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sustainable-business/2014/aug/27/sweets-fizzy-drinks-skin-lighteners-products-sold-poor-communities
|
Sweets, fizzy drinks and skin lighteners: the products being sold to the poor
|
Visit any roadside store in India’s rural hinterland and the stock is remarkably similar. Sachets of shampoo and washing detergent hanging from the window frame; counters piled high with sugary sweets and fizzy drinks; cigarette lighters, pre-paid mobile phone cards and biscuits line the shelves. They are a picture of the free market in miniature. Yet well-meaning westerners – health experts, development workers, sustainability folk and so on – are wont to wince at the sight. Accusations of exploiting the poor follow. Warnings of public health disasters or environmental collapse are made. Are they right to worry? Yes, in part. Statistics clearly show a massive increase in obesity as manufacturers of unhealthy processed foods ratchet up their marketing in the developing world. As for the planet, even the World Economic Forum (not known for putting the reins on global capitalism) admits we cannot carry on as we are. If the world’s middle-classes expand as the WEF predicts, we’ll soon need more than four Earths to manufacture all the iPads, cars and crisps they demand (pdf). There is a knotty ethical problem underlying such arguments. How can those in the rich west – with our warehouse-sized supermarkets and homes full of energy-sapping mod cons – deny the world’s poor a taste of the same? It’s a dilemma. “On the one hand, it’s unfortunate for us to repeat the same mistakes in the third world as in the first world”, says Ajaita Shah, co-founder of Frontier Markets, an Indian-based solar provider targeting low-income communities at the “base of the pyramid” (BoP). On the flipside, she understands the moral outrage felt by millions in the developing world when the west wags its finger at them for wanting Cheerios for breakfast. “You’re basically disempowering that rural customer by not giving them a choice”, she says, in reference the removal of unsustainable or unhealthy goods from the shelves. “It’s kind of hypocritical because you’ve been consuming these from day one”. The industrialised world needs to get its own house in order before it starts preaching to the world’s poor. Anything else is morally indefensible. Not to mention a political non-starter, as the continued stalemate in global climate change negotiations shows. Hypocritical and paternalistic though the west may seem, however, the fact remains that current consumption patterns are unsustainable. Nor should it discourage leaders in the developing world from assessing the pros and cons of western consumerism and considering a more sustainable path. “It’s important for emerging markets not to replicate the west’s unsustainable model, which ignores the social and environmental externalities of mass consumption. After all, we’re talking about an even greater scale here, so the negative repercussions are exponential”, says Marcel Fukiyama, chief executive of non-profit CDI Global and a specialist on Brazil’s low-income consumer markets. Turning the BoP clock back is tricky if not impossible. Business will continue its push to turn the poor into consumers. The prize is simply too big for companies to ignore: $5tn, according to calculations by the World Resources Institute. What’s the solution? Companies should be up-front with poor consumers about the direct and indirect impacts of the products they are flogging. The early signs are worrying. Multinational fast food firms agree not to market to children in the west, for instance. Yet, as the example of India shows, they do so liberally in emerging markets. “You [as a retailer] don’t deny them access; you just make sure they have all the tools to make informed decisions before making the same mistakes twice”, says Shah. Companies looking to enhance the lives of the poor through socially or environmentally friendly products need to get smart. What is it about the branding or marketing that has low-income consumers spending the money they have on a skin lightening cream like Fair & Lovely rather than fluoride toothpaste for their children? What is about the price point, product quality or after-sales service that dissuades the poor from buying water purifiers or cook stoves en masse? Retailers of mass-marketed pap know the answers to these questions only too well; so too must purveyors of sustainable goods. “Good” retailers have two options: they can sit back and complain that their competitors are offering “less than inspiring products” to the world’s poor, or they can take them on at their own game. So argues Jim Taylor, chief executive of Proximity Designs, a Myanmar-based social enterprise delivering products designed to increase farmers’ productivity. He favours the second option: “Our response is to offer products and services that offer really good value and help families achieve their aspirations for a better life.” It’s the right choice. Of course, the rights of poor consumers must be protected. Products that are falsely advertised or unsafe should be banned. Developing world governments should consider steps to mitigate the worst impacts of consumption as well: think a ‘fat tax’ for sugary foods, for instance, or rules on recyclable packaging. But if sustainable products are to win a piece of the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, it behoves their manufacturers to create something that people want to buy at a price they are willing (and able) to pay. That’s just good business after all. Advertising Standards Authority rules Peabody’s ‘clean coal’ ad misleading Why developed countries should subsidize a global price on carbon Advertisement Feature: Low-cost tablet PC looks to aid education in poor communities 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', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'business/business', 'world/india', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'type/article', 'profile/oliver-balch']
|
environment/corporatesocialresponsibility
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2014-08-27T06:00:03Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
environment/shortcuts/2020/mar/09/on-a-roll-is-britain-ready-for-reusable-toilet-paper
|
On a roll: is Britain ready for reusable toilet paper?
|
Mostly, these are the worst of times, but for loo roll purveyors and disruptors it will never be better. Sales are up and supermarket shelves are empty as more and more shoppers stockpile. So we should not be surprised by the rise of reusable toilet roll – squares of washable textiles that are linked together with plastic poppers and sold on sites such as Etsy. If you are, like me, invested in a sustainable lifestyle, the idea is quite thrilling. Reusable represents the gold standard of eco-engineering. Everything that is made and used has an eco footprint, which includes the energy used to create the thing in the first place. Single-use products are the worst, recycled a close second. Historically, squeamishness has put some products out of the reach of reusable design, but this is changing. The product designer Isabel Aagaard of LastObject claims to have sold more than 125,000 units of a reusable cotton bud (since March last year). The same company recently brought out a reusable tissue, which people my age still call a handkerchief. Then there are mooncups instead of tampons and, of course, a long tradition in reusable nappies. But are we ready for washable loo roll? The farcical supply chain of toilet roll is certainly ready for disruption: dead-tree paper (or sawdust) is carted across the world, wrapped in plastic and lined up for sale. Even the most ethical versions such as Who Gives a Crap have to be transported (by ship) and delivered to homes in vans. All paper-making is water-intensive, too. The reusable fabric roll kicks all this into touch. Bidets and flannels have previously been touted as the most eco route, but the lifecycle analysis (the process of adding up all the energy costs) of using and washing them is contentious. One Defra study from 2008 put the dampener on eco nappies, saying they used more energy than disposable ones because parents would typically tumble-dry them. The same may well be true for reusable loo roll – even if many devotees only use them for number ones. They will undoubtedly need to be washed at a high temperature – which takes a great a deal of energy. Questions also need to be asked about whether detergents need to be used and do the textiles shed microplastics when washed? Habit and tradition will ultimately decide whether reusable loo roll catches on. The earliest advert I can find on a perforated roll of paper in the UK is in the Lichfield Mercury from 1885. One Frederic Brown (really) guarantees “satisfaction” through the promise of a neat contrivance to replace the standard packet of paper. He cleverly sold a 100-sheet perforated roll with a handsome holder (cost: 2 shillings). What he understood was that if you want to change a habit, you need to sell a whole system. Today’s disruptors shouldn’t just be selling the squares of textile, but also the hamper that can be closed and easily carried to the washing machine. For mass uptake, they probably need to think bigger than the square.
|
['environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'news/shortcuts', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/lucysiegle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features']
|
environment/waste
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2020-03-09T16:54:42Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
media/pda/2008/jan/18/guardiansviralvideochart2
|
Guardian's Viral Video Chart
|
Tom Cruise is locked in an egomaniacal battle with Apple chief executive Steve Jobs for the top spot on this week's Viral Video Chart. Jobs' unveiled the latest shiny treats from Apple at the conference, including the really alarmingly thin MacBook Air. Some rascal pondered if it was a Phil Collins special edition laptop, but alas no. Those of you that couldn't quite bear to watch Jobs evangelising to his congregation for the full 90 minutes can watch the delightful 60-second version, courtesy of Mahalo Daily. It's all the Mac with none of the pomp, but I can't see it catching on at Apple HQ. There's not enough whooping in it, for starters. Cruise control I watched Cocktail on telly the other night, and Tom Cruise seemed like a nice young chap. Skip forward twenty years and he's public enemy two, after the president. Some sneaky lizard smuggled out a video of Tom speaking about Scientology and saying that it can cure drug addicts, unite cultures and create world peace. Now where would the American economy be without the war industry, Tom? Derrr! Such is the influence of the Church - and this is shocking - that YouTube has removed the offending videos - no doubt under some spurious copyright claim. The rest of the web is being systematically scoured for them so if you're curious, get in there quick! I do the best parties Australian party brat Corey Worthington has had more than his fair share of publicity after a house party went out of control. The 16 year-old's guests and gatecrashers started damaging cars outside his parent's in Melbourne and his parents could be slapped with a $20,000 fine. That didn't stop him bragging on national TV. The well-meaning newsreader on the ACA show tried to rattle him into taking off his sunnies and apologising, but he wasn't having any of it. "What would you say to other kids who were thinking of partying when their parents are out of town?" "Get me to do it for you," he quipped. "It was the best party ever so far - that's what everyone's been saying." My Favourite Despite all that drama, my three favourite videos were The downfall of HD-DVD, the Aquaduct bike and People in order. It's a bit inside baseball, I confess, but the brilliance of re-editing Downfall to document the last, tortuous hours of the Blu-Ray format is very satisfying. The Aquaduct is an extremely clever bike for the developing world which purifies water while as it goes along, and People in Order is a charming social document of people aged one to one hundred. Who's your favourite? Guardian Viral Video Chart compiled by viralvideochart.com 1 Apple MacBook Air in an envelope The official ad for 'the world's thinnest laptop'. 2 Steve Jobs MacWorld 2008 keynote in 60 seconds The digested version. 3 Richard Hammond presents Bloody Omaha (the graphics) More editing magic, this time showing how three Timewatch editors created Omaha beach scenes for the BBC2 show. 4 Funny kid isn't sorry about huge party Mrs Newsreader thinks he should say sorry. 5 The downfall of HD-DVD The desperate final hours of the doomed Blu-Ray HD-DVD format. 6 Apple MacBook Air MacWorld 2008 A guided tour of the world's thinnest laptop. Did you hear that? It's the world's thinnest laptop. OK? So that's the world's thinnest laptop... 7 Tom Cruise Scientology video Until stocks last... 8 Huckabee: Amend constitution to reflect God's standards Yep - God forbid we'd have a contemporary view of how to treat each other. Sheesh. 9 Disintegrator: the movie (rubber band gun) You really will take someone's eye out with that. No, really. 10 Extreme Makeover: home edition hard fall Linda Barker never got a response like that. 11 Tom Cruise on Scientology This video is being systematically removed from the web, but this news report explains more. I found another copy here. (Sorry, Scientologists.) 12 MacBook Air's thin obsession Even the world's computers want to be size zero. 13 Stupid girl gets what she deserves Hello? Are you OK down there? 14 Obama prefers Ronald Reagan over Bill Clinton More election waffle. 15 Cloverfield: official HD trailer Official trailer for the disaster film. 16 Shocking story of Half Man Half Tree Trailer for a TV documentary about an Indonesian man with an horrific skin condition. Really. 17 People in Order (correct version) Just lovely. 18 Steve Harvey's Morning Show: prank call He pretends to be trapped in a cupboard while burglars have broken in to his house. 19 William Shatner: 'Rocket Man' (1st generation copy) Shatner covering Rocket Man is in own inimitable style. Funny that never caught on. 20 Innovate or die: The Aquaduct mobile filtration vehicle A water-carrying bicycle for the developing world. Source: viralvideochart.com. Compiled from data gathered at 16:00 on 17 January 2008. The Weekly Viral Video Chart is currently based on a count of the embedded videos and links on approximately two million blogs.
|
['media/pda', 'technology/series/viralvideochart', 'media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'technology/digitalvideo', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'tone/blog', 'media/media-blog', 'type/article', 'profile/jemimakiss']
|
technology/digitalvideo
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2008-01-18T07:00:00Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
environment/2024/mar/29/bolivia-shipwreck-colombia-treasure
|
Bolivian Indigenous groups assert claim to treasure of ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’
|
Indigenous communities in Bolivia have objected to Colombia’s plans to recover the remains of an 18th-century galleon believed to be carrying gold, silver and emeralds worth billions, calling on Spain and Unesco to step in and halt the project. Colombia hopes to begin recovering artefacts from the wreck of the San José in the coming months but the Caranga, Chicha and Killaka peoples in Bolivia propose that the galleon and its contents should be considered “common and shared patrimony”. A substantial part of the treasure onboard the San José is believed to have been mined by the forced labour of Indigenous peoples in Bolivia, so Colombia’s plans to lift the remains without consulting their descendants would violate international law, the communities said in a letter to Unesco this week. “Not having our consent, our participation and without taking into account how it will impact the present and future of our communities is irresponsible and contrary to justice,” they wrote. “We do not have the right to forget, and nor do Spain or any of the American republics … have the right to erase or change our memory.” The San José was carrying an immense bounty of gold, silver and emeralds from Latin America back to Spain in 1708 when it was sunk by a British fleet off the coast of Cartagena. Since the wreck was located 600 metres (nearly 2,000ft) underwater in 2015, the discovery has been mired in international legal disputes including an ongoing case in The Hague. Colombia, Spain and a US salvage company all lay claim to the wreck – which has been dubbed the “holy grail of shipwrecks” –and its cargo, thought to be worth as much as $17bn (£13bn). The Colombian government announced in February that it would soon begin exploring the shipwreck and eventually hopes to build a museum dedicated to the 150ft (46-metre) vessel. The government has put aside $7.3m for the first exploration phase which will require hi-tech robots to scour the seabed. But the Bolivian Indigenous communities argue that Colombia does not have the right to explore the San José without including the descendants of those who mined the precious metals which went into the treasures onboard. Much of the San José’s cargo is believed to have been dug up from the Potosí mines in southern Bolivia, making it “shared historical and cultural heritage”, they said. The Bolivian communities have requested that Spain and Unesco intervene before Colombia can begin unilaterally lifting the remains of the wreck from the seabed. “The memory of our people is attached to those remains that rest on those sunken ships, in a way that we do not choose, as one of the peoples who gave their work and their own history to work in the mines of Cerro Rico de Potosí,” the letter reads. The Potosí mines were the largest in the world and an economic engine of the Spanish empire. Historians believe that before the mountains were stripped bare of the precious metal they were the source of more than half of the world’s silver. The riches were dug up by Indigenous people and African slaves then carried on llamas to the coast and transported to Europe on Spanish treasure fleets such as the San José to fund colonial wars. “We think that extracting important fragments from that era from the bottom of the ocean is like discovering an island, and on that island live our memories and the objects that the work of our ancestors created,” the three Indigenous Bolivian groups said. The director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, Alhena Caicedo, recently told the Guardian that, in accordance with Unesco’s requests, the country would not sell any precious artefacts recovered. The exclusion of Indigenous communities in the discussion of the fate of the San José was “inexplicable”, said José María Lancho, a lawyer in Madrid representing the three Bolivian groups. “We have enough rights, enough historical experience and I want to believe enough morals to be able to accept and accommodate the claims of those communities …intervening in the site without the consent of these people would be a form of plunder,” he told the Guardian. Spain and Colombia were missing out on a “a historic opportunity” for reconciliation, he added. Should the Colombian government lift any elements from the San José and use them for profit, even if they are placed in a museum, Indigenous communities should be paid “fair compensation for the use of our cultural legacy”, the Bolivian communities argued in their letter. The Colombian ministry for culture did not comment on the letter but said that it had invited another Indigenous community, the Qhara Qhara, to participate in its plans to explore the ship’s remains. While the Caranga, Chicha and Killaka lay claim to the San José’s treasure on the grounds that their ancestors were forced to dig up and process the silver, the Qhara Qhara lay claim to the archaeological treasures through their rights to the land.
|
['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'world/colombia', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/luke-stephen-taylor', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development']
|
environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2024-03-29T09:30:35Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2017/apr/06/dont-fund-coal-mine-activists-plead-with-australian-export-credit-agency
|
Don't fund coal mine, activists plead with Australian export credit agency
|
Environmental action groups including Greenpeace, Oxfam and GetUp have signed an open letter to Australia’s export credit agency asking it not to fund a controversial new coal mine. The groups say a loan to the proposed Resgen Boikarabelo mine in South Africa will lead to human rights abuses and hinder Australia’s Paris commitment to keep global warming below 2C. The 9,000-hectare open-cut mine is currently being considered by the export credit agency, Efic, with submissions having closed in October last year. Once complete, the mine is expected to produce 32m tonnes of coal a year, with Resgen claiming to have production contracts for the first seven years of operation, and partial contracts for the next 30. “If Efic were to fund this project, it would clearly be inconsistent with Australia’s obligations to act on climate change,” the letter reads. “Human rights abuses in the South African coal industry are rampant. Reports by affected communities have documented black lung disease amongst coal workers, noise and air pollution, groundwater contamination, loss of farmland due to pollution, and land acquisition.” An official submission to Efic from the Australia Institute and the Jubilee Australia Research Centre said it was “hard to see any possible justification” for Australian taxpayers to fund the project. “The assessment of environmental and social impacts is below standards expected in Australia and if linked to construction of a power station, Efic would be violating an [OECD working group] agreement not to fund new coal-fired generation,” it reads. “Even if Boikarabelo is financially viable it is unlikely to be in Australia’s interests as it will compete with Australia-based coal mines ... if ‘successful’ the project will increase greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa or abroad, contributing to climate change.” The mine’s accompanying infrastucture and train line is also expected to open up access to the Waterberg coalfield, thought to hold 40% of South African’s coal reserves. Resgen estimates the untapped region could hold as much as 75bn tonnes. In order to keep global temperature rise to less than 2C, the Australia Institute reports recommends the Waterberg coalfield must be left untouched. Boikarabelo – which means “responsibility” in the Sotho language – is described by Resgen as a “world-class, low-cost, open-cut coal mine”. The proposed site lies in the country’s northern Limpopo province, which frequently suffers droughts and ranks highly on government surveys of national poverty. “Mining in South Africa has a negative impact on women,” says Lorraine Kakaza, a South African activist. “At the environmental level, the air that they breathe is polluted. The soil, it’s no longer fertile, they can’t plant, they can’t do anything. They lose their loved ones at an early age due to the gasses – the carbon dioxide they inhale almost every day.” ActionAid’s Lucy Manne said the letter was a “warning to the Australian government that Australians are paying attention to how our dollars are being invested abroad”. “While the nation’s eyes are on the future of the Adani coal mine, Efic and the Australian government are quietly considering using tax-payer dollars to fund a new coal mine in South Africa. Efic thought this proposal would slip by unnoticed, but this letter shows the outrage they can expect.” Other signatories to the letter include the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Australian Conservation Foundation, Jubilee Australia, the Wilderness Society and the SEED Indigenous Youth Climate Network. In January, the Coalition proposed an amendment to the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act that would allow Efic to directly finance businesses that substantially manufactured overseas, which the Australia Institute said would hasten the “offshoring of Australian manufacturing”.
|
['environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/carmichael-coalmine', 'environment/coal', 'world/southafrica', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/naaman-zhou', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news']
|
environment/coal
|
ENERGY
|
2017-04-06T09:53:49Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
environment/blog/2009/may/29/hammersmith-eco-village-squat
|
Bibi van der Zee: Will Hammersmith eco-village inspire new generation of Diggers?
|
The spirit of the Diggers has been invoked once more with plans to seize land in Hammersmith next week in order to create an eco-village. The Diggers were a group of 17th-century English radicals led by Gerard Winstanley, who has been referred to as the father of both communism and anarchism. Winstanley realised that one-third of England's land was barren waste, which the landowners would not permit the poor to cultivate. He declared: ... if the waste land of England were manured by her children it would become in a few years the best, the strongest and flourishing land in the world. So on 1 April, 1649, Winstanley and his followers began to dig over a patch of common land in St George's Hill in Walton-upon-Thames. They were soon chucked off, and then chucked off the next spot they tried out. Winstanley gave up in the end, and became a Quaker instead. But the idea had taken root, and has never been killed off since. The action on Saturday is the latest incarnation of this long-running movement. After the second world war we had ex-servicemen taking over land because of a housing shortage. In the 1970s, the squatter movement used empty houses for the homeless and poor. In the 90s, gardening protest camps flowered at Twyford Downs, the M11 extension, Newbury. But perhaps the prototype for this urban eco-village was in 1996 when activists occupied a huge plot of wasteland owned by Guinness next to the Wandsworth bridge in south-west London (see the video above). The so-called Pure Genius experiment ulimately failed - the land is now occupied by a large development of luxury flats - but was fun while it lasted. Further afield other land grabs are squatted for longer periods such as in Brazil where the landless people's movement is now well into its second generation. In Mexico, the Zapatistas came out of the jungle to declare their desire for autonomous space in 1994. Since then groups in cities across Europe have shared a desire to be educational and enlightening; they want to demonstrate by their existence that there is another way to live. One of the key ways to identify these groups' spaces is that they have clear rules, clear disciplines. A typical example is a ban on alcohol and drugs (as the Zapatistas do) because of the impact these things can have on the morale and reputation of the squatted community. Climate Camp is a good example of these groups. It even has "tranquility teams" to calm down situations that could escalate into a fight. And of course the shortness of these camps makes them much easier to run. The attempt to build an eco-conference centre on the island of Raven's Ait earlier this year (conference centre? What is squatting coming to?) might have been another example - but it didn't last very long. And this latest eco-village in Hammersmith, with its plans to distribute explanatory leaflets to everyone in the neighbourhood, and its earnest discussions of composting toilets, may well be another. But will people be inspired by a successfully run eco-squat? Or will there just be another round of "freeloader" headlines?
|
['environment/blog', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/bibivanderzee']
|
environment/activism
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
2009-06-01T10:14:24Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
education/2020/oct/01/legal-threat-governments-anti-capitalist-guidance-schools-political
|
Legal threat over anti-capitalist guidance for schools in England
|
Campaigners have threatened the government with legal action over new guidance that tells schools not to use resources from organisations that have expressed a desire to end capitalism. In a pre-action letter, the Coalition of Anti-Racist Educators (Care) and Black Educators Alliance (BEA) said the guidance would prevent teachers from using material from groups including Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion, limiting anti-racism teaching. In guidance issued last week for school leaders and teachers in England, the Department for Education (DfE) categorised anti-capitalism as an “extreme political stance” and equated it with opposition to freedom of speech, antisemitism and endorsement of illegal activity. The guidance also states that schools should not “under any circumstances” work with or use material from groups that do not “condemn illegal activities done in their name or in support of their cause” or promote “victim narratives that are harmful to British society”. Care and BEA said the guidance would prevent young people from engaging with teaching about racism, discouraging the use of material produced by Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, the charity Inquest “or another campaigning organisation that seeks to draw attention to the disproportionate impact of state violence (including against Black men).” The letter says that as it is unclear what “victim narratives” means, schools could be discouraged from using resources produced by organisations that campaign for rights for minority groups. The groups have began to fundraise to proceed with a judicial review if the department refuses to withdraw the guidance. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the Labour MP for Streatham, said: “I support this legal challenge. Freedom of speech and an educated population are two fundamental pillars of democracy. We cannot move forward as a society without respecting them both. “These guidelines are a deeply worrying erosion of these two principles by an authoritarian Conservative government that has lost all credibility among the young.” A spokesperson for Care said: “This guidance will have a chilling effect in the classrooms. Our schools are filled with inquisitive young people and we should be doing everything necessary to ensure they are given all the tools and information to have rich discussions on topics such as inequality. “This guidance prevents that by restricting access to materials and no-platforming organisations that don’t curry favour with the government.” Rachel Harger, a solicitor at Bindmans, said: “The guidance, which was published without consultation or warning, is a clear statement of the secretary of state’s own political preferences and the ban on the use of teaching materials related to leftwing or political groups is clearly unlawful, serious and far-reaching. “The guidance constitutes an assault on the common law right to freedom of speech, freedom of religious belief, and has a disproportionate impact on protected groups such as the black and trans community.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our new relationships, sex and health education (RHSE) guidance is clear that schools should not work with agencies that take extreme positions. Schools should already be aware of their duty to political impartiality, as set out under the Education Act 1996. “We would still expect subjects to be discussed in a balanced way as part of a school’s wider curriculum where relevant. “More widely, our guidance is designed to give schools the confidence to construct a curriculum that reflects diversity of views and backgrounds, whilst fostering all pupils’ respect for others, understanding of healthy relationships, and ability to look after their own wellbeing.”
|
['education/schools', 'politics/education', 'education/department-for-education', 'education/education', 'world/race', 'world/black-lives-matter-movement', 'environment/extinction-rebellion', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/aamna-mohdin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news']
|
environment/extinction-rebellion
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
2020-10-01T14:05:34Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
commentisfree/2018/jan/06/the-hands-of-thomas-and-making-good-in-a-disposable-world
|
Repair cafes and 'making good' in a disposable world | Anna Sublet
|
Here are the hands of Thomas, delving deep into the belly of the fan, coils cast out, covers ripped asunder. They work among scattered mouse poo pellets and spanners. Discarded surgical gloves give the scene a slightly sinister air. But that’s before I have really settled in. I have entered a room packed full of workers, the repairers, and expectant repairees at the St Kilda Repair Cafe in Melbourne. Held at the EcoCentre on the second Sunday of each month, the repair cafe exists to promote repairing and recycling of household goods, to foster an appreciation of “making good”, repairing to restore functionality. Thomas picks up a mouse poo pellet using a scrunched up latex glove. It looks like he’s holding a tiny turd with a condom. Flick. Away with you, mouse poo! There’s the necessary output of the disassembled toasters, brought to bare their innards to a community of fixers. Fixer-upper-ers. Or nerds. Earnest workers. Carers. People who care. Possible carriers of genius. Men closely inspecting the bellies of toasters, burnt crumbs spilling from within, women turning kettles upside down, dragging a needle through old cushion fabric, righting a zipper, making a curtain edge seem new again. There’s a slight lifting of heads, a turning of eyes, a scrunched nose: “What is burning? Can anyone smell that burning?” An iron glides across old cotton. Around us, the ripped open sides of toasters. Lights flickering on in an old lamp. The slightly unnerving buzz of electrical sizzle. A surprised yelp of excitement, a head held atilt in wonder. As a community service, I can feel the change being wrought as I sit face to face with a stranger, who has it in his power to fix my goods, or not. In the process, does he work something on my being too? Is he drawing me out as he delves deep into the oscillating column? Pieces I would never have seen are pulled out of the internal cavities: a heavy, bound cylinder encased in gleaming metal, tiny washers, threatening to fall from the end of the screw. My mind goes to words to describe a foreign country of physics and forces: capacitor. What does it even mean? I drop the word, like an offering, but it turns out to be more like a piece of mouse poo. It’s no capacitor. I’m messing with the lingo, swirling words in my mouth as I watch Thomas work. We talk of Seattle, and the night he met his girlfriend at a band, 17 years ago. He is wearing a T-shirt, which holds all the Washington state cities within a lexicon map of Australia. Words at right angles and twisted around coastlines to fit. He has shaped himself now to St Kilda, where he is making sense, or not, of my old retro fan. His white sticky name tag, THOMAS, sits just above Queensland, over his left nipple. At the end of the bench, a repair man is cradling his head, looking perplexed and murmuring, “I feel so embarrassed … I can’t fix it. I feel … so embarrassed.” It’s like a confessional. There is support, no condemnation, a gathering around of the clan. Still, he seems inconsolable, in a quiet, devastated way. My fan had stopped spinning over those hot weeks in November, and now Thomas has found out why: a metal bridge, built to hold the spinning shaft in a central position between magnets, has snapped. There would be no way to get parts for this old fan. It’s an Aiko, op shop-bought, certified safe, but now bound for the bin. Someone comes to offer his wisdom, dispensing a second opinion: “We’d need a 3D printer to fix that. If we had one, we could print the part.” My mind starts whirring. Something transformative has happened in the unmaking and the surrender, the opportunity to again create from what has been deemed worthless rubbish. The room is filled with common purpose, shared wisdom, care, respect, wonder, delight – I think it’s a thing called community, and it’s been a while since I have sat in its embrace. I entrust to Thomas one of my belongings, he deconstructs it, and it disgorges pieces across the table, sprawled among the pellets and spanners. At a certain point I realise we have crossed over the line of where the piece can be reassembled and made to work anew. A sense of surrender gently moves through me and the hands of Thomas. My mind turns to art, and what could be made with the bits of cast off metal, the decorative covers, the plastic propeller. With some springs from a broken toaster, or a lamp shade … There’s a thought. Recycled art prospects for future creations. So many things to make, connections to work on, community to foster. Art from rubbish, and yes, a 3D printer would be handy, thanks. So I shake the hand of Thomas and say goodbye and start thinking about the next session, when I can bring in that dinky old lamp that had belonged to my great-grandmother. I’m sure we can make it shine again, and if not, we’ve at least shared something over its innards, a little ray of communal hope. • Anna Sublet is a freelance writer
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['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'lifeandstyle/diy', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/anna-sublet', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-opinion']
|
environment/waste
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2018-01-06T23:29:53Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
world/2007/aug/03/turkey.weather
|
Turkey rations water as cities hit by drought
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Turkey's two major cities are grappling with water shortages after record low levels of snow and rain in the winter and searing summer temperatures. Reservoirs are less than 5% full in the capital, Ankara, home to 4 million people, according to the country's water authority. On Wednesday the municipality began a water restriction policy of two days on, two days off. A project to divert water from a nearby river was launched in March, but the water is not expected to reach the city until November. Authorities were considering delaying the start of the school year until mid-October to avert the spread of disease, according to the mayor, Melih Gokcek. Hospitals were being supplied with ground water carried by tankers. Water cuts could be increased to four days, the Ankara water department director, Ihsan Fincan, said yesterday. The municipality was planning to send 16,000 of its employees on summer vacation to save on water in the city, he said. The reservoirs of Istanbul, a city of more than 10 million, have sufficient water to last another three to four months, according to water authority estimates. Istanbul has no plans to impose similar water cuts, its mayor, Kadir Topbas, said. The city was also trying to divert water from nearby rivers. Mustafa Cagrici, the mufti or chief cleric of Istanbul, told the private news channel NTV yesterday that special prayers were being said across the city for rain. "In times of trouble, it is natural for people to seek Allah's help for problems that they cannot solve," he said. Sales of large plastic water containers have surged in Ankara and elsewhere, with residents stockpiling water, Posta newspaper reported. Sales of bottled drinking water were also up.
|
['world/world', 'world/turkey', 'environment/drought', 'environment/water', 'world/middleeast', 'world/natural-disasters', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international']
|
environment/drought
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2007-08-02T23:01:06Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
global-development/2017/mar/01/lush-heartlands-of-nicaragua-miskito-people-spark-deadly-land-disputes
|
Lush heartlands of Nicaragua’s Miskito people spark deadly land disputes | Mira Galanova
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Santiago Vásquez’s seven children are hungry. It has been months since he last went to his field. Tending crops has become a dangerous endeavour along Nicaragua’s eastern coast. Since 2015, dozens of men in the area from the Miskito indigenous people – and other groups, including the Rama and Ulwa – have been killed, women have been raped and families taken captive on the way to their farms, hunting or fishing, according to Cejudhcan, an NGO defending the rights of indigenous people in the region. When the bodies of two men from the community of Esperanza Río Coco were found dismembered last August, Vásquez stopped going to his field. “My farm is a two-and-a-half hour walk away. I had cattle, pigs and chickens there, but because of the settlers, I had to abandon it all. I don’t have a good gun to defend myself,” he says. Increasing violence has been fuelled by the promise of cheap virgin land, precious timber and gold, which has lured people to the lush tropical rainforests. The new settlers are mestizos, Nicaraguans of mixed Spanish-native American descent. “In 2004, there were 44 settler families on the Awas Tingni territory. In 2012 it was 475. The number has increased considerably in 2014, with some institutes speaking of more than 800 families. And this is just one territory,” says Lottie Cunningham, a human rights lawyer and founder of Cejudhcan. Nicaragua was a pioneer in granting significant land rights to native people. There are 23 indigenous territories stretching across 24,000 square miles and they are home to more than 200,000 indigenous people. The law bans the sale of indigenous land. When the newcomers began to outnumber locals, the Miskitos, who had long tolerated the presence of mestizos on their territories, demanded they leave. Violence erupted, with victims on both sides. “[The Miskitos] have sold us the land, but they don’t honour the deals. They want us to pay them over and over again,” says Alfredo Montiel, a member of a mestizo farmers’ association formed in response to the land conflict. “If we refuse, they want to evict us.” Mestizo farmers accuse Miskitos of appearing to sell them land, when they are actually selling permits. Some farmers are unaware that the sale of land is illegal, others are not. Miskitos admit some people have acted corruptly and have called for an investigation. “If there are indigenous people involved in this, they should be punished,” says Cunningham. “There shouldn’t be a whole community suffering.” Publicly, the government has sided with the Miskitos. In 2013, it created an inter-institutional commission, chaired by the prosecutor general, to tackle the issue. It has dismissed several public registrars and arrested lawyers and public notaries involved in the sales of indigenous lands. The investigation has implicated prominent opposition politicians. There is a suspicion that, despite the official discourse, the government is secretly in favour of the settling. “Ex-president Arnoldo Alemán was the first to support the invasion of settlers into the Caribbean coast in order to satisfy farmers’ demands for land and to win political capital in the regions. The invasions would continue during the governments of Enrique Bolaños and the commander Daniel Ortega,” says Gilles Bataillon, a French sociologist who has studied conflicts in the region. Some believe that the Miskitos, with their subsistence farming, do not value the development potential of the area. Mestizos, on the other hand, engage in large-scale cattle farming. With beef being one of Nicaragua’s main exports, the settlers make a substantial contribution to Nicaragua’s GDP. The Miskitos believe this is partly why the government has allowed the violence on the Caribbean coast to continue unabated. The government has ignored calls from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights to adopt measures to protect Miskitos. The two men from Esperanza were decapitated just a few days after the commission’s third request. Last September the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered Nicaragua to protect the indigenous people. The government response said a new military base on the Coco river looks after the communities. The sister of Gerardo Chale, one of the decapitated men, is bitter about such protection. “When my brother was kidnapped I went to the military base in Wasput Ta to ask them to come with us to search for him. They said they were not authorised to help us,” says Lina Chale. Both Miskitos and mestizos claim there has been no investigation into the crimes, and police often refuse to register their complaints. “The government told the court that it has received no complaints regarding the land conflict. That all the 2,000-and-something complaints registered in 2015 on the Caribbean coast were common crimes,” says Cunningham. “This means that they do not want to classify these murders, disappearances and kidnappings as a land conflict.” Neither the police nor the army responded to requests for comment. Meanwhile, hunger among the indigenous communities has become a major factor. Almost 3,000 Miskitos have fled their homes to escape the violence since 2015, according to Cejudhcan. Many have ended up in informal refugee camps in neighbouring Honduras, where they live without any official humanitarian aid. At least four children are reported to have died from starvation. Unable to withstand the harsh living conditions, many Miskitos are returning home. It is now time to sow rice, beans and cassava. Vásquez has been providing his family with meagre rations by helping people who have their plots closer to the village. “I am in the state that if someone comes and asks me to fight over the land, I won’t think twice,” he says. “I have children to feed. The land is our life. There is nothing without it.”
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['global-development/natural-resources-and-development', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/global-development', 'global-development/governance-and-development', 'environment/environment', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/land-rights', 'world/nicaragua', 'world/world', 'world/americas', 'world/indigenous-peoples', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development']
|
environment/sustainable-development
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2017-03-01T07:00:01Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
commentisfree/2017/sep/29/ban-wood-burning-stoves-sadiq-khan-london-polluted-air-hygge
|
Ban wood-burning stoves? Not in my back flue! | Deborah Orr
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First they came for the free plastic carrier bags. We applauded. Then they came for the cheap taxi rides back to the ’burbs. We yelled, “Bravo!” Now they have come for the wood-burning stoves. At last, the metropolitan elite is moved to say: “No. Enough. Not in my back flue.” Sadiq Khan, who we thought was our friend, has written to Michael Gove (of all people). He is asking for increased powers to tackle air pollution in London. Which is fine. Air pollution in London is very bad. Those poor children in their pollution hot-spot playgrounds. Except that among the miscreant habits in his sights, Khan has included the use of wood-burning stoves. That’s right. Our wood-burning stoves. The wood-burning stoves we installed just five years ago, partly because we were told this was environmentally friendly and partly because Victorian houses were designed around a fireplace focal-point and, really, all that 1970s boarding-up was an appalling lapse in taste. Yes, some of us opted straightforwardly for the open fire, a little guilty about the absence of fuel efficiency. It’s expensive, installing a wood-burning stove, after all. And, occasionally, you’re entitled to wonder, surely: “What difference to the tragedy of global warming at this frighteningly rapid pace will my own one little indulgence make?” Also, it is very nice to sit on our Oka sofas, gazing at our William Scott prints, giving our Danish pottery the occasional pat, yet feeling close to nature, primal even, as the flames flicker over our faces, just as they have always done, ever since the fire lighter was invented. Who could begrudge us a little touch of elemental power, trapped behind glass within the sanctuary of our own homes? Who could deny us the satisfied feeling that honest labour has been honestly done, when we say to the log-delivery man: “Over there, please”? Sadiq Khan. That’s who. The man whose lasting memorial is now set to be 1.5 million wood-burning stoves filled with wrinkled conkers, dust and the ashes of southern bourgeois dreams. Is this really what the mayor of London wants? Khan, no doubt, blames particulates. They are an easy scapegoat. Earlier in the year, research was published in the New Scientist, suggesting that “pollution nanoparticles may enter your blood and cause disease”. The idea is that the tiny particles enter the bloodstream, lodge in arterial fatty plaques and exacerbate heart conditions. A lot. There’s also reason to believe that they can enter the brain, causing dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In other words, particulates are likely to be an even more pervasive problem than gaseous air-pollution. As for hygge, the Danish idea of cosy comfort that has swept Britain in recent years, who is thinking about our hygge in all of this? We are extremely fond of the idea that our wood-burning stoves are benign. How could this disaster have befallen us. Who is to blame? Previously, anti-pollution campaigners have focused on violations of nitrogen dioxide levels. The campaign group ClientEarth has for years been challenging the government to take greater action against urban pollution, and with great success. ClientEarth has a bug-bear about diesel, another supposedly environmentally friendly alternative that turned out not to be. But who has diesel as part of their gracious living matrix anyway? Sweaty old diesel users have only got themselves to blame. How could they ever have believed that diesel was a clean fuel? Some people don’t have the sense they were born with. Except, of course, that the whole wood-burning myth comes under this category too. In order to embrace the harmless naked flame idea, one had merely blithely to suppress common sense. Global anti-poverty and justice campaigners, for example, have been highlighting the damage to health caused to women who cook over open fires for decades. Cooking on an open fire has been likened to smoking 400 cigarettes an hour and is linked, research suggests, to four million premature deaths each year. How anyone ever believed that directing all this filth into the air outside our homes made all that danger go away is the actual mystery here. Yet, I know for a fact that a prominent green used to pride himself on dragging wheelie bins full of discarded wood back home to provide ethically warming recycled fuel, and advised others to follow suit. The madness. I’m totally guilty myself of the magical thinking that allows us to believe that the things that we want for ourselves are harmless, even moral. I got my chimneys relined some years ago, so that I could get away a bit from the evil grasp of the energy companies while simultaneously making sense of my handsome black slate fireplaces. It finally got through to me, earlier in the year, that fires were part of the problem in London and being pious about not driving wasn’t going to cut it any more. I decided that I’d use up the fuel I still had, then stop. I’ve only lit two fires since that time, and I’m seriously considering hoarding the stuff that is left for special occasions. I have Yule Logs to last until 2021. • Deborah Orr is a Guardian columnist
|
['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/pollution', 'uk/london', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/deborah-orr', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion']
|
environment/pollution
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2017-09-29T15:07:20Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
australia-news/commentisfree/2022/jun/17/now-is-the-perfect-time-to-increase-coal-royalties-to-fund-australias-energy-transition
|
Now is the perfect time to increase coal royalties to fund Australia’s energy transition | John Quiggin
|
After dealing with multiple natural disasters, and facing the need for huge investment in an overloaded electricity system, it’s not surprising the Queensland government is in search of extra revenue ahead of next week’s budget. The obvious source, already flagged by the treasurer, Cameron Dick, is an increase in royalty rates for coal. These rates, set on a sliding scale according to the price of coal, have been frozen for the last 10 years, as promised by the Newman LNP government after a small increase in 2012. With the 10-year freeze now expired, resources groups are lobbying intensely for no changes to the existing regime. But there is a logical case for increasing royalties on coal, which is currently trading at spectacularly high prices. For most commodities, the high prices we are now observing would be a signal of favourable prospects. For coal, it’s the opposite. World coal consumption peaked in 2014, and is predicted to decline steadily over the next decade. Many countries have already ended the use of coal to generate electricity, or will do so in the next few years. Metallurgical coal, used in making steel, will last a bit longer. But the coal-based blast furnace technology is already facing the prospect of replacement by coal-free techniques using renewable hydrogen. While coal demand has flattened out, new investment in coalmines has dropped far more rapidly. Investors can see that there is no long-term future in coal. Witness BHP’s inability to sell its Mt Arthur coal mine, which it announced on Thursday would close in 2030. Meanwhile, global financial institutions have abandoned the industry, pledging not to finance or support new coalmine projects. In these circumstances, there is only limited supply response available to meet temporary increases in demand, like those arising from the strong economic recovery after Covid, followed by sanctions imposed on Russia. The result is the sharp increase in prices we have seen recently. Coal is on the way out, but a good deal of money can be made in the meantime, while high prices last. Most major corporations, with a long-term future in mind, have abandoned the industry. Those that remain need to reap profits fast, which is why they are more determined than ever to resist any increase in taxation. But the same analysis applies to royalties, the price paid by miners to the public as owners of the coal resource. Usually there is a trade-off in setting royalty rates, between maximising revenue while protecting the long-term future of the industry. However, this no longer applies. Investment in new coalmines is in long-term decline, whether or not royalty rates are increased. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Queensland’s focus must be on gaining additional revenue while export demand remains strong and using it to transform our energy system. The transition to a carbon-free energy system will require big capital expenditures. In particular, public investment in carbon-free energy through CleanCo needs to be greatly expanded. As well as decarbonising our own electricity grid, the government needs to plan for the future of regions which currently rely on coal exports as a major source of employment. Many of these are well suited to produce solar, wind and hydrogen. From the government’s viewpoint, the impending decline of coal is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is the need for a transition to a future beyond coal, both as a source of energy in Australia and as a major export commodity. The opportunity is to use the current period of high coal prices to finance the transition to a decarbonised economy. John Quiggin is an Australian laureate fellow in economics at the University of Queensland. He is prominent both as a research economist and as a commentator on Australian economic policy.
