which their people aspire. Sealing a new climate change agreement will require unwavering political will, so that national interests do not obstruct achieving what is best for our planet. If the deal reached is also one for development, we could set the stage for future generations to live in greater peace and prosperity. We need to invest up frontnow, to protect our climate and the lives of all of us and our descendants.We know what needs to be done, and we know we collectively face choices. We can do nothing, or too little, or our world can take bold actions together to confront the climate change challenge. This December in Copenhagen, I hope that we will, collectively, summon the courage to act. | ['commentisfree/cif-green', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/copenhagen', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/politics', 'tone/comment', 'society/society', 'global-development/global-development', 'environment/environment', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'type/article', 'profile/helen-clark', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2009-09-08T21:00:01Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
business/2022/dec/04/government-chaos-delays-uk-sahara-energy-link | £18bn project to link UK to huge wind and solar farm in Sahara delayed by a year | An £18bn project to connect Britain with a huge wind and solar farm in the Sahara through an undersea cable has been delayed by at least a year because of political ructions in Westminster. The energy startup Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s electricity supplies through a 3,800km (2,360-mile) cable linking Morocco with the UK, powering 7m homes by 2030. The project had been expected to begin generating power by 2027. However, that target date now appears unlikely. The Xlinks’ executive chair, Sir Dave Lewis, a former chief executive of Tesco, warned that the recent political turmoil that has seen off three prime ministers in less than six months has stalled its progress. He has been trying to secure a government “contract for difference” – a mechanism under which public subsidies are used to offer low-carbon generators, such as windfarms, a fixed price for power. The arrangement aims to encourage investment by making revenues more predictable. Lewis told the Guardian: “We spent a long time with the then business secretary [Kwasi Kwarteng] who said: ‘We like it a lot but it needs to go through Treasury.’ There was a review with Treasury, Cabinet Office and the business department, which was very positive. “Then we came back to them to start the detail and the political world exploded and, as a result, everything stopped. And everybody has changed, so it’s sort of like you’re starting again. “Time is important for the UK to meet its net zero ambitions, to secure energy supplies and to reduce bills. We have lost a year.” Xlinks was founded in 2019 by its chief executive, Simon Morrish, who has grown the environmental services business Ground Control across the UK. When the Morocco-UK link is complete, Xlinks expects to generate 20 hours of reliable renewable energy a day using the Sahara’s sunshine and breezy night-time conditions. The plan is to build almost 12m solar panels and 530 windfarms over the 960 sq km area of desert. The site, in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region, will also have 20 gigawatt hours of battery storage. The cable transporting power from the site will hug the Moroccan coastline, then pass alongside Portugal, northern Spain and France before looping around the Isles of Scilly to terminate at Alverdiscott in north Devon, where Xlinks has already agreed to 1.8 gigawatt connections. Morocco has an established wind, solar and hydroelectric power industry, and its solar intensity, a measure of generation power, is second only to Egypt and double that of the UK, according to data from Xlinks. The power lines will be laid by the world’s largest cable-laying ship and buried beneath the seabed to mitigate the risk of damage from fishing boats. The company is in the process of studying the seabed and gaining offshore permits. Xlinks hopes to land a strike price of £48 per megawatt hour, lower than the £92.50 agreed for the delayed Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The company argues that despite the scale of the project, it can be more reliable for the security of UK energy supplies than domestic options because UK wind power can be hugely variable. Last week National Grid issued, and later cancelled preparations to launch its emergency winter plan after low wind and solar power left supplies tight. Lewis has personally invested in the Xlinks project, along with Octopus Energy and its founder Greg Jackson. Growing demand for renewable power has stretched supplies across the industry. In response, its sister company XLCC plans to build two factories to manufacture cables in Hunterston on the west coast of Scotland and another at a yet to be announced site in north-east England. The first received planning permission in June, and is expected to create 900 jobs. Lewis, who worked for the consumer goods company Unilever for 27 years, became Tesco’s chief executive in 2014. He quickly had to tackle an accounting black hole and is credited with turning around Britain’s largest retailer before leaving in 2020. He is now chair of Haleon, the consumer goods company spun off from GlaxoSmithKline earlier this year. • This article was amended on 5 and 7 December 2022. Xlinks hopes to provide 8% of Britain’s electricity, not energy as an earlier version said; and the map was changed to accurately represent the borders of Morocco. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy', 'business/business', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'environment/environment', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'world/morocco', 'uk/uk', 'world/africa', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-lawson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/windpower | ENERGY | 2022-12-04T23:42:12Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2007/dec/13/recycling.ethicalliving | Leo Hickman on recycling batteries | I was hoping that my local council would be able to take my batteries and recycle them, but they said no. I even thought of going to Germany and finding a recycling centre there that would dispose of them. Please can you tell me where I can take them? Thomas Cherry, London I have met some keen recyclers but I have to admit that I have never heard of anyone considering travelling abroad to find a suitable resting place for their waste. (That much of our recycling ends up on far-off foreign shores is another story.) There are actually quite a few options open to you, not just in London but around the country. Assuming that you are talking about standard non-lead acid batteries, such as the AA or AAA alkaline varieties used in many domestic appliances, then all you need do is visit any Sainsbury's and pick up one of its freepost recycling envelopes. Sainsbury's claims that it sells 20% of all the UK's batteries - we each discard 21 batteries a year, on average - and since late 2006 has been offering a free battery recycling service (the envelopes can also take your old mobile phones and inkjet cartridges). Free battery collection boxes can also be found at all branches of Currys, Dixons, the Link and PC World. Alternatively, if you feel keen to wield your consumer rights, you could post your old batteries back to the manufacturer or retailer, many of whom have freepost addresses. For a full list of addresses, visit battery.ukf.net/address.htm. Of course, there is no way of guaranteeing that the recipient won't just tip the contents of your envelope into the nearest bin. Why don't the local authorities play a more active role when it comes to recycling batteries? A growing number of councils are now offering recycling schemes for batteries, but by next September a new EU directive demands that all local authorities do so, a move to be financed by the manufacturers. Far better, though, not to buy disposable batteries and instead use rechargeables, particularly the nickel metal hydrides ("NiMH"), as these are free of cadmium and last longer than other varieties. · Post questions and answers to Ask Leo The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1 3ER Fax: 020-7713 4366. Email: ethical.living@theguardian.com Please include your address and telephone number theguardian.com/environment | ['environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'environment/series/ask-leo-lucy', 'profile/leohickman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2007-12-13T10:21:22Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
business/article/2024/jul/30/air-new-zealand-is-first-major-airline-to-scrap-2030-emissions-target | Air New Zealand is first major airline to scrap 2030 emissions target | Air New Zealand has become the first major airline to drop its 2030 goal to cut carbon emissions. The company has blamed difficulties in procuring new planes and sustainable jet fuel. The airline’s CEO, Greg Foran said: “In recent months, and more so in the last few weeks, it has also become apparent that potential delays to our fleet renewal plan pose an additional risk to the target’s achievability. “It is possible the airline may need to retain its existing fleet for longer than planned due to global manufacturing and supply chain issues that could potentially slow the introduction of newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft into the fleet.” The industry as a whole has a goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. But in 2022, Air New Zealand set itself the target of cutting its emissions by almost 29% by 2030. The company said it is now re-adjusting this figure to be more realistic, taking into account the lack of sustainable fuel options and new planes. Mile for mile, flying is the most carbon-emitting way to travel, but as about 10% of the world travels by plane in an average year, the aviation industry is responsible for about 2.5% of global emissions. Most airline companies plan to cut their emissions by a mixture of offsetting – though this has since become a disputed area – upgrading their planes to be more energy efficient, and using new, sustainable aviation fuels. However, the much touted “sustainable aviation fuels” are way off track to replace current fuels in a timeframe needed to avert dangerous climate change, and reports have found there is now “no realistic or scalable alternative” to standard kerosene-based jet fuels. The new fuels are made of biomass, including crops, waste oil and forestry and agricultural waste. However it is dubious whether enough of this fuel can be produced to sate the demand of the aviation industry and protect enough land for growing the world’s food. | ['environment/airline-emissions', 'business/theairlineindustry', 'environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/environment', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/carbonfootprints | EMISSIONS | 2024-07-30T16:47:19Z | true | EMISSIONS |
us-news/2023/jul/25/florida-ocean-temperatures-hot-tub-extreme-weather | Florida ocean records ‘unprecedented’ temperatures similar to a hot tub | The surface ocean temperature around the Florida Keys soared to 101.19F (38.43C) this week, in what could be a global record as ocean heat around the state reaches unprecedented extremes. A water temperature buoy located in the waters of Manatee Bay at the Everglades national park recorded the high temperature late on Monday afternoon, US government data showed. Other nearby buoys topped 100F (38C) and the upper 90s (35-37C). Normal water temperatures for the area this time of year should be between 73F and 88F (23C and 31C), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). The level of heat recorded this week is about the same as a hot tub. Records for ocean surface temperature are not kept, but a 2020 study suggested that the highest temperature observed was 99.7F (37.61C) in the Persian Gulf. The extreme readings add to previous warnings over Florida’s warming waters in the south-eastern United States as prolonged heat continued to bake other parts of the country. The south Florida coast has been grappling with an extreme heatwave that threatens marine life and ocean ecosystems. “We didn’t expect this heating to happen so early in the year and to be so extreme,” Derek Manzello, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch, told CNN last week. “This appears to be unprecedented in our records.” Heatwaves are increasingly affecting the world’s oceans, destroying kelp, seagrass and corals and killing swathes of sea-life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”. Research in 2019 found that the number of ocean heatwave days had tripled in recent years. A 2021 heat dome probably killed more than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific, experts have said. The growing frequency and intensity of severe weather – both on land and in oceans – is a symptom of the global, human-driven climate crisis that is fueling extremes, experts warn, with current heatwaves expected to persist through August. The United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported earlier this month that global sea temperatures have reached monthly record highs since May, also driven in part by an El Niño event. Sea surface temperatures worldwide have broken monthly records for heat in April, May and June, according to Noaa. The temperatures in Florida also pose a threat to human food supplies and livelihoods for those whose work is tied to the water. As he worked his knife to filet fish hauled into Key Largo on Tuesday, fishing boat captain Dustin Hansel said the catch had been getting “slower and slower” for the past five summers. He had also been seeing more dead fish in waters around Key Largo. “As far as all of our bay waters, any near-shore waters, everything is super, super hot,” Hansel said. Noaa warned earlier this month that the warmer water around Florida could supercharge tropical storms and hurricanes, which build more energy over warmer waters. Rising temperatures are also severely stressing coral reefs, the agency said. The high temperatures around the Florida Keys are putting coral reefs at risk – scientists have observed bleaching and even death in some of the Keys’ most resilient corals, said Ian Enochs, lead of the coral program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. “This is more, earlier than we have ever seen,” Enochs said. “I’m nervous by how early this is occurring.” It is not yet clear whether the temperatures recorded in Florida will count as a world record because the area is shallow, has sea grasses in it and may be influenced by warm land in the nearby Everglades national park, Brian McNoldy, a tropical meteorologist at the University of Miami, said. Still, McNoldy said, “it’s amazing”, and the fact that two 100F measurements were taken in consecutive days gives credence to the readings. • This article was amended on 27 July 2023 to correct a conversion from fahrenheit to celsius. | ['us-news/florida', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/fish', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dani-anguiano', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-07-26T01:30:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
environment/2021/dec/15/entangled-whale-cannot-be-freed-newborn-calf | Entangled whale cannot be freed with newborn calf close by, ocean experts say | Ocean experts who are monitoring a North Atlantic right whale that gave birth while entangled in fishing rope say there is little chance of removing two 16ft lengths attached to her while her calf is young. The endangered whale, named Snow Cone by ocean observers, was seen in a video filmed off the coast of Georgia earlier this month by the Florida fish and wildlife commission. The video shows the newborn calf at her side and the twin ropes attached to her mouth. She was first pictured tangled in the fishing gear in Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, last March, prompting rescue missions by crews from the Center for Coastal Studies and the removal of about 300 feet of rope. In a rare event among this dwindling population, which is threatened by the climate crisis, ship strikes, rope entanglements and other human causes, the whale not only managed to migrate a long distance but also to successfully give birth while hampered by the ropes. Now, with the calf constantly at her side, experts say they can’t make another attempt to free her from the remaining fishing gear for the foreseeable future. A team of disentanglement responders from the Georgia department of natural resources travelled to Cumberland Island, where the whale was photographed, but “determined that trying to remove or further shorten the rope would be too dangerous with a newborn calf present,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in a story posted to its website. “Right whale calves swim very close to their moms, making a safe approach by responders highly problematic if not impossible. Noaa Fisheries and partners are continuing to monitor Snow Cone and her newborn.” Barb Zoodsma, large whale recovery coordinator for the agency’s southeast regional office, said Snow Cone lost a male calf in a collision with a vessel off the coast of New Jersey last summer, then still managed to migrate 1,300 miles south from summer feeding grounds off Canada this year to give birth while caught up in the ropes. “Clearly, Snow Cone has game. Still, her and her calf’s current situation is very concerning,” she said. Only about 350 right whales are believed to survive in the North Atlantic, according to Noaa estimates. Snow Cone and her newborn are only the second known mother-calf pairing of the 2021-22 right whale breeding season. | ['environment/whales', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/marine-life', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/richardluscombe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/marine-life | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-12-15T12:00:14Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2019/aug/01/amazon-deforestation-bolsonaro-government-accused-doubt-data | Amazon deforestation: Bolsonaro government accused of seeking to sow doubt over data | The Amazon forest is being burned and chopped down at the most alarming rate in recent memory, but the Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro is focused on reinterpreting the data rather than dealing with the culprits, monitoring groups have said. At a clearance rate equivalent to a Manhattan island every day, deforestation in July was almost twice as fast as the worst month ever recorded by the current satellite monitoring system, which is managed by the government’s National Institute for Space Research. Over the single month, the latest data shows destruction of more than 1,800 square kilometres, which is pushing the world’s biggest rainforest towards an irreversible tipping point and eroding a globally essential sink for carbon dioxide. After an international outcry, the Brazilian government – which is closely aligned with the loggers, miners and farmers responsible for most of the forest loss – held a special meeting on Wednesday of ministers and senior officials from the environment ministry, the science and technology ministry, and agencies responsible for satellites and forest protection. The primary topic, according to several sources, was a review of the data collection system, which has come under attack from Bolsonaro and other ministers who have been embarrassed by the evidence from their own government that Brazil is moving in the opposite direction from the deforestation control commitments it made as a signatory to the Paris climate treaty. The far-right government is investigating the possibility of an alternative monitoring scheme, but scientists defended the credibility of the existing system, which is recognised overseas as one of the best in the world. But the battle over the numbers looks set to continue. After the meeting, the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, admitted deforestation was rising, but he continued to criticise what he called “the lack of precision in the data” and the “wrong” interpretations of the journalists who reported on it. He said the government wanted to make greater use of private satellite data and strengthen the team of analysts working on it. This has prompted concerns in the science community and among climate activists that ministers may be preparing to twist or devalue the numbers to hide the true scale of deforestation. The Climate Observatory NGO said the government had failed to explain why deforestation has hit the worst monthly level since the Deter satellite system was established in 2004 and also failed to discredit the numbers. “What is even worse is that [Ricardo Salles] has reaffirmed the intention to use public money to contract yet another system of remote sensing, when what is missing in Amazonia at this time is supervision and investment in sustainable activities,” the climate group said in a statement. “Bolsonaro blamed the thermometer for the fever. Now the minister blames the thermometer reading. The disease, however, remains untreated.” Carlos Souza, of the independent monitoring group Imazon, said foreign satellites would still be able to track what was happening in the Amazon, but he was worried the introduction of yet another new system would confuse the data and make it hard to compare with the past and track historical trends. “I’m very concerned,” he said. “In the past it was very useful to respond to the trends and to show the world Brazil is keeping on track of deforestation. If you get rid of historical trend, you lose that reference and stop putting on pressure.” | ['world/brazil', 'world/jair-bolsonaro', 'world/americas', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-foreign', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-08-01T01:59:53Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
news/2011/may/02/passenger-safety-lifeboats-titanic | Weatherwatch: Sinking of Titanic was the spur for more lifeboats | It is less than 100 years since it was first thought necessary to provide lifeboats for everyone on board passenger ships. Yet hundreds of people had died each year in disasters around British coasts, many of them caused by storms; other vessels were wrecked in calm but foggy weather, when steamships collided in busy shipping lanes. The sinking of the Titanic in 1912, which struck an iceberg in calm seas, was the spur for this rudimentary health and safety provision. Even then, after 1,517 people died in the tragedy, the Board of Trade tried to defend its regulations, which had specified only enough lifeboats to take half of the liner's passengers. The board's Sir Alfred Chalmers gave several reasons for this. Only months after the Titanic disaster, he claimed that modern ships had watertight compartments and were unlikely to sink. He said that the latest ships were fitted with wireless technology, and so could appeal to other vessels for aid; at the same time he argued that if ships carried more lifeboats, the crew would not have time to load all the passengers and launch them before the ship sank. He also said it was for ship owners to decide whether to clutter their liners with lifeboats. However, in the years before the first world war there came to be many other reasons, besides the weather, for ships to founder, and public opinion forced politicians to issue new regulations. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'environment/sea-level', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2'] | environment/sea-level | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2011-05-01T23:05:10Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
us-news/2023/mar/26/mississippi-tornado-biden-declares-emergency-after-deadly-storm | Mississippi tornado: Biden declares emergency after storm kills 26 in region | Joe Biden declared a federal emergency for swathes of Mississippi hit by a devastating tornado, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors on Sunday morning with a death toll of at least 26 people caused by catastrophic storms in parts of the US’s deep south. Twenty-five people were killed and dozens injured in Mississippi, throughout the state’s low-lying Delta region and around its north-east portion, with another man dying in the neighboring state of Alabama. The fatalities were the most for a tornado in Mississippi in more than five decades as the twister hit hardest in some of the most economically deprived areas of America’s poorest state. In the Delta town of Rolling Fork, with a population of about 2,000, entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble. Video of the aftermath showed crushed cars, a toppled municipal water tower and bent trees shorn of their leaves. “The community has been destroyed,” said Rolling Fork’s mayor, Eldridge Walker, in an interview with ABC News on Sunday morning. “And now we’ve got to put the pieces back together again.” Walker, who is also a local funeral director and said he had lost friends during the catastrophe, added that he expected search and rescue to conclude Sunday with most community members now accounted for. “It’s devastating, and it’s heart shaking,” he said. “I extend my condolences to the families who have lost loved ones.” The town’s community hospital lost power during the storm, meaning patients and nursing home residents had to be transferred for treatment. The US congressman Bennie Thompson, who represents the Delta region in Washington and is the only Democrat in Mississippi’s congressional delegation, said on Saturday that many municipal buildings in Rolling Fork had been completely destroyed or badly damaged, including the police station, city hall and county courthouse. “There are a lot of things that are having to be put in place just for people to be able to get back,” Thompson told CNN. In nearby Carroll county, fatalities included three members of the same family living in a mobile home park near the community of Summerfield. Danny Munford, 51, his wife Helen Munford, 54, and their son JaDarrion Murphy, 14, died after winds picked up their mobile home and tore it apart, according to harrowing accounts reported by the Clarion-Ledger, the newspaper of the state capital of Jackson. Other family members who lived on the same land, including JaDarrion’s twin brother LaDarrion, survived and recalled searching for their loved ones in darkness. “We had to cut trees down before we were able to get to them, because trees were down everywhere,” said Dede Duren, Helen Munford’s cousin, to the Clarion-Ledger. “Anything we saw, we saw with a flashlight or cellphone lights.” In the north-east Mississippi county of Munroe, the coroner confirmed to local media that a 34-year-old father and his one-year-old daughter were killed when the tornado hit their home in the small municipality of Wren. The man’s wife and two other young children survived but were badly injured, according to reports. Early National Weather Service estimates, derived from storm reports and radar data, highlighted the tornado’s vast scale and power. On a scale up to 5, the twister was given an EF-4 rating, meaning its top wind gusts were between 166 and 200mph. Weather service meteorologists estimated that the tornado was on the ground for more than one hour and traveled at least 170 miles, a distance that they described as “very, very rare”. The White House announced a major disaster early Sunday morning, unlocking federal funding to four counties in Mississippi hit hardest that can be used for temporary housing, repairs and other programs to help businesses and community members recover financially. The administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), Deanne Criswell, was scheduled to visit Mississippi on Sunday. “We will do everything we can to help,” Biden said Saturday on Twitter. “We will work together to deliver the support you need to recover, for as long as it takes.” On Sunday, Mississippi’s Republican governor, Tate Reeves, thanked the Democratic president for “quickly approving our disaster declaration”. Reeves spent Saturday visiting communities around the state affected by the disaster, remarking: “The spirit of Mississippi is strong and we’re ready to rebuild!” Pope Francis included affected communities in Mississippi during Sunday prayers at the Vatican. The region continued to be pummeled throughout the weekend by torrid weather events. In Troup county, Georgia, at the state’s border with Alabama, a tornado on Sunday morning caused multiple injuries and damaged almost 100 structures. The National Weather Service in Mississippi warned of severe weather conditions throughout large portions of the state throughout Sunday, including large hail and the potential for more tornadoes. Severe weather warnings were also issued for parts of Louisiana and Alabama. The Associated Press contributed reporting. | ['us-news/mississippi', 'world/tornadoes', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/natural--disasters', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/laughland-oliver', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign'] | world/tornadoes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-03-26T17:06:44Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