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['australia-news/queensland-politics', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/coal', 'business/mining', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/john-quiggin', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news']
|
environment/coal
|
ENERGY
|
2022-06-16T17:30:00Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
uk-news/2021/feb/12/queens-property-chief-delays-sale-of-scottish-seabed-windfarm-plots
|
Queen's property chief delays sale of Scottish seabed windfarm plots
|
The Queen’s property manager in Scotland has delayed the auction of Scottish seabed plots for windfarms after runaway bids for leases in England and Wales handed the Queen and the Treasury a multibillion-pound windfall. Crown Estate Scotland paused its auction in order to carry out a review of the process after the “unprecedented” bidding in an auction for England and Wales lease options last week reached record highs. The Queen and the Treasury could share a windfall of up to £9bn over the next decade from the England and Wales auction after energy companies including BP offered to pay five times more than expected for the option to build new windfarms. Crown Estate Scotland decided with ministers in the Scottish parliament that it would be “sensible” to undertake a six-week review of the structure for its own auction to ensure it secures “a fair price” for the seabed sites along the Scottish coast. Many within the renewable energy industry have blamed the structure of the Crown Estate’s auction for allowing aggressive “closed envelope” bids from oil companies to skew the market value of the seabed lease. BP took its first step into the UK’s offshore wind sector during last week’s auction with bids for two windfarms worth 15 times the rate paid by developers in the past, raising concerns within the industry that the rocketing seabed prices would inflate the cost of reaching the UK’s climate targets. Energy executives have warned that the costs would ultimately mean higher energy bills, and lower returns for green investors. The UK government hopes to build enough offshore windfarms to power every home in the UK by 2030. Crown Estate Scotland manages the Queen’s property, but unlike the Crown Estate – which manages property in the rest of the UK – it does not return its profits to the Treasury or the Queen. Instead, the revenues are handed to the Scottish Consolidated Fund, which in turn finances the Scottish government. The review will conclude on 24 March, but Crown Estate Scotland has not set a new date for the start of the auction, which was due to begin next month. Amanda Bryan, the chair of Crown Estate Scotland, said the “unprecedented outcome” of the auction for England and Wales “has, overnight, changed the market dynamics around offshore wind leasing, and could have significant implications for offshore wind development in Scotland”. The Crown Estate’s auction for seabed plots in England and Wales guaranteed the Treasury and the monarch total payments of £879m a year from windfarm developers, for up to 10 years. This would hand the Queen a share worth close to £220m a year to run the official royal household and pay for repairs to Buckingham Palace. Roseanna Cunningham, the Scottish government’s cabinet secretary for environment and climate, said: “In light of the significant changes that we are now seeing in the wider UK offshore wind market, ministers have agreed with Crown Estate Scotland that it would be sensible to review our leasing process.”
|
['uk/scotland', 'business/energy-industry', 'uk/queen', 'uk/monarchy', 'business/bp', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jillian-ambrose', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business']
|
environment/renewableenergy
|
ENERGY
|
2021-02-12T13:54:31Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
australia-news/2023/jan/11/absolutely-buggered-paddleboarding-couple-survive-three-days-adrift-off-queensland-coast
|
‘Absolutely buggered’: paddleboarding couple survive three days adrift off Queensland coast
|
A Queensland man who rescued a couple who say they spent three days adrift at sea has told the extraordinary tale of their survival. Lorne Benussi said he had just fallen asleep on Monday night when he heard screams for help outside his boat. He and his father, Denis, had been on a recreational fishing trip and were anchored at a sandbar in Yellow Patch on Curtis Island. Benussi said when he shone a torch into the water, he spotted a young couple going under as they struggled in the sea. The Benussis raced over in their tinny, battling torrential rain and strong winds to rescue the couple. When they arrived, they found the pair had been treading water and were so weak they had to be dragged into the boat. “They just collapsed, they could hardly move. They were just absolutely buggered, the pair of them,” Benussi said. He said they took the couple back to the boat, where they ate, drank and had hot showers. “The young bloke, he must have drank a bit of salt water,” Benussi said. “He was sort of cramping and very broken. “I gave them cordial, trying to get their sugars up … they were up and down all night trying to get water.” Benussi said the exhausted couple slept for most of their time onboard. When they finally woke up, they told him they had been at North West Island, about 55km east of Yellow Patch. The couple, who are believed to be in their 40s and from Brisbane, said they had been dropped off at the island on Saturday for a camping trip. Benussi said he understood the couple had planned to remain on the island until next Tuesday, but had drifted out into the ocean after getting caught in a tide while paddleboarding. North West Island is remote and off-grid. It does not have reliable reception and visitors are advised to bring VHF marine band radios with them on camping trips. The couple were among about 25 passengers who travelled by boat from Gladstone to the island on Saturday, according to Curtis Ferry Services’ owner Adam Balkin. “The easiest way to explain it is it’s a wilderness experience,” Balkin said of the island. “There’s no fires, no generators. You either gotta have battery-powered fridges or gas cooker here and bring your own water.” He said the couple’s camping gear was being packed up and returned to the mainland on Wednesday. “Obviously we’ve still got their car parked in our yard so we will be catching up with them some point over the next 24 to 48 hours.” He said there had been between 40 and 50 people camping on the island in recent days, adding it was important to share plans with fellow campers in such an isolated location. “It’’s a very unfortunate circumstance and it’s pretty rare. That’s the first time they’ve lost anyone from the island in a paddleboard situation.” Benussi said the couple were extremely lucky to have floated towards the coast when they did. “If they had floated the other way it would’ve been a whole different story,” he said. “They even said a lot of boats went past them and they were yelling out and screaming out, waving their arms around but no one saw them.” The Benussis stayed anchored for the night due to the low tides and patchy reception. On the journey home the next morning, Benussi finally got bars on his mobile. He texted his nephew in Blackwater who rang the water police and ambulance service. When the paramedics arrived at the Rosslyn Bay marina on Tuesday morning, Benussi said the couple were taken out of the boat on stretchers. A spokesperson at the Queensland Ambulance Service said “two patients were transported to Capricorn Coast hospital in a stable condition” after being found in the ocean where they were “reportedly adrift for three days”. Benussi said the pair were fortunate to be alive after floating through shark-infested waters and losing their paddleboards before they were rescued. “We’ve had a few close friends that have perished at sea out here. So they’re very fortunate they were able to hang on to the board for as long as they did,” he said. “They wouldn’t have been able to tread water for much longer.” Balkin added: “If you were just floating in the water with no life jacket or nothing on and you make it more than 36 hours, you got to buy some lotto tickets.”
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['australia-news/queensland', 'environment/great-barrier-reef', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/eden-gillespie', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news']
|
environment/great-barrier-reef
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2023-01-11T06:45:39Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
world/2008/sep/02/hurricanegustav.hurricanekatrina
|
Hurricane Gustav: New Orleans levees beat weakening storm
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The partially rebuilt levees in New Orleans have held against hurricane Gustav, but authorities today warned of more storms to come after the weather system weakened and veered to the west of the city. Dramatic television footage showed waves being forced by 110mph winds over the tops of the flood defences on the west side of the city, just like Katrina in 2005. The hurricane made landfall near Cocodrie, a thinly populated town west of New Orleans known for its fishing and oil industries. Eight deaths were attributed to the storm in the US, but five of were traffic-related. Four people died in Georgia when their car hit a tree. A 27-year-old Lafayette man was killed when a tree fell on his home and an Abbeville couple died when a tree fell on a house in Baton Rouge. The New Orleans sewerage system was damaged and hospitals were working with skeleton crews on backup power. Drinking water continued to flow in the city and the pumps kept working — these two critical services failed during Katrina, contributing to its high toll. Sea level surges were limited to less than 3m (9ft) in some places. Katrina produced surges of 8m. The city's eastern wall, breached in 2005, has been repaired by the army corps in a rebuilding programme scheduled to last until 2012, but the western wall has yet to be reinforced because of a lack of funding. The city's mayor, Ray Nagin, warned residents it was too early yet to return but said their homecoming was "only days away, not weeks". He urged residents to "resist the temptation to say 'we're out of the woods'" and said heavy rainfall could still flood the city. The authorities took pride in a massive evacuation effort that succeeded in persuading people to leave on buses and trains. Almost 2 million people left coastal Louisiana, and only about 10,000 rode out the storm in New Orleans. "I would not do a thing differently," Nagin said. "I'd probably call Gustav, instead of the mother of all storms, maybe the mother-in-law or the ugly sister of all storms." Gustav devastated parts of Louisiana and Texas, destroying homes and flooding parts of mostly rural, low-lying parishes. There are threats from other storms developing in the Atlantic. Hurricane Hanna strengthened today 40 miles north of the Bahamas and could hit the US later in the week. Tropical storm Ike, the ninth of the season, is brewing up behind Hanna in the mid-Atlantic. While Gustav did not reach Katrina's magnitude, it left communal and political chaos in its wake. The first day of the Republican party convention in St Paul, Minnesota, was disrupted as John McCain and his advisers struggled to find the appropriate tone. George Bush, who was criticised for negligent and insensitive handling of the Katrina crisis, cancelled his planned speech to the convention and went instead to Texas. At an emergency centre in Austin, he said: "The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina."
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['us-news/hurricanegustav', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'world/hurricanes', 'cities/cities', 'type/article', 'profile/edpilkington', 'profile/matthewweaver']
|
us-news/hurricane-katrina
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2008-09-02T08:46:57Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
commentisfree/2015/jun/08/climate-change-deniers-g7-goal-fossil-fuels
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We’re all climate change deniers at heart | Oliver Burkeman
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At yesterday’s summit in Bavaria, the G7 leading industrial nations agreed to phase out fossil fuels by the end of the century. It’s easy to be cynical about these things, but these official goals really matter. And one big reason is this: in the absence of intergovernmental action, we are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with this problem as individuals. In fact, if a cabal of evil psychologists had gathered in a secret undersea base to concoct a crisis humanity would be hopelessly ill-equipped to address, they couldn’t have done better than climate change. We’ve evolved to respond more vigorously to threats that are immediate and easy to picture mentally, rather than those that are distant and abstract; we’re more sensitive to intentional threats from specific humans, rather than unintentional ones resulting from collective action; we’re terrible at making small sacrifices in the present to avoid vast ones in future; our attention is seized by phenomena that change daily, rather than those that ratchet up gradually over years. And should it dawn on us that our behaviours don’t match our beliefs – that we’re not doing our bit to save the planet, even though we think we should – we find it far easier to adjust the belief (downgrading the importance of climate change) than the behaviour (flying less, having fewer children). In one strikingly depressing scene in his recent book Don’t Even Think About It, climate change activist George Marshall interviews the Nobel prizewinning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, the leading scholar of cognitive biases, and tries to nudge him into saying that understanding our brains’ limitations will, at the very least, make it easier to overcome them. “I’m not very optimistic about that,” Kahneman replies, despondently sipping tomato soup. “No amount of psychological awareness will overcome people’s reluctance to lower their standard of living. So that’s my bottom line: there is not much hope. I’m thoroughly pessimistic. I’m sorry.” The pessimism of experts provides yet another reason to pay attention to something else, anything else, instead of climate change: why choose to spend your days feeling relentlessly depressed? Then there’s the problem the scientist and filmmaker Randy Olson has called “the great unmentionable”, which is that climate change is incredibly boring. “I dare you to find any major programme studying public attitudes toward climate”, he told the New York Times, “and willing to call it what it is … [which is] quite possibly the most boring subject the science world has ever had to present to the public.” It feels shameful to admit that I agree, as if calling something uninteresting is to say that it’s also unimportant. In fact, though, the opposite is true: the most important challenges are frequently the least interesting, because they involve the slow workings of complex impersonal systems, rather than stories of individual humans. Even once you grasp that people in general are terrible at responding to a threat such as climate change, though, there’s another hurdle: it remains much harder to accept how far you’re prone to such psychological pitfalls yourself. (This bias against perceiving your own bias has its own label: the bias blind spot.) It’s easy enough for any of us who aren’t climate-change deniers to engage in armchair psychoanalysis of them: they’re mired in denial and defence mechanisms, busily constructing online communities of like-minded people to help shield themselves from guilt, from accepting the need for personal sacrifices, or from contemplating their mortality. It’s much more difficult to accept that, in a subtler sense, you might be a climate change denier yourself. But the drive to eliminate cognitive dissonance – to rid yourself of the discomfort that comes from holding contradictory beliefs, or failing to act in accordance with your beliefs – is an awesomely powerful thing. People who become parents, for instance, actually seem to start taking climate change a little less seriously, according to Marshall’s evidence. You might think having children would elicit greater concern for the welfare of future generations – but what wins out, apparently, is the desire not to feel guilty about the environmental impact of procreation. Equally tricksy is “moral licensing”, the phenomenon whereby performing a virtuous action provides you with a self-righteous inner glow, leaving you feeling justified in performing some less virtuous action – even if the damaging impact of the latter far outweighs the benefits of the former. This is surely endemic in “ethical living”: if you feel so good about yourself for recycling paper that you take an additional long-haul flight each year, your commitment to the environment has straightforwardly made matters worse. As a journalist, it’s troubling to speculate how much journalism on climate change has a moral-licensing effect on the journalists involved: will writing this piece make me feel as if I’ve done my bit? Marshall makes a resolute effort to end his book on an upbeat note. We must change the narrative, he explains, framing the crisis as one happening here and now, not in the future, and to humans, not polar bears. He visits American mega-churches and suggests we learn lessons from US religion, which manages to connect with the reverence that millions of people feel for certain “sacred values”; climate campaigners should talk in these terms as much as in the language of rational trade-offs and the risk of future destruction. And we must be as stringent in questioning our own assumptions, and scrutinising our own propensity to bias, as those of others. (Committed environmentalists might start by closely examining their motives for rejecting potential technological solutions.) Personally I lean more towards Kahneman’s pessimism. Yet the same self-questioning stance surely demands that I acknowledge even pessimism has its selfish payoffs: if there’s nothing to be done, I might as well not bother trying to do anything. Despair can be a kind of denialism, too.
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['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'science/science', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'science/psychology', 'uk/uk', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/oliverburkeman', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate']
|
environment/climate-change-scepticism
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
2015-06-08T17:09:10Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
world/2011/apr/06/ireland-police-protesters-recording
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Irish police officers 'made sexually offensive remarks about protesters'
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Ireland's police force has become embroiled in controversy over allegations that two officers made sexually offensive remarks about two environmentalists. Two separate investigations are under way following claims that remarks of a sexually suggestive and disturbing nature were made by police after the arrest of two women involved in a protest against a gas pipeline owned by Corrib Shell. A recording claimed to be of the police officers speaking about rape in relation to one of two female campaigners they had just arrested was released by the Shell to Sea protest group on Tuesday night . The recording is believed to have been made by accident after police took a video camera from the women. The Garda Ombudsman Commission said it had not received a report about the incident in County Mayo, but added that it was in the public interest to investigate it. A senior officer from outside the Mayo region has been appointed to carry out a separate investigation. The woman, who had travelled to Mayo to support the Shell to Sea protest, were arrested after one of them climbed on to a tractor while the other filmed her with the video camera. They were put in a patrol car and driven to Belmullet Garda station. The camera was placed in a second patrol car. Shell to Sea said police in the second car did not realise the camera was still recording and when it was handed back to the two women it contained details of a conversation between officers. A Shell to Sea spokesperson said the alleged remarks were shocking and disturbing. Sinn Féin had earlier requested that the commission launch an inquiry into the alleged threats. Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said victims of sexual crime should not be deterred from contacting police. He said: "I want the message to go out to the community and particularly to victims of sexual crime that they should report those crimes to gardaí who can take the necessary steps to vindicate and protect their rights and I want to assure them that they will be met with compassion and sensitivity."
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['world/ireland', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'tone/news', 'environment/activism', 'type/article', 'profile/henrymcdonald', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/international']
|
environment/activism
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
2011-04-06T16:59:43Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
world/2023/oct/20/its-time-for-us-to-go-the-mexican-fishing-village-swallowed-by-the-sea
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‘It’s time for us to go’: the Mexican fishing village swallowed by the sea
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Antonio Merlin watched from his living room window as the ocean inched closer to his home. When the 55-year-old fisher built the concrete house with mosaic tile floors for his wife and four children in the village of El Bosque in 2002, the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico was nearly a kilometre away, a 15-minute walk from his back door. But since 2019, residents of El Bosque say a series of severe weather fronts, bringing heavy rain and powerful winds, have been eroding the shoreline. As the ocean has encroached, more than 60 homes in the village have been destroyed by the waves. Among them was Merlin’s, which was overtaken by the sea in 2021. “The idea that the sea would someday arrive at our door was unthinkable,” said Merlin, who has lived in the village since 1987. “Once the sea entered our homes, it began to knock them down one after another.” In El Bosque, the ocean has wiped out more than half of the village’s homes, as well as the primary school, kindergarten and a main road. While Mexico is in the throes of multiple climate emergencies – from severe drought and water shortages in some areas to flooding and forest fires in others – El Bosque, with a population of 400 people, is its first recorded instance of a village overtaken by rising sea levels. Further erosion of the shoreline and destruction of the village is inevitable in the coming months, according to climate experts from organisations such as Greenpeace and Conexiones Climáticas. El Bosque, which is located on a thin peninsula bordered to the east by the Gulf of Mexico and to the west by the Grijalva River, has been historically susceptible to hurricanes, though it has been the ferocious fronts in recent years that have devastated the village. Experts say that in a year’s time, the entire village could be underwater. “There is no way that the members of the community will be able to stay where they are now,” said Pablo Montaño, the general coordinator of the Mexican environmental activism group Conexiones Climáticas. “In the past year alone we’ve seen 30 metres of the shoreline disappear and the ocean overtake a block and a half of homes and the school.” An aerial view of abandoned homes in El Bosque. Photograph: Gustavo Graf Along the eastern side of El Bosque, the destruction of the village is clear as the foamy Gulf of Mexico tide crashes into remnants of decimated concrete homes and the fractured walls of the abandoned school. The one wall of the school that still stands displays the letters of the alphabet and a whiteboard with multiplication tables written on it. After the tide reached the school last December, classes were moved across the street to a ramshackle zinc shack with dirt floors, where students’ classes have been reduced from full time to two one-hour lessons a week. “It’s impossible for our kids to continue learning in conditions like this,” said Guadalupe Cobos as she surveyed the sand-covered desks in the shack. Destroyed buildings on the shoreline School furniture lies covered in sand in the school shack and, right, the remains of the old school building. Photographs: Adam Williams Cobos, 46, who has lived in the village since 1986, says her children now commute to school in the town of Frontera, a 15-minute drive from El Bosque. “Not all the kids in El Bosque have this option,” she says. “So many no longer go to school at all.” After the ocean swallowed Merlin’s home, he and his family took refuge in the village church, where they have been living since 2021. The family and the hundreds of other residents who lost their homes, are among a growing number of Mexicans displaced by the climate crisis. “We are now migrants in our own country,” said Cobos. “The government says they will assist us with relocation, but we’ve been hearing that for years.” Displaced residents of El Bosque. Photograph: Gustavo Graf In February and again in May, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was asked in his daily morning press conference about the government’s plans to provide housing for the residents of El Bosque. López Obrador, who is from Tabasco, in the same state as El Bosque, said the village’s emergency was “being attended to” by the government. El Bosque’s inhabitants, however, are losing faith that help will arrive. They say they have been told by government agencies on multiple occasions that they will be relocated, but those assurances remain unfulfilled. The Mexican government is “looking to offer an adequate housing alternative for the families affected by climate change” in El Bosque, the national housing commission, known as Conavi, told the Guardian by email. A sign hangs on a line with the words ‘How do you imagine your home/school?’. Photographs: Conexiones Climáticas Children’s drawings of houses hang on a line. Alongside the drawings are the words, in Spanish, ‘How do you see the sea?’ “Land is required to relocate the families,” Conavi wrote. “At this moment, a definitive location has not been defined and various options are being explored.” Conavi said the federal, state and municipal government “will attend to the needs of the community”, adding that “the relocation process isn’t a linear or mechanical process where each of the steps is defined”. In the meantime, residents of El Bosque live in fear that the next hurricane or major front of rain and wind will wash away the few remaining homes still standing. “We might be the first community affected by rising sea levels in Mexico, but we won’t be the last,” Cobos said. “Climate change is in our homes, our streets and our schools. It’s here to stay, and it’s time for us to go.” The tide laps trees and the remains of a building. Photograph: Gustavo Graf
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['world/mexico', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/oceans', 'environment/environment', 'world/americas', 'world/world', 'environment/sea-level', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/sea-level
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2023-10-20T14:00:19Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
business/2018/feb/26/starbucks-5p-takeaway-cup-charge-london
|
Starbucks trials 5p takeaway cup charge in attempt to cut waste
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Starbucks will be the first UK coffee chain to trial a “latte levy” – a 5p charge on takeaway coffee cups – under plans that aim to reduce the overuse and waste of 2.5bn disposable cups every year. In the latest offensive in the war against plastic waste, the chain said it hoped the move, starting on Monday, would help change behaviour and encourage customers to switch to reusable cups instead. In the three-month trial, consumers buying hot drinks in takeaway cups in 35 selected London branches of Starbucks (including the City and West End) will have to pay an extra 5p. Baristas across the chain will also offer customers drinking in store a ceramic cup, cutting paper use further. Its research, published on Monday, revealed that almost half (48%) of consumers said they would definitely carry a reusable cup to avoid paying the extra 5p. The trial is being carried out with the environmental charity Hubbub, which will receive the proceeds of the levy and use it to fund further research. In January, MPs on the environmental audit committee called for 25p to be charged on top of the price of a hot drink, as concerns grow over coffee cup wastage. In the government’s 25-year environment plan released that week, Theresa May announced a call for evidence into charges for single-use items. Disposable cups cannot be recycled by normal systems because they are made from cardboard with a tightly bonded polyethylene liner that is difficult to remove. As a result, just one in 400 cups are recycled – 0.25%. Half a million coffee cups are dropped as litter each day in the UK. Although some coffee shops offer discounts for customers who bring their own cup, uptake of these offers remains low, at only 1 to 2% of purchases. Yet the impact of the plastic bag charge – which reduced bag usage by more than 83% in the first year – showed consumers were more responsive to a charge than a discount. “We’re hoping that this charge will remind customers to rethink their use of single-use plastic-lined cups, as it has with plastic bags,” said Simon Redfern, vice-president of communications at Starbucks Europe. “We’ve offered a reusable cup discount for 20 years, with only 1.8% of customers currently taking up this offer, so we’re really interested in working with Hubbub to see how this charge could help to change behaviour and help to reduce waste.” The trial comes after financial incentives to encourage consumers to use reusable coffee cups have had disappointing results. In 1998 Starbucks was the first coffee chain in the UK to offer users of reusable cups a discount – 10p – before upping it to 25p in 2008. In 2016 it doubled this to 50p, but take-up remained low and it is now back to 25p. Earlier this month Pret a Manger doubled its discount to 50p on all hot drinks bought by customers with reusable cups, and is planning to launch its own reusable cup later in the year. In 2017, Hubbub led the successful Square Mile challenge campaign that recycled 4m cups from the City of London in nine months. The Hubbub co-founder Gavin Ellis said: “Previous studies have shown that adding a charge on single-use cups is more effective than money off with a reusable cup. We’re excited to be working on this initiative with Starbucks to find out if this is the case on the high street and to discover what else will encourage people to use reusable cups.” The Q&A about reusable cups was amended on 26 February 2018 to clarify that Greggs offers a 20p discount to customers presenting any such cup, not just its own-brand ones.
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['business/starbucks', 'uk/uk', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/pollution', 'food/coffee', 'food/food', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/waste', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/rebeccasmithers', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news']
|
environment/waste
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2018-02-26T07:26:20Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
uk/2011/jan/21/police-spy-married-suspended-duty
|
Police spy who married activist suspended from duty
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One of three police officers revealed by the Guardian to have infiltrated the green protest movement has been restricted from duty pending an investigation into his professional conduct. Jim Boyling, who carried out covert surveillance for five years while undercover as eco-activist Jim Sutton, was accused of engaging in sexual relationships with targets. It emerged this week that Boyling had married an activist and had gone on to have two children with her before divorcing two years ago. Details emerged of a complicated double life, in which he persuaded his ex-wife to change her name by deed poll so as not to raise the suspicions of senior officers. Laura (not her real name) told the Guardian she met Boyling, 28, after he infiltrated Reclaim the Streets, an environmental group known for bringing busy streets to a standstill in protests against cars. After embarking on a relationship, which she described as "the deepest love I thought I'd ever known", Laura said Boyling disappeared for a year before he revealed his true identity after a chance meeting. She described the effect of the surveillance operation as one that "wrecks lives". In a statement, the Metropolitan police said: "A serving specialist operations detective constable has been restricted from duty as part of an investigation following allegations reported in a national newspaper." Boyling is said to have become a key organiser in Reclaim during an operation that ran from 1995 to 2000. Under the false identity of Sutton, a 34-year-old fitness fanatic, Boyling gained the trust of the group, helping out with a van. The revelations have sparked a crisis in undercover operations and led to the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), responsible for some sensitive police operations, to be stripped of three teams involved in tackling so-called "domestic extremism". Three of the four police officers at the centre of the crisis – all male – are all believed to have conducted sexual relationships while undercover. Mark Kennedy, the first policeman to be revealed as an undercover operative, and who is no longer an officer, had several sexual relationships while posing as an activist. His naming as an undercover officer by eco-activists led to the collapse of the trial of six people accused of planning to break into a power station in Nottinghamshire. Jon Murphy, chief constable of Merseyside and the senior police officer managing the crisis, said it was "never acceptable" for undercover officers to have sexual relationships with their targets. "Something has gone badly wrong here. We would not be where we are if it had not," Murphy said. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) is investigating Acpo's decade-long covert operations into the protest movement.
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['uk/police', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'uk/undercover-police-and-policing', 'type/article', 'profile/joadetunji', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews']
|
environment/activism
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
2011-01-21T21:08:28Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
environment/2013/sep/26/naomi-klein-political-challenges-cutting-emissions
|
Naomi Klein fails to recognise political challenges of cutting emissions | Robin Rix
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Offsetting – the practice of paying others to reduce their emissions for you – is the world's best first step in tackling collective inaction on climate change. This view contradicts what is often expressed in these pages, most recently by my compatriot Naomi Klein in her criticisms of green groups. But it reflects one simple truth: the Earth's atmosphere is agnostic about who emits. So long as global emissions are capped at the level that science demands, their distribution is irrelevant. The world's largest and best known offset mechanism is the clean development mechanism (CDM), administered under the auspices of the United Nations, which Klein described – along with the Kyoto protocol and the European emissions trading system – as "disastrous" at cutting emissions. Operational since 2001, it has registered more than 7,200 projects and issued credits corresponding to almost 1.4bn tonnes of emission reductions. It has channelled more than US$215bn in technology, knowledge, and finance to developing countries, virtually all from private sources at negligible taxpayer expense. The CDM also provides an extensive library of technical tools for assessing appropriate emissions levels in well over 100 areas, including energy, industrial processes, and transportation. Emulated from California to China, these tools provide an essential basis for measuring, reporting, and verifying emissions data and have been universally praised. For three reasons, the CDM is the ideal bridge to the world that we all want. First, it gets the ball rolling by providing quick wins. Offsetting lets emitters sponsor emission reductions wherever they are cheapest and easiest to achieve. The cost of reducing emissions varies significantly across countries and sectors, and the CDM has the world's broadest geographic and sectoral reach. As such, the CDM allows for an identical quantity of reductions to be achieved at the lowest possible cost. In turn, these savings can be – and have been – spent on adopting tougher emission targets. Second, mechanisms like the CDM build domestic constituencies supportive of ever stronger action on climate change. These include those you would expect, such as environmentalists and vendors of clean technology, but also those who otherwise have no skin in the game, such as investors, financial institutions, and companies motivated by corporate social responsibility. And supportive constituencies matter if you want to do more ambitious things, given that warnings about long-term climate impacts are beyond many politicians' time horizons and pale next to the desire for economic growth. Third, the CDM has acquainted emitters around the world with the practice of reducing emissions. A point underappreciated by Klein and others is that countries are sovereign: they face no legal imperative to reduce their emissions and, to the contrary, face intense political pressure to emit as much as they can. Offsetting normalises the practice of reducing emissions, such that all major emitters now speak openly of limiting their emissions and implementing policies and measures to do so. Would they – or more accurately, could they – have done so absent their experiences with mechanisms like the CDM? None of this means that the CDM is perfect. It needs to move beyond the one-to-one ratio between reducing emissions in one location and increasing emissions in another location. Although it already employs various means to do precisely this – and has most likely delivered a net benefit to the atmosphere – further steps are needed. These largely involve more conservative assumptions about emissions at every stage of the process and are being actively explored. The CDM also needs to address the criticism that a small number of projects have had damaging non-climate impacts, such as dams flooding villages or covered landfill sites putting waste-pickers out of a job. The United Nations is on public record as supporting greater transparency in assessing the impacts of CDM projects, and it is committed to addressing and resolving any allegations of negative impacts. Equally, the undisputed benefits of the vast majority of CDM projects should not go neglected, among them reduced local air pollution, better human health outcomes, and increased employment. More broadly, offsetting needs a world with strong emissions targets set at the level necessary to give the world a fighting chance at avoiding runaway global warming. This will require a significant increase in ambition, requiring major shifts in patterns of production and consumption, particularly in developed countries. Offsetting bridges the gap between the way things are and the way things should be. It does not "solve" climate change any more than food banks solve hunger or shelters solve homelessness. But it is an essential first step, creating a platform of stability on which more ambitious policies can be built. Efforts to improve it and increase its use should be strengthened, not shunned, as the world moves toward a global climate agreement by its self-imposed 2015 deadline. • Robin Rix is the lead officer for carbon markets strategy at the United Nations climate change secretariat
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['environment/carbon-offset-projects', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'books/naomi-klein', 'type/article']
|
environment/carbon-offset-projects
|
EMISSIONS
|
2013-09-26T11:47:21Z
| true
|
EMISSIONS
|
business/2017/feb/14/toshiba-fuels-crisis-fears-delays-earnings-writedown-nuclear-westinghouse
|
Toshiba fuels fear of crisis after delaying earnings report
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Toshiba has unexpectedly delayed the release of a key earnings report and details of its rumoured withdrawal from overseas nuclear projects – including one in the UK – amid reports that it could suffer net losses of 500 billion yen ($4.4bn). The delay sent shares in the Japanese conglomerate down by 8% in Tokyo, and added to speculation that its financial problems could become an existential crisis. Toshiba’s chairman, Shigenori Shiga, is to resign to take responsibility for the massive writedown looming over its troubled US nuclear subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. Shiga, whose resignation was expected, is a former chairman of Westinghouse. Toshiba was scheduled to release details of its writedown of Westinghouse on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a press conference by its president, Satoshi Tsunakawa. But in a brief statement, the company said it was “not ready” to release the report, a delay some have interpreted as a sign that the company is in even deeper financial trouble than it has previously reported. Toshiba later said it had asked regulators to allow it to delay the release of its earnings and details of the nuclear writedown by a month while it investigates possible managerial wrongdoing at Westinghouse. Tsunakawa signalled this month that new nuclear projects would be reviewed in response to the anticipated multibillion-dollar writedown related to the purchase of a nuclear construction and services business by Westinghouse. The company was expected to confirm on Tuesday that it is withdrawing from new nuclear projects outside Japan, dealing a blow to plans for the planned power station at Moorside in Cumbria. Westinghouse, Toshiba’s US-based nuclear developer, produces the AP1000 reactors that were to be used at the £10bn station at Moorside, near Sellafield. Toshiba also has a 60% stake in NuGen, the company that was to build the Moorside facility. Toshiba is rumoured to have approached Korea Electric Power as a potential buyer for its stake in NuGen, according to the Nikkei business paper. The construction of a new nuclear station in the UK had carried hopes of creating thousands of jobs and boosting the country’s energy security. Instead, Toshiba’s withdrawal from the UK nuclear power market would leave a gaping hole in the British government’s nuclear strategy, said Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary. “The government’s energy policy is in chaos. We have become increasingly reliant on the decisions of foreign companies whose interests lie with their owners and not British consumers,” Long-Bailey said. “If Toshiba pulls out … the government must intervene immediately and provide public support and financial stability for Moorside and the community of west Cumbria. “That means taking a public stake in exchange for public support to protect energy supplies and jobs. Labour backs new nuclear and an expansion of renewable energy to keep the lights on and meet our climate change targets.” Hours before Toshiba cancelled its earnings announcement for April-December, the Nikkei said the company was preparing to warn that it may not be able to continue as a “going concern” as a result of massive losses linked to Westinghouse and doubts about its restructuring plans, but did not provide details. “The delay shows that the company is in a mess,” said Makoto Kikuchi, chief executive of Myojo Asset Management. “We can assume that the company is not delaying its earnings release for good news. The market speculates that Toshiba will be releasing figures worse than what is being reported already.” The delay follows growing expectations that the charge for the writedown in its US nuclear business could be as high as 700bn yen ($6.2bn) – enough to wipe out the group’s shareholder equity. During the past few decades, Toshiba has been wholly or partly involved in the construction of 20 nuclear reactors in Japan, none of which is currently operating following the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in March 2011. Westinghouse has built 91 reactors around the world, of which 67 are still operating, 12 are closed and four are in long-term outage. Toshiba’s withdrawal from the Moorside project “will see all parties with a vested interest running to the government in a desperate bid to secure billions in taxpayers’ funding”, said Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Germany. “Decades ago the nuclear industry moved into a post-fact world – unforgivably, successive governments and opposition parties have been willing accomplices. But as the Toshiba meltdown shows, eventually reality catches up with you.” If Toshiba’s liabilities exceed its assets at the end of the current fiscal year, it will be demoted to the second section of the Tokyo stock exchange, a move that could make it harder to secure money from banks and other lenders. The conglomerate, whose portfolio ranges from construction to consumer electronics, plans to generate funds by selling off its profitable flash memory business. Toshiba, which employs 190,000 people, twice delayed planned earnings releases in 2015 as it reeled from a $1.3bn accounting scandal. Fallout from the scandal contributed to a group net loss last year of 479.4bn yen.
|
['business/toshiba', 'world/japan', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'world/asia-pacific', 'business/business', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'profile/justinmccurry', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign']
|
environment/nuclearpower
|
ENERGY
|
2017-02-14T09:00:22Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
society/2015/sep/17/cameron-adviser-leaves-controversial-nhs-data-scheme-private-sector
|
Government adviser leaves controversial NHS data scheme for private sector
|
One of the government’s top advisers on technology, Tim Kelsey, has resigned from the NHS to take up a job with the health data division of Australia’s largest telecommunications company. A controversial figure who led the error-strewn care.data programme, which aimed to create a single database of all English patients’ medical records, Kelsey will leave his role as NHS England’s national director for patients and information in December. News of Kelsey’s departure comes on the day that board papers released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), a centralised repository of NHS data, revealed that it had made key objections about care.data in mid July. However a week later Kelsey wrote to MPs on the health select committee to say that the HSCIC board had “reviewed” the project but did not say they had sought to amend the scheme. A spokesperson for NHS England said the scheme was still being evaluated and once this process was complete all the objections raised would be taken into account. “The board raised some issues as noted in their public minutes and these will be addressed.” Kelsey was appointed to the Cabinet Office in 2012 as the UK’s first transparency and open data director. However a few months later he joined the NHS, where he was the driving force behind care.data. The programme was supposed to be in place in 8,000 GP practices by 2014 but has been beset by controversies since its launch last year. It was finally put on hold after a series of blunders exposed serious problems relating to the confidentiality of patient information. The scheme was recently labelled “unachievable” by a Whitehall watchdog, the Major Projects Authority, which said the future of the programme should be reassessed. The planned restart this summer has not materialised and an estimated one million people have opted out pre-emptively. In September Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, asked Dame Fiona Caldicott, the national data guardian, to provide advice on the wording for a new model of patient consent and opt-outs – a move widely seen as a snub to Kelsey. Kelsey, a former Sunday Times journalist, made his name in 2006 when the Department of Health invested £12m in Dr Foster Intelligence, a joint venture with Dr Foster LLP, the UK-based health informatics company he had co-founded. A year later MPs on the public accounts committee released a highly critical report on the deal questioning why a joint venture with a company valued at between £10m and £15m received so much public cash. Dr Foster Intelligence says it provides analytics services to 85% of UK hospitals. Kelsey’s new role is commercial director of Telstra Health, the healthcare arm of the Australia-based telecommunications company Telstra. Telstra Health bought Dr Foster this year. In 2006 Kelsey was appointed by the NHS to set up the health service’s information website NHS Choices. Kelsey became influential in government for his championing of the “database state”, arguing that “a better public sector … must encourage more use of personal data, not less”. His willingness to take on civil liberties arguments caught the ear of David Cameron and Kelsey initially planned to become a Tory MP. However the former journalist was put off by the effect parliament would have had on his family life. Instead he became one of the government’s advisers on data, working with fellow Tory moderniser Steve Hilton to make the government more transparent. Announcing his resignation from the NHS, Kelsey said: “It has been an enormous privilege to work with such talented and committed colleagues at NHS England and across the wider health and care service. Together we have made the case for a digitally enabled NHS in which patients are encouraged to participate. Over the last three years we have made significant progress on turning that aspiration into reality.” Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said: “Over the past three years Tim has brought his infectious energy and creative expertise to the vital drive for open, transparent and technology-enabled health services. It’s no surprise that other countries now want to emulate that success, so as the NHS moves into the implementation phase of the strategy Tim has helped craft. We wish him every success as he shifts gear to working in Australia and internationally.” • This article was amended on 18 September 2015 after Tim Kelsey asked us to clarify that he was not a political adviser to the prime minister. The headline and text were changed to reflect that. Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet Office as director for transparency and open data, Kelsey had been at the management consultants McKinsey.
|
['society/nhs', 'society/health', 'society/society', 'technology/big-data', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/randeepramesh']
|
technology/big-data
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2015-09-17T18:52:39Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
technology/2014/sep/03/sony-smartband-fitness-tracker-e-ink-smartwatch
|
Sony's SmartBand Talk combines fitness tracker with e-ink screen
|
Sony’s latest SmartBand Talk fitness tracker sports an e-ink display and can take and make phone calls from the wrist. The upgrade to the existing fitness tracking SmartBand monitors activity, steps and sleep using, like myriad other fitness bands, an accelerometer – but also has an altimeter for tracking stair climbs and hikes. It has a new curved e-ink screen for checking steps, activity and to see who is calling. The band connects to an Android smartphone via Bluetooth allowing the wearer to pick up and make calls from the wrist through the phone, using a built-in microphone and speaker. The band responds to voice commands as well as gestures, controlling music playback with a click of the fingers or a tap on the wrist. It is being pitched as an upgraded fitness tracker, with some smartwatch capability, for those who do not want to swap an existing watch for a smartwatch, and simply want to wear a thinner smart band. The battery should last five days on a single charge and the SmartBand Talk will cost €159 shipping in the Autumn. • Inside the mind of Derp, a hacking group with a taste for cyber chaos
|
['technology/sony', 'technology/smartphones', 'technology/wearable-technology', 'technology/smartwatches', 'technology/gadgets', 'technology/technology', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/samuel-gibbs']
|
technology/gadgets
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2014-09-03T14:45:00Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
politics/2022/feb/24/doctors-urge-sadiq-khan-cancel-london-silvertown-tunnel-pollution
|
Doctors urge Sadiq Khan to cancel Silvertown tunnel over pollution fears
|
Doctors have accused Sadiq Khan of betraying his commitment to view pollution as a social justice issue, as they handed in a letter to his office calling for him to cancel a major new road tunnel. The Silvertown tunnel will pass beneath the Thames between Greenwich and Newham, one of London’s most deprived riverside boroughs. Experts say it will massively increase air pollution faced by some of the capital’s poorest people. Holes have already been dug either side of the river and components for the boring machine, which will dig the four-lane tunnel, are being transported to the northern end, with drilling due to begin this spring. According to TfL estimates, it will cost about £2bn over 30 years, making it Khan’s biggest infrastructure project as mayor of London. On Thursday morning, doctors gathered in their scrubs at the Greater London authority’s new headquarters in Newham, where they handed in a letter, signed by 125 health workers, telling Khan there was “no excuse” not to cancel the tunnel. Silvertown, the letter said, would “funnel traffic, including heavy freight vehicles, into areas of deprivation which already suffer disproportionately from so many adverse social determinants of health. “You, as mayor of London, have the power to cancel the Silvertown tunnel. There is no excuse not to. It makes no sense and is a health and environmental hazard. We urge you to put a stop to it, to invest the money in projects that will benefit people’s health and reap the rewards of savings to the NHS that such beneficial policies would bring.” The action came exactly a week after the mayor had convened a summit on clean air in London’s capital, where he had said it was the poorest Londoners, least likely to own a car, who suffered the most from air pollution. “For me the issue is very simple: it’s one of social justice,” he said. Dr Jackie Appleby, who helped coordinate the letter, said she could not see how Khan could reconcile his position on pollution and social justice with building the tunnel. “The Silvertown tunnel is completely contrary to his position,” the Newham GP said. “If he really thinks that air pollution is a social justice issue he needs to stop the Silvertown tunnel – end of. Because there is no doubt that that tunnel is going to bring more pollution into Newham. “Kids in Newham already have lungs that are 10% smaller than kids who live in less polluted parts of the country, and we also have 40,000 excess deaths a year from air pollution across the UK. We don’t know how many of those are in Newham but there will be a disproportionate number of them, obviously, because air pollution is higher. “So we’re hoping he’s going to reconsider [and] actually think about investing the money in more healthy options.” Last June, a report from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, backed by some of the UK’s leading climate scientists, found that the development was incompatible with the Greater London authority’s aim to become carbon-neutral by 2030. Seb Dance, the deputy mayor for transport, said the mayor was taking “bold action” to improve London’s air quality. He stated that the Silvertown tunnel would “massively reduce the chronic congestion problems” associated with the nearby Blackwall tunnel, which has frequent closures leading to congestion. “Both tunnels will be tolled and, when combined with our overall policy of reducing car use across Greater London in favour of active and public transport options, the Silvertown tunnel will help reduce congestion and poor air quality around the Blackwall Tunnel area without increasing the volume of traffic crossing the river.” This article was amended on 24 February 2022. An earlier version said that the tunnel connected Woolwich and Newham: in fact it connects Greenwich to Newham.
|
['uk/london', 'environment/air-pollution', 'uk/transport', 'politics/sadiq-khan', 'world/road-transport', 'environment/pollution', 'society/socialexclusion', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'society/society', 'uk/uk', 'society/health', 'society/nhs', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/damien-gayle', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news']
|
environment/pollution
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2022-02-24T12:24:24Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
environment/2014/dec/04/church-of-england-challenges-bp-shell
|
Church of England challenges BP and Shell over global warming
|
The Church of England has challenged BP and Shell, two of the world’s biggest oil companies, to take responsibility for their carbon footprints and limit their contribution to global warming. The church will submit a shareholder resolution calling on the energy companies, which are two of the top five investments in its £9bn investment fund, to take action to “adapt their businesses over the long term for a low carbon economy”. The intervention comes as ministers from nearly 200 countries prepare to meet next week in Lima, Peru, for UN climate talks to lay the draft text for a carbon-cutting deal next year, and as the church itself comes under pressure to relinquish its investments in fossil fuels. Edward Mason, the head of responsible investment at the Church Commissioners for England, said in a blogpost that, as shareholders, the church had a vital opportunity to influence companies’ climate change strategy. “We have chosen to file shareholder resolutions at BP and Shell because they have the biggest carbon footprints of all the companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, and they are yet to achieve A ratings (they are both rated B) [on the Carbon Disclosure Project’s ranking]. “Of course oil and gas companies have a particular responsibility because the fuels they produce contribute to climate change when they are burned,” he wrote. He said the resolutions were supportive, but would stretch the companies. “The idea is to give all of the shareholders of both companies the opportunity to signal that, like us, they want to see BP and Shell adapt their businesses over the long term for a low carbon economy. We want the companies to be sustainably profitable.” The church has come under pressure from campaigners, including the high-profile US author and activist Bill McKibben, to divest from fossil fuels. It has about £101m invested in Shell and £91.9m in BP. McKibben told the Guardian last month that the CoE was dragging its heels on divestment, even though it has been encouraged by the retired Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu. “Their response so far has been to say that they’ll study it until late 2015, which means they will have examined it for a period slightly longer than Jesus’s public ministry. It’s not exactly what Desmond Tutu had in mind,” McKibben said. In response to the church, a BP spokesman said: “We have had constructive discussions with CCLA [church fund managers] and are aware that they intend to file a resolution for our AGM in April 2015. We will carefully consider it and respond appropriately before the meeting.” Shell said it was not commenting on the church’s move, but in an article in the Times last month, the company’s CEO, Ben van Beurden, said that rising energy demand meant a “pragmatic” look at climate change meant recognising the world would need oil and gas into the second half of this century and beyond. He added: “As chief executive of a company that believes in the value of innovation, I also know that, collectively, we must give ourselves every chance of allowing technology to help [on climate change]. “Innovation is no silver bullet but, as we navigate what will be a decades-long transition away from a fossil fuels-dependent energy system, new technologies can play a crucial and transformative role. One example is CCS [carbon capture and storage] – capturing carbon dioxide from man-made sources such as power stations and storing it safely deep underground.” The resolution to be submitted by the church calls for BP and Shell to “direct that routine annual reporting from 2016 includes further information about: ongoing operational emissions management; asset portfolio resilience to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) scenarios; low-carbon energy research and development (R&D) and investment strategies; relevant strategic key performance indicators (KPIs) and executive incentives; and public policy positions relating to climate change.” Shareholders will vote on the resolutions next spring.
|
['environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/cop-20-un-climate-change-conference-lima', 'environment/environment', 'world/anglicanism', 'world/religion', 'world/christianity', 'world/world', 'business/investing', 'business/financial-sector', 'business/business', 'type/article', 'profile/adam-vaughan']
|
environment/cop-20-un-climate-change-conference-lima
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2014-12-04T18:15:01Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
australia-news/2022/apr/29/wholesale-power-prices-double-in-a-year-in-australias-main-electricity-market
|
Australia’s wholesale power prices double in a year as coal-fired power plants falter
|
Wholesale power prices in Australia’s main electricity market continued to rise in the first three months of 2022, more than doubling the cost a year earlier, with the increase blamed mostly on more costly fossil fuels and the falling reliability of coal-fired power plants. Renewable energy, meanwhile, grew its share of the market to more than one-third, pushing carbon emissions from the largest polluting sector to new lows, according to the quarterly energy dynamics report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo). Wholesale electricity prices averaged $87 per megawatt hour (MWh) in the first three months of 2022, up 141% from a year earlier, and two-thirds higher than the final three months of 2021. By the end of the March quarter, the average price in the four eastern mainland states was $94/MWh, up from an average of $65/MWh at the end of 2021. On Thursday, future prices for this quarter topped $200/MWh for both Queensland and New South Wales, indicating the jolt in costs is continuing. For the March quarter, generation at black coal plants in NSW and Queensland fell an average 456MW. Availability was off 3% to its lowest March quarter level since at least 2002. The unavailability of those ailing units – along with higher demand particularly during heatwaves in Queensland – triggered a divide with those states facing “significantly” higher prices than Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, Aemo said. “Coinciding with unplanned coal generation outages, Queensland experienced significant episodes of high demand, with overall price volatility contributing $47/MWh of the region’s average Q1 price of $150/MWh, its second highest for any quarter since 1998,” said Violette Mouchaileh, an Aemo executive. The leap in wholesale power prices is beginning to feed into the bills sent to households and businesses. Extra costs will also stoke the highest consumer price inflation since the introduction of the GST more than 20 years ago. The higher power prices may also feature in the federal election campaign, with Coalition leaders such as the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, repeating claims on Thursday that the government had lowered power prices while they had risen under previous Labor governments. “The government is delivering on its commitment to secure affordable and reliable energy supply and has achieved its goal of wholesale electricity prices under $70/MWh,” the government stated in its budget just last month. Labor, meanwhile, has argued its plan to accelerate the construction of transmission and other infrastructure would bring in more renewables and force down power prices. Consumers would pick up higher equipment costs but such a transformation is necessary as ageing, costly fossil-fuel plants aren’t likely to be replaced by similar kit. Aemo said wholesale prices were already averaging almost a quarter more than that federal budget figure, with market bids by coal plants leading the increase as costs for the fuel increased. “Compared to the first quarter of 2021, over 3,000MW of black coal offers shifted from lower-price bands to above $60/MWh – the largest year-on-year quarterly change since 1998,” Mouchaileh said. The shift had started before the surge in global coal prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she added. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Gas prices also soared two-thirds from a year earlier. Prices were at near-record levels across all Aemo markets, averaging $9.93 per gigajoule, compared with an average $6.05/GJ in the March quarter of 2021. Record gas prices were set in Victoria, Brisbane and Adelaide, while Sydney posted its second-highest March quarter level. Renewable energy sources continued to grab a bigger share of the market, with both capacity and output increasing. Wind and grid-scale solar output increased 743MW to a quarterly record of 4,190MW. Small-scale solar, mostly on rooftops, added another 460MW of capacity. Total renewable share reached 33.7% of supply. With the near-zero cost of fuel for wind, solar and hydro, the expansion of those sources left 6.6% of all dispatch intervals across the national electricity market at negative or zero spot prices. While a record, it was smaller than the share of such pricing in the December half of 2021. “Southern states continued to see higher incidences [of zero or negative prices] at 16.4% for South Australia and 12.5% for Victoria, compared to only around 1% across the northern states,” the report said. Emissions in the national electricity market, accounting for about 80% of Australian use, hit a record first-quarter low at 30.4m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, 4% lower than a year earlier. The March quarter jump in wholesale prices may have a way to run. Aemo said outlooks were influenced by the closure timing of plants in NSW and the delayed return of major units on outage including Callide C4 and Swanbank E in Queensland. Higher fuel costs were also expected, particularly in NSW where elevated prices extend into 2025. Future prices in the state rose $51/MWh in the quarter to $131/MWh, the highest among the states, and exceeding the level hit in Victoria after the Hazelwood brown coal-fired plant shut in 2017. By contrast, Queensland 2023 prices are at $108/MWh, South Australia’s $78/MWh, while Victoria’s were the lowest among the mainland states at $61/MWh. In Western Australia, operational demand rose 5.9% from March 2021. “Extended high temperatures contributed to the [WA market] recording its second-highest maximum operational demand of 3,980MW on 19 January 2022.” That was just 26MW shy of the record set in February 2016.
|
['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/coal', 'environment/gas', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/business-australia', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peter-hannam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news']
|
environment/coal
|
ENERGY
|
2022-04-28T17:30:20Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
environment/2019/apr/16/plastic-technology-for-natural-recycling
|
Plastic technology for natural recycling | Letters
|
Your article (Plastic plague: tiny particles can reach anywhere on the planet, say scientists, 16 April) says that “about 335m tonnes of plastic is produced each year, and while it degrades extremely slowly it can be broken into smaller and smaller pieces”. It adds that these pieces are now being blown around the world by the wind. Perhaps one day there will be no plastic, but until then a way must be found to make it become biodegradable much more quickly, so that it can be recycled back into nature by naturally occurring bacteria and fungi. In fact the technology is already available. It is called oxo-biodegradation, and it is required by law in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan and seven other countries whose governments have made an expert study and found that it does work, and creates no toxicity. It is time for Europe and the US to stop dithering and follow their example. Michael Stephen Chairman, Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association
|
['environment/plastic', 'environment/pollution', 'environment/environment', 'tone/letters', 'type/article', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers']
|
environment/plastic
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2019-04-16T16:55:04Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
environment/2020/apr/22/coca-cola-pepsi-falling-short-pledges-over-plastic-tearfund-report
|
Coca-Cola and Pepsi falling short on pledges over plastic – report
|
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are not doing enough to reduce their plastic waste footprint globally, according to a report. The charity Tearfund has compiled a league table of how the companies, and Unilever and Nestlé, are faring in their commitments set against a three-point plan. The plan calls on companies to: report by the end of 2020 the amount of single use in units and volume they sell country by country, reduce this by half by 2025 by moving to refillables and ensure by 2022 one item is recycled for every single use plastic item sold in developing countries. All the companies have published and committed to publish annual global data on their plastic footprint, but none have published this information country by country. Pepsi and Coca-Cola have not publicly committed to reducing this by 2025, or to invest in reusables or refillables as part of this reduction, Tearfund said in its analysis. Unilever and Nestlé scored highest in its commitments to reduce its plastic footprint in developing countries. The report said Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s commitments were falling significantly short of what was needed to tackle their plastic pollution. Unilever had done the most to try and make changes by committing to halve their use of virgin plastics by 2025 and promising to collect more plastic than they sell. Dr Ruth Valerio, director of Tearfund, said: “The steps taken to date by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are a far cry from the action necessary to tackle a crisis of this magnitude.” The league table was released on 22 April to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. “It is more important than ever that these companies urgently reduce their reliance on single-use plastic and switch to refillable and reusable packaging alternatives,” said Valerio. “Today is also the AGM of Coca-Cola where important decisions about its future will be made.” The NGO is calling on the public to use their voices to speak up and demand further action and responsibility from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s CEOs – for the sake of people living in poverty and the climate. Last month a Tearfund report found the four global drinks giants are responsible for more than half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in six developing countries each year, enough to cover 83 football pitches every day. Greenhouse gas emissions from the open burning of their plastic bottles, sachets and cartons creates 4.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – equivalent to the emissions from 2m cars, they calculated. Coca-Cola said it was aware the Tearfund report raised serious concerns. The company said: “We don’t want to see any of our packaging end up where it shouldn’t and, more specifically, our goal is to see it all recovered and recycled … We recognise that we have a responsibility to provide solutions that make plastic waste a thing of the past.” “As part of our World Without Waste goals, we have committed to collecting a bottle or can for each one sold by 2030, with the aim to ensure that every plastic bottle contains at least 50% recycled plastic by 2030.” A PepsiCo spokesperson said: “PepsiCo reports on our global plastic usage annually, as a signatory of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy. Our goal is to make 100% of our packaging recyclable, compostable or biodegradable by 2025. We’re working to reduce the amount of plastics we use and have set a target to, by 2025, decrease virgin plastic content across our beverage business by 35%. We will continue a dialogue with Tearfund about how we can leverage our scale and reach to accelerate systemic change and meaningful progress.”
|
['environment/plastic', 'business/cocacola', 'business/pepsico', 'business/business', 'business/fooddrinks', 'environment/waste', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/waste
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2020-04-21T23:01:29Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
world/2010/jul/26/pakistan-spy-isi-taliban-afghanistan
|
Pakistan spy agency denies backing Afghan Taliban
|
Pakistan's spy agency today dismissed as "unsubstantiated raw intelligence" claims in the leaked war logs that it was supporting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) is accused repeatedly in the logs by coalition commanders of directing insurgent attacks or planning operations, though there is little evidence to to substantiate many of the most sensational allegations. An ISI official said: "In the intelligence world, preliminary and final reports are two different things. Only once something is collaborated from multiple sources does it become a credible piece of information. "The majority of these [documents] are preliminary reports, and they are mostly from Afghan intelligence, so you can imagine their credibility." Hamid Gul, a former ISI chief who is extensively cited in the documents as meeting and aiding the Taliban, reacted furiously, calling the material "a pack of lies, a fairly tale". He denied having any contact with the Taliban, though he was happy to voice his moral support for them. "They are targeting Pakistan. I'm just the whipping boy," said Gul, who led the agency from 1987 to 1989. "If a 74-year-old sitting in a small house in Rawalpindi is instrumental in defeating the world's biggest power, I don't mind if they say that. But it will put to shame American posterity." Gul, who lives close to the military headquarters at Rawalpindi, offered to fly to the UK to answer the allegations, as long as it was done in public ("no Guantanamo"). But he added that he had been banned from the UK since November 2000. Though Gul retired from the military back in 1991, he is frequently accused of remaining active, along with other former intelligence officers, in a "shadow ISI". "This is akin to Saddam Hussein having the bomb in the closet and Colin Powell telling the world about it," Gul added, referring to the case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq put by the former US secretary of state. Pakistan's foreign ministry in Islamabad called the leaks "far-fetched and skewed". Spokesman Abdul Basitsaid: "Pakistan's constructive and positive role in Afghanistan cannot be blighted by such self-serving and baseless reports." The ISI, the Pakistani military's principal spy agency, has been deeply involved in Afghan affairs since the beginning of the 1980s, when it worked with the CIA to back an Islamist mujahideen uprising against the Soviet invasion. The allegations come at an awkward time for Islamabad and the west. Last week, the government reappointed the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, to lead the military for another three years. Kayani previously led the ISI. The US has also just announced $500m (£320m) of civilian aid projects for Pakistan. "The documents circulated by Wikileaks do not reflect the current on-ground realities," Pakistan's ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani said. "The United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan are strategic partners and are jointly endeavouring to defeat al-Qaida and its Taliban allies militarily and politically." Kayani led the ISI from 2004 to 2007 before being appointed army chief, a period documented in many of the leaks as one of close collaboration between the insurgents and the ISI. Respected as a soldier and a secular general, Kayani's supporters say he is determined to fight Islamist extremism. But the extension of Kayani's service exposed the weakness of the civilian government, which did not wish to grant him three more years. Analysts believe the government could not force Pakistan's military, which has ruled the country for most of its existence, to change its policy towards Afghanistan or investigate Afghan actions. "We have a political establishment that does not have the authority to engage the military," said Ayesha Siddiqa, author of Military Inc. "We don't have the mean to know how deeply the agency (ISI) was involved. All intelligence agencies have contacts. "The leaks put pressure on Kayani, tell him what the Americans want him to do. But he also faces pressure from the rest of the [Pakistani] military high command. He is being embarrassed in front of his generals. He's caught in the middle." Pakistan's critics have consistently questioned whether the country is ally or foe in the battle in Afghanistan. The truth appears, to many, that it has played both sides. Pakistan's military nurtured the Taliban in the mid-90s as a force to bring stability to Afghanistan and keep out the influence of its arch-enemy, India. With uncertainly about the strength of the West's commitment to Afghanistan, the ISI has hedged its bets. "No amount of money, threats, incentives ... nothing can make the Pakistan army do something it doesn't see in its national interest," said Mosharraf Zaidi, a newspaper columnist based in Islamabad. "The Taliban are genetically an extension of the Pakistani security establishment. Those links have never been severed."
|
['world/afghanistan', 'world/pakistan', 'world/taliban', 'media/wikileaks', 'us-news/us-foreign-policy', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'media/media', 'world/the-war-logs', 'world/war-logs', 'type/article', 'profile/saeedshah']
|
world/the-war-logs
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2010-07-26T17:06:05Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
environment/blog/2010/oct/06/biodiversity-nagoya
|
Saving species: our requests for action
|
This week we launched the second phase of the Guardian's Biodiversity100 campaign. We're asking selected G20 governments around the world to adopt a series of specific actions that will prevent species loss in their country. These actions were suggested by our online readers, ecologists and conservation scientists. We don't claim that our list of 26 action is definitive, or that by itself it provides the answer to solving the biodiversity crisis. But we hope it is a start. The actions are evidence-based and, if adopted, would demonstrate a commitment to concrete action, rather than vague targets. As George Monbiot put it in his call to arms: In less than a month, unless we can rouse sufficient public indignation to avert it, a widespread suspicion that humanity is incapable of looking after this planet will be confirmed. The world's governments will meet at Nagoya in Japan to discuss the catastrophic decline of life on the planet. The outcome is expected to be as tragic and as impotent as the collapse of last year's climate talks in Copenhagen. We cannot accept this. We cannot stand back and watch while the wonders of this world are sacrificed to crass carelessness and short-termism. The executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf has commended the initiative. "I am the one indebted to you for giving us the opportunity to highlight the challenges and engage your readers. Thank for your unique contribution with the guardian 100 biodiversity. Great idea and great initiative." To bring the 26 actions to the attention of the relevant governments, the Guardian's editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger has written to each of the relevant environment ministries to request that they consider the proposals. You can read them below: Here is the letter to UK environment secretary Caroline Spelman MP, with copies also sent to her counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - Jane Davidson AM, Richard Lockhead MSP and Edwin Poots MLA. Below that, are links to the letters we have sent to other governments. Argentina Australia Brazil Canada China France India Indonesia Japan Mexico Poland Russia Spain South Korea Turkey You can support the campaign by writing to your MP and to your environment minister requesting them to support the proposals.
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['environment/series/biodiversity-100', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'environment/blog', 'tone/blog', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'environment/nagoya', 'type/article', 'profile/environmenteditor']
|
environment/biodiversity
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2010-10-06T12:44:05Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
global-development/2012/may/24/rio-20-sustainable-agriculture-caroline-spelman
|
Rio+20 should prioritise sustainable agriculture, says Caroline Spelman
|
Sustainable agriculture should be the UK's key objective for Rio+20, according to the UK secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, Caroline Spelman, who will be attending next month's UN conference on sustainable development with the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. "Everywhere in the world, wherever farmers farm, should be put on a sustainable footing," she told a Faith in Rio debate in London on Wednesday, organised by the NGOs Cafod, Christian Aid, Tearfund and Progressio. "Just imagine if we could move farmers from subsistence to sustainability," she added, citing some farmers' inability to store produce and water as an example of where low-key technology could make a real difference in developing countries. Spelman gave her support to the creation of a set of sustainable development goals, which have been suggested both as an aim for Rio+20 and to inform the debate on objectives for development post-2015, when the millennium development goals, which Spelman described as "a very good model of how to drive action forward", expire. She said the UK delegation "want to come away [from Rio] with a statement of intent and a plan of action". Outlining the challenges facing policymakers in Rio, and perhaps the failures of the UN Earth summit 20 years ago, which, for the first time sought to address concerns about environmental protection and social and economic development, Spelman claimed that "the poorest 20 years ago are still the poorest today", and warned that "sustainability is not fully integrated into economic decision-making. The world's economy needs to be greened. A green economy can't be a subset." Water, land and energy should form the nexus of the SDGs, Spelman said, echoing the sentiments of the European Development Report published last week. She called for a small number of goals focused on the most critical sustainability issues. She added: "SDGs have to be relevant to individuals and meaningful at a local level. It isn't all about carbon. The worthy and wordy zero document [the draft outcome document for Rio+20] is not going to save the planet; 400 paragraphs is not the answer." But Peter Price, the bishop of Bath and Wells, warned the debate that the SDGs would be "voluntary" and "aspirational" with "not very much legal pressure" to bring them into force. Despite concerns that the non-committal attitude of the US president Barack Obama to Rio+20 will prevent any meaningful outcomes for the summit, Spelman said there was "recognition by superpowers that power is on the move. The distinction between developed and developing has begun to slip away. The economic crash has not distracted from our will to make progress on sustainable development." She said she was "encouraged" by the attitudes of China, Brazil, India and Russia to put growth on a sustainable footing, citing China and India's desire for a water sustainability goal to emerge from Rio to avoid conflict over water resources, particularly in the Himalayas. Spelman encouraged the business community to put sustainability at the heart of their decision-making and drive a green economy, saying: "Companies are asking for governance. Companies have a very good reason to put sustainability at the heart of their operations – to show, above all, that business wants this … after the disastrous consequences of unsustainable growth. The exciting thing is that businesses want to do this." Her view was echoed by UK insurer Aviva's chief responsible investment officer Steve Waygood, whose company is asking world leaders at Rio+20 to commit to a convention on sustainable reporting, claiming that the Brazil gathering will be the first time corporate social responsibility has been discussed at a global summit since the 1992 summit's declaration on CSR, which lasted only two years. Waygood called on companies to "embed sustainability in their disclosures to the market". The Rio+20 zero draft document calls for greater corporate responsibility, and Aviva – in coalition with NGOs, the FTSE, investment management companies and others is calling for a "report or explain" standard for companies to declare their sustainable business practices to allow consumers and investors, whether large corporate investors or individuals with pension funds, to make informed decisions about how their money is used. "If we want responsible capitalism … so that the right companies are getting the capital, there is a massive data gap," he said. He called on Rio+20 to deliver a mechanism to require large and listed companies to declare their thinking on sustainability, and, if they have done nothing, to explain why not. "We need a regulatory or policy vehicle to prevent us having the same conversation with different companies," he added.
|
['global-development/global-development', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/millennium-development-goals', 'environment/rio-20-earth-summit', 'environment/global-climate-talks', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'environment/environment', 'politics/caroline-spelman', 'politics/politics', 'tone/news', 'environment/green-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/pennywoods']
|
environment/green-politics
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2012-05-24T14:38:43Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
environment/2010/oct/12/democrat-obama-climate-change-agenda
|
Democrat opens fire, literally, on Obama's climate change agenda | Suzanne Goldenberg
|
A number of Democrats trying to hang on to their careers in these congressional elections are distancing themselves from Barack Obama, but only one, so far, is suggesting he would take a gun to the president's energy policies. In a new campaign aid, Joe Manchin, the Democratic governor of West Virginia who is now running for a seat in the Senate, picks up a rifle and fires a bullet into a target labelled "cape and trade bill". Manchin is pictured loading bullets into the gun while striding across an autumn landscape before letting off the shot. He says: "I sued the EPA and I'll take dead aim at the cap and trade." Any chance of Congress passing a cap and trade bill died long ago. But Manchin's ad is not entirely political theatrics. With climate legislation defeated, Republicans and other opponents of action on global warming are trying to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Manchin as governor sued the EPA last week to stop the government from enforcing regulations that would restrict mountaintop mining removal. As the name suggests, the highly destructive method involves blasting the tops off mountains, and dumping the debris in valleys. Roughly 2,000 miles of West Virginia's streams have been contaminated this way. Manchin has been facing an onslaught from Republicans who accuse him of siding with Obama and Democrats in Congress against West Virginia's coal industry. Other Democrats in Manchin's predicament are adopting a similar strategy. Joe Donnelly, an Indiana Congressman who is in a tough fight for re-election in Elkhart, an area that soured on Obama because of high unemployment, is running television ads that refers to climate change legislation as "Nancy Pelosi's energy tax". Donnelly voted against last year's climate bill in the house.
|
['us-news/us-midterm-elections-2010', 'environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'us-news/barack-obama', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/us-news', 'us-news/obama-administration', 'us-news/democrats', 'environment/environment', 'environment/blog', 'tone/blog', 'us-news/us-politics', 'type/article', 'profile/suzannegoldenberg']
|
environment/climate-change-scepticism
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
2010-10-12T14:53:42Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
commentisfree/henryporter/2009/apr/14/protest-power-station-arrest
|
Henry Porter: The arrest of 114 power station protesters is extremely worrying
|
The arrest of 114 people on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, near Nottingham, is extremely worrying and may be regarded as further indication of a style of policing that has developed under this appalling government and is undermining the values and needs of a free society. The local Labour MP Alan Simpson has today raised concerns about whether the action was proportionate. "The scale of it makes people think we are dealing with a major terrorist incident," he said. "We understand there were 200 officers involved and my instinctive reaction to that is to say, well there must be something to do with plans to blow something up, to commit a major disruption of society. My worry is that what we are talking about, in practice, [is] something much smaller." Simpson, who is generally regarded as a good thing and is giving up his seat at the next election because he decided that Westminster politics is incapable of listening to the demands for more radical action on the environment, could have gone a lot further. Let us be clear that the people arrested yesterday, who have all now been released on bail, have manifestly not committed any crime of trespass. Second, they possess inalienable rights to assembly and protest. Needless to say the Human Rights Act, which I increasingly view as a well-meaning old dear with fewer teeth that my late Aunt Agnes, does not protect people's rights in these situations and so the police are allowed to get away with a pre-emptive strike. No doubt the Nottingham operation benefited from information provided by forward intelligence teams and the monitoring of people's telephone calls and emails. How far should this activity go? Earlier this year I linked to a story in which police in Brighton were reported to be filming those leaving a climate change meeting at cafe in the town. There are suggestions that police have planted informers on the inside of environmental organisations. Both are unacceptable in a free society. All this is of acute importance for climate change campaigners, who Simpson must regard as essential in the drive to find quicker and more fundamental solutions to Britain's record of pollution, but there is another principle here which is of such vital significance that I cannot believe it is not pointed out in every editorial of every quality newspaper. If we allow the police to extend pre-emptive actions from the fight against terrorism into all areas of policing we will end up with a situation where it is enough for the police to suspect someone of merely harbouring intention before making an arrest. As the Independent says this morning, we have good reason to suspect the accounts given by police to justify recent actions. The operation in Nottingham over the weekend should be scrutinised at every level to make sure that we are not, inch by inch, entering a period in which intelligence-gathering operations effectively bring to an end free assembly and protest, and allow the idea that the police can read and prosecute people's intentions.
|
['commentisfree/henryporter', 'commentisfree/libertycentral', 'environment/activism', 'world/protest', 'law/uk-civil-liberties', 'uk/police', 'uk/uk', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'type/article', 'profile/henryporter']
|
environment/activism
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
2009-04-14T12:11:48Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
environment/2014/jan/02/antarctic-ship-stranding-delights-climate-change-sceptics
|
Five basic Antarctic facts for climate change sceptics
|
To most people the prolonged stranding of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy in thick pack ice off the coast of Antarctica is an unfortunate incident that provided passengers with rather static scenery for their Christmas and New Year celebrations. But to some climate change contrarians, repeated attempts to free the vessel from the ice are proof that the theory of climate change is flawed or, at best, exaggerated. After all, a warming planet has no ice at all, right? In Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, Roger Franklin dispensed with analysis of ice extent, the cyrosphere and the like to get to the heart of the matter – expedition leader Chris Turney is a “warmist” whose understanding of Antarctica amounts to little more than it gets “really, really cold”. The Australian newspaper darkly intoned that the stranding was a “hard lesson for those who persistently exaggerate the impact of global warming”. Helpfully, the newspaper points out that researchers aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy have suffered an “embarrassing failure” in their mission, which apparently was not to follow in the footsteps of explorer Douglas Mawson and build on his scientific observations but to prove beyond doubt that climate change is real. ABC science broadcaster Adam Spencer took to Twitter – another of the The Australian’s bugbears – to lament that “you’d fail a year 8 science test if you presented the misunderstandings” contained in The Australian’s editorial. To help clear up the confusion, here are some basic Antarctic facts. 1. It is large and cold The Antarctic is an enormous frozen continent that covers about a fifth of the southern hemisphere. It is the driest, windiest continent on Earth, covered by ice that can reach 4km deep. A new world record for a low temperature was set in December when a NASA satellite clocked a reading of minus 93.3C on the east Antarctic plateau. Surrounding the vast glacial, or land-based, ice is sea ice, which contracts and expands depending on the season. This is an important distinction, which we will get to shortly. 2. It is not the same as the Arctic The Arctic (around the north pole, doesn’t have penguins, but has polar bears) is very different from the Antarctic (around the south pole, has penguins, but not polar bears). Essentially, the Antarctic is a continent of ice surrounded by cold water. The Arctic is a semi-enclosed ocean, almost completely surrounded by land. Steadily warming land and sea temperatures have had a visible impact on the Arctic, with its extent reaching record lows in recent years. The loss of ice in Antarctica does not appear to be as dramatic and it is even increasing in places, leading some to believe this means global warming is not occurring. “The Arctic is warming much faster than the Antarctic because it’s an open ocean surrounded by continents,” said Tony Press, chief executive of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre based at the University of Tasmania. “When people talk about an increase in ice they are actually talking about sea ice, which is completely different from continental ice. Warmer oceans help melt the ice and make it thinner, which has been observed in the Arctic. In Antarctica it’s more complicated. It is losing continental ice while sea ice has been increasing by about 1% a decade.” 3. Climate change is having varying impacts Studies have found Antarctica has lost about 100bn tonnes of continental ice a year since 1993, causing the global sea level to rise by about 0.2mm a year. The latest climate report from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released last year, said there was “high confidence” that the Antarctic ice sheet had been losing ice during the past two decades, mainly from the northern and western parts of the continent, near South America. “There is high confidence that ice shelves around the Antarctic peninsula continue a long-term trend of retreat and partial collapse that began decades ago,” the report added. But this loss, caused by warming oceans, has been countered by an increase in ice in the Ross Sea region. This is the result of a range of factors, including climate change. “There has been an increase in snowfall in parts of the Antarctic, especially the east Antarctic where the ship is,” Press said. “That increase in snowfall can be attributed to warmer temperatures. It’s a pretty basic principle of science that increased air humidity causes precipitation if it’s warm enough or snow if it’s cold enough. It’s very cold in the Antarctic, so it snows.” 4. The ship did not get “frozen in” Contrary to some of the more outlandish claims made by climate change deniers, the ship was not suddenly enveloped by ice due to rapidly plummeting temperatures. It was pinned by ice carved off from the Mertz glacier, a well-established ice formation. “In the last few years the ice near where the ship is bogged has become less accessible,” Press said. “This will eventually break up and move away, depending on wind patterns, storms, tidal activity and ambient temperatures. These are variable, local conditions.” 5. Research takes time The Australian Antarctic Division has been collecting data on ice flow, thickness and other such things in east Antarctica for more than 50 years. Despite this, the organisation admits there are still gaps in scientific understanding of the Antarctic, mainly around the dynamics of ice sheets. This understanding will be improved by rigorous analysis of gathered evidence. It’s unlikely a single ship getting stuck in ice will cause a major deviation in researchers’ findings.
|
['environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'world/antarctica', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'science/scienceofclimatechange', 'environment/environment', 'science/science', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman']
|
environment/climate-change-scepticism
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
2014-01-02T04:31:02Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
business/blog/2011/oct/16/view-from-japan-manufacturing-recovery
|
View from Japan
|
Next week the Guardian's industrial editor, Dan Milmo, will be blogging each morning from Japan where he will be gauging the health of the country's manufacturing sector in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami. He will be visiting Nissan, Toyota, Hitachi and Komatsu (which makes big diggers among other things) as well as providing comment on how Japan can help address the global trade imbalances that have troubled the likes of Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King recently. Vince Cable, the business secretary, has chipped in with some comments that chime with Raghuram Rajan's award-winning Fault Lines - that the likes of Japan, Germany and China perhaps need to export a bit less and consume a bit more. So Dan will be looking at how Japan is recovering and the case for tilting its economy in a new direction. Dan is travelling to Japan under the Foreign Press Centre Japan fellowship programme.