commentisfree/2021/jun/16/scott-morrison-may-be-the-architect-of-a-carbon-tax-whether-he-likes-it-or-not | Scott Morrison is the accidental architect of a carbon tax – whether he likes it or not | Richard Denniss | Who would have thought that Scott Morrison would be the one to reintroduce a carbon tax? And who would have thought it possible to design a carbon tax on Australian polluters that delivered revenue to the treasuries of other countries? Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of “border tax adjustments” in which other countries get to decide the amount of tax that Australian polluters pay, and the way in which they will pay it. For decades, the Australian climate debate has circled pointlessly around the hypothetical question of what would happen to Australian exporters if Australia were the first country to take climate action seriously. We might as well debate the consequences of Australia being the first country to roll out the internet. Other countries have slowly but surely reduced their emissions from energy, industry and transport, while Australia’s emissions from those sources continue to climb. And while Australia sticks to accounting tricks, calls by other countries are growing to impose a carbon price on Australian exports whether we like it or not. Australia taxes imports all the time. We impose import tariffs on goods ranging from passenger vehicles to clothing and footwear. Total revenue from tariffs is expected to be $1.7bn this year. We impose bigger import taxes on many kinds of clothing than we do on cars. And thanks to our so-called “free-trade agreements”, we charge different countries different amounts of tax on different goods all the time. While it’s not considered polite to talk about, Australia is often accused by its trading partners of using our restrictions on imports to protect domestic manufacturers from import competition. Just as our “free” trade agreement with Japan did not remove Japanese restrictions on rice imports from Australia, it’s now likely – if not inevitable – that our trading partners will begin to place restrictions, or even carbon prices, on emissions-intensive imports from countries such as Australia that refuse to introduce a carbon price of their own. While it might seem radical to suggest such an idea, it happens all the time. Not only does Australia impose tariffs on some products from some countries, we impose the GST on most, but not all, of the products that we import. Other countries have similarly sophisticated tax collection systems in place, and the benefits to those countries of aiming their tax systems at the “embodied emissions” in exports from countries like Australia are growing as rapidly as the gap between Australia’s climate ambition and the world’s. While the idea of a “borders tax adjustment” is neither new nor complicated, the economics, politics and diplomatic consequences of the idea have changed radically in recent decades. For example, when Dr Hugh Saddler and Frank Muller first wrote about the idea 15 years ago, there was still some chance that Australia may have “led the world” in its approach to carbon pricing. In turn, a border tax adjustment would have allowed for the refund of any carbon price paid by Australian businesses when their exports left Australian shores. But, as their more recent paper points out, now that the EU and the US are looking seriously at imposing their own carbon prices on imports from high-emitting countries like Australia, border tax adjustments are now a threat to the export competitiveness of climate laggards like Australia. If Australia designed and implemented its own carbon pricing regime we would have some control over its timing, scope and size. But having decided instead to repeal the Labor-Greens carbon price back in 2014, the impact of carbon pricing on Australian exporters will instead be determined in Brussels and Washington. Take aluminium, for example. Aluminium made in Tasmania is made almost entirely from renewable energy, while aluminium made in New South Wales and Victoria relies heavily on coal for electricity. While an Australian designed carbon price would have virtually no impact on the cost of Tasmanian aluminium production, when the Europeans and Americans start imposing carbon prices on our exports at their borders, does anyone think they will distinguish between Tasmanian and Victorian aluminium? It’s no accident that, at precisely the same time as Australia is in a trade war with China, our closest allies would start to threaten trade restrictions on our emission-intensive exports. They might be our friends, but it’s their job to pursue their own interests. Calls for border taxes on “embodied emissions” in the EU and the US unite both populist protectionists and environmentalists. And the harder China squeezes Australian imports, the more leverage our other trading partners have over us. There’s no doubt that Morrison can prevent the passage of a carbon price through this parliament. And just like it’s the rest of the world that decides how much Australian coal they will buy, there’s no doubt it’s the rest of the world that will decide whether a carbon tax is imposed on Australian exports. But why let economic or diplomatic reality get in the way of domestic politics? • Richard Denniss is chief economist at independent thinktank the Australia Institute | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'business/internationaltrade', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/tax-australia', 'business/australia-economy', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'australia-news/coalition', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/richard-denniss', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2021-06-16T01:31:07Z | true | EMISSIONS |
environment/2012/sep/19/extreme-weather-new-normal-climate-change | Get used to 'extreme' weather, it's the new normal | Connie Hedegaard | It has been a summer full of reports of extreme weather, of unparalleled scope and severity. Among the highlights: one of the warmest years on record in the US, record-high temperatures in central and eastern Europe, the wettest summer in the UK, the heaviest rainfalls in northern India and the Philippines and the most severe droughts in the US and east Africa. In short, climate change and weather extremes are not about a distant future. Formerly one-off extreme weather episodes seem to be becoming the new normal. Weather extremes are not that extreme any more. Heatwaves, floods, droughts and wildfires are the new reality of an ever warming world. And this should not come as a surprise. Scientists have been warning for years that as the planet heats up, we will have to deal with more severe, more changeable, more unpredictable weather. The evidence is mounting that human-caused warming is pushing normal warming effects to extremes. Heatwaves have increased in duration and frequency. Some parts of Europe are now gripped by severe water shortages while other parts have suffered extreme precipitations causing floods and increased crop losses. And although not every extreme weather event can be attributed to climate change, scientists are now much more confident about linking individual weather events to climate change. Take 2011's record warm November in the UK, the second hottest on record. Researchers say that it was at least 60 times more likely to happen because of climate change than because of natural variations in the earth's weather systems. This summer continued the pattern. The retreat of sea ice in the Arctic smashed the previous record, with just half the ice present compared to when satellite measurement began in 1979. Or take another example: Greenland's July thaw, where satellite data showed that about 97% of the massive ice sheet surface covering the island was melting. "Was this real or was it due to a data error?" a Nasa scientist questioned. Unfortunately, the data was correct. All this record-breaking news reveals that global climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly than most climate scientists had expected. Climate change is happening, and it exacerbates a whole range of other global problems, adding further instability in an already unstable world. But isn't it too costly to invest in a low-carbon world, some may ask? Well, yes it costs. But so does business-as-usual. It would be wrong to believe that to continue business-as-usual is the cheap option. It is not. On the contrary, it is very expensive. Just one example: the World Bank issued a global hunger warning recently after severe droughts in the US, Russia and the Ukraine sent food prices to a record high. According to the World Bank, prices for maize and sorghum increased by 113% and 200% respectively in some markets in Mozambique and in Sudan. This is the kind of cost that often gets ignored. Businesses don't need to be told about the financial losses caused by weather extremes. This summer's drought in the US devastated the multibillion-dollar corn and soybean crops. Insurers in the US may face as much as $20bn losses this year, their biggest ever loss in agriculture. This is not exactly helping fight the economic crisis. It is simply incredible what big risks some people are prepared to take on behalf of future generations. Despite the facts and evidence in front of us, there are still many interests advocating doing nothing or continuing with business-as-usual. Or just forgetting the climate crisis until we have solved the economic crisis. And whereas some see the current financial turmoil as a bitter setback for international climate protection, I see intelligent climate action as a driver of new opportunities for jobs in Europe, for investments in energy efficiency technologies, for boosting innovation and competitiveness, for lowering energy bills. To me, tackling the climate crisis helps, not damages, our economic security and prosperity. Both crises are interlinked and must be tackled together. | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/drought', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/world', 'environment/water', 'environment/environment', 'environment/flooding', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/connie-hedegaard'] | environment/drought | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-09-19T15:45:44Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/sep/21/indigenous-leaders-amazon-rainforest-businesses-banks | Indigenous leaders urge businesses and banks to stop supporting deforestation | Indigenous leaders from the Amazon have implored major western brands and banks to stop supporting the ongoing destruction of the vital rainforest through mining, oil drilling and logging, warning that the ecosystem is on the brink of a disastrous collapse. Representatives of Indigenous peoples from across the Amazon region have descended upon New York this week to press governments and businesses, gathered in the city for climate and United Nations gatherings, to stem the flow of finance to activities that are polluting and deforesting large areas of the rainforest. A new report by the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB) alleges that brands such as Apple, Microsoft and Tesla all have products that may be tainted by gold illegally mined in Amazon Indigenous territories. These companies are supplied by two refineries – Chimet and Marsam – that are under investigation by Brazilian authorities for their ties to illegal mining. The total area occupied by illegal mining in the Amazon has increased drastically in the past decade, according to the APIB report, growing 495% to 2,409 hectares in 2021. Illegal gold mining has soared in Brazil since the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, whose allies are currently attempting to push a bill through the country’s congress that would allow mineral extraction in Indigenous lands. The mining is blamed for mercury poisoning of water, deforestation and conflicts with local Indigenous people. “We are witnessing the destruction of ecosystems and entire communities, and people are dying as a result of this deadly industry,” said Dinamam Tuxá, a leader of the Tuxá people from Bahia state in Brazil’s north-east and executive coordinator of APIB. “Our lives are under threat, mainly from miners, loggers and agribusiness. “These activities directly threaten our traditional way of life. All the destruction and violence stems from the interest of these giant corporations in the advancement of industries, such as agribusiness and mining within Indigenous lands.” Indigenous activists have also accused several major US financiers, including Blackrock, Vanguard and JP Morgan Chase, of funding ongoing logging and mining activities in the Amazon that are contributing to the rainforest’s degradation. The Amazon’s deforestation rate in Brazil has hit a six-year high, data released in July found, with scientists warning the fabled ecosystem is facing a transformation into a grassy savannah due to global heating and the clearing of trees to make way for agriculture. “We see large infrastructure projects throughout the Amazon, projects that are not designed for the people who live in the Amazon,” said Toya Manchineri, a leader of the Manchineri people from the Amazonian state of Acre. “They are planned by people who live outside and don’t know anything about our reality.” Manchineri said that logging operations, new dams and oil drilling disrupt traditional Indigenous practices, hampering the ability to catch fish or find medicines in the forest. “These large infrastructure projects bring thousands of strange people to our cities, they bring diseases, violence, prostitution, alcoholism, dirt, crowding our hospitals,” Manchineri said. “These big enterprises are evil to the Indigenous populations. This development doesn’t happen for us – what remains for us is poverty, violence and abandonment by the state.” The Amazon has long been a leading cause for conservationists and some of the Indigenous leaders in New York admitted that they were weary of trying to rally those in power to safeguard what is both a home for native people and a crucial ecosystem and carbon store that could help avert climate breakdown if preserved. “Sometimes I wonder why I go. I’m tired of saying the same thing and things moving so slowly,” said Domingo Paes, of the Achuar people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. “But I’ve met lots of people, in government and young activists, who say we must take action and that this is urgent. When I hear people saying this, it gives me hope, that things are changing.” An Apple spokesman said: “Our responsible sourcing standards are the strongest in the industry and strictly prohibit the use of illegally mined minerals. “If a smelter or refiner is unable or unwilling to meet our strict standards, we remove them from our supply chain, and since 2009, we have directed the removal of over 150 smelters and refiners.” Tesla, Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase and Vanguard were all contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of publishing. Blackrock declined to comment. | ['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/deforestation', 'world/americas', 'technology/apple', 'technology/microsoft', 'technology/tesla', 'business/jpmorgan', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | environment/deforestation | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-09-21T14:39:43Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
uk-news/2016/jul/28/resignation-edf-director-hinkley-point-gerard-magnin | Resignation of EDF director paves way for Hinkley Point go-ahead | An EDF director opposed to the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant has resigned before a crucial board vote on the project, paving the way for the French company to approve it. Gérard Magnin said Hinkley Point was “very risky” in his resignation letter to EDF’s chief executive. Magnin did not attend the board meeting in Paris on Thursday where EDF’s remaining 17 directors will vote on the project. His resignation follows that of EDF’s chief financial official, Thomas Piquemal, earlier this year, which was linked to concerns about the cost of Hinkley Point. Magnin has a background in alternative energies and is the founder of Energy Cities, an association designed to help local authorities move to newer forms of energy. The French government, which owns 85% of EDF, proposed him as a board member in 2014. His appointment was seen as an attempt to encourage the company to invest more in renewable energy. Magnin, however, said Hinkley Point and a proposal to buy Areva’s reactor building unit showed EDF was actually moving further towards nuclear power. “As a board member proposed by the government shareholder, I no longer want to support a strategy that I do not agree with,” Magnin wrote in his letter to Jean-Bernard Lévy, which has been seen by Reuters. “Let’s hope that Hinkley Point will not drag EDF into the same abyss as Areva.” The French government had to rescue the nuclear group from bankruptcy earlier this year. The £18bn project is controversial in the UK and France. EDF has net debt of more than €37bn (£31bn) and unions representing the company’s workers in France are concerned that Hinkley Point could jeopardise its survival. Critics in the UK are concerned that consumers will ultimately have to pick up the bill for the project. The National Audit Office (NAO) has said taxpayers could end up paying more than £30bn through a range of subsidies designed to support the project. The government has agreed a strike price, a guaranteed price for the electricity generated by Hinkley Point, of £92.50 per megawatt hour. This is more than twice the cost of existing wholesale electricity prices. | ['uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/graham-ruddick', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2016-07-28T13:41:14Z | true | ENERGY |
commentisfree/2023/apr/10/noise-pollution-britains-towns-cities-killing-us | Shout it from the rooftops: the noise pollution in towns and cities is killing us | Coco Khan | Two years ago, my most lovingly overbearing and melodramatic auntie came to stay at my flat on an east London high road. Each morning she would emerge, fully dressed except for the eye mask left on her forehead like Chekhov’s gun, taking a few moments to chitchat before erupting: “Aren’t you going to ask how I slept? Just terrible! Sirens! Buses all night, driving sinners around. This noise will kill me. You’ll be sorry when I’m dead!” Her exclamations may sound over the top. But it turns out that not even the most hyperbolic of relatives could overstate the dangers of this threat, which has lurked unrecognised for too long. Noise in our towns and cities is killing us – and the evidence is piling up. Residents up and down the country are being regularly exposed to unsafe levels of noise, from Bury to Hartlepool, Wigan to Bristol. Last year, the UN declared London one of the noisiest cities in Europe, with residents regularly being exposed to average levels of 86 decibels, well exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) safety threshold of 53dB. The result? Hearing loss, shortened life expectancy (the WHO estimates 1m healthy life years are lost to noise in western Europe alone), an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, anxiety, depression and type 2 diabetes. For children, a link is being explored between noise and cognitive development, as well as behavioural issues. Traffic noise is such a physiological stressor it’s been compared to secondhand smoking. I confess that, for a long time, the only urban noise-related issue that typically got my blood boiling was related to legacy nightlife venues being shuttered to preserve the comfort of a few affluent people who had only just moved in. (For the latest iteration of this, see Manchester’s Night & Day cafe.) Or landlords of overpriced rentals, with walls so thin you can probably hear your neighbour fart, flatly refusing to pay for any soundproofing, no matter what acrimony follows. (I’m sure some day this will be a TV show: Flat-tle Royale, where tenants fight to the death for the right to a good night’s sleep or to watch TV without headphones.) Noise is, after all, a part of city life – and it cannot be overstated how quickly you get used to it. Writing this article, I checked the decibels of my street using this interactive London map: 70dB, mostly from road transport. Yet I rarely notice the sound. I’m sure the cooking frog rarely notices the temperature either. The people I hear complaining the most about noise pollution seem to be the monied nimbys, the wealthy curtain-twitchers, or the plain old killjoys (sorry, Auntie!). But research shows it is lower-income residents, more likely to live near motorways, airports and industrial areas, who are the most acutely affected by noise pollution. There are other factors that make some neighbourhoods louder than others. Trees act as an efficient sound damper, yet poorer areas tend to have less green space. Even the maintenance of the road itself can contribute to noise levels; the same car travelling through a wealthy area may sound quieter than when it is travelling through a pothole-ridden road in a poorer one. Noise pollution is undoubtedly a class issue. It must be, if only those with certain resources can buy their peace, through soundproofing or access to quieter neighbourhoods. And equally, it must be if only those with resources have the luxury of making noise freely – to play their instruments, to have friends over and properly laugh from the belly well after dinner is done – because of where they live. This is not to say that my ex-neighbour playing his saxophone when he gets in from the pub (and always the cruelly named Careless Whisper) is just an innocent victim of his environment. There is such a thing as personal responsibility and being considerate. But so often in our polarised times, conversations get stuck on the rights and wrongs of the individual – tradespeople with phones ringing so loudly you can hear them from Mars, families with forever barking dogs – when perhaps our collective problem requires a collective solution. If fingers need to be pointed, we could do much worse than take aim at city leaders failing to implement noise reduction policies. London hasn’t updated its noise pollution strategy since 2004, and lags seriously behind Paris and Barcelona, which have already rolled out sound monitoring. Or we could point at those in the business of property continuing to swerve their soundproofing obligations, and the regulators who let them. And while I still have my reservations about music venue closures, I would personally like to point a finger at the Madison Square Garden company, which is planning to create a monstrous orb near where I live. It would seem that if the scheme goes ahead as planned, the music and entertainment arena will apparently glow for most hours of the day, be covered with adverts for half the time, and nearly reach the height of Big Ben. Some local residents fear it could be a noise nightmare (and not in that woohoo-avant-garde-music way; more in the capitalism and increased numbers of cars way). There is one bit of good news, though. In January, the House of Lords science and tech committee launched an inquiry into the impacts of noise and light pollution on human health. Sound pollution is the not so silent killer terrorising our cities, and it is the poorest bearing the brunt. Time to make some noise about it. Coco Khan is commissioning editor for Guardian B2B, and a columnist and feature writer Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'cities/cities', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/coco-khan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/pollution | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-04-10T09:00:15Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2021/apr/26/johnson-must-push-g7-to-pay-billions-more-in-climate-aid-say-experts | Johnson must push G7 to pay billions more in climate aid, say experts | Boris Johnson must push rich countries meeting in Cornwall in June to come up with tens of billions of dollars more in aid for poor countries to deal with climate breakdown, or face the failure of vital UN climate talks to be hosted by the UK in Glasgow in November, according to leading climate experts. The UK holds the presidency this year both of the annual meeting of the G7 group of the world’s economic superpowers, and of the Cop26 climate summit. The question of how much rich countries are prepared to stump up to help the developing world cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impacts of the climate crisis will be decisive in gaining poor countries’ backing at Cop26, say leading ex-diplomats and advisers. So far, rich countries’ commitments have fallen far short of what is needed. At a summit last week hosted by the US president, Joe Biden, several rich countries strengthened their targets on cutting emissions, but only the US came up with fresh commitments on climate finance. John Podesta, founder of the Center for American Progress thinktank, former adviser to Barack Obama and to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, said: “I was expecting a bit more from [the White House] summit on that [the finance] question. The US proposal was good but a bit weak. It needs to be better.” That leaves the G7 meeting in Cornwall as one of only a handful of opportunities for rich countries to come up with higher commitments on spending, prior to the Cop26 summit in Glasgow this November. Laurence Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation and the former French diplomat who led the country’s negotiators at the 2015 Paris talks, said: “The cost of access to capital is still very high for developing countries. It will be impossible for them to make the transition [to low-carbon economies] without finance to make this realistic. We are not there yet.” Christiana Figueres, founding partner of Global Optimism and the former UN climate chief who oversaw the Paris agreement, said poor countries urgently needed help: “So many are still struggling with Covid-19 hardship. There has to be a big push for the G7 now, and the G20, on a finance package.” Figueres said a pledge from financial institutions with $70tn (£50tn) under management to ensure their investments were in line with long-term climate goals was “exceedingly good news” but that rich countries must still make good on an unkept promise made in 2009 to provide $100bn a year in public and private finance to developing countries by 2020. Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International, said: “What we need immediately and at the G7 is for rich countries to pledge to at least double their finance.” The UN has estimated that poor countries may need more than $90tn in investment by the end of the decade, to put them on a path to zero emissions by 2050 and to make their infrastructure more resilient to the impacts of extreme weather. Much of this will take the form of redirecting existing and planned investments to green ends, for instance by directing spending on energy towards renewable generation instead of coal and gas, or by investing in more climate-friendly agriculture instead of current methods. Private sector cash can provide some of the investment needed, for instance in energy generation, but much of this is directed at countries that already have a strong and growing industrial base. Some aspects of climate finance, particularly in the poorest countries, are currently much harder to fund. Adapting to the impacts of extreme weather saves lives and livelihoods, but compared to investments in energy or industry the returns are less obvious and spread across populations. Campaigners are also concerned that too much of the financial assistance pledged by rich countries comes with strings attached, in the form of loans or guarantees that need to be repaid or on which interest must be paid, rather than in the form of grants. Poor countries are also struggling with record amounts of debt, and their cost of borrowing has been increased further by the Covid pandemic. Essop drew a comparison with poor countries’ struggles to access vaccines for Covid-19 in recent months. “Rich nations are taking care of their own without any idea of looking outward. Vaccine solidarity and climate solidarity are really important,” she said. Tubiana said rich countries should ensure poor countries could gain access to Covid-19 vaccines before the Cop26 summit: “Vaccine solidarity will be a condition of success at Glasgow.” | ['environment/climate-aid', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'environment/environment', 'world/g7', 'politics/foreignpolicy', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/climate-aid | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-04-26T15:45:06Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/2009/may/27/cuba-oil-climate-change | Cuba's lessons in survival | Andrew Simms | The hiss from the audience could have been shock, surprise or a simple misunderstanding. A woman whose question stretched almost to the length of a speech by Fidel Castro said that Cuba's dire economic predicament was the result, partly, of a criminal government. It just wasn't clear which government she meant (more on which below). This was the first of a series of Hay events organised by nef called Surviving the Crash, and it looked into Cuba's forced, but artful, transition from oil dependency. Today, the UK and the US are living through challenging economic times. But, so far, we face nothing compared to the shocks endured by Cuba over the last two decades. It was uniquely unlucky at the end of the cold war, losing the support of one superpower, the Soviet Union, while keeping the animosity – and a comprehensive economic embargo – of the other, the US. Only now, years later, is there a suggestion of a thaw in relations. But regardless of what American administrations think, suddenly the world is finding Cuba interesting for reasons that are little to do with the cold war's long shadow. Like a nervous scout sent ahead of the main party to see what risks lurk in the valley beyond, Cuba has been hit by a triple crunch – three separate shocks that are creeping up on the rest of the world. Speaking earlier in the day, Adrian Goldsworthy, a writer on ancient Rome, said that the remarkable thing about the Roman empire was not that it fell from a position of unchallenged power, but that it lasted so long. Conversely, hearing the litany of misfortune that has befallen modern Cuba, the astonishing thing is not the threadbare state of the economy, but the fact that the country has not descended into complete chaos and become a failed state. One crunch was the loss of cheap oil imports on which almost the whole of Cuba's economy, including transport and farming, depended, following the Soviet Union's collapse. On the panel, Julia Wright, author of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity, described how a massive revival of largely organic, small scale, and community-driven urban agriculture helped prevent starvation. Even more, the general health of the nation improved dramatically, much as in Britain during the second world war, as people's diets became healthier and they exercised more. Another regular impact is the kind of extreme weather set to become more common with global warming. Cuba sits in the pathway of annual hurricane season in the Caribbean. The other speaker, Carlos Alfaro, who was for years the Cuban advisor to various UN agencies, had to plan for major disasters and emergencies in a country largely lacking fuel for its vehicles. Yet a combination of central planning and local organisation means that even when big hurricanes hit small, poor Cuba casualties are minor and recovery is quick. Compare this to the chaos of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The final crunch is the continuing US economic embargo (and this was the criminal act by a government referred to above). To get some sense of what that must be like, perhaps we need to imagine something like the current banking crisis in the US and UK carrying on for 20 years. Cuba has seen it all and survived. It's not perfect, but after living through the decline of oil, climate change and an economic crisis, it still has an impressive health and education system and an ingenious population who cope with adversity. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'books/guardian-hay-festival', 'world/cuba', 'business/globalrecession', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/oil', 'us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'world/world', 'tone/comment', 'books/guardian-hay-festival-2009', 'world/americas', 'type/article', 'profile/andrewsimms'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2009-05-27T12:00:00Z | true | ENERGY |
sustainable-business/2014/oct/21/uk-remanufacturing-business-model-finance | UK remanufacturing worth £5.6bn if business model can be cracked | At its crudest, remanufacturing involves rebuilding, repairing and restoring an end-of-life product to meet or exceed its original performance specifications, with a warranty to match. It’s considered one of the more valuable resource flow routes of the circular economy, yet it’s still a fledging industry – particularly within the UK and Europe. According to a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG), the UK’s remanufacturing market is valued at £2.4bn, yet has the potential to increase to £5.6bn. “Remanufacturing presents a huge financial opportunity for the UK,” asserts APSRG’s manager Laura Owen. She points to the US, which has the largest remanufacturing industry in the world. “Between 2009 and 2011 the value of US remanufactured production grew by 15% to at least $43bn (£26bn). This supported 180,000 full-time jobs in over 70,000 remanufacturing firms.” Susanne Baker, senior climate and environment policy adviser at manufacturers’ organisation EEF believes that remanufacturing could give British manufacturers a competitive edge “if they can crack the model”. She says it’s about getting used products back to the factory in a cost-effective way. “It presents an opportunity to reduce operational costs significantly,” she says. There are many studies to draw on, but remanufacturing typically uses 85% less energy than manufacturing and in some cases, can be twice as profitable. Earlier this year the APSRG launched its second parliamentary inquiry into remanufacturing, seeking to identify what business models lend themselves best to the activity. In its first inquiry, it called for the establishment of a UK remanufacturing centre of excellence to raise the sector’s profile and encourage greater knowledge transfer between key players. “If developed [it] will be made up of a variety of partners with specific and complementary skills in remanufacturing,” Owen says. Backing the proposal is a consortium of stakeholders including the High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute, the Centre for Remanufacturing & Reuse (CRR), the Carbon Trust and the Knowledge Transfer Network. However the network isn’t nearing reality yet, according to CRR manager Ben Walsh. “We think we’ve got a route for funding, but we need to get industry buy-in,” he says. Just how far remanufacturers would engage with such a network remains to be seen. Baker suspects there would some sticking points. “Why would a successful remanufacturer share their competitive business model with potential competitors? I think it would be naïve to think that they would,” she says. “Remanufacturers would, I suspect, be more willing to collaborate to identify common barriers and issues which are preventing their business from growing.” Caterpillar which has its own remanufacturing business, Cat Reman, is supportive of the move in principle. “The main two barriers to growth for the remanufacturing industry as a whole are the lack of a commonly accepted definition of remanufacturing and the absence of standards for the remanufacturing process,” says Caterpillar’s managing director of EAME remanufacturing, Matt Bulley. “A plan in the UK to establish a network of those working in the remanufacturing industry would be beneficial for these reasons.” Orangebox, a British manufacturer that aspires to circular economy principles, believes such a network could assist with the whole transition process. Its design manager, Gareth Banks, says: “For most organisations embarking on this journey, there’s lots of new ideas and change management to get your head around. A centre of excellence could be the place to go to help with those elements of change required.” He admits, however, that competitive sensitivities might be a limiting factor. “Business is still business so cross-industry collaboration is probably a little easier to foster than getting direct competitors pulling together.” Two sector groups unlikely to want to gel are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and third party remanufacturers of the same product category – printer cartridges being a case in point. “OEMs need to work to ensure the design stage of the manufacturing process is transparent to enable any third party remanufacturer to be able to disassemble and then remanufacture the product. This is something that is not always done,” says Owen. She feels that pre-competitive dialogue in this area could be hugely beneficial. “The return of parts and products from consumers back to an OEM or third party remanufacturer at the end of its first life is a barrier identified by almost all of the remanufacturers we spoke to during our latest inquiry, irrelevant of sector. If industry worked collaboratively in this area and set up incentive schemes in conjunction with each other, this practice would become consumer habit rather than consumer exception.” Plans are now afoot to assess the size of the remanufacturing market across Europe, a move that should benefit the UK. Walsh’s consultancy Oakdene Hollins is leading on the two-year project, which starts in early 2015. A European council for remanufacturers will be also established as part of the work. “There is no body at a national or European level that represents the views of remanufacturers in the policy sphere. We see it as a need … remanufacturing can be seen as second best [but] that is largely a perception issue rather than a reality, ” Walsh says. Read more like this: Waste-free, Willy Wonka packaging is coming but are consumers ready for it? Innovations in mobile phone recycling: biomining to dissolving circuit boards Advertisement feature: 10 things you need to know about the circular economy 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', 'sustainable-business/waste-and-recycling', 'tone/analysis', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/corporate-governance', 'artanddesign/design', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/maxine-perella'] | environment/corporatesocialresponsibility | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2014-10-21T16:45:27Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
culture/2019/oct/05/royal-shakespeare-company-bp-sponsorship-ella-mann | The ecology student who pushed the RSC to cut ties with oil giant | Ella Mann is just 19 but she has already made her mark on the world. In September, feeling increasingly frightened by the quickening pace of climate change, she started writing a letter to one of Britain’s leading theatre companies. It was not a decision Mann took lightly, or one that she rushed. She spent days writing the letter which would pile pressure on the Royal Shakespeare Company to drop its longstanding relationship with oil giant BP. “I thought it was ridiculous, because Shakespeare is a key part of our identity and this identity is being stained by its association with companies that are destroying our planet,” said Mann, the daughter of a psychologist whose love of the natural world began from a young age. Her decision to take a stand worked: just days after her letter was published, the RSC announced its “difficult” decision to end its sponsorship deal with BP at the end of this year, saying it was clear that the arrangement was “putting a barrier” between young people and the theatre. Mann, a self-effacing gap-year student from Oxford who will study ecology and conservation biology at Leeds University next year, is one of a new generation of young activists and campaigners responding to the climate crisis in whatever way they can. She organised Oxford’s first two school strikes as the university city sought to follow in the footsteps of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who has become a global hero for the environmentally conscious. But Mann also felt compelled to tackle the relationships between fossil fuel companies and arts organisations that, she believes, are deeply hypocritical and have – until recently – been largely ignored. Beginning with the polite “Dear Royal Shakespeare Company”, her letter, which was signed by schoolchildren and youngsters from across the country, made a passionate plea to the theatre company to abandon its association with BP. “We are the audiences of the future and we will not support theatre that accepts sponsorship from a company that is continuing to extract fossil fuels while our earth burns,” wrote Mann, who is spending her gap year working on the social media strategy of environmental organisations.“We wish that the RSC would act on the ideas that they present in Matilda [a recent production at the theatre] and not give in to the powerful oppressor. As said by Matilda herself: ‘If it’s not right, you’ve got to put it right!’” Ending with the ultimatum of a boycott she signed it off simply with “Kind regards, The youth.” BP had been subsidising the theatre company’s £5 ticket scheme for 16- to 25-year-olds. In a statement, the company said it was “disappointed and dismayed” its partnership had been brought to a “premature” end. “Over the past eight years our sponsorship has enabled 80,000 young people to see RSC performances at reduced rates,” it continued. The company said it shared “many of the concerns that apparently contributed to the decision” and was committed to making energy “cleaner and better”. “The increasing polarisation of debate, and attempts to exclude companies committed to making real progress, is exactly what is not needed,” it continued. In June the Guardian revealed that Mark Rylance, who had been an associate artist with the RSC for 30 years, was resigning from his position, arguing that BP’s sponsorship deal allowed the company to “obscure the destructive reality of its activities”, which he said threatened the future of the planet. Mann said she had been overwhelmed by the support and welcomed the RSC’s decision, but added there was a long road ahead. “It was amazing and people responded a lot quicker than I expected. This has been a massive win and I am really impressed with the RSC for taking a stand, but the fight is not over and we will continue to try and push BP out of other organisations,” she added. On Friday the National Theatre announced that it would end Shell’s corporate membership at the end of next year, as the arts organisation accelerated plans to make itself carbon neutral in the face of a climate emergency. The move will increase pressure on other cultural institutions, such as the Royal Opera House, British Museum and National Portrait Gallery, all of which have come under pressure over tie-ins with fossil fuel firms. Mann said: “People needed to know about BP’s sponsorships of arts institutions – they [BP] pretend that they are doing something positive – but the reality of their impact on the world is devastating.” | ['culture/corporate-sponsorship', 'stage/rsc', 'stage/stage', 'environment/fossil-fuel-divestment', 'stage/theatre', 'world/activism', 'uk/uk', 'culture/culture', 'business/bp', 'environment/environment', 'business/energy-industry', 'business/oilandgascompanies', 'world/world', 'business/oil', 'business/business', 'culture/arts-funding', 'world/protest', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/nazia-parveen', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/focus', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main'] | environment/fossil-fuel-divestment | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2019-10-05T12:05:43Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2023/may/18/scientists-say-they-have-been-locked-out-of-the-room-at-unep-talks-on-plastic-waste | Developing country voices will be excluded at UN plastic talks, say NGOs | Scientists and NGOs have accused the UN’s environment programme (Unep) of locking out those “most needing to be heard” from upcoming negotiations in Paris aimed at halting plastic waste. Last-minute restrictions to the numbers of NGOs attending what the head of Unep described as the “most important multilateral environmental deal” in a decade will exclude people from communities in developing countries harmed by dumping and burning of plastic waste as well as marginalised waste pickers, who are crucial to recycling, from fully participating, they said. The groups criticised the agency for publishing a report this week, before negotiations between 193 countries over 29 May to 2 June, which they claimed did not fully reflect the health and environmental effects of plastic pollution. The report said mismanaged plastic waste could be slashed by 80% by 2040. Scientists’s Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty (Scept), representing 200 scientists who were invited to comment before the report’s publication, said their concerns and criticisms were ignored. Unep said it regretted that “due to a technical issue” an email containing Scept comments was not received in time for publication. However, it said it received feedback from 75 experts from 39 organisations that were incorporated. It denied claims its report did not sufficiently reflect the health and environmental impacts of plastic. Rich Gower, a senior economist for Tearfund, an international NGO that provides advocacy and support to waste pickers, said: “This last-minute restriction locks out those who most need to be heard. It’s vital that negotiators hear from those with firsthand experience of plastic pollution: waste pickers, communities harmed by dumping and burning, and those living near toxic production plants. “Without these groups’ voices the treaty will fail to be the life-changing instrument we desperately need it to be.” The Tearfund partner and campaigner Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa, from Malawi, who will now share a pass with four colleagues after NGOs were told only one in five people would have access to negotiations, said: “World leaders must hear real stories from people in countries where the plastics treaty could have a life-changing impact. In Malawi we don’t have organised public waste collection and many people are forced to either dump or burn their waste. It’s extremely disappointing that my colleagues and I will now have much less access to these talks.” Therese Karlsson, a science adviser at International Pollutants Elimination Network and member of Scept, said: “We were asked to review the report. Thirty scientists provided over 300 comments. We have several major concerns, one around the framing of the report, which is very focused on technological solutions in a very optimistic way, even although those technical solutions are not proven.” “This creates a narrative that makes is easy to think we can fix our way out of this. But we need to talk about chemicals from plastics and decrease the use of plastics.” One concern, she said, was the inclusion of chemical recycling, which was “not recognised as environmentally sound management” under the Basel convention, as a possible interim solution. Bethanie Carney Almroth, a professor of toxicology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and a member of Scept, said: “For a group that have called on scientists, they have locked us out of the room and they have not registered our criticisms.”. Andrés Del Castillo, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, said: “The headline figure of the Unep report predicts an 80% reduction of plastics pollution with the proposed ‘new plastics economy’. This number does not represent a reduction, but rather a narrowing of the scope and definition of what is considered plastic pollution from a full life cycle perspective.” The “reduction”, which refers to a decrease in plastic waste into the environment, did not count other elements of plastic pollution, such as upstream greenhouse gas emissions and toxic emissions, he said. NGOs have expressed concern over the report’s inclusion of burning plastic waste in cement kilns as one of several strategies to address the plastics crisis. Dr Neil Tangri, the science and policy director at Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, said: “Burning plastic waste in cement kilns is a ‘get out of jail free card’ for the plastic industry to keep ramping up plastic production by claiming that the plastic problem can be simply burned away.” A spokesperson for Unep said NGOs were informed at registration that the venue, which has a capacity of 1,500, had space constraints. However, 640 or 40% of attendees were from NGOs, it said. It denied claims its report insufficiently considered the health and environmental impacts of plastic pollution. It said: “A large part of the economic costs associated with plastics pollution, assessed at the outset of the report, are due to human health impacts … well over one-third of the estimated $300bn a year costs stemming from plastic pollution are related to exposure to hazardous chemicals. “The report builds on this evidence to call for the need to completely transform the plastics economy. On waste management the report proposes changes that affect the whole life cycle, from raw materials extraction and processing, with a significant focus on design needs (design of both products and systems), use and reuse, and indeed highlighting the importance of strengthening waste collection and management.” Unep denied the report presented chemical recycling and cement kilns burning plastic as fuel as part of the solution to plastics problem, saying they were simply “options when safe disposal facilities are to be used as a last resort to avoid plastic leaking into the environment and stresses the needs for emissions (and/or effluent) control and standards to assure safety. “The potential lock-in effect of purpose-built facilities such as incinerators and plastic-to-fuel plants is highlighted as something to be avoided,” it said. | ['environment/plastic', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'world/paris', 'science/science', 'world/africa', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/plastic | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2023-05-18T17:19:20Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2014/mar/17/arctic-30-activists-damages-russia-court-greenpeace | Arctic 30 protesters seek damages from Russia | Lawyers for the Arctic 30, a group of Greenpeace activists and freelance journalists who were detained in Russia last year, have applied to the European court of human rights for damages from Moscow. They are also seeking a declaration Russian authorities broke international and Russian law when they seized a Greenpeace ship and arrested the group protesting against oil drilling in the Arctic. Lawyer Sergey Golubok said: "We think the Arctic 30 were apprehended and detained in flagrant violation of applicable international and Russian laws." "The reaction of the Russian authorities was completely disproportionate to the peaceful protest that took place. These activists tried to shine a light on the risks of Arctic oil drilling, and yet they were met with a response that bore no relation to their actions," he added. Six Britons – Philip Ball, Alexandra Harris, Frank Hewetson, Anthony Perrett, Iain Rogers and freelance videographer Keiron Bryan – were among the group, who were finally allowed to leave the country at the end of December. Harris said at the time she thought the Russian government wanted to avoid criticism in the runup to the Winter Olympics in Sochi. According to the complaint, Russia breached the group's right to freedom of expression by taking "grossly excessive" measures against a peaceful protest, and by boarding the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise before detaining the crew first at sea and then in Russian jails for over two months. They were later granted amnesty. Lawyers for Greenpeace argue that all 30 men and women were unlawfully deprived of their liberty for more than two months – from 18 – 19 September until they were released on bail between 20 – 28 November. They are seeking compensation for the damages for being unlawfully detained and costs and expenses associated with defending their cases in Russia and bringing their case to the European court. The Arctic 30 were originally held for protesting at on offshore oil rig owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom. and initially charged with piracy. Their ship – the Arctic Sunrise was towed to the Russian port of Murmansk where it is still held. Last week, a court in Saint Petersburg denied a formal petition from Greenpeace to gain access to the ship to determine whether it had been properly maintained during its seizure and the subsequent investigation. | ['environment/arctic-30-protesters', 'world/russia', 'world/world', 'world/protest', 'environment/activism', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesmeikle'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2014-03-17T11:49:56Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