|
['business/blog', 'world/japan', 'business/manufacturing-sector', 'business/business', 'tone/blog', 'business/global-economy', 'world/world', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/tsunamis', 'type/article', 'profile/jilltreanor']
|
world/tsunamis
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2011-10-16T14:00:00Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
environment/2022/mar/26/uk-supermarkets-accused-of-bombarding-shoppers-with-cheap-meat
|
UK supermarkets accused of ‘bombarding’ shoppers with cheap meat
|
Britain’s biggest supermarkets stand accused of “bombarding” shoppers with offers of cheap meat, despite pledging to promote more meat-free diets to improve health and tackle global heating. They are using money-saving promotions, such as two for the price of one, as a way of “pushing” meat, at odds with moves in the UK and globally for consumers to eat less of it, research found. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons are each offering scores of deals every week on meat products such as burgers and sausages to drive sales and boost their profits, according to a report from the charity Eating Better. It is an umbrella group representing more than 60 organisations including WWF UK, Greenpeace, public health bodies, dietitians, the RSPCA and food charities. The report also discloses that only 1% of the many hundreds of multi-buy offers for meat products examined by researchers will be banned when the government’s crackdown on the promotion of foodstuffs that are high in fat, salt or sugar – to tackle childhood obesity – begins in October. Marketing of such foods will be outlawed on TV before the 9pm “watershed” and also online, though the food industry is trying to persuade ministers to delay or water down both plans. “Supermarkets are bombarding us with Bogof [buy one, get one free] burgers, sausages and cheap chicken of unknown origin, putting profit before population health and that of the planet,” said Simon Billing, Eating Better’s executive director. “The Big Four are contradicting their own commitments by encouraging customers to buy more meat than they would have if it hadn’t been on promotion. “The impact of this is that we’re eating more meat than we need, or is good for us. Pushing cheap meat into our baskets also supports intensive animal farming, which is wrecking the planet, emitting a huge amount of greenhouse gas and requiring massive amounts of our precious resources, such as land and water.” The government-commissioned national food strategy, published last July, said Britons needed to reduce their intake of meat by 30% by 2032 in order to help combat the UK’s “plague of dietary ill-health” and the climate emergency. Such a dramatic fall was “significant and it won’t be easy to achieve” but was vital to help reduce methane emissions from livestock farming and free up land so it could be used to store carbon, it said. While meat intake in Britain is falling slowly, people still eat almost double the global average. The food strategy also noted that “our taste for ruminants … is a major contributor to climate change”. Major changes needed to be made to the national diet within a decade “to meet health, climate and nature commitments”, including Britons eating 30% more fruit and vegetables, 50% more fibre, 25% less junk food containing high levels of fat, salt or sugar and 30% less meat. The government’s climate change committee has also said people should reduce their intake of meat by 20%-50% to help the UK meet its target of reaching net zero by 2050. Eating Better’s report on the promotion of meat sales is based on research by the Questionmark Foundation, a European research institute based in the Netherlands. It examined all promotions for meat and fish that the four food chains put on their websites over five weeks last August and September. It found that: While Morrisons and Asda ran 1,490 and 1,352 promotions respectively, Tesco (948) and Sainsbury’s (933) ran many fewer. Asda and Morrisons run a lot of multi-buy offers for animal products, such as three for £10, three for the price of two and buy one get one free. Sainsbury’s uses discounts on meat products to persuade people to buy them. “The Questionmark research shows that supermarkets are making it even harder for us to eat less meat by encouraging us to buy more meat than we would have, if it hadn’t been on promotion,” said Billing. “Supermarkets need to come to terms, and quite quickly, with selling less meat and instead, promote more veg and healthy plant proteins, which are better for us, our pocket and the planet.” He urged ministers to extend the junk food ban to cover meat promotions. An Asda spokesperson said: “We recognise the need to provide customers with meat-free alternatives and have expanded our plant-based range by 50% in the past year and committed to doubling sales from plant-based products by 2023.” It ran fewer meat promotions after the study period ended in September because barbecues and outdoor eating declined, they added. A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “This report is not an accurate reflection of our commitment to ‘help everyone eat better’. We aim to make a healthy and varied diet accessible to everyone [and are] investing significantly in keeping prices low on products such as fruit, veg, grains, meat and fish.” Tesco did not respond directly. But it highlighted the emphasis it had put on meat-free dishes in recent years, in line with changing tastes, including launching its own-brand Wicked Kitchen array of vegan foods and Plant Chef vegetarian range. Morrisons did not respond to a request for comment.
|
['environment/meat-industry', 'society/health', 'food/meat', 'environment/environment', 'environment/farming', 'food/food', 'environment/food', 'business/retail', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/business', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/deniscampbell', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news']
|
environment/farming
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2022-03-26T07:00:50Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2024/oct/01/excessive-extreme-heat-warning
|
San Francisco sees hottest day of 2024 as heatwave scorches US south-west
|
San Francisco recorded its hottest day of the year on Tuesday, and Phoenix set a record for the hottest 1 October on record, as the National Weather Service predicted record-high fall temperatures across the south-western US. With temperatures hitting 100F (38C) or higher in many places, officials and local media outlets issued warnings that the heat posed “a significant threat to property or life”. Excessive heat warnings were in place across the region, bringing with it warnings about elevated wildfire risk, the potential for sweeping power outages in California and a rising toll of heat-related deaths, a particularly deadly risk for unhoused people and the elderly. In San Francisco, temperatures hit 93F, while across the Bay Area, multiple cities were recording temperatures “as much as 25 degrees above normal” for October, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, and many Bay Area public schools cancelled outdoor athletics as a result of the heat. In Arizona, Phoenix continued to break heat record after heat record, with temperatures expected to break previous daily highs for October every day of the week. On Tuesday, the high was around 113F (45C). So far in 2024, the city has recorded 67 days with temperatures above 110F, compared with an average of about 21 in previous decades. Earlier in the summer, the city saw 100 straight days with temperatures above 100F. The record heat is bringing with it a record number of heat-related deaths. More than 666 deaths in Phoenix this year have been confirmed as heat-related, or are still under investigation as potentially heat-related, according to local public health data. Nearly half of heat-related deaths in Phoenix this year were among unhoused people, according to the public health data. In extreme heat, sidewalks and asphalt can get hot enough to give people severe burns. But dozens of recorded heat deaths in Phoenix were recorded indoors as well, including in homes where air conditioners were broken, or turned off, potentially because of concerns about cost. While older people were more at risk of heat deaths, about 40% of the Phoenix victims were under 50, according to the public health data. In Las Vegas and the rest of southern Nevada, officials said heat was a factor in the deaths of at least 342 people this year, the most ever recorded, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported last week.
|
['environment/extreme-heat', 'us-news/us-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'us-news/california', 'us-news/arizona', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lois-beckett', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news']
|
environment/extreme-heat
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2024-10-01T23:16:45Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
environment/2019/may/15/single-use-plastics-a-serious-climate-change-hazard-study-warns
|
Single-use plastics a serious climate change hazard, study warns
|
The proliferation of single-use plastic around the world is accelerating climate change and should be urgently halted, a report warns. Plastic production is expanding worldwide, fuelled in part by the fracking boom in the US. The report says plastic contributes to greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of its lifecycle, from its production to its refining and the way it is managed as a waste product. This plastic binge threatens attempts to meet the Paris climate agreement. It means that by 2050 plastic will be responsible for up to 13% of the total “carbon budget” – equivalent to 615 coal-fired power plants – says the research published on Thursday. The contribution of plastic production and disposal to climate change has been largely hidden, say the authors of the report by the Center for International Environmental Law, which estimates the greenhouse gas footprint of plastic from the cradle to the grave for the first time. While plastic pollution in the oceans has become a high-profile concern, the effect on climate change of the ubiquitous use of plastic has not been a focus. “After the extraction of fossil fuels to produce plastic, the carbon footprint of a material which has become ubiquitous across the globe continues through the refining process, and on well past its useful life as a drinks bottle or plastic bag, through the way it is disposed of and the plastic afterlife,” the report says. The authors say disposable plastic found in packaging and fast-moving consumer goods forms the largest and fastest-growing segment of the plastic economy. They are calling for urgent action to stem production and flow of throwaway plastic. “At current levels, greenhouse gas emissions from the plastic lifecycle threaten the ability of the global community to keep global temperature rise below 1.5C,” the report says. “With the petrochemical and plastic industries planning a massive expansion in production, the problem is on track to get much worse.” The key actions which the authors say are required are: • Immediately end the production and use of single-use, disposable plastic. • Stop development of new oil, gas and petrochemical infrastructure. • Foster the transition to zero-waste communities. • Implement a system where polluters pay for the impact of their products – known as extended producer responsibility. “Plastic is one of the most ubiquitous materials in the economy and among the most pervasive and persistent pollutants on Earth,” say the authors. “It has become an inescapable part of the material world, flowing constantly through the human experience in everything from plastic bottles, bags, food packaging, and clothing to prosthetics, car parts, and construction materials.” Throwaway plastic packaging makes up 40% of the demand for plastic, fuelling a boom in production from 2m tonnes in the 1950s to 380m tonnes in 2015. By the end of 2015, 8.3bn metric tonnes of plastic had been produced – two-thirds of which has been released into the environment and remains there. “Packaging is one of the most problematic types of plastic waste, as it is typically designed for single use, ubiquitous in trash, and extremely difficult to recycle. A constant increase in the use of flexible and multilayered packaging has been adding challenges to collection, separation, and recycling,” the researchers said. Forty per cent of plastic packaging waste is disposed of at sanitary landfills, 14% goes to incineration facilities and 14% is collected for recycling. Incineration creates the most CO2 emissions among the plastic waste management methods. Nearly all plastic – 99% – is made from fossil fuels. Refining the material is the most greenhouse gas intensive part of the plastic lifecycle, and major expansions in the US and elsewhere will accelerate climate change, the report says. A Shell ethane cracker being constructed in Pennsylvania could emit up to 2.25m tonnes of CO2 each year and a new ethylene plant at ExxonMobil’s refinery in Baytown, Texas, could release up to 1.4m tonnes. The annual emissions from just these two new facilities would be equal to adding almost 800,000 cars to the road, the report says. In 2019 the lifecycle of global plastic production – from extraction to disposal – was equivalent to the impact on the climate of 189 500MW coal-fired power stations. By 2050, the report predicts, the global plastic footprint will be equivalent to 615 coal plants running at full capacity. “Plastic is among the most significant and rapidly growing sources of industrial greenhouse gas emissions,” the report says. “Emissions from plastic emerge not only from the production and manufacture of plastic itself, but from every stage in the plastic lifecycle – from the extraction and transport of the fossil fuels that are the primary feedstocks for plastic, to refining and manufacturing, to waste management, to the plastic that enters the environment.” Carroll Muffett, one of the authors, said: “It has long been clear that plastic threatens the global environment and puts human health at risk. This report demonstrates that plastic, like the rest of the fossil economy, is putting the climate at risk as well.”
|
['environment/plastic', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/pollution', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/pollution
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2019-05-15T05:00:05Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
world/2022/sep/30/weather-tracker-typhoon-noru-wreaks-havoc-across-south-east-asia
|
Weather tracker: Typhoon Noru wreaks havoc across south-east Asia
|
Hurricane Ian has been in the headlines but it is not the only storm that has been causing havoc in the past week. On Tuesday, Typhoon Noru struck south of the city of Da Nang in Vietnam, heading westwards to Thailand. Initially a tropical storm, Noru originated in the Philippine Sea on 23 September, propagating westwards while gathering moisture and strengthening. Classified as a very strong typhoon, Noru made landfall in the Philippines on Sunday with 83mph winds. Passing through Manila, a lack of moisture degraded Noru, returning it to typhoon status. It left at least eight dead, five of whom drowned while trying to rescue villagers from rising flood waters. Journeying through central Vietnam, Noru blew roofs off houses and caused widespread blackouts, with winds of 72mph and large thunderstorms. The number of casualties were limited due to more than 800,000 people having evacuated before Noru made landfall. An additional 4,000 people were evacuated from north-eastern Thailand due to a risk of flash floods, stemming from a combination of heavy rainfall and saturated soils following the persistent monsoon season. Typhoon Noru is forecast to dissipate in western Thailand, continuing its reign of heavy downpours and thunderstorms to the end. Hurricane Ian, meanwhile, hit western Cuba as a category 3 hurricane on Tuesday, with winds of up to 125mph and caused enough damage to knock out the island’s entire power grid and disrupt water supplies. Work to restore the electricity is ongoing, and at least two people have died. Fuelled by warmer than usual sea surface temperatures, Ian strengthened to become the second category 4 event of the 2022 hurricane season as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico on course for Florida. With a lowest recorded pressure of 937 millibars, it is one of the most intense storms to hit the US in years. Making landfall near Fort Myers on Wednesday afternoon, it brought winds of up to 155mph, just shy of category 5 status. A boat carrying migrants sank off the southern tip of the state, with at least 20 missing. The situation is still evolving, with the worst rainfall and flash flooding likely to lie ahead. Ian has now weakened to a tropical storm, and is heading north towards Georgia and the Carolinas.
|
['world/extreme-weather', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/world', 'us-news/hurricane-ian', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/philippines', 'world/vietnam', 'world/thailand', 'us-news/florida', 'world/cuba', 'world/americas', 'environment/series/weather-tracker', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-weather']
|
us-news/hurricane-ian
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2022-09-30T08:59:17Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
sustainable-business/2015/jun/01/sustainable-palm-oil-climate-change-pepsi-walmart-starbucks
|
Companies call for tougher sustainability standards for palm oil
|
Businesses are often urged to adhere to tougher green standards. But on Monday, 16 companies rallied together with investors and NGOs to call for more oversight for palm oil production, which is a huge contributor to deforestation. Big-name companies such as food and beverage multinational PepsiCo, retail giant Walmart and coffee chain Starbucks, as well as numerous investors and NGOs, signed a letter, released Monday, urging the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to enforce stricter standards. “As an international certification scheme, the RSPO is uniquely positioned to support, promote, and enforce the widespread uptake of responsible and sustainable production practices across the palm oil industry,” the letter states. “Given current shortcomings of RSPO certification, however, purchasing RSPO Certified Sustainable Palm Oil (CSPO) does not sufficiently address critical sustainability concerns in the palm oil supply chain.” Palm oil is the cheapest vegetable oil on the market, and is used in approximately 50% of consumer goods from cosmetics to packaged foods. Imports to the United States have jumped 485% in the past decade, and this increased demand has led to the rampant destruction of rainforests and the displacement of local communities to make way for palm oil plantations, primarily in Indonesia and Malaysia. Most worryingly, by razing rainforests to farm the oil, companies are releasing dangerous quantities of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, making palm oil production a big contributor to climate change. According to the letter, the RSPO isn’t doing enough to curb deforestation or to ensure companies are complying with its standards. As a result, those businesses concerned about the environment – as well as their reputations – have been forced to adopt their own sourcing standards. Five of the top 10 corporate purchasers of palm oil – including Colgate-Palmolive and Johnson & Johnson – have gone beyond the RSPO and created their own sourcing policies. “The RSPO have been left behind,” said Mark Mills, partner at Generation Investment Management, a London-based investment management firm focused on sustainability and a member of UN Principles of Responsible Investment palm oil working group, during a conference call Monday. In the letter, companies and investors, along with nonprofit sustainability advocacy group Ceres, ask the RSPO to do more to conserve so-called “high carbon stock areas” – typically rainforests that hold large stores of carbon – and protect carbon-rich organic soils known as peatlands. “Currently, [RSPO] standards do not require its members to protect peatlands as a criteria for producing palm oil sustainably, so we are urging the RSPO to explicitly prohibit the clearing of peatlands as a condition for growers companies to claim that their palm oil has been sustainably produced,” said Lucia von Reusner, shareholder advocate at environmentally responsible mutual fund company Green Century Capital Management, which helped spearhead the letter. Other actions include reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and reduction targets and ensuring palm oil originates from known sources. “I think it’s important to emphasize that this initiative should be seen less as a criticism than as a constructive attempt to strengthen standards and enforcement,” said Pat Doherty, corporate governance director of New York State Comptroller Thomas P DiNapoli, during the conference call. The Comptroller’s office is the sole trustee of the $177bn New York State Common Retirement Fund, which in recent years has pushed companies in its portfolio to source palm oil more sustainably. “Considering that RSPO remains in our estimation an indispensable organization, it’s therefore especially important they implement a higher standard of protection of human rights,” he said. RSPO responded to the letter with a press statement: “The RSPO acknowledges the importance of the issues raised by some institutional investors and industry players in the recent letter published by Ceres. It is encouraging to see that more and more actors today are willing to play an active role in moving towards a sustainable palm oil supply chain, and share RSPO’s vision of making sustainable palm oil the norm. We are, and will continue taking all constructive comments on board. We are confident that with a commitment to continuous improvement and with the support of all committed players we will be able to truly achieve our vision of market transformation.”
|
['sustainable-business/series/palm-oil-debate', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/palm-oil', 'world/indonesia', 'business/ethicalbusiness', 'business/wal-mart', 'business/starbucks', 'business/business', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/world', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'profile/alison-moodie']
|
environment/forests
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2015-06-01T23:32:20Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
film/2022/oct/31/return-to-dust-review-wandering-souls-find-poetic-love-in-dirt-poor-rural-china
|
Return to Dust review – wandering souls find poetic love in dirt-poor rural China
|
Set in his home province of Gansu, Li Ruijun’s golden-hued film is a heartbreaking tale of love and resilience in the face of societal indifference and change. With a cast largely made up of the director’s relatives as well as villagers from the landlocked province, this deeply personal work on the plight of rural farmers has a striking feel of authenticity and poetry. Against the brutal reality of manual labour, the unlikely romance that develops between Ma (Wu Renlin) and Guiying (Hai Qing), two middle-aged outcasts herded into an arranged marriage by their apathetic siblings, is at once tender and fragile. Echoing a quote from the film, their existence is like the brittle wheat that gets listlessly blown in the wind. As a means to eradicate poverty, the government seeks to bulldoze rural China’s rudimentary homes; forced to relocate by their relatives who are after the monetary compensation, the pair become wandering souls whose only comfort is their burgeoning companionship. In addition to subtle yet powerful performances from its leads, Return to Dust is especially mesmerising in the way it evokes the tactile poetry of farm work. Wide shots of Ma patiently tending to his livestock, stacking dry wheat on the back of his trusted donkey cart or laying bricks for his new marital home bring to mind Jean Renoir’s unsung 1945 masterpiece The Southerner. Such sensorial imagery beautifully evokes a quietly profound connection to the land against all odds. While the portrayal of peasants’ suffering as a noble act might seem apolitical in its romanticisation, it is worth noting that the film was hastily pulled out of cinemas and streaming services in China following its release. The tragic entrapment found here is not defeatism but an act of recognition for those erased and left behind. • Return to Dust is released in cinemas on 4 November.
|
['film/film', 'film/drama', 'film/romance', 'world/china', 'environment/farming', 'world/asia-pacific', 'culture/culture', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/reviews', 'profile/phuong-le', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-culture']
|
environment/farming
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2022-10-31T07:00:51Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
commentisfree/2018/oct/10/nationalising-britain-water-industry-environment
|
Nationalising our water could make us the dirty man of Europe again | Angela Smith
|
There has been much discussion about the potential ownership structures of the water sector in England and Wales over recent months, but there has been very little thought given to actual operation of the industry. And nowhere is this clearer than when it comes to the environment. It simply isn’t good enough to assert that a change of ownership would automatically lead to a cleaning-up of the natural water environment, an acute issue given the challenges of climate change, particularly when we look back at what has driven the considerable progress on overcoming environmental challenges over the past 30 years. Throughout much of the 20th century our rivers and beaches were in a state of crisis. The Thames was declared dead in the 1950s. In 1988, more than a third of our beaches fell below legal standards. But today, less than half a per cent don’t make the grade, thanks in large part to almost £30bn of investment in the environment since privatisation. But this change hasn’t come in a vacuum. EU regulations have played a crucial role in raising standards and driving changes to the structures of the water sector. The realisation that the vast costs associated with meeting these standards could not be met by government funds strengthened significantly the case for private investment; in that sense, privatisation in the late 1980s was a pragmatic response to an environmental imperative. Even now, however, the need for investment is as pressing as ever. There is a lot more to do as far as our waterways are concerned. That is why we must not only maintain the standards we have achieved, but also ensure the water industry does not fall prey to ideological siren calls for nationalisation when the focus should be on how best to improve on present standards. As a report from Green Alliance, From Blue to Green: how to get the best from the environment from spending on water, clearly explains, instead of going backwards we need to build on the progress over the past 30 years to encourage and support every farmer to manage their land in a way that respects the water environment. We need to continue and extend that work, helping farmers to provide effective stewardship of their land. In so doing, we will further reduce pollution of our watercourses and, of course, reduce pressure on water bills. The agriculture bill is being debated by MPs today, and we must take this opportunity to ensure that common agricultural policy subsidies are reformed so that good farming practices are rewarded where they increase environmental standards. We must also ensure that we do not go back to a system of ownership in which the water sector will always lose out when in competition for scarce government funds with schools and hospitals. That is why, as a passionate environmentalist and champion of real investment in our public services, I do not want to go back to the 1980s when the UK was called the “dirty man of Europe”, with beaches overflowing with sewage, filthy rivers, excessive power station emissions and a poor conservation framework. When it comes to ensuring we have clean water and a safe marine environment we cannot allow ideology to be the master of fact. That means resisting those who wish to reduce standards just as forcefully as we should resist simplistic calls for state ownership. To further improve our rivers and beaches we need real investment supported by smart and efficient regulation, not dogma. It is about time we focused our minds on the issues at hand, and that means reaching for pragmatic and workable solutions to the challenges facing the natural environment. • Angela Smith is the Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on water. Disclosure: the all-party parliamentary group’s secretariat services are provided by Connect and paid for by water industry interests. • This article was corrected on 10 October to 2018. An earlier version referred to Britain, when it should have referred to England and Wales. Water is nationalised in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The disclosure in the author note was added on 11 October.
|
['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/environment', 'tone/comment', 'environment/water', 'uk/uk', 'politics/privatisation', 'business/business', 'politics/economy', 'politics/politics', 'environment/farming', 'type/article', 'profile/angela-smith', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion']
|
environment/farming
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2018-10-10T10:27:00Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
lifeandstyle/2020/apr/27/as-strange-as-it-sounds-i-really-respect-this-hawthorn-tree
|
'As strange as it sounds, I really respect this hawthorn tree'
|
I walk and cycle in Phoenix Park in Dublin a lot, and always seem to end up passing this hawthorn tree. It is kind of lonely on its own, located between an old fort and a group of much bigger trees. It seems to stand guard over the hill that it sits in front of. As strange as it sounds, I really respect this tree. Despite the mix of weather to which it is subjected – from sharp frosts due to its exposed position to summer droughts – it holds its ground and never fails to catch my attention. The hawthorn is a common tree in Ireland, yet each one seems to be slightly different, as if carved out by the conditions found in that exact spot. In the dead of winter, they look to me like they will never sprout another leaf – but, of course, come spring, they leap into blossom.
|
['lifeandstyle/series/tree-of-the-week', 'environment/forests', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features']
|
environment/forests
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2020-04-27T07:00:36Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
weather/2009/jun/01/weatherwatch
|
Weatherwatch
|
Early this spring as Bedfordshire frogs were breeding it was very wet. A mile from the nearest road, deep in the woods, is a swampy area containing shallow pools where frogs gather annually to lay their spawn. There is one large permanent pond, known as the black or charcoal pond from the colour of the mud. The rest gradually dry up as the summer progresses. Over the last 30 years an annual survey of the spawn distribution in this wood shows that in dry springs only a few frogs decide to lay their eggs in these vulnerable pools. At these times most of the spawn goes in the large permanent pond. This year, however, eight of the 10 shallow ponds had spawn, the largest number ever recorded. This led me to the erroneous conclusion that a third wet summer was on the way. Alas for the frogs. By last weekend all but three of the small ponds had dried out and one of those remaining had so little water that thousands of tadpoles were crowded into an area the size of a washing-up bowl. Returning with a bucket it was possible to transfer most to the charcoal pond and add more water before the pool dried out completely, but by this bank holiday Monday this refuge had also gone. Tuesday's rain provided a temporary reprieve for the other two hollows, both still crammed with tadpoles, leaving one certainty from all this: frogs are bad weather forecasters.
|
['news/series/weatherwatch', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'profile/paulbrown', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2']
|
news/series/weatherwatch
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2009-05-31T23:01:00Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
media/2005/sep/12/pressandpublishing.hurricanekatrina1
|
How Katrina humbled the American news machine
|
In less than a day, Hurricane Katrina rendered worthless the printing presses and broadcast towers that made big media big. And that will change news forever. The New Orleans Times-Picayune found itself with no presses, trucks or newsstands and, as the waters rose, no office or staff. Two of the city's TV stations lost their studios and transmitters. And they all lost their audience. So New Orleans' biggest media outlets were forced to flee to the internet, where they did incredible jobs reporting this overwhelming story to anyone online anywhere. Traffic to the Times-Picayune's sister site, nola.com (which I launched and until recently oversaw as president of its corporate parent), multiplied fivefold. The paper's publisher, Ashton Phelps, called the internet a lifeline. Editor Jim Amoss called the blogs they used to publish news "absolutely essential". Trust me: before Katrina, this is not how American newspaper editors talked about the web and weblogs. But after Katrina, they will. A month ago, in my first column for Media Guardian, I suggested, brazenly, how newsrooms ought to change in the internet age. In New Orleans, I've watched those changes come overnight. Journalists no longer waited for their next edition to tell their stories. To get the news out, they relied on humble weblog tools. Meanwhile, from out-of-town studios, the TV stations broadcast to the web at WWLTV.com and WDSU.com and they, too, used weblogs, forums and other tools to gather and share news. This served the New Orleans diaspora who could get online. It also gave us the unique local perspective on the unfolding tragedy. Usually, of course, we see the big story varnished and polished by national papers and international networks. But with Katrina, local journalists, survivors themselves, exposed their raw nerves and anger. The Times-Picayune's online reports have been blunt and demanding. We soon saw that same anger overflow from the national press as they shared horrifying scenes of disorder and pressed officials for explanations and action. This prompted political comic Bill Maher to rejoice "we got our press back", and Washington Post critic Howard Kurtz to proclaim "journalism seems to have recovered its reason for being". True. But it would take a blind, administration-toadying fool (and we have a few) not to get angry at the injustice, inequity and incompetence of this situation. I have seen something else new in the US news media during Katrina: a touch of humility, an admission that news doesn't come from the mountaintop anymore. CNN anchor Aaron Brown asked one night whether we yet knew the size of this story. He didn't get an answer but didn't need to, for his question was the answer. The media have been catching up on every angle: we are only beginning to address the deep and profound racial nature of the story. Reporters standing knee-deep in the muck of destruction have taken to slapping around their happy-talk hosts to get them to hear just how bad things are. The ethics of rebuilding a city where lives can be so quickly lost are only now being examined and it will take years to investigate the failures of government. But journalism's rediscovered courage and newly discovered fallibility are, I will contend, less profound changes than the one brought on by the flooding of presses and the toppling of towers. For at that moment, news was freed from the shackles of media. Now he who controls distribution no longer controls news. And news is no longer shaped by the pipe that carries it. That is what Katrina did to the news. Rex Hammock, a magazine publisher and fellow blogger at Rexblog.com, wrote that the Times-Picayune and nola.com deserve a Pulitzer for their news blogs. I second that. It doesn't matter whether the work came rolling off a press or a blog: it is journalism of the highest calibre and greatest service. The Pulitzer committee would serve journalism well by separating the content from the container, the medium from the message, and recognising great reporting wherever and however and from whomever it comes, with or without a press. · Jeff Jarvis is a media consultant who blogs at BuzzMachine.com
|
['media/media', 'media/pressandpublishing', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'media/digital-media', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'profile/jeffjarvis', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mediaguardian', 'theguardian/mediaguardian/mediaguardian1']
|
us-news/hurricane-katrina
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2005-09-11T23:02:23Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
commentisfree/2022/may/28/clearview-ai-facial-recognition-database-fine-information-commissioners-office-ico
|
It’s about time facial recognition tech firms took a look in the mirror | John Naughton
|
Last week, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) slapped a £7.5m fine on a smallish tech company called Clearview AI for “using images of people in the UK, and elsewhere, that were collected from the web and social media to create a global online database that could be used for facial recognition”. The ICO also issued an enforcement notice, ordering the company to stop obtaining and using the personal data of UK residents that is publicly available on the internet and to delete the data of UK residents from its systems. Since Clearview AI is not exactly a household name some background might be helpful. It’s a US outfit that has “scraped” (ie digitally collected) more than 20bn images of people’s faces from publicly available information on the internet and social media platforms all over the world to create an online database. The company uses this database to provide a service that allows customers to upload an image of a person to its app, which is then checked for a match against all the images in the database. The app produces a list of images that have similar characteristics to those in the photo provided by the customer, together with a link to the websites whence those images came. Clearview describes its business as “building a secure world, one face at a time”. The fly in this soothing ointment is that the people whose images make up the database were not informed that their photographs were being collected or used in this way and they certainly never consented to their use in this way. Hence the ICO’s action. Most of us had never heard of Clearview until January 2021 when Kashmir Hill, a fine tech journalist, revealed its existence in the New York Times. It was founded by a tech entrepreneur named Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, who had been an aide to Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor of New York and still, er, respectable. The idea was that Ton-That would supervise the creation of a powerful facial-recognition app while Schwartz would use his bulging Rolodex to drum up business interest. It didn’t take Schwartz long to realise that US law enforcement agencies would go for it like ravening wolves. According to Hill’s report, the Indiana police department was the company’s first customer. In February 2019 it solved a case in 20 minutes. Two men had got into a fight in a park, which ended with one shooting the other in the stomach. A bystander recorded the crime on a smartphone, so the police had a still of the gunman’s face to run through Clearview’s app. They immediately got a match. The man appeared in a video that someone had posted on social media and his name was included in a caption on the video clip. Bingo! Clearview’s marketing pitch played to the law enforcement gallery: a two-page spread, with the left-hand page dominated by the slogan “Stop Searching. Start Solving” in what looks like 95-point Helvetica Bold. Underneath would be a list of annual subscription options – anything from $10,000 for five users to $250,000 for 500. But the killer punch was that there was always somewhere a trial subscription option that an individual officer could use to see if the thing worked. The underlying strategy was shrewd. Selling to corporations qua corporations from the outside is hard. But if you can get an insider, even a relatively junior one, to try your stuff and find it useful, then you’re halfway to a sale. It’s the way that Peter Thiel got the Pentagon to buy the data-analysis software of his company Palantir. He first persuaded mid-ranking military officers to try it out, knowing that they would eventually make the pitch to their superiors from the inside. And guess what? Thiel was an early investor in Clearview. It’s not clear how many customers the company has. Internal company documents leaked to BuzzFeed in 2020 suggested that up to that time people associated with 2,228 law enforcement agencies, companies and institutions had created accounts and collectively performed nearly 500,000 searches – all of them tracked and logged by the company. In the US, the bulk of institutional purchases came from local and state police departments. Overseas, the leaked documents suggested that Clearview had expanded to at least 26 countries outside the US, including the UK, where searches (perhaps unauthorised) by people in the Met, the National Crime Agency and police forces in Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire, Suffolk, Surrey and Hampshire were logged by Clearview servers. Reacting to the ICO’s fine, the law firm representing Clearview said that the fine was “incorrect as a matter of law”, because the company no longer does business in the UK and is “not subject to the ICO’s jurisdiction”. We’ll see about that. But what’s not in dispute is that many of the images in the company’s database are of social media users who are very definitely in the UK and who didn’t give their consent. So two cheers for the ICO. What I’ve been reading A big turn off About Those Kill-Switched Ukrainian Tractors is an acerbic blog post on Medium by Cory Doctorow on the power that John Deere has to remotely disable not only tractors stolen by Russians from Ukraine, but also those bought by American farmers. Out of control Permanent Pandemic is a sobering essay in Harper’s by Justin EH Smith asking whether controls legitimised by fighting Covid will ever be relaxed. Right to bear arms? In Heather Cox Richardson’s Substack newsletter on the “right to bear arms”, the historian reflects on how the second amendment has been bent out of shape to meet the gun lobby’s needs.
|
['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'technology/facial-recognition', 'technology/series/networker', 'technology/artificialintelligenceai', 'technology/technology', 'technology/computing', 'world/privacy', 'news/information-commissioner', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/johnnaughton', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/new-review', 'theobserver/new-review/discover', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-new-review']
|
technology/facial-recognition
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2022-05-28T15:00:34Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
environment/2021/apr/06/water-in-uks-first-official-bathing-river-to-be-designated-poor-quality
|
Water in UK’s first official bathing river to be designated poor-quality
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Swimming season is approaching for the first river in the UK to be given bathing water status, but the quality of the water will initially be designated as poor. A stretch of the River Wharfe in the West Yorkshire town of Ilkley was given the status after a campaign to clean up the river and reduce the scale of sewage discharges from storm overflows owned by Yorkshire Water. As the Yorkshire town prepares to become the first UK river bathing water area in May, the water company said it was committed to delivering what was required to move the quality from poor to good. “In the short term we have identified areas to help reduce the number of discharges from combined sewer overflows (CSOs), which includes reducing the amount of surface water infiltrating the sewer network from Ilkley Tarn and upgrading Rivadale CSO,” Yorkshire Water said. “We are also assessing how we can pilot the deployment of a smart network in Ilkley. This will combine the existing monitoring with additional advanced techniques in the sewer network.” The company said it wanted to use artificial intelligence to be more effective at predicting when blockages in the system occur and intervening when they do. Across the UK other groups are preparing to follow in Ilkley’s footsteps as part of river cleanup campaigns. Granting bathing water status means rivers will be under the same rigorous public health testing that coastal waters are subject to. With just 14% of English rivers deemed to be in good ecological health, the movement to push for bathing water status is being seen as a way to raise the stakes for cleanup campaigns. In Scotland, the Forth Rivers Trust has applied to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for bathing water status for part of the River Almond. The 400-metre stretch of river in the Almondell and Calderwood country park in West Lothian is upstream of Livingston and is subject to sewage discharges upstream from water treatment plants, including the East Calder plant, said Alison Baker of the Rivers Trust. “People have swum in the river for a long time. It is used by dedicated river swimmers and by people paddling. We feel people should be able to swim in the river and have been inspired by the success in Ilkley,” said Baker. In Oxford campaigners are seeking bathing water status for a stretch of the Thames at Port Meadow. Claire Robertson, from the End Sewage Pollution campaign, said that from April the Oxford Rivers Project and citizen scientists would start collecting water samples from 18 river locations across Oxfordshire each month before sending them to Thames Water labs. The samples would be tested for sewage-linked bacteria, which can cause health problems, with the results contributing to the application for designated bathing water status at Port Meadow. She said they had secured agreement from Thames Water to provide real-time alerts of sewage discharges from six storm overflows. Richard Aylard, Thames Water’s sustainability director, said: “Discharges of untreated sewage are unacceptable to us, our customers and the environment, and we will work with the government, Ofwat, the Environment Agency and others to accelerate work to stop them being necessary.” Figures on sewage releases into English rivers and coastal waters published last week revealed that untreated sewage was discharged via storm overflows more than 400,000 times over 3.1m hours in 2020. Tim Harris, an associate at the Rivers Trust, which is supporting the Oxford campaign, said: “We know from the monitoring of sewer storm overflows that untreated sewage discharges are a significant source of pollution in our rivers, but there has been no routine monitoring of bacteria levels in rivers in the UK. “This project is going to be crucial in filling that data gap and helping recreational river users to make a more informed decision about when and where it is safest to enter the water.” Becky Malby of the Ilkley campaign said: “We are looking forward to Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency and Ofwat working together to provide a sustainable solution for Ilkley and nationally. “We know the only viable solution is to decombine the sewage system to a level where the runoff from rainwater goes into the river and all our sewage is properly treated. We also know everyone knows this is the solution. There now needs to be a plan to action it.” Yorkshire Water said that aside from the stretch of the river in Ilkley which had been given bathing water status, its ambition was to get the whole 65-mile river declared as of good ecological status by 2027. “We and other stakeholders in the region have formed a partnership with the aim of delivering good ecological status for the whole river by 2027 as set out in the water framework directive parameters,” said the company. “Focusing on good ecological status for the whole river will have a greater overall benefit for the environment and people on the wider Wharfe.”
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['environment/pollution', 'uk-news/yorkshire', 'lifeandstyle/swimming', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/sandralaville', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/pollution
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2021-04-06T10:25:37Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
environment/2023/mar/07/the-fight-to-protect-cheshires-irreplaceable-peatland
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The fight to protect Cheshire’s irreplaceable peatland | Letter
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I was interested in Peggy Seeger’s letter about the fight to save biodiverse meadows in Oxford’s Iffley village (We must call out the ecocide on our doorstep, 2 March). In Macclesfield we are fighting a similar campaign to stop a supermarket and 950 houses being built on irreplaceable lowland raised bog habitat. The peat at Danes Moss is nearly five metres deep in places and stores more than 220,000 tonnes of CO2. It is one of the most biodiverse areas in Cheshire, with an abundance of wildlife and many rare species. It is also a much-loved green space in the heart of our community. It’s a very different habitat to that at Iffley, but the common thread is that it is the local council that is the developer. All over the country, it is often those in authority, who have been entrusted with safeguarding our environment, leading the way in its destruction. What is proposed at Danes Moss is indeed ecocide. Cheshire East council will bear the responsibility for what would be a wanton destruction of nature. Diana Moss Macclesfield, Cheshire • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
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['environment/conservation', 'uk/ruralaffairs', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'uk/uk', 'society/localgovernment', 'tone/letters', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers']
|
environment/biodiversity
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2023-03-07T17:43:02Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2015/dec/24/new-clean-energy-investment-mandate-a-shift-from-policy-proposed-by-abbott
|
New clean energy investment mandate a shift from policy proposed by Abbott
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The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has been directed to focus on innovative and emerging technologies, reversing a mandate by the former prime minister Tony Abbott that would have specifically blocked funding for windfarms and small-scale solar projects. The mandate came into effect on Thursday, with a new clause outlining the shift in focus. “As part of its investment activities in clean energy technologies, the corporation must include a focus on supporting emerging and innovative renewable technologies and energy efficiency, such as large-scale solar, storage associated with large- and small-scale solar, offshore wind technologies, and energy efficiency technologies for cities and the built environment,” the clause said. “ This will in turn increase the uptake of emerging technologies such as large-scale solar and energy efficiency.” The investment mandate is not exclusive, meaning that established technologies can still be funded, and not retrospective, so projects that have already been funded will not be affected. “The CEFC will therefore continue to pursue a diverse range of investment activities that are within the scope of the CEFC Act and this new investment mandate,” a statement by the body said. “Together, the new investment mandate and the accompanying explanatory statement provide guidance on how the CEFC should approach investment in mature and established technologies, such as conventional onshore wind and conventional hydro,” it said. “It is the government’s expectation that, in many circumstances, projects involving mature technologies should be able to secure finance from commercial financing sources.” The mandate is a shift from what Abbott proposed in July, when he said the body should no longer fund small-scale solar projects such as rooftop panels and wind technology. “It is our policy to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation because we think that if the projects stack up economically, there’s no reason why they can’t be supported in the usual way,” Abbott had said. “But while the CEFC exists, what we believe it should be doing is investing in new and emerging technologies – certainly not existing windfarms.” The CEFC chairwoman, Jillian Broadbent, wrote to the environment minister, Greg Hunt, and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, welcoming the new mandate. She said it was an “appropriate approach that allows the CEFC to support the Australian government policy priorities while still allowing a measure of investment flexibility”. Several members of the Abbott government frontbench, including Abbott himself, have criticised windfarms for their visual and health impacts. “I’ve been up close to these windfarms. Not only are they visually awful but they make a lot of noise,” Abbott told the radio broadcaster Alan Jones in June. “I do take your point about the potential health impact of these things.” Later the same month, Hunt appointed a windfarm commissioner to investigate claims of ill-health associated with turbine noise. Innovation has been a big focus of Malcolm Turnbull since he took the Liberal party leadership from Abbott in September. Earlier this month, Turnbull released a $1.1bn package of 20 initiatives, aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and harnessing new ways of thinking.
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['environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/energy', 'australia-news/tony-abbott', 'environment/windpower', 'environment/solarpower', 'australia-news/greg-hunt', 'australia-news/malcolm-turnbull', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/shalailah-medhora']
|
environment/windpower
|
ENERGY
|
2015-12-24T05:02:49Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
commentisfree/2021/jul/15/the-uk-ambitious-climate-goals-spending-cuts-boris-johnson
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The UK won’t meet its ambitious climate goals by making spending cuts | Larry Elliott
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There are many reasons why the government’s decision to cut the aid budget is dumb. High among them is the failure to see the link between poverty and climate change. If you want to convince people of the need to save the planet, it is a good idea to make sure first that they are not going hungry, have access to running water and can put their children through school. The link between social justice and the green agenda applies domestically as well. Millions of people in Britain count the pennies each week because they are struggling to get by. Exhorting them to change their lifestyles or pay more to heat their homes is not enough. If the government is to meet its ambitious targets people who are less well-off are going to need plenty of help, but as things stand they are not getting it. While the prime minister talks a good game on the climate crisis, the reality is that there is a tension between the colossal transformation being promised and the Treasury’s cheese-paring approach to public spending. Cuts to the aid budget and to universal credit are part of the same mindset; it is hard to see how either will assist in the transition to carbon net zero by 2050. Boris Johnson encapsulated the government’s problem last week when he told MPs that households would find it hard to pay for air source heat pumps to replace gas boilers. “These things cost 10 grand a pop,” Johnson said. “This is a lot of money for ordinary people.” It certainly is, and yet the prime minister also knows that securing the support of ordinary people is going to be vital if the government is to meet its ambitious climate goals. What’s more, the backdrop to November’s Cop26 summit – at which the UK is seeking tougher commitments from the global community – is of tighter budgets for those who are less well off. It is not just the £20 a week cut in universal credit. The rising cost of oil means fuel prices are up 20% on a year ago; jobs will be lost when wage subsidies are finally phased out in September. The TUC reported this week that more than a million children from key worker households are living in poverty. Simultaneously, the government is looking to save money and speed up the green transition without prompting political pushback from those least able to meet the costs. This is impossible, which is why ministers are now playing for time and emphasising the role technological progress will play. Yet delaying action is also problematic. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the government’s spending watchdog, said last week that putting off taking decisive steps until 2030 would lead to a bigger fall in output and higher levels of debt than would be the case with immediate action. It is easy to see why ministers would prefer to put off difficult decisions until another day. The Conservative party’s newly won supporters in so-called red wall seats are precisely the group of voters most likely to be worried by rising energy bills and transport costs. An alternative approach, outlined by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) this week, would be to marry the green agenda with a poverty-reduction agenda. The left of centre thinktank published a report by its environmental justice commission which suggested the public will hold a veto over the netzero process unless it is seen to be fair. Hilary Benn, one of the commission’s co-chairs, summed it up when he said: “People must be at the heart of the UK’s rapid transition to net zero, or else – to put it bluntly – it won’t succeed.” He’s right about that. The IPPR has a long list of proposals for ensuring voter buy-in – free public transport, a fund to help consumers switch to green products, higher public investment, guaranteed retraining for low-carbon jobs – all of which will sound expensive to a Treasury that is keen to repair the hole in public finances punched by the pandemic. Rishi Sunak’s instinct will be to play hardball when the cost estimates come in for how much the state will need to pay to secure net zero. In theory, greening the economy fits snugly with the government’s other agenda: levelling up. The OBR says if ministers act now, the investment needed to achieve net zero adds 21% of GDP – or £469bn – to the national debt by 2050. That sounds a lot, but it would be spread over 30 years and is less than the increase in the national debt caused by the pandemic. And, of course, far less costly than doing nothing. Canada has shown what can be done with the tax system to make the net zero transition smoother and fairer. Justin Trudeau’s government introduced a revenue-neutral carbon tax in 2019, with money raised from polluters redistributed back to households to help them meet the cost of higher energy bills. Most households benefit. It is now little more than three months until the Cop26 meeting, and despite what it says, the government’s net zero strategy does not pass muster. There has been much less urgency than in Germany, France or the US, and no real evidence of a strategy. Over the next eight years, Joe Biden is proposing to spend billions on making the switch to electric vehicles, ensuring infrastructure is more resilient to global heating, and on clean energy and new low-carbon technology. The US has a plan backed with serious money. Not just talk and cuts. Larry Elliott is the Guardian’s economics editor
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['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'business/economics', 'environment/green-economy', 'business/business', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'society/universal-credit', 'society/society', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'type/article', 'tone/comment', 'profile/larryelliott', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-opinion']
|
environment/carbon-emissions
|
EMISSIONS
|
2021-07-15T06:00:34Z
| true
|
EMISSIONS
|
sport/blog/2012/oct/26/kevin-sinfield-england-captain-wales
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'Sir' Kevin Sinfield slips easily into his new role as England captain | Andy Wilson
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Kevin Sinfield has had to wait 12 years from making his international debut to leading out his country, which he will do for the first time in the low-key surroundings of Wrexham's Racecourse Ground on Saturday afternoon. But with less than a year until England launch the World Cup on a much grander stage at the other end of Wales next October, the timing has been impeccable. Sinfield was established as the outstanding leader of the 17-season Super League era even before he lifted the trophy for the fifth time in six years, and the sixth in all, after a man of the match performance in Leeds's Grand Final victory over Warrington three weeks ago. He is softly spoken, intelligent, eloquent; grounded, as you might expect of the son of trade union activists from Oldham; and also a very fine rugby league player. Not the biggest, the fastest or the most extravagantly gifted, as he is the first to concede. "I'm not going to rip teams apart on my own," he said this week. "But what I can do is get a team around the field – and when I've got some of the talent around me that we have with Leeds and now England, I know how to give them the ball." He is also an outstanding goal-kicker, the result of countless hours spent honing that particular skill that must have tested the boredom threshold of an inquiring mind, and tough – as he showed yet again by rising from a heavy knock in the Grand Final. But only in the past three years, since he was frustrated by the peripheral role he was assigned in England's disastrous campaign in the last World Cup, in Australia in 2008, has Sinfield been given anything approaching the same level of responsibility that he has relished for so long at Leeds. Even recently, he did not regard himself as a contender for the national captaincy, mainly because the role was filled, indisputably, by Jamie Peacock, the front-row warhorse who has won five Grand Finals under Sinfield at Leeds. "To be honest I'd rather JP was doing the job now, because he's still an outstanding player and we're going to miss him," the 32-year-old said. "But he's decided to retire from international rugby for his own reasons, and hopefully he's still going to be involved in the England setup in some way leading up to the World Cup next year." Sinfield insists he was "really surprised, genuinely" when Steve McNamara, the England coach, approached him at the start of a training camp in South Africa two weeks ago to anoint him Peacock's successor. "We've got a lot of leaders in the squad," he said. "James Graham and Adrian Morley have done it before, and there's people like Sean O'Loughlin who have done terrific jobs as captain of their clubs. So it's a huge honour, the ultimate, and I think leading the team out will be the proudest moment of my career – certainly for my family." The appointment is initially only for this three-team European Championship, in which even a weakened England team are expected to make short work of Wales's callow battlers to ensure consecutive games against France in Hull next Saturday and then the final at Salford on 11 November. But Sir Kev, as he is known by the Leeds supporters and Clare Balding – a huge fan – would now seem to be in the box seat to lead England against Australia at the Millennium Stadium for their first game of the World Cup, a tournament Sinfield acknowledges is crucial to the future health of rugby league in this country. "We've talked about a turning point for the last 15 years, certainly in international competition," he said. "The target is for us to win the World Cup – if that was achieved, it would be a massive catalyst in making people take notice of our sport. It's not going to be easy, obviously. We had a bit of catching up to do, and we're not there yet. "But if you look at the pool of players that is available to us and the quality we've got, the bar is getting raised every year. We've had some negative news in rugby league recently, with the financial problems they've had at Bradford and a few other things. But there's a lot of positive stuff going on, with the investment in the England squad, the World Cup, and even people like [Wayne] Rooney and Rio [Ferdinand] showing their support." Even before he has led out the national team, Sinfield has slotted naturally into his new ambassadorial role.
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['sport/england-rugby-league-team', 'sport/wales-rugby-league-team', 'sport/leedsrhinos', 'sport/rugbyleague', 'sport/sport', 'tone/features', 'sport/blog', 'type/article', 'profile/andywilson', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/sport', 'theguardian/sport/news']
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sport/wales-rugby-league-team
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2012-10-26T15:23:27Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
sport/2022/mar/17/afl-says-they-no-longer-work-with-concussion-expert-dr-paul-mccrory
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AFL says it no longer works with concussion expert Dr Paul McCrory
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The AFL has confirmed that influential sports neurologist Dr Paul McCrory has not been a member of the league’s Concussion Scientific Committee or any other of its committees or groups working on concussion since 2021. An AFL spokesperson said McCrory ceased to be involved with the league’s concussion committees or working groups in January 2021, and has not been involved in such a capacity with the league since. The spokesperson did not provide detail on why the affiliation around concussion ended, and McCrory has not responded to repeated requests for comment. But his work with the AFL on concussion ceased before allegations of plagiarism occurred. McCrory resigned as chair of the Concussion in Sport Group on 5 March after being accused of plagiarising stories in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, with the journal removing one of his editorials from 2005 for alleged “unlawful and indefensible breach of copyright” of the work of Prof Steve Haake. McCrory has since been accused of further plagiarism, and reportedly apologised, telling website Retraction Watch that he had requested the papers in question be retracted and “The errors were not deliberate or intentional”. Separately, on Wednesday, Australia’s medical regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency told Guardian Australia that in May 2018 McCrory “provided an enforceable undertaking to the Medical Board of Australia that he will not perform neurodiagnostic procedures, nerve conduction studies, or electromyography until approved to so by the Board”. An Ahpra spokesperson confirmed that undertaking is still in effect, remaining in force until it is removed from the public register. When asked for the reasons why the undertaking was given they said “privacy provisions in the National Law prevent us from commenting further”. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Ahpra said that, speaking generally, medical regulatory agencies “can accept an undertaking from a practitioner to limit the practitioner’s practice in some way if this is necessary to protect the public”. “When a National Board or adjudication body decides an undertaking is no longer required to ensure safe practice, they are revoked and are no longer published,” she said. “An undertaking is voluntarily entered into by a practitioner as opposed to a ‘condition’ which is imposed on a practitioner’s registration.” She added that “current undertakings which relate to a practitioner’s health are mentioned on the national register but details are not provided”. Guardian Australia does not suggest that there is any issue with McCrory’s health or that his professional practice poses any risk to the public and has approached him for an explanation as to why he provided the enforced undertaking. McCrory is a former Collingwood club doctor and has advised the AFL on its concussion policies. Dan Palmer, who is scrum coach for rugby union team the Brumbies and a former player, said that in his view McCrory should not be involved in the development of any concussion policies while his work is the subject of plagiarism allegations. Palmer is a PhD student in neuroscience at the Australian National University in Canberra and said, while he is not a concussion researcher, “from my experience in contact sport it is clear that concussion can have considerable implications for people over varying timeframes”. “I am not familiar with the exact roles McCrory has played in developing concussion protocols, but given the situation, the protocols influenced by him or his research should be reviewed to be sure they align with the best quality and most up-to-date science,” Palmer said. Last week the AFL’s chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, told the Herald Sun, amid the plagiarism allegations, that the league had not cut ties with him: “As far as I understand, he has a relationship with us as we do with many parties,” McLachlan was quoted as saying. “And I’ve had no discussions about any review of that.” “I think there is a discussion which I’m aware of around plagiarism of an article in 2005. That is for other people to sort out and I think it was an introduction rather than the research.” On Tuesday a spokesperson for the AFL said McCrory had not been a member of the AFL’s Concussion Scientific Committee nor any other committee or working group working on concussion in the AFL since January 2021. He did not respond to questions about whether McCrory is still involved with the league in any other capacity. Concussion in AFL has been a controversial topic, with increasing calls for the league to acknowledge cognitive issues experienced by players and former players, allegedly as a result of head injuries that occurred during their playing careers. The AFL told Guardian Australia player safety is a priority. “Prioritising the health and safety of our players at all levels of Australian Football is paramount and the AFL will continue to take appropriate steps to improve safety whilst maintaining the fabric of our great game,” the statement said. It said the AFL’s concussion management protocols draw on a variety of sources beyond the international consensus statements on concussion in sport “as was evident from the AFL’s adoption in 2021 of a minimum 12-day rest and rehabilitation period post-concussion”. Last year the AFL announced the appointment of a “head of concussion and healthcare governance” and a “head of concussion innovation and research” to coordinate the game’s response to sports-related concussion. “The AFL Commission also approved funding for a longitudinal research project to track players from the talent pathways through to post career,” the statement said.
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['sport/afl', 'sport/concussion-in-sport', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'australia-news/health', 'sport/australian-rules-football', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/melissa-davey', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news']
|
sport/concussion-in-sport
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2022-03-16T16:30:05Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
environment/2023/jun/14/eus-biodiversity-law-under-threat-from-centre-right-meps
|
EU’s biodiversity law under threat from centre-right MEPs
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EU plans to restore biodiversity on land and sea are hanging in the balance after the European parliament’s biggest political group called for the proposals to be torn up and rewritten. On the eve of a vote on the nature restoration law (NRL) package, the chairman of the centre-right European People’s party (EPP) said the vote was “50-50” with potential for others to join their opposition ranks on Thursday. On Wednesday evening the chair of the environment committee, Pascal Canfin, urged members to vote for the act accusing the EPP of “fake news” over food production. “Our food security depends on protecting nature from collapsing. Yet, the right and the far right are joining forces against the nature restoration law that we’re voting on Thursday. My answers to their fake news,” he said. The proposals are aimed at protecting all endangered ecosystems ranging from rivers and seas to peat bogs and indigenous forests by 2050 through legally binding targets. The UN environment chief Inger Andersen urged MEPs to show leadership for future generations ahead of the vote and deliver on the promises the union made at Cop15 just 6 months ago. She condemned those that had turned restoring biodiversity into a culture war issue. EPP chairman Manfred Weber said his group of MPs supported goals on climate change but said the NRL was “a bad proposal”, which would reduce food production on the continent. “The overwhelming majority of farmers don’t need any lesson about sustainability, they got their farms from previous generations so they know what sustainability means,” he said. Irish Green party MEP Ciarán Cuffe, who is stewarding parallel proposals on renovation of energy inefficient buildings through parliament, said he worried about a potential deeper EPP resistance on climate emergency measures. “I’m concerned that the EPP’s commitment to climate and biodiversity is lukewarm. We have been told they have a kill list of laws they don’t want to see passed. The climate and biodiversity crises have not gone away and if anything we need to step up efforts in the face of foreseen newspaper headlines about extreme temperatures and warming,” he said. While Weber claimed the proposals would harm Europe’s food production by sequestering land for rewilding and other projects, Cuffe said the 12-volume, 5,689-page impact assessment put the economic benefits of restoring nature at €180bn (£154bn) compared with the cost of the measures which have been put at €154bn. The World Wildlife Fund has also argued, along with the Greens, that increasing biodiversity including bees and other pollinators actually improves food production. German MEP Peter Liese, the environment spokesperson for the EPP, said on Wednesday the votes were now split 42:42 of the 84 strong committee with EPP representing 22 of those. “We have four undecided votes, it will be very tight,” he said. He said one of the main concerns is that the European commission has not set in stone of definition of “degraded” land or rivers. Under its present guise, it could require 25,000 kilometres of European rivers to be restored to wilderness, he said, impacting the development and existing hydro-electric plants. “The problem with the impact assessment report is that it was written before the outbreak of war,” said Liese. On Monday, CEOs from 50 companies including Ikea, Nestle and H&M published an open letter voicing their support for the law, warning protecting nature was key to a well-functioning economy. Andersen, the executive director of the UN environment programme, told the Guardian it was critical that the EU delivered on the promises it had made to the world on nature. “Talk is easy. You have to follow through. I think if if the EU does not follow through with the targets that it has in the nature restoration law, it sends a detrimental signal to the global commitment to protect biodiversity and to the tears that we shared that night at 4am in Montreal. It would negate it all. “There’s a real to do item here: for those folks that sit in the EU parliament to do the right thing by the next generation,” she said. “How can nature become a culture wars issue? To me, it is absurd. Nature is what feeds us and sustains us. It’s everything.” Last month, EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius warned abandoning the law would send “a dangerous, negative signal to the world”. Alongside separate proposals to reduce pesticide use and climate laws, the NRL is part of the European Green Deal. Weber told reporters in Strasbourg: “We will not achieve our climate change goals, our goals on biodiversity [if we go] against the rural areas,” he said. Under the proposals, 88 MEPs on the committee leading the passage of the act, will be asked to vote on a version of the European Commission’s proposed laws which has been slightly watered down to try to secure the agreement of the European parliament. They will be asked to support measures to “put in place, without delay, effective and area-based restoration measures which shall collectively cover, by 2030, at least 30% of the union’s land, freshwater and sea areas in need of restoration”. But Weber indicated his group would not be budging. “We have a lot of concerns which cannot be fixed with this concrete proposal. That’s why we asked for a restart, for a new proposal from the European Commission.” The EPP has already walked out of negotiations on the NRL and is hoping others will join them in opposition to the legislation during the vote on Thursday.
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['environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'world/eu', 'world/world', 'world/europe-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/lisaocarroll', 'profile/patrick-greenfield', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
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environment/biodiversity
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2023-06-14T08:00:08Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2018/apr/30/country-diary-i-call-to-the-boulderers-can-you-spot-me
|
Country diary: I call to the boulderers 'Can you spot me?'
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John Buchan’s hero Richard Hannay crosses my mind as I reach an impasse while walking along the banks of the Eden to Armathwaite crags. A flight of steps descends into Sandy Bay, created from fine-grained sand churned up from the riverbed each flood. Only, while Buchan’s 39 steps descend to sands between white chalk cliffs in Kent, Armathwaite’s stairs are sandwiched between red sandstone precipices. Also, Hannay’s adversaries were international spies; mine are old age and a dodgy hip. The steepness of the narrow steps and the lack of a handrail oblige me to face inwards as I head down toward the shore. I have to let my trekking poles dangle from loops attached around my wrists, so my hands can be free to grab the ancient steps as handholds. Gingerly I descend, lowering one boot at a time. Sometimes a Vibram sole meets thin air. Is there a step missing? I can’t always tell. I become cragfast, unable to go up or down. Across the little amphitheatre three boulderers in snazzy rock shoes, their fingertips white with climbing chalk, are surmounting overhangs and traversing blank-looking walls. They don’t go much higher than 15ft-20ft before heading down again – or even actually baling out, leaping into the sand or on to the shock-absorbing crash mats they have left below. How it all returns! The blissful hours I spent bouldering here in the 1980s, enough to wear away the ridges of my fingerprints. The Forestry Commission has been doing its bit to attract more climbers to Armathwaite. Prompted by the British Mountaineering Council, it has recently been felling trees further along the riverbank because their canopies in summer had been obliterating rock buttresses, leaving them damp and slippery after rain. Today, open once more to any available sun, they are snuff dry. Enough wool-gathering. Tensed leg muscles hurt. “Can you spot me?” I call, climber’s jargon for “Please stand by below!” Arms upraised to buffer any possible fall, the boulderers shepherd me down the remaining steps back to terra firma. A photo shows me looking bashful. Are there 39 steps here too? I lost count.
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['environment/series/country-diary', 'environment/rivers', 'environment/environment', 'environment/forests', 'world/mountaineering', 'uk/uk', 'environment/spring', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/tony-greenbank', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers']
|
environment/forests
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2018-04-30T04:30:02Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2019/sep/18/fracking-plans-near-adani-coalmine-raise-new-environmental-fears
|
Fracking plans near Adani coalmine raise new environmental fears
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A Queensland gas company plans to begin fracking at two exploratory wells close to the Adani Carmichael mine site later this year, and hopes production can begin “early” to service nearby mining projects. Gas explorers appear to have increased the pace of their planning and activities in the Galilee Basin during the past year as the Carmichael mine has passed key milestones – in contrast to companies behind other thermal coal proposals. Federal government studies have warned that fracking could “modify aquifer properties” in the Galilee, and environmentalists say they are concerned that gas extraction will compound the impacts of coalmining on water resources. In a recent presentation to a mining conference in Noosa, gas explorer Comet Ridge said it planned to conduct “fracture stimulation” of two sandstone gas wells, one about 35km from the Adani site, before the end of the year. Comet Ridge also plans to extract coal seam gas from the Galilee. In May the company signed a memorandum of understanding with gas infrastructure firm APA to work towards a pipeline, linking the Galilee Basin with Moranbah and ultimately to east coast markets. In the meantime the company has flagged the “potential for early commercialisation with nearby mining and industrial gas demand”. The only nearby project likely to be completed by 2021, which the company has previously said was a “best case scenario” for production, is Adani’s Carmichael project. Comet Ridge’s joint venture partner, Vintage Energy, has previously promoted its proximity and the fact Adani “will require gas to power its operations”. In a statement Adani said it had plans in place to provide energy for Carmichael operations and that these “do not contemplate the use of natural gas”. “We will assess any future proposals to supply safe, affordable and reliable energy to the project on their merits,” the statement said. Comet Ridge did not respond to an offer to provide comment. The Carmichael project has become totemic – for both climate activists and supporters of coal – partly because it represents a new development in a previously untapped thermal coal basin. Much of the commentary and analysis about Carmichael has focused on the potential of the project to “open up” the Galilee Basin to other mining companies. Instead, natural gas companies have been the most aggressive movers. Environmentalists say those operations could create unforeseen water impacts, and could alter the assumptions used by miners to model impacts on groundwater. Last year, a federal government bioregional assessment warned that cumulative impacts on water resources in the Galilee would likely be more significant than individual miners had factored in to their own modelling. The same assessment raised concern about coal seam gas and fracking operations. It said groundwater levels could be altered by coal seam gas extraction. “Any future groundwater drawdown in the upper Permian coal measures due to CSG production has the potential to be additional (cumulative) to drawdown attributed to the coal mine projects in the modelled,” the report said. It said fracking operations could have effects on “groundwater composition and quality” and could result in “modified aquifer properties”. The Lock the Gate Queensland spokesperson Ellie Smith said water drawdown had been observed by farmers in other parts of the state where fracking has proliferated. “In a time of extreme, unprecedented drought, we should be conserving water, not sacrificing it to fracking companies who exploit it for temporary gain,” Smith said. “The exploration well’s proximity to … precious water resources and to the planned Adani Carmichael coal mine and other slated Galilee mega coal mines is deeply concerning given the likely cumulative impacts on water resources. “Now, with fracking thrown into the mix, that impact is likely to be even more disastrous for farmers, water resources, and local communities.”
|
['environment/fracking', 'business/gas', 'business/adani-group', 'australia-news/queensland', 'environment/mining', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-smee', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news']
|
environment/mining
|
ENERGY
|
2019-09-18T02:51:56Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
sport/article/2024/jul/31/our-bet-paid-off-paris-celebrates-olympic-triathletes-swim-in-the-seine
|
‘Our bet paid off’: Paris celebrates Olympic triathletes’ swim in the Seine
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French city officials have hailed a “historic day” after the Olympic triathlon competitions were held in the River Seine just a day after it was deemed unsafe for swimming. Tests on the water showed the men’s and women’s competitions could go ahead on Wednesday morning, resulting in victory – against all odds – for the city as well as for French athletes who took medals in the women’s and men’s events. Pierre Rabadan, the former French rugby international, now a deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport and the Olympic Games, called the event a “historic day for Paris and the Olympics … and for ecology and the environment. “We have faced a certain scepticism for several years now and this morning was the best response. We said we would hold the triathlon in the River Seine 10 years ago and we did it,” Rabadan said. He added: “It was a challenge; we had a plan, we stuck to it and it was good that we did because we succeeded.” The men’s triathlon was cancelled at the last minute on Tuesday when the water failed quality tests. Despite the rain overnight, the races were back on Wednesday morning when the water was declared “satisfactory” for the men’s and women’s triathlons. Samples were taken from four points at the Olympic site and found to be well below the international limit for bacteria, including E coli. Asked how the water quality had suddenly improved, Rabadan said soaring temperatures and the sun had helped. “We don’t play with the health of anyone, especially not the health of athletes. It’s not a game, it’s a scientific process and we follow the regulations. There is no question of a conspiracy. We are dealing with facts,” he said. Antoine Guillou, a deputy mayor in charge of waste, cleaning and sanitation for the city authority, said that for more than a century, during which swimming in the river was banned, the Seine had been used as an overflow for the sewage system. “We have reversed the tide of history, more than 100 years of history during which the Seine was considered almost as a sewer. That is an enormous satisfaction for us. We had a bet and it paid off. A symbolic line has been crossed,” he said. Earlier this month, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, led 100 athletes, officials and local people by taking a dip in the river after a series of tests showed it was safe. The lengthy clean-up operation that cost €1.4bn (£1.2bn) included linking more than 300 boats moored along the banks of the Seine to the city sewage system and the construction of a massive holding and treatment tank to siphon off bacteria-laden stormwater that would normally run into the river during heavy rains.
|
['sport/olympic-games-2024', 'sport/olympic-games', 'sport/sport', 'world/paris', 'world/france', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/pollution', 'sport/swimming', 'environment/water', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/kim-willsher', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-foreign']
|
environment/pollution
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2024-07-31T15:17:29Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
world/2004/dec/29/tsunami2004.thailand3
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Thailand hopes for miracles
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Rescuers combing the beaches of Thailand affected by Sunday's Tsunami today said they feared that the 4,000 people still missing in the country will not be found alive - the only hope was for "individual miracles", said one. The official death toll was this today confirmed to be 1,657 of which 473 are foreigners, the interior ministry's department of disaster prevention and mitigation said. Some 43 Britons are confirmed to be among the dead. However, 4,086 Thais and holidaymakers are missing - including 2,000 Scandinavians, of which 1,500 are from Sweden alone. Rescuers across the south coast of Thailand and its islands are desperately attempting to find survivors, help the injured and recover bodies. Somboon Sukhumkhampee, a doctor at Takuata Hospital near the tourist resort of Khao Lak beach, where police confirmed that 1,500 bodies were recovered, said: "I have not slept for two days. It is the worst destruction I have ever seen in my years as a doctor." An international airlift was under way to ferry critical aid and medicine to survivors on the island resort of Phuket. Jets from France and Australia were among the first to touch down at the island's airport. Greece, Italy, Germany and Sweden planned similar flights. In Britain, foreign secretary Jack Straw today held talks with Thailand's foreign minister, Surakiart Sathirathai. They discussed plans to send forensic experts out to the disaster zone to help identify British victims. The official figures for British fatalities in Thailand currently stands at 43. Mr Straw said in some cases the bodies may have to be brought back to the UK for identification. "There are extra difficulties about that which is one the reasons police are sending out forensic experts to Thailand and also to Colombo to help wherever possible with positive identification in those countries," he said. Some 30 rescue workers from Sweden, Germany and Taiwan were helping Thai authorities and local volunteers comb the worst-hit areas as bodies were still washing up on several beaches three days after the waves struck. The French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, flew into the Thai resort island of Phuket today bringing aid and a team of psychiatrists to help traumatised families. "There are people here whose families have been amputated, decimated and we have to help these people psychologically," he told reporters. On the ground, a shortage of equipment, heat and the fear of aftershocks were hampering the search, said Col Arun Khaewwathi, chief of Takua Pa district, north of Phuket. He said sniffer dogs were needed to help locate bodies covered by debris. Sweden's foreign minister, Laila Freivalds, said: "We fear that many of [the missing] will not be found." "We have little hope, except for individual miracles," Jean-Marc Espalioux, chairman of the Accor hotel group, which owns the Sofitel hotel on Khao Lak, just north of Phuket island, from where 200 tourists are still missing. The hotel was destroyed by the waves, which were nearly three storeys high. Fears are also emerging about the long term impact of the disaster on Thailand, a country heavily dependent on its income from the 12 million tourists who visit every year. Some 1.2 million foreigners are likely to cancel their trips to Thailand, costing the industry around 30 billion baht (£400m), according to the Association of Thai Travel Agents. Losses will affect local Thais who run the beach-side businesses such as watersports rental companies, masseuses and restaurants, the entire Thai economy and some international airlines, hotels and restaurants with interests in the area. "We're finished. There are no tourists, there are no fishermen," Teeraphon Pramong, the owner of a seafood business north of Phuket told Associated Press. His pier was wiped out, his suppliers are dead and the luxury resorts of Khao Lak have been so devastated that some may never be rebuilt, he said. Thailand's tourism and sports minister, Sonthaya Khunpluen, estimated that some 200,000 employees in the tourism sector, the country's top foreign exchange earner, were expected to lose their jobs due to the disaster. The tsunami rolled in just days after the Thai government trumpeted tourism's success in 2004, citing an increase of 20% over the previous year and 384 billion baht in income despite the outbreak of bird flu and Muslim terrorism in southern Thailand. Meanwhile, widespread looting also was reported in Thailand's resort islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, where European and Australian tourists left valuables behind in wrecked hotels when they fled - or were swept away by - the torrents. The prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, earlier denounced the thieves as "despicable good-for-nothings" preying on people's suffering, and authorities said any caught would face the maximum punishment.
|
['world/tsunami2004', 'world/world', 'world/thailand', 'world/asia-pacific', 'type/article']
|
world/tsunami2004
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2004-12-29T12:56:19Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
uk-news/2023/dec/11/costly-tunnel-vision-over-stonehenge
|
Costly tunnel vision over Stonehenge | Brief letters
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If the Department for Transport has got a spare £1.7bn to spend on a tunnel, the sole purpose of which seems to be to stop people getting a free view of Stonehenge as they drive past (Stonehenge campaigners’ last-chance bid to save site from road tunnel, 11 December), can I suggest that it spends it on more urgent problems, such as filling in and resurfacing Britain’s crumbling roadways? Pete Lavender Nottingham • Alex Petridis’s top two carols (The 20 greatest Christmas carols – ranked!, 7 December) are the same as mine: O Come, All Ye Faithful and In the Bleak Midwinter. The second has the best words and the first a superb descant that, when sung by a choir accompanied by an orchestra, is glorious. From 1 December to Christmas Day, I play it loudly while making breakfast. David Rose Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands • The mayor of Oslo said she was keen to reduce the carbon footprint of the Christmas tree sent every year to adorn Trafalgar Square “as she touched down in London on Thursday” (Trafalgar Square Christmas tree must cut its carbon footprint, says Oslo mayor, 6 December). The first step to reducing the tree’s carbon footprint: don’t fly to London for the annual jolly. Tim Exton Seattle, US • Like Manchester, Liverpool also has a copy of the Parthenon marbles, at the Walker Art Gallery, presented by George IV to the Liverpool Royal Institution in 1821 (Letters, 8 December). There is also a copy in Edinburgh College of Art. Perhaps the king could support a copy being made for the British Museum. Xanthe Brooke Wirral, Merseyside • Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
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['uk-news/stonehenge', 'lifeandstyle/christmas', 'type/article', 'tone/letters', 'commentisfree/series/brief-letters', 'world/road-transport', 'world/norway', 'environment/forests', 'artanddesign/parthenon-marbles', 'uk/liverpool', 'uk/uk', 'culture/heritage', 'music/classical-music-and-opera', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/letters', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers']
|
environment/forests
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2023-12-11T16:54:51Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/article/2024/aug/09/wildlife-boosted-by-englands-nature-friendly-farming-schemes-study-finds
|
Wildlife boosted by England’s nature-friendly farming schemes, study finds
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Butterflies, bees and bats are among the wildlife being boosted by England’s nature-friendly farming schemes, new government research has found. Birds were among the chief beneficiaries of the strategy, particularly ones that largely feed on invertebrates. An average of 25% more breeding birds were found in areas with more eco-friendly schemes. A shift away from eating meat will be required if agriculture in England is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as more land will need to be used to store nature and carbon, the peer-reviewed study by Natural England, the government advisory body, also warned. “Under the most ambitious climate change mitigation scenario, food production is expected to decline by up to 25%,” the report reads. “Ambitious combinations of measures, including reducing food waste, using arable land to grow crops for direct human consumption rather than livestock feed (and thus implying a dietary change), and increased productivity on remaining farmland, could fully mitigate expected reductions in food production.” After the UK left the EU, farmers were no longer part of the Common Agricultural Policy subsidies scheme, which paid land managers according to the acreage they farmed. Instead the devolved nations have set up their own farming payments system. In England, this is the sometimes controversial Environment Land Management Scheme (ELMS), which pays farmers to make room for nature by letting hedges grow wilder, or sowing wildflowers for birds and bees on field margins. Anecdotally, farmers taking part in the schemes have noticed more wildlife, but until now no data has been available. The new government studies found that more mobile creatures, such as butterflies, moths and hoverflies, fared better when larger areas of land – a large farm or multiple small neighbouring ones – were involved in the scheme. Surveyed squares with high levels of eco-friendly schemes in the surrounding landscape had on average 117 more butterflies (a 53% increase), compared with the average for squares with low scores for schemes in the surrounding landscape. There were an average of 12 more moth species in areas with more eco-friendly schemes. Smaller, less mobile insects were boosted in smaller, more local areas signed up to the schemes. Numbers of barbastelle and Daubenton’s bats were also found to respond positively to eco-friendly schemes at the landscape level. Martin Lines, CEO of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, told the Guardian: “The evidence in the Natural England report confirms what many nature-friendly farmers are finding: delivering good-quality habitats, supported by public money, is helping to stop nature’s decline or even reverse it. Many farmers are pleased that their hard work is showing positive results, and with the support of well-funded ELMS, more farmers can deliver or help reverse nature’s decline.” The report also modelled future land use, balancing the need to produce food with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making space for wildlife. It warns that “finite land is under pressure to deliver (among other things) food, timber and fuel production, climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. At present the land sector (agriculture, forestry and peatlands) is a substantial greenhouse gas emitter and contributor to climate change.” Nine land-use scenarios were explored, each representing an alternative UK land-use future, which saw up to 10 land-based climate change mitigation measures deployed in different combinations. Each scenario was run from a 2015 baseline to 2100, in five-year intervals. No scenario delivered strong reductions in greenhouse gas emissions or large increases in bird populations without significant drops in food production. Labour and the Conservatives have been reticent to say that people in the UK should eat less meat, but the previous food tsar Henry Dimbleby has said meat consumption should be reduced by 30% to make room for growing crops for human use rather than animal feed. The Climate Change Committee similarly recommends a 35% reduction in meat consumption by 2050. Farmers have recently warned that they will find it difficult to take part in ELMS if the amount they are paid falls, as they are having to repurpose land formerly used for food production to help wildlife, as well as facing additional pressures from extreme weather and price inflation. The schemes were put in place by the previous Conservative government, and the new Labour administration has refused to commit to the current £2.4bn annual budget.
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['environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'science/agriculture', 'science/science', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/helena-horton', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/wildlife
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2024-08-09T06:00:19Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2022/jun/30/study-suggests-existence-of-up-to-21m-ancient-and-veteran-trees-in-england
|
Study suggests existence of up to 2.1m ancient and veteran trees in England
|
There could be more than 2m ancient and veteran trees in England, many times more than previously recorded, researchers have found. Campaigners are calling on the government to give ancient trees the same protections as wildlife and old buildings. A study by the University of Nottingham has found there could be 1.7m to 2.1m ancient and veteran trees in England, of which only 115,000 are on record. Most of these are unlikely to be protected by any conservation methods, policy or legislation, so it is impossible to know how many are at risk. Now, using work from the Woodland Trust, the researchers have estimated where these trees could be. To create a map, scientists used an ancient tree inventory created by the trust, and created a number of different mathematical models, called species distribution models, to predict where the trees may be. Some of these models used predictors including distance from cities, distance from roads, and population density, as well as environmental factors, to identify places where ancient woodland exists but has not been identified. Volunteers were sent to random places on the map and asked to sample for ancient woodland, and the models that most matched this random sampling were selected. Inaccessible places contained 100% more trees than previously found, meaning areas across England are likely to have a large number of ancient trees which have not been recorded, as they have not been searched. Dr Victoria Nolan, one of the lead researchers on the study, said: “The findings from the surveys provide an insight into the number of species and type of trees that are present in different areas of the country. They also were able to be used to calibrate the models and provide estimates of the total number of ancient and veteran trees across England. “Based on the best-performing distribution models, these estimates predict 2m ancient and veteran trees, which is an amazing increase on what is currently recorded. It also suggests there is a lot more recording to do, but by having these more accurate prediction maps, targeted surveying will make it much easier to find them.” To be classed as ancient, a tree must be exceptionally old for its species. For example, an oak tree is ancient when it reaches 400 years of age, and is considered a veteran tree at 150. Birch trees, on the other hand, grow very quickly and reach ancient status at 150. Yews are not deemed ancient until they are about 800. Features of an ancient tree include a hollowing trunk, other organisms such as fungi or plants in its structure, or dead wood in the canopy. The dead wood they contain is a very important source of habitat for wildlife. Many have irreplaceable historic or cultural value. Despite their functions as carbon sinks and wildlife havens, there is no protection for ancient or veteran woodland unless it has been found to harbour other rare wildlife, or if it is subject to a tree protection order or is sited in a legally protected wildlife area. An estimated 20% of ancient and veteran trees are in such areas, so most have no legal protection. The Woodland Trust is calling on the government to include such protections to cover all ancient trees in its new green paper on nature recovery in England. Adam Cormack, head of campaigning at the Woodland Trust, said: “It’s remarkable that this research suggests we are yet to find most of the UK’s ancient trees, the cathedrals of the natural world. They’re out there somewhere – hidden in field corners, woods, hedges, even gardens and parks. Volunteers have done an amazing job to map thousands so far and this research is the inspiration to redouble our efforts. “But it is also worrying because these trees don’t have the automatic legal protection that most of our wildlife and old buildings have. This is despite the fact some are more than 1,000 years old. These astonishing trees are our inheritance from history, and we should be treating them like national treasures. We are petitioning governments across the UK for better protection for our most ancient and important trees and to do more to support people who are looking after them.”