environment/2020/feb/13/hot-on-the-trail-of-cold-fusion-as-a-solution-to-the-climate-crisis | Hot on the trail of cold fusion as a solution to the climate crisis | Letter | Tim Flannery (The age of the megafire is here, and it’s a call to action, Journal, 7 February) writes: “As far as swift climate action is concerned, all good choices have gone up in smoke”. That may not be the case, however. There has been abundant support by now for the claim made by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in 1989 to have observed nuclear fusion at ordinary temperatures, but the hope that such a fossil-fuel-free process might contribute usefully to energy production has not been fulfilled because it is very unpredictable, and we do not as yet know the conditions needed to produce large amounts of energy. Suitably funded research on a large scale might lead to a resolution of this issue. Prof Brian Josephson Emeritus professor of physics, University of Cambridge • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters • Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers? Click here to upload it and we’ll publish the best submissions in the letters spread of our print edition | ['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2020-02-13T18:36:23Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2012/jan/05/country-diary-machynlleth | Country diary: Machynlleth | The flood plain of the river Dyfi, where it edges past the town of Machynlleth, certainly lives up to the name. The hedges that cross the flat grazing land bear witness to the regular winter flooding in the debris they accumulate when the river invades the valley floor. Locked between ranks of sharply sloping hills, the amount of water that this valley can drain from the hill country of mid and north Wales is impressive – although more robust terms are often used to describe it when both road bridge and rail are blocked by flooding, as alternative routes are both long and tortuous. On a bleak winter afternoon, with low, grey cloud driven by the strong wind from the west, the bridge looked its age. Wedged against the north side of the flood plain, Pont ar Ddyfi is the lowest bridging point on the river for road traffic, and there has been a bridge at or near this strategic site since at least the 1500s. It is thought to have been the site of a battle – some sources reduce it to the rank of a skirmish – between Cromwell's army, under Sir Thomas Myddelton of Chirk, and the royalists during the civil war. The current form of the narrow, five-arch stone bridge has been in place since the early 1800s, and the battles now are fought between competing lines of heavy vehicles – to the visible detriment of the historic structure, which has been repeatedly patched following collisions and is now braced with utilitarian steel supports. The water was dark and forbidding, moving rapidly past the piers of the bridge and forming boils and eddies around obstructions. Walking upstream, past patches of gorse in vibrant flower, I found a small group of trees whose roots appear to provide some stability to the alluvial soil of the river bank. Communities of lichen on the bark showed a pleasing diversity, a quick count revealing at least half a dozen species on a single trunk – but the light was rapidly fading and cold, rain-laden squalls began to sweep up the valley. It was time to seek shelter. | ['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/environment', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'uk/uk', 'tone/features', 'uk/wales', 'travel/wales', 'travel/travel', 'environment/flooding', 'type/article', 'profile/john-gilbey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply'] | environment/flooding | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2012-01-05T21:00:01Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
politics/2020/jan/17/sadiq-khan-vows-to-make-london-carbon-neutral-by-2030-if-re-elected-mayor | Sadiq Khan vows to make London carbon-neutral by 2030 if re-elected | Sadiq Khan will promise to put London on a par with Scandinavian capitals by making it a carbon-neutral city by 2030 if he is re-elected as mayor of the capital later this year. The Labour politician’s pledge to tackle air pollution forms part of his first major pitch to voters in the upcoming mayoral race, in which he will go up against Conservative, Lib Dem, Green and independent rivals. Khan’s strategy to go carbon-neutral forms part of his vision for a “green new deal” for London, which he would roll out during a second term. This will involve a 10-point plan that will be outlined in his manifesto before the mayoral election on 7 May. In a speech to the Fabian Society new year conference in central London on Saturday, he is expected to say the 2030 target is essential to prevent the poorest communities being affected by poor air and the thousands of premature deaths in the capital each year. “My pledge to deliver a green new deal for the city with a target for London to be carbon-neutral by 2030 will help tackle the climate emergency and the air pollution crisis. “Some may say that a 2030 target isn’t achievable but I say we can’t afford not to try. This is a matter of social justice because it’s the poorest communities that are being hit hardest,” said Khan, who became the first Muslim mayor of any western capital city when he was elected in 2016. The majority of the biggest political parties in the UK have set ambitions for the country to reach net-zero emissions by particular dates that range from the 2030s through to the 2050s. Despite Labour activists passing a commitment at their autumn party conference to work towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, the party ended up softening its pledge for last month’s election after pressure from trade unions and the impact it would have on industrial jobs. Instead they offered to find a “path” to the date of 2030. The Conservatives have a policy of hitting net-zero by 2050 and the Liberal Democrats pledged a date of 2045. The Green party has pledged to go carbon-neutral by 2030. Across Europe, three Nordic cities – Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm – have made firm commitments to be carbon-neutral or fossil fuel-free between 2025 and 2030. Bristol has a net-zero target of 2030, as does Edinburgh, but with a backstop date of 2037. Khan has said green commitments will be a dividing line between his campaign and his nearest rival, Conservative Shaun Bailey, who is behind him in the polls. A survey by Queen Mary University of London’s Mile End Institute found Khan was the first preference candidate of 43% of Londoners. Bailey is on 23%. “The election on 7 May is a two-horse race between me and the Tory candidate,” Khan told the Guardian. To achieve a carbon-neutral status for London, he said City Hall would lead the way in implementing tougher environmental standards, moving away from fossil fuels and reducing waste. Public transport will become greener, he said, and he will commit to trying to get billions of pounds worth of government investment. One example to help reduce emissions is retro-fitting houses to make them more energy-efficient. | ['politics/sadiq-khan', 'politics/politics', 'uk/london', 'uk/uk', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'politics/labour', 'politics/conservatives', 'politics/liberaldemocrats', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'uk-news/london-mayoral-election-2021', 'profile/kate-proctor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/carbon-emissions | EMISSIONS | 2020-01-17T20:00:07Z | true | EMISSIONS |
science/2004/sep/09/thisweekssciencequestions3 | How did Hurricane Frances get her name? | US scientists responsible for tracking local hurricanes consulted a master list of names decided upon by the World Meteorological Organisation as Frances hit Florida. There are lists for different parts of the world. "In the Atlantic, they have six separate lists which all go alphabetically, alternate male and female names," says Julian Hemming, tropical predictions scientist at the Met Office. "At the beginning of each year, they start with the A storm and just work their way down." Every six years, the lists are recycled, except for the one or two names that are retired every year. "If there is a very noteworthy hurricane, then they'll retire that name and replace it with another one," says Hemming. "My guess is that Charlie, possibly Frances, may be retired at the end of this season because of their impact." A separate list for the north-east Pacific works on a similar basis to the Atlantic. Things are different for the north-western Pacific. "It's made up of names which are, firstly, not an alphabetical list, and they're not proper names. They could be objects or even adjectives," says Hemming. In the south-western Indian area, there is a similar scheme to the Atlantic, which starts at A every year. But the names are not recycled: new ones are chosen every year. Around Australasia, there are three regions of ocean with separate lists of names for each. At the beginning of a new season, the naming carries on where the last season left off. "If storms do cross between regions there are varying practices on what happens," says Hemming. The storm might even be renamed, particularly if it passes from the western side of Australia to the south-western Indian Ocean. | ['science/science', 'science/series/behindthenews', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'profile/alokjha'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2004-09-09T11:21:35Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
technology/blog/audio/2008/nov/11/tech-weekly-podcast | Tech Weekly podcast: Sarah Lacy and Stefan Oberg | Paul Carr sits in for Aleks Krotoski in this week's Tech Weekly - and he brings you... Sarah Lacy - notorious for her interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at last year's South by Southwest festival - comes in to chat about her new book: "The Stories of Facebook, Youtube and Myspace: The People, the Hype and the Deals Behind the Giants of Web 2.0" As she's also a Business Week columnist from Silicon Valley, presenter of Yahoo's tech ticker show, and something of a tech celebrity, we couldn't help but also ask her opinion of the Yahoo/Microsoft saga too. We also hear from Stefan Oberg, the Skype Vice President. He tells us how the business is maturing - thought the company isn't running out of people to sign up to it's services. He discusses a recent breach of privacy at a Chinese partner, and Skype's mobile ambitions. Also in the studio is Charles Arthur and Bobbie Johnson is on the line from San Francisco. There's this week's news and highlights from the blog too. Don't forget you can: • Comment below... • Call our Skype voicemail • Mail us at tech@guardian.co.uk • Get our Twitter feed for programme updates • Join our Facebook group • See our pics on Flickr/Post your tech pics | ['technology/series/techweekly', 'technology/blog', 'media/pda', 'technology/web20', 'technology/internet', 'technology/startups', 'money/internetphonesbroadband', 'technology/telecoms', 'tone/blog', 'tone/interview', 'technology/yahoo', 'technology/yahoo-takeover', 'type/podcast', 'type/audio'] | technology/yahoo-takeover | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2008-11-11T18:58:22Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
business/2017/jan/21/batteries-included-yorkshire-village-seeks-to-solve-riddle-of-too-much-sun | Batteries included: Yorkshire village seeks to solve riddle of too much sun | The bungalows of Oxspring may look an unlikely testing ground for a new technology billed as a way to help renewable power, stymie energy price rises and aid the local power grid. But later this month, dozens of homes in this South Yorkshire village will have a home battery installed as part of a £250,000 trial to see if they can make solar power more valuable to homeowners and less painful for grid managers. Smaller than the high-profile Powerwalls introduced to the UK by Elon Musk’s Tesla last year, the British-engineered batteries will be fitted for free in 30 homes with solar panels on their roofs and 10 without. The project is a response to what until recently would have seemed an improbable challenge for the UK: too much solar power. There are now 875,000 homes with solar photovoltaic panels, and that is beginning to pose issues for network operators. In Oxspring, a community energy company found it could only install solar panels at two in three homes because of constraints on the amount of power that can be pushed into the grid. Energy storage company Moixa and the local network operator, Northern Powergrid, hope their pilot will “timeshift” solar for use at peak times and show storage can reduce network bottlenecks and cut out the need for costly upgrades, which would be passed on to energy bill-payers. “In northern Europe, solar produces the most energy when you don’t need it [at midday]. The amount of solar in the UK is meaningful now, and that’s translating to challenges [to grids] and costs to customers,” said Simon Daniel, chief executive of Moixa, who sees better storage as the solution. The company has around 600 batteries in homes across the UK, which it aggregates to act like one big battery, effectively a virtual power station. The Oxspring householders will either benefit from using more of their solar power – the electricity is more valuable if consumed in the house rather than exported to the grid – while the non-solar homes will get a cheque of £50-£75 each year from Moixa for aiding the local network. The trial near Barnsley is just one sign of a growing energy storage market in Britain. Companies such as Tesla and London-based Powervault do not publish sales numbers, but Germany’s Sonnen says it has sold hundreds of storage systems in the UK. The total installed is thought to be in the four figures. Most players have so far targeted householders hoping to increase the financial gain from their solar panels. But the introduction of time-of-day energy tariffs, enabled by smart meters, mean householders could potentially store electricity when it’s cheap, for use later when it’s pricier. Combined with the advent of rebates for “grid services” to connected batteries such as the Oxspring ones, they could dramatically widen home batteries’ appeal. Industry group the Electricity Storage Network describes 2017 as a “watershed” year for the technology. Sonnen said it was receiving a surge of customer enquiries, and predicted the UK market would take off this year. Powervault, which says it wants to make home batteries as commonplace as dishwashers and washing machines, started a £625,000 trial in south-east England last month. The project with UK Power Networks involves batteries in 60 homes. “The purpose is to enable us to harness more of the solar energy that’s generated during the day, when demand for energy is low, and release it onto the network at the morning and evening peaks,” said a spokesman for UK Power Networks, the UK’s biggest network operator. “National Grid spends about £1bn a year balancing demand and supply of energy. Currently they pay that money largely to big power stations but in the future we’ll move to a scenario where it also goes to a collective of batteries,” said Joe Warren, MD of Powervault, which began selling home batteries in 2014. He said Tesla’s arrival last year raised consumer awareness and argued that the market is big enough to sustain several companies: “There’s definitely room for a British energy storage player.” However, its US rival is upping the ante with a new, higher capacity version of its battery, which is in such demand that anyone buying one today can only get it in March at the earliest. Tesla, which earlier this month switched on the first sections of its battery-making Gigafactory in Nevada, begins installing the first of the new generation of Powerwall 2s in UK homes in February. | ['business/energy-industry', 'environment/energy-storage', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'technology/tesla', 'technology/technology', 'business/business', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2017-01-21T08:00:30Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2020/feb/03/saving-the-planet-uk-role-vital-if-cop-26-climate-talks-to-succeed | Saving the planet: UK role vital if COP 26 climate talks to succeed | Boris Johnson’s first steps on the international stage after Brexit will be to hail Britain’s role in forging a new global consensus on the climate crisis – although he has not yet said who will lead that charge. The UK will host the crunch UN climate talks, COP 26, this November in Glasgow, in what experts say is the last chance for international cooperation on the crisis. The prime minister, in launching the UK’s strategy for the talks on Tuesday, stops short of promising to “get climate done”, but in making his own involvement clear he will at least reassure climate activists and governments concerned at a hitherto confused and chaotic start to the UK’s presidency. Late on Friday, the Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings intervened to sack the former minister who had been slated to lead the talks, Claire O’Neill. She was accused of numerous failures in her dealings with officials, her own and those from other countries, and deemed not to have enough clout or persuasion to bring reluctant countries into the fold. No replacement has yet been announced, with rumours swirling of a Whitehall power struggle. The COP 26 unit is within the Cabinet Office, but needs strong relationships with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. But the confusion over how the talks will be led and managed has left bystanders, including the UN, the EU and other major countries, bemused. Johnson’s re-assumption of control was essential, according to Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, and a veteran of the UN talks. “Time is running out fast, but if the prime minister takes an interest and puts his weight behind the required diplomacy, then the UK can still salvage COP 26,” he said. The task ahead is huge. The Paris accord of 2015 marked the first time that rich and poor nations came together resolving to hold global heating to no more than 2C, and preferably 1.5C, which scientists say is the limit of safety. But the Paris pledges to curb carbon emissions are inadequate. This year, governments must scale up their ambition or face climate breakdown within the decade. That effort will reach its climax in Glasgow, but the real work needs to be done now. “It really is a grind,” said Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and ex-UN commissioner for human rights, who has served twice as a UN climate envoy. “I’ve been at those ministerial meetings. You could not believe how boring some of them were. But you need to squeeze the governments, between the bottom-up – pressure from civil society – and the top-down [pressure from businesses and political leaders].” According to Tom Burke, founder of the environmental group E3G, who attended the first ever UN climate COP, the next few months are crucial. “It’s not what you’re going to do in September, October; that’s too late. It’s what you’re doing in March and April that will make the difference.” The government’s strategy encompasses all the diplomatic and economic expertise the UK can bring to bear, from ambassadorial schmoozing in capitals from Dhaka to DC, to boardroom influence in major banks. The Prince of Wales and Prince William will also weigh in, with Charles gathering business leaders almost monthly to press them to make changes. While the UK has an enviable global network of diplomats and “soft power”, it also faces a unique difficulty. Brexit means that even while British representatives are pushing the climate agenda, separate trade negotiators are talking to the same foreign governments – in some cases even the same people in those governments – about trade deals. Several experts said they feared it would be difficult to combine the two. “Call me sceptical that Boris Johnson’s government will confront Trump’s climate nihilism ahead of Glasgow while simultaneously having to beg him for a post-Brexit trade deal,” said Paul Bledsoe, a climate adviser in Bill Clinton’s White House and close observer of COPs. “Boris’s Brexit will have international climate costs, starting with lack of pressure on the US, whose lack of leadership under Trump has allowed an ultra-dangerous global climate backslide.” The US will be tied up with its presidential election this year, and it may yet be possible to forge a deal that the US at least does not object to, even if active participation is unlikely. With regard to the other key country, China, Britain may have to rely on the negotiating might of the EU, which is arranging two major EU-China summits, in March and September, where the climate crisis will have top billing. As the last two decades of UN climate talks have shown, progress can sometimes be made even when big countries are reluctant to play ball. One of the greatest strengths of the UN process is that every country, from poorest to richest, has an equal say, and even the mightiest, from the US and China to the EU and India, have on occasion had to bow to the massed ranks of the poor and vulnerable. Building the broadest possible coalition is key, according to Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, the leading global adviser on energy. “What the world needs is a grand coalition. That means governments from around the world, but also industry and civil society. In the absence of that, it is too difficult to change direction and avoid [disaster],” he said. “COP 26 should be the focus of getting that coalition.” He believes the UK conference will be vital if the pledges made at Paris are to be fulfilled and the world is to avoid climate breakdown. “I live in Paris, I love Paris,” Birol said. “But I’m hoping to love Glasgow even more.” | ['environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'uk/uk', 'world/world', 'world/unitednations', 'politics/politics', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/global-climate-talks | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2020-02-03T19:22:51Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
commentisfree/cif-green/2010/jun/10/obama-lessons-bhopal-bp | Obama hasn't learned lessons of Bhopal | Randeep Ramesh | While Barack Obama is lambasting BP for spreading muck in the Gulf of Mexico, he should perhaps pencil in a date with the people of Bhopal when he visits India later this year. While 11 men lost their lives on BP's watch and the shrimps get coated with black stuff, the chemicals that killed thousands of people in Bhopal in 1984 are still leaching into the ground water a quarter of a century after a poisonous, milky-white cloud settled over the city. The compensation – some $470m – paid out by Union Carbide, the US owner of the plant and now part of Dow Chemical, was just the cash it received from its insurers to compensate the victims, a process that took 17 years. But it's one rule for them and another for anybody else. Obama wants "British Petroleum" to pay back every nickel and dime the Deepwater Horizon disaster costs. To make sure BP gets the message, the president says he back Congress plans to retrospectively raise the liability limit for claims from $75m to $10bn. That's real money. While foreign companies in the US are shown the big stick, Washington offers a big shield for its multinationals abroad. In the case of Bhopal, it was the US that blocked India's requests to extradite Warren Anderson, the former chairman of Union Carbide who accepted "moral responsibility" for the accident until a short spell in an Indian jail changed his mind. This week saw just the prosecution of local Indian managers – 26 years after the event. That was then. Surely India, which says it is an emerging power that wants to shape the world, would be able to stand up to the United States today? And wouldn't a more moral president see that foreign lives are as precious as American ones? Apparently not. India's still playing a craven toady to a US that is ruthlessly pursuing an agenda where commercial interests are put above the lives of others. Delhi has stripped a flagship nuclear bill of a clause that allowed companies to be sued for negligence in the event of a – God forbid – accident. It is bizarre to see a leader of the developing world offer up its citizens' lives cheaply to secure investment from foreign companies and governments. Under the civil liabilities for nuclear damage bill, central to a deal with the controversial nuclear pact with the US, costs for cleaning up a catastrophic failure would end up being paid by the Indian taxpayer. Sure, India is desperate for the nuclear deal – which will see it become the only nonpermanent member of the UN security council to keep its atomic weapons and trade in nuclear know-how. But at what price? Today we know. Washington made it clear it wanted India to set the bar low on liability – so that shareholders of large US corporations would not be forced to pay out for sloppy, deadly mistakes. So any future victims in India would be left at the mercy of the country's justice system, like those poor souls who lost lives, loved ones and their health and were condemned to spending years lost in the courts with little to show but false hope. Delhi had argued that international suppliers would not be willing to enter the Indian nuclear market without such a bill. But has Russia been willing to do so. And Germany accepts no cap on nuclear liability. In the US the nuclear lobby accepts a liability set at $10bn. In Bhopal, what happened in the years after was a bigger scandal than the original accident. Although Delhi was cackhanded, the US bears most of the blame. Unlike BP, Washington did not threaten US companies for deaths in the past and is actively working to ensure they evade responsibility in the future. Obama's administration has not learned the lessons of history. It means we are doomed to repeat its mistakes. | ['commentisfree/cif-green', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'business/bp', 'environment/bhopal', 'world/india', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'environment/bp-oil-spill', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/randeepramesh'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2010-06-10T11:33:00Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2007/mar/04/hurricanekatrina.usa | Relatives demand justice as police go on trial over Katrina killings | Ronald Madison stayed on in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina - he could not bear to leave behind the family dogs, a beloved pair of dachshunds called Bobbi and Sushi. It cost him his life. Madison, 40, who had the mental age of a child, was shot by police one morrning on Danziger Bridge. James Brisette, 19, was also killed, and four others, including two women, seriously injured. All were black. None had committed a crime. Now seven police officers are set to stand trial for the murders in a grim tale of race, trigger-happy police and an apparent cover-up. 'This is a racial tragedy,' said the Rev Raymond Brown, a black community leader and local head of a civil rights group, the National Action Network. The city is split over the trial. When the policemen were charged at New Orleans's jail, a crowd of 200 gathered to cheer: 'Heroes! Heroes!' One placard declared: 'Thanks for protecting our city.' Now, they said, is no time to be prosecuting the police. But Romell Madison wants to see his brother's killers treated like any other accused citizens. 'I want justice to prevail. True justice for what happened to my brother,' he said. The events of 4 September, 2005, on Danziger Bridge are clear enough. It was five days after the storm and the city was in chaos. Just after 9am, a group of refugees was seeking to cross the bridge, including Ronald Madison, who wanted to get to his brother's dental office. Another family was near by, headed for an abandoned supermarket to pick up food and water. Suddenly an unmarked van pulled up. Seven gunmen - not in uniform - jumped out and opened fire. One witness, Kasimir Gaston, has described the men as lining up 'like at a firing range'. When the gunfire stopped, Madison and Brisette were dead. Susan Bartholemew had her arm shot off. Her teenage daughter Lesha was shot four times. Her husband, Leonard, was shot in the back, head and foot. Yet the shooting was initially reported as the heroic efforts of policemen defending themselves. The men said they were responding to a distress call of 'officer down' from the bridge. When they arrived they said they came under fire and shot back. They claimed Madison had a gun tucked into his belt and moved as if he was about to draw it. An initial police investigation cleared the 'Danziger Seven'. But that version of events has fallen to pieces and civil rights groups want the police department to be investigated for a possible cover-up. Madison was shot five times in the back as he ran away - no casings linked to any guns but the officers' were found. There were no injured officers. Many of the witnesses cited in the initial police report cannot be traced. No survivors heard the police shout a warning; they assumed they were being attacked by looters. If police claims of coming under fire were true, their truck would have had bullet holes in it. The police say the vehicle is missing. Many people believe the Danziger Bridge shootings were typical of a police force with a long reputation for brutality, especially against blacks. It has raised suspicions about a police shoot-to-kill policy after the storm. Even the District Attorney, Eddie Jordan, did not mince his words: 'We cannot allow our police officers to shoot and kill our citizens without justification, like rabid dogs.' There have also been doubts expressed about the judge assigned to the trial, Raymond Bigelow. Several of Bigelow's legal clerks have family links to the Seven's legal team and he is under investigation for remarks he allegedly made about 'crazy black judges'. There is anger, too, that some of the accused are back at work. 'It is unprecedented to be charged with first-degree murder and allowed out on bail and to be able to go back to work at the police department,' said Mary Howell, a civil rights lawyer working with the victims. Yet the situation is far from clear-cut. In 2006 New Orleans had America's highest murder rate. There were 162 killings and one conviction. At times it feels like a city under siege. And not all the Danziger Seven are white; four are black or Hispanic. That has raised suspicions that politicians are inflaming the race issue; a high-profile case like this gives career-boosting opportunities. 'It has all become political,' said Sergeant Donovan Livaccori, the police union spokesman. 'The Seven just want to get the process going and get their names cleared.' Neither does Romell Madison believe the cops were racist. 'There is a small group of rogue cops that exist and they thought they were above the law. They thought they could do whatever they wanted,' he said. For Howell, race is important. 'If it had been a white, middle-class family walking across that bridge, those officers would not have been so quick to jump out and shoot them,' she said. | ['world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'profile/paulharris', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/worldnews'] | us-news/hurricane-katrina | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2007-03-04T02:23:03Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