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['environment/forests', 'environment/conservation', 'education/research', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'uk-news/england', 'education/universityofnottingham', 'education/higher-education', 'type/article', 'profile/helena-horton', 'profile/patrickbarkham', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/forests
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2022-06-30T05:00:32Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
world/2020/feb/27/palaus-marine-sanctuary-backfires-leading-to-increased-consumption-of-reef-fish
|
Palau's marine sanctuary backfires, leading to increased consumption of reef fish
|
Palau’s much-touted marine sanctuary has backfired, with the fishing ban leading to an increased consumption of the reef fish in the western Pacific country – such as grouper, snapper and parrotfish – that the marine sanctuary promised to protect. Palau introduced a new 500,000 sq km (193,000 sq mile) marine sanctuary on 1 January to much fanfare. The establishment of the sanctuary, which is twice the size of Mexico and is the world’s sixth-largest fully protected area, saw Palau close 80% of its economic exclusion zone to commercial fishing as well as activities like drilling for oil. While the closure of the EEZ to commercial fishing aimed to reduce pressure on the reef by encouraging sustainable domestic fishing of fish like tuna, the ban has actually led to a shortage as commercial fishing vessels have moved out of Palau’s waters. As a result, shops and restaurants in Palau are serving up vulnerable reef fish instead of pelagic fish like tuna. “It will be the opposite of what we wanted,” said Yimnang Golbuu, chief executive of Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) and administrator of the marine sanctuary, of reports of increased consumption of reef fish. “That’s why its important to develop that constant supply [of tuna].” Golbuu said that even before the marine sanctuary was created, there was not a constant supply of tuna in the restaurants and the supermarkets in Palau. He said the problem had been exacerbated after one of the commercial fishing vessel companies, Palau International Traders Corporation (PITI), announced that it would no longer conduct fishing activity in Palau’s waters, as the marine sanctuary made it “not financially viable”. “Maybe initially it’s becoming worse because all of the sudden PITI [pulled out of Palau’s waters] and it’s Chinese New Year and no one is fishing and maybe it is becoming a problem, hopefully as we develop the domestic fishery we will achieve our goal,” said Golbuu. Following the implementation of the marine sanctuary, several restaurants in Palau have stopped offering tuna on their menus, and were either serving reef fish or imported fish like salmon and frozen basa. Tkel Etpison, owner of Drop Off, a well-known seafood restaurant whose tuna poke is a popular dish, said that they have been forced to recommend reef fish dishes to customers due to the tuna shortage, though Etpison said he had concerns about doing so. “We try to encourage eating more commercial fish than reef fish. I think that’s the concern as a dive operator and bar owner that we will see less and less fish on the reef,” he said. Surangel Whipps Jr., the owner of one of the biggest supermarkets in Palau, said he had been forced to stock more reef fish due to the shortage. “We were selling tuna, filleted tuna, and then now that there is no tuna, they are buying more reef fish, so we’re putting more pressure on resources we are trying to protect,” he said, adding that the marine sanctuary was “a good initiative but we need to increase the capacity of our local fishing industry.” Critics say Palau should have made sure to develop a local tuna industry before introducing the marine sanctuary. Umiich Sengebau, the minister for natural resources, environment and tourism, said efforts were being made to create a local tuna industry, “but nothing happens overnight”. Sengebau said one solution was for Congress to provide subsidies to local fishermen to buy big enough vessels to take them offshore.
|
['world/series/the-pacific-project', 'world/palau', 'world/asia-pacific', 'world/pacific-islands', 'world/world', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/pacific-news']
|
environment/marine-life
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2020-02-26T23:15:49Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2022/jul/13/halt-use-of-biofuels-to-ease-food-crisis-says-green-group
|
Halt use of biofuels to ease food crisis, says green group
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Governments should put a moratorium on the use of biofuels and lift bans on genetic modification of crops, a green campaigning group has urged, in the face of a growing global food crisis that threatens to engulf developing nations. Ending the EU’s requirement for biofuels alone would free up about a fifth of the potential wheat exports from Ukraine, and even more of its maize exports, enough to make a noticeable difference to stretched food supplies, according to analysis by the campaign group RePlanet. About 3.3m tonnes of wheat were used in 2020 as feedstock for EU biofuels, and Ukraine’s 2020 wheat exports came to about 16.4m tonnes. About 6.5m tonnes of maize was also used for EU biofuels, compared with about 24m tonnes exported from Ukraine the same year. Supplies of wheat and maize for export from Ukraine are already under serious threat from the Russian invasion, with shipments held up and harvests damaged by the war. Food prices are rising around the world, with the war in Ukraine a key factor. That makes it imperative for governments to stop mandating the use of biofuels, according to RePlanet, in a report entitled Switch Off Putin. Mark Lynas, a veteran environmental campaigner and a co-founder of RePlanet, said: “Europe can and must beat Putin’s global food blackmail. Just as Europe must stop buying fossil fuels from the Kremlin by saving energy, so we must also do our bit to help avoid starvation in the global south by sparing food at home.” The EU, the US and the UK are among countries that mandate the use of biofuels, usually mixed with petrol or diesel fuel, for road vehicles. But much of the biofuel used derives from food crops, including wheat, maize and edible oils. The World Food Programme has warned that the rising prices of these staples, which has been driven by a combination of the Covid pandemic, climate breakdown and the war in Ukraine, is generating a food crisis around the world. In the UK, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation requires about 10% of the fuels supplied by fossil fuel companies to be “sustainable”, which in effect means biofuels. However, the amount that can come from food crops is capped at 4%, and will be reduced further to 2% in 2032. A UK government spokesperson said: “Biofuels, and other renewable fuels, will continue play an important part in helping to decarbonise transport and meet our climate goals. However, to help address the global food price crisis, we continue to promote waste-derived biofuels and are reducing the percentage of crop-based biofuels that count towards supplier targets.” RePlanet found that although the original justification for biofuels was as a lower carbon alternative to fossil fuels, in fact, owing to the impact on food, the fertiliser and energy used to produce the grains and oils and the land converted to agriculture to produce biofuels, there is little carbon saving over fossil fuels. RePlanet also argues that consumers in rich countries should eat less meat to free up grain for people’s diets around the world, and that prohibitions around the world – particularly in the EU – on the genetic modification of crops should be lifted to make higher yields possible. In another recommendation likely to be controversial, the report suggests that the EU’s organic targets should also be ditched in favour of conventional and intensive farming techniques to allow for higher productivity. Karolina Lisslö Gylfe, the secretary general of RePlanet, said: “If Europe doesn’t pragmatically look at finding evidence-based solutions, the outcome will be worse for the world’s poor, for the climate and for nature conservation. It will also make it harder to face down Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. Europe can and must do better.” Biofuels were discussed briefly by the G7 leaders at their meeting at Schloss Elmau in Germany last month. The UK raised a proposal for the world’s biggest economies to review their use of biofuels and their role in decarbonisation, given food security concerns. But the final communique from the leaders contained only the resolution: “We will continue to be mindful with regards to our long-term drive towards alternative fuels for transport, to our objectives on climate and biodiversity and food security.”
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['environment/biofuels', 'environment/environment', 'environment/energy', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'global-development/food-security', 'global-development/global-development', 'world/russia', 'world/ukraine', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/energy
|
ENERGY
|
2022-07-13T09:00:19Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
us-news/2024/oct/12/florida-milton-traffic-jams-fuel-shortages-debris
|
Floridians returning home after Milton battle traffic jams and fuel shortages
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Thousands of people who fled the onrushing Hurricane Milton are facing fuel shortages, debris and long traffic jams as they return to damaged Florida communities that are confronted with lengthy rebuilds. Millions of people were urged to evacuate before Milton, which slammed into western Florida on Wednesday as a category 3 hurricane, causing more than a dozen deaths, ruined homes and flooding and triggering a rash of destructive tornadoes. More than 1.5 million people are still without power in the wake of the storm. Many of those who did evacuate have been trying to make their way back home but face difficulties in doing so, with traffic snarled back into the Tampa Bay area. Fuel shortages are also gripping the state, with lengthy waits for gasoline facing those seeking to head home. Florida has set up three fuel distribution sites – in Bradenton, Plant City and St Petersburg – where residents can each get 10 gallons of gasoline for free, and is planning to set up more. “Obviously, as power gets restored, maybe some of them have generators that they can get on, and when the Port of Tampa’s open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing,” said Florida governor Ron DeSantis. “But in the meantime, we want to give people another option.” DeSantis said the state plans to open additional locations in Tampa and in Pinellas county, and at least one in Sarasota, with perhaps more depending on the demand. Officials have said that an unusual number of people evacuated before Milton’s landfall, heeding dire warmings about the potential impact of the storm, which at one point had strengthened into a category 5 event. Milton hit coastal communities just two weeks after they were damaged by Hurricane Helene. Scientists have said that both storms were made stronger, and provided extra rainfall, by the climate crisis, due to an unusually hot Gulf of Mexico. In the seaside town of Punta Gorda, Mayor Lynne Matthews said rescuers only had to save three people from floodwaters after Milton passed, compared with 121 rescues from Helene’s flooding. “So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews told a news conference on Friday, noting that local authorities ensured residents heard them. “We had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate.” Many of those who have made it home face a long recovery as they pick through their properties alongside clean-up crews. “Paradise is still paradise, despite this mess,” said Pat Hurst, who along with her husband, Bill, has lived on Siesta Key, a barrier island near Tampa, since 2011 and has been visiting for more than two decades. “That said, cleaning up from one hurricane while trying to prepare for another was really stressful.” Joe Biden is planning to visit affected communities in Florida on Sunday, where he is expected to again call for Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, to recall Congress to provide further aid for disaster recovery. Johnson has so far refused to do so. DeSantis, Florida’s governor, has said that he has been satisfied so far with the federal support for his state. “He basically said, you know, you guys are doing a great job. We’re here for you,” he said when asked about his conversations with Biden. “We sent a big request and we got approved for what we wanted.”
|
['us-news/hurricane-milton', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/extreme-weather', 'world/hurricanes', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/oliver-milman', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/west-coast-news']
|
us-news/hurricane-milton
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2024-10-12T20:11:50Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
world/2017/oct/01/donald-trump-san-juan-mayor-puerto-rico-response-double-down
|
Puerto Rico: Trump spat with San Juan mayor escalates as all sides double down
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The war of words between the president of the United States, population 324 million, and the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan, population 400,000, intensified on Sunday as the island continued to struggle in the wake of Hurricane Maria. As Puerto Ricans stood in line for water, food and petrol, and with 95% of the island still without power, Donald Trump doubled down on his cantankerous spat with San Juan mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. In a Sunday morning tweet he alluded to her in all but name, referring to “politically motivated ingrates”. Cruz proved herself to be as adept as the occupant of the White House in using the media to stand her ground. In interviews with the Sunday politics shows, she too doubled down on her criticisms of Trump and his administration and the neglect, as she sees it, that they have shown her community. Asked on Meet the Press on NBC whether she felt personally attacked by Trump, Cruz said: “I don’t care. He can attack me all he wants, you know, bring it on, I’m here, if it saves lives. If it gets the message in the right place, frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Trump and senior administration figures are set to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday, at which point they will come face to face with the ongoing hardship on an island that is home to 3.5 million American citizens. There have been some signs of tentative progress made. As of Sunday morning, nearly 65% of gas stations, 11% of cell phone towers and 49% of supermarkets were open, according to the Puerto Rican government. But on Saturday the governor’s office said 53% of the country still did not have water service, and although large quantities of supplies have started to arrive at the ports the distribution of the goods to outlying regions continues to prove difficult as a result of damage to roads and bridges. “Today will be a little bit better than yesterday,” Federal Emergency Management Administration (Fema) acting administrator for region II, John Rabin, told reporters on Saturday. “Tomorrow will hopefully be a bit better than today was.” To add to the challenges, a flash flood warning was in effect for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, also hammered by recent hurricanes, through the weekend. The Trump administration has clearly been rattled by the searing criticism from the San Juan mayor, and by a growing theme on social media and cable news comparing the apparently sluggish response to the Puerto Rican disaster to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Chief economics adviser Gary Cohn interrupted an interview on the new tax plan with Fox News Sunday to make a statement on Puerto Rico. He insisted the US had gone through “extraordinary efforts to deliver goods to the island”. “We are working full steam ahead,” he said. Mick Mulvaney, director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, told CNN’s State of the Union “it’s unfair to say we haven’t done everything we can, because we have. “It’s unfortunate that the San Juan mayor wants to go against the grain – we’d love to have her on the team.” Mulvaney added: “Judge us by the actions please. Judge us by what’s happening on the island, judge us by the men and the women who have worked tirelessly.” But Trump, who was spending the weekend at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey, also faced a barrage of outrage over his assault of Cruz by Twitter. Bernie Sanders put it most caustically on CNN. “Speaking from his fancy golf club, playing golf with his billionaire friends, attacking the mayor of San Juan who is struggling to bring electricitiy to the island, it is unspeakable,” the Vermont senator and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination said. “I don’t know what world Trump is living in.” In an update to his schedule on Sunday, Trump was due to attend the Presidents Cup golf tournament at Liberty National in Jersey City. The White House said he would participate in the trophy presentation. The president also faced criticism from within his own party. John Kasich, the governor of Ohio who ran against Trump in the Republican presidential primaries, accused him of acting inappropriately in a disaster situation. “It’s just not the way that I think it ought to be handled,” Kasich said of Trump’s attack on the mayor. “No matter what they say you have to be bigger than the nonsense.” Sign up for the Minute email. Catch up on today’s US politics news in 60 seconds
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['us-news/puerto-rico', 'us-news/donaldtrump', 'us-news/us-news', 'world/world', 'world/hurricane-maria', 'world/natural-disasters', 'us-news/us-politics', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/amanda-holpuch', 'profile/edpilkington', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news']
|
world/hurricane-maria
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2017-10-01T17:02:33Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
environment/blog/2010/may/19/richard-lindzen-climate-sceptics
|
Richard Lindzen seeks new name for climate sceptics
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And so the Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change is over for another year. While we lament this loss, let us pause for a short moment on a concluding statement by one of its star speakers. Richard Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology at MIT's department of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences, told his attendant fans (watch the video above) that he believes climate sceptics, such as himself, should "stop accepting the term 'sceptic'". His reasoning? Because it affords too much legitimacy to the implausible theory of global warming: One suggestion I'd make is that we stop accepting the term 'sceptic'. As far as I can tell, scepticism involves doubts about a plausible proposition. I think current global warming alarm does not represent a plausible proposition." [Applause.] For 20 years – more than 20 years unfortunately, 22 by now, since '88 – of repetition, escalation of claims does not make it more plausible. Quite the contrary, I would suggest the failure to prove the case of 20 years makes the case even less plausible, as does the evidence of Climategate and other instances of what are essentially [inaudible, but it sounds like "overt cheating"]. In the meantime, while I avoid making forecasts for tenths of a degree change in global average temperature model, I'm quite willing to state that unprecedented climate catastrophes are not on the horizon, though in several thousand years, we may return to an ice age. So, if climate sceptics don't now want to be known as "sceptics", what should they be called instead? We know "denier" is off-limits, even though - judging by Lindzen's own framing, at least - denial seems to be a fairly legitimate description. So, what else? "Climate contrarian" seems to be growing in popularity, as does "climate agnostic". But it strikes me that trying to find one handy, catch-all moniker is where we are going wrong here. Of course, there are as many varieties of sceptics as there are those who accept what the vast majority of climatologists are telling us. There are those who deny, those who are sceptical, those who enjoy being contrarians, and those who are merely agnostic. What cluster term should be used to describe all these flavourings collectively? Maybe we'll just have to resort to what Prince did back in the 1990s? Something along the lines of "Global Union Formerly Known As Sceptics"? I'm just not convinced the acronym "Gufkas" will catch on, though.
|
['environment/climate-change-scepticism', 'environment/blog', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/blog', 'science/science', 'education/mit-massachusetts-institute-of-technology', 'type/article', 'profile/leohickman']
|
environment/climate-change-scepticism
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
2010-05-19T15:34:43Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_DENIAL
|
commentisfree/2019/jan/16/the-guardian-view-on-warming-oceans-a-rising-toll
|
The Guardian view on warming oceans: a rising toll | Editorial
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We know remarkably little about the oceans that cover most of the Earth, provide half of our oxygen and help to regulate the climate. Maps of the ocean floor are less detailed than those of Mars or the moon. Marine biologists have discovered deeply weird and genuinely wonderful species: boxer crabs wielding anemones like weapons; the rope-like Praya dubia, up to 50 metres long; immortal jellyfish, which unlike any other known creature can revert from maturity to an earlier stage of development, akin to a butterfly becoming a caterpillar. But on one estimate we have identified less than a tenth of ocean-dwelling creatures. What we can be certain about is that the extraordinary diversity of life in the oceans is under immense and growing threat. This week we learned that the last five years were the hottest on record. Global warming has heated the oceans by the equivalent of one atomic explosion per second for the last century and a half; in recent years the pace has accelerated to between three and six atomic bombs per second. More than 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gas emissions has been absorbed by the seas. Billions of people living in coastal areas are under threat from rising sea levels, due both to the melting of ice – happening at a frightening and increasing rate – and the physical expansion of water as it warms. Climate change is making storms more powerful and disrupting the patterns of marine life on which communities depend. But it is only the most comprehensive of the dangers. Carbon emissions are also causing ocean acidification. Intensive fishing, pollution and the exploitation of mineral resources are all taking their toll. Between a fifth and a quarter of marine species are already threatened with extinction; global marine populations have halved since 1970. Though only three humans have reached the deepest known point, the Mariana trench, our collective impact is felt there in the form of pollutants and plastics. Recently, an expert warned that today’s children may be the last generation to see the glory of coral reef systems which have survived for tens of millions of years. Bleaching, first observed in 1983, has already affected up to a third of warm-water reefs. Scientists around the world are “farming” corals in an ingenious attempt to sustain them, but the only real solution is to stave off the worst climate change scenario. The New York summit overseen by the UN secretary general this September will be a key test of whether nation states are serious about cutting emissions. The new reports provide yet more evidence of how urgent this is. As one expert on ocean warming notes in the Guardian today, it can still be tackled if we act immediately; this is a test of will, not ability. We know that the human consequences if we fail will be catastrophic. And yet, because we have still to explore the oceans more fully, we may never realise quite how much we have lost.
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['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'tone/editorials', 'tone/comment', 'environment/wildlife', 'type/article', 'profile/editorial', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/journal', 'theguardian/journal/opinion', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-letters-and-leader-writers']
|
environment/marine-life
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2019-01-16T18:59:57Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/ethicallivingblog/2007/dec/21/reducingwasteoverchristmas
|
Tread lightly: Reducing waste over Christmas
|
England's households will throw out five extra bags of rubbish over the Christmas period. Photograph: Martin Godwin This week's Tread lightly pledge is about reducing waste from wrapping paper, packaging, glass jars and bottles and leftover food during the Christmas period. Figures from Wrap (Waste and Resources Action Programme), the government-funded body that promotes recycling, show that England's households will create nearly three quarters of a million tonnes of extra waste this Christmas - that's five black bin bags per household. It estimates that the extra festive household waste created is equivalent to generating 1.4m tonnes of C02 - the same as producing enough energy to enable all households in Leeds and Doncaster to watch TV for a year. Figures from our pledge calculator, Carolyn Fry, show that a small household generally throws out two extra black bags of rubbish at Christmas, creating 14.4kg of waste and generating 26.4kg CO2. A medium household throws out five extra bags, creating 36kg of waste and generating 66kg of CO2, while a large house disposes of eight bags, equivalent to 57.6kg of waste or 105.6kg CO2. Cutting down on this waste by buying less, recycling more, composting, using reusable bags instead of plastic and choosing products with less packaging can reduce waste and carbon emissions. One less bag of rubbish in a small house saves 13.2kg of CO2, 33kg in a medium house and 52.8kg in a large house. If all the recyclables in this extra rubbish were recycled, figures show, it would save 352,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases per year - enough energy to fly Santa in a plane around the world on Christmas Eve 64,500 times, or taking 111,000 cars off the road each year. Recycle Now has lots of tips on recycling at Christmas including advice from celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Fiona Phillips, Alistair McGowan and Phil Tuffnell. Fridey Cordingley, the head of Recycle Now, said today: "We all look forward to Christmas and enjoy being with friends and family, but we do end up creating more waste - in fact an additional three quarters of a million tonnes of it. If this waste were recycled it would save 352,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases per year - equivalent to taking 111,000 cars of the road for a year. "The good news is that there are easy ways to help cut our waste-lines and help tackle climate change. Many people either forget or don't realise that festive items such as Christmas cards, empty tins of sweets and biscuits, and jars of pickles can all be easily recycled and will help our bins shed those extra kilos." Recycle Now's top 10 festive tips are: • Remember to get the most out of your council's doorstep collection service or local recycling facilities (visit www.recyclenow.com and use the postcode locator to find out all about your local Christmas services or contact your local council) • Take empty glass jars of mincemeat, pickles and cranberry sauce to the bottle bank or include in your doorstep recycling service (if it accepts them) • Empty tins of biscuits and sweets can be recycled via local can banks or in doorstep collections that accept metal cans • Cardboard outers from selection boxes, packets of sage and onion stuffing and games/toys can all be recycled via cardboard doorstep collection services and at paper banks • Foil from mince pies is recyclable - provided your local council recycles foil • Fruit and veg peelings make a great ingredient for your compost bin • Don't forget those empty plastic bottles of household cleaner - they can also be recycled via your doorstep collection service (if it takes plastic bottles) or plastic bottle banks. Recyclenow.com has also teamed up with the Woodland Trust card recycling scheme which will allow people to recycle their cards throughout January at participating retailers. With an average of 17 cards in the UK for every man, woman and child, that's a lot of trees saved. You can also recycle your tree after Christmas. Six million trees brightened up homes and offices across Britain last year, of which only 10% were recycled. The rest went into landfill, a wasted opportunity to create biomass that would have provided nutrients for depleted soil. Many local authorities and garden centres will be recycling Christmas trees after the festive period. Figures this month from Together.com - a national consumer climate change campaign - show that pledge campaigns like Tread lightly have inspired five million climate-friendly actions from people across the UK since April 2007, saving over 100,000 tonnes of CO2. If we all pledge to reduce waste this Christmas, and spread the word, we can make a real difference. For more ideas on how to have a green Christmas, check out our A-Z guide.
|
['environment/series/tread-lightly', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/environment', 'tone/blog', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'type/article', 'environment/blog', 'profile/jessicaaldred']
|
environment/recycling
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2007-12-21T00:00:00Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
environment/green-living-blog/2010/oct/14/carbon-footprint-house
|
What's the carbon footprint of ... a house
|
The carbon footprint of a house: 80 tonnes CO2e: A newbuild two-bed cottage The carbon footprint of building a house depends on all kinds of things – including, of course, the size of the house and the types of materials chosen. The estimate of 80 tonnes given above is for the construction of a brand-new cottage with two bedrooms upstairs and two reception rooms and a kitchen downstairs. It's based on a study that I was involved in for Historic Scotland. The study looked at the climate change implications of various options for a traditional cottage in Dumfries: leave it as it is, refurbish, or knock it down and build a new one to various different building codes. We looked at the climate change impact over a 100-year period, taking into account the embodied emissions in the construction and maintenance as well as the energy used and generated by those living in the building. Unsurprisingly, the worst option by far was to do nothing and leave the old house leaking energy like a sieve. Knocking down and starting again worked out at about 80 tonnes CO2e whether the house was built to 2008 Scottish building regulations or to the much more stringent and expensive Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 that demanded 'carbon neutrality'. Here's how that total broke down for the carbon-neutral option: • Walls 60% • Timber 14% • Pipework and drainage 9% • Floors 5% • Slate roof 5% • Photovoltaic panels 3% • Other 4% Eighty tonnes is a lot – equivalent to five brand-new family cars, about six years of living for the average Brit or 24 economy-class trips to Hong Kong from London. But a house may last for a century or more, so the annual carbon cost is much less – and for all the new-build options, the up-front emissions from construction work were paid back by savings from better energy efficiency in 15–20 years. However, the winning option was to refurbish the old house, because the carbon investment of doing this was just eight tonnes CO2e, and even the highest-specification newbuild could not catch up this advantage over the 100-year period. Once cost was taken into account, refurbishment became dramatically the most practical and attractive option, too. If this one study is representative, the message for the construction industry is clear. Investment in the very highest levels of energy-efficiency for new homes is, even at its best, an extremely costly way of saving carbon. Investing in improvements to existing homes is dramatically more cost-effective. See more carbon footprints. • This article draws on text from How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee
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['environment/series/the-carbon-footprint-of-everything', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-living-blog', 'environment/ethical-living', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'tone/blog', 'environment/carbonfootprints', 'environment/greenbuilding', 'business/construction', 'type/article', 'profile/mike-berners-lee']
|
environment/series/the-carbon-footprint-of-everything
|
EMISSIONS
|
2010-10-14T06:00:00Z
| true
|
EMISSIONS
|
world/2024/oct/17/tax-on-europes-frequent-flyers-could-raise-64bn-a-year-study
|
Tax on Europe’s frequent flyers could raise €64bn a year – study
|
A “jet-setter” tax on Europe’s frequent flyers could slow global heating and raise €64bn (£54bn) a year at no extra cost to most people, a report has found. Carbon pollution pumped out of planes could fall by 21% if people were made to pay more for each extra flight they take beyond the first return trip, according to analysis from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and partner organisations. Just over half the benefits in a given year would come from the 5% of people who fly the most, while 72% of people would escape fees by flying once or not at all. A frequent-flyer levy would raise cash that could be invested in trains and buses while reducing “excessive” flights for the wealthiest, said Magdalena Heuwieser from the campaign group Stay Grounded, which co-wrote the report. “Right now, it doesn’t matter whether you’re flying to visit your family for the first time in years or taking a 10th annual flight to your luxury house on the coast – you’ll be paying the same tax for that flight.” The report, shared exclusively with the Guardian, is the first to explore how a frequent-flyer levy could work in Europe. Researchers from CE Delft modelled the climate effects of a staggered tax on flights and found the proposal would reduce passenger numbers in 2028 by 26% and emissions by 21% from a business-as-usual scenario. The levy would start at zero for the first return flight in 12 months and rise by €100 for each return trip, with surcharges for longer distances and first class travel. AdaStone Law explored the legal implications and concluded the proposal was feasible under EU and national laws, though strict data privacy laws could cause problems when ticket sellers display prices to customers. Rich people would be most affected because they fly more often, an analysis of polling data from More in Common shows. It found only 15% of households with a yearly income below €20,000 flew enough to pay the proposed levy, rising to 63% of households with an income above €100,000. “We love flying and the planet but our freedom to continue flying in the future is now under threat,” said Finlay Asher, an aerospace engineer and cofounder of Safe Landing, a campaign group made up of aviation workers pushing the industry to act in line with climate science. “It will be impossible to set ourselves on a new trajectory of rapid emissions cuts without focusing on frequent flyers, who are responsible for the majority of our pollution.” Emissions from aviation are rising but flights remain heavily subsidised across the continent. Jet fuel is exempt from fuel duties, plane tickets are usually exempt from VAT, and most flight emissions are left out of the EU’s emissions trading scheme, which puts a price on planet-heating pollution. Marlene Engelhorn, an Austrian millionaire who is giving away 90% of her wealth, said it was time to harness the “unnecessary destruction my class’s jet-setting causes” and demand they contribute to the costs of saving the planet. “The mile-high club of private planet combustion, where wealthy people like me can ferment in our comfort zones, needs to close its doors.” The report found an EU-wide levy would be an ideal instrument to tackle the sector’s rising pollution, though it would require unanimity among member states, which has proven particularly hard to achieve on tax policy. It suggested individual member states or small alliances of countries could take the first step but did not explore which might do so or how such actions would distort the market. Energy experts have identified synthetic fuels, electric planes and more efficient operations as promising solutions to decarbonise aviation but say the technological hurdles are far greater than in most sectors of the economy. They have proposed policies to tackle the growing demand for flights, and highlighted the disparity in aviation emissions that extends well beyond the private jets of the super-rich and the business travel of corporate elites. “Those of us who fly more than one or two times a year should recognise that we are a very small subset of the world’s population – and consuming the climate budget at the stake of others,” said Sola Zhang, an aviation expert at the International Council on Clean Transportation, who reviewed an early draft of the report but was not involved in writing it. “Flying less or shifting modes is obviously the most effective solution,” she said. “For flights that are still taken, supporting the transition to zero-emission aviation is the second best option.”
|
['world/air-transport', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'world/world', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ajit-niranjan', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/carbon-emissions
|
EMISSIONS
|
2024-10-17T05:00:05Z
| true
|
EMISSIONS
|
politics/2019/mar/07/jeremy-hunt-vows-to-step-up-fight-against-election-cyber-attacks
|
Jeremy Hunt vows to step up fight against election cyber-attacks
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Jeremy Hunt is to promise the government will step up international efforts to prevent overseas cyber-attacks on elections, while insisting the UK has never succumbed to such outside interference. A number of groups have called for an investigation into allegations that Russia was behind interference before the 2016 EU referendum, and for a wider examination of the role of foreign companies in the campaign. In a speech in Glasgow, the foreign secretary will warn that without concerted global action, cyber-attacks could turn some elections into “tainted exercises, robbing the governments they produce of legitimacy”. An advance trail of Hunt’s speech said he would, however, be “making clear that we have seen no evidence of successful interference in UK polls”. In October, police said they would not investigate allegations of Russian interference in the referendum. A campaign group has begun a legal attempt to push the government to hold an inquiry into the claims. Damian Collins, the Conservative chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, which is investigating the illegal use of data during the referendum campaign, has demanded police investigate potential criminal wrongdoing by three pro-Brexit campaigns the Electoral Commission found had broken the law. In his speech, Hunt will speak more widely about international efforts to hamper elections. The government has identified Russia as being behind other interference attempts, such as the hacking of Democratic emails ahead of the previous US presidential election and the NotPetya cyber-attack targeting Ukraine. In the extracts released in advance, he says: “We will always seek to discover which state or other actor was behind any malign cyber-activity, overcoming any efforts to conceal their tracks. “That could include naming and shaming the perpetrator in public, in concert with our allies, exposing not only who carried out the action but, so far as possible, how it was done, thereby helping the cybersecurity industry to develop protective measures.” He adds: “We will aim to prosecute those who conduct cybercrimes, demonstrating they are not above the law.” Hunt will stress the potential harm caused by interference in elections: “The freedom to pass judgment on your leaders and change your government peacefully, through the ballot box, is the defining quality of a liberal democracy. Millions of people have made immense sacrifices for the sake of that essential liberty. “Events have demonstrated how our adversaries regard free elections, and the very openness of a democratic system, as key vulnerabilities to be exploited. Authoritarian regimes possess ways of undermining free societies that yesterday’s dictators would have envied.”
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['politics/jeremy-hunt', 'technology/cyberwar', 'technology/cybercrime', 'world/espionage', 'technology/hacking', 'technology/internet', 'technology/technology', 'uk/uk', 'politics/politics', 'politics/eu-referendum', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/peterwalker', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news']
|
technology/hacking
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2019-03-07T00:01:00Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
environment/2017/nov/02/climate-change-will-create-worlds-biggest-refugee-crisis
|
Climate change 'will create world's biggest refugee crisis'
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Tens of millions of people will be forced from their homes by climate change in the next decade, creating the biggest refugee crisis the world has ever seen, according to a new report. Senior US military and security experts have told the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) study that the number of climate refugees will dwarf those that have fled the Syrian conflict, bringing huge challenges to Europe. “If Europe thinks they have a problem with migration today … wait 20 years,” said retired US military corps brigadier general Stephen Cheney. “See what happens when climate change drives people out of Africa – the Sahel [sub-Saharan area] especially – and we’re talking now not just one or two million, but 10 or 20 [million]. They are not going to south Africa, they are going across the Mediterranean.” The study published on Thursday calls on governments to agree a new legal framework to protect climate refugees and, ahead of next week’s climate summit in Germany, urges leaders to do more to implement the targets set out in the Paris climate agreement. Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, told the EJF: “What we are talking about here is an existential threat to our civilisation in the longer term. In the short term, it carries all sorts of risks as well and it requires a human response on a scale that has never been achieved before.” The report argues that climate change played a part in the build up to the Syrian war, with successive droughts causing 1.5 million people to migrate to the country’s cities between 2006 and 2011. Many of these people then had no reliable access to food, water or jobs. “Climate change is the the unpredictable ingredient that, when added to existing social, economic and political tensions, has the potential to ignite violence and conflict with disastrous consequences,” said EJF executive director, Steve Trent. “In our rapidly changing world climate change – and its potential to trigger both violent conflict and mass migration – needs to be considered as an urgent priority for policymakers and business leaders alike.” Although the report highlights to growing impact of climate change on people in the Middle East and Africa, it says changing weather patterns – like the hurricanes that devastated parts of the US this year – prove richer nations are not immune from climate change. But Trent said that although climate change undoubtedly posed an “existential threat to our world” it was not to late to take decisive action. “By taking strong ambitious steps now to phase out greenhouse gas emissions and building an international legal mechanism to protect climate refugees we will protect the poorest and most vulnerable in our global society, build resilience, reap massive economic benefits and build a safe and secure future for our planet. Climate change will not wait. Neither can we. For climate refugees, tomorrow is too late.”
|
['environment/climate-crisis', 'world/refugees', 'environment/drought', 'environment/environment', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/matthewtaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/drought
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2017-11-02T06:01:47Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
environment/2008/oct/14/alternativeenergy
|
Wind farms must be nearer coast to meet targets, says report
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The government must allow companies to build offshore wind farms much closer to shore, as part of a series of measures to revitalise a sector that has almost stalled due to insufficient support, competitive pressures and rising costs, an authoritative report warns today. "Without urgent action there is a risk that little additional offshore wind power will be built by 2020 beyond the eight gigawatts already planned or in operation," says the report from the Carbon Trust, an organisation established by the government to help build a greener future. It estimates that operators could save up to £16bn if they were allowed to site turbines in shallower waters, and argues that it would be possible to take a further £14bn off the estimated £75bn investment needed if more funding were given to research and development. The trust argues that the government's incentives mechanism, the Renewables Obligation, needs to be made more attractive, and hopes that establishing a Department of Energy and Climate Change will herald a new beginning for wind power. Without such measures, Britain will fail to meet the climate change targets it has pledged to the European Union at a time when companies such as Shell are pulling out of offshore schemes in pursuit of cheaper onshore wind opportunities in the US, it says. Tom Delay, the trust's chief executive, said: "We need something similar to the [1990s'] 'Dash for Gas' if offshore wind is to play the role expected of it. Industry costs have become very, very expensive, and both government and companies need to work hard to tackle this." He stressed that wind farms nearer to shore need not be in sight of beaches, just closer than areas such as the Dogger Bank, which is 60 nautical miles away. Inshore areas have calmer weather and permit smaller, lighter structures, making them cheaper to build and operate. The government said last night that the trust report highlighted interesting savings but was cautious about the demands for shallower waters to be opened up. Mike O'Brien, energy and climate change minister, said: "The issues of fairness and cost-effectiveness, along with impacts on the environment and on other users of the sea, will be considered carefully in the lead-up to our renewable-energy strategy to be published next spring." In its report, the trust argues that the UK will need at least 29GW of offshore wind power by 2020 to hit the EU's renewable goals but only less than a third is in the pipeline, partly because steel and other construction materials have tripled in price since 2005. "Currently the risk/return balance for offshore wind is not sufficiently attractive, and regulatory barriers would delay delivery well beyond 2020," says the report, put together with input from industry and government. Delay said the 29GW target by 2020 was a "significant challenge" but realisable. Technology costs needed to fall but £600m of public money plus £1.2bn of private funding could bring breakthroughs that could cut the overall bill by £14bn. The government introduced policies this summer that will kickstart the wider renewable sector, the trust accepts, but it says the incentive scheme needed to be expanded and extended: "The required adjustments to the Renewable Obligation will in any case bring it closer to a feed-in tariff [an above-market return for feeding green electricity to the grid]. The government should choose the option that minimises disruption for industry." The trust also believes the government must reform regulations to make planning easier, and update National Grid transmission lines. These measures could create 70,000 jobs in Britain and £8bn of annual revenues here and abroad, it says. Nick Rau, renewables campaigner at Friends of the Earth, expressed caution at siting turbines too near the shoreline, and said each project needed to be assessed on its merits. "But we accept there are huge costs involved in offshore wind, and they are escalating. We need some kind of government intervention if we are to overcome these hurdles; all the evidence is that a feed-in tariff would help." John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, said: "We need to promote a massive redirection of investment away from the speculation that caused the bursting financial and housing bubbles and into green industries and job-creating programmes that will help us tackle climate change. Offshore wind could be a huge business opportunity for Britain."
|
['environment/windpower', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/environment', 'politics/politics', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/energy', 'business/energy-industry', 'type/article', 'profile/terrymacalister', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/financial3']
|
environment/windpower
|
ENERGY
|
2008-10-13T23:01:00Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
environment/2018/jan/16/european-parliament-votes-to-end-electric-pulse-fishing
|
European parliament votes to end electric pulse fishing
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The European Union’s parliament has voted to prohibit the controversial practice of electrical pulse fishing within EU waters, to the approval of some groups of small-scale fishermen and green campaigners. However, a series of other measures designed to prevent overfishing and preserve the marine environment were voted down. Campaigners say the rejection will have a damaging effect on Europe’s fisheries for many years. Tuesday’s votes will still have to be discussed among member states, the European commission, and parliament before approval, so this decision is not yet final. However, the step is a landmark for activists who say pulse fishing is harmful. Pulse fishing uses electrodes attached to nets to send electrical signals close to the surface of the seabed, driving some fish to move into the nets. Proponents say it is efficient and avoids the damage of bottom trawling, by which the seabed is effectively ploughed in order to catch fish living there. Opponents say it is cruel and could cause pain to fish and damage to their habitats. The practice was banned in 1998, but in 2006 a derogation was allowed that has been exploited, especially by the Dutch fishing fleet. At least 84 Dutch vessels are licensed, along with a small number from other member states, including 12 in the UK. If the parliament’s vote is upheld without loopholes, all would have to cease. However, in the UK, the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations has not yet decided whether to support pulse fishing after Brexit. Chief executive Barry Deas, told the Guardian it was still under discussion. Campaigners said other votes passed on Tuesday will leave European waters in a worse state. MEPs voted against quantitative binding targets to reduce the catch of small young fish, which is essential to ensuring fish can reproduce. These decisions are also subject to further approval, so could be reversed, but given the vested fishing interests in many EU governments that may be unlikely. Björn Stockhausen, fisheries policy officer at the Seas At Risk alliance, said: “The European parliament has weakened the measures that have granted protection to European seas for decades. These new diminished rules will undermine the health of marine ecosystems and the stability of fish stocks.” Stockhausen added: “As a result [of the votes] the future of the ocean and the protection of ecosystems are at risk. Except for the electric fishing case, this regulation is unacceptable as it stands now. We are not convinced that the trilogue negotiations [among member states, the commission and the European parliament] will improve the situation at all.” While Green MEPs backed the ban on pulse fishing, they voted against the full report on the conservation of fishery resources and the protection of marine ecosystems, saying they failed to establish common objectives at an EU level. Molly Scott Cato, the UK Green party MEP, said: “MEPs have ill-advisedly signed off a set of conditions that provide no incentive to improve fishing techniques and could result in massive illegal discarding. If the commission proceed with their proposals the EU will be taking a major step backwards from the significant advances made in the reform of the common fisheries policy a few years ago.” If the votes are confirmed, without targets on juvenile fish and the size of fish which can be caught, it will be up to regional groups of member states to determine and implement regional recommendations in order to achieve the reductions. In the UK, it is unclear what the situation will be post-Brexit. The EU is insisting that during the transition period, likely to last two years after Brexit is formally triggered next March, the UK must stick to its fishing quotas under the EU’s common fisheries policy. After that, fishing groups want the UK to set an independent policy. However, given that many of the UK’s key fishing grounds are shared with other nations, this may require complex negotiations with uncertain outcomes. Fishing groups were among the leading backers of Brexit.
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['environment/fishing', 'world/europe-news', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/environment', 'environment/marine-life', 'world/world', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/marine-life
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2018-01-17T09:29:16Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
australia-news/2020/jun/04/chevron-could-be-forced-to-pay-100m-for-failure-to-capture-carbon-emissions
|
Chevron could be forced to pay $100m for failure to capture carbon emissions
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Oil and gas company Chevron could be required to pay for offsets worth more than $100m for carbon dioxide emissions released at a delayed carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in northern Western Australia, an analysis suggests. The state government last week ruled against Chevron over an emissions condition that applies to the company’s large Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) development on Barrow Island in the Pilbara. Stephen Dawson, the WA environment minister, backed a recommendation by the state Environment Protection Authority that Chevron must capture and inject underground at least 80% of carbon dioxide emissions released from a gas reservoir at the site over a five-year period starting on 18 July 2016, when it first shipped LNG from the site. The 80% emissions burial target was a condition of the development’s state approval, but the CCS project was delayed due to technical issues. It started operating in August 2019. The state government rejected an argument by Chevron that the five-year period in which it had to bury emissions should not start until July 2018, when it was approved to expand the development. Campaigners and analysts said it would be impossible for the company to meet the 80% target given it sequestered no emissions in the first three years, and it should have to pay for carbon reduction projects equivalent to the excess CO2 released. Dawson said the state Department of Water and Environmental Regulation would determine whether Chevron was complying with the 80% condition at the end of the first five-year period, in July 2021. He said the WA government was committed to working with companies to ensure they met environmental commitments. “We have a responsibility to deliver positive environmental outcomes, based on robust scientific inquiry,” he said. “The injection of carbon dioxide underground is a complex matter which requires serious consideration by the state and the proponent.” The decision follows the federal government announcing it plans to increase support for CCS, including allowing projects to bid for funding from its main climate policy, the emissions reduction fund. Gorgon is Australia’s only commercial-scale CCS project. Chevron, which operates Gorgon on behalf of partners including Shell and ExxonMobil, last year called it “one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas mitigation projects ever undertaken by industry”. The company said it was reviewing the state government decision. “Managing greenhouse gas emissions is an integral part of how Chevron plans and executes its business,” a spokesperson said on Wednesday. The nature and extent of any penalty the owners may face will not be determined under after the five-year period. The EPA has previously recommended that LNG plants offset their emissions by buying carbon credits. The Boiling Cold news site reported that more than 8m tonnes of reservoir CO2 were vented into the atmosphere in the first three years of Gorgon’s operation, before CCS began. Chevron says 1m tonnes were buried in the six months after the CCS project began operating in August. The company said in March the CCS development was fully operational, and would capture up to 4m tonnes a year. It suggests, under a best-case scenario, about 40% of reservoir CO2 over the five years would be buried. That could leave about 7m tonnes needing to be offset to reach the 80% target. Richie Merzian, from the Australia Institute think tank, said the company could be liable for more than 10m tonnes of unapproved emissions if not all reservoir CO2 was captured, equivalent to the annual emissions from Australia’s domestic airline industry. Assuming a carbon price of $15 a tonne of CO2, roughly that paid by the government through the emissions reduction fund, he estimated the company could face a carbon bill of $150m. “It is welcome to see the WA minister side with the EPA and request Chevron to make good on millions of tonnes of emissions it released into the atmosphere, against legal requirements,” he said. Piers Verstegen, director of the Conservation Council of Western Australia, said Chevron should start paying for offsets immediately. “It’s clear they’re not going to be able meet the requirement,” he said. “Chevron have dragged this out for long enough now. They should start sourcing carbon credits in Western Australia. Doing so could create a lot of jobs in tree planting or renewable energy.” New LNG developments have been the main cause of national emissions growth over the past decade. Official data suggests national emissions dropped by 0.9% in 2019 as pollution from large industrial sites, particularly LNG plants, continued to increase. Chevron estimates the $2.5bn CCS project will reduce total emissions from the Gorgon development, including both CO2 from reservoirs and pollution released into the atmosphere during LNG processing, by about 40%. It was supported by a $60m federal grant.
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['australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/western-australia', 'environment/gas', 'environment/carbon-capture-and-storage', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/adam-morton', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news']
|
environment/carbon-capture-and-storage
|
EMISSIONS
|
2020-06-03T17:30:39Z
| true
|
EMISSIONS
|
australia-news/2021/apr/20/australia-must-stop-wasting-time-and-shift-to-renewable-energy-to-spark-job-creation-albanese-says
|
Australia must stop wasting time and shift to renewable energy to spark job creation, Albanese says
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Anthony Albanese will tell a clean technology and jobs summit that Australia cannot afford “further drift and time-wasting” when it comes to the transition to renewable energy because there is “huge potential” to create hundreds of thousands of secure, well-paid jobs. The Labor leader’s domestic pitch on Tuesday comes in the lead-up to an international climate action summit later this week organised by the US president, Joe Biden. Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, to a virtual event starting on 22 April. The president is expected to use the summit to announce what his administration has termed “an ambitious 2030 emissions target”. After a weekend visit to Shanghai by Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, the US and China have also issued a joint statement pledging cooperation on climate action – although with diplomatic relations between the two countries still fraught, it is unclear whether Beijing will attend the event or make new policy pledges. Morrison’s language on achieving net zero by mid-century has warmed considerably since Biden won the US election, and a number of federal Liberals favour the Coalition making a concrete commitment. But it is unclear whether Australia will flag any new policy commitments at this week’s event, or use the summit as an opportunity to defend Australia’s record. On Monday evening, while stopping short of a concrete commitment, Morrison again signalled the government’s interest in pursuing the transition to net zero “as quickly as possible and preferably by 2050” through commercialisation of low emissions technology. Morrison said he had “increasing confidence” the target could be achieved. The prime minister acknowledged the shift he was heralding would require Australia to “change our energy mix on the way to net zero”. Morison suggested this would be achieved by the “animal spirits” of the market and the “pioneering entrepreneurialism” of industrialists and farmers. While framing the transition as inevitable, Morrison declared the Coalition would not “sacrifice our traditional industries” in regional areas by “seeking to tax our way to lower emissions and a net zero economy”. He noted Australia would not “achieve net zero in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of the inner cities”. Albanese’s speech on Tuesday follows a separate pitch in Brisbane last week by the shadow climate change minister, Chris Bowen, who warned that almost a million Australians would lose their jobs if runaway climate change decimated the environment and the economy – with Queensland bearing the brunt of any failure to act. In preparation for the next federal election, Labor has been concentrating its advocacy about the transition to low emissions in Queensland and in the regional seats that swung heavily to the Coalition in the 2019 election, in part because the government portrayed Labor’s climate change policies as a catalyst for job destruction. Albanese will tell attendees at Tuesday’s summit in Canberra that the transition to low-emissions technology means secure, well-paid jobs for “today’s Australians and for future generations”. According to a copy of the speech circulated by his office, the Labor leader will declare it is time to end a domestic clean-energy debate “bogged down by negative partisan politics”. “For more than 20 years, the Liberals and Nationals have rejected scientific advice and chosen to portray the rise of clean energy as a threat to jobs and exports,” Albanese will say. “At their worst, they have deliberately misled Australians, pretending we can ignore change, even as it happens right before our eyes.” Albanese will say the looming transition will mean jobs for scientists and engineers, and miners of lithium, copper and nickel. But he will argue that the transition will also spark job creation right across the economy, including in local manufacturing, because renewables are the cheapest form of energy. “Low-cost renewable electricity looms as the key to unlocking jobs growth for decades to come.” Albanese will note that energy grids powered by renewables can be more decentralised, “opening up more potential in places that have historically been hamstrung by a lack of access to the cheapest energy”. The Labor leader will say Australia will continue to export carbon-intensive commodities such as coal “based on global demand” and that the opposition “respects” traditional industries for the jobs they create. “But renewables represent the future, and we ignore this fact at our national peril.” Albanese will say the national broadband network provides a useful case study demonstrating what happens “when governments oppose change for ideological reasons”. Labor proposed the NBN in 2009 as a rollout of fibre to the premises, “but in 2013 the incoming Liberal government downgraded the project with a new model using 19th-century copper wire technology”. Albanese will say that despite the downgrade, the cost of the project blew out, and ultimately the Coalition reversed course and returned to a fibre-to-the-premises model, with the “technological misadventure” now forecast to cost $57bn. “We must not repeat this mistake when it comes to renewable energy,” the Labor leader will say. “We need to be at the front of the pack, not well behind the pace. “We have the technology. We have the best natural resources in the world. We have an opportunity to act now to secure a better future for ourselves and our children. We must seize the day.”
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['australia-news/anthony-albanese', 'australia-news/energy-australia', 'australia-news/australian-politics', 'australia-news/labor-party', 'australia-news/coalition', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/katharine-murphy', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-politics']
|
environment/carbon-emissions
|
EMISSIONS
|
2021-04-19T17:30:17Z
| true
|
EMISSIONS
|
business/2017/sep/11/uk-green-energy-expensive-not-any-more-from-now-on-its-cheap
|
UK green energy expensive? Not any more. From now on it's cheap
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The persistent myth that green energy is expensive has been shredded by the revelation that windfarms will be built around Britain’s coast far more cheaply than new nuclear reactors. New power stations in the UK today are usually only built with the certainty provided by subsidies paid through energy bills, so the record low guaranteed price awarded to the developers of three new mega offshore windfarms today is, first and foremost, welcome news for consumers. It is also good for the economy post-Brexit, for the foreign-owned developers behind the multibillion-pound projects, and the increasingly UK-based supply chain that supports them, such as Siemens’ £310m wind turbine factory in Hull. But there is no mistaking the fact that the low prices, labelled “astonishing”, “exceptional” and “astounding”, are terrible news for nuclear proponents. Ministers last year awarded French state-owned EDF £92.50 per megawatt hour of power generated by two new reactors at Hinkley Point C in Somerset. The price is nearly twice that of wholesale power and is goldplated by being inflation-linked and written in stone for 35 years. EDF said this week that future nuclear plants, such as the new one it wants to build at Sizewell in Suffolk, would be cheaper than Hinkley. But even the most vociferous nuclear supporters think that Sizewell C and a Japanese-backed bid to build new reactors at Wylfa in Wales would not come in below £80 per MWh, compared with the £57.50 per MWh over 15 years for new offshore windfarms. Ironically for the party that champions free market economics, the Conservatives’ commitment to a fleet of new nuclear power plants is being challenged by competition. Windfarm developers have to compete against one another in a reverse auction, ensuring the government gets the cheapest price for the low carbon power it needs. The price this time crashed so much that only £176m-a-year of the £240m subsidy pot set aside by officials will be needed. The timescales and monolithic nature of nuclear projects means it would be hard, albeit not impossible, for the government to run a competitive process for them. Playing EDF off against consortiums such as Horizon, which is behind Wylfa, is not really an option. Of course, wind power is variable, unlike the steady power provided by nuclear, so there are costs to the energy system of integrating all those new turbines. But experts say those costs are relatively negligible, especially if coupled with flexible and smart technologies such as batteries, which the government is backing with hundreds of millions of pounds. So large-scale renewable power built in the next decade will be inarguably much cheaper than nuclear. But it’s not just about cost – offshore windfarms can be built quicker, too. Their modular nature means they can be built in stages, and offshore wind generally has a good track record of being built on time in the UK. The projects that won subsidies this week should be operational by 2023. By comparison, Hinkley Point C is officially slated to be operational by 2025 but EDF admitted earlier this year that it could run 15 months over schedule. And the track record of plants being built with Hinkley’s reactor design is infamous: Olkiluoto in Finland is a decade behind schedule; the other, at Flamanville in France, is six years late. The price awarded to offshore windfarms is also even lower than new gas power plants, but this week’s auction is unlikely to spell the death of gas, which can be built much more cheaply and quickly than nuclear. Witness the German utility Uniper publicly mulling over the idea of taking apart its gas power stations in Germany and rebuilding them in the UK. But today could be, as the trade group RenewableUK puts it, a “gamechanger” for ministers in charge of setting energy policy. With a major government review of the cost of energy due out in October, there are calls for Theresa May to at the very least commit to further support for offshore wind and, more radically, to drop plans for new nuclear. It’s become clear which way the wind is blowing.
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['business/energy-industry', 'environment/renewableenergy', 'environment/windpower', 'money/energy', 'environment/nuclearpower', 'uk-news/hinkley-point-c', 'business/edf', 'money/consumer-affairs', 'environment/energy', 'environment/environment', 'money/household-bills', 'money/money', 'business/business', 'business/economicgrowth', 'type/article', 'tone/analysis', 'profile/adam-vaughan', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/topstories', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business']
|
environment/nuclearpower
|
ENERGY
|
2017-09-11T11:38:12Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
commentisfree/2012/jul/10/romania-smallhold-farmers
|
Romania must not sell out traditional farmers to the biotech giants | Luke Dale-Harris
|
Time in Romania seems to fold with the landscape. Where the hills of Transylvania rise from the Hungarian plains, life carries on as it has for centuries; farmers cultivate their small plots of land by hand while pigs, chickens and children roam unpaved village streets. However, where the land drops and the horizon opens up, history closes in and the reforms of the past 75 years, first under communism and then capitalism, become evident. Around villages sealed off by concrete blocks built under Ceausescu, the land stretches out in huge fields carrying single crops, occasionally punctuated by the slow crawl of a €500,000 combine harvester. With uncapped EU subsidies rewarding growth and productivity over all else, these farms are growing exponentially, swallowing all in their way. This, it seems, is the future of Romanian agriculture. Yet, where this model of farming might have worked in other countries, Romania, like many of its Balkan neighbours, is a different story. Despite the best efforts of Ceausescu to throw them off the land and the draw of new markets and employment opportunities since, around 30% of Romania's 19 million population continues to live off their subsistence and semi-subsistence farms. However, both Romanian government and policy makers in Brussels refuse to acknowledge that these are the people who prop up the Romanian economy, keep the culture alive and the environment diverse. Instead, officials are systematically undermining the infrastructure that the country relies on. By applying the widely condemned "one size fits all' policy central to the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the vast majority of Romania's farmers are being cast to the sidelines. At present 51% of the €6bn yearly subsidies coming into Romania go to just 0.9% of farms, while a total of 70% of Romanian farms are considered ineligible for subsidies of any kind. The networks of trade that peasant farmers have traditionally relied on are being eroded on both ends. With the seed market largely monopolised by multinationals who drive the price up for seeds that won't reproduce and must be bought anew each year, farmers are often forced into spending unnecessarily. At the other end, local markets are dying under competition from foreign superstores, selling food at low prices that are only made affordable by subsidies and technology that the peasant farmers don't have. Today, an annual agribusiness conference is being held in Bucharest. It is the first such meeting under the new minister of agriculture, Daniel Consantin, the third person to hold the position this year. Smallholder farmers tentatively placed their hopes on Constantin, as he marks a break from the previous ministers, Valeriu Tabără and Stelian Fuia, both of whom had previously worked for controversial Biotech giant, Monsanto, and in favour both of further GMO cultivation and intensive farming. However, the conference, sponsored by Monsanto, Pioneer and DuPont, and attended by some of the country's largest landowners, promises to continue in the old vein, leaving power in the hands of private investors. Even the secretary of state for agriculture, Achim Irimescu, was unable to deny that the sponsors and attendants had political motives for funding the event, saying "usually (these companies) have an interest in sponsoring these events for some kind of lobby purposes". If the conference turns out as expected, it will be a demoralising sign for farmers and environmental NGOs who have been fighting for changes in the ministry of agriculture in the lead up to the CAP reforms in 2013. In order to both support its citizens and compete internationally on the food market, Romania needs to start to view its poor farmers as the building blocks on which it can create its future, rather than a persistent problem that needs to be phased out. Small farms are able to produce as much or more food as their large competitors, yet they are being killed off under the false promise of increasing yields and economic development. Until Romania focuses funds towards rural development and sustainable agriculture, it threatens its own culture, environment and the largest part of its population. • Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree
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['commentisfree/commentisfree', 'world/romania', 'world/europe-news', 'world/world', 'world/eu', 'environment/farming', 'environment/biodiversity', 'environment/environment', 'environment/gm', 'environment/food', 'society/society', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/luke-dale-harris']
|
environment/biodiversity
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2012-07-10T16:48:11Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
uk-news/2019/jan/09/hs2-rail-link-protesters-plead-not-guilty-to-obstructing-a-digger
|
HS2 rail link protesters plead not guilty to obstructing a digger
|
Two environmental protesters against the HS2 high-speed rail link have pleaded not guilty to aggravated trespass charges in relation to obstructing a digger on one of the company’s construction sites. The HS2 development has generated controversy about cost, usefulness and possible environmental damage. Environmental protesters have established a protest camp close to one of the HS2 works sites in the Colne Valley nature reserve in Hillingdon, home to a variety of fauna and flora including bats, owls and osprey. Protesters have staged various demonstrations at the west London site in recent months. Wednesday’s charges at Uxbridge magistrates’ court relate to a protest at the Colne Valley site on 11 December last year by Sarah Green, 63, a Green party activist, and Laura Hughes, 37, from the environmental direct action group Extinction Rebellion. Green is alleged to have climbed on top of an HS2 digger while Hughes is alleged to have handcuffed herself to the digger. The protesters have expressed concern that the HS2 work was causing damage to some of London’s water supply, which is sourced from the Colne Valley. Dozens of environmental protesters from the Green party and Extinction Rebellion, filled the courtroom and staged a protest with a banner outside the court. The district judge presiding over the case, Deborah Wright, said she was not going to allow the case to be used as a “political platform”. She said: “It seems to me that no one is going to dispute that both defendants are genuinely concerned about HS2 and the problems it may cause.” At the time of the 11 December protest, HS2 contractors were working on a stretch of the high-speed rail link along Harvil Road in Hillingdon. This latest case involving peaceful protest follows that of the Stansted 15 protesters, who are appealing against conviction for a terror offence for blocking the take-off of a deportation charter flight from Stansted airport. The HS2 contractors were carrying out works to pile drive into the chalk aquifer in a wetland field along Newyears Green bourne, in a designated drinking water protection area. Sailesh Mehta, the counsel for Sarah Green, told the court this area in the Colne Valley provides 22% of London’s drinking water. Mehta told the judge that he wanted to explore who owned the land where the alleged aggravated trespass took place and the lawfulness of the arrest of Green. Mehta said outside the court: “This case epitomises the friction between the legitimate right to protest, the legitimate intent to protect the water supply of Londoners and the state’s right to build structures.” The hearing will resume at Uxbridge magistrates court on 1 April.
|
['uk/hs2', 'uk/rail-transport', 'uk/transport', 'uk/uk', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'world/protest', 'environment/water', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/dianetaylor', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-home-news']
|
environment/activism
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
2019-01-09T18:40:22Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
technology/shortcuts/2019/oct/23/guide-secure-online-passwords-memorable-details
|
Safety first: the short, simple guide to securing all your passwords
|
It feels like it comes round earlier every year. Yes, today is bad password day, your annual reminder that you should install a password manager and randomise your passwords, lest you end up mocked in the national press for securing your precious secrets behind the unhackable protection of “passw0rd!”. The prompt this time is the annual report of the National Cyber Security Centre, a GCHQ subsidiary tasked with defending Britain’s online infrastructure. Based on information first published in April, the NCSC has revealed the passwords that put you most at risk of being hacked. These include popular names (Ashley and Michael), fictional characters (Superman and Naruto) and Premier League football teams (Liverpool and Chelsea). If yours is on that list, you should change it right now. How can I find out if my password has been compromised? The ultimate source of information, security website haveibeenpwned.com, is a useful resource. Simply type in your email address and it will tell you whether it is linked to any known data breaches. And … it has probably been hacked from somewhere. Should I use a password manager? By far the most safe and secure way to protect your accounts is with a password manager and randomised passwords. All modern web browsers will do this for you if you let them. If you want something a bit more powerful that works across platforms, you can try 1Password or LastPass for free. Should I use the same password more than once? The single most dangerous thing a typical user can do online is reuse passwords, because they turn one data breach into many. The problem isn’t that people can’t generate a good password: it’s that no one can remember the hundreds of passwords they need in modern life, and so inevitably, they reuse the same ones. How can I make sure my password is really secure? You could spend time securing your account further by installing Authy and enabling two-factor authentication, for instance, or by signing up for free breach monitoring at Have I Been Pwned. But the one thing to stop worrying about is trying to pick a memorable password. In fact, if you can remember your password at all, you are probably doing it wrong.
|
['technology/technology', 'news/shortcuts', 'tone/features', 'technology/hacking', 'uk/uk', 'uk/gchq', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'profile/alex-hern', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/g2', 'theguardian/g2/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-g2-features']
|
technology/hacking
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2019-10-23T15:18:56Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
lifeandstyle/2013/dec/30/katharine-whitehorn-on-recycling
|
Clearing out the clutter | Katharine Whitehorn
|
Our area has recently been urged to recycle madly smelly compost in a small brown thing, alongside our regular dustbin and a vast green wheelie bin for just about everything else. But there are major forms of mess untouched by it all. Anyone who has lived in the same place for ages (unlike diplomats, Gypsies and fugitives from the law) is usually surrounded by far too many things that don't fit any such categories; not necessarily useless but certainly not used. Everything from torn pillowcases to books you'll read one day, old discs which nobody plays, bits of kitchen equipment for which you've long lost the instructions… I could go on. But how to get rid of them? Some people simply put the unwanted chairs, half-broken tables, even TVs and fridges out on the street to be scooped up by people who never furnish their apartments any other way. I know I'm not alone in feeling surrounded by far too many things, of which not more than 5% at most are either useful, beautiful or of sentimental value – but when is dealing with it going to be the most urgent thing to do next? What is wanted, I'm beginning to think, is National Throw-out Day. Charities could go round with carts, books could be left out to be collected by Oxfam, heaps could be burnt in the streets, and we'd all feel much better. Won't some influential politician or celebrity name the day? What do you think? Share your thoughts below
|
['lifeandstyle/series/katharine-whitehorn-column', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'tone/features', 'environment/recycling', 'type/article', 'profile/katharine-whitehorn', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/magazine', 'theobserver/magazine/regulars']
|
environment/recycling
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2013-12-30T11:00:00Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
uk/2012/dec/31/wettest-year-ends-with-downpours
|
Wettest year ends with downpours
|
Hours of rain continued across much of the country on New Year's Eve, from downpours in some parts to the merely miserable, meaning that as 2012 ended, Britain was on course for the wettest year since records began. The Met Office said just 46mm (1.8in) of rain by midnight would make this year the wettest – and six steady hours of rain in some places should have ensured that. England, which had drought orders in place in many areas in the spring, has already set a record, with 1,095.8mm of rain between 1 January and Boxing Day. Parts of upland Cumbria, south Wales and south-west England saw torrential overnight rain, raising the likelihood of further flooding. Hundreds of Environment Agency flood alerts and warnings remain in place, and the Met Office has issued yellow warnings of more heavy rain and gales in many parts of Scotland, the north-east of England, London and the south-east, and Wales. The ancient Tarr Steps bridge on Exmoor was washed away when fallen trees, swept down the swollen river Barle, snapped protective steel cables installed after a flood more than half a century ago. A spokeswoman for Exmoor national park said the stone slabs, some believed to be up to 1,000 years old, are all numbered, and will be replaced. After an afternoon track inspection, Cheltenham racecourse cancelled New Year's Day racing because the course is under water in places. Ticket holders will have their money refunded. In west Dorset, where the Undercliff path near Lyme Regis was closed several days ago, there were further landslips. One of the flood warnings covers the river Thames near Hampton Court, where tourists were startled to see part of the Tudor moat filling with water. However, the rain was set to clear in time for midnight celebrations for most, including Derry, which was kicking off its year as UK city of culture with plans for a fireworks display; Edinburgh, where up to 60,000 were expected in the streets around the castle; and London, where hundreds of thousands came to line the banks of the Thames in a city mostly closed to through traffic but with the underground running through the night, and free public transport for all from just before midnight into the small hours. The year has seen a dismal succession of floods in many places, with at least 8,000 homes and business flooded, many repeatedly. The Environment Agency said almost 200,000 more were protected by flood defences. In April, parts of Devon and Cornwall endured more than 24 hours of nonstop rain and, in June, Honister in Cumbria had eight inches of rain in one day. In July, the river Axe at Weycroft Bridge in Devon rose to 3.58 metres, the highest level ever recorded and the river Ouse in York reached its second highest recorded level in September. The forecast for the first day of 2013 is much better, with calmer, drier weather, giving thousands of households a respite from weeks spent filling sandbags.
|
['uk/weather', 'uk/uk', 'tone/news', 'environment/flooding', 'environment/environment', 'type/article', 'profile/maevkennedy', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews']
|
environment/flooding
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2012-12-31T19:13:21Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
environment/2011/may/09/friends-earth-ipcc-proposals-policy
|
Campaigners demand Chris Huhne deliver adequate policy or resign
|
Friends of the Earth has stepped up the pressure on the government to follow the recommendations of its climate change advisers. The green group called on Monday for Chris Huhne, the secretary of state for energy to resign in protest if his fellow ministers try to water down the proposals. The government must lay the groundwork now for legislation slated for June, if it accepts the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change, set up under the Climate Change Act to advise the government on how to meet its greenhouse gas targets. The committee recommends a "carbon budget" that would require a 50% carbon reduction by 2027 compared with 1990 levels. But a government decision has been stalled by opposition to the target from the departments for transport and for business, innovation and skills. Andy Atkins, the executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "Failure to accept the committee's advice on the setting of future carbon budgets, or a decision to accept it in part, or in a watered-down form, would be completely incompatible with the government's ambition to be the 'greenest government ever'. "It would be a complete reversal of the arguments put forward by both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties as the Climate Change Act was being passed through the last parliament." Atkins wrote to Huhne on Monday afternoon urging him to resign if the recommendations are not followed in full. In his letter he told Huhne: "I do not call for your resignation with any relish, nor because I believe that your department is the real obstacle to accepting the advice of the committee ... However this is a completely different situation to the usual intergovernmental wrangles over policy. "If a particular energy efficiency or renewable energy policy is held up or watered down by other departments, it is understandable that you would stay in place to work on other policies to deliver the cuts in emissions we need. "If carbon budgets are set at a lower level than the committee advises are necessary then you will have no power in government to deliver policies that make the cuts in emissions we need. You will only be able to deliver policies you know are inadequate." The letter follows a warning from David Kennedy, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, that the "the key test" of the government's green credentials will be whether or not it accepts his recommendations on carbon-cutting.
|
['environment/friends-of-the-earth', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'environment/environment', 'environment/green-politics', 'politics/chrishuhne', 'politics/politics', 'environment/ipcc', 'world/unitednations', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'environment/committee-on-climate-change', 'type/article', 'profile/fiona-harvey', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/uknews']
|
environment/committee-on-climate-change
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2011-05-09T16:56:00Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
commentisfree/cif-green/2010/nov/04/channel-4-convenient-green-fiction
|
Channel 4's convenient green fiction | George Monbiot
|
So Channel 4 has done it again. Over the past 20 years, it has broadcast a series of polemics about the environment, and most of them have been fiercely anti-green. On other issues Channel 4's films attack all sides. Not on the environment. Last night it aired yet another polemic: What the Green Movement Got Wrong. This one was presented by two people who still consider themselves green: Stewart Brand and Mark Lynas. It's not as rabid as the other films; but like its predecessors, it airs blatant falsehoods about environmentalists and fits snugly into the corporate agenda. The film is based on Brand's book, Whole Earth Discipline. He argues that greens, by failing to embrace the right technologies, have impeded both environmental and social progress. Not everything he says is wrong, but his account is infused with magical thinking, in which technology is expected to solve all political and economic problems. This view, now popular among green business consultants, is sustained by ignoring the issue of power. The film starts, for example, by blaming greens for the failure of environmental policies. But, as a paper published in the journal Environmental Politics shows, green movements have continued to grow, reaching more people every year. What has changed is that a powerful counter-movement, led by corporate-funded thinktanks, has waged war on green policies. "This counter-movement has been central to the reversal of US support for environmental protection, both domestically and internationally." A similar shift has taken place in other countries. Many of the thinktanks were set up in the 1970s by businesses and multimillionaires, seeking to limit employment rights and prevent the distribution of wealth. After the collapse of Soviet communism, their funders' attention switched from the red menace to the green menace. This lobby had access to money and government that the greens could only dream of. For environmentalists to blame each other for the lack of progress is to betray a startling absence of context. But Brand's vision depends on forgetting the context. He maintains that we will save the biosphere by adopting nuclear energy, GM crops and geoengineering, and paints a buoyant picture of a world running like clockwork on these new technologies. Without a critique of power, his techno-utopianism is pure fantasy. Nuclear electricity may indeed be part of the solution, but the real climate challenge is not getting into new technologies, but getting out of old ones. This means confronting some of the world's most powerful forces, a theme with no place in Brand's story. Similarly, though the world has had food surpluses for many years, almost a billion people are permanently hungry, while enough grain to feed them several times over is given to animals and used to make biofuels. This is not because technology is lacking, but because the poor lack economic and political power. The film's proposal – that we should switch to technologies which tend to be monopolised by large conglomerates – could exacerbate this problem. Brand's attempts to avoid conflicts with power are understandable: he founded a corporate consultancy called the Global Business Network. But the ideology he has embraced has brought him closer to the corporate lobby groups than he might be aware. For example, the film maintains that, as a result of campaigning by groups such as Greenpeace, the pesticide DDT was banned worldwide. The result was that malaria took off in Africa, "killing millions". Just one problem: DDT for disease control wasn't banned (if you don't believe me, read Annex B of the 2001 Stockholm Convention) and Greenpeace didn't call for it to happen. The ban story was a myth put about by lobbyists to discredit the greens. In the film, Brand says he wants greens to admit it when they're wrong. I challenged him to admit that he got the DDT story wrong before the film aired. I received no reply. Brand and Lynas present themselves as heretics. But their convenient fictions chime with the thinking of the new establishment: corporations, thinktanks, neoliberal politicians. The true heretics are those who remind us that neither social nor environmental progress are possible unless power is confronted. Environmentalism is not just about replacing one set of technologies with another. Technological change is important, but it will protect the biosphere only if we also tackle issues such as economic growth, consumerism and corporate power. These are the challenges the green movement asks us to address. These are the issues the film ignores.
|
['commentisfree/cif-green', 'commentisfree/commentisfree', 'environment/green-economy', 'media/channel4', 'environment/environment', 'media/media', 'environment/green-politics', 'tone/comment', 'type/article', 'profile/georgemonbiot', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/commentanddebate']
|
environment/green-politics
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2010-11-04T22:30:02Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
media/2005/aug/30/pressandpublishing.hurricanekatrina
|
US paper rides the storm via blog
|
A Mississippi newspaper at the heart of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina survived the 145mph winds and struggled to keep its readers informed via an emergency weblog. The Biloxi Sun Herald lost all outside communications and suffered a power cut after the roof was blown off its generator. Anxious relatives appealed for information about missing loved ones on the paper's blog, which gave a graphic real-time account of the approaching storm. "Things are very bad here," reported one Sun Herald correspondent. "I've gotten several hundred specific queries about friends, families and neighbourhoods. I've told several people that it is easier to list the things that are undamaged than those that have been pounded. That's the honest truth. "We've got significant loss of life, with around 40 dead in Biloxi alone. We're trying to glean other information from coast municipalities and counties, but communications are brutal here at the moment." Up to 80 people are now reported to have been killed as flood waters rose to 22ft. The hurricane hit the coast on Monday morning before sweeping across Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida. Devastation in Biloxi Experts feared it would devastate New Orleans, but it veered east at the last minute. Biloxi is on the south coast of Mississippi county, north-east of New Orleans. The blog tells how buildings in the town had begun to "implode". "The wind is whipping now. The roof on the building is creaking. You can hear the building's joints straining," wrote Sun Herald reporter Josh Norman. "Pat Sullivan called at 6.15 to ask if I wanted to go for a ride with him. I took one look outside and said 'nope'. Anita felt brave briefly and thought she'd give it a go. Then she saw the winds. I also just heard [Pat] over the scanner saying that he had successfully extracted a woman and her four kids from their apartment after the roof ripped off. "Lots of people still in their homes now and the shelters were pretty much all at capacity last night. I can't believe the complacency of people down there. Time to settle in and be prepared to run upstairs." The operations director of the Sun Herald, Marlene Kler, said the paper's printing centre had lost power and phone lines, including mobile phones. "Water didn't get anywhere near the building. We have many, many leaks however. No power, and the roof blew off the generator switch. When the rain subsides we'll try to get it started. Being in the building and draping plastic, using wastebuckets etc, I think saved a lot of damage." Newsroom staff were evacuated to a paper in Columbus in neighbouring Georgia, where the Sun Herald was due to be printed and then flown into Mississippi by helicopter. The blog quotes medical director Christopher Cirillo, who said 35 people had swum out of the emergency operations centre after the headquarters flooded. "We haven't heard from them. The only person we can raise on the radio is the sheriff in his car." Looters 'stole anything they could find' Looting broke out in the aftermath of the hurricane, according to the blog. "They stole cars, radios, liquor, furniture, generators, and anything else they could find. A furious Harrison County sheriff, George Payne, was heard on the police scanner telling his deputies to make room in the jail." Among the more unusual evacuees were five dolphins moved from a seaside marine life centre to two hotel swimming pools inland to save them from the worst effects of the storm. Many of the emails came from concerned relatives. "I have family that lives on Baker Street in Biloxi and they chose to stay, home hoping that the storm would pass and not be so bad. Well their home is a mobile home and I was trying to call them but can not get thru so I was wondering if the phone lines was down in that part of Biloxi." Another said: "My brother... works security at Memorial Hospital. Windows are out on the bottom two floors, most of the roof is gone and they are losing doors from the wind blowing in. The top floor has been evacuated due to water coming through the roof. He also told me of an employee who had to walk to work from almost in Long Beach. He walked to Memorial along the tracks in almost waist deep water." Other news organisations were forced to make radical plans for the hurricane with the Times-Picayune evacuating its New Orleans office. · To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857 · If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".
|
['media/pressandpublishing', 'us-news/hurricane-katrina', 'media/digital-media', 'media/media', 'us-news/us-news', 'media/us-press-publishing', 'us-news/mississippi', 'type/article', 'profile/johnplunkett']
|
us-news/hurricane-katrina
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2005-08-30T13:53:33Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
sustainable-business/2015/jul/02/11-things-we-learned-about-social-enterprise-in-international-development
|
11 things we learned about social enterprise in international development
|
1. The scale of social enterprises varies globally Bangladesh has the powerhouses of Brac and Grameen. “It’s the home of microfinance and Brac’s social enterprises have operated since the 1970s,” explains Emily Darko, a researcher at the Overseas Development Institute. For other countries social enterprise is a less developed area. It is a relatively new term in Ghana, for example, but there is a growing number of start-ups and intermediaries and support organisations are emerging. 2. Social enterprise is about impacts Positive impacts can be seen in a number of ways: in what a social enterprise produces or sells, for example, or by the way it does business. “Most of our work is agricultural so we are particularly interested in enterprises that go out of their way to include marginalised farmers,” says Clare Clifton, Christian Aid’s inclusive market development project manager. 3. Social enterprise can help reach the grassroots Social and environmental enterprises are best positioned to understand what local problems are, and the best ways to solve them. They are also flexible and nimble in their approaches so their impact is long-lasting. 4. Skills development and employment-generating enterprises are growing In the Philippines – the so-called call centre capital of the world – employers tend to recruit over-qualified young people with college degrees. With continued growth of the sector, demand remains high for new workers, who do not have to have degrees. Bart Edes, director of the poverty reduction, gender and social development division at the Asian Development Bank, says that one social enterprise, Bagosphere, is providing skills-training for disadvantaged young people to work in the call centre industry. 5. Enterprise can benefit the poorest Some people are so poor that joining a large social enterprise is not really an option; Clifton says another approach is to build a social enterprise around their needs: “We have had good experiences working with very marginalised communities in Zimbabwe, where we asked them to tell us their vision for their community’s future – this included growing and selling a profitable product. Our work with them and an export company resulted in the first Fairtrade-certified hibiscus being exported from Zimbabwe.” 6. More governments are supporting social enterprise The governments of South Korea and Singapore encourage the work of social enterprises as they recognise these organisations can fill gaps left in the provision of social services. The Singapore social and family development ministry also offers tips on how to start a social enterprise. 7. Reporting is essential Social enterprises should be held to the same standards as NGOs for impact measurement, and to the same standards as corporations in measuring their financial performance. With the right tools, the cost of doing this can be minimised.“We have developed a methodology to assess both the financial and social performance of a project,” says Nicolas Hazard, chairman of Le Comptoir de l’Innovation and vice chairman of Groupe SOS. “CDI Ratings is based on 600 criteria gathered from field experts and aims at being time-effective, and therefore cost-effective.” 8. But expectations must be sensible If social enterprises are to devote more time and resources to impact assessments, they won’t be able to compete with the private sector. Paula Woodman, social enterprise adviser for the British Council, says that there are two options: give social enterprises advantages, such as tax incentives, over private companies to make this worthwhile or require businesses to also complete impact assessments. Aviva is proposing the latter model for the biggest global companies. 9. Global charities can help social enterprise get started There are many areas that NGOs know well and for which they can give expert advice: impact measurement, community engagement and engagement with people on low incomes or with little political voice. They can also help with supply chains, producers and consumers. For example, Filipino NGO Gawad Kalinga provides an incubation space for social enterprises in their communities. 10. NGOs can also bridge risk gaps It can be difficult for a new social enterprise to attract capital, be it impact investment or more general investment. Nicola Jowell, programme director of MPhil in inclusive innovation at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, says that international charities can help by providing that initial, risky investment, and help startup social enterprises gain traction and create value, proving their attractiveness for further investment. 11. But charities might have to become social enterprises in the future As countries like Bangladesh move towards middle-income status, and with aid money drying out, charities will have to convert to social enterprises in order to address challenges in human development. Tamara Hasan Abed, senior director of enterprises at Brac, warns: “Charities will do well to change mindset and become more entrepreneurial sooner rather than later.” Read the full Q&A here.
|
['sustainable-business/series/international', 'sustainable-business/sustainable-business', 'society/socialenterprises', 'environment/sustainable-development', 'global-development/environmental-sustainability', 'global-development/sustainable-development-goals', 'environment/environment', 'global-development/global-development', 'society/society', 'type/article', 'tone/sponsoredfeatures', 'tone/blog', 'profile/katherine-purvis']
|
environment/sustainable-development
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2015-07-02T09:57:43Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
uk-news/2022/jan/18/northern-ireland-environment-plan-weak-flawed-dirty-corner-europe
|
Northern Ireland could become ‘dirty corner of Europe’, say campaigners
|
Northern Ireland is at risk of becoming “the dirty corner of Europe”, campaigners say, if more ambitious targets are not set for the country as it seeks to approve its first dedicated climate legislation. Officials at the devolved Stormont institutions say that the environment strategy for Northern Ireland lags considerably behind the commitments made by Great Britain and Ireland, adding to concerns Northern Ireland may be becoming a serious outlier in climate and environmental governance. Stormont’s agriculture and environment committee heard this month that the targets outlined in its draft climate strategy are “significantly less ambitious” than those set by England, Scotland and Wales. The draft strategy’s target of 70% of water bodies reaching “good” status by 2027 falls “significantly” short of Scotland’s target of 81%, the committee heard. It is understood the strategy at present does not include an aim to recycle 70% of all waste by 2030, as recommended by the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), nor does it set targets for food wastes and overall waste as Scotland and Wales have done. Pledges to increase new woodland plantation by about 1,400 hectares annually to 8.8% coverage by 2030 – with Northern Ireland having the lowest tree cover in Europe – were also said to be significantly behind corresponding pledges in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Currently out for consultation, Tuesday is the deadline for the public to respond to the draft strategy. “The environment strategy is weak, flawed and fails to address the legacy of a country with declining water quality and no clean air strategy,” said James Orr, the director of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland. “With only two months to go in this executive to pass progressive climate legislation, all eyes are watching to see if Northern Ireland can grasp the last chance in this mandate to build a society that works with nature or be ridiculed as the dirty corner of Europe.” Northern Ireland has for a number of years been the only devolved administration without its own specific climate change legislation and targets for emissions reduction. The 2008 UK Climate Change Act only requires emissions cuts as a cross-jurisdiction aggregate. Two competing climate bills are making their way through the Northern Irish assembly – the first a private member’s bill introduced in October 2020 that would set a legally binding 2045 net zero target, and another, tabled in July 2021 by the agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, aims for carbon emissions to be reduced by 82% by 2050. Upcoming elections for the devolved parliament are to be held no later than 5 May. Poots, echoing farming groups’ claims that the 2045 target could wipe out half of the country’s livestock farmers if enforced, has said the first bill would “decimate” Northern Ireland’s agrifood industry – which recorded a turnover of more than £5bn in 2019 and employs about 25,000 people. The Green party NI leader, Clare Bailey, who tabled the first climate bill, said: “If Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK with no climate legislation and no net zero target, it risks undermining the UK’s climate action on a national level. “Northern Ireland has the highest per-capita emissions of anywhere in the UK, so it’s crucial that emissions are rapidly reduced here to ensure the UK meets its national targets.” The climate act is one of a number of environmental pledges at the heart of the “New Decade, New Approach” agreement that restored the devolved governing institutions in January 2020, after a record shutdown period of more than three years. An independent environmental protection agency regulator and a “green new deal” package promised for Northern Ireland are both yet to be delivered. Civil society organisations say the requisite science and technology is already in place to enable a rapid transition towards net zero and that the choice between the two climate bills is fundamentally a political one. “Northern Ireland’s inability to fulfil climate commitments is due to political failings, rather than a lack of scientific evidence,” said Dr Amanda Slevin, the chair of the Climate Coalition NI group. She accused Poots of having used CCC findings “selectively”, saying that his bill “gives the Department [of Agriculture, the Environment and Rural Affairs] the authority to change the [climate] targets both in terms of the level of emissions reductions and the date by which they are to be achieved. In effect, the bill’s targets are not fixed.” Although the CCC chair, Lord Deben, has said it would be “morally wrong” to hold Northern Ireland to the 2045 net zero goal, the organisation stresses that its 82-84% reduction target is a minimum for Northern Ireland and that it should be reviewed over time. Poots said: “My executive climate change bill, which is currently undergoing legislative passage, is evidence-based and science-led, and its at least 82% emissions reduction by 2050 target for Northern Ireland has been advised by the independent and world-renowned expert statutory advisory body – the UK Climate Change Committee. “This at least 82% target is a highly ambitious but an equitable contribution for Northern Ireland to fully contribute to UK net zero through a balanced pathway that will both protect the environment and boost the Northern Ireland economy. It also is scientifically compatible with the emissions pathway required to keep to the Paris agreement’s 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels] global warming limit.”