media/2014/dec/01/gadget-obsessed-uk-top-digital-advertising-spend | UK set to be first country in which more than half of ad spend goes digital | The UK is predicted to become the first country in the world where more than half of all advertising spend goes to digital media – thanks to a national obsession with gadgets, social media and online shopping. Group M, the worldwide media buying arm of the market services company WPP, has forecast that the total UK ad market will hit £15.7bn in 2015. Within this online spend is forecast to grow 12.7% year-on-year to break the £8bn mark, making the UK the first in which more than £1 in every £2 of ad spend will go on digital media. The next closest countries likely to reach the milestone are Sweden (47% of total ad spend will be digital), Denmark (43%), Australia (42%) and Norway (40%). Next year more money will be spent on internet advertising than in traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, TV, cinema, radio, and billboards, posters and buses combined. Adam Smith, futures director at Group M, said that Britons are gadget-obsessed and advertisers follow such media usage. “The British are the most enthusiastic online shoppers in the world in terms of spend per head,” he said. “And there has always been a high level of credit and debit card use [online]. On top of that Britons have rapidly embraced smartphone and tablet use, all of which has fuelled where advertisers spend their money.” According to Group M paid search advertising will grow to £4.2bn, with about 29% of that on mobile devices, most of which is hoovered up by Google, which has more than 90% share of the UK market. The fastest-growing part of the internet market is display advertising, which is forecast to surge 20% next year to £2.7bn, with 39% of that mobile display advertising. Facebook is a huge beneficiary of display ad spend, with eMarketer forecasting that the UK operation will make more than £720m next year. “Display has been the main source of UK digital ad growth since 2013, and we [see] this lead growing wider in 2015,” said Group M’s Smith. “The longer-term question is whether online will wrest [display] investment from network TV with the ease it did from print. This is a fairer fight.” Group M is forecasting that more than £160m in print advertising will be lost from the UK newspaper market next year. National newspaper advertising is predicted to decline 8.3% to £908m next year, and £80m year-on-year fall. Regional newspapers are expected to see a 9.1% fall in print ad revenues to £820m, a fall of £82m year-on-year. Smith said that the best-case scenario is that newspaper brands are able to make up about 20% of the lost print advertising money from growing digital revenues. “We estimate that 10% of newsbrand revenue is digital in 2014,” said Smith. “Advertiser demand for online display is rising strongly. Video, social and mobile are the main drivers. Newsbrands must therefore align with these as best they can.” | ['media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'media/digital-radio', 'media/radio', 'technology/digital-britain', 'technology/technology', 'media/television', 'media/advertising', 'money/online-shopping', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/money', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/efinance', 'technology/internet', 'technology/smartphones', 'money/mobile-phones', 'technology/tablet-computer', 'technology/computing', 'media/marketingandpr', 'tone/news', 'type/article', 'profile/marksweney', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2014-12-01T00:01:07Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
us-news/2022/sep/30/ron-desantis-hurricane-ian-florida-sandy | Ron DeSantis changes with the wind as Hurricane Ian prompts flip-flop on aid | As Hurricane Ian has devastated parts of Florida, the national political spotlight in America has shone brighter than ever on Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, rising star of the hard right and probable presidential contender in 2024. Since his election in 2018, DeSantis has made his name as a ruthless culture-warrior, an ally of Donald Trump but also perhaps his most serious rival. DeSantis has embraced an extremist agenda on everything from immigration to election integrity, positioning himself as Trumpist on policy but more mainstream on personality and temperament. He has championed “don’t say gay” legislation in Florida schools and this month used taxpayers’ money to send two planeloads of migrants from the southern border in Texas to Massachusetts, a Democratic-run state. That move prompted anger, investigation and legal action. The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said DeSantis was “hurting people in order to get attention”. But such opprobrium did not deter a governor playing to a Trumpist base. For his next move, DeSantis suggested, he would send another planeload of unsuspecting asylum seekers to Delaware, where Joe Biden has a weekend home. But then Hurricane Ian hit. And like ambitious Republicans before him – most famously Chris Christie of New Jersey, whose photo ops with Barack Obama after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 were reckoned to have hurt him in the 2016 primary – DeSantis realised he needed to talk to the president. On Wednesday, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson asked: “Given how politicised things are at the moment, are you confident you’re gonna get the federal support Florida needs?” DeSantis said: “So I actually spoke with the president and he said he wants to be helpful. So we did submit a request for reimbursement for the next 60 days at 100%. That’s significant support, but it’s a significant storm. “We live in a very politicised time, but you know, when people are fighting for their lives, when their whole livelihood is at stake, when they’ve lost everything, if you can’t put politics aside for that, that you’re just not going to be able to do so. “So I’ll work with anybody who wants to help the people of south-west Florida and throughout our state.” Critics were quick to point back to Hurricane Sandy, which battered the east coast 10 years ago, and how DeSantis approached the matter of federal aid then. DeSantis was elected to Congress in November 2012, becoming a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, the far-right House group which would morph into the nest of Trump supporters and election deniers it constitutes today. Sandy hit in late October, unusually far north, bringing chaos to New Jersey and New York and leading to more than 100 US deaths. Months later, in January 2013, DeSantis was one of 67 Republicans to vote against a $9.7bn federal aid package for Sandy victims. He said then: “I sympathise with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and believe that those who purchased flood insurance should have their claims paid. At the same time, allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7bn with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible. “Congress should not authorise billions in new borrowing without offsetting expenditures in other areas. If a family maxes out its credit cards and faces the need for new spending, it is forced to prioritize by reducing its spending in other areas … this ‘put it on the credit card mentality’ is part of the reason we find ourselves nearly $17tn in debt.” Times change. Now DeSantis – who budgeted $12m, from federal Covid relief funds, for efforts to move migrants to Democratic states – is facing “one of the biggest flood events we’ve ever had” and needs federal help. “Dear Mr President,” his formal aid request began. “I request that you issue a Major Disaster Declaration for the State of Florida as a result of Hurricane Ian and authorise and make available all categories of individual assistance and public assistance.” Ironically, in light of his comparison of aid for Sandy victims to irresponsible home economics, DeSantis also said that as Ian would “hamper local activity … federal aid through the Individuals and Households Program will help alleviate these household budget shortfalls”. Reporters noticed. Responding to the New York Times, a spokesperson said DeSantis was “completely focused on hurricane response” and added: “As the governor said earlier, we have no time for politics or pettiness.” Late-night comedians, however, had plenty of time for pointing out DeSantis’s hypocrisy – and pettiness. Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show on CBS, perhaps put it most pithily: “If you can, get out of the storm’s path. Worst-case scenario, tell Ron DeSantis you’re Venezuelan, maybe he’ll fly you to Martha’s Vineyard.” | ['us-news/ron-desantis', 'us-news/hurricane-ian', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/florida', 'us-news/us-politics', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/martin-pengelly', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/hurricanes | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-09-30T16:01:00Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2022/may/10/devastating-90-of-reefs-surveyed-on-great-barrier-reef-affected-by-coral-bleaching-in-2022 | ‘Devastating’: 91% of reefs surveyed on Great Barrier Reef affected by coral bleaching in 2022 | Coral bleaching affected 91% of reefs surveyed along the Great Barrier Reef this year, according to a report by government scientists that confirms the natural landmark has suffered its sixth mass bleaching event on record. The Reef snapshot: summer 2021-22, quietly published by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on Tuesday night after weeks of delay, said above-average water temperatures in late summer had caused coral bleaching throughout the 2,300km reef system, but particularly in the central region between Cape Tribulation and the Whitsundays. “The surveys confirm a mass bleaching event, with coral bleaching observed at multiple reefs in all regions,” a statement accompanying the report said. “This is the fourth mass bleaching event since 2016 and the sixth to occur on the Great Barrier Reef since 1998.” It was the first mass bleaching event recorded during a cooler La Niña year. Scientists from the marine park authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science surveyed 719 shallow water reefs between the Torres Strait and the Capricorn Bunker Group at the southern end of the reef system, mostly using helicopters. They found 654 reefs showed some bleaching. A map published with the report shows the most severe and extreme bleaching occurred in the region that covers the areas most visited by tourists. The report said inshore and offshore reefs were badly affected. Scientists from the marine park authority were not available to comment on the report on Tuesday night. The authority’s chief scientist, Dr David Wachenfeld, told the Guardian in March that bleaching was not expected in a La Niña. “But having said that, the climate is changing and the planet and the reef is about 1.5 degrees centigrade warmer than it was 150 years ago,” he said. “Because of that, the weather is changing. Unexpected events are now to be expected. Nothing surprises me any more.” Lissa Schindler, a campaign manager with the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said the report was “devastating news for anyone who loves the reef” and “yet more evidence” cutting fossil fuel emissions should be top priority for the next Australian government. “This was a La Nina year, normally characterised by more cloud cover and rain,” she said. “It should have been a welcome reprieve for our reef to help it recover and yet the snapshot shows more than 90% of the reefs surveyed exhibited some bleaching. “Although bleaching is becoming more and more frequent, this is not normal and we should not accept that this is the way things are. We need to break the norms that are breaking our reef.” Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Schindler said while Labor had a commitment to make bigger emissions cuts by 2030 than the Coalition, neither party had targets in line with what would be needed globally to save the reef. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found limiting global heating to 1.5C rather than 2C would probably be the difference between the survival of some tropical reef corals and their complete decline. A report by Climate Analytics found the Coalition’s 2030 emissions reduction target was consistent with more than 3C of heating and Labor’s target about 2C. The director of research at the Climate Council, Dr Simon Bradshaw, said: “This is an issue that cannot be solved with big shiny funding announcements. The science is very clear: in order to save the world’s reefs from total destruction, we must dramatically reduce emissions in the 2020s.” Scientists started raising the alarm for this year’s bleaching event in December, when ocean temperatures over the reef hit a record high for that month. Bleaching occurs when the coral becomes stressed from above-average water temperatures. The coral animal expels the photosynthetic algae that lives inside it and provides the coral with food and its colour. Corals can survive bleaching events. Scientists plan to carry out in-water checks to see how many corals survived and regained their algae and colour between now and the end of the year. Studies have shown that heat stress can have several “sublethal” effects on corals, including making them more susceptible to disease, slowing their growth and limiting their ability to spawn. The results of the surveys are expected to inform a report by a United Nations mission that visited the reef in March to check on its health and management. Scientists from Unesco and the International Union for Conservation of Nature were briefed on the surveys during the 10-day monitoring trip. Their report is due before the next world heritage meeting, currently scheduled for June. Last year, scientific advisors at Unesco recommended the reef be placed on a list of world heritage sites “in danger” due to the impact of the climate crisis and slow progress on improving water quality. Sustained lobbying from the Morrison government led the 21-country committee to go against that advice. The release of the report and maps follows scientists and conservationists calling on the marine authority to make them public. SBS reported that Paul Hardisty, the chief executive of the Australian Marine Institute of Science, had told a meeting of his staff that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet advised releasing the survey results during the federal election campaign would have breached caretaker conventions. Conservationists have also called on the government to release the state of the environment report, a five-yearly national assessment that has been sitting with the environment minister, Sussan Ley, since December. | ['environment/great-barrier-reef', 'environment/series/environmental-investigations', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/great-barrier-reef | BIODIVERSITY | 2022-05-10T17:30:12Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2021/nov/10/the-guardian-view-on-cop26-draft-outcome-raise-the-bar | The Guardian view on the Cop26 draft outcome: raise the bar | Editorial | In the staid idiom of international summitry, to “note with serious concern” is a statement of distress. To “express alarm” is verging on panic. Thus the draft text of a Cop26 negotiating outcome signals that the conference is not on track to match its ambitions, and recognises that failure will have calamitous consequences. On the trajectory of existing commitments, carbon emissions are set to rise 13.7% by 2030. Dramatic movement in the opposite direction is needed if the goal is to limit global heating to 1.5C by the end of this century – the outcome counselled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). That requires a 45% emissions cut by 2030, and net zero by mid-century. Yet a projection by the Climate Action Tracker shows that the world is heading for a rise of 2.4C above preindustrial levels, despite high-profile carbon-cutting pledges made in Glasgow. Heating on that scale would unleash extreme weather, bringing devastation across the globe: rising sea levels, drought and displaced populations. The draft text underscores that the goal of the 2015 Paris agreement is to hold the increase “well below” 2C and pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5C. It also stresses the IPCC report and advice. The transition to greener energy, if managed and financed boldly, gives those countries that embrace it an economic and social dividend as pioneers of new technology. That should appeal to national self-interest if the wider benefits of averting climate meltdown provide insufficient incentive to act. For Boris Johnson, there is the more immediate motivation of not wanting a summit in Britain to go down in history as a flop. He returned to Scotland on Wednesday ostensibly to bring heft to the negotiations, although the sortie served also as a distraction from tricky questions about Tory sleaze. His restored attention on the climate talks is welcome, even if a sustained focus would be out of character. Questions about corruption inevitably followed him into the press conference in Glasgow, where he exhorted Cop26 delegates to “keep 1.5 alive”. Bigger players than Britain dictate the pace of action. But there is something emblematic in the prime minister’s habit of treating everything as a performance and leaving to the last minute what should have been addressed earlier. Gordon Brown, whose mixed record in office boasts as its most conspicuous success the coordination of international action during the financial crisis, is right to warn the Tory leader against treating the summit as “a day trip”. He is right, too, to describe the draft statement as an “admission of failure”, despite the real advances on deforestation and methane emissions, for example. The glaring shortcoming is the failure to step up finance for vulnerable and poorer nations to fund clean development, protect their populations against the impacts of global heating, and compensate for the damage already being done. Without this, the 1.5C goal is unreachable. Alok Sharma, the conference’s president, said on Wednesday that he was pushing “very hard” for cash. NGOs warn that the west has not done enough to press the issue. When the stakes are so high, frustration is justified but despair is premature and also pointless. The current intergovernmental coordination system is the only one available, so making it work is imperative. It is not unusual, in international relations, for pressures and distractions in the present to obscure moral obligations to the future. But it is also common for negotiations to bear fruit only in their final days, or even hours. Since the consequences of failure are intolerable, the hope of something better from Cop26 persists. There may still be time – just – to realise it. | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/cop26-glasgow-climate-change-conference-2021', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ipcc', 'politics/boris-johnson', 'politics/gordon-brown', 'type/article', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/ipcc | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2021-11-10T19:07:20Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
sustainable-business/solar-lighting-india-cleantech-startup | The startup providing solar lighting to India's poorest communities | Largely unchanged for centuries, village life in India is slowly modernising. Motorbikes and vans now appear beside bicycles and bullock carts. Yet basic services remain just that: basic. With more than 32,000 villages continue to lack power, the absence of electrification represents a particular concern. Even those villages that have grid access, power outages represent a frequent frustration. In sun-drenched Rajasthan, Ajaita Shah is working to change that. Through Frontier Markets, a social enterprise she co-founded back in 2011, the 29-year-old cleantech entrepreneur is looking to provide solar-powered lighting solutions to some of the state's poorest citizens. "Clean energy is the base foundation that's required before you can drive any other services", says Shah, who was brought up in New York to émigré parents from Rajasthan. And the reward for the consumer is immediate, she adds. "If you can provide light where there's no light, or power where there's no power, people are instantly satisfied." To date, Frontier Markets has helped shift around 20,000 zero-carbon lighting units across its network of 185 retail points. Low-cost solar lanterns and torches comprise the majority of the firm's sales, although its product range includes sophisticated home lighting systems and even streetlights too. Photovoltaics aren't new to India. Where Shah differs is in her focus on the poorest segment of the market – what the Indian management guru C K Prahalad famously terms, the base of the pyramid (BoP). Most solar manufacturers in India lack the capacity and knowledge to access this hard-to-reach sector, she says: "No retailer or distributor today really knows their customers. They're just dumping their products in the market." Frontier Markets pitches itself as different. Shah's own insights into India's low-income market derive in large part from hands-on experience. Fresh from graduating in the US, she relocated to India to work in the country's rapidly expanding microfinance industry. "I've lived in Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, Andhra [Pradesh], Karnataka, really just trying to find out how villagers think and what they prefer", says Shah, who was recently named in Forbes magazine's 30 under 30 list of social entrepreneurs. Yet the sheer size of India's low-income consumers - the total number of BoP households is estimated at 114 million – defies generalisations. So whenever Frontier Markets enters a new area, its researchers hit the ground with their notebooks, survey sheets, focus group materials and so forth. "If they have five rupees, what would be the first thing they'd spend it on?" That's the level of detail Shah wants for the 16 districts in Rajasthan where Frontier Markets operates. Shah might know who her low-income customers are and what energy needs they have, but the knotty question of how to physically get suitable products to them still exists. For the most part, companies tackle this so-called "last mile" problem through itinerant salespeople: "Basically someone with a backpack who runs from door to door selling a product", as Shah puts it. That's neither scalable nor sustainable, she insists. Instead, Frontier Markets opts to work with existing small retailers in its target communities, providing shop-owners with its products on credit. "Essentially, we started converting existing bricks-and-mortar stores into solar shops", Shah says. Where her start-up really breaks the mould is in its offer of after-care service. Frontier Markets operates six customer service centres, all located close to the communities where it works. "If you're sitting in Delhi and the person who bought that product is in a village in Rajasthan, how are you going to replace that product? How are they getting it to you, and how are you getting it to them?" she asks. "After-sales service is so important because you need to be accountable for what you've sold." Price, as ever when selling to low-income communities, is critical as well. BoP consumers typically spend less than 3,453 Indian rupees (£34) on goods and services per month. Shah's solar lanterns retail at 645 rupees (£6) - a price point born of "negotiating like crazy" with her company's suppliers. That's just about affordable. At around 6,000 rupees (£59), its Pico home lighting system units probably aren't. For these bigger ticket items, Shah envisions making a low-interest loan option available via a non-profit or microfinance partner in the future. She challenges the general notion that those at the bottom of the pyramid lack spending power, however. "They have money", she insists (albeit not very much). "But they're the most ruthless consumers on the face of this Earth because there's an opportunity cost of where that money goes". The key is creating a willingness to pay, she continues. To that end, Frontier Markets recently partnered with the International Finance Corporation on an awareness campaign about the benefits of solar energy. The publicity blitz forms part of IFC's Lighting Asia initiative, which aims to bring lighting to 400 million Indians living off grid. It's an ambitious goal. And one that will only be reached one "last-mile" at a time. The Role of Business in Development hub is funded by Business Call to Action. 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', 'tone/features', 'environment/solarpower', 'world/india', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'sustainable-business/series/role-business-development', 'profile/oliver-balch'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2014-04-17T11:48:00Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2016/sep/05/greens-cannot-afford-to-ignore-economics | Greens cannot afford to ignore economics | Letters | John Harris provides, as usual, an excellent piece on what is wrong with British politics (Politics can’t heal until politicians stand clear of the revolving door, 3 September). However, former politicians and functionaries moving to lucrative jobs in the private sector and people from the private sector moving to less lucrative but influential positions in government is neither new nor a particularly British or European malady. What is missing from Harris and sadly from the Guardian in general is the recognition that this is how capitalism works at home, and is a key feature of how capitalism works globally. How often do we hear the plea from politicians, functionaries, and corporate executives exposed for questionable practices that they were “doing nothing wrong”. In the strictly legal sense this is often correct, but it only highlights how capitalism and the state work hand in hand. Corporate sponsorship of the Paris climate change meetings is only the most important of recent manifestations of this phenomenon, in this case not only helping to explain why people around the world appear to be losing faith in conventional politics, but also why so little is done to get to the roots of why fossil-fuelled capitalist globalisation has been allowed to put the very existence of the planet at serious risk. Leslie Sklair London • You argue (Editorial, 2 September) that Greens should concentrate on “their” issues (climate change, for example) and leave stuff like the economy, inequality, human rights etc to the mainstream parties. It’s true of course that “an environmental conscience is not the exclusive property of the left”. But this is not the point. Most Greens have realised that their position is unavoidably on the left not because of any tactical calculations, but because ecological justice on the one hand and social and economic justice on the other are inextricably linked. Climate change is not just about the environment, but affects everything: industrial strategy, agriculture, global as well as domestic inequality, refugee flows, defence and security, health policy. There’s no chance that free-market capitalism will address this satisfactorily because its timescales are too short and its interests too socially narrow; perpetually continuing accumulation for the wealthy, at any cost, cannot solve the problem. The pope gets it: in a previous leader (1 September), you quote him as saying: “Human beings are deeply connected with all of creation. When we mistreat nature we also mistreat human beings.” Richard Middleton Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | ['environment/green-politics', 'politics/economy', 'business/economics', 'politics/green-party', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'business/business', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/editorialsandreply', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers'] | environment/green-politics | CLIMATE_POLICY | 2016-09-05T18:24:57Z | true | CLIMATE_POLICY |