|
['uk/northernireland', 'environment/environment', 'environment/carbon-emissions', 'uk/uk', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'politics/northernireland', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/tommy-greene', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-environment']
|
environment/carbon-emissions
|
EMISSIONS
|
2022-01-18T13:05:15Z
| true
|
EMISSIONS
|
news/2011/jul/21/weatherwatch-volcanoes-summer-british
|
Weatherwatch: British summers can be like the Dark Ages
|
British summers can be a bit hit and miss, but imagine a summer where the Sun completely failed to shine. This grim scenario has happened in the past, and may be responsible for giving the historic period known as the Dark Ages its name. In the year 536AD a volcanic eruption blotted out the Sun, bringing continuous twilight to people living across Europe and Asia. Byzantine historian, Procopius of Caesarea, who was living in Rome at the time, wrote: "And it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place. For the Sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the Moon, during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the Sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed." Meanwhile, Chinese astronomers reported that they couldn't see Canopus, one of the brightest stars. This terrible darkness lasted for 18 months, causing cool weather, crop failure, famine and war. It may even have triggered the first outbreak of bubonic plague across Europe, as poor harvests caused rats to forage grain stores. A thick layer of volcanic ash in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores confirm that a massive low latitude volcanic eruption was the culprit, but amazingly scientists have yet to pin down where this volcano was. One strong contender is Ilopango in El Salvador, whose eruption caused major depopulation in Maya lowlands around this time.
|
['news/series/weatherwatch', 'tone/features', 'uk/weather', 'type/article', 'profile/kate-ravilious', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/mainsection', 'theguardian/mainsection/weather2']
|
news/series/weatherwatch
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2011-07-21T22:05:01Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
environment/2020/nov/04/leaked-report-shows-scotland-missed-target-for-marine-wildlife-protection
|
Leaked report shows Scotland missed target for marine wildlife protection
|
The Scottish government has failed to meet its target for preventing damage to important marine life, according to a leaked report by scientists from Scotland’s nature agency that shows losses of vital underwater habitats. The draft report, seen by the Guardian, found that seabed habitats awarded “priority” status by the government to protect them have shrunk in five large areas in the period between 2011 and 2019. It blames the decline of habitats including seagrass, flame shells and mussel beds on damage from fishing gear, anchoring, overfishing and engineering works. The draft report, Scottish overall assessment 2020, first published by the Ferret, also points to climate change, ocean acidification, pollutants from fish farming and other sources, as well as diseases and storms as potential causes. Between 2011 and 2019, “The target of no loss … has not been achieved in the Moray Firth, West Highlands, Outer Hebrides, Argyll and Clyde regions,” it said. There was “insufficient evidence” to determine whether six other marine regions had met the target. The declines appeared most severe in Argyll, which has lost 53% of its flame shell beds as well as 35% of its serpulid tubeworm reefs since 2011. Phil Taylor, the head of policy for Open Seas, a marine sustainability charity, said: “These habitats are the life support system for our seas – they provide nursery grounds for fish, store carbon and can improve water quality. If we want to rebuild our coastal fisheries, we need to start at the foundations and protect more of our seabeds urgently.” The Marine Scotland Act, passed by the Scottish parliament in 2010, requires the government to protect and enhance “the health of the Scottish marine area”. A network of marine protected areas (MPAs) was set up to do this, but many do not have management plans to limit the impact of damaging fishing. The Scottish government said a full assessment of the state of Scotland’s seas will be published in due course. A spokesperson for NatureScot confirmed it had written the report as part of that initiative, and that it was based on data from seabed surveys in mainly MPAs between 2011-2019. The report stresses “low confidence” in its assessment because records exist for only a small proportion of habitats, it said. “The losses reported may be caused by a range of pressures including those associated with human activities or natural drivers of change including storm action and fluctuations in recruitment of the habitat-forming species. “In 2016, management measures were put in place to protect the most sensitive seabed habitats within inshore MPAs. It will take time for the benefits of these measures to be seen and for this to be reflected in the results of our MPA monitoring work.”
|
['environment/series/seascape-the-state-of-our-oceans', 'uk/scotland', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'environment/marine-life', 'environment/wildlife', 'environment/fishing', 'environment/conservation', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/karenmcveigh', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/global-development']
|
environment/marine-life
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2020-11-04T14:29:39Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
us-news/article/2024/aug/06/hurricane-debby-cocaine-florida-keys-beach
|
More than $1m worth of cocaine washes up on Florida beach after Hurricane Debby
|
Several packages of cocaine with a street value exceeding $1m have washed up on a Florida beach after Hurricane Debby crashed ashore in the state on Monday and progressed up the eastern seaboard. The acting chief patrol agent of the US border patrol’s division in Miami, Samuel Briggs, shared a picture of the confiscated drugs on X, showing the 25 packages – or 70lb – of cocaine washed up on a Florida Keys beach. Briggs said a passerby “discovered the drugs [and] contacted authorities”. “US border patrol seized the drugs, which have a street value of over $1m dollars,” he added. The unusual confiscation provided a humorous postscript to Florida’s encounter with Debby after the storm made landfall north of Steinhatchee, about 80 miles west of Gainesville. The storm has since been downgraded to a tropical storm. But, still packing heavy rainfall and gusty winds of 40 to 50mph, Debby on Tuesday remained a threat to neighboring states and even those farther north. Georgia and eastern South Carolina could see “potentially historic heavy rainfall” through Friday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Joe Biden approved emergency declarations for Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, which let the president release federal aid into the region as recovery efforts get under way. At least five people have died amid the storm, according to local news reports. Among those who were killed in the harsh weather were a 13-year-old boy in Fanning Springs, Florida, and a 19-year-old man in south Georgia – both of whom were killed when trees fell on top of houses. Debby caused flash flooding, closures of schools and roads, and downed power lines. Sixty-one counties were placed under evacuation orders by state officials on Monday, many of which had been lifted by Tuesday. But nearly 109,000 homes and businesses in Florida remained without power as of Tuesday, according to PowerOutage.US. And a combined 50,000 homes and businesses across Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina were also grappling with power outages. Although Debby encroached on the US during peak hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) predicted “an above-average 2024 Atlantic hurricane season” due to global warming and warmer ocean temperatures, primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. “This storm looks to be a significant flooding event for millions of residents in the south-east,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, Robert Samaan, said. “For anyone already affected, listen to your local officials, check on your neighbors and monitor the weather in your area. “To everyone else further down the storm’s path, there is still time to make last minute preparations for you and your family.”
|
['us-news/us-news', 'world/hurricanes', 'us-news/florida', 'world/drugs-trade', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/erum-salam', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/us-news']
|
world/hurricanes
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
2024-08-06T16:10:24Z
| true
|
EXTREME_CLIMATE_IMPACTS
|
tv-and-radio/2017/dec/16/judi-dench-my-passion-for-trees-ultimate-merging-national-natural-treasure
|
Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees – exposing the dame's private shrubbery
|
Judi Dench loves trees. Judi is a massive tree hugger. Judi looks at trees in the same way that other people look at vintage sports cars or newborn babies: benevolent, indulgent, endlessly astonished. Judi loves trees so much that she has been given her own programme in order to expound upon their magic. Well of course she has. She’s Judi Dench. Some might insist that talking about trees is the job of Kate Humble or Chris Packham – preferably while parked on straw bales – or perhaps the voice of God himself, David Attenborough. But if anyone can instil wonder into viewers about the history of our forests, it’s Judi. Watching her surveying Britain’s oaks is the ultimate merging of national treasure and natural treasure. Theme parks have been fashioned out of less. Welcome, then, to Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees (20 December, 8pm, BBC One), which, until just a fortnight ago, came with the distinctly fruitier title of Judi Dench’s Secret Woodland. Apparently it doesn’t do to play double-entendres with an octogenarian dame, though if you ask me the BBC has missed a trick when it could have sent ratings skywards with Judi’s Dench’s Hidden Lady Garden, Judi Dench’s Private Shrubbery or Judi Dench’s Thicket, Exposed! For Judi, this is a serious business – as serious, in fact, as Shakespeare, which is her other passion. Shakespeare crops up frequently here, because he too adored trees and, through his plays and sonnets, helped bring the great outdoors to the great urban unwashed. That much of this programme is set in Judi’s own backyard could make it an unpromising prospect. But her garden isn’t like most people’s. Judi’s garden is half of Surrey. She doesn’t do lawns and herbaceous borders; there’s not a plastic picnic table or a mildewed sun lounger in sight. Instead, she has a vast and beautiful wood, full of wild flowers and rickety fencing, that she has nurtured for 30 years. At the end of one path is an artfully distressed shepherd’s hut; at the end of another is a 200-year-old oak. Judi, we learn, plants a tree every time a close friend or relative dies. So there are trees named after her brother Geoff, the actor Natasha Richardson, her late husband Michael and, most recently, her close friend Robert Hardy. “I think of my trees as part of my extended family,” she reflects. Having played Queens Elizabeth and Victoria, Ophelia and Lady Macbeth, Dench is no stranger to drama. But there are challenges here that test even the woman voted the greatest stage actor of all time, specifically: how to bring to life an organism that is rooted to the bloody spot? Enthusiasm seems to be her method: “Do you know there are more trees than there are stars in our galaxy?” she gasps in the voiceover. On being handed a civil war-era cannon ball that, several hundred years ago, was found wedged into a 1,500-year- old yew tree, she practically faints with delight: “You’re joking!” she bellows. Elsewhere, there are aerial shots of luscious forests and closeups of Judi shuffling around her garden. As engaging as the footage of thousand-year-old tree trunks is, just as charming are the shots of Judi humming sweetly to herself, eyes alight, basking in the mystery and majesty of her precious wood. “I’m very, very proud of my trees doing all that work,” she twinkles. Judi loves trees and we love Judi, so all is right with the world.
|
['tv-and-radio/series/filipa-jodelka-s-other-side', 'environment/forests', 'culture/television', 'culture/culture', 'tv-and-radio/tv-and-radio', 'culture/judi-dench', 'environment/environment', 'tone/features', 'type/article', 'profile/fiona-sturges', 'publication/theguardian', 'theguardian/theguide', 'theguardian/theguide/features', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/the-guide']
|
environment/forests
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2017-12-16T11:00:00Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2022/jun/02/seven-new-species-on-the-menu-for-queensland-fans-of-sustainable-seafood-new-guide-says
|
Seven new species on the menu for Queensland fans of sustainable seafood, new guide says
|
Queensland seafood lovers who want to eat sustainably and can afford a finer fillet have been given the green light to eat seven new species of reef fish. But they have been advised against buying iconic species, including prawns and barramundi, that have been caught in the wild. This is the takeaway from the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s GoodFish sustainable seafood guide ratings, which have just been updated after four years. Coral trout, red throat emperor, red emperor and crimson snapper were all upgraded from an amber to a green light, while hussar, stripey snapper, tuskfish were also given the all-clear after being included in the guide for the first time. ACMS’ sustainable seafood manager, Adrian Meder, said the species were all part of the state’s reef line fishery, where commercial anglers catch target species by hand. He said management of that fishery was “really admirable”. “It’s a shining light for fisheries, not only in Australia, but in the world,” Meder said. He said those positive environmental ratings were a result of years of work by the state’s fishing regulators and commercial anglers after the fisheries responded to a “reckoning”, with fish populations “running out”. ACMS will now be recommending these to more than 100 partner restaurants, as well as consumers, giving them the all clear to cook with those species given green lights. Meder said reef-line anglers experienced “big costs imposed” during the industry’s reform, including installing satellite tracking on vessels to make sure they weren’t fishing in protected zones. But he said the upgraded ratings meant those anglers had “come out the other side” and were poised to reap the benefits. “Not only are healthy fishing stocks more environmentally resilient,” he said, “but [more plentiful] fish are easier and cheaper to catch.” In contrast, he said Queensland was a national laggard in reforming trawler and gill net fisheries. In some cases, he said the Queensland government was not compliant with its own obligations to monitor and minimise the impact of the state’s fisheries on threatened and endangered species, or implementing best-practice fisheries management. He said the obligation to have an independent observer to monitor bycatch on those vessels was scrapped under the Newman government and was yet to be reinstated. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning “That decade without any trustworthy information from those high-impact fisheries means Queensland has fallen far behind best practice that operates elsewhere in Australia,” he said. Queensland waters were “chock-full of very diverse and vulnerable threatened species” from dugong and sea snakes. “We think Queenslanders don’t want a side of dead dugong, dolphin, turtle or sawfish with their prawns or barra,” he said. But Meder said those fisheries could also become sustainable and profitable if they too underwent reform. “We very much look forward to the day we can give those species the green light,” he said. “That will be job done for us, and a great outcome for Queensland seafood lovers and, indeed, the fishing industry.” Spanish mackerel, spanner crab and stout whiting all saw their rating decline from green to red. Sea mullet was upgraded from amber to green.
|
['environment/fish', 'australia-news/queensland', 'food/fish', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'environment/biodiversity', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/joe-hinchliffe', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-state-news']
|
environment/biodiversity
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2022-06-01T17:30:16Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2013/jun/20/rspb-homes-for-nature
|
RSPB urges British public to create 1m 'homes for nature'
|
The RSPB is urging the public to create 1m new "homes for nature" in its most ambitious campaign to date, prompted by an unprecedented study of UK wildlife in May which revealed that 60% of all species are in decline. "Nature in the UK is in trouble and some of our more familiar garden species are amongst those suffering serious declines," said the RSPB chief executive, Mike Clarke. "Gardens provide a valuable lifeline for species like starlings, toads, hedgehogs and butterflies, which are struggling to find homes in the wider countryside." The wildlife charity hopes to help slow the decline of UK species by encouraging people to create wildlife habitats in their gardens or outside spaces by putting up nest boxes, digging ponds, planting useful flowers or avoiding activities such as mowing lawns too often or tidying up twigs and leaves. The landmark State of Nature report found that one in three species have halved in number in the past half century and one in 10 are at risk of extinction. Causes identified include intensification of farming, building development, overfishing and climate change. All species are in danger of further declines unless more is done to provide better habitats, the charity warned. Clarke said: "Although the overall problem is huge, the solution can start on a small scale, right on our doorsteps. Our aim is to provide 1m homes for nature across the UK, because if there's no home for nature, then there's no nature – it really is that serious." "Gardens acts as important refuges and hold remarkable diversities of species," said Prof William Sutherland at the University of Cambridge. "Small changes in how gardens are managed could make a real difference, so this campaign has to be good news. The challenge is to ensure that the measures used are effective – some popular techniques simply don't work, such as adding bumblebee nest boxes or sticking falcon silhouettes onto windows to prevent collisions." "Everyone has a part to play and it is in all of our interests to put wildlife back on the map," said Paul Wilkinson, head of living landscape for the Wildlife Trusts, which contributed to the State of Nature report. "Wildlife gardening can make a surprisingly big difference which is why we have been working on it for so long up and down the UK, and in partnership with Royal Horticultural Society. The more hands to the pump, the better; the more people who are engaged, the greater the potential benefit for wildlife."
|
['environment/rspb', 'environment/environment', 'environment/wildlife', 'lifeandstyle/gardens', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'uk/uk', 'environment/endangered-habitats', 'environment/conservation', 'environment/endangeredspecies', 'tone/news', 'type/article']
|
environment/endangered-habitats
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2013-06-20T05:30:01Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
business/2023/jan/23/tesco-boss-price-rises-farmers-union-nfu-john-allan
|
Tesco boss in ‘parallel universe’ over price rises, says farmers’ union
|
Britain’s farming union has accused the chair of Tesco of living in a “parallel universe” after he said food companies may be using inflation as an excuse to increase prices further than necessary. Official inflation data for December, which was published last week, showed food prices were 16.8% higher than a year earlier, a rate not seen since September 1977, and one that was led by eggs, milk and cheese. Asked by BBC television on Sunday whether food producers were taking advantage of the poorest in society, the Tesco chair, John Allan, said it was “entirely possible”. He said the retailer, which is Britain’s biggest supermarket, with a 27.5% share of the grocery market, was trying “very hard” to challenge price rises it thought were illegitimate and had “fallen out” with “a number of suppliers”. Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, said she was “slightly baffled” by Allan’s comments. “It was almost like he was living in a parallel universe,” she told BBC radio on Monday, adding that farmers and growers were facing unprecedented increase in production costs. “We’re seeing a wholesale gas price that’s 650% higher than it was back in 2019 and the cost inflation on the back of that has been unprecedented and it has dwarfed any price increases to date,” Batters said. Allan said there had been “very robust discussions” between Tesco and a number of suppliers, and referenced last year’s spat with the US multinational Kraft Heinz. “We didn’t have Heinz soup and Heinz tomato ketchup for a spell last summer when they tried to put through a large price increase at that stage. That was eventually settled,” he said. “We’ve fallen out with other suppliers. So we do try very hard, I think, to challenge cost increases.” Earlier this month, when Tesco reported better-than-expected Christmas trading, its chief executive, Ken Murphy, said the group had raised prices to a lesser extent than the overall market. “We are battling (with suppliers) to keep prices down for customers and it’s an ongoing struggle but we’re doing our best,” he said. “It is a constant to and for but there’s a fair bit of partnership involved as well,” Murphy said, pointing to its “price lock” scheme that will maintain prices on more than 1,000 branded and own-brand products until Easter. “Our suppliers recognise that they also need to protect volume … they want to protect their market share, they want to work with us to do so,” he added. Murphy said Tesco was in a constant dialogue with suppliers: “We’re just trying to make sure that only the justifiable price increases come through and that everything else is mitigated or held back.”
|
['business/tesco', 'business/retail', 'business/supermarkets', 'business/business', 'environment/farming', 'environment/environment', 'campaign/email/business-today', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-business']
|
environment/farming
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2023-01-23T11:52:16Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
environment/2019/dec/21/mother-with-a-price-on-her-head-defending-amazon-forest
|
‘The forest is shedding tears’: the women defending their Amazon homeland
|
It is midnight at an almost deserted bus station and one of the Amazon’s most courageous warriors is sitting on a plastic chair and breastfeeding her child, apparently indifferent to the hefty price on her head. Illegal miners have offered 100g of gold to anyone who kills Maria Leusa Munduruku, a forest defender, indigenous leader and women’s rights activist who has spearheaded campaigns to halt invasions of the Tapajós river basin by polluters, loggers and dam builders. After some of the men of her tribe – the Munduruku – were co-opted by gold prospectors, she formed a women’s association that now takes an increasingly prominent role in dangerous missions to demarcate territory and evict illegal occupants. “We need to be brave,” she says, adjusting a heavy nylon bag that serves as a suitcase while another child pulls at her painted arm. “Our women’s group is very strong. We are now in the front because the men put too much trust in the authorities. We think differently. We think it is up to us to protect ourselves. We don’t expect the government and police to do that.” About 300 women attended the inaugural meeting in Boca do Rio das Tropas Nova Trairão last year of the Wakoborun Women’s Association, one of the recipients of donations to the 2019 Guardian and Observer charity appeal, which focuses on solutions to the climate change crisis. Some of the meeting’s participants had to travel more than two days by boat from distant villages in the vast Munduruku territory, which is home to many of the best maintained forests in the Brazilian Amazon. This reflects a trend that is of global importance in sequestering carbon dioxide, maintaining natural diversity and ensuring fresh water supplies. Numerous studies have shown the most effective way to protect forests worldwide is to support indigenous land rights. In the Amazon, deforestation rates inside indigenous territory are two to three times lower than outside of them. For hundreds of years, Munduruku lands were largely inaccessible to outsiders due to dense vegetation, waterfalls that made river navigation difficult, and the tribe’s reputation for cutting off the heads of their enemies. Threats have grown in recent decades, particularly with proposals by the previous Workers Party government for a cascade of dams on the Tapajós, which prompted the Munduruku to self-demarcate territory and form alliances with other tribes – even former enemies in the riverine communities of Montanha e Mangabal. This was partially successful in shelving plans for a hydroelectric project at São Luís. Pressure has reached a new pitch in the past year since the ultra-rightwing militarist Jair Bolsonaro took power. The president – who has admitted that he, like his father, tried illegal mining – has weakened environmental protections, halted demarcation of indigenous lands, condemned Indians as lazy, and promised to open up more of the Amazon to extractive industries. “Where there is indigenous land, there is wealth underground,” he said before taking office. He has also revived hydroelectric plans across the Amazon. Leusa – who won the 2015 United Nations Ecuator prize on behalf of the Munduruku Ipereg Ayu movement (which she coordinated at the time) – says invasions on Munduruku territory have surged in the past 12 months because illegal miners believe the government is now on their side. She says some Munduruku men feel they have no choice but to accept a cut of the profits, which they squander on alcohol, drugs and prostitutes. She fears they are losing their culture and their language. The Guardian and Observer appeal donations are channelled by Global Greengrants Fund UK, which has previously paid for the women’s group to have multimedia training (including the use of drones for monitoring territory), craft workshops and beekeeping lessons so that locals can sell art and forest produce as an alternative income. “We are trying to show the men there is another way to make a living,” she says. “It’s true that mining makes more money, but we argue it destroys the future for our children. It is true that mining brings death, not a future, to our children. Some of our people can be persuaded, but others won’t listen. Some want to kill me. Even my own uncle has relatives that have threatened me.” She is undaunted. The damage to the river and the forest is too great for her to ignore. The situation is different at each of the 130 or so Munduruku communities, which sit along the Tapajós and its tributaries. Worst affected is the Tropas river – where local leaders made a deal with miners who brought in bulldozers, dredges and chemicals. Leusa says the once-clear water is now murky, the fish are dying and children are suffering diarrhoea. But where the women’s association is strong – on the Cururu and Anipiri rivers – the water is still clean. But threats continue to grow from numerous directions. Leusa has joined the men in fighting against government plans for a cascade of dams that would deluge swathes of their territory. She has also taken the fight – along with her baby – to the capital, Brasília, where she compared the forest to a mother: “Because of the government, our forest is shedding tears. Tears that fall like milk from our breast.”
|
['environment/amazon-rainforest', 'world/world', 'tone/news', 'society/series/guardian-and-observer-charity-appeal-2019', 'environment/deforestation', 'environment/forests', 'environment/environment', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'type/article', 'profile/jonathanwatts', 'publication/theobserver', 'theobserver/news', 'theobserver/news/uknews', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/observer-main']
|
environment/amazon-rainforest
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
2019-12-21T15:00:49Z
| true
|
BIODIVERSITY
|
global-development-professionals-network/2014/aug/01/uganda-antigay-law-lgbt
|
World in a week: Uganda's courts overturn 'backward' anti-gay law
|
Good week for Pedro Alonso, who has been appointed director of the WHO Global Malaria Program. Lelio Marmora, the new executive director of Unitaid. Both leaders will start their new roles in the autumn. Bad week for Leyla Yunis, an Azerbaijani human rights defender who has been charged with high treason. El Savador, whose talks with the US broke down again this week, after the central American nation was refused aid by the US earlier this year after refusing to accept GMO seeds. Quote of the week This week’s quote is taken from a BBC interview with Dr Sheikh Kahn, a leading Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone, before he died from the virus on 29 July, a week after being diagnosed. Health workers are prone to the disease because we are the first port of call for those with [Ebola]. Even with the full kit we put on we’re at risk. “I’m afraid for my life, because I cherish my life. And if you are afraid then you must take the maximum precautions, stay vigilant and stay on your guard.” What you’re saying Our guide to volunteering attracted a lot of debate on Twitter about whether foreign volunteers do more harm to local populations than good. We asked our readers what alternatives would they recommend for getting experience? This is what Amelie Gagno suggested: This week in numbers $100m is the cost of the response plan WHO has announced to fight Ebola. 66 people have been killed so far by a landslide that buried a village in western India. 45p a day is paid to workers on the Qatar stadium. 12% of all global land deals are by the United Arab Emirates. Picture of the week Milestones Uganda’s anti-gay law was declared null and void on Friday 1 August. The 45th Pacific Islands Forum opened on Thursday with climate change as its main topic. Liberia and Sierra Leone have declared states of emergency, ordering the closure of schools and markets and the quarantining of affected communities in the face of the Ebola epidemic. Infographic Our infographic is from The Economist this week, and outlines the penetration of FGM across different African countries. Reading list Benefits of meeting the contraceptive needs of Cameroonian women (Institut de Formation et de Recherche Démographiques and the Guttmacher Institute) What drives wind and solar energy investment in India and China? (IDS) The challenges of climate change: children on the front line (Unicef) Displaced by disaster? Airbnb wants to help (Takepart) Coming next week: have your say Our live chat question on Thursday 7 August1-3pm BST is: ‘can civil society thrive in China?’ Contact us at globaldevpros@theguardian.com to recommend someone for the panel. Video interview with Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of UNFPA. Is no famine in South Sudan good news? The answer’s not what you might think... stay tuned to find out more. Join the community of global development professionals and experts. Become a GDPN member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox.
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['working-in-development/working-in-development', 'global-development-professionals-network/series/world-in-a-week', 'world/world-health-organization', 'world/azerbaijan', 'world/el-salvador', 'society/voluntarysector', 'world/india', 'world/qatar', 'world/united-arab-emirates', 'world/uganda', 'society/female-genital-mutilation', 'world/cameroon', 'society/contraception-and-family-planning', 'world/china', 'environment/solarpower', 'technology/airbnb', 'type/article', 'profile/rachel-banning-lover']
|
environment/solarpower
|
ENERGY
|
2014-08-01T18:48:31Z
| true
|
ENERGY
|
careers/2021/may/21/weve-barely-scratched-the-surface-whats-next-for-womens-health-tech
|
From menopause to anxiety: the new tech tackling women’s health problems
|
When lifelong worrier Louise Stevenson asked her husband whether her anxiety was damaging, his answer stopped her in her tracks. “He said it had a negative impact on absolutely everything.” It was the prompt she needed to seek help. Diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, she searched for tech-based tools to complement her therapy. “But I couldn’t find an app that offered what I wanted,” she says. “I was literally scribbling down my worries on backs of envelopes.” So the 41-year-old mum from Herefordshire ditched her job in financial services, created Worry Tree – one of 15 approved mental health tools in the NHS app library – and entered the flourishing femtech sector. The app, which helps users notice and challenge their worries, is available to anyone, but 75% of her users are women. It turns out they’re twice as likely as men to experience anxiety. Stevenson has now won a place on a new dedicated accelerator, the London-based Femtech Lab, billed as the first in Europe to focus on this sector. The term femtech, referring to products addressing health or wellbeing issues experienced by women, was coined about five years ago, however “we’ve barely scratched the surface”, according to Pauliina Martikainen, investment director at the venture capitalists Maki.vc. For example, it’s estimated that 1.2 billion women worldwide will be menopausal or postmenopausal by 2030 and almost no one is happy with the care on offer, she says, “creating a massive opportunity to provide better products and services. It has so much potential.” So what’s new, or on the horizon? For menopausal women, there is a range of tech to assess and treat symptoms – from a bracelet (currently in development) that sends cooling sensations to the wrist to combat flushes, to digital services such as UK companies Stella (an app launching this summer) and Alva which offer consultations, specialist advice, even a virtual menopause coach, and doorstep delivery of treatments. “Companies that manage to build feedback loops can tap into valuable data that can be used in research and to create and validate new treatments,” says Martikainen. Funding for the sector has soared around the world, she says, rising 171% in the three years to 2019 to reach just under £1bn (£949m/€1.1bn), with particularly strong growth in the UK, where many startups are bidding for their first slice of cash. Femtech has moved on from the early days when it mainly focused on periods and fertility. Today it incorporates everything from hormonal awareness and personalised fitness to sexual empowerment and the racier “sex tech” – think vibrators designed by women who understand their own physiology, and science-informed sex therapy advice apps. By 2027 the market worldwide is forecast to be worth $60bn, and is expected to grow 16% year-on-year. Karina Vazirova and fellow femtech evangelist Katia Lang, the team behind Femtech Lab, say fertility, menopause and hormone health (tracking hormones and what that means for how you exercise and what you eat), are some of the fastest-growing areas in this space. “Women are more than half the population, yet we have unmet needs,” says Vazirova. “Many products aren’t designed for women, and many clinical trials favour men.” But there are risks. Femtech (a term disliked by many) gathers highly personal information about women, their bodies, lifestyles, sex lives, pregnancies and parenting worries. “That is an unimaginable amount of data,” says Jo O’Reilly, deputy editor at digital privacy advocates ProPrivacy. “Insights that would be priceless, but it’s also not the sort of data any woman would want to be shared.” As internet lore goes, Google knows before you do that you’re pregnant. Only this January one of the most popular fertility and period tracking apps, Flo, settled with US trade authorities (the Federal Trade Commission) over allegations it had been sharing health information with third parties including Facebook and Google. Apps that track intimate health data are “a privacy gamble”, says O’Reilly. “And this is especially true of the free ones.” However, Helene Guillaume, founder of the startup Wild.AI, which analyses women athletes’ data, from sleep and vital signs through to how they are feeling, says the business is fiercely protective of users’ information. “We are born post-GDPR and data privacy is built in at our core.” Ultimately, privacy is something that consumers can vote on with their virtual feet. Is there a danger that a growing reliance on sharing-platforms will mean that serious health conditions are missed because women rely more on peer information and remote advice, and become less likely to see their doctors? Consultant obstetric physician Dr Lucy Mackillop, who’s also chief medical officer at Sensyne Health, argues that more accurate information about conditions and the sense of control that women gain can be empowering for both patient and doctor: “I see the potential – the ‘nirvana’ of an alliance between patient and clinician, with secure data sharing.” She’s not a fan of the term femtech, but says the label does help call out the inequality in investment and research in women’s health. And remember, say Vazirova and Lang, that most products are created for savvy western consumers, while in rural parts of the developing world, some girls and women still lack basic knowledge about their own bodies. One startup on their programme addresses just this – Aurat Raaj is a tool for girls as young as eight, which provides education about menstrual hygiene and reproductive health – via a local language chat bot. This has already been launched in Pakistan with a view to scaling up. “In some parts of the world, girls are made to sleep outside when they have their periods – they’re seen as dirty,” says Vazirova. “It’s easy to forget we are in a privileged situation in our lovely progressive techie London bubble. Any tech that can empower women in these situations will do wonderful things.”
|
['careers/series/women-in-technology', 'lifeandstyle/health-and-wellbeing', 'business/business', 'technology/technology', 'business/entrepreneurs', 'technology/gdpr', 'technology/big-data', 'society/anxiety', 'society/menopause', 'business/small-business', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'type/article', 'profile/helena-pozniak', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/uk-labs']
|
technology/big-data
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
2021-05-21T05:58:01Z
| true
|
UNRELATED_TO_CLIMATE
|
fashion/2024/jan/30/abch-clothing-transition-brand-new-clothes-sales-stopped-repair-scheme
|
‘My hope is it’s not going to die’: what happens when a brand offering lifetime guarantees closes?
|
Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle or return to the earth – together these five sustainability principles are the keys to building a “circular” business. Historically, fashion brands’ responsibility for their products ended once the clothing left the shop, resulting in ever-increasing mountains of textile waste. However this system is changing due to pressure from both regulators (particularly in the EU) and consumers. More fashion brands now offer customers extended care, including free or cheap repair programs and take-back schemes to ensure clothing does not end up in landfill at the end of its life. But this model of circularity requires a business to have an ongoing presence, something that can never be guaranteed in a notoriously difficult industry like fashion. So when a brand that has promised to care for garments throughout their lifetime shuts down, what happens next? Courtney Holm is contemplating this question right now. For seven years, the designer of A.BCH made clothing with circularity principles in mind, offering free repairs, alongside a take-back scheme for recycling. The brand picked up several awards, including an Australian fashion laureate, for its sustainability credentials. Then on 19 January, the Melbourne-based label announced the business would no longer make and sell new garments from March onwards. Holm says the brand is undergoing a strategic transition and will continue to exist as a consultancy and educational tool. Here, Holm explains how she intends to remain responsible for A.BCH garments after the business stops making new clothes. Her plans may well form an exit template for other circular businesses that follow. Repair A free repair service was the heart of A.BCH’s circular offering. Since Holm is not giving up A.BCH’s factory in West Melbourne and is working on turning it into a community space for small-scale manufacturing, for the moment they will continue to provide customers with repairs on all existing A.BCH garments. Obviously there’s a chance the factory might close in the future. In that case, she says: “We will basically use the website to direct people where to go for repairs.” Rental A small number of A.BCH garments were available for rent via the platform Rntr. These will be sent back to A.BCH. “It’ll be less than 10 garments that come back to us, so it’s not going to be a big deal,” says Holm. Depending on the condition of the garments, they will either be sold as preloved through the A.BCH website or recycled. Recycling Textile recycling is notoriously difficult, but since Holm has been designing with its limitations in mind, A.BCH’s garments are compatible with available recycling technology. As Australia has no dedicated waste stream for textiles, garments have to be returned to A.BCH so that Holm can ensure they reach a facility capable of recycling them. Holm says she will continue to offer this service to A.BCH clients. There are no textile-to-textile recycling facilities in Australia, so Holm has partnered with a factory in Turkey that turns offcuts and shredded garments into yarn. Currently, textile-to-textile recycling works best when garments are made of a single material, for example 100% cotton (currently the only material being recycled back into textiles at commercial scale). Mechanical recycling involves shredding garments and respinning them, so the colour of the material is also relevant. When customers send their worn garments back to A.BCH they are sorted by colour and fibre type then cut into shreds. Any hardware including buttons or zips are removed. Shipments are sent when enough volume has amassed to make it worthwhile. Holm acknowledges it is not ideal to send garment waste so far away for processing and is hopeful eventually there will be a similar machine in Australia. This is something she intends to explore in her new role as a consultant and circularity advocate. Return to earth The final pillar of circularity is the idea that garments should be designed to safely biodegrade into the soil. For this to happen, garments have to be made of natural or cellulose-based fibres and not treated with toxic chemicals or dyes. Any synthetic elastics or stitching must be removed, along with any buttons and zips. “When we started the garments were made to be recycled or composted,” says Holm. She says that “if the brand no longer sold clothes one day” they always intended to keep instructions for the circularity of each garment available for customers to access. Holm has always been radically transparent about the materials used in her garments, which makes the transition easier. “We have all the data from day dot,” she says. When the A.BCH website relaunches, she says customers will be able to search their product’s code to find out how to dispose of it safely at end of life. “We’ll also have general guides available, repair instructions and resale suggestions,” she says. “We’ve designed everything so you could very easily, for example, take an elastic waistband out and then throw it in the compost bin,” Holm says. “We can keep a website up with all the information and it’s still going to be used as an educational tool. My hope is that it’s not just going to die. It will be something that people continue to use.”
|
['fashion/australia-fashion', 'lifeandstyle/australian-lifestyle', 'fashion/fashion', 'lifeandstyle/lifeandstyle', 'environment/environment', 'environment/recycling', 'environment/waste', 'environment/ethical-living', 'type/article', 'tone/features', 'profile/lucianne-tonti', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-lifestyle']
|
environment/waste
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
2024-01-29T14:00:42Z
| true
|
POLLUTION_AND_WASTE
|
australia-news/2021/feb/24/climate-crisis-bigger-concern-than-pandemic-for-australian-businesses-survey-finds
|
Climate crisis bigger concern than pandemic for Australian businesses, survey finds
|
Australian bosses say the climate crisis is the biggest challenge facing their businesses – in contrast to their overseas counterparts, who have ranked recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic their top concern. “Climate change impacts” were rated the No 1 concern by 18% of 155 Australian executives surveyed by accounting firm Ernst & Young, followed by technological disruption (17%) and “the continuing Covid-19 pandemic” (15%). Globally, the positions of climate change and the pandemic were reversed, with the pandemic considered the biggest challenge by 18%, the economy second with 12% and global heating a distant third at just 9%. “We think this reflects both the fact that locally the pandemic has been handled comparatively well and also our C-suite consider Covid’s impacts to be short term,” EY’s managing director of strategy and transactions, David Larocca, said. “It also reflects the priority position investors are now giving sustainability and climate change when making their decisions.” Over the past few years investors, including large superannuation funds, have ramped up pressure on boards and executives to commit the companies they lead to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In response to investor pressure, Australia’s two big miners, BHP and Rio Tinto, have said they will attempt to reduce their emissions to net zero by 2050, while major banks ANZ and NAB have committed to reducing or eliminating their funding for coal projects. The election of Joe Biden has also increased pressure on Australia and its corporate sector to do more on climate. Biden has recommitted the US to the Paris agreement, which aims to limit global heating to 1.5c by 2050, and his environmental envoy, John Kerry, has said that the two countries are not on the same page and “coal has got to phase down faster”. Mathew Nelson, a climate change and sustainability executive at EY, said that despite the progress made so far, there was “still a long way to go to educate Australian corporates about the opportunities associated with achieving net zero emissions”. “While the market is increasingly alert to the economic upsides of decarbonisation, in the near term Australian businesses are acknowledging that the economic reorganisation required to achieve net zero will create losers as well as winners, and time is running out to ensure you are the latter.” He said EY research also showed that investors were increasingly unhappy with the quality of the data companies gave them on their climate performance, “despite an increasing demand to understand climate risks in portfolios and companies”. “This mismatch should be priority number one for the capital markets ecosystem in the years ahead,” he said. The EY survey, conducted as part of its annual capital confidence barometer, received responses from 155 Australian executives and 2,515 globally.
|
['australia-news/business-australia', 'environment/climate-crisis', 'australia-news/australia-news', 'business/corporate-governance', 'environment/corporatesocialresponsibility', 'environment/environment', 'business/australia-economy', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/ben-butler', 'tracking/commissioningdesk/australia-news']
|
environment/corporatesocialresponsibility
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
2021-02-24T07:14:16Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_POLICY
|
media/2015/sep/09/greenpeace-hires-investigative-journalists-meiron-jones
|
Greenpeace hires team of investigative journalists
|
Greenpeace has hired a team of investigative journalists as part of plans to make investigations one of three pillars of its environmental campaigning. Former Newsnight and Panorama correspondent Meirion Jones is a consultant on the project, which will be staffed by journalists including former BBC reporter Damian Kahya, New York Times and Vice stringer Lucy Jordan and Maeve McClenaghan, formerly of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. About half a dozen core team members will be supplemented by a network of freelancers, field researchers and specialists based around the world. The unit will also use technology such as satellite imaging and drones to build investigations. Greenpeace UK executive director John Sauven said investigative journalism would sit alongside direct action and mobilising public opinion as the organisation’s core activities. “Those three areas are where our resources are going and where people are going,” he said. “We’re totally committed to that so that gives us a significant budget [for investigations], not just in terms of hiring people on permanent contracts here but getting freelancers. “It shows our intent about how serious we are taking it. We’ve put some of our best people on it and we will give it all of the resources that are needed to make it work.” The team have been told funding is available to take on big stories. Sauven said the aim of the investigations was to put pressure on corporations and governments to change. Priorities for the team will be oceans and fishing, deforestation and climate change, in particular the undermining of climate agreements and funding of climate change deniers. “What we can do with investigations is change the dynamic around an issue,” he added. “It’s increasingly important in a world that is full of greenwash and empty promises but not much delivery on the ground.” Greenpeace’s first major foray into journalism to date has been Energy Desk, a website set up four years ago employing journalists to deliver news on climate and energy issues. The unveiling of the investigative team coincides with the launch of a documentary about how Greenpeace was formed in the 1970s called How to Change the World, which premiers on Wednesday.
|
['media/investigative-journalism', 'media/media', 'environment/greenpeace', 'environment/activism', 'environment/environment', 'uk/uk', 'type/article', 'tone/news', 'profile/jasper-jackson']
|
environment/greenpeace
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
2015-09-09T10:14:30Z
| true
|
CLIMATE_ACTIVISM
|
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