australia-news/ng-interactive/2022/mar/03/flood-map-nsw-qld-queensland-rain-chart-maps-brisbane-lismore-gympie-floods-weather-emergency-australia-east-coast | Flood map and rain charts show extent of Queensland and NSW disaster | The record-breaking rain over Australia’s east coast has flooded towns and cities in Queensland and New South Wales, submerging thousands of homes and leaving at least 21 people dead. After inundating Brisbane, Gympie, Lismore and Ballina, the rain system headed south, leading to flooding in greater Sydney, the Hunter and the Central Coast. Here you can see maps and charts that show the extreme rainfall that has fallen across Queensland and NSW, with historically high totals in southern Queensland, particularly. This map shows rainfall and flood-affected areas in the greater Sydney region, with the total weekly rainfall up to 8 March. This flood map shows Brisbane, Queensland and northern NSW, with total rain in the week up to 3 March. The chart below shows the river height in key areas affected by flooding, and how they compare to height markers that indicate minor, moderate and major flooding. Please note that you should check the Bureau of Meteorology or SES in your area if you think you might need to evacuate rather than relying on this chart. Toggle the menu to see the water levels of the Hawkesbury, Brisbane, Wilsons and Mary rivers. The rainfall in Queensland has occurred on an unprecedented scale in some areas. Brisbane, for example, has had the wettest summer on record, with rainfall data going back to 1899 at the Alderley meteorological station. The chart below shows how the cumulative rainfall for 2021-22 compares with long-term averages. The purple shaded section indicates wetter than average years, so if the red line for 2021-22 goes above this, it indicates an unusually high level of rainfall (the top 10% of years by total rainfall). Toggle the menu to see the cumulative rainfall in Parramatta, Brisbane, Gympie, Lismore and Maryborough. We will update this page with new data and information as it becomes available. | ['australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'world/natural--disasters', 'australia-news/queensland', 'australia-news/new-south-wales', 'australia-news/australia-weather', 'world/extreme-weather', 'type/interactive', 'profile/nick-evershed', 'profile/josh-nicholas', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-data'] | australia-news/australia-east-coast-floods-2022 | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2022-03-08T04:09:30Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
uk-news/2022/jun/23/climate-justice-groups-join-british-rail-strike-picket-lines | Climate justice groups join British rail strike picket lines | Climate justice groups have joined RMT picket lines across Great Britain to support the rail strike and argue the government must invest in public transport to avoid the worst impacts of global heating. Hundreds of activists from several groups including Just Stop Oil, War on Want, Extinction Rebellion [XR] and Friends of the Earth Scotland have joined striking workers on more than 40 picket lines in towns and cities, with more expected to turn out in the coming days. They argue that well-funded, publicly owned and affordable public transport will be essential to reduce the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels, moving people away from cars to more energy-efficient trains. But they warn the cuts and redundancies proposed by the government will not only hit workers in the middle of a cost of living crisis but also weaken the rail network, locking in high carbon transport such as cars for decades to come. According to government figures, transport is the UK’s largest source of emissions, responsible for 27% of greenhouse gases in 2019. Of this, 55% comes from cars and most of the remainder is from vans and lorries. Bruce Murphy, an organiser with Just Stop Oil, is one of scores of the group’s activists who have been on picket lines in the past few days. “You can’t separate the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis and I think more people are understanding that in both the green movement and the progressive labour movement,” he said. Murphy, who was on a picket line in Manchester, said trade unions were Britain’s biggest social movement and that strikes were “a powerful tool of civil resistance for workers and communities being forced to pay for a crisis they didn’t cause. “I’m proud to stand with trade unions because I know that together our collective power can take on the crisis we face in our cost of living, climate and our democracy.” Asad Rehman, a leading climate justice campaigner and director at War on Want, said the root causes of the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis were “corporate profiteering that is pushing millions into poverty, and rolling back hard won rights that are critical to guaranteeing everyone a dignified life. “Now more than ever we need to invest in cheap, green, low-carbon mass transport, such as railways, with decent pay and conditions for rail workers, low fares, and regular services. Cutting carbon and defending workers rights are essential to stopping the climate crisis.” As the second day of strike action started, climate activists joined rail workers at picket lines across the UK from Glasgow to Manchester, Preston to Brighton, Sheffield to Bath. Finlay Asher, from the XR Trade Union group, said: “Climate justice means social justice. The only way workers can fight for a fair low-carbon transition is by building union strength and the power of collective bargaining.” James Schneider, from the Jeremy Corbyn-backed We All Want to Just Stop Oil group launched earlier this month, said it unequivocally backed striking rail workers who deserved “to be paid fairly in a transport system that operates for the benefit of the people and the planet – not for private profit.” He said that whether people were “kept up at night by low pay, rising bills, climate breakdown or our broken politics” they had to work together. “If we unite to take on our common enemy – the billionaires, the big polluters and the politicians they own – then we can win decent pay, stop new oil, tax the big polluters and billionaires, have energy for all, insulate our homes and enjoy cheap, green public transport.” | ['uk-news/rail-strikes', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/rmt', 'environment/activism', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/tradeunions', 'politics/politics', 'uk/transport', 'business/rail-industry', 'uk/rail-transport', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/activism | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM | 2022-06-23T12:06:40Z | true | CLIMATE_ACTIVISM |
money/2021/nov/29/were-losing-our-green-homes-grant-because-of-supply-problems | We’re losing our green homes grant because of supply problems | We are renovating a 1950s bungalow that still has coal-fired central heating and we had planned to install a new clean heating system. Just before the government axed its green homes grant scheme, we applied and were delighted when it got in touch in late June to tell us that we had been accepted, and would be able to receive £5,000 towards the £15,000 cost of insulating the home and installing an air source heat pump system. The voucher had an initial deadline of 30 August 2021. I requested an extension (due to the amount of time it would take us to do the necessary work) and was told it could be extended to 30 December 2021. A week later, it emailed again to say that it had made an error and the voucher could only be extended to 30 November, because that was when it closed. It seems that if we can’t get the work done by the deadline, we lose the £5,000. We have worked flat out to get it all ready, but have now discovered that the heat pump hasn’t been dispatched from the manufacturer and it can’t say when it will arrive. It seems very unfair that we will lose this grant due to the supply chain problems. I’ve requested a further extension and have been told it’s not possible to extend the voucher any further. Our scheme’s viability rests on this. DT, Berwick-upon-Tweed The £1.5bn green homes grant was launched last year and was supposed to offer households up to £10,000 to improve their home with better insulation and cleaner heating. It was designed to help people in exactly your kind of property. However, almost immediately it ran into difficulties and was finally scrapped in March. You must have been one of the last households approved for the grant. Completely insulating a home and installing a new air source heating system with underfloor heating was always going to be tight in just over four months, even before the current supply chain problems hit. I asked the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy about your case, and it has now intervened. You have been offered a month’s extension to complete the work – until 30 December. “There may be some limited and very exceptional cases where the voucher deadline could be extended, and applicants should discuss their case with the scheme administrator,” it says. Meanwhile, it’s worth others noting that the boiler upgrade scheme, that replaces the green homes initiative and offers £5,000 vouchers to households, opens for business next April, so start planning now. We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include a phone number. Letters are subject to our terms: theguardian.com/letters-terms. 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 our terms and conditions. | ['money/series/bachelor-and-brignall-consumer-champions', 'money/money', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'money/consumer-rights-money', 'environment/greenbuilding', 'environment/green-deal', 'environment/energy', 'environment/energyefficiency', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/milesbrignall', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-money'] | environment/energy | ENERGY | 2021-11-29T07:00:50Z | true | ENERGY |
australia-news/2014/dec/08/northern-territory-fracking-report-to-be-released-as-environmental-fears-grow | Northern Territory fracking report to be released as environmental fears grow | The Northern Territory government will look to releasing the results of an inquiry into fracking, the chief minister, Adam Giles, has said amid public concern about the impact of a growing resources industry. The inquiry, conducted by a retired diplomat and public servant, Allan Hawke, received more than 130 submissions in its examination of the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial process used to extract gas from below ground. The chief minister received the final report a week ago, he told Guardian Australia. “I’m still going through the report which is hundreds of pages long,” he said. “The government will look to release the report once it’s been considered by cabinet.” The Hawke inquiry began in April and was extended in June due to significant public interest, and it was expected to be tabled by the end of this year. Parliament has now ended for the year. By law the report is required only to be released to the government but Peter Chandler, the minister for lands, planning and the environment, told parliament in August it would be made available to the public. “For us, the inquiry into fracking was a double-edged sword, because until you get the results of an inquiry, you never know where it will go,” he said at the time. “We are doing this because we want to ensure we have the most robust, rigorous processes in place and put to bed some of the myths so we have some real facts to work with before future decisions are made.” The leader of the opposition, Delia Lawrie, told Guardian Australia that while Labor supported exploration and mining in the NT, residents must be able to have confidence in the management of environmental impacts. “Community confidence in the management of environmental issues is not aided by information vacuums,” said Lawrie. “The Giles government needs to stop sitting on the Hawke report into hydraulic fracturing and release it immediately.” Lawrie also called for greater engagement with communities. “The more Territorians that are directly engaged in mining, the more opportunities are available to them and their community to be involved in and directly benefit from projects and the continuing development of the industry.” Giles used his address to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) summit in Darwin last week to talk up the growing shale gas industry potential in the NT. Anti-mining activism and community resistance on the eastern seaboard provided an opportunity for the NT to step in, he said. However, he said “emotional” protesters who were against mining in their area just needed to be better educated about the benefits and it was the responsibility of government and industry to have conversations with them. During the two-day summit – which was closed to the public and almost entirely closed to the media – Giles and other delegates did not meet about 40 people who had travelled from remote areas to protest against ongoing and proposed mining which they said was causing or threatening devastation to their homelands. Delegates from Borroloola, more than 1000km from Darwin in the south-west Gulf region, responded to Giles, accusing him and the government of ignoring them and the damage Glencore’s McArthur river mine was doing to their land. “We are educated about our country. We’ve seen our land, water, plants, animals changing since the mine and river diversion went ahead and started poisoning our land and our people. It is because we know the land that we can see the devastating impacts of mining,” the group said. “Adam Giles couldn’t even face us at the summit, the people who are speaking the truth. Stop hiding behind security and police. Get out and listen to the people living next to and downstream of the mining pits.” | ['travel/northern-territory-politics', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/northern-territory', 'environment/mining', 'australia-news/darwin', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helen-davidson'] | environment/mining | ENERGY | 2014-12-08T04:39:01Z | true | ENERGY |
technology/2021/sep/17/waste-from-one-bitcoin-transaction-like-binning-two-iphones | Waste from one bitcoin transaction ‘like binning two iPhones’ | A single bitcoin transaction generates the same amount of electronic waste as throwing two iPhones in the bin, according to a new analysis by economists from the Dutch central bank and MIT. While the carbon footprint of bitcoin is well studied, less attention has been paid to the vast churn in computer hardware that the cryptocurrency incentivises. Specialised computer chips called ASICs are sold with no other purpose than to run the algorithms that secure the bitcoin network, a process called mining that rewards those who partake with bitcoin payouts. But because only the newest chips are power-efficient enough to mine profitably, effective miners need to constantly replace their ASICs with newer, more powerful ones. “The lifespan of bitcoin mining devices remains limited to just 1.29 years,” write the researchers Alex de Vries and Christian Stoll in the paper, Bitcoin’s growing e-waste problem, published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling. “As a result, we estimate that the whole bitcoin network currently cycles through 30.7 metric kilotons of equipment per year. This number is comparable to the amount of small IT and telecommunication equipment waste produced by a country like the Netherlands.” In 2020 the bitcoin network processed 112.5m transactions (compared with 539bn processed by traditional payment service providers in 2019), according to the economists, meaning that each individual transaction “equates to at least 272g of e-waste”. That’s the weight of two iPhone 12 minis. The reason why e-waste is such a problem for the cryptocurrency is that, unlike most computing hardware, ASICs have no alternative use beyond bitcoin mining, and if they cannot be used to mine bitcoin profitably, they have no future purpose at all. It is theoretically possible for these devices to regain the ability to operate profitably at a later point in time should bitcoin prices suddenly increase and drive up mining income, the authors note. “Nonetheless, there are several factors that generally prevent substantial extension of the lifetime of mining devices,” they add. Storing mining hardware costs money, and the longer it is stored for, the less likely it is that it will ever be profitable. The authors also warn that the e-waste problem will probably grow further if the price of bitcoin continues to rise, since it will incentivise further investment in and replacement of ASIC hardware. If the community were to try to reduce its e-waste problem, the paper concludes, it would need to replace the bitcoin mining process in “its entirety with a more sustainable alternative”, and the paper suggests “proof of stake”, an experimental replacement. Ethereum, a bitcoin successor, announced in May plans to move to proof of stake within months, although the switchover has yet to occur. Other bitcoin alternatives have been less successful at limiting their environmental footprint. Chia, a cryptocurrency that is built on a “proof of time and space” algorithm, has been accused of leading to shortages in hard drives and SSDs, a type of storage medium popular in fast computers. “Instead of just wasting electricity, Chia chews through SSDs at a fantastic rate and also has thoroughly wrecked the market for big HDs,” said David Gerard, a cryptocurrency expert. | ['technology/bitcoin', 'technology/cryptocurrencies', 'technology/technology', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'technology/efinance', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2021-09-17T06:00:37Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
lifeandstyle/2014/may/15/adhocism-best-kind-of-recycling-design-lighting-furniture | Why adhocism is the best kind of recycling | Recycling makes people feel good. We see those three arrows chasing each other and we like to believe that our garbage is part of a virtuous circle of production where a milk jug comes back as a milk jug. After all, the prefix “re” means “again” and implies that it is being used for the same purpose. In fact most of the time it is being what architect Bill McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart call “downcycled”, turned into a product of lower value. Recycling is not a virtuous circle; it’s a downward spiral. It should really be considered a poor third choice after reducing and reusing. There is also a fourth option that is seriously gaining ground, and that’s repurposing. In 1968, the critic and landscape architect Charles Jencks wrote about repurposing design. He called it “adhocism” and described it in his book, Adhocism: The Case for Improvisation. “Basically it involves using an available system or dealing with an existing situation in a new way to solve a problem quickly and effectively. It is a method of creation relying particularly on resources which are already at hand.” It was a very big deal in the counterculture, as writer Alastair Gordon describes in his book Spaced Out: “There was scrounging and recycling of old materials, living off the spoils of straight society. “Trapped inside a waste economy, man finds an identity as a consumer … Once outside the trap, he finds enormous resources at his disposal – free.” Alas, the design of many of these upcycled items retained a hippie vibe well into the current century. However the last few years have seen talented designers take an interest in working with found, repurposed materials. It is often clever, whimsical, cheap and cheerful and it is the best kind of recycling, adding significant value. They are taking our detritus and “upcycling” it into something better, something useful, giving a second life to what otherwise would be landfill. In Britain, Stuart Haygarth builds giant light fixtures out of discarded water bottles collected at Stansted Airport; he focuses on “the overlooked sculptural beauty of these plastic water containers.” In the Netherlands, Piet Hein Eek builds cabinets and kitchens out of discarded windows, chairs out of waste wood, seating out of old pipes and beams. It is often rough and appears unfinished. He writes: “I wanted to show that products that aren’t perfect still can appeal to our sense of aesthetic and functionality. I also wanted to design a product that could be made with limited means, material that was abundant.” In France, Paul Coudamy turns the inner walls and windows of old Airbus 300 jets into giant light fixtures. “These marvels of engineering with their ultra functional curves resulting from uncompromising technical research, are diverted from their original function in order to be integrated in our daily lives, thus offering them a second life.” In Canada, Castor takes old burned out incandescent and fluorescent bulbs and buries new, energy-efficient light sources deep within, giving new light from old bulbs. The Brothers Dressler are making furniture out of cast-iron radiators. In Germany, Design Direct combines old drawers into new frames to build marvellous collages that have a shape all their own. “The design is actually an anti design, where the shape resulting from the compilation of existing finds. The beauty is then less often in the form, as for example in the character and appearance of the individual drawers and their interplay.” Enter “Recycled” on Pinterest and you enter a world of creative adhocism, with garden rakes turned into glass holders, wallets made out of juice cartons, ottomen made out of everything from old tires to washing machine drums. It isn’t all high design. One of the problems of having millions of industrial shipping pallets made every year is that there are almost as many clunky, rough and uncomfortable pallet furniture designs that are guaranteed to give you splinters or poison you from either the insecticides they are treated with or the food contamination that is soaked into them. And except for the hilarious allusions to mid-century modern classics from the Skate Study House, Sk8r bois should stay out of the furniture business. One has to ask if this is making a difference, even the tiniest dent in the amount of waste we create. Of course the answer is no. Haygarth might use parts of a couple of hundred water bottles in his drop lamp; Britons throw out 10bn of them in a year. However, it might inspire us to think differently about what we do with our waste. More of us might agree with futurist Alex Steffen, who says: “There’s no such thing as garbage, just useful stuff on the wrong place.” Adhocism lives! Lloyd Alter is managing editor at Treehugger and tweets @lloydalter. Feeling inspired? Show us your best upcycled creations for the change to win a Panasonic Lumix TZ40 camera. Interested in finding out more about how you can live better? Take a look at this month's Live Better Challenge here. The Live Better Challenge is funded by Unilever; its focus is sustainable living. All content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled advertisement feature. Find out more here. | ['lifeandstyle/live-better', 'lifeandstyle/series/live-better-reduce-reuse-recycle', 'artanddesign/design', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/environment', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'culture/culture', 'type/article', 'tone/blog'] | environment/waste | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2014-05-15T09:06:29Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
global-development/2015/apr/14/chad-oil-curse-africa-challenge-negative-impact | Is Chad succeeding in beating the 'oil curse'? | Celeste Hicks | In 2008, Chad’s capital, N’Djamena, was an eerie place to arrive in late at night. As the plane descended, there was virtually nothing in the dusty Saharan blackness to indicate that a capital city lay just metres below. There was only one tarmac road that ran like a belt around the little city; the stretch towards the new Kempinski Hotel lay in darkness except for the odd ray of orange light from the headlights on clapped-out taxis. Today, it is a different city. A new two-lane highway leads from the airport to the city centre, where a huge Place de la Nation (Nation Square) has been built opposite the presidential palace with a triumphal arch, fountains, statues and television screens. Although it’s important not to overstate the improvements in street lighting in the outlying neighbourhoods, the centre at least is now easier to navigate at night, with new tarmac replacing uneven mud routes. Much of this transformation is down to oil. The country has earned at least $10bn since Exxon Mobil opened the Kome oil field near the southern town of Doba in 2003. In 2006, a deal was signed with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to open a second field to feed a new domestic oil refinery. Much of the building work in N’Djamena has been carried out by Chinese contractors in deals that exchanged production rights for promises to improve the country’s infrastructure, such as roads, railways and power networks. However, civil society in Chad complains that the change is a mirage, arguing that this $10bn windfall has been wasted. While the capital has seen superficial improvements and GDP has risen significantly, social development indicators have barely budged. Chad was still fourth from the bottom on the UN’s Human Development Index in 2014 and has met none of the millennium development goals. Meanwhile, an estimated $4bn has been spent on military and weapons purchases. What can be done to prevent the negative impact of oil production on poor economies – the so-called “resource curse” that has affected countries such as Nigeria and Angola? The story of the early days of production in Chad is fascinating and one of the central themes of my book. In 2000, the World Bank signed a groundbreaking deal with Chad and Esso (Exxon Mobil’s arm in Chad) to try to beat the resource curse. The agreement ensured that royalties from oil sales would pass through a transparent bank account in London, and that a large proportion of it would be spent on development. It also sought to guarantee social and environmental standards for production. But the pioneering project was a failure. In 2006, in the face of a rebel threat that had twice come within hours of unseating President Idriss Deby, Chad ripped up the original agreements and amended “development” projects to include national security. This decision led to the World Bank having to close the project and leave Chad. The consequences of this military spending can still be felt today, as Chad’s strengthened army spearheads the campaign against the Islamist group Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria, having previously taken on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in Mali. Despite its failures, the World Bank project has proven to be a vital learning tool for a new generation of African countries in the early stages of setting up production. For example, in an echo of Chad, a law was passed in Ghana that ensured oil revenues were deposited in a separate, transparent bank account from general government revenue, and contracts with the oil production company Tullow Oil have been published online. Chad’s Future Generations savings fund was designed to tackle the familiar problems of non-renewable natural resources and volatility in the world oil price, so clearly seen in recent months, with crude falling below $50 a barrel. Although this fund was emptied and closed as the country scrambled to fight the rebels, the idea is still proving popular: Ghana, for example, has created a savings fund and Niger has also made a constitutional commitment to establish one. In the area of environmental protection, Chad’s oil project has also had encouraging results. Provisions in the original World Bank deal for safeguarding ecosystems and livelihoods, and for clearing up oil spills and monitoring local pollution around the Doba oil fields, have resulted in remarkably few accidents for an African oil project. The project has been studied by campaign groups in Kenya and Uganda keen to protect their own ecosystems – such as Lake Turkana and Lake Albert, respectively – as they move towards production. Although there are still concerns that China’s involvement in African oil production will undo many of the gains made by western transparency campaign groups and that Africa will lose out, my research has shown that the picture is more nuanced. Chad recently engaged in a serious round of brinkmanship with the CNPC in a dispute over environmental pollution that resulted in a $1.2bn fine and an order to clean up. While there was suspicion that the row was more about forcing the CNPC to pay more for its oil concessions, it has shown that effective environmental laws can help to prevent the kind of destruction seen in the Niger delta. It has also shown that China’s neocolonial activities in Africa are not going unchallenged. Africa’s New Oil: Power, Pipelines and Future Fortunes is published by Zed Books | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/africa', 'business/oil', 'world/chad', 'world/world', 'environment/oil', 'world/china', 'business/commodities', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/blog', 'tone/comment', 'profile/celeste-hicks'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2015-04-14T06:00:08Z | true | ENERGY |
world/2011/nov/02/fukushima-setback-signs-nuclear-fission | Fukushima suffers setback as officials detect signs of nuclear fission | The operation to stabilise the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has suffered a setback after officials said they had detected small traces of a radioactive gas that is a byproduct of nuclear fission. The discovery was made as a nuclear reactor in south-western Japan became the first to start generating electricity following a series of shutdowns in the wake of the 11 March earthquake and tsunami. The operator of Fukushima Daiichi, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said it had found signs of recent nuclear fission inside the No 2 reactor, one of three at the plant that suffered core meltdown in March. Japan's nuclear safety agency said the situation was stable and that the small amounts of radioactive material did not present a risk to public health. The utility dismissed the possibility of a "major criticality accident", in which a sustained nuclear reaction occurs, but has not ruled out localised criticality inside the reactor. The reactor's pressure and temperature had remained stable, it said, adding that radiation levels in the vicinity had not risen. Workers began injecting water containing boric acid into the reactor via a cooling pipe to prevent a possible fission chain reaction. "Given the signs, it is certain that fission is occurring," Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tepco, told reporters. Evidence that even partial or temporary nuclear fission had occurred underlined the fragile state of the plant almost eight months after it was struck by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that knocked out vital cooling systems. The accident, the worst in the history of the Japanese nuclear power industry, forced the evacuation of 80,000 residents from a 12-mile radius around the plant. People living closest to Fukushima Daiichi have been told their old neighbourhoods could remain unsafe for decades. Decommissioning the plant is expected to take at least 30 years, according to a recent report by the country's nuclear energy commission. A Tepco spokesman insisted that the latest setback would not affect the company's roadmap towards making the plant safe by the end of the year. "We have confirmed that the reactor is stable and we don't believe this will have any impact on our future work," Osamu Yokokura told Associated Press. Tepco said it had detected low densities of radioactive xenon-133 and -135 in gas samples extracted from the No 2 reactor. The substances have relatively short half-lives of five days and nine hours, respectively, so their presence suggests that nuclear fission has occurred undetected inside the reactor very recently, raising the possibility of lingering activity inside its melted core. The news coincided with the restart of a reactor at the Genkai nuclear plant in Saga prefecture on the island of Kyushu. The reactor, which shut down automatically after an abnormality was spotted early last month, went back into service on Tuesday night and began generating electricity on Wednesday, according to Kyushu Electric Power. The reactor will shut down again in December to undergo safety checks. Only 19 of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors are currently in operation due to regular inspections or earthquake damage. They must pass recently introduced stress tests before they can go back online, although strong local opposition could delay or prevent the restart of reactors even after they are given the all-clear. The government approved Genkai's restart after attributing the fault to human error and approving the utility's response. | ['world/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/japan', 'world/world', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/fukushima', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2011-11-02T09:08:41Z | true | ENERGY |
news/2018/jan/24/weatherwatch-frazil-ice-delivers-slurpees-to-nantucket | Weatherwatch: Frazil ice delivers slurpees to Nantucket | The recent cold snap in the US produced some unusual weather phenomena, including waves of icy slush. Nicknamed “slurpee waves” after an American ice-slush fizzy drink, the waves were spotted in a bay in Nantucket, Massachusetts, early in January. The temperature had fallen to -11C (12.2F), well below the freezing point of sea water. Small particles of sea ice, known as frazil ice, had started to form, but the action of the waves prevented them from aggregating into sheets. This slush is more viscous than water, so the waves move in slow motion and are eerily quiet, the usual sound of crashing surf being completely muffled. Although this condition is rare, it was photographed in Nantucket before, during 2015. It is no coincidence that this is a surfing beach. The large waves keep the ocean from freezing over, and the popularity of the site means that there were surfers present, even in January, to witness the effect, when other beaches were deserted. This kind of crushed ice effect can only occur when there is a fine balance between temperature and movement. The slushy waves lasted a few hours before the sea froze over completely and all was still. | ['news/series/weatherwatch', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/sea-ice', 'environment/environment', 'weather/usa', 'environment/winter', 'us-news/us-news', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/davidhambling', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather'] | news/series/weatherwatch | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2018-01-24T21:30:05Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2007/dec/30/nuclearpower.nuclear | Legal threat to nuclear expansion | The government is bracing itself for another legal challenge from Greenpeace when it sanctions the construction of a new generation of nuclear reactors in the next few days. Ministers will reveal the results of their second consultation on nuclear power as early as 7 January. The publication of the long-awaited energy bill, which is supposed to frame the UK's energy policy for the next 50 years, will follow shortly afterwards. But Greenpeace, which opposes nuclear power, is preparing to mount a second legal challenge to block the plans. In February, a High Court judge ruled in favour of the environmental campaign group when he said the government's first consultation on nuclear power was 'seriously flawed', 'manifestly inadequate' and 'misleading'. Mr Justice Sullivan said that the government had not made available the right information nor made clear that the consultation would be consultees' final opportunity to express their views on nuclear power. He ordered ministers to begin a new consultation, which was published in May. But in Gordon Brown's first Prime Minister's Questions as leader last July, he announced 'we must continue with nuclear power and that we must build new nuclear power stations'. This was despite the fact that the second consultation, which was still continuing, was supposed to help the government make a decision. If, as expected, the government gives nuclear power the green light, Greenpeace lawyers will argue that Brown has pre-empted the whole consultation process by reaching a decision before it had finished. Greenpeace will also challenge the consultation's assertion that previous studies had concluded that the best way to store nuclear waste from any new reactors was to build an underground repository. But the original remit of the studies to which it referred was to examine ways to store existing, rather than future nuclear waste. A Greenpeace spokesman said: 'This is another flawed consultation from the government. It has no idea what to do with nuclear waste which means it can't simply go ahead with any new fleet of reactors. Currently it would not be lawful for the government to make a decision in favour of building new nuclear power stations.' A Labour spokesman said: 'The government believes the consultation was an open, fair and full process.' | ['environment/nuclearpower', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/timwebb', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/businessandmedia', 'theobserver/businessandmedia/news'] | environment/nuclearpower | ENERGY | 2007-12-30T23:42:47Z | true | ENERGY |
environment/2019/jan/02/plastic-bottle-deposit-scheme-in-uk-proving-a-hit-with-shoppers | Plastic bottle deposit scheme in UK proving hit with shoppers | Shoppers have received the equivalent of more than £30,000 in total for recycling plastic bottles in the first supermarket trial using “reverse vending machines” installed to reduce littering. The machines, introduced last year by the Iceland chain at five UK sites, reward consumers with a voucher worth 10p for every deposit of a bottle purchased at the shops. Iceland, a frozen food specialist, said figures published Wednesday suggested the trial had delivered “significant results” and strong consumer engagement, with 311,500 plastic bottles recycled so far. In November alone a daily average of 2,583 bottles were recycled across the five sites, with an average of £250 in coupons refunded each day. Iceland was the first UK supermarket to install such machines in support of the government’s proposed deposit return scheme in England – which expects retailers to be responsible for properly recycling the containers – and in line with its own efforts to reduce the impact of single-use plastics on the environment. Its trial involved a machine in each of four stores in Wolverhampton, Mold, Fulham and Musselburgh (covering England, Wales and Scotland) as well as at Iceland’s head office, in Deeside. Richard Walker, Iceland’s managing director, said: “Iceland has continually led the way in the fight against the scourge of plastic since making our announcement to eliminate plastic from our own-label product packaging. “The launch of reverse vending machine trials in our stores is one sign of this. We’ve gained hugely valuable insights into both consumer interest and the functionality of the schemes, and it’s clear from the results that consumers want to tackle the problem of plastic head on and would be in support of a nationwide scheme.” At present just 43% of the 13bn plastic bottles sold each year in the UK are recycled, and 700,000 become litter each day. Pressure is growing on the government, retailers and consumers to increase rates of plastic bottle recycling and so reduce marine pollution. In October the environment secretary, Michael Gove, said he was committed to “working with industry to see how we could introduce a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles”. The UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, is also carrying out a trial, as are Morrisons and the Co-op, but none have yet published their results. Will McCallum, head of oceans at Greenpeace UK, said: “The success of Iceland’s reverse vending machine trial demonstrates that deposit return schemes to boost recycling and tackle plastic pollution are both popular with consumers and eminently doable. Michael Gove must deliver on his promise to introduce a deposit return scheme without delay, and ensure that it covers containers of all sizes and materials.” | ['environment/plastic', 'environment/recycling', 'business/supermarkets', 'environment/landfill', 'environment/oceans', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'environment/ethical-living', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'business/retail', 'business/consumerspending', 'environment/waste', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment'] | environment/recycling | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE | 2019-01-02T16:23:43Z | true | POLLUTION_AND_WASTE |
environment/2023/aug/17/five-species-face-immediate-concern-of-extinction-scientific-committee-warns-labor | Five species face immediate concern of extinction, scientific committee warns Labor | Five species, including Tasmania’s Maugean skate, could jeopardise the Albanese government’s zero extinctions target, according to a scientific committee that provides advice on endangered species. A further 41 species are on course to be declared critically endangered, sparking alarm from environment groups at the pace at which plants and animals are reaching the most urgent status on the threatened list. In letters to the environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, the threatened species scientific committee said it held immediate and “particular concern” for the Maugean skate – a critically endangered ancient fish species found only in Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania – and four plant species. The plants include Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii, or dwarf mountain pine, a species found close to waterfalls in the Blue Mountains that can only be accessed using specialist gear. Another is Acacia prismifolia (Diels’ wattle). Once thought to be extinct, it was found again in 2018 and is facing an imminent threat from road widening. The first letter sent in April has been tabled at a Senate inquiry examining legislation for the government’s proposed nature repair market, which has failed to secure support from the opposition or the Greens. The letter also alerted Plibersek to 27 other species, including the Mary River turtle – colloquially known as the punk turtle – that the committee would likely recommend be added to the critically endangered list. The committee sent a second letter in June stating an additional 14 species were likely to be declared critically endangered – making a total of 41 – as well as one ecological community. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup In that letter, the committee’s chair, Helene Marsh, said the “anticipated increase” to the critically endangered lists “demonstrates the very serious and increasing extinction risks to Australia’s biota”. Marsh wrote that forthcoming changes to Australia’s environmental laws and conservation planning, including a proposal for regional-scale approaches to development and environmental protection, would need to be designed in a way that could be adapted for and accommodate continuous new additions to Australia’s lists of threatened wildlife. “The purpose was to remind [Plibersek] this is a fluid situation with a lot of species going up all the time,” Marsh told Guardian Australia. “It’s very important that any revision of the [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act accommodate that.” Some, but not all, of the species likely to be listed as critically endangered were affected by the 2019-20 bushfires. Some, like the Mary River turtle, would be having their conservation status upgraded, but for the majority it would be the first time they are listed at any level under national laws. “This correspondence between the environment minister and the threatened species scientific committee makes one thing clear: nature in Australia is in big trouble,” Peta Bulling, a nature campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation, said. “Plants and animals that make this land unique are being pushed towards extinction at a truly alarming pace. “Of the 41 species identified by the committee, the majority have never even been listed as threatened under our national environment laws, yet here they are making their first appearance in the code-red category of critically endangered.” The government has been consulting experts and environment and industry groups ahead of the release of draft legislation expected late this year to reform Australia’s failing environmental laws. Tim Beshara, the manager of policy and strategy at the Wilderness Society, said the process was taking too long given the urgency of the biodiversity crisis. “The alarm bells keep ringing but the emergency response still lays dormant. We don’t use the phrase ‘a biodiversity crisis’ for rhetorical effect; we use it because it’s an honest and factual description of where we are at,” he said. “Despite the escalating crisis, the commonwealth’s environment minister is still stuck administering environment laws that were created by John Howard over two decades ago and with a threatened species budget that is unambiguously inadequate.” The federal and Tasmanian governments have formed a new recovery team for the Maugean skate. Plibersek said the Albanese government was committed to reforming Australia’s environmental laws and draft legislation would be released for public consultation later this year. “Unlike the previous government, the Albanese Labor government does not accept extinctions as inevitable,” she said. “That’s why we’re investing more in the environment than any government in Australian history.” | ['environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/tanya-plibersek', 'campaign/email/afternoon-update', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisa-cox', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/biodiversity | BIODIVERSITY | 2023-08-16T15:00:50Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
commentisfree/2019/jul/09/farmer-no-deal-brexit-eu-agriculture-food-britain | I’m a farmer, and no-deal Brexit would put me out of business | Will Case | Here in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside, the sun is out, our grass is growing and the sky is blue. Sheep are busily nibbling the pasture while cattle are basking in the summer warmth. These are perfect conditions for farming. The animals are content and the farmers are working hard. Everything should be fine, but there is a big, dark cloud lurking on the horizon: the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. This is a threat to everything we do. The uncertainty around Brexit and the prospect of trade tariffs that would cripple our business is a real worry. The future direction of UK-produced food is simply unknown. Will we be forced to adhere to ever higher standards, while our government allows food to be imported from countries where farmers adhere to welfare or other standards that would, rightly, be illegal on my farm? Will our politicians assure British farmers that they will avoid a disastrous no-deal Brexit? Politicians visit farms and livestock auction markets and tell farmers: “Don’t worry chaps, it’ll all be fine.” Then we hear them on the radio proclaiming that the great prize of Brexit will be cheaper food. All this plays to my very real fear that we will be sold out as the British government desperately seeks trade deals with anyone who will have us. I believe they would happily open up our highly regulated food sector to all-comers if they’ll buy our financial services. Selling out British farming could end up being the legacy of Brexit. My fear is that free-trading ministers, who are frustrated by what they dismiss as the “red tape” of the EU, could sacrifice rural Britain in a heartbeat if it meant a trade deal with the US. We cannot let that happen. Instead of discussing just how many billions of pounds will be needed to mitigate the effects of a no-deal Brexit, politicians should be discussing their vision of what the future of British farming and food production looks like. We need to be thinking further than just 31 October. Our farm is a family affair, a mixed business that I run in partnership with my brother and my parents, on the edge of the Leven estuary at the head of Morecambe Bay. The parts of our farm are all complementary. We have sheep, free-range hens, beef and dairy cattle, all accredited by either the Lion code, Red Tractor or RSPCA Freedom Foods. We’re very proud to produce wonderful food to some of the highest standards in the world. Our family has farmed for more than 400 years and we hope to leave our land in good heart for the next generation. It’s why we’re involved in agri-environment schemes that promote biodiversity, pollinators, good soil health and much, much more. We’re proud custodians of the countryside. When I look over my farm, I see opportunity. We need our politicians to recognise this too. They need to have a real, genuine conversation about how they will ensure the food and farming sector thrives far into the future, continuing to deliver for the public, providing them with food, shaping our iconic landscape and providing essential services for rural communities. We need to hear answers and genuine policies from both Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson about how they will establish a sustainable domestic food production system that will stand the test of time. This is about UK food security. Right now, we have none of that. Instead I am having to shelve my plans to expand my business, and reinvestment is put on hold. That’s all down to the current uncertainty. I despair when I hear those who are dead set on leaving the EU without a deal on 31 October, pronouncing that this will bring the end of uncertainty. The huge irony is that if we crash out with no deal, uncertainty will remain king, but this time it will probably last for years while the powers-that-be grapple with the task of striking a future trading relationship with the rest of Europe. I don’t have the luxury of waiting to see what any of that produces. A no-deal Brexit could wipe out my business. And where would that leave our farmers’ ability to produce our own food? Shoppers would be subject to US chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef produced to standards much inferior to those I can guarantee. That’s not a future for British farming I want to see, and I don’t think the public wants to see that either. I believe British people love their countryside and want to see the rural regions thriving. I would love to see a future where British farming continues to produce some of the world’s best food, continues to care for the world’s most beautiful countryside, and provides a real model of sustainable farming for the future. I want farming to be recognised as part of the solution to climate change, as we work towards a carbon-neutral future. In the UK we’re not cutting down rainforests, we’re planting trees. We are champions of animal welfare, when some other countries don’t know the meaning of it. We don’t always get it right and there will always be room to improve, but I believe we have limitless potential, and for that to be realised we need some certainty back in our lives. We need real blue-sky thinking, not the black clouds of a no-deal Brexit. • Will Case is a farmer in Cumbria | ['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/farming', 'tone/comment', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farm-animals', 'global-development/food-security', 'society/society', 'world/food-safety', 'food/food', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'uk/uk', 'world/eu', 'politics/politics', 'type/article', 'profile/will-case', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2019-07-09T05:00:47Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
technology/2018/jan/23/apple-homepod-available-buy-echo-music-first-wireless-speaker-siri-voice | Apple HomePod finally available to buy, three years after the Echo | Apple’s delayed £319 HomePod smart speaker will finally be available to buy on Friday in the UK, US and Australia. The 17.8cm tall HomePod is pitched as a music-first wireless speaker that can be controlled by voice using Apple’s Siri assistant, which can also set timers, reminders, check the weather and control smart home devices. “It brings advanced audio technologies like beam-forming tweeters, a high-excursion woofer and automatic spatial awareness, together with the entire Apple Music catalogue and the latest Siri intelligence, in a simple, beautiful design that is so much fun to use,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. The HomePod was announced in June to ship before the end of 2017, but Apple was forced to delay shipping in November as the product needed more work. Apple could only watch as Amazon got an over three-year head start with the Echo – while Google’s Home is 14 months old – and it now has some catching up to do. Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, said: “This is a critically important device for Apple given the significant head start Amazon and Google have in this area. “HomePod needs to quickly be much more than a high-end audio speaker and the hub for Apple’s smart home ambitions with HomeKit.” The HomePod supports Apple’s Music streaming service and a user’s iTunes library, but support for market-leader Spotify or other competing music services remains in doubt. Similar to competitors, Apple says two HomePods can be used in a stereo configuration, while multiple HomePods can be used for multi-room audio playback, but only after an update due later this year. Mirroring Amazon and Google’s offerings, the HomePod will listen out for the “Hey, Siri” wake word, before streaming voice queries to Apple for action. It will be able to control smart home devices that support Apple’s HomeKit system, pull headlines from BBC, Sky News and LBC, as well as be used as a speakerphone with the iPhone. Siri will also be able to send messages via third-party apps such as WhatsApp, and take notes in apps such as Evernote. But doubts remain over how well Apple’s voice assistant will function, as it is widely seen as lagging far behind Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant in both voice recognition and capability. The HomePod will be available in store on 9 February in white or space grey. Apple says the HomePod will work with devices running iOS 11.2.5 or later, ruling out the iPhone 5 or older devices. How smart speakers stole the show from smartphones | ['technology/apple', 'technology/smart-speaker', 'technology/amazon', 'technology/google', 'technology/amazon-alexa', 'technology/technology', 'music/music-streaming', 'music/music', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/voice-recognition', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-technology'] | technology/gadgets | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE | 2018-01-23T14:44:58Z | true | UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE |
environment/cif-green/2009/jul/13/energy-renewableenergy | E.ON and EDF have drawn the battle lines between renewables and nuclear | Jeremy Leggett | In 2003, the nuclear industry was very nearly killed off in Britain. In 2009, it is so resurgent that captains of the energy industry are arguing it is renewables that should be killed off, or at least kept on a starvation diet. Today, the Confederation of British Industry has thrown its weight behind the nuclear industry's calls for the government to scale back "overambitious" wind power targets in favour of atomic energy. Two foreign-owned energy giants, E.ON and EDF, have recently told the government it must essentially choose between new nuclear and major renewables developments. With global warming, energy security and fuel poverty all rendering energy policy a matter of life and death today, in their own ways, this new polarisation in the nuclear debate is a desperately dangerous development. In 2003, just before the government completed its first energy white paper, nuclear power was kept alive only because a few mandarins insisted language be inserted about a review in five years. Five years of half-hearted government efforts to mobilise renewables and efficiency ensued. Looking back now, many of us in the renewables industries see the dead hand of a civil service Sir Humphrey in the slow-motion episodes of real-life Yes Minister that we lived through. The proportion of renewables in the UK energy mix was about 3% back in 2003. It is about 3% now. With the best renewable resources in Europe, the UK is third from bottom of a European league table topped by Sweden with 40% renewables in the energy mix. Meanwhile, renewables industries globally have been, and are, growing faster than almost all other industries. 2008 was the first year in which more renewables capacity came onstream than fossil fuels and nuclear combined, in both Europe and America. Over the past five years, the solar photovoltaics industry (PV) has grown 600%. Wind has grown 250%. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created. Renewables companies that didn't exist at the turn of the century ride high in stock exchanges. The German government has shown, in a national scaled experiment, that national economies can be run entirely on renewables, overcoming intermittency and covering "baseload" by mixing and matching different members of the renewables family. The renewables industries claim they can run the global economy entirely within 20-40 years. Swimming against this optimistic tide, EDF and E.ON are now warning the UK government that efforts to get to 20% renewables in the energy mix – the official EU target – are not only unrealistic but damaging to nuclear plans. Additional carbon-generating plants will be needed because of intermittency, they say, ignoring the German experience. The EDF CEO, Vincent de Rivaz, says he is concerned that high levels of wind construction will require new British nuclear plants to be shut down when the wind output is high. The truth is that there is only so much money available, and the nuclear advocates – scared by the growth rates of renewables – are scrabbling to ensure most of it goes to them. De Rivaz has yet to persuade his owners, the French government, that his plan to build four British reactors at well over £4bn each makes commercial sense. He has made it clear to Whitehall that he will need major subsidies. And so the battle lines have been drawn for a new phase in the long-running fight to win hearts and minds. The backers of nuclear will argue that grown ups can't expect to get enough energy from renewables, that renewables are too expensive, that they can't cover baseload: arguments that increasingly struggle in the face of fast-emerging real renewables experience abroad. The renewables advocates will argue the reverse. We will push our trump card hard: that our costs, on the whole, are falling, while nuclear's are rising. This means that most renewable electricity will soon be cheaper than nuclear electricity in most markets, and will inevitably fall yet further. This in turn means that the market-enablement mechanisms we need of government – feed-in tariffs, renewables obligations and the like – can be temporary, while the nuclear industry will need subsidies that extend essentially forever. Whatever the logic of the arguments, though, one thing is clear to me, after all these years. This is a battle of cultures. In the big energy companies, and across much of the top of the civil service, many people with grey hair find great difficulty thinking that things can be done differently in energy policy, and/or want to hold on the centralised power that centralised power plants offer. In the renewables industries, a lot of people (generally without grey hair) know that things can be done both differently and better. We know too that decentralised power democratises energy: it delivers power to the people both literally and metaphorically. This is an idea that makes many aged civil servants and energy bosses reach for the dirty tricks manual. Meanwhile, behind the arcane language of the public debate, energy policy remains a matter of life and death. • Social entrepreneur and author Jeremy Leggett is founder and chairman of Solarcentury, the UK's largest solar solutions company. | ['environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/solarpower', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'business/edf', 'business/business', 'tone/comment', 'commentisfree/cif-green', 'type/article', 'profile/jeremyleggett'] | environment/solarpower | ENERGY | 2009-07-13T15:13:23Z | true | ENERGY |
global-development/2012/mar/21/transparency-compensation-uganda-oil-sector | Communities fear arrival of Uganda's oil sector | Local farmer Doke sits surrounded by his family under the shade of a mango tree, on a small farmstead in Kabaale parish, western Uganda. "I've been here for 30 years. I own about two acres of land. But you see, my life depends on this land," he says, pointing to the small plot behind him. The land, on which Doke grows cassavas and other local staples to feed his family, is his only source of income. But he will not be living off it for much longer. The farm falls within an area that's been chosen for a government project to build the country's first oil refinery; an estimated 30,000 people are expected to be displaced. The refinery is a key element of the strategy to maximise revenue from Uganda's newfound oil resources; 2.5bn barrels have been confirmed along the Albertine rift in western Uganda, and the oil sector is expected to generate more than $2bn annually – equivalent to 70% of the country's current GDP – once commercial production begins in three to five years. Like others, Doke worries that he won't get adequate compensation for his land. The government insists local communities will be offered resettlement as well as financial compensation. But civil society groups say the offers made to those already displaced by the oil industry paint a different picture. "The compensation rate is too low … the money they give these households cannot even last them a month," says Winnie Ngabiirwe, chief co-ordinator of Publish What You Pay Uganda. As for resettlement, Ngabiirwe is not convinced by the government's pledges. "I don't see them building good homes for them, or providing decent schools," she says. "I think we'll end up with internally displaced persons in Uganda." In Hoima, the district where Doke lives, the value of ordinary farming land has risen up to tenfold since the discovery of oil. But it's not clear whether government compensation offers will take into account the increased value of the land. Ngabiirwe fears inadequate legislation leaves people unprotected. "The companies and the government are taking advantage of policies that are very outdated, and that suggest very low figures of compensation," she says. Such fears form part of a broader political argument about how the government should manage Uganda's oil resources. Many MPs and civil society groups are pressing the president, Yoweri Museveni, to allow greater transparency in the oil sector, and to implement vital new legislation to ensure ordinary Ugandans benefit from the country's future oil wealth. Many people reacted furiously to the government's decision to sign new contracts with Tullow Oil last month, despite a standing parliamentary resolution banning the signing of any new contracts before important new laws for the oil sector are put in place. "The government completely disregarded parliament. These agreements were made without any proper legal framework," says Theodore Ssekikubo, an MP with Museveni's ruling NRM party but also a staunch pro-transparency campaigner, who tabled the initial oil resolution in parliament. "As long as there is darkness, suspicion, and a way of handling public matters as private entities, that's where we'll go wrong. And we are not ready to accept that," he says. The government denies there was anything unconstitutional about the deals it signed, saying the parliamentary ban did not apply to contracts already under negotiation. A week after signing its contract, Tullow Oil sold two-thirds of its licences to the French and Chinese oil giants Total and CNOOC. A partnership with two such huge oil companies will speed up the development of Uganda's oil sector, bringing a new urgency to demands for comprehensive oil legislation before it is too late. The problem, says Theodore Ssekikubo, is that the government is now "hiding behind the confidentiality clauses of its new contracts with Tullow". He says this makes it impossible to scrutinise the deals they struck to find out how much revenue the government will receive, and where the money will be going. Perhaps hoping to address these concerns, the government has now tabled two new oil bills in parliament, which aim to regulate all aspects of oil production and development. The vital third bill, which will deal with the sharing of oil revenues, is expected soon. Few details are known, but a government minister recently said it would contain a provision for 7% of total oil revenue to go to people living in the oil-producing regions. For his part, Ssekikubo is hopeful about the future. "The way we started is indeed regrettable," he says. "But the positive aspect is that we are engaging with government. The challenge is for the government to reassure the public and MPs that all is not lost, and that we can still take the best out of it." | ['global-development/global-development', 'world/uganda', 'environment/oil', 'tone/news', 'environment/energy', 'global-development/transparency-and-development', 'global-development/governance-and-development', 'world/world', 'world/africa', 'business/oil', 'type/article', 'profile/hugo-williams'] | environment/oil | ENERGY | 2012-03-21T16:08:42Z | true | ENERGY |
science/2009/dec/22/kew-gardens-new-plant-species | Kew Gardens announces bumper crop of new plant species | The quest to catalogue Earth's rich flora has taken botanists to the farthest flung and most treacherous corners of the world, from the humid rainforests of the Amazon to the highest peaks of Borneo. Which made it all the more surprising when Iain Darbyshire stumbled upon a species of plant unknown to science while taking a lunchtime stroll around the Royal Botanic Gardens in west London. Darbyshire, an expert in African botany at Kew, happened upon the foot-tall plant in full bloom, its striking green and grey heart-shaped leaves set off by tiny white and pink flowers. "I just happened to take a different route through the glasshouse that lunchtime and stumbled across it," Darbyshire told the Guardian. "I knew instantly that it was a new species. It was just sat there waiting for someone to study it." Record books revealed the plants had been donated by Swedish botanists in the 1990s after an expedition to the Eastern Arc mountains of Tanzania. Unsuspecting gardeners had tended them for more than a decade, using them as tropical bedding in Kew's Princess of Wales Conservatory. The plant was officially named Isoglossa variegata last month and is among more than 250 new plant and fungus species discovered and described by the gardens' botanists in the past year. Almost a third of all the species are believed to be facing extinction as their habitats are eroded or destroyed by logging, climate change and other environmental disruption. In western Madagascar, Kew botanists hiked across extraordinary landscapes of limestone pinnacles and discovered several new species of wild coffee plant, the most traded commodity in the world after oil. This unique environment has given rise to coffee plants that look nothing like those found elsewhere. Some of the species are conspicuously hairy, and two, Coffea labatii and Coffea pterocarpa, have colourful winged fruit. The region experiences torrential seasonal downpours that create ephemeral rivers and pools across the stoney forest floor. "These winged fruit float very well, so the feature might be an evolutionary adpatation to aid their dispersal," said Aaron Davis, a coffee expert and taxonomist at the Gardens. Alternatively, the wings may ensure the fruit are scattered far and wide by making them more visible to lemurs, which feed on the coffee beans. The hirsute coffee plants might have sprouted hair to protect against harsh ultraviolet rays in the dry season. "There's a misconception that we've found all the plants there are to find, but we are still in a golden age of discovery," said Davis. "We don't know our planet well enough and we are running out of time. Species are going extinct before we even know about them." Around 70% of wild coffee species are in danger of extinction. Elsewhere in Madagascar, botanists noticed two new species of small flowering plants called Gymnosiphon. The bizzare plants draw their energy not from the sun, but from fungi that live underground. Further expeditions to the rainforests of Cameroon led to the discovery of three giant trees that grow to more than 30m high. One, Berlinia korupensis, is a member of the pea family. The tree towers above its neighbours at 42m high and produces foot-long pods that explode when they ripen, propelling seeds far across the forest floor. Among some of the smallest species identified this year are tiny wood-rotting fungi from Australia that are less than a millimetre wide and cover trees like a thin coating of paint. "They are small, but they perform a vital role in decomposition of plant material and recycling of nutrients," said Brian Spooner, a Swedish fungus expert working with Kew researchers. In South Africa, botanists spotted a plant with lumpy wooden tubers that grow up to a metre high. The species was identified as a yam, but only 200 or so are known to exist in the wild. It is under threat from local medicinal plant collectors who use it as a treatment for cancer. Some 20 new species were discovered in Brazil alone, the most striking being a red passion flower that is probably pollinated by hummingbirds and produces edible egg-shaped fruit. The plant was spotted in an expedition to the Amazon rainforest in Mato Grasso, Brazil. The largest haul of new species came from Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Borneo, where botanists Jeff Wood and Phil Cribb have identified 38 new species of orchid. Nearly 900 different species live in a 1,200sq km area of the island. Each new species is identified by detailed visual inspections that are often backed up my genetic analyses. To identify all the world's flora could take another 50 years, but the effort is crucial for conserving rare species and reintroducing species that only exist in protected areas. Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, said the speed of discovery and classification of new species is increasing under the organisation's Breathing Planet Programme. "These new discoveries highlight the fact that there is so much of the plant world yet to be discovered and documented. Without knowing what's out there and where it occurs, we have no scientific basis for effective conservation," said Hopper. | ['environment/plants', 'environment/biodiversity', 'science/science', 'tone/news', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'science/kew-gardens', 'type/article', 'profile/iansample', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2009-12-22T00:00:01Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
world/2023/jun/09/canada-wildfires-smoke-new-york-map-pictures | A visual guide to the Canada wildfires and US smoke pollution | Where are the fires and why are they so bad? There are more than 400 wildfires burning across Canada, with many out of control, according to officials. The fires are unusual in their timing, size and location. The “fire season”, when weather conditions are ripe for conflagrations, has only just begun. A third of the fires are in the boreal forest in the eastern province of Quebec, a place not used to dealing with large blazes. Fires are now burning in every Canadian province except for Prince Edward Island and Nunavut, a frigid northern region where trees cannot survive. The amount of land consumed is also striking – more than 4.4m hectares has burned so far this year (2.7m since the start of the fire season). Why did the sky above New York turn orange? The city’s sky turned from milky white to a dystopian tangerine on Wednesday, bringing with it a smell similar to a campfire. The hazy skies were caused by plumes of smoke from the Canadian fires when winds funnelled the haze first to Ottawa and Toronto and then directly into many of the major population centers of the US east coast. What is causing this? Forest fires are not new for Canada but, much like in other places such as California, scientists have found fire seasons are getting longer and more intense due to the climate crisis. Analysis of a procession of huge fires in British Columbia in 2017 found they were driven by extreme warm conditions made up to 11 times worse by climate change. No attribution study has been done on the current fires, although scientists will probably be undertaking work on these, including a blaze that was the largest in Nova Scotia’s history when it erupted in May. Extra heat and altered rainfall patterns are causing a long-term change in fire behavior. What has been the impact of all this smoke? Unhealthy air warnings at one point covered 110 million Americans, not just in New York but also cities including Philadelphia, Washington DC and Boston. Footage from space taken on 7 June shows Canada wildfires smoke reaching Pennsylvania. In New York, where schools and playgrounds shut down and outdoor activities were restricted, people started donning masks outside not worn since the early days of the pandemic. Health experts said they expected an uptick in hospitalizations due to respiratory and cardiovascular problems triggered by the foul air, which in New York was the worst of any major city in the world. Levels of PM2.5, tiny particles of soot, dust and other burned debris found in smoke, were five times above “safe” national air quality guidelines, posing significant dangers for the lungs of people with health complications, pregnant women, children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups. What happens now? The crisis has somewhat abated for New York and Philadelphia on Friday, with blue skies starting to peep out from behind the haze, although the smoke’s southward path caused Washington to issue an alert, its first ever, over hazardous air quality conditions. And the fires are still burning, with US environmental agencies providing smoke forecasts for the coming days with advice for citizens on what activities to avoid. | ['world/canada', 'world/wildfires', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/canada-wildfires', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'profile/maheen-sadiq', 'profile/lucy-swan', 'profile/seanclarke', 'profile/harvey-symons', 'profile/paulscruton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news'] | world/wildfires | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS | 2023-06-09T18:43:04Z | true | EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS |
environment/2007/jul/21/conservation.endangeredhabitats | Warmer waters threaten pink coral | A mystery disease is destroying rare coral populations around the UK coastline, according to marine biologists. The disease, which has similarities with infections that have decimated tropical reefs, is the first ever identified in cold water corals and the first to be seen in British waters. The researchers have established in laboratory experiments that it is caused by a bacterial infection which seems to be prompted by increases in water temperature. That has fuelled speculation that the recent spate of outbreaks is due to rises in the sea temperature around Britain due to climate change. "Many people know about tropical coral reefs, but are completely unaware that British waters contain a huge diversity of life, including these corals," said Jason Hall-Spencer at the University of Plymouth. "Diseases increasingly affect tropical corals and this is the first record of disease affecting cold-water corals." He first heard reports of the disease occurring around Lundy island, off north Devon, from divers in 2002. They were seeing pink sea fans (a coral species, Eunicella verrucosa, that forms colonies up to 80cm high and a metre across), that had lost their colour and were covered in other marine organisms such as barnacles and seaweed. "When you look more carefully while you are diving you see the pink tissue on the outside has started to slough away, exposing the hard skeleton," he said. Between 2003 and 2006 he and his team surveyed 13 sites known to biologists as strongholds for the species. His team found evidence of the disease at seven of the sites. Damage to the pink sea fan is significant because it is already listed as "vulnerable" by the international conservation Red List. It is also one of the few marine species protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. "They are special because ... they create habitats for other living organisms. They form quite dense communities, a bit like a forest, and that provides hiding places and feeding places for lots of other different organisms," said Brian Zimmerman, a coral expert at London Zoo who is not part of Dr Hall-Spencer's group. The team, which reports its work in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms this month, also identified the bacteria that cause the coral's demise. On their own the bacteria are harmless, but as the water temperature is increased the corals become more vulnerable to attack. | ['environment/environment', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'uk/uk', 'environment/coral', 'type/article', 'profile/jamesranderson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews4'] | environment/endangered-habitats | BIODIVERSITY | 2007-07-20T23:16:39Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
australia-news/2021/jun/18/acting-in-good-faith-farmers-who-underestimated-income-to-have-welfare-debts-waived | ‘Acting in good faith’: Farmers who underestimated income to have welfare debts waived | Farmers who the Morrison government says were “acting in good faith” when they underestimated their income will have $51m in income support debts waived. Labor on Thursday pledged to support a bill that will waive the farm household allowance debts of 5,300 farmers and their partners, following an overhaul of the income reporting process. But the parliamentary library and other policy analysts have noted the reprieve differs from the government’s more hardline approach to debt recovery for those on other social security payments. Under the farm household allowance program, farmers and their partners can receive a fortnightly payment equivalent to the jobseeker payment if they meet an income and assets test. Recipients must estimate their business income, which was previously compared to their tax returns or other financial statements at the end of the financial year. This resulted in a top-up payment or a debt. But the government has since scrapped this process and will instead only audit a “sample of recipients” after a 2018 review criticised this so-called “business income reconciliation” process. The government argues the waiver for farmers is appropriate because farmers were “acting in good faith” and the system was overly complex given the “volatile” nature of farming income. Prof Kay Cook, a social security expert at Swinburne University of Technology, did not oppose the debt waiver for farmers but said it showed “vastly different treatment for benefit recipients in a similar situation”. That was because, like farmers who accrued debts for inaccurately estimating their business income, those receiving payments such as the family tax benefit and childcare subsidy are also required to estimate their annual income. Figures provided to a Senate committee showed that under the family tax benefit reconciliation process 117,166 people were hit with a debt in the 2019-20 financial year. That was equal to 9% of those who had their family tax benefit reconciled. Cook said single parents on family tax benefit part A payments also had varying income, particularly from sources such as child support. This could “vary wildly” if their “ex-partners do not lodge their tax return”, she said. “In these cases, women can be retrospectively deemed to have received too much FTBA and are required to pay it back,” Cook said. “Like farmers predicting crop yields and prices, it is equally difficult for women to estimate child support income that they have no oversight or control over. “They are similarly acting in good faith, but they are vigorously pursued by the government to pay this money back.” Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the National Council for Single Mothers and their Children, said there were more than 200,000 customers in the child support scheme who had not lodged a tax return for two or more years. She pointed to a case where a woman was left with a family tax benefit debt after her ex-partner finally lodged six years of tax returns, which altered his child support liability. The reprieve for farmers comes after a court last week approved a $1.8bn settlement in the robodebt class action that prompted the government to finally repay unlawfully raised debts. In the case of farm household allowance, the debts were raised legally but the government is choosing to waive them. The assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, said this month farmers had been asked to “make difficult predictions about this income for the year ahead” under the old process. “When farmers, acting in good faith, got this wrong, [the business income reconciliation process] would make them liable for a debt,” he said. Sukkar said it would give farmers “breathing space” to “recover from the drought, bushfires, floods and global pandemic”. The move will cost the budget $51m in foregone overpayments and $65.6 million in total. Debts arising from other sources such as undeclared wages and rental income won’t be waived. Last year, the government also changed the way jobseekers and other benefit recipients report their fortnightly pay income because the old system was “confusing” and “onerous”. Since 2015, hundreds of thousands of people have misreported their fortnightly income through this process, which required them to calculate their income when it was earned, rather than when it was received and reported on their payslips. These debts are not being refunded as part of the robodebt settlement because the government says the money is owed. | ['australia-news/welfare-in-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/australia-economy', 'environment/farming', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/luke-henriques-gomes', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news'] | environment/farming | BIODIVERSITY | 2021-06-17T17:30:42Z | true | BIODIVERSITY |
